The American company Univac began as the "business" computer division of Remington Rand formed by the purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) in 1950. (EMCC was the company founded by, and named after, the two inventors/architects of the ENIAC.)

History and structure

Univac® Sperry Rand label

The most famous Univac product was the UNIVAC I mainframe computer of 1951. It came into the limelight with a bang when it predicted the outcome of the U.S. presidential election the following year.

In 1953 or 1954 Remington Rand merged their tabulating machine division in Norwalk, Connecticut, the Engineering Research Associates "scientific" computer division, and the Univac "business" computer division into a single division under the Univac name.

In 1955 Remington Rand merged with Sperry Corporation to become Sperry Rand. The Univac division of Remington Rand was renamed Sperry Univac.

Univac was one of the eight major computer companies (with IBM - the largest, Burroughs, Scientific Data Systems, Control Data Corporation, General Electric, RCA and Honeywell) through most of the 1960s.

In 1978 Sperry Rand decided to concentrate on its computing interests and unrelated divisions were sold. The company dropped the Rand from its title and reverted back to Sperry Corporation.

In 1986 Sperry Corporation merged with Burroughs Corporation to become Unisys.

See also

• List of Univac products

External links

• UNIVAC® Memories (http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/univac/);
• Unisys History Newsletter (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/services/unisys-folklore/).

UNIVAC® has been, over the years, a registered trademark of Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, Remington Rand Corporation, Sperry Rand Corporation, Sperry Corporation, and Unisys Corporation.