COMPUTER GENERATIONS
Each generation of computer is
characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed
the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more
powerful and more efficient and reliable devices.
The history of computer development
is often referred to in reference to the different generations of computing devices. Each of the five generation of computers is
characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed
the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more
powerful and more efficient and reliable devices. Learn about each generation
and the developments that led to the current devices that we use today.
1st GENERATION COMPUTER (1945 -1955)
First generation computers are characterized by the use of vacuum tube logic.
World War gave rise to numerous
developments and started off the computer age. Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was produced by a partnership between
University of Pennsylvania and the US government. It consisted of
18,000vacuum tubes and 7000 resistors. It was developed by John Pres-per Eckert
and John W.Mauchly and was a general purpose computer. "Von Neumann designed
the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (ED VAC) in 1945 with a
memory to hold both a stored program as well as data." Von
Neumann's computer allowed for all the computer functions to be
controlled by a single source. Then in 1951 came the Universal
Automatic Computer (UNI VAC I), designed by Remington rand and collectively
owned by US census bureau and General Electric. UNI VAC amazingly predicted the
winner of 1952, presidential elections, Dwight D.Eisenhower.In first
generation computers, the operating instructions or programs were
specifically built for the task for which computer was manufactured.
The Machine language was the only way to tell these machines to perform
the operations. There was great difficulty to program these computers
and more when there were some malfunctions. First Generation computers used
Vacuum tubes and magnetic drums (for data storage
ADVANTAGES:-
- THE first electronic computers were built during the Second World War to decrypt German coded signals.
- The advantages of the earliest computers are that they could perform thousands of calculations each second, making it possible decodes messages in a useful time period (a few hours).
- This was, pretty much, the only real advantage - the "father" of these computers (Alan Turing) had originally planned these machines to try and prove mathematical conjectures, but this type of application couldn't be considered until after the war.
DISADVANTAGES:-
- The disadvantages were many: they were very expensive, they contained thousands of valves (vacuum tubes) making them unreliable - although nowhere near as bad as feared, they had to be programmed in machine code.
- The major limitations for early computers were that memory was practically non-existent; only punched tape, delay line memory and mercury memory was available.
