Chapter 1: Advent of Commercial Computing

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Chapter 1 Advent of Commercial Computing

• 1945- 1956

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Univac Advertisement - 1955
You fellows ought to go back and change your
program entirely, stop this foolishness with
Eckert Mauchley - Howard Aiken, 1948
Historical Note there were no computer
scientists
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Hollerith to IBM

• 1880 US Census Bureau
• 1890 Tabulating Machines
• Tabulating Machines Co.
• International Business Machines
• Unit record equipment
• Decks of punch cards
• Basis of IBMs success

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Punch Card Systems

• Same operation on each record of deck
• Not well suited for scientific applications
• 1930s Some scientific users
• IBM through the 1950s
• Sold thousands of pc systems
• Card Programmed Calculator (CPC)
• Variety of new components
• Cable Connections

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Punch Card Equipment
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ENIAC

• J. Presper Eckert John Mauchley
• U. of PA Moore School of EE
• Firing tables of US Army
• 18,000 vacuum tubes
• Pressure to complete
• 1949
• Programming
• Plug Cables
• Set Switches

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First College Computer Course

• Summer 1946
• Moore School of Engineering _at_ U of PA with U. S.
  Military
• Theory Techniques for Design of Electronic
  Digital Computers
• Result of the staffs inability to accommodate
  requests for information after unveiling of the
  ENIAC

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Howard Aiken

• Harvard mathematician
• MARK I Calculator
• You fellows ought to go back and change your
  program entirely, stop this foolishness with
  Mauchley Eckert.
• US need for only 5 or 6 such machines

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EDVAC

• Electronic Discrete Variable Computer
• An important feature of this device was that
  operating instructions and function tables would
  be stored exactly in the same sort of memory
  device as that used for numbers.
• 6 months later Mauchley Eckert left to form
  UNIVAC (stored program computer)

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John von Neumann

• Chance Meeting with Herman Goldstine
• First Draft of a report on EDVAC
• June 30th, 1945
• Von Neumann Architecture
• Instruction and data in same memory device
• Summer 1946- Moore School - 1st course
• Theory Techniques for Design of Electronic
  Digital Computers

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Eckert Mauchley Computer Corp.

• Left PA March 31, 1946 (patent disagreement)
• Incorporated in Dec. 1948
• DETAILS IN VIDEO
• Bought by Remington-Rand
• 1st UNIVAC - US Census Bureau
• March 31st, 1951
• 2 Pentagon USAF June 1952
• See Table on Pg. 28 for installations

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UNIVAC Features

• One Memory for data Instructions (1000 words)
• Binary Coded Decimal
• Clock Speed 2.25 MHz
• 465 Multiplications/ Second
• Mercury Tubes and Magnetic Tape (no cards)
• Excessive Redundancy reliability
• Alphanumeric Processing
• Check Bits Buffers
• Output high speed line printer (1954)

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UNIVAC 1 Central Computer
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UNIVAC The First Users (p.26)

• Revolutionary tape replaced punch cards
• Too late for 1950 Census some state work
• USAF Atomic Energy Commission
• Pentagon- Project SCOOP
• Scientific Computation of Optimum Problems-
  Linear programming discovered
• 1952- Presidential Election
• UNIVAC became generic
• G.E 1st Payroll Oct. 15, 1954

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IBM

• Still selling punch card machines
• May 1952 - IBM 701- 2000 mult/sec (4x UNIVAC)
• Hired Von Neumann as consultant
• 1st 701 - IBM Headquarters, NY, Dec. 1952
• 2nd - Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab, 53
• 19 Built- US Def. Dept or military aerospace
  firms
• Rent Only 15,000 a month
• September 53 -702 - built 14

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Punch Card Computer System
Railroad Computer 1967
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Engineering Research Associates

• Spun off from NAVY
• Seymour Cray, William Norris
• Task 13 general purpose electronic computer,
  1947 to 1951
• Atlas for NAVY Model 1101 for public
• Bought by Remington Rand
• 1103 - 1st core memory (not tubes)

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Magnetic Drum

• Late 1930s John V. Atanasoff
• ERA developed 4.3 to 34 inch diameter
• Inexpensive but slow
• Number of inexpensive Computers in 1950s
• Computer Research Corp., CA
• Bought by National Cash Register
• Labrascope/General Precision
• 400_at_ 30,000, one of cheapest ever

Univac Drum
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Magnetic Drum (contd)

• Bendix
• Minimum latency coding for drum (Turing)
• 400 _at_ 45,000
• Fast but difficult to program
• Bought by Control Data Corp.
• IBM 650, 1954 (modest computer)
• 1000_at_ 3,500 per month
• Universities 60 discount

Mag Drum 1961
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Summary

• First Generation of Computer
• Cards, Tubes, Tapes, Drums, Diodes
• Numerous start-ups bought out
• IBM Others quite successful