UMC-1

The UMC ( Universal Digital Machine ) computer family was developed at the ELWRO (later Centrum Komputerowych Systemów Automatyki i Pomiarów Mera Elwro) factory in Poland, first in a vacuum tube (UMC-1) and then further developed in a semiconductor (UMC-10) version.

Below we will describe the first one in more detail (picture).

Category:

Medium machine

Technology:

Vacuum tube

Origin:

import

Manufacturer:

Manufacturer: ELWRO (Poland). Developer: Warsaw University of Technology - Designers: Anton Kilińskí and Zdzisław Pawlak

Use

Operating time:

1960 - 1993

Working quantity:

University of Warsaw: 5 (1961); ELWRO: 25 (1962-64)

Typical applications:

Geodetic calculations

Operating locations:

Budapest Geodesy and Cartography Company (BGTV)

Year:

that.

Structure

Central unit

Word processing machine: 36 bpW

controller: on.
main magazine: replaced by magnetic drum
calculator: individual fixed-point operations programs; programs for the 4 basic operations, exponentiation and radical extraction

Periphery

backup storage: magnetic drum 4 sw
external devices:
- punched tape reader
- telegraph operator, Siemens T-37i

It had no cooling system, so cooling had to be provided externally.

Operation

Fixed point operation speed: 100 ips

The decimal number system used was a -10-based, so-called negadecimal system. Accordingly, the weighting factor of each place value was positive in even-numbered places and negative in odd-numbered places; from right to left, it was 1, -10, 100, -1000, 10000, etc. Thus, the rules of operations became much more complicated.

Its calculator was implemented by programs developed to perform individual operations; these were written by the designer Z. Pawlak for the 4 basic operations, as well as exponentiation and radical extraction. Some operation programs were also designed for the negabinary (base-2; 1, -2, 4, -8, 16, -32 base) number system.

Negadecimal numbers				Negabinary numbers
0,…9	u.a.	-1	19	0, 1	u.a.	-1	11
		-2	18	2	110	-2	10
10	190	-10	10	3	111	-3	1101
11	191	-11	29	4	100	-4	1100
19	199	-19	21	6	11010	-6	1110
20	180	-20	20	8	11000	-8	1000
99	119	-99	1901	10	11110	-10	1010
100	100	-100	1900	12	11100	-12	110100
123	283	-123	1937	100	11010100	-100	11101100

Program set

General programs

It had no operating system.

There were no programming languages; programming could be done in machine code.

Custom programs

Action execution programs.

Historical curiosities

The first machine was placed at the Institute of Cartography in Warsaw (Institutu Kartografii w Warsowie). For this machine, Anton Kilińskí was posthumously awarded the IEEE Computer Pioneer Award in 1996.

After 1964, ELWRO switched to the production of semiconductor computers; such as the ODRA 1204 computer and later the UMC-10.

The factory was purchased by Siemens in 1993 and soon shut down.

Resources

Description of nega.... type systems: Negative base (English).

https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Negative_base

Created: 2024.04.27. 21:56
Last modified: 2025.02.25. 14:36

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