The Sperry Rand Corporation
abortretry.fail
abortretry.fail
One of Univac's problems was the proliferation of operating systems for the different incompatible architectures. There was Exec 8 for the premier 1100 series (36-bit); OS/4, OS/3, OS/7 and later VS/9 (formerly RCA's TSOS then VMOS) for the 9000 series (32-bit); also the 418 and 494 real-time OS'es (18-bit words). Then there was the CADE 1900. All written in Assembler of course. We even had Varian in the branch, with salesmen from the different product lines competing for business.
All this duplication resulted in overhead and squandering of programmer resources.
After the Burroughs merger, the joke was that UNISYS stood for "Univac is Still Your Supplier".
My dad worked for Sperry Univac. He had a laminated list of 418 assembler instructions, with assembler mnemonics, and time of execution. I seem to recall 4 microseconds for addition and 6 for multiplication, but it's been a while since I saw it...
Here's the manual.[1]
Amazingly, the descendant of EXEC 8, OS/2200, is still a maintained product, over half a century later.[2] There's even a roadmap out to 2033.
[1] https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_univac1100tiveReferenc...
It seemed even more user-hostile than MCP.
I have some great memories - first time seeing whales just off Newport Beach stands out.
https://ethw.org/First-Hand:No_Damned_Computer_is_Going_to_T...
The article shows up here fairly regularly. I mainly bring it up as the computer was developed by Sperry, and it really is a good read about an early tech project.
The difference is that modern society isn’t optimized for productivity, it’s optimized for consumption and attention. 30 years ago you could go days without seeing ads, now companies send notifications to the nuisance devices in your pocket and on your wrist. It’s no wonder we have a harder time focusing and accomplishing things. Even being aware of the problem isn’t enough to fully protect one’s attention and intention.
If anything, it is easier to avoid advertising today than it was 30 years ago. You can block notifications, spam filters are significantly better, content filters at the web browser and DNS level are available. On top of that, certain nuisance devices are possible to avoid. For example: you can still buy traditional watches.
Contrast that to 30 years ago. Nearly all radio stations, television stations, news papers, and periodicals included a lot of advertising. Telemarketers were certainly a thing. Advertising in public spaces was certainly a thing. You could consciously avoid most of those things, but you would also be isolating yourself in the process.
Perhaps you could make that argument if you were talking about 100 years ago, of people who lived in rural areas, and had very little contact outside of their community. Even then, you are talking about a form of isolation. The only difference is that type of isolation was much more common.
It's optimized for profit. Ideally these would be one in the same. In any case our productivity is easily an order of magnitude greater today than it was 100 years ago. The lack of technical progress into our legislatures and courts even though we currently poses the ability to afford the same order of magnitude improvements is a curiosity and implies there's a form of corruption that's taken root. This seems to allow non productive companies to command most of the profits.
> a harder time focusing and accomplishing things
Relative to self reports? The grass was probably greener and the schools were definitely better too. You might as well note that jobs have not gotten any more complex nor opportunities any wealthier in that time. People still flip burgers and sling french fries for minimum wage. They used to goof off out back now they troll the internet in their off moments.
> isn’t enough to fully protect one’s attention and intention.
Outer space is super exciting. Until people realize it takes months to make it even just to Mars. Our attention span was never that great to begin with.
It wasn’t optimized for profit 30 years ago..?
Some exaggeration above, but less than would be fair.
Check the "Secret history of Silicon Valley" by Steve Blank:
https://steveblank.com/secret-history/
All these are now in the mature stage.
New technologies are built in China now with their large industrial base and large markets.
Also really love that Varian Data Machines logo. Down-Up-G with Up interrupted (iykyk) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Varian_Data_Machin...
I am much more familiar with seeing that logo on diffusion pumps and klystrons. Never knew they made computers.
Companies like Sperry Rand and Honeywell are like that. They don't put their logos on the outside boxes, but their logos are inside just about everything.
New Holland went through a few iterations until being purchased by the Fiat group. It is a part of CNH with its sister company of Case IH.
This happened at the time when Germanium transistors were hand made, and quite unreliable, less reliable that even vacuum tubes. Magnetic core was much more reliable than either.
https://blockedepistemology.substack.com/p/puzzle-filling-le...
Some great 1955 articles by aerospace journalist Ansel Talbert cited & linked to from archives in it. Warning, the overall substack series is on UAP, a topic which HNers often find uncomfortable. So if the UAP theme offends sensibilities, don’t click through.
Intrigued by this. Found this [0] with more details, anyone know of others?
[0] https://www.zdnet.com/article/to-the-moon-ibm-and-univac-app...
“The data processing system selected for the Apollo remote sites is being manufactured and assembled by the UMVAC Military System, Division of the Sperry Rand Corporation, located in St. Paul, Minnesota. The computer is identified as the UNIVAC 642 B Modified and has been designed to meet military specification. There will be two identical computing subsystems installed on each of the sites of the Apollo Tracking Network. These subsystems are identical in every respect with the exception of the mission requirements which will be assigned to each subsystem. One computer subsystem will be used for the processing of telemetry data and will also provide a command processing back-up capability. The second computer subsystem will be used for the processing of command data and will also provide a telemetry processing back-up capability. The purpose of the back-up capability is to provide continuous operation for the remote site computing requirements should either computer malfunction during a critical period of the mission.”
Sounds familiar, eliminate "LISP machines" I wonder if history is repeating itself today for many companies.
[1] https://tgsoc.org/papers/SperryUnivacPioneersApplicationofAI...