View source for UNIVAC 90-column card

{{FormatInfo
|formattype=physical
|subcat=Punched card
|released=1930
}}

'''UNIVAC''' (Universal Automatic Computer) was a venerable name in computing for many years, as one of the earliest computers and as a long-time competitor to IBM. The brand name originated with the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company, which, via mergers and name changes over the years, became Remington-Rand, Sperry Rand, and finally Unisys. Author Isaac Asimov misinterpreted the name at one point to refer to "one vacuum tube", spurring him to create the fictional computer Multivac which figured in several of his science fiction stories; with multiple vacuum tubes, it was clearly a much more powerful computer! (A similar naming scheme in reverse resulted in [[Unix]] as wordplay on the [[Multics]] operating system.)

With the present-day descendant company Unisys infamous for aggressively enforcing patents such as the [[LZW]] patent which encumbered the [[GIF]] image format in the 1990s and early 2000s, it's ironic that their entry into the [[punched card]] field was prompted by an attempt to evade a patent. The [[IBM card]], with 80 columns and rectangular punches, had been introduced in 1928 and was patented by IBM. However, at least in some countries, the patent only covered rectangular punches and could be avoided by creating a card format with circular punches, which Remington-Rand did in 1930 (for tabulating machines which predated the Univac). This format did IBM 10 columns better, managing to get 90 columns (instead of IBM's 80) by using two rows of 45 columns. The format remained in use for Univac computers through the 1970s.

== References ==
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card#Powers.2FRemington_Rand_UNIVAC_card_formats UNIVAC card formats (Wikipedia)]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050228223439/http://homepages.cwi.nl/~dik/english/codes/90col.html 90-column punch code (archived)]
* [http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/cardint.htm The Punched Card]: shows details of a number of card formats and character encoding schemes
* [http://www.kloth.net/services/cardpunch.php Punched card emulator]
* [http://www.vintagetech.com/ Vintagetech]: company that specializes in recovering and converting old data including punched cards
* [http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/univac/ Univac memories]
* [http://archive.org/stream/bitsavers_univacmilie_3604358/1218_Brochure#page/n1/mode/2up Univac 1218 brochure]