Page 8 - Handout Digital Electronics

Figure 2: Images of electronic tubes or valves

Limitations or disadvantages of first-generation computers

• used valves or vacuum tubes as their main electronic component.
• were large, slow in processing and had less storage capacity.
• consumed lots of electricity and produced lots of heat.
• Their computing capabilities were limited.
• We’re not so accurate and reliable.
• They used machine level language for programming.
• They were very expensive.

Examples of popular First-generation computers include:

• Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) developed in 1946
• Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer (EDSAC) 1949
• Universal Accounting Computer (UNIVAC-1) developed 1951 and was the first computer to
be used commercially.
• International Business Machine (IBM 650) and others.

1.3 Second Generation (1955-1964)

The second-generation computer used transistors for the Central Processing Unit (CPU) components,
ferrite cores for main memory and magnetic disks for secondary memory. They used high-level
languages such as Formula Translation (FORTRAN 1956), Algorithm Language (ALGOL 1960) and
Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL 1960 - 1961). The Second-generation computers
included an Input/output Processor to control the Input/output operations.

Figure 3: (a) Transistor image

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