Episode: 3815
Title: HPR3815: The UNIVAC Uniscope - The first terminal with a video monitor
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3815/hpr3815.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 05:52:35

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3815 for Friday the 17th of March 2023.
Today's show is entitled The Univac Uniscope, the first terminal with a video monitor.
It is hosted by Delta Ray and is about 39 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is here about the Uniscope 300 mainframe terminal from 1964.
On the computer history website, I found a brochure for an old computer terminal system
called the Univac Uniscope 300.
I found it interesting because it talks about computers in a way that we take for granted
now.
And the Uniscope 300 may have been one of the first terminal systems that actually had
a monitor and was designed to actually fit on an office desk instead of other terminals
at the time, which were mostly print out only.
This actually had a screen that had many functions that terminal users, for instance, like
people who use T-mux and screen, use on a regular basis.
The brochure itself also pioneers some of the concepts used in later computer advertising.
So the Univac system of computers, I guess, started with the Binac, which was built by
a corporation called Eckert-Mockley Computer Corporation.
And this was actually considered the first general purpose computer for computer use.
And the Univac badge that followed that went on until 1986.
And now has been continued through the Unicess Corporation, which was, I guess, the company
that came after the Remington Rand and Sparry Corporation that took over for EMCC.
So this brochure maybe looks like it's, I don't know, an 8-inch-by-8-inch brochure or something
like that, in PDF form.
And it starts out with the slogan, See the Now Facts Now, with the Uniscope 300, has
typical 1960s kind of artwork, you know, dots on a green dot on blue background and array
of dots, followed by, you know, a full-page picture of an elderly executive man looking
off in the distance in his office, I guess, checking, you know, maybe having a conversation
with somebody, meanwhile his secretary is taking notes, I guess, in the foreground.
But in between them and in the background is this Univac Uniscope 300 system.
And since then, I've seen several, you know, computing ads that kind of have this arrangement
of people around the computer kind of showing how it's a typical part of an office environment.
But this may very well be the very first place where that kind of arrangement was used.
And so this could be, you know, very pioneering advertisement.
It goes on to say Univac Uniscope 300, Visual Communication Terminal, is what calls it.
See the Now Facts Now.
And then there's several bullet points, a wide variety of uses, and easy to operate, unmatched
versatility, edit, analyze, review, compare, and update information, accurate communication
of information, characters recognized at a glance on all parts of the screen, economically
utilizes full capabilities of computer and telephone lines, instant applications, instant
results, decisions based on Now Facts, plus continuous instant updating of information.
The choice of two models self-contained single station and the multi station available
in groups of two to 48 units, plus more features at no extra cost.
Now the description of this brochure on the computer history museum mentions that has
handwritten and pen on the top of the back cover are various notes outlined in boxes,
such as 14 to 15 K dollars.
So I assume that means that, you know, either one of these terminals or, you know, maybe
several of them were 14 to 15 thousand dollars, probably, you know, the salesperson gave
this person a quote or whatever, or the person who was considering buying it was taking
notes from a salesperson on the phone, but that's a considerable amount of money, even,
you know, considering back in the 60s, you know, that would be the equivalent of something
like 60 thousand dollars in today's money, or maybe even more than that.
I'm not sure I'd have to check.
Then it goes on to show a picture of a large mainframe computer with a, like a front console
control panel system in the front, it doesn't actually show the unoscope in this picture,
but I guess it's showing what the unoscope can connect with.
And so then it goes on to say, type out a question about the now, and it puts now in double
quotes, status of any aspect of your business on your desktop and desktop is hyphenated,
Univac Unoscope 300 visual communication terminal, depress a few keys or type at over
80 words per minute, your computer or one at a Univac data processing center will send
you an immediate answer and your unoscope will display it in a crisp, clear type on a
flicker-free screen, revise it, add, subtract, update it, compare it to other information,
formulate new questions and think up new approaches as you observe your new answers, take action.
You can get this now action simultaneously from any number of your nearby or widely dispersed
offices, plants, schools, stores or warehouses, even if they are thousands of miles apart.
