Posted on 03/26/2014 6:11:04 AM PDT by lbryce
YouTube:1954 Commercial for the UNIVAC Computer
This 1954 commercial for the Univac Computer is hilariously anachronistic.
It is the first electronic computing system to be proven by widespread use. Because of its exclusive self-checking features, Univac can not make a mistake.
They said the same thing about the HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I think this refers to the use of a compiler.
I get it.
The data center that the computer is in is designed to look like a data center of the year 2050.
Isn’t that it?
Wait, wait, maybe the guys’ suits are made of a new fiber that won’t be invented until 2100...that must be it.
I’ll rewatch it to make sure............
I don’t see what is anachronistic here.
I suppose he could argue that posting a 1954 computer ad on a 21st century discussion forum is anachronistic, but it’s certainly not hilarious. It’s historically accurate.
And he mischaracterizes the HAL9000 too. HAL was capable of speech, speech recognition, facial recognition, natural language processing, and even lip-reading - all of which were exceptionally advanced concepts when the film was made. Is also an early demonstration of predictive maintenance or prognostics, which raised the issue of “nuisance alarms” which continue to plague these systems today...did HAL actually detect a failure signature or was that intentionally contrived? The point is that HAL did not “make a mistake” as much as it carried out it’s mission in a way that wasn’t healthy for the humans.
FWIW, I once suggested that a predictive maintenance software tool be named “HAL”. Now THAT would have been an anachronism!
Ther is, however, GIGO syndrome...
I liked it so much, I bought the company!
Jeez, I thought that with all the computer geeks here everyone was aware of what UNIVAC was referring to in this ad!
PARITY!
The Excess 3 code included a parity bit, which was used for error checking. This technique was quite new, having been first introduced in 1951 on magnetic tape drives:
http://www.computer-history.info/Page4.dir/pages/Univac.dir/
1100 was my first univac. Wrote assembler and masm for the exec8.
Long time ago....
“I thought that with all the computer geeks...”
You are correct. I wasn’t thinking at the hardware level, just the application. Odd, Even and No parity. I believe you could specify the parity on the JCL, (UNIT=) keyword, when the application wrote the tape.
“There is more computing power in today’s electric razor.”
So much so that it could have taken Alice to the Moon!
So, the Mainframe Computer’s total memory consisted of 8 memory modules, each of which had 4 kilobyte (kB) of memory capacity, which is a total of 32 kB of memory (Correction Made thanks to Steve Kovarik, see comment below). This is what we commonly refer to today as Random Access Memory, or RAM, in our computers today. That is 0.03125 of one Megabyte (MB) RAM for this mainframe computer, which was used to run Base Supply. Inline during the day, and offline to run reports each evening.
RAM SPECS Taken from here:
http://www.texastortillafactory.com/blog/1974-univac-1050-ii/
I’m pretty sure the Anachronism Model 101 was invented in late 1955. Marty McFly can confirm that.
**The presence or non-presence of electricity in a magnetic field** Binary on/off.
The Univac taught me how illogical women are.
An old commercial, and this commercial specifically, is not an anachronism as everything is chronologically in order.
Why would they need a TV commercial? It wasn’t exactly a mass market product. About the only companies that could afford one of them were the companies they listed - US Steel, GE, in addition to the government.
I think it was actually a commercial for the Remmington electric razor.
The commercial is really all about selling razors.
It’s like the emphasis on sustainability” that you see in a modern oil company commercial.
“They care”
Yes, maybe so, but what they really want is really want is for you to buy their gasoline and their stocks.
In 1960 Univac was owned by Sperry Rand not Remington Rand.
I was a programmer on the Univac File Computer in San Francisco.
The tape servos (sp) were approx. 7 ft tall, not the size shown in the video.
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