The world's first commercial computer turns 70.
On March 31, 1951, the engineers J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly handed it over to the United States Census Bureau and took the name of UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) with the aim of
monitoring the baby boom
, or the substantial population increase. which occurred in America in the early 1950s.
Put into operation on June 14,
46 units were sold
to some companies and the US government: in addition to the US census office, UNIVAC I was acquired by General Electric, a private company that employed it in its Louisville home appliance factory. for the management of company payrolls and for the inventory control system of the warehouses.
What is extraordinary about this invention?
One could think of the selling price, between 1.25 and 1.5 million dollars, or its size, the size of a large cabinet with a total weight of 13 tons.
The real revolution, however, consists in the fact that
for the first time in history a computer was used for data processing, and not just for complex equations and calculations, the main function up to that moment
.
Also, for the first time, the term “automatic” was adopted: all data, both numbers and letters, were stored and read by a metal tape drive, without the need to enter programs manually.
A completely innovative and visionary tool that
the New York Times called "The 2.43 m tall mathematical genius
", capable of registering and classifying an average citizen based on gender, marital status, education, residence and other information in a sixth second.
But what has changed in commercial data management in 70 years?
It could be said that for the first time in history a computer has
anticipated the evolution that would have taken the name of Data Integration,
that is a complex process of assimilation, mapping, movement and transformation of data, necessary to obtain their processing and their operation.
Today, digitization has led to an exponential growth in the amount of data that companies must be able to manage effectively and quickly.
From huge computers we have moved on to software capable of intuitively, dynamically and securely manage data.
Among these are those of Primeur, an Italian multinational specialized in Data Integration, which has been providing its tools to national and international companies for over 30 years.
“In 70 years, technology has made enormous strides.
UNIVAC I was certainly the forerunner of this movement which today is fundamental to manage the operations of large companies in the public and private sector - says Stefano Musso, Primeur CEO - better data management means a greater increase in productivity. , time to market and the overall service of a company, as well as allowing more precise and faster choices to be made in terms of business management ".
Despite the difficulties encountered by the two scientists in the construction of UNIVAC I, this work brought them great satisfaction and records.
On November 4, 1952, for the first time in history, a computer was able to predict Dwight D. Eisenhower's victory in the presidential election with a 1% margin of error
.
From that moment the Americans really became aware of the technological importance of this machine, so much so that UNIVAC became the most common word for computers.
UNIVAC I was not the only undertaking for scientists Presper Eckert and John Mauchly: a few years earlier, exactly in 1946, they designed ENIAC, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator, the first general purpose electronic computer in history.
The project was entrusted to the two scientists by the US Army Ordinance Department who needed a tool capable of solving the problems of calculating the ballistic curves of artillery shells.
Unlike the UNIVAC, this first computer occupied an area of 180 square meters and weighed about 30 tons.
In addition to its considerable size, the ENIAC consumed up to 150 kilowatts of power: precisely for this reason, when it was put into operation for the first time, it caused a general blackout in the western district of the city of Philadelphia.
It is no coincidence that
the English word “brainiac” derives from the first ENIAC electronic computer
.
Costing $ 1 million and weighing 13 tons, the computer has entered every home and office around the world, revolutionizing the way people live and work.
In the last year, the pandemic has significantly pushed the PC market
, registering the best growth of the last decade globally: as reported by the Financial Times, according to a research by the company Gartner in the last quarter of 2020 the units of Personal Computers shipped worldwide there were 79.4 million, an increase of 10.7% compared to the previous year, while on an annual basis there was a growth of 4.8% compared to 2019, with 275 million units sold in plus, the highest figure ever since 2010. Research firm IDC, on the other hand, recorded 303 million units shipped with a growth of 13.1% in 2020, while Canalys said that shipments have grown in the last year. 11% and reached 297 million units.
Here are the 10 curiosities about UNIVAC, the first commercial computer in history:
1. J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly ended up on the brink of bankruptcy, as the Census Bureau's funding was only $ 400,000 and the total cost of designing and building UNIVAC I came close to $ 1 million.
2. The selling price of the first commercial computer was around $ 1.25 and $ 1.5 million.
3. It was first used by the United States Census Bureau to monitor the so-called baby boom, or the substantial population increase that occurred in America in the 1950s.
4. General Electric was the first private company to use UNIVAC I for the management of payrolls and for the inventory control system of the warehouses of the appliance factory.
5. It was the first computer in history to predict victory in the presidential election.
On November 4, 1952, he awarded the victory to President Dwight D. Eisenhower with a 1% margin of error.
6. UNIVAC I was the first computer in history to be used for data processing, capable of storing both numbers and letters automatically.
7. It consisted of 5200 tubular valves, all installed in the processor.
8. It weighed 13 tons, consumed 125 kW and ran at a speed of 2.25 MHz.
9. It was capable of 455 multiplications per second and could store up to 1000 strings in mercury memory.
10. Each memory item could contain two instructions, an 11-digit number and signs or 12 alphabetic characters