And you can reduce the cost and time of updating your computer by applying transactions and
other input data to it directly.
Besides the Unoscope 300 and the computer, all you need is a telephone line and interconnecting
equipment at the selected locations.
So some interesting features there that we really take for granted now being hyped
as something new and the thought of being able to connect over thousands of miles over
telephone line, obviously, like a completely new concept at that point, I guess.
Then it goes to show a full page picture of the elderly man is now talking on the telephone
was secretary I guess is typing away at the at the terminal with some kind of text display
on the terminal and he's talking on like an old school Western bell telephone, I guess.
And then it goes on to the next page with a section called Choice of Two.
The Unoscope 300 is a keyboard operated visual communication terminal with a precision
display screen.
It is available in two versions, the Unoscope 300s and the Unoscope 300m.
The 300s is a completely self contained single station.
The 300m is a multi station comprised primarily of a keyboard and display unit from two to
48 300m terminals can be used in a system with a single control unit.
So I'm guessing that the Unoscope 300s says that self contained single station, maybe
that implies that it's a full working computer independent of a mainframe, which really
would be something for 1964, but I'm wondering if just the terminology they use there may be
a little bit misleading from our eyes, you know, the eyes of people who are used to personal
computers and desktop computers.
I think it goes on to say the basic keyboard with 61 keys is similar to the keyboard of
an electric typewriter for specific applications up to 40 function keys can be added by using
special overlays, you can have 122 combinations of 35 of these keys.
The display has a 10 inch by 5 inch viewing area, 16 lines of information with up to 64
characters in each line, totaling 1,024 characters can be presented at one time.
So that's interesting that it's actually 16 lines and not like 24.
So kind of a different aspect ratio than we're used to with terminals by default these days.
So a few lines less.
So obviously they hadn't really standardized yet on like an 80 by 24 type display.
And 61 keys, you know, I'm wondering what it's missing, you know, it's not like a 101
key keyboard with a numpad and so on.
And you know, 61, it doesn't even, I guess, I don't know, have to look at a picture of the
keyboard.
Let me see if I can find a picture of the keyboard.
So the keyboard has arrow keys, you know, your standard alphabet keys and query configuration.
Colin, question mark comma period, question mark was slash below it, a return key that's
actually, you know, kind of a few rows below where you'd normally use it now, a tab key
and then a backspace key that's underneath the tab key and then underneath that a character
a race.
And then so what, you know, it's like it's the backspace, a character a race, those are,
those are split into two separate functions here, which is kind of interesting.
And then underneath that is a blank key that has nothing written on at all.
So one has to wonder what that is.
The number keys across the top with your, you know, standard exclamation point, double
quote, you know, pretty much how it is on a normal keyboard to the right of the zero,
you have a asterisks and no asterisks above the eight.
So they're missing a character, where does it cut off?
So instead of, oh, I see.
So instead of a hat symbol or carrot symbol being above a six, it's actually an ampersand.
Above the seven is a single quote.
So they move the single quote over and then the eight and nine are the parentheses.
So the zero doesn't actually have anything tied to it.
And then the asterisks is to the right of the zero.
That's unusual, you know, by modern standards.
It looks like it does have some kind of math symbols in the place where you'd expect the keypad to be,
you know, it has like a square root symbol and a summation symbol.
And then I don't know what that is.
It's like the almost looks like the symbol for Yen, Japanese Yen or something.
And then there's a few other function keys that shows around over on the right and across the top.
Very, I don't know, message waiting.
And maybe some of the, maybe some of the type of ASCII characters
that you see in the control area of the ASCII table that are below space.
You know, it's like those other characters that you see there like called, you know, like SOH, STX and so on.
Those might be these keys, extra function keys that you're seeing around the keyboards.
So that's kind of interesting actually seeing them as actual keys because these days we don't really see that kind of thing.
So going back to the actual text, it goes on to say simple to operate.
If you can operate an electric typewriter, you can quickly learn to operate a UNESCOP 300 visual communication terminal.
