Object Details
- Remington Rand Inc.
- Description
- Engineers J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly created the ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Computer) at the University of Pennsylvania between 1943-1946. Soon after its formal dedication, they left the University to start their own business. Early orders from U.S. government agencies and other potential customers were not enough to keep the young Eckert-Mauchley Computer Corporation alive, and Remington Rand agreed to purchase the firm in 1950. Work on on the UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) went forward, and the first of these machines was delivered to the Bureau of the Census in early 1951. By 1957, some 46 copies of the machine had been installed at locations ranging from the David Taylor Model Basin of the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships, to Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, to the offices of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
- This is the operator's console from the UNIVAC I purchased by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The donation was arranged by Grace Murray Hopper. UNIVAC I was the first computer American commercial computer designed at the outset for business and administrative use (i.e. for the fast execution of large numbers of relatively simple arithmetic and data transport operations, as opposed to the complex numerical calculations required by scientific computers).
- The UNIVAC competed directly against punch-card machines (mainly made by IBM), but originally had no means of either reading or punching cards This initially hindered sales to some companies with large quantities of data on cards, due to potential manual conversion costs. Suppplementary offline card processing equipment, the UNIVAC Card to Tape converter and the UNIVAC Tape to Card converter, to transfer data between cards and UNIVAC magnetic tapes, resolved the difficulty.
- UNIVAC I used 5,200 vacuum tubes, weighed 29,000 pounds (13 metric tons), consumed 125 kW, and could perform about 1,905 operations per second running on a 2.25 MHz clock. The Central Processor/mercury delay line memory unit alone was 14 feet by 8 feet by 8.5 feet high (4.3 m × 2.4 m × 2.6 m). The complete system occupied more than 350 ft² (35.5 m²) of floor space.
- Reference:
- Nancy Stern, From ENIAC to UNIVAC: An Appraisal of the Eckert-Mauchly Computers, Bedford, Massachusetts: Digital Press, 1981.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
- 1951 - 1957
- ID Number
- CI.333938
- accession number
- 305982
- catalog number
- 333938
- Object Name
- Mainframe Component
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- glass (overall material)
- plastic (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 50 3/4 in x 83 in x 33 1/2 in; 128.905 cm x 210.82 cm x 85.09 cm
- place made
- United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Computers
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_334763
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-b796-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
