The UNIVAC 1102 or ERA 1102 was designed by

Engineering Research Associates Engineering Research Associates, commonly known as ERA, was a pioneering computer firm from the 1950s. ERA became famous for their numerical computers, but as the market expanded they became better known for their drum memory systems. They were ev ...

for the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...

Arnold Engineering Development Center The Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), Arnold Engineering Development Center before July 2012, is an Air Force Materiel Command facility under the control of the Air Force Test Center (AFTC). Headquartered at Arnold Air Force Base, ...

Tullahoma, Tennessee Tullahoma is a city in Coffee and Franklin counties in southern Middle Tennessee, United States. The population was 20,339 at the 2020 census. In 2019, the population was estimated to be 19,555. It is the principal city of the Tullahoma micropo ...

in response to a request for proposal issued in 1950. The Air Force needed three computers to do data reduction for two

wind tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...

s and an engine test facility. The 1102 was a variant of the UNIVAC 1101, using its 24-bit word and a smaller (only 8,192 words)

drum memory Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory. For many early computers, drum memory formed the main working memory of ...

. The machine had 2,700

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as ...

s, weighed , and occupied of floor area. The computers were connected to data channels coming from the wind tunnels and the engine facility. There were five

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

s for printed output, five paper tape punches, and four pen plotters to produce graphs. The three computers and related peripherals were delivered between July 1954 and July 1956 at a total price of $1,400,000. Software for the computers was developed entirely at the Arnold Engineering Development center. All programming was done in

machine code In computer programming, machine code is any low-level programming language, consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each instruction causes the CPU to perform a ve ...

(

assemblers Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of A ...

and

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...

s were never developed).

References

1102 Year 1102 ( MCII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Levant * Spring – A Fatimid expeditionary force (some 20,000 men) invades Palestine and la ...

Vacuum tube computers Military computers Computer-related introductions in 1953 {{mainframe-compu-stub

See also

References