UNIVAC 1050


The UNIVAC 1050 was a variable word-length decimal and binary computer.
Instructions were fixed length, consisting of a five-bit "op code", a three-bit index register specifier, one reserved bit, a 15-bit address, and a six-bit "detail field" whose function varies with each instruction. The memory was up to 32K of six-bit characters.
Like the IBM 1401, the 1050 was commonly used as an off-line peripheral controller in many installations of both large "scientific computers and large "business computers". In these installations the big computer did all of its input-output on magnetic tapes and the 1050 was used to format input data from other peripherals on the tapes and transfer output data from the tapes to other peripherals.
A version used by the U.S. Air Force, the U1050-II real-time system, had some extra peripherals. The most significant of these was the FASTRAND 1 Drum Storage Unit. This physically large device had two contra-rotating drums mounted horizontally, one above the other in a pressurized cabinet. Read-write heads were mounted on a horizontally moving beam between the drums, driven by a voice coil servo external to the pressurized cabinet. This high-speed access subsystem allowed the real-time operation. Another feature was the communications subsystem with modem links to remote sites. A Uniservo VI-C tape drive provided an audit trail for the transactions. Other peripherals were the card reader and punch, and printer. The operator's console had the 'stop and go' buttons and a Teletype Model 33 teleprinter for communication and control.