University of Miami Computer Room Nostalgia

Joey Vossen and Barry Miller in UM computer room

Joey Vossen and Barry Miller in UM computer room
Photo courtesy of Edward P. White © All rights reserved

This is a picture of Joey Vossen and Barry Miller (two of the best programmers that I know – Barry wrote a standalone bootable operating system for the 1106 that played Mozart through the system’s maintenance speaker and Joey wrote a program that transparently removed deleted items from every program file on the system) in the University of Miami computer room. In the background you can see two Sperry Univac 770 line printers. In the foreground in front of Joey (who is sitting) is a Sperry Univac U300 console terminal. The U300 was the console device for the University’s Sperry Univac 1106. As I recall the 1106 @ UM had eight U16 tape drives (seven 1600 BPI 9-Track drives and one 7-Track drive for use with the University’s Calcomp plotter), several 8440 and 8430 disk drives, two FH-432 drums and one FH-1782 drum.

The University of Miami had a Sperry Univac 1106 computer when I started there as a student in August 1976. My first full time job was as a systems programmer for the University. When I left the University in 1982 to work at Eastern Air Lines the University had a Sperry Univac 1100/80A computer system.

My guess is that this picture was taken sometime between 1976 and 1978.

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5 Comments

  • Art Peck says:

    Hey John! This is great. I remember the Sperry Univac 1100 Series well. What a great system! You recall, I’m sure, that you and Doug E. helped with the conversion from the RCA systems to the 1100’s in Tallahassee. What a great run that was. We had a good team that did an amazing job. Good memories.

  • HeatfanJohn says:

    Yes, the Sperry Univac Florida district was truly a great place to work. We had a great leader in Carl Straw and many very talented hard working individuals!

  • Lou Bond says:

    What a great picture! I was the 1100 series Product Manager for Sperry Univac Southern Operations. How are you Art?

  • Vanessa Williamson says:

    Love the picture, brings back memories of waiting for nightly batch jobs to finish, that’s if they didn’t fall over.. and boxes of 4 part, and the decolator, and tapes, and tapes, and tapes

  • Alain Hoffmann says:

    Great picture. I used an Univac 1110 at the University of Paris (Orsay) 1979-1984, replaced 1984 by the water cooled Univac 1100/90. There was one 770 printer and interesting legacy devices like FH1782 and FH432 drums remaining from their former Univac 1108 ! Unfortunately I don’t find pictures from that time anymore …

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