First Generation Computer

ProgramingsPoint

7 Oct, 2023

As a result of continuous changes in computer technology, many generations of computers emerged, among them today