For the past couple of years we in MARCH have been teasing people with
the knowledge that we have a UNIVAC mainframe. :) It's a model 1219-B
(1965 transistor system) used on Navy ships for things like radar and
weapons system control.
This weekend we finally got around to taking some good pictures of it in
our storage warehouse. The computer was a gift to us from the Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Here are the five main racks:
http://snarc.net/1219b/all_comp.jpg. Left
to right: A/D converter (ignore the cable spools on its pallet), data
recorder / IO hub, one of two identical tape drives, both CPUs. Here are
three of the four IO consoles (paper tape below, TTY above):
http://snarc.net/1219b/all_io.jpg. All are identical. The second tape
drive and the fourth paper tape/TTY console are on on display in our museum.
Now for some close-up pictures.
1. A/D control panel:
http://snarc.net/1219b/close_control.jpg.
1a. Details:
http://snarc.net/1219b/close_control_detail.jpg
2. CPU:
http://snarc.net/1219b/close_cpu.jpg (unfortunately both CPUs
are missing the top UNIVAC nameplates.)
3. Tape drive:
http://snarc.net/1219b/close_tape.jpg
4. Data recorder and I/O hub:
http://snarc.net/1219b/close_datarecorder_io.jpg
5. Paper tape / TTY console:
http://snarc.net/1219b/close_io.jpg
No, we haven't tried to power it up ... it might be another few years
before we get there, plus, we're missing the core memory, software,
various important cables, and most of the manuals. We also don't have
the electronic terminal or the line printer.
Still, it's one damn impressive-looking computer, and we're very proud
to own it!
For context: each CPU weighs about 1,500 pounds. Each tape drive cabinet
weighs about 1,000 pounds (you can see it has two drives inside the
cabinet; each is a 7MB, 7-track tape.)
We hope to be able to take this out of storage and put it on static
display at VCF East but that depends on a bunch of other factors, like
whether our forklift is working, etc.....