The same instant, a character is typed, it is displayed.
A completed message can be visually verified, quickly edited and sent to the computer.
Each message and its reply from the computer are independent of those on any other UNESCOP terminal.
As a result, UN management or operating personnel at any number of UNESCOP locations can make inquiries.
Obtain immediate replies and send input data continuously and simultaneously.
So I guess, you know, this brochure might be talking to people that don't normally have,
maybe it's trying to advertise to people who don't normally have a terminal in their office.
And it's trying to break into kind of a new market by advertising to people who don't normally have access to a terminal directly or,
you know, a resisted working with a printer like terminal.
I suppose, you know, of the big draw for a terminal with a screen is that it's quieter.
You know, it does not so loud and so on.
And also, of course, you know, instantaneous results, you can see a lot of data at once.
Then it goes on to say unmatched versatility.
By means of a small cluster of conveniently located editing keys,
you can quickly erase or insert characters or lines or an entire message.
You can also review or analyze information by requesting the computer to subtract and add lines to give the effect of rolling the information either up or down in scroll fashion.
Or you can compare information by splitting the screen,
a technique of deleting selected groups of lines and inserting information into the vacated space.
And you can roll and scroll the new information.
When using a UNESCOP terminal to update your computer,
you can interrupt at any time and send a query.
And you can visually review and compare your answer to the recently entered updated transaction or other input data.
So it's interesting to read what they were advertising as being possible here.
A lot of the things that we think of as maybe being new on a PC, when they came out on the PC,
obviously, they were kind of copying some of the functionality that they saw in the office environments.
But sometimes we attribute those functions and things to an Intel 386 running DOS or a Sun OS system with a terminal.
It's like we think of these things as maybe being attributed to Unix systems or DOS systems or Amigas or Windows or Linux.
But a lot of this functionality had its origins back in the 50s and 60s.
And so this is a great example of how it's advertising it firsthand, like it's a new thing.
I remember back in the 80s, when you got a computer, the computer came with a whole 20 page manual or something on how to use the mouse.
But now they wouldn't even think of telling you how to use a mouse, everybody just kind knows how to do it.
It's also interesting to think about how it's advertising splitting the screen.
You know, this is something that we use in programs like Teamox or Screen to act as a terminal multiplexer and so on.
So it's kind of interesting to see it advertised here.
It goes on to show a man, middle-aged man, maybe in a factory, can't quite tell.
But it looks like he's maybe in a factory and he's referencing this Unuscope 300 system to check some data in real time.
And then it lists some various places where you might use this, including manufacturing firms, retailers, insurance companies, schools,
communication companies, transportation companies, distributors, savings and loan companies, public utilities,
wholesalers, banks, hospitals, federal state and local government agencies.
Sounds like a Sally Struthers commercial.
So instant results, dialogue with a computer, manage, okay, here we go, interesting.
So in boldface, it says management information systems, which tells you how old that term is,
you may want to know how well any one of your products is selling and in what sizes.
You may want to know this information by area and by salesmen as of this morning, last month and this
month one year ago. With Unuscope terminals connected to a computer, you and other members of the
management team of the management team, right, can get this information within a few seconds.
By the split screen technique, you can compare it to significant related information,
such as sales effectiveness of a newly designed package or how competitive products are selling in
particular geographical areas. By using a Unuscope terminal to also update your computer, the answers
you receive and the action you take at 2.30 pm, for example, may be based on all inclusive
information that is as up to the minute as of 2.29 pm. As a result, you can recognize problems
much sooner than by any previous method. And you can quickly revise and more accurately forecast
your sales and marketing trends. Just, you know, it's amazing that that was such a new concept,
you know, just up to the minute information being accessible at your fingertips.
