Laminated Card with UNIVAC C-10 Instruction Codes
date: label: date made
content: ca 1950
name: label: maker
content: Remington Rand Univac
notes: label: Description
content: According to the donor, who programmed the UNIVAC, this laminated card contains the UNIVAC C-10 instruction code on one side and the printer codes on the other. The printer codes were used for decoding some of the exotic binary combinations that showed on debugging printouts. The borders are in binary "excess three notation." He also reported that the instructions codes were somewhat easy to remember because there were so few instructions to remember (43). They also are somewhat mnemonic, for example B(ring), A(dd), C(lear) the addition sequence, D(ivide), M(ultiply), S(ubtract), etc. Most instructions could operate from either half of the twelve-digit word.
label: Description
content: Development of the C-10 code is credited to Betty Holberton, who had previously programmed the ENIAC computer at the University of Pennsylvania, using a design that required physically setting machine components rather than using code. A version of the code was prepared for the BINAC, a military computer delivered in 1949 that preceded the UNIVAC.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of John K. Swearingen
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1990.0491.02
label: catalog number
content: 1990.0491.02
label: accession number
content: 1990.0491
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Card, Instruction
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 6.4 cm x 9.9 cm; 2 17/32 in x 3 29/32 in