{"id":264,"date":"2010-02-19T02:31:26","date_gmt":"2010-02-19T10:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/?p=264"},"modified":"2026-05-01T22:39:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T06:39:57","slug":"1974-univac-1050-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/1974-univac-1050-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"1974 – Univac 1050-II"},"content":{"rendered":"

1974 – Univac 1050-II
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Updated 23 Nov 2012)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

The First Computer I worked with was a UNIVAC 1050-II. It was back in 1974, while I was stationed at Myrtle Beach AFB, South Carolina. This mainframe computer used extensively by the U.S. Air Force Logistics, Base Supply System for Inventory Control. In order to even to enter training into the computer career field one first had to have attained a 5-Level in Inventory Management, which I had and therefore was able to apply for and after three months training at Lowry Air Force Base, I attain the position of Computer Operator.<\/p>\n

In the picture the operator is reading out and altering the instructions as needed, notice the lights, on is one (1) and off is zero (o). Microprocessors perform operations using binary bits (on\/off\/ 1 or 0). The toggle switch below each light was used to turn the bit on or off. We did not have to read nor change the computer’s instructions very much, just when there were problems with a program or the mainframe itself.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The UNIVAC 1050<\/a> was an internally programmed computer with up to 32K of 6-bit character memory, which was introduced in 1963. It was a 1-address machine with 30-bit instructions, had a 4K operating system and was programmed in the PAL assembly language. Instructions<\/a> were fixed length (30 bits = 5 characters), consisting of a 5 bit “op code<\/a>“, a 3 bit index register<\/a> specifier, one reserved bit, a 15 bit address, and a 6 bit “detail field” whose function varies with each instruction.<\/p>\n

The UNIVAC 1050-II we used recorded all of its input-output on magnetic tapes (a non-volatile storage medium consisting of a magnetic coating on a thin plastic strip), and was used as a controller to format input data read from other peripherals (e.g., punch card<\/a> readers). A punched card (or Hollerith card) is a recording medium for holding information for use by automated data processing machines) onto the magnetic tapes and then if required would transfer output data from the tapes to other peripherals (e.g., punch card punches or the lineprinter<\/a> . Fragment of lineprinter cylinder with the type of % The Line printer is a form of high speed impact printer in which a line of type is printed at a time.).<\/p>\n

A version used by the U.S. Air Force, the U1050-II real-time system, had some extra peripherals. The most significant of these was the <\/span>FASTRAND<\/a> 1 Drum Storage Unit(magnetic drum mass storage system built by Sperry Rand Corporation for their UNIVAC 1100 series computers.). This Fastrand 1 Drum Storage can partially seen in the back left of this Operation Room.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Credit for Photo : [Man in Control Room], Photograph, ca. 1960-1969; digital images, (http:\/\/texashistory.unt.edu\/ark:\/67531\/metapth389051\/ : accessed March 24, 2014), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http:\/\/texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, Austin, Texas. Thanks to Daniel Norton, of The Portal to Texas History, for bringing the reference to my attention (see comments below).<\/p>\n

This physically large device had 2 contra-rotating drums mounted horizontally, one above the other in a pressurised cabinet. Read-write heads were mounted on a horizontally moving beam between the drums, driven by a voice coil servo external to the pressurised cabinet.<\/p>\n

This high speed (for the time) access subsystem allowed the real-time operation. Another feature was the communications subsystem with modem links to remote sites. A Uniservo VI-C provided an audit trail for the transactions. Other Peripherals were the card reader and punch, and printer. The operator’s console had the ‘stop and go’ buttons(!) and a ASR33 teleprinter for communication and control.<\/p>\n

“The UNIVAC 1050 System employs an expandable magnetic core storage capable of receiving or dispensing data at a rate of one alphanumeric character every 4.5 microseconds. Core storage is divided into modules, each having a capacity of 4096 six-bit alphanumeric characters, each of which is addressable. Core storage is character addressable (positions 0-32,767).”<\/p>\n

(ref: http:\/\/bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de\/pdf\/univac\/1050\/ and its linked pdf file UP-2590_1050ref_1962.pdf)<\/p>\n

So, the Mainframe Computer’s total memory consisted of 8 memory modules, each of which had 4 kilobyte (kB) of memory capacity, which is a total of 32 kB of memory (Correction Made thanks to Steve Kovarik, see comment below). This is what we commonly refer to today as Random Access Memory, or RAM, in our computers today. That is 0.03125 of one Megabyte (MB) RAM for this mainframe computer, which was used to run Base Supply. Inline during the day, and offline to run reports each evening.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Reference Sources :<\/p>\n

http:\/\/texashistory.unt.edu\/ark:\/67531\/metapth389051\/<\/a> “Man in the Control Room” provided by The Portal to Texas History<\/p>\n

http:\/\/bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de\/pdf\/univac\/1050\/<\/a>  and its linked pdf file UP-2590_1050ref_1962.pdf)<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.statemaster.com\/encyclopedia\/List-of-UNIVAC-products#Computer_systems<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wapedia.mobi\/en\/UNIVAC<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/UNIVAC<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_computing_hardware<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

The Poppadillo Blog, is the blog page for the Texas Tortilla Factory website<\/a>, and its stories have been written by Mike Vauthier, and Administratively Approved Authors.<\/p>\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/center>This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License<\/a>.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1974 – Univac 1050-II (Updated 23 Nov 2012) The First Computer I worked with was a UNIVAC 1050-II. It was back in 1974, while I was stationed at Myrtle Beach AFB, South Carolina. This mainframe computer used extensively by the U.S. Air Force Logistics, Base Supply System for Inventory Control. In order to even to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":852,"href":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions\/852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.texastortillafactory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}