Remington Rand 409

UNIVAC 60
ManufacturerRemington Rand
Released1952; 74 years ago (1952)
SuccessorUNIVAC 120
UNIVAC 120
UNIVAC 120
ManufacturerRemington Rand
Released1953; 73 years ago (1953)
Weight3,230 lb
PredecessorUNIVAC 60
SuccessorUNIVAC 1004
UNIVAC 40
Commissioning of the Remington Rand UNIVAC 40 at the Groningen Low Voltage Network Construction and Operations Company, with Dr. Max Euwe, a scientific advisor of Remington Rand, giving an explanation.
ManufacturerRemington Rand
Released1955; 71 years ago (1955)
Introductory price
$240,000
RelatedUNIVAC 60 and UNIVAC 120
A UNIVAC 120 served as the first computer in Boise, Idaho

The Remington Rand 409, is a series of punched card calculators that were programmed with a plugboard. The prototype model was designed in 1949 and finished completion in 1951.

The commercial version was sold in three models:

The model number referred to the number of decimal digits the device could read from each punched card.

The machine was designed in "The Barn", at 33 Highland Ave. in Rowayton, Connecticut, a building that currently houses the Rowayton Public Library and Community Center.

These machines were discontinued when the UNIVAC 1004 was introduced in 1962. A total of 1080 units of the series had been produced by the end of 1961.

Architecture

Numbers were fixed-point and of variable length (one to ten digits). Arithmetic was done in floating point, but all results were converted to fixed point when stored in memory.

Digits are represented in bi-quinary coded decimal. Each digit of memory storage contained five tubes. Four of these represented the digits 1, 3, 5, and 7, while the fifth tube represented 9 if activated alone but added 1 to the value if activated together with another tube.

Digit 1 3 5 7 9
0
1*
2**
3*
4**
5*
6**
7*
8**
9*

Hardware

RR 409model 60model 120
Number of tubes?800
Decimal digits
of storage		?438
Weight?3,230 lb

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Pereira, Lucas (Jul–Dec 2014). "Os primórdios da informatização no Brasil: o "período paulista" visto pela ótica da imprensa" [Brazilians informatics beginnings: the "São Paulo period" through the lens of the press]. História (São Paulo) (in Portuguese). 33 (2). Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho: 408–422. doi:10.1590/1980-436920140002000019. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  2. ↑ "Remington Rand Corp". Connecticut Mills. Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2026-04-27.
  3. ↑ Blachman, Nelson M. (1953). A Survey of Automatic Digital Computers. Washington, D.C.: Office of Naval Research, Department of the Navy. p. 83.
  4. ↑ 山下, 英男, ed. (1960). 電子計算機 : ハンドブック. コロナ社. pp. 572–579.
  5. ↑ Dawson, Sam (1954-11-30). "Electronics Causing Revolution". Dixon Evening Telegraph. Retrieved 2026-04-27 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ According to Electronic Brains: Stories from the dawn of the computer age, by Mike Hally, 2005, ISBN 978-0-309-09630-0, p. 69, the Univac 60 could use 60 columns of data from a punched card, whereas the Univac 120 could use 120 columns.
  7. ↑ Neuzeitliche Bürotechnik: Ein Nachschlagewerk über sämtliche Büromaschinen des Marktes (in German). Baden-Baden: R. Göller Verlag. 1957. p. 301. Retrieved 2026-04-27 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ Computer Census. Berkeley Enterprises, Inc. 1962. p. 16B. Retrieved 2026-04-27 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ↑ model 120 - see plaque in image

Further reading