UNIVAC Solid State - Technology

Technology

The Solid State was one of the first computers to use some solid-state components. However, much of the computer's logic was made out of magnetic amplifiers, not transistors. The decision to use magnetic amplifiers was made because the point-contact germanium transistors then available had highly variable characteristics and were not sufficiently reliable. The magnetic amplifiers were based on tiny (about 1/8" ID) toroidal stainless steel spools wound with two or so layers of 1/32" wide 4-79 moly-permalloy magnetic material to form magnetic cores. These cores had two windings of #60 copper wire surrounding the 4-79 molypermalloy.

The magnetic amplifiers required clock pulses of heavy current that could not be produced by the transistors of the day. The system used a clock derived from a timing band recorded on the main storage drum. This signal was read and amplified, processed and sent to the driver tubes, a pair of 6146 power pentode output tubes. The output from these tubes then fed the main clock power amplifier consisting of six 4CX250B metal/ceramic power tetrode tubes running in push-pull/parallel, yielding an output of a kilowatt. The powerful high-voltage signal was stepped down to a 36-volt, high-current clock by oil-filled transformers that were distributed about the machine. The SS80/90 computer could be heard quite clearly in the AM broadcast band at 707 kHz and 1414 kHz. The 4CX250B tetrodes used a grounded plate (anode) due to forced aircooling requirements. This tube is still in demand by amateur radio operators. The clock tube was enclosed in a shielding box that constrained both radio emissions and viewing by eyes of other than Univac's field engineers. The power supply output was -1.6 kV for cathode supply and -800 V screen grid supply at 1.8 A capacity. The supply weighed nearly 100 pounds and was mounted at the very top of the power supply stack. Thus the SS 80/90, for the heart of its operation, depended on the very technology it claimed to replace, a marketing tactic.

Read more about this topic:  UNIVAC Solid State

Famous quotes containing the word technology:

    Technology is not an image of the world but a way of operating on reality. The nihilism of technology lies not only in the fact that it is the most perfect expression of the will to power ... but also in the fact that it lacks meaning.
    Octavio Paz (b. 1914)

    Our technology forces us to live mythically, but we continue to think fragmentarily, and on single, separate planes.
    Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)

    The real accomplishment of modern science and technology consists in taking ordinary men, informing them narrowly and deeply and then, through appropriate organization, arranging to have their knowledge combined with that of other specialized but equally ordinary men. This dispenses with the need for genius. The resulting performance, though less inspiring, is far more predictable.
    John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)