UNIVAC's Answers

How would you describe yourself?

Despite any claims that my cousins here might make, my introduction spurred a revolution in the computer industry.

I'm sleek. I'm fast. I'm versatile. What more could anyone want in a computer?

How's your memory?

It's nothing to be ashamed of. I can store 12,000 characters in my random access memory, plus millions more on magnetic tape.

And it will get even better. My engineers are perfecting a "thin film" memory. They actually have a lot of faith in it.

What are your capabilities?

There are just too many to list. But let me try.

I am fast. Very fast. I have a clock speed of 2,250 KHz (or 2.25 MHz).

I can store lots of information. I can process ten magnetic tapes at once -- and each tape can hold over a million characters!

Another advantage I have over some machines is that I can store a program in my memory. Just load a program into my memory, and I'm ready to go!

Do you consider yourself versatile?

Some computers can only handle numbers. I can just as easily work with letters of the alphabet. This means I can do things like print bills, sort out accounts, even solve scientific problems.

Meet ENIAC