source: t29-www/en/devices/univac9400/costs.php @ 465

Last change on this file since 465 was 465, checked in by heribert, 10 years ago

Tabelle korrigiert (engl.)

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1<?php
2        $seiten_id = 'univac-kosten';
3        $version = '$Id';
4        $titel = 'What was the price one had to pay for an UNIVAC 9400?';
5       
6        require '../../../lib/technikum29.php';
7?>
8<h2><?php print $titel; ?></h2>
9
10   <!--
11     Some notes about prices:
12
13       * USD to German Mark currency rate: 3,6 DM = 1 US $
14         Taken from http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Mark#Wechselkurs_zum_US-Dollar
15         with the value of the year 1970
16
17       * Price of a VW bug: 2000 US $
18         Taken from http://dev.technikum29.de/mails/archive/0016.html
19
20       * Problem: Car number must match to german car number. If calulating the right
21         way,
22           German price / (currency rate) = USD price
23           USD price / (USD price of VW bug) = No. of VW bugs
24         you'll get a lower VW bug number.
25         Therefore I calculated the wrong way:
26           No. of VW bugs * (USD price of VW bug) = USD price
27         Which makes the currency rate between USD and German Marks quite strange.
28         But the USD number is always even, thats good ;-)
29
30   -->
31
32    <p>40 years ago, computer systems were incredibly expensive. The prices in the
33       following abstract are taken from the original UNIVAC price list from 1968
34       to 1970. To visualize what this mainframe is worth, we also investigated the
35       prices of a Volkswagen Type 1 (commonly known as beetle), a typical economy
36       car produced in Germany in the 1960/70s. In 1970, a 55&nbsp;HP model cost
37       about 6000&nbsp;DM. In the USA, it was sold for approximately 2000 US&nbsp;$.</p>
38
39    <table width="100%" class="t29-details">
40      <colgroup>
41        <col width="10%" />
42        <col />
43        <col width="15%;" align="right" />
44        <col width="15%" />
45        <col width="20%" />
46      </colgroup>
47      <tr>
48        <th>model number</th>
49        <th>Name</th>
50        <th>price in DM</th>
51        <th>price in US $</th>
52        <th>Number of equivalent Volkswagen beetle</th>
53      </tr>
54      <tr>
55        <td>3019</td>
56        <td>Main processor cabinet (CPU and console)</td>
57        <td>258,000 DM</td>
58        <td>86,000 $</td>
59        <td>43</td>
60      </tr>
61      <tr>
62        <td>7010 *)</td>
63        <td>Plated wire storage  24  KB (minimum)</td>
64        <td>272,000 DM</td>
65        <td>90,000 $</td>
66        <td>45</td>
67      </tr>
68      <tr>
69        <td>7010 *)</td>
70        <td>Plated wire storage  131 KB (maximum)</td>
71        <td>900,000 DM</td>
72        <td>300,000 $</td>
73        <td>150</td>
74      </tr>
75      <tr>
76        <td>716</td>
77        <td>Punch card reader</td>
78        <td>70,000 DM</td>
79        <td>22,000 $</td>
80        <td>11</td>
81      </tr>
82      <tr>
83        <td>768</td>
84        <td>High speed printer</td>
85        <td>252,000 DM</td>
86        <td>84,000 $</td>
87        <td>42</td>
88      </tr>
89      <tr>
90        <td>5024</td>
91        <td>Disk drive controller</td>
92        <td>128,000 DM</td>
93        <td>42,000 $</td>
94        <td>21</td>
95      </tr>
96      <tr>
97        <td>8414 **)</td>
98        <td>Removable disk unit (6 drives)</td>
99        <td>764,000 DM</td>
100        <td>254,000 $</td>
101        <td>127</td>
102      </tr>
103      <tr>
104        <td>5017</td>
105        <td>Tape controller</td>
106        <td>121,000 DM</td>
107        <td>40,000 $</td>
108        <td>20</td>
109      </tr>
110      <tr>
111        <td>861</td>
112        <td>UNISERVO  12  (master)</td>
113        <td>102,000 DM</td>
114        <td>24,000 $</td>
115        <td>17</td>
116      </tr>
117      <tr>
118        <td>861</td>
119        <td>UNISERVO  12  (slave)</td>
120        <td>60,000 DM</td>
121        <td>20,000 $</td>
122        <td>10</td>
123      </tr>
124      <tr>
125        <td>862</td>
126        <td>UNISERVO 16</td>
127        <td>157,000 DM</td>
128        <td>52,000 $</td>
129        <td>26</td>
130      </tr>
131      <tr>
132        <td></td>
133        <td>UNISCOPE 100 (CRT terminal) ***)</td>
134        <td>15,000 DM</td>
135        <td>4,000 $</td>
136        <td>2</td>
137      </tr>
138      <tr>
139        <td></td>
140        <td>Hard drive  (40 MB), 1 unit</td>
141        <td>2,950 DM</td>
142        <td>1,000 $</td>
143        <td>0,5</td>
144      </tr>
145      <tr style="line-height: 200%;">
146        <th></th>
147        <th>Sum (with 10 hard drives) about</th>
148        <th>2,800,000 DM</th>
149        <th>940,000 $</th>
150        <th>470 cars!!</th>
151      </tr>
152    </table>
153
154    <p style="font-size: 90%;">
155      <span style="visibility:hidden;">**</span>*)  We have the semiconductor memory 7028, featuring 262 KB<br/>
156      <span style="visibility:hidden;">*</span>**) We have the successor 8425, with 5 drives<br/>
157      ***)  We have the UNISCOPE 200
158    </p>
159
160    <p>These incredible prices originated from the very high
161       development costs and the low quantities. The illustration
162       on the right hand shows the curious value comparison:
163       Arranging all these 470 cars successively would result in a
164       2.3 kilometer long chain of new cars! Therefore computer
165       firms earned quite well in those days and were able to
166       expand very fast.</p>
167
168    <p>The prices for random access memory are quite outstanding.
169       After the development of semiconductor memories at the early
170       1970s, RAM got much cheaper.</p>
171
172    <p>Companies closed deals with UNIVAC for maintenance and paid
173       more than 4,000$. Therefore it was cheaper for them to hire and
174       train own engineers for exclusively this purpose.</p>
175
176    <p>Enterprises could also lease the mainframes from UNIVAC, which
177       was quite common in the early days of EDP. Our mainframe with
178       10 hard drives and fully equipped RAM would cost about
179       18,000 US$ every month. Even at this time machine time was
180       settled to the second, like at today's high end super computers
181       where machine time can be purchased. Thus buying such a mainframe
182       computer was only affordable for very big concerns.</p>
183
184   <!-- absolut positioniertes Bildchen -->
185    <img src="/shared/photos/rechnertechnik/univac/kosten-gleichsetzung.jpg"
186         class="autobild"
187         alt="An illustration: One Univac 9400 equals 470 cars!"  />
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