IBM pioneered the arrangement of vacuum tubes in pluggable modules such as the one shown here on the left. The IBM 650 was a first-generation computer.
This generation gets the use of vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory. A magnetic drum, also referred to as drum, is a metal cylinder coated with magnetic iron-oxide material on which data and programs can be stored. Magnetic drums were once use das a primary storage device but have since been implemented as auxiliary storage devices. Computers are huge (taking up entire room), slow, expensive, and often undependable. Most of the time they get malfunctions due to the heat generated as they are dealing with electricity a lot.
First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts. Programs written in high level programming languages retranslated into assembly language or machine language by a compiler. Assembly language program retranslated into machine language by a program called an assembler (assembly language compiler).
In 1946two Americans, Presper Eckert, and John Mauchly built the ENIAC electronic computer which used vacuum tubes instead of the mechanical switches of the Mark I. The ENIAC used thousands of vacuum tubes, which took up a lot of space and gave off a great deal of heat just like light bulbs do. The ENIAC led to other vacuum tube type computers like the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) and the UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer).
No comments:
Post a Comment