First Commercial Computer
The first commercial computer, known as UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), began service on June 14, 1951, after being purchased by the U.S. Census Bureau. This marked a significant milestone in computing history, as UNIVAC demonstrated the potential for computers in commercial applications. Prior to this, various calculating devices existed, such as mechanical calculators and early electronic systems like ENIAC, which paved the way for more advanced technology. UNIVAC was notable for its ability to perform hundreds of calculations per second and weighed eight tons, occupying considerable floor space.
Initially, the computer was only accessible to government agencies and major corporations due to its high cost, with prices running into millions of dollars. However, its introduction catalyzed the growth of commercial computing, leading to the emergence of other competing models from companies like IBM. By the 1960s, larger commercial computers became more commonplace, though still massive. The demand for smaller, more efficient systems, driven in part by the American space program's need for compact technology, eventually led to the development of personal computers in the 1980s. Today, computers are ubiquitous in both homes and businesses around the world, a testament to the foundational role of UNIVAC in the evolution of computing.
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First Commercial Computer
First Commercial Computer
On June 14, 1951, the first commercial computer went into service. It was called UNIVAC and had been purchased by the U.S. Census Bureau. UNIVAC was followed by rapid advances which have led to the widespread use of commercial computers, PCs, workstations, and other manifestations of the ongoing computer revolution.
The idea of using machines to perform calculations and other tasks goes back centuries. Calculating clocks and simple adding machines had been devised by such European mathematicians as Blaise Pascal in France (1632–62) and Gottfried Wilhelm von Liebnitz (1646–1716) in Germany. In the 19th century Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar of France invented the first mass-produced calculator, called the arithmometer, while Charles Babbage in England built his difference engine, a forerunner of the punch-card systems produced in the 20th century and popularized most famously by IBM (International Business Machines). The IBM 601 of the 1930s may have been the fastest calculator yet produced, but, like its predecessors, it was essentially a glorified adding machine. In the early 1940s Howard H. Aiken and his colleagues at Harvard University advanced the technology with their 50-foot-long, five-ton ASCC Mark I (automatic sequence controlled calculator Mark I), also known as the Harvard Mark I, a device that used electromechanical programming mechanisms.
In November of 1945, J. Presper Eckert, John W. Mauchly, and their associates at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania built the famous ENIAC (electronic numerator, integrator, analyzer, and computer) in a secret project for the U.S. military. Its systems were an advance over the ASCC Mark I, as it employed primarily electronic equipment, using more than 17,000 vacuum tubes, the predecessors to transistors. However, it was a truly massive machine, weighing approximately 30 tons.
Eckert and Mauchly went into business, forming the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. They made several improvements on ENIAC and designed the UNIVAC (universal automatic computer). Financial problems forced them to sell their business to another, larger corporation, Remington Rand, which took over the UNIVAC project. When it was completed, the first UNIVAC computer could do hundreds, even thousands of mathematical calculations a second. It contained approximately 5,000 vacuum tubes and weighed eight tons, covering some 200 square feet of floor space. UNIVAC was a clunky behemoth by modern standards, but it was small enough and fast enough to be a viable product for the commercial market, the first computer to qualify as such. The Census Bureau pioneered its use when it began employing it on June 14, 1951.
Between 1951 and 1957, 48 UNIVACs were sold to government agencies and such major corporations as General Electric and Prudential Insurance. They were the only entities that could afford them, as the purchase price ran to millions of dollars, and even leasing arrangements were expensive. However, newer models were introduced, and corporations such as IBM began to develop competing models as well. UNIVAC helped make commercial computers widespread by the 1960s, but these were still enormous devices, typically taking up an entire room. The American space program inadvertently prompted the development of what would become the compact desktop personal computer: Because NASA needed a computer that could fit into a space capsule and weighed as little as possible in order to conserve fuel and power, funding was put into projects that emphasized miniaturized devices. Taken together with the rise of the semiconductor industry and the development of the microchip, it resulted in the introduction of desktop computers in the 1980s for personal and business uses. Technological and manufacturing advances caused the price of the expensive early prototypes to drop rapidly and made such devices affordable for the average consumer. In most Western countries today it is rare to find a business or home that does not have a computer of some kind in it.