UNIVAC I

UNIVAC I was an early commercial electronic computer designed for business and government data processing. The first unit was delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.

Mercury delay line: A memory technology that stores data as sound pulses circulating through tubes of liquid mercury. UNIVAC I used mercury delay lines for much of its working memory.
Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation: A computer company founded by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly in 1946. The company designed UNIVAC I before financial pressures led to its acquisition.
United States Census Bureau: The federal agency responsible for conducting the decennial census and producing demographic statistics. The Census Bureau received the first UNIVAC I in 1951.
Computer industry: The sector that designs, manufactures, sells, and supports computer hardware and software. UNIVAC I was among the first computers sold as a commercial product.
Magnetic tape data storage: A method of recording digital data on magnetically coated tape for storage and retrieval. UNIVAC I used tape units to handle data beyond its internal memory.
ENIAC: An early electronic general-purpose computer completed at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945. ENIAC preceded UNIVAC I and established its designers’ electronic-computing expertise.
1950 United States Census: The decennial count of the United States population conducted in 1950. Census data processing was a central reason the bureau acquired UNIVAC I.
1952 United States presidential election forecast: A televised prediction that Dwight D. Eisenhower would win the 1952 U.S. presidential election. The forecast demonstrated UNIVAC I’s capacity to analyze polling data, despite an initially cautious estimate.
Stored-program computer: A computer whose instructions and data are held in memory accessible to its processor. UNIVAC I’s instructions were stored electronically rather than set solely by rewiring.
J. Presper Eckert: An American electrical engineer who co-designed ENIAC and helped develop UNIVAC I. Eckert led much of the engineering work behind UNIVAC I.

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