UNIVAC 9000 series
Encyclopedia
The UNIVAC 9000 series was introduced by Sperry Rand
in the mid-1960s to compete with the low end of the IBM 360 series. The 9000 series implemented the IBM 360 instruction set. The 9200 and 9300 (which differed only in CPU speed) implemented the same restricted 360 subset as the IBM 360/20, while the UNIVAC 9400 implemented the full 360 instruction set. The 9400 was roughly equivalent to the IBM 360/30.
The 9000 series used plated wire memory
, which functioned somewhat like core memory but used a non-destructive read. Since the 9000 series was intended as direct competitors to IBM, they used 80-column cards and EBCDIC character encoding.
The UNIVAC 9200 was marketed as a functional replacement for the 1004 and as a direct competitor to the IBM 360/20. The printer-processor was one cabinet, the power supply and memory another and the card reader and optional card punch made an 'L' shaped configuration. Memory was 4KB
expandable to 16KB. The printer differed from earlier UNIVAC printers, being similar to IBM's "bar printer" of the same era. It used an oscillating-type bar instead of the drums that had been used until this point, and ran at speeds up to 300 lines per minute.
UNIVAC
UNIVAC is the name of a business unit and division of the Remington Rand company formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, and the associated line of computers which continues to this day...
in the mid-1960s to compete with the low end of the IBM 360 series. The 9000 series implemented the IBM 360 instruction set. The 9200 and 9300 (which differed only in CPU speed) implemented the same restricted 360 subset as the IBM 360/20, while the UNIVAC 9400 implemented the full 360 instruction set. The 9400 was roughly equivalent to the IBM 360/30.
The 9000 series used plated wire memory
Plated wire memory
Plated wire memory is a variation of core memory developed by Bell Laboratories in 1957. Its primary advantage was that it could be machine-assembled, which potentially led to lower prices than the hand-assembled core....
, which functioned somewhat like core memory but used a non-destructive read. Since the 9000 series was intended as direct competitors to IBM, they used 80-column cards and EBCDIC character encoding.
The UNIVAC 9200 was marketed as a functional replacement for the 1004 and as a direct competitor to the IBM 360/20. The printer-processor was one cabinet, the power supply and memory another and the card reader and optional card punch made an 'L' shaped configuration. Memory was 4KB
KB
- Computing :* Kilobit , a unit of information used, for example, to quantify computer memory or storage capacity* Kilobyte , a unit of information used, for example, to quantify computer memory or storage capacity...
expandable to 16KB. The printer differed from earlier UNIVAC printers, being similar to IBM's "bar printer" of the same era. It used an oscillating-type bar instead of the drums that had been used until this point, and ran at speeds up to 300 lines per minute.