FIRST GENERATION COMPUTERS

The computer has evolved from a large-sized simple calculating machine to a smaller but much more powerful machine. The evolution of computer to the current state is defined in terms of the generations of computer. Each generation of computer is designed based on a new technological development, resulting in better, cheaper and smaller computers that are more powerful, faster and efficient than their predecessors. 

First Generation (1937 to 1953): using VACUUM TUBES

The first generation of computers used vacuum tubes as the basic component for memory and circuitry for CPU, although there were also first generation computers that made use of relays and switches. Punched cards, paper tape and the magnetic tape were used as input and output devices. The instructions were written in machine language. Machine language uses 0s and 1s for coding of the instructions

Disadvantages:

1. The vacuum tubes produced a lot of heat and consumed so much energy therefore was very expensive and could be afforded only by very large organizations.
2. These computers were very large in size and non-portable.
3. These computers were very slow, non-versatile, very faulty and not very reliable.

ATANASOFF-BERRY COMPUTER (1939): John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State College designed the first electronic computer. The project incorporated binary arithmetic and electronic switching.

COLUSSUS (1943): Alan Turing designed the machine for the British Military. It was the world’s first vacuum tube programmable logic calculator. This machine played an important role in breaking Nazi codes during World War II.

MARK I (1944): The first  programmable digital computer made in the US was built as a partnership between Harvard University led by designer Howard Aiken and the company IBM. It was constructed out of switches, relays, rotating shafts and clutches. It weighed 5 tons, incorporated 500 miles of wire, 8 feet tall and 51 feet long.

ENIAC ~ Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (1946): The first general purpose programmable electronic computer was built by two American professors from the University of Pennsylvania ~ John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. They got funding from the American military to create a machine that would calculate firing tables for the army’s artillery guns. It weighed 30 tons, included 18,000 vacuum tubes, 6,000 switches and 1,500 relays.

EDVAC ~ Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (1950): EDVAC was a follow-up to ENIAC. Built by the same people – Mauchly and Presper Eckert, at the University of Pennsylvania, EDVAC’s conceptual design was to use the stored program concept introduced by John von Neumann. Instead of decimal numbers, EDVAC used binary. Like ENIAC, this machine was also funded by the US Army’s Ballistics Research Laboratory. It weighed 7,850 kg, included 6,000 vacuum tubes, 12,000 diodes, consumed 56W of power and covered 490 ft² of floor.

EDSAC ~ Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer (1949): EDSAC was developed by a group of scientists, headed by Professor Maurice V. Wilkes at Cambridge University. It was also based on the stored program concept and was one of the first to use binary digits. The input and output were provided by a paper tape.

Two groups of individuals were working at the same time to develop a stored program computer. In the US, at the University of Pennsylvania, EDVAC was being worked on. EDSAC finished ahead by 2 months and won the race as THE FIRST STORED PROGRAM COMPUTER. It was also the computer that ran the first graphical game nicknamed “BABY.”

EDSAC had 3,000 vacuum valves arranged on 12 racks and used tubes filled with mercury. It could carry out 650 instructions per second and occupied a room which measured 5 meters by 4 meters.

UNIVAC ~ Universal Automatic Computer (1951): The first commercially successful electronic computer, UNIVAC was also the first general purpose computer designed to handle both numeric and textual information. It was also designed by the same American professors who created ENIAC and EDVAC – John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. It was used for the analysis of the 1952 US Presidential Election. It was 8 feet high, 15 feet long and weighed 5 tons. It contained 5,600 tubes, 18,000 crystal diodes and 300 delays. A magnetic tape was used for data input and output.

The HISTORY of the COMPUTER

The first computers were people. "COMPUTER" was originally a job title. It was used to describe those human beings, predominantly WOMEN whose job it was to perform the repetitive calculations required to compute such things as navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for astronomical almanacs. 

Early Counting/Computing Tools

The key developments that took place till the first computer was developed are as follows:

ABACUS was an early aid for mathematical computations. It consists of bars in horizontal positions on which seats of beads are inserted. 

NAPIER’S BONES. John Napier, a Scottish Mathematician, invented another calculating tool that used marked strips of wood or bone, side by side, to multiply and divide.

PASCALINE was a wooden box that could only add and subtract by means of a series of gears and wheels. Blaise Pascal, a French Mathematician, invented the Pascaline to help make his father’s job as a tax accountant easier.

LEIBNIZ’S CALCULATOR. The Leibnez Calculator can add, subtract, multiply, divide and find square roots of numbers. Gottfried Leibnez, a German inventor created this mechanical tool and added a crank to speed up the calculations. 

JACQUARD’S LOOM was a weaving machine controlled by punch cards. Joseph Marie Jacquard, a French Silk Weaver, developed a punch card system that could recognize the presence of hole in the punched card as binary one and the absence of the hole as binary zero. The 0s and 1s are the basis of the modern digital computer. 

ANALYTICAL ENGINE. An English Mathematician, Charles Babbage obtained government funding for his proposed steam driven calculating machine the size of a room called the Difference Engine. Babbage’s machine proved exceedingly difficult to construct and utterly expensive so when the funding dried up, the device was never finished.

However, Babbage was not deterred and was on to his next brainstorm which he called ANALYTIC ENGINE. This device was as large as a house and powered by 6 steam engines. It would be programmable making use of Jacquard’s punch card technology for its storage mechanism. The Analytic Engine has two main parts: the STORE where numbers were held and the MILL where these numbers are woven into new results. In the modern computer, these same parts are called the MEMORY UNIT and the CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT.

The Analytic Engine remained unbuilt since the British government refused to get involved. Still, Babbage’s design of the Analytic Engine provided the basic framework of our modern day computers thereby naming CHARLES BABBAGE as the Father of Computers.

THE COMPUTER and ITS CHARACTERISTICS

The term computer comes from the Latin words computus and computare, both words having the same meaning in English language which is to compute or to reckon or to count.

A computer is an electronic machine that accepts data from the user, processes the data by performing calculations and operations on it, and generates the desired output results. Computer performs both simple and complex operations, with speed and accuracy.

Characteristics of Computer

1. SPEED. The computer can process data very fast, at the rate of millions of instructions per second.
2. ACCURACY. Computer performs all jobs with 100% accuracy provided that correct input has been given.
3. DILIGENCE. When used for a longer period of time, the computer does not get tired or fatigued. It can do repeated with the same speed and accuracy.
4. STORAGE. A computer is capable of storing large volumes of data and information that can be retrieved whenever required. It can store any data type such as images, videos, text, audio and many others.
5. VERSATILITY. Computers can perform different types of tasks with the same ease. It is capable of multi-tasking.

Limitations of Computer

1. A computer cannot take any decision on its own.
2. A computer is dependent on the instructions given by the user.
3. The operating environment should be DUST FREE and suitable.
4. Computers cannot make judgement based on feeling, taste, experience and knowledge unlike a human being.