Remington Rand 409

The Remington Rand 409, a punched card calculator which was programmed with a plugboard, was designed in 1949. It was sold in two models: the UNIVAC 60 (1952) and the UNIVAC 120 (1953). The model number referred to the number of decimal digits it could read from each punched card.[1]

UNIVAC 60
ManufacturerRemington Rand
Release date1952 (1952)
SuccessorUNIVAC 120
UNIVAC 120
UNIVAC 120
ManufacturerRemington Rand
Release date1953 (1953)
Mass3,230 lb
PredecessorUNIVAC 60
SuccessorUNIVAC 1004
A UNIVAC 120 served as the first computer in Boise, Idaho

The machine was designed in "The Barn", at 33 Highland Ave. in Rowayton, Connecticut, a building that currently houses the Rowayton Public Library and Community Center.

These machines were discontinued when the UNIVAC 1004 was introduced in 1962. About 1000 total had been produced by 1961.

Architecture

Numbers were fixed-point and of variable length (one to ten digits). Arithmetic was done in floating point, but all results were converted to fixed point when stored in memory.

Digits are represented in bi-quinary coded decimal. Each digit of memory storage contained five tubes. Four of these represented the digits 1, 3, 5, and 7, while the fifth tube represented 9 if activated alone but added 1 to the value if activated together with another tube.

Digit 1 3 5 7 9
0
1*
2**
3*
4**
5*
6**
7*
8**
9*

Hardware
RR 409model 60model 120[2]
Number of tubes ?800
Decimal digits
of storage		 ?438
Weight ?3,230 lb

See also

Notes
  1. According to Electronic Brains: Stories from the dawn of the computer age, by Mike Hally, 2005, ISBN 978-0-309-09630-0, p. 69, the Univac 60 could use 60 columns of data from a punched card, whereas the Univac 120 could use 120 columns.
  2. model 120 - see plaque in image

Further reading
  • Electronic Brains: Stories from the dawn of the computer age, chapter 3 (pp. 53–73), Mike Hally, 2005, ISBN 978-0-309-09630-0.
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