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- Computer History 1951
MIT´s
Whirlwind debuted on Edward R. Murrow´s "See It Now" television series.
Project director Jay Forrester described the computer as a "reliable
operating system," running 35 hours a week at 90-percent utility using
an electrostatic tube memory.
Start of project: 1945
Completed:1951
England´s first commercial computer, the
Lyons Electronic Office, solved clerical problems. The president of
Lyons Tea Co. had the computer, modeled after the EDSAC, built to solve
the problem of daily scheduling production and delivery of cakes to the
Lyons tea shops. After the success of the first LEO, Lyons went into
business manufacturing computers to meet the growing need for data
processing systems.
The UNIVAC I delivered to the U.S. Census
Bureau was the first commercial computer to attract widespread public
attention. Although manufactured by Remington Rand, the machine often
was mistakenly referred to as the "IBM UNIVAC." Remington Rand
eventually sold 46 machines at more than $1 million each.F.O.B. factory
$750,000 plus $185,000 for a high speed printer.