HPR3815: The UNIVAC Uniscope - The first terminal with a video monitor

In the early days of computing, the computing power was kept in centralized large mainframes and users would connect to them via so called "dumb" terminals. These often provided their output through a printer and continuous feed of paper. However in 1964 UNIVAC introduced the Uniscope 300, which was one of the first terminals to provide a video monitor for display. With the introduction of this system came the introduction of several concepts that we take for granted today and they are described during the reading of this brochure.

The brochure was made available through the Computer History Museum at https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102646317

As I mention in the episode, $15,000 USD in 1964 is worth considerably more today, according to an online inflation calculator it is now worth approximately $144,000 today. So even if that was for 48 terminals as it seems to mention in the hand written note, that might equate to about $3000 per terminal in 2023 dollars.

Here are some related links below:

• UNIVAC - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC
• The Uniscope line - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniscope
• Uniscope terminal multiplexer service manual - https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102784700

Comments

More Information...