source: t29-www/en/devices/univac9400/costs.shtm @ 201

Last change on this file since 201 was 201, checked in by sven, 13 years ago

Merged some user contributions via the translation system from monday.

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1<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
2     "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
3<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
4<head><!--#set var="title"        value="What was the price one had to pay for an UNIVAC 9400?"
5   --><!--#set var="location"     value="univac-kosten"
6   --><!--#set var="part"         value="extra"
7   --><!--#set var="url_de"       value="geraete/univac9400/kosten.shtm"
8   --><!--#set var="title_de"     value="Wie viel kostete eine UNIVAC 9400?"
9   --><!--#set var="prev"         value="/en/computer/univac9400.shtm"
10   --><!--#set var="prev_title"   value="Univac 9400 overview"
11   --><!--#set var="next"         value=""
12   --><!--#set var="next_title"   value=""
13   --><title>technikum29 - <!--#echo var="title" --></title>
14
15   <!--
16     Some notes about prices:
17
18       * USD to German Mark currency rate: 3,6 DM = 1 US $
19         Taken from http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Mark#Wechselkurs_zum_US-Dollar
20         with the value of the year 1970
21
22       * Price of a VW bug: 2000 US $
23         Taken from http://dev.technikum29.de/mails/archive/0016.html
24
25       * Problem: Car number must match to german car number. If calulating the right
26         way,
27           German price / (currency rate) = USD price
28           USD price / (USD price of VW bug) = No. of VW bugs
29         you'll get a lower VW bug number.
30         Therefore I calculated the wrong way:
31           No. of VW bugs * (USD price of VW bug) = USD price
32         Which makes the currency rate between USD and German Marks quite strange.
33         But the USD number is always even, thats good ;-)
34
35   -->
36
37    <!--#include virtual="/en/inc/head.inc.shtm" -->
38    <meta name="keywords" lang="de" content="" />
39    <meta name="DC.Title" content="technikum29 - <!--#echo var="title" -->" />
40    <meta name="t29.SVN" content="$Id: costs.shtm 201 2010-10-14 23:02:12Z sven $" />
41    <meta name="t29.germanoriginal" content="14.08.2008/v5.8" />
42    <meta name="t29.thistranslation" content="09.08.2008/v5.8.0" />
43    <meta name="t29.comment" content="Only design (Sidebar)" />
44    <!--
45        Changelog of this file:
46          * 14.08.2008/v5.8BETA based on 09.08.2008/v5.8BETA: Initial translation
47     -->
48</head>
49<body>
50<!--#echo encoding="none" var="heading" -->
51<div id="content">
52    <h2><!--#echo var="title" --></h2>
53
54    <p>40 years ago, computer systems were incredibly expensive. The prices in the
55       following abstract are taken from the original UNIVAC price list from 1968
56       to 1970. To visualize what this mainframe is worth, we also investigated the
57       prices of a Volkswagen Type 1 (commonly known as beetle), a typical economy
58       car produced in Germany in the 1960/70s. In 1970, a 55&nbsp;HP model cost
59       about 6000&nbsp;DM. In the USA, it was sold for approximately 2000 US&nbsp;$.</p>
60
61    <table cellspacing="1" width="100%">
62      <colgroup>
63        <col width="10%" />
64        <col />
65        <col width="15%;" align="right" />
66        <col width="15%" />
67        <col width="20%" />
68      </colgroup>
69      <tr>
70        <th>model number</th>
71        <th>Name</th>
72        <th>price in DM</th>
73        <th>price in US $</th>
74        <th>Number of equivalent Volkswagen beetle</th>
75      </tr>
76      <tr>
77        <td>3019</td>
78        <td>Main processor cabinet (CPU and console)</td>
79        <td>258,000 DM</td>
80        <td>86,000 $</td>
81        <td>43</td>
82      </tr>
83      <tr>
84        <td>7010 *)</td>
85        <td>Plated wire storage  24  KB (minimum)</td>
86        <td>272,000 DM</td>
87        <td>90,000 $</td>
88        <td>45</td>
89      </tr>
90      <tr>
91        <td>7010 *)</td>
92        <td>Plated wire storage  131 KB (maximum)</td>
