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Cronkite with UNIVAC
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People & Pop Culture
On election night, November 4, CBS News borrowed a UNIVAC to make a scientific
prediction of the outcome of the race for the presidency between Dwight D.
Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. The opinion polls predicted a landslide in
favor of Stevenson, but the UNIVAC's analysis of early returns showed a clear
victory for Eisenhower. Its sharp divergence from public opinion made
newscasters Walter Cronkite and Charles Collingwood question the validity of
the computer's forecast, so they postponed announcing UNIVAC's prediction
until very late.
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Companies
Heinz Nixdorf founded Nixdorf Computer Corp. in Germany. It remained an
independent corporation until merging with Siemens in 1990.
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von Neumann's IAS
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Computers
John von Neumann's IAS computer became operational at the Institute for
Advanced Studies in Princeton, N.J. Contract obliged the builders to share
their designs with other research institutes. This resulted in a number of
clones: the MANIAC at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, the ILLIAC at the
University of Illinois, the Johnniac at Rand Corp., the SILLIAC in Australia,
and others.
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