UNITYPER

Last updated

The UNITYPER was an input device for the UNIVAC I computer manufactured by Remington Rand, which went on sale in mid-1951 but was not in operation until June 1952. It was an early direct data entry system. The UNITYPER accepted user inputs on a keyboard of a modified Remington typewriter, then wrote that data onto a metal magnetic tape using an integral tape drive. The UNITYPER II was an input device for the UNIVAC II. [1]

The UNITYPER II was a reduced-size, reduced-cost version of the UNITYPER I subsequently developed as a text-to-tape transcribing device for the UNIVAC I system and released in 1953, also sold as a peripheral to the UNIVAC II. The original required individual motors and control amplifiers to advance, rewind, fast-forward and maintain tension on the tape. UNITYPER II replaced these with a flexible cable and clutch system driven by a single within the typewriter.

Coding was accomplished via mechanical lift arms and latching bails added to the typewriter's existing mechanical linkages in place for print-action. When a key was depressed, up to 8 affiliated lift arms were "caught" on latching bails which in turn connected 8 coding switches to the recording head. A commutator, powered by the internal drive motor, would momentarily complete the power circuit through the coding switches to the recording head before advancing the tape to the next recording position. When not encoding, a resistor balance network kept the recording head in an erase mode unless a rewind operation was commanded. This ensured a clearly defined magnetic space between bit patterns. Additional circuits prevented opening of the tape loading door once a tape was loaded.

Because the supply and take-up spools of the recording tape were no longer individually powered as in the UNITYPER 1, a "differential moment" was created as the tape moved from one reel to the other during encoding, the supply reel constantly decreasing in effective diameter while the take-up reel correspondingly increased. A differential spring, ratching escapement, and slip clutches were added as a mechanical solution, which functioned also during backspacing and rewinding.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Relay</span> Electrically-operated switch

A relay is an electrically operated switch. It consists of a set of input terminals for a single or multiple control signals, and a set of operating contact terminals. The switch may have any number of contacts in multiple contact forms, such as make contacts, break contacts, or combinations thereof.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punched tape</span> Form of data storage

Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage that consists of a long strip of paper in which holes are punched. It developed from and was subsequently used alongside punched cards, differing in that the tape is continuous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tape recorder</span> Machine for recording sound

An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present-day form, it records a fluctuating signal by moving the tape across a tape head that polarizes the magnetic domains in the tape in proportion to the audio signal. Tape-recording devices include the reel-to-reel tape deck and the cassette deck, which uses a cassette for storage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM 1620</span> Small IBM scientific computer released in 1959

The IBM 1620 was announced by IBM on October 21, 1959, and marketed as an inexpensive scientific computer. After a total production of about two thousand machines, it was withdrawn on November 19, 1970. Modified versions of the 1620 were used as the CPU of the IBM 1710 and IBM 1720 Industrial Process Control Systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNIVAC I</span> First general-purpose computer designed for business application (1951)

The UNIVAC I was the first general-purpose electronic digital computer design for business application produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC. Design work was started by their company, Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), and was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand. In the years before successor models of the UNIVAC I appeared, the machine was simply known as "the UNIVAC".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNIVAC</span> Series of mainframe computer models

UNIVAC is a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company and successor organizations.

A cassette deck is a type of tape machine for playing and recording audio cassettes that does not have a built-in power amplifier or speakers, and serves primarily as a transport. It can be a part of an automotive entertainment system, a part of a portable mini system or a part of a home component system. In the latter case it is also called a component cassette deck or just a component deck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nagra</span> Series of audio recorders produced by Kudelski SA

Nagra is a brand of portable audio recorders produced from 1951 in Switzerland. Beginning in 1997 a range of high-end equipment aimed at the audiophile community was introduced, and Nagra expanded the company’s product lines into new markets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotary encoder</span> Device which converts angular position or motion of a shaft into electronic signals

A rotary encoder, also called a shaft encoder, is an electro-mechanical device that converts the angular position or motion of a shaft or axle to analog or digital output signals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synchro</span>

A synchro is, in effect, a transformer whose primary-to-secondary coupling may be varied by physically changing the relative orientation of the two windings. Synchros are often used for measuring the angle of a rotating machine such as an antenna platform. In its general physical construction, it is much like an electric motor. The primary winding of the transformer, fixed to the rotor, is excited by an alternating current, which by electromagnetic induction, causes voltages to appear between the Y-connected secondary windings fixed at 120 degrees to each other on the stator. The voltages are measured and used to determine the angle of the rotor relative to the stator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friden Flexowriter</span> Teleprinter

The Friden Flexowriter was a teleprinter, a heavy-duty electric typewriter capable of being driven not only by a human typing, but also automatically by several methods, including direct attachment to a computer and by use of paper tape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keypunch</span>

A keypunch is a device for precisely punching holes into stiff paper cards at specific locations as determined by keys struck by a human operator. Other devices included here for that same function include the gang punch, the pantograph punch, and the stamp. The term was also used for similar machines used by humans to transcribe data onto punched tape media.

The UNISERVO tape drive was the primary I/O device on the UNIVAC I computer. It was the first tape drive for a commercially sold computer.

The IBM MT/ST was a model of the IBM Selectric typewriter, built into its own desk, integrated with magnetic tape recording and playback facilities, located in an attached enclosure, with controls and a bank of relays. It was released by IBM in 1964. It recorded text typed on 1/2" magnetic tape, approximately 25 kilobytes per tape cassette, and allowed editing and re-recording during playback. It was the first system marketed as a word processor. Most models had two tape drives, which greatly facilitated revision and enabled features such as mail merge. An add-on module added a third tape station, to record the combined output of playback from the two stations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">9-track tape</span> Magnetic tape format introduced by IBM in 1964

The IBM System/360, announced in 1964, introduced what is now generally known as 9-track tape. The 12 inch (12.7 mm) wide magnetic tape media and reels have the same size as the earlier IBM 7-track format it replaced, but the new format has eight data tracks and one parity track for a total of nine parallel tracks. Data is stored as 8-bit characters, spanning the full width of the tape. Various recording methods have been employed during its lifetime as tape speed and data density increased, including PE, GCR and NRZI. Tapes come in various sizes up to 3,600 feet (1,100 m) in length.

Magnetic-tape data storage is a system for storing digital information on magnetic tape using digital recording.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NCR Century 100</span>

The NCR Century 100 was NCR's first all integrated circuit computer built in 1968. All logic gates were created by wire-wrapping NAND gates together to form flip-flops and other complex circuits. The console of the system had only 18 lights and switches and allowed entry of a boot routine, or changes to loaded programs or data in memory. A typewriter console was also available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM Selectric typewriter</span> Line of electric typewriters by IBM

The IBM Selectric typewriter was a highly successful line of electric typewriters introduced by IBM on 31 July 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vacuum-tube computer</span>

A vacuum-tube computer, now termed a first-generation computer, is a computer that uses vacuum tubes for logic circuitry. Although superseded by second-generation transistorized computers, vacuum-tube computers continued to be built into the 1960s. These computers were mostly one-of-a-kind designs.

This glossary of electrical and electronics engineering is a list of definitions of terms and concepts related specifically to electrical engineering and electronics engineering. For terms related to engineering in general, see Glossary of engineering.

References

  1. Wilson; Meyer (1953). Transactions of the IRE (December).{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)