The UNIVAC 490 was a

UNIVAC UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company and ...

computer with 16K or 32K words of

magnetic-core memory In computing, magnetic-core memory is a form of random-access memory. It predominated for roughly 20 years between 1955 and 1975, and is often just called core memory, or, informally, core. Core memory uses toroids (rings) of a hard magneti ...

. The words had 30 bits and the cycle time was 4.8

microsecond A microsecond is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one millionth (0.000001 or 10−6 or ) of a second. Its symbol is μs, sometimes simplified to us when Unicode is not available. A microsecond is to one second, ...

s. It was a commercial derivative of the

instruction set In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model that generally defines how software controls the CPU in a computer or a family of computers. A device or program that executes instructions described by that ISA, s ...

that had been developed for the

AN/USQ-17 The AN/USQ-17 or Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) computer referred to in Sperry Rand documents as the Univac M-460, was Seymour Cray's last design for UNIVAC. UNIVAC later released a commercial version, the UNIVAC 490. That system was later upgr ...

Seymour Cray Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996)
– was an American

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

. This was the last machine that Cray designed before leaving UNIVAC to join the early

Control Data Corporation Control Data Corporation (CDC) was a mainframe and supercomputer company that in the 1960s was one of the nine major U.S. computer companies, which group included IBM, the Burroughs Corporation, and the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), the N ...

. Univac Federal Systems would further develop this system into the AN/USQ-20 for the US Navy. That system was the heart of the

Naval Tactical Data System Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) was a computerized information processing system developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s and first deployed in the early 1960s for use in combat ships. It took reports from multiple sensors on different s ...

which pioneered the use of shipboard computers for

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...

. The military version went by a variety of names: UNIVAC 1232, AN/USQ-20, MIL-1206 and CP642.

Overview

At least 47 of these machines were made (serial numbers run from 101 to 147). Six were installed at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

and played important roles in

Gemini Gemini most often refers to: * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Gemini (astrology), an astrological sign Gemini may also refer to: Science and technology Space * Gemini in Chinese astronomy, the Gemini constellat ...

and the

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

missions. The U490 had complete control of most or all of the data readout screens in Houston Mission Control. The

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

had two installed, as did Lockheed. Airlines using the 490 Real-Time system included

Eastern Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

and Northwest Orient – principally

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

reservations systems at

Eastern Air Lines Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade ...

(1963) and

British European Airways British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The ...

(BEACON – 1964). Other commercial installations of the 490 Real-Time included two at Westinghouse, two at Hammermill Paper Company, and one each at

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

U.S. Steel The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, ...

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Until its closure in 2003, it was one of the world's largest steel-producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its success ...

and

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

.Univac 490 Failure Finding by L. D. Boss and J. G. Wilen, August 10, 1964. The only surviving, nearly complete, original, civilian version of the 490 Real Time System is on display at the System Source Computer Museum in

Hunt Valley, Maryland Hunt Valley is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, near the site of the Maryland Hunt Cup Steeplechase (horse racing), Steeplechase. It lies just north of th ...

. It has six banks of memory cores. System Source also has a nearly complete set of original documentation for the machine, including original blueprints and troubleshooting data. This includes the Boss and Wilen document. The standard

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

was REX (RealTime Exec), except at Eastern and B.E.A. where a custom operating system was developed for airline reservations (CONTORTS – CONTrol Of Real Time System). CONTORTS was the origin of Univac's subsequent RT operating systems for 494 (STARS) and later converted to the 1100 Series (RTOS). File:UNIVAC490.jpg, A circuit board from the UNIVAC 490 computer on display at the

Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science museum, science and technology museum, technology, with a ...

File:Univac 1232 Computer interface at NASM.jpg, The Univac 1232 was a military version of the UNIVAC 490. File:Univac 1232 Computer at NASM.jpg, A Univac 1232 at the Smithsonian

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...

Architecture

The instruction word format: *f – Function code designator (6 bits) *j – Branch condition designator (3 bits) *k – Operand-interpretation designator (3 bits) *b – Operand address modification designator (3 bits) *y – Operand designator (15 bits) Numbers were represented in

ones' complement The ones' complement of a binary number is the value obtained by inverting (flipping) all the bits in the Binary number, binary representation of the number. The name "ones' complement" refers to the fact that such an inverted value, if added t ...

. The machine provided the programmer with the following registers: *Seven B-registers (Address modifying

index register An index register in a computer's central processing unit, CPU is a processor register (or an assigned memory location) used for pointing to operand addresses during the run of a program. It is useful for stepping through String (computer science ...

s) 15 bits each *One A-register or accumulator 30 bits *One Q-register and auxiliary arithmetic register 30 bits

Hardware

The arithmetic unit used 13,819 transistors of various types and 37,543 diodes of various types.

Successor systems

In June 1965, UNIVAC launched a family of successor systems known as the UNIVAC 490 Modular Real Time Systems. This consisted of the UNIVAC 491, 492 and 494. The 494 was heavily used by NASA as part of the communications complex for the Apollo Mission. Other users include BEA,

Iberia Airlines Iberia (), legally incorporated as ''Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A. Operadora, Sociedad Unipersonal'', is the flag carrier of Spain. Founded in 1927 and based in Madrid, it operates an international network of services from its main ...

Scandinavian Airlines The Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), commonly known as Scandinavian Airlines, is the national airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is part of SAS Group and is headquartered in Solna, Sweden. Including its subsidiaries SAS Link and ...

and

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

. Subsequently as UNIVAC decided to focus on the

UNIVAC 1100/2200 series The UNIVAC 1100/2200 series is a series of compatible 36-bit computer systems, beginning with the UNIVAC 1107 in 1962, initially made by Sperry Rand. The series continues to be supported today by Unisys Corporation as the ClearPath Dorado Serie ...

an option to run the 1110/80 in 494 mode was added. This emulator was implemented using microcode.

References

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External links