UNIVAC 9200
| Company type | Product line |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Founder | Sperry Rand |
| Fate | Development halted in 1972 to focus on UNIVAC Series 90 |
| Products | Computers (models 9200, 9300, 9400, 9480, 9700) |
| Parent | Sperry Rand |
The UNIVAC 9000 series—comprising models 9200, 9300, 9400, and 9700—was a line of computers introduced by Sperry Rand during the mid-1960s. This series aimed to challenge the lower-tier offerings of the IBM System/360 family. Both the 9200 and 9300 models, distinguished solely by their processor speeds, implemented a restricted 16-bit subset of the System/360 instruction set, akin to IBM's 360/20. Meanwhile, the UNIVAC 9400 supported a partial version of the full 32-bit System/360 instruction set and was comparable in capability to IBM’s 360/30.
By 1972, UNIVAC halted further development of the 9000 series to concentrate on hardware acquired from RCA, which was marketed under the UNIVAC Series 90 brand.
Hardware
The architecture of the 9000 series incorporated monolithic integrated circuit technology alongside plated-wire memory, a memory type that enabled non-destructive reading and offered performance advantages over traditional core memory. Designed as a competitor to IBM systems, these machines utilized 80-column punched cards and employed EBCDIC character encoding.
Models in this range include the 9200, 9300, 9400, and later the 9480. The UNIVAC 9200 and 9300 were intended as successors to the UNIVAC 1004 and directly competed with IBM’s 360/20. Their configurations consisted of separate cabinets arranged in an L-shape: one housing the printer and processor, another containing power supply and memory, and a third for card reader/punch units. Memory capacity started at 8 KB with expandability up to 32 KB. In 1969, updated versions known as the 9200 II and 9300 II were released.
The printing device featured an oscillating bar mechanism similar to IBM’s "bar printer," capable of outputting up to 300 lines per minute.
In the early part of the next decade, Sperry introduced the high-performance 9700 system (1971), which delivered performance three to five times greater than that of the 9400. It also outperformed IBM’s System/360 Model 50 by a factor of two while costing less than IBM’s System/370 Model 145. The economical successor to the 9400, designated as the 9480 and announced in 1973, replaced plated-wire memory with MOS semiconductor memory technology.
Software
Operating systems varied across models: the 9200 and 9300 ran the Minimum Operating System (previously called NCOS—Non Concurrent Operating System), which initially loaded from cards but later supported program and data storage on magnetic tape or magnetic disk. The more advanced models, including the 9400 and 9480, utilized a real-memory operating system named OS/4. A new operating system for the 9700 model, known as OS/7, was under development but ultimately discontinued in 1975.
External links
- Operational Univac 9400 at German computer history museum technikum29