Happy 50th Birthday, UNIVAC 1

Frums writes: "Today is the 50th birthday of the UNIVAC I (UNIversal Automatic Computer), the first commercial computer. It was quite a beast: 16,000 lbs, 5000 vacuum tubes measuring 9 inches by 2 inches, and an amazing 1000 instructions executed per second! The first UNIVAC was sold to the US Census bureau where it revolutionized data storage from them. No longer did they have to use punch cards, UNIVAC supported storage on metal tape! The US Census bureau still maintains a plaque commemorating the computer. It reads "Bureau of the Census dedicated the world's first electronic general purpose data processing computer, UNIVAC I, on June 14, 1951. Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation" Happy Birthday, UNIVAC I!" Wired has a brief story about it.

Comments

Re:...but not the first stored program computer

[UncleFluffy]

Well, to be accurate:

"The Manchester Machine (aka Manchester Mk 1)" (1949) was the *second* stored program computer, and was a general purpose machine.

"The Baby" (1947) (also from Manchester) was the *first* stored program computer, and was a general purpose machine.

"Colossus" (1943) was built at Bletchley Park, and was neither a stored program computer nor a general purpose machine.

"ENIAC" (1945) was built at the University of Pennsylvania and was (almost) a general purpose machine, but not a stored program computer.

"Ferranti Mark 1" (February 1951) was the world's *first* commercial computer.

"UNIVAC" (March 1951) was the world's *second* commercial computer.

(I'm not familiar enough with Zuse's contributions to place them accurately, but will acknowledge that they exist)

Nice PR move by Unisys

[hillct]

It really ammounts to a nice PR move by Unisys. Vary slick. Remind the world that 50 years ago the company was an inovator, well What have you done for me lately?

I was a little disappointed with their spokesman Mr. Esnouf:"My son, for example, plays this game called 'I'm Going In,'" Esnouf said. "He spends all Sunday morning shooting people on the computer. We've invented this whole virtual reality. It's great, isn't it?" Is that really the best light he could put computer gaming in? I'm all for computer games and I'd say 'spending sunday morning shooting people' is a bit harsh. But all in all, Unisys pulled off a vary nice PR move without having to produce announce, or unveil a new product. Good deal for them...

--CTH


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Not the machine so much as the people

[Penfield Zoat]

We in the tech business sometimes have a habit of elevating technology to a sort of self-causing status. For example, we are now celebrating the birthday of UNIVAC, a non-living being which has done nothing of its own accord. I have to ask: where are the humans?

Neither the wired article nor Slashdot so much as mention those who made this, and all subsequent computers a reality. Sure Linus Torveldes buys a taco and it's written up in every Linux rag, but try to give some credit to the people who gave him his opprertunity, and you come up empty! (Never mind that these guys were doing original, really original work, and Linus was just copying).

I demand that Slashdot's editors actually bother to find out who created this machine and publish it. It think that as a computer user, you owe them that much of a memory. Not to mention it might put a stop to all this senseless gadget-worship.