UNIVAC

UNIVAC 1108

UNIVAC Memories

UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer) serves as the catch-all name for the American manufacturers of the lines of mainframe computers by that name, which through mergers and acquisitions underwent numerous name changes. The company UNIVAC began as the business computer division of Remington Rand formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.


UNIVAC 1108 Prices in 1968 (in 1968 dollars)
Model / Description / Price / Installation Fee

3011-95 1108 CPU $566,460 $2,200
7005-72 131 K word Core Memory $823,500 $2,250
5009-00 FASTRAND™ Controller $41,680 $600
6010-00 FASTRAND II Storage Unit $134,400 $1,080
5012-00 FH-432/FH-1782 Drum Controller $67,360 $600
6016-00 FH-432 Drum (capacity 262,144 words) $34,640 $480
6015-00 FH-1782 Drum (capacity 2,097,152 words) $95,680 $540
4009-99 Console (TTY-35) $29,365 $200


The depreciation of the U.S. dollar since 1968 makes a benchmark of the value of the dollar in those days useful. In 1968, a sporty domestic automobile, the Chevrolet Malibu Sport Coupe with a 307-cid V-8 engine cost US$2663, 696 times less than a megabyte of UNIVAC core memory.