UNIVAC computer
The UNIVAC computer, developed by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert in the early 1950s, was one of the first general-purpose computers in history. Following their departure from the University of Pennsylvania due to a patent dispute over the ENIAC, Mauchly and Eckert founded their own company, which was later acquired by Remington Rand. The UNIVAC I was delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951 and gained fame in 1952 for accurately predicting the outcome of the presidential election. The series included notable models such as the UNIVAC III, one of the earliest computers to utilize solid-state components.
The UNIVAC computers were significant for their advanced technology at the time, utilizing vacuum tubes and magnetic tape for input and output. They also featured pioneering software, including FLOW-MATIC, which influenced the development of the COBOL programming language. Despite initial success and leadership in the computer industry, UNIVAC faced challenges in the late 1950s, eventually losing its prominence to IBM. By the 1980s, the brand merged with Burroughs to create UNISYS, marking the end of UNIVAC as a standalone entity, although its legacy influenced future computing technologies.
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UNIVAC computer
Identification First commercial computer
Date Initial design work started in 1946; finished product introduced in 1951
As the first commercially available computer and the first to store data on magnetic tape, the UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer) attracted substantial public interest and was a commercial success.
In 1949, John Mauchly and Presper Eckert consulted with John von Neumann to further refine their ideas of how to build a general purpose computer such as the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) . Later, Mauchly and Eckert were forced to resign from the University of Pennsylvania in a patent dispute over the ENIAC and started a company to build computers. The Mauchly and Eckert company was acquired by Remington Rand in 1950. With their research team intact, Mauchly and Eckert continued their work on building a computer, culminating in the introduction of the UNIVAC I.
The first UNIVAC was delivered to the Census Bureau in 1951 to help process data from the 1950 census. UNIVAC became a household word in 1952, when it correctly predicted the winner of the Eisenhower-Stevenson presidential race. In 1955, the merger of Remington Rand and the Sperry Corporation resulted in a failure adequately to support the UNIVAC team, a fact that allowed the International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation to pass them in the race to be the computer industry leader. In 1957, a number of UNIVAC employees left to form Control Data Corporation. The UNIVAC III, developed from 1956 to 1959, was one of the first computers to use solid-state components and was a successful second-generation computer.
Hardware and Software
The UNIVAC I and II were state-of-the-art computers for their time. Their central processing units (CPUs) and memory were based on vacuum tubes and mercury switches. Input consisted of magnetic tape, the output devices were magnetic tape and printers, and online storage was provided by a bank of magnetic tapes. The UNIVAC III and IV had the same architecture as the UNIVAC I and II, but the CPU and memory were based on solid-state technology.
The UNIVAC series of computers during the 1950’s had an assembler, the C-10; a scientific compiler, MATH-MATIC; and a business compiler, FLOW-MATIC. FLOW-MATIC was developed by Grace Hopper and was one of the major influences in the specification of the COBOL language.
Impact
The UNIVAC computers of the early 1950’s were the leaders in both hardware and software for the computing industry. Mauchly and Eckert incorporated the ENIAC technology into the development of the UNIVAC, and the rest of the computer industry was influenced by their work. Hopper developed several high-level compilers for the UNIVAC and paved the way for the FORTRAN and COBOL compilers, both of which were developed during the decade. The UNIVAC IV was one of the most successful solid state computers of the 1950’s. In 1955, UNIVAC dominated the computer industry and was a leading example of how technology could be used by a company to become a leader in a field. Toward the end of the decade, UNIVAC made a number of bad technical and business decisions and was surpassed by IBM as the leading computer company. UNIVAC struggled throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s and finally merged with Burroughs in 1985 to form UNISYS. While the UNISYS computers are derived from the UNIVAC of the 1950’s, UNIVAC as a separate brand ceased to exist.
Bibliography
Campbell-Kelly, Martin. Computer: A History of the Information Machine. New York: Basic Books, 1997. Gives credit to the “unsung heroes” of the early computer industry and details the contributions of John Mauchly, among others.
Goldstine, Herman. The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann. Reprint. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993. Provides a great deal of information about UNIVAC and the breakthrough innovations of the 1950’s.
Head, Robert. “UNIVAC: A Philadelphia Story.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 20, no. 4 (1998): 60-63. Nontechnical overview of the early UNIVACs.