93        <td>900,000 DM</td>
94        <td>300,000 $</td>
95        <td>150</td>
96      </tr>
97      <tr>
98        <td>716</td>
99        <td>Punch card reader</td>
100        <td>70,000 DM</td>
101        <td>22,000 $</td>
102        <td>11</td>
103      </tr>
104      <tr>
105        <td>768</td>
106        <td>High speed printer</td>
107        <td>252,000 DM</td>
108        <td>84,000 $</td>
109        <td>42</td>
110      </tr>
111      <tr>
112        <td>5024</td>
113        <td>Disk drive controller</td>
114        <td>128,000 DM</td>
115        <td>42,000 $</td>
116        <td>21</td>
117      </tr>
118      <tr>
119        <td>8414 **)</td>
120        <td>Removable disk unit (6 drives)</td>
121        <td>764,000 DM</td>
122        <td>254,000 $</td>
123        <td>127</td>
124      </tr>
125      <tr>
126        <td>5017</td>
127        <td>Tape controller</td>
128        <td>121,000 DM</td>
129        <td>40,000 $</td>
130        <td>20</td>
131      </tr>
132      <tr>
133        <td>861</td>
134        <td>UNISERVO  12  (master)</td>
135        <td>102,000 DM</td>
136        <td>24,000 $</td>
137        <td>17</td>
138      </tr>
139      <tr>
140        <td>861</td>
141        <td>UNISERVO  12  (slave)</td>
142        <td>60,000 DM</td>
143        <td>20,000 $</td>
144        <td>10</td>
145      </tr>
146      <tr>
147        <td>862</td>
148        <td>UNISERVO 16</td>
149        <td>157,000 DM</td>
150        <td>52,000 $</td>
151        <td>26</td>
152      </tr>
153      <tr>
154        <td></td>
155        <td>UNISCOPE 100 (CRT terminal) ***)</td>
156        <td>15,000 DM</td>
157        <td>4,000 $</td>
158        <td>2</td>
159      </tr>
160      <tr>
161        <td></td>
162        <td>Hard drive  (40 MB), 1 unit</td>
163        <td>2,950 DM</td>
164        <td>1,000 $</td>
165        <td>0,5</td>
166      </tr>
167      <tr style="line-height: 200%;">
168        <th></th>
169        <th>Sum (with 10 hard drives) about</th>
170        <th>2,800,000 DM</th>
171        <th>940,000 $</th>
172        <th>470 cars!!</th>
173      </tr>
174    </table>
175
176    <p style="font-size: 90%;">
177      <span style="visibility:hidden;">**</span>*)  We have the semiconductor memory 7028, featuring 262 KB<br/>
178      <span style="visibility:hidden;">*</span>**) We have the successor 8425, with 5 drives<br/>
179      ***)  We have the UNISCOPE 200
180    </p>
181
182    <p>These incredible prices originated from the very high
183       development costs and the low quantities. The illustration
184       on the right hand shows the curious value comparison:
185       Arranging all these 470 cars successively would result in a
186       2.3 kilometer long chain of new cars! Therefore computer
187       firms earned quite well in those days and were able to
188       expand very fast.</p>
189
190    <p>The prices for random access memory are quite outstanding.
191       After the development of semiconductor memories at the early
192       1970s, RAM got much cheaper.</p>
193
194    <p>Companies closed deals with UNIVAC for maintenance and paid
195       more than 4,000$. Therefore it was cheaper for them to hire and
196       train own engineers for exclusively this purpose.</p>
197
198    <p>Enterprises could also lease the mainframes from UNIVAC, which
199       was quite common in the early days of EDP. Our mainframe with
200       10 hard drives and fully equipped RAM would cost about
201       18,000 US$ every month. Even at this time machine time was
202       settled to the second, like at today's high end super computers
203       where machine time can be purchased. Thus buying such a mainframe
204       computer was only affordable for very big concerns.</p>
205
206   <!-- absolut positioniertes Bildchen -->
207    <img src="/shared/photos/rechnertechnik/univac/kosten-gleichsetzung.jpg"
208         style="position: absolute; bottom: 5px; right: 0px;"
209         alt="An illustration: One Univac 9400 equals 470 cars!"  />
210
211</div><!--content-->
212<!--#include virtual="/en/inc/menu.inc.shtm" -->
213</body>
214</html>
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