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Chris Leonard
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 1776
Good Answers: 35

Happy Birthday! The UNIVAC is 54 years old today

06/14/2005 9:17 AM

UNIVAC 1 (Universal Automatic Computer), the world's first commercially produced digital computer was released on this day in 1951. It was purchased by the US Census Bureau. Covering 350 square feet of floor space, the UNIVAC was no desktop computer. The entire system weighed 16,000 pounds, used 5000+ vacuum tubes, consumed 125 kW, and could perform about 1,905 operations per second running on a 2.25 MHz clock.

Think how far we've come in 54 years!

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BRodda
The Feature Creep

Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 990
#1

Univac quote

06/14/2005 10:43 AM

It is doubtful if many major software functions will be developed in the next few years. Complex operating systems for machines such as the IBM System/360, Control Data 7600, and Univac 1110 have been designed to meet user's needs for quite a time to come. In other words the software designers have adequately specified all the major functions needed for applications forseeable in the immediate future. -- D. Spencer, "Computers in Society", 1974

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Paddy O'Flanigan
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 255
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#2

Univac.

06/14/2005 1:24 PM

Off the top of my head, it took 30 years to bump the speed up to 7 mhz (3x) in the mid '80s with the PCs of the day. However, in the past 20 years we've increased that by a thousand. Can I then extrapolate that in 10 years we'll have processors working a 2 peta hertz?
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BRodda
The Feature Creep

Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 990
#3
In reply to #2

Re:Univac.

06/14/2005 1:41 PM

Assuming that Moore's Law stays in effect in 10 years we should have 6.6 doublings of speed. So that means that if 3 GHz is the standard speed today we can calculate it out to be @300 GHz.(3 GHz)*(2^6.66666)=304.766 GHz

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