That goes on to say, money saving inventory control. With the Unuscope at each of your locations,
you can get the now facts now on the quantity and location of every item in stock or the number
and type of personnel, facilities, reserved seats, hotel rooms, etc., available now and it's
specified future dates. Orders can be verified and entered immediately. If desired, you can acquire
information on substitute items or immediately initiate action to correct a shortage. Additionally,
you can immediately update the overall inventory. So, you know, in between this, it shows like a picture
that I'll talk about in a second. But you can think of all those, you know, movies and times that
maybe you were, if you were alive back at that era, 60s and 70s, when you went to go to like a hotel
or reserve a plane ticket or something, but they probably had one of these types of terminals
behind the scenes that was actually giving this up to date information. So, you know, you'd go up to
the checkout desk at the hotel and you'd, you know, say, do I have any charges or anything like
that? They could pull up right away or you go to the airline terminal and you say, do you have
it kind of a ticket to Milwaukee and, you know, they could check using the system and so on and so
they probably had one of these behind each one of those desks. So, the picture that's in between
this text, it kind of takes up a whole page and breaks up the paragraph, shows, you know,
basically like bank information, I guess, it's showing transaction, it kind of cuts off the screen,
so I can't see everything. But, you know, across the top, it has headers for transaction,
loan account, reserve account, and that has some information, you know, like loan account numbers
and so on. Maybe this is like, you know, prices, I don't know, it doesn't have a dollar sign in
front of them. And that shows at the bottom, you know, Samuel L. Benson, 1922 Madison Road,
any town, USA. So obviously, they made some fake data for the brochure.
Then it goes on to say prompt customer services. The UNESCOP can help to significantly improve
your service to customers. For example, a salesman can immediately determine if requested items
or their substitutes are available, along with prices, shipping costs, etc. While the customer
is still on the phone. Dynamic programmed instruction. Besides the normal advantages of programmed
instruction primarily, individualized instruction and each student progressing at his own rate,
the UNESCOP has the added advantages of fast access to and visualization of the vast store of
information in the computer. So using this in a classroom situation, kind of interesting.
Information retrieval, this is a new section. You can use your UNESCOP to ask the computer to
search for and pinpoint exactly the information you need and immediately display it in role and
scroll fashion if desired on one or more UNESCOP terminals. The displayed information can be
derived from numerous sources such as stock market quotations, chemical abstracts, personnel or
student records, legal precedents, and citations, medical data, or economic statistics. So I would
assume that you'd load some kind of database or you'd have your own database, surely, you know,
it'd be interesting if one place had access to all those databases. You'd have to wonder what they're
doing. And then the next section, direct input of data to computer. And you know, it's funny how they,
you know, they say, roll and scroll fashion. So, you know, that it's like the first time you used
the more command or actually less, I guess, where, you know, you could look at a bit of output.
No, my goodness, you can scroll backwards. It must have been just a revolutionary thing to be able
to scroll backwards at this time. Direct input of data to computer. You can eliminate many of the
time consuming and error prone steps generally associated with key punching by typing in transaction
and other input data directly on your UNESCOP. Since you see what you type, you can immediately
verify and if necessary correct it. The computer will act as a double check by validating format
and other elements associated with input data. An outstanding use of the UNESCOP, for example,
is to prepare a production report. Fixed information from the computer is displayed on the UNESCOP.
The operator merely fills in the type of job, employees number, hours worked, and other variable data.
The computer then automatically prepares a labor distribution report and associated documents.
The same method of direct data input can be used for sales, purchasing, financial statements,
and other aspects of your business. Yeah, being able to correct information, you know,
we really take this for granted. But if you've ever written or typed anything and you had to go back
and like erase and rewrite a whole paragraph because you messed up one section, those were the days,
or use white out to get rid of a section that was written in pen or use a special cartridge on
your typewriter to strike out in white parts that you want to rewrite. You know, those things
are kind of unknown to current generations and so it's really something that we take for granted
that's being highlighted here as a brand new feature. Accurate communication of information.
The entire display is flicker free. All characters are sharp and crisp and closely resemble
conventional printed characters. Each one is made up of continuous lines without any separations
even at the corners and all lines are equal thickness and brightness. The size and shape of a
character is the same on all parts of the screen and spacing between lines of information is
consistently equal. Result, excellent legibility and accurate communication of information at all
times. No confusion. For example, between the numeral five and the character s or between the
numeral two and the character z. It's funny. We still have these kind of problems depending on the
kind of font that you use. But obviously they that was a big problem for them back then.
And then it shows a couple more pictures of people using it.
Man and a woman looking at this screen with some information on it with the caption saying
one control unit controls two to forty eight three hundred m terminals. So I don't know where this is.
Oh I see one of the pictures shows like a like a cabinet computer I guess a rack like a rack
but it says Univac at the top and I guess that's the control unit that they would all hook up to.
Maybe something like a you know we'd think of as a network switch but I don't know I don't know
much about like all the mainframe stuff all the components of the mainframe whether there was
some intermediary middleman if you know maybe you can mention in the comments after you read this.
That goes on to say easy to use. It shows a picture with a woman typing at blonde hair with
her hair back in a beret you know beret to hold her hair back or whatever. I can't remember the name
that thing. So extra attention is given to comfort morale and efficiency of the operator.
The unoscope is unusually quiet and pleasing and even fascinating to operate. Extensive tests
prove that an experienced operator of an electric typewriter can operate the unoscope at over 80
words per minute for long periods of time. The high speed reaction of the keys to the touch makes
it virtually impossible to lock them or type a double letter and the editing keys enable the
operator to easily make all corrections at any time even after completing a full page.
If you're unfamiliar with typewriters one of the common problems that you'd have is where
you'd type two different letters at the same time or too fast in succession and the striking
hammers that make it up would get locked together or something. Is it striking hammers? I think that
they're cold or something. Anyways the lever arm that actually has the print of the character
that you want to type and actually hits the page. Those things can get tied up and locked together
if you hit two main keys at the same time. So obviously this kind of system gets rid of that problem
and that was obviously speaking to people who run into that problem all the time.
Then it goes on to say economically utilizes four capabilities of computer. Both versions of the
unoscope 300 visual communication terminal were designed as integral devices of a computer
communication system. Many of their unique capabilities are based on new concepts for obtaining
optimum interaction between computers and associated communication devices while minimizing
telephone line costs. Typical examples are role and scroll of information, efficient and
economical transmission of usable data only and use of only one control unit and one telephone
line for up to 48 unoscope visual communication terminals. These concepts were derived from extensive
experience and design production and installation of numerous computer communication systems
compromised of Univac medium and large scale computers and a variety of other Univac
computer communication devices. Today many of these systems are installed or being installed in
large savings banks with many branches manufacturing organizations leading domestic and worldwide
airlines and large computer service bureaus. A contract for a Univac computer communication system
for United Airlines is the largest commercial contract of its type. In this system several large
scale Univac computers are interconnected to thousands of general purpose unoscope visual
communication terminals. So yeah, I was right. So it's likely the thing that people were using behind
the scenes when they were making reservations for you and so on. But one part of this section
that's interesting is that they talk about the use of you know 48 unoscope visual communication
terminals being hooked up through one telephone line back to a central computer somewhere. So you
have to keep in mind this brochure was published in 1964 and I guess that's when this unoscope came
out. So 1964 is a full three years before ARPANET which became the modern internet was you know
start got its kick off that got started. And so obviously they're doing some kind of
multiplexing of these terminals and maybe some kind of you know transmission of packet data
or something back to a central computer. So this predates the internet you know as even you know
not as we know it but you know the very origins of the internet but obviously they were they
were doing some type of networking activity here over long distances. So that's kind of interesting.
I mean 1964 you know this is almost 60 years ago by this current recording you know quite a
quite a long time ago predates Unix and all that but this was all cutting edge new technology at the time.
And then on these final this final page of of information is kind of a summary of different things
and has a green background and says more features at no extra cost. So I guess this is some
extra features not a summary but so besides Roland scroll and split screen which are both in
double quotes. The Uniscope 300 includes more features at no extra cost than any other visual
communication terminal. So first bullet point is transmission of only useful data. Only characters
and significant spaces are transmitted. You pay only for the transmission of useful data. So
that's that's interesting you know so it's maybe you know if nobody's actually typing something
isn't it still kind of using up the phone line so wouldn't you be paying for like a
least line situation. I don't know that's that's interesting. Simultaneous broadcast to all stations.
Data displayed on a particular Uniscope terminal can be simultaneously broadcasted
to all of your other Uniscope terminals. So I guess if you wanted to you know send out a message
saying stop all transactions or something like that or system is undergoing maintenance you know
in five minutes you could let everybody know. Interleaving of messages messages and two and
from Uniscope terminals are interleaved so that there is no waiting due to one or more Uniscope
terminals receiving lengthy replies. By this technique you you most economically utilize the
computer and the telephone lines. So you know there's a lot of features in here that are kind of
reminiscent of what you'd think of as like a multitasking operating system you know being able to
do multiple things at once and stuff and that must have been pretty revolutionary but I guess
new at the time it was pretty revolutionary when it came to the PC world you know back in the mid 80s
being able to do more than one thing at once. Blinking of message segments portions of replies of
special interests will blink on and off oh the horror. Those of you who lived through the late 90s
of web design probably remember the blink tag which doesn't really get used now fortunately.
Then the next point insertion and deletion of lines any line can be deleted and all information
below it moved up correspondingly copy can be spread apart so that a new line can be inserted.
Next point unsolicited messages important and unsolicited you know like unsolicited email I guess
important information from on the computer can override a message being typed or displayed
or a special message can indicate to the operator that important information is waiting.
So you know I guess you can say like you know you have a new message or something like that I guess
it could also say like you know you mistyped something or whatever or maybe it's time to go on break
or something. Okay next point tabular format data can be typed in column column column or
or random tab random tabular format that's interesting what's random tabular format.
This technique can be used for filling in data on form outline supplied by the computer.
Then anytime after installation you may add the following options okay so
it kind of broke the header across two columns of this page. Okay next point choice of multi
stations two types one available in a system of two to 24 terminals each with full screen display
the other with two to 48 terminals each with a half screen display. You can easily expand to
hundreds or even thousands of unoscope terminals by adding one control unit for
and one telephone line interconnecting unit for each group of 24 or 48. So okay so yeah I mean some
of the some of the features that they advertise kind of early in the brochure are maybe being specified
in the fine print here at the end that it may not behave exactly how we set it well. So obviously
you know if you get 48 terminals you're gonna maybe get just a half screen display of data which
would be unfortunate. Anyways next point simultaneous dual transmission dual transmission. So
in a large busy system by adding a telephone line and associated interconnecting unit
you can further increase the systems response time by either transmitting or receiving or
transmitting and receiving on two unoscope terminals at exactly the same time or you can use
one telephone line for normal traffic and the other for standby so having like some redundancy
or something. So if you need high availability you know you have an extra telephone line.
Over 4,000 possible functions you can add up to 40 function keys to perform specialized
functions and increase the speed of interaction with the computer. The symbol on each of these
keys can stand for a query or for any purpose you designate. A group for example may be used as
an adding machine you can have a choice of over 4,000 possible selections by selecting from up to
122 different overlays for placement above 35 of these keys. And then at the end it shows you know
some three pictures there from brochure and says see the now facts now with a unoscope 300
contact your Univac representative. And then you know at the end it just says Univac a division
of Sparry Rand Corporation printed in the USA. Along with some difficult to read notes you know
somebody obviously talking about with 24 of these terminals you can have up to 1024 characters.
It's kind of hard to read but you know talking about the price I guess. So yeah this was a brochure
from 1964. So yeah it's interesting to see how some of the things that we take for granted when
they're first introduced you know they were really touting them as something revolutionary and new.
So I hope you enjoyed this please please leave a comment I'd love to know if you enjoyed this type
of episode and historical information and if you have any experience working with one of these
systems or working with a Univac or something and can provide more I'd love to hear more comments
from you if you can share your experiences. Okay thanks and take care.
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