AN/UYK-8

The AN/UYK-8 was a UNIVAC computer built to replace the CP-808 (Marine Corps air cooled AN/USQ-20 variant) in the Beach Relay Link-11 communication system,^[1] the AN/TYQ-3 in a AN/TYA-20 shelter.^[2]

In accordance with the Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), the "AN/UYK-8" designation represents the 8th design of an Army-Navy electronic device for general utility data processing computing equipment. The JETDS system also now is used to name all Department of Defense electronic systems.

Development

In April 1967, UNIVAC received a contract from the US Navy for design, development, testing and delivery of the AN/UYK-8 microelectronics computer for use with the AN/TYA-20.^[3]

Technical

It used the same 30-bit words and instruction set as the AN/USQ-17 and AN/USQ-20 Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) computers, built with "first generation integrated circuits". This made it about one quarter of the volume of the AN/USQ-20.^[1] It had two processors instead of just one.^[1]

Instructions were represented as 30-bit words, in the following format:

  f  6 bits   function code 
  j  3 bits   jump condition designator 
  k  3 bits   partial word designator 
  b  3 bits   which seven index register to use (B0=non used) 
  s  2 bits   which S (5bits) register to use S0,S1,S2,S3(P(17-13))
  y  13 bits  operand address in memory
  memory address = Bb + Ss + y = 18 bit (262,144 words)

Numbers were represented as full 30-bit words. This also allowed for five 6-bit alphanumeric characters per word.

The main memory was increased to 262,144 words (256K words) of magnetic core memory.

The available processor registers were:

• one 30-bit arithmetic (A) register.
• a contiguous 30-bit Q register (total of 60 bits for the result of multiplication or the dividend in division).
• seven 30-bit index (B) registers.

See also

• Electronics portal

• List of military electronics of the United States
• List of UNIVAC products
• History of computing hardware
• Joint Electronics Type Designation System