UNIVAC
The
American company
UNIVAC began as the "business"
computer division of
Remington Rand formed by the purchase of the
Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in
1950. (EMCC was the company founded by, and named after, the two inventors/architects of the
ENIAC.) UNIVAC is an acronym, standing for UNIVersal Automatic Computer.
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UNIVAC® Sperry Rand label |
John Presper Eckert and
John W. Mauchly built the
ENIAC computer (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) at the Moore School of Engineering at the
University of Pennsylvania. Then, to reserve any future patent rights for themselves, they formed the Electronic Computer Corporation. That company first built a computer called
BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer) for
Northrop Aviation (which was little used, or perhaps not at all). Afterwards began the development of UNIVAC. UNIVAC was first intended for the
Bureau of the Census, which paid for much of the development, and then was put in production. The Electronic Computer Corp. was first a subsidiary of American Totalizator, which made horse race track tote boards. However, due to management changes at American Tote, ECC was sold to Remington-Rand. Rem-Rand had its own lab in
Norwalk, Connecticut, and later bought
Engineering Research Associates in
St. Paul, Minnesota. Remington-Rand merged these groups, calling the result the Univac Division of Remington-Rand.
The most famous UNIVAC product was the
UNIVAC I mainframe computer of
1951, which became known for predicting the outcome of the U.S. presidential election the following year.
In
1953 or
1954 Remington Rand merged their tabulating machine division in
Norwalk, Connecticut, the
Engineering Research Associates "scientific" computer division, and the UNIVAC "business" computer division into a single division under the UNIVAC name.
In
1955 Remington Rand merged with
Sperry Corporation to become
Sperry Rand. The UNIVAC division of Remington Rand was renamed the Univac division of Sperry Rand. General
Douglas MacArthur was chosen to head the company. Around 1975, to assist 'corporate identity' the name was changed to Sperry Univac, along with 'Sperry Remington', Sperry New Holland' etc.
UNIVAC was one of the eight major
computer companies that has been called "Snow White and the
seven dwarfs" through most of the
1960s, with
IBM, the largest, being Snow White and the others being the Dwarfs:
Burroughs,
NCR,
Control Data Corporation,
General Electric,
RCA and
Honeywell (there was another player, although much smaller, the
Scientific Data Systems). Another term used at the time was "
IBM and the
BUNCH" (
Burroughs,
Univac,
NCR,
Control Data, and
Honeywell).
In
1978 Sperry Rand, an old fashioned conglomerate of disharmonious divisions (computers, typewriters, office furniture, hay balers, manure spreaders, gyroscopes, avionics, radar, electric razors), decided to concentrate on its computing interests and unrelated divisions were sold. The company dropped the
Rand from its title and reverted back to
Sperry Corporation.
In
1986, Sperry Corporation merged with
Burroughs Corporation to become
Unisys.
Since the
1986 marriage of Burroughs and Sperry, Unisys has metamorphosed from a computer manufacturer to a computer services and
outsourcing firm, competing in the same marketplace as
IBM,
Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and
Computer Sciences Corporation.However, Unisys still continues to design and manufacture enterprise class computers with the ClearPath and ES7000 server lines.
In the course of its history, UNIVAC produced a number of separate model ranges. The following incomplete overview should be updated.
*The original model range was the
UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I), the first commercial computer made in the United States. The main memory consisted of tanks of liquid mercury implementing
delay line memory, arranged in 1000 words of 12 alphanumeric characters each. The first machine was delivered on 31 March 1951. Successor machines included:
**The
UNIVAC II was an improvement to the
UNIVAC I that UNIVAC first delivered in
1958. The improvements included magnetic (non-mercury)
core memory of 2000 to 10000 words,
UNISERVO II tape drives which could use either the old UNIVAC I metal tapes or the new
PET film tapes, and some circuits that were
transistorized (although it was still a
vacuum tube computer). It was fully compatible with existing UNIVAC I programs for both code and data. The UNIVAC II also added some instructions to the UNIVAC I's instruction set.
**
UNIVAC III. Sperry Rand began shipment in 1962 and produced 96 UNIVAC III systems. Unlike the UNIVAC I and UNIVAC II, however, it was a binary machine as well as maintaining support for all UNIVAC I and UNIVAC II decimal and alphanumeric data formats for backward compatibility. This was the last of the original UNIVAC machines.
*Early UNIVAC 110x
vacuum tube computers
**
UNIVAC 1101, or ERA 1101, was a computer system designed by Engineering Research Associates (ERA) and built by the Remington Rand corporation in the 1950s. It was a 24 bit machine with drum memory.
**The
UNIVAC 1102 or ERA 1102 was designed by Engineering Research Associates for the United States Air Force.
**The
UNIVAC 1103 was a successor to the UNIVAC 1101 introduced in 1953. It was a 36 bit machine using hybrid memory of magnetic drum and
Williams tubes. An upgraded version
UNIVAC 1103A was released in
1956 and was a contemporary of the
IBM 704. It bears the distinction of being the first machine to use magnetic core store (instead of the Williams Tubes).
**The
UNIVAC 1104 computer system was a 30-
bit version of the
UNIVAC 1103 built for
Westinghouse Electric, in
1957, for use on the
BOMARC Missile Program. However, by the time the BOMARC was deployed in the
1960s, a more modern computer (a version of the
AN/USQ-20, designated the G-40) had replaced the UNIVAC 1104.
** The
UNIVAC 1105 was the successor to the 1103A, and was introduced in 1958.
*The
UNIVAC 1100/2200 series is a series of compatible 36-bit
transistorized computer systems initially made by Sperry Rand. The series continues to be supported today by Unisys Corporation as the ClearPath IX.
**The
UNIVAC 1107 was the first member of
Sperry Univac's
UNIVAC 1100 series of computers, introduced in October
1962. It represented a marked change of architecture: unlike previous models, it was not a strict two-address machine: it was a single address machine with up to 65536 words of core memory. The machine's registers were stored in 128 words of
thin film memory, a faster form of magnetic storage. With 6 cycles of thin film memory per 4 microsecond main memory cycle, address indexing was performed without a cycle time penalty. Only 36 systems were sold.
**
The
UNIVAC 1108 was the second member of
Sperry Univac's
UNIVAC 1100 series of computers, introduced in
1964. It was the first multiprocessor machine in the series, capable of expansion to three CPUs and two IOCs (Input/Output Control Units). To support this, it had up to 262144 words of eight-ported main memory: separate instruction and data paths for each CPU, and one path for each IOC. The instruction set was very similar to that of the 1107, but included some additional instructions, including the "Test and Set" instruction for multiprocessor synchronization.
**The
UNIVAC 1106 was the third member of
Sperry Univac's
UNIVAC 1100 series of computers, introduced in December
1969 and was absolutely identical to the
UNIVAC 1108 in
instruction set. Like the 1108, it was multiprocessor capable, though it appears that it was never supplied with more than CPUs, and it was not supplied with any IOCs. Early versions of the UNIVAC 1106 were simply half speed UNIVAC 1108 systems. Later Sperry Univac used a different memory system which was inherently slower and cheaper than that of the UNIVAC 1108. Sperry Univac sold a total of 338 processors in 1106 systems.
**The
UNIVAC 1110 was the fourth member of
Sperry Univac's
UNIVAC 1100 series of computers, introduced in
1972. The UNIVAC 1110 had enhanced multiprocessing support: sixteen-way memory access allowed up to six CAUs (Command Arithmetic Unit, the new name for CPU) and four IOAUs (Input Output Access Units, the new name for IOPU). It also had 'extended memory' cabinets accessible in a 'daisy chain' arrangement to augment main storage. The larger configurations, 6x4+ were used by NASA. It also introduced an extension to the instruction set, of 'Byte Instructions'. Sperry Univac sold a total of 290 processors in 1110 systems.
**In 1975, Sperry Univac introduced a new series of machines with semiconductor memory replacing core, with a new naming convention:
***An upgraded 1106 was called the
UNIVAC 1100/10. In this new naming convention, the final digit represented the number of CPUs or CAUs in the system.
***An upgraded 1108 was called the
UNIVAC 1100/20.
***An upgraded 1110 was released as the
UNIVAC 1100/40.
***The
UNIVAC 1100/60 was introduced in 1979.
***The
UNIVAC 1100/70 was introduced in 1981.
***The
UNIVAC 1100/80 was introduced in 1979. Intended to combine 1100 and 494 systems.
***The
UNIVAC 1100/90 was introduced in 1982. It was liquid-cooled.
The 1100/80 introduced a cache memory - the SIU or Storage Interface Unit. It incorporated a mini-computer, based on the BC/7 (business computer) as a maintenance processor. This was used to load microcode, and for diagnostic purposes. Power was 400Hz, to reduce large scale DC power supplies.
*
Remington Rand 409 was a
plug-board programmed
punch card calculator, designed in 1949.
* The
UNIVAC 418 was an 18-bit word core memory machine. Over the three different models, more than 392 systems were manufactured.
* The
UNIVAC 490 was a 30-bit word core memory machine with 16K or 32K words; 4.8 microsecond cycle time.
*The
UNIVAC 492 is similar to the
UNIVAC 490, but with
extended memory to 64K 30-bit words.
* The
UNIVAC 494 was a 30-bit
word machine and successor to the UNIVAC 490/492 with faster
CPU and 131K core memory. Up to 24 I/O channels were available and the system was usually shipped with UNIVAC FH880 or UNIVAC FH432 or FH1782 magnetic drum storage. Basic operating system was OMEGA (successor to REX for the 490) although custom operating systems were also used (e.g. CONTORTS for airline reservations).
*The
UNIVAC 1004 was a plug-board programmed punch card data processing system, introduced in
1962, by UNIVAC. Total memory was 961 characters (6 bits) of
core memory. Peripherals were a card reader (400 cards/minute), a card punch (200 cards/minute) using 90 column round hole cards or IBM compatible 80 column cards, and a drum printer (400 lines/minute). The 1004 was also supported as a remote card reader & printer via synchronous communication services.
*The
UNIVAC 1005, an enhanced version of the UNIVAC 1004, was introduced in February
1966. The main improvement over the 1004 was conversion from the plug-board program to an internal
stored program. The machine saw extensive use by the
US Army, including the first use of an electronic computer on the battlefield. Additional periphals were also available including a paper tape reader and a three pocket stacker selectable card read/punch. It also had a three stage card based compiler for a programming language SARGE.
*The
UNIVAC 1050 was an internally programmed computer with up to 32K of 6-bit character memory, which was introduced in
1963. It was a 1-address machine with 30-bit instructions and had a 4K operating system.
* The Sperry UNIVAC System 80 series was introduced in 1981.
*The
UNIVAC 9200 replaced the
1004. The printer-processor was one cabinet, the power supply and memory another and the card reader and optional card punch made an 'L' shaped configuration. The system used 'Plated Wire Memory', which functioned somewhat like
core memory but used a non-destructive read. Memory was 4k expandable to 16k. The printer was unique as well, using an oscillating-type bar instead of the drums that had been used until this point, and ran at speeds up to 300 lines per minute.
*The
UNIVAC Solid State was a 2-address, bi-quinary coded decimal computer, with memory on a rotating drum with 5000 signed 10 digit words. It was one of the first computers to use some solid-state components. It came in two versions: the Solid State 80 (IBM-style 80 column cards) and the Solid State 90 (UNIVAC-style 90 column cards).
The 1107 was the first 36-bit, word-oriented machine with an architecture close to that which came to be known as that of the "1100 Series." It ran the
EXEC II operating system, a batch-oriented second-generation operating system, typical of the early to mid-1960s. The 1108 ran EXEC II and
EXEC 8. It was a step up from the 1107 architecturally in that it supported more than one CPU per system and more memory. It had a thread synchronization instruction in some models (those with more than one CPU) and an optional channel extension box called an I/O Controller (IOC). Some models of the 1108 implemented the ability to divide words into 4 – 9-bit bytes, allowing use of
ASCII characters. On these systems, EXEC 8 allowed simultaneous handling of real-time applications, time-sharing, and background batch work. TIP, a transaction-processing environment, allowed programs to be written in COBOL whereas similar programs on competing systems were written in assembly language. On later systems, EXEC 8 was renamed OS1100 and OS2200, with modern descendants maintaining backwards compatibility. Some more exotic operating systems ran on the 1108—one of which was
RTOS, a more bare-bones system designed to take better advantage of the hardware.
The affordable System 80series of small mainframes ran the OS/3 operating system.
*
List of UNIVAC products*
FASTRAND*
History of computing hardwareUNIVAC® has been, over the years, a registered trademark of:
*
Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation*
Remington Rand Corporation*
Sperry Rand Corporation *
Sperry Corporation *
Unisys Corporation*
UNIVAC® Memories;
*
Unisys History Newsletter.
*
Universal Automatic Computer Model II*
UNIVAC 1004 80/90 Card Processor*
The Case 1107*
Unisys History Newsletter. Volume 1, Number 3*
UNIVAC timeline*
UNIVAC Simulator 1.2 – by Peter Zilahy Ingerman; Shareware simulator of the UNIVAC I and II
*
UNIVAC I/II console photos, 1948-1955 marketing documentation and flash video (Off The Broiler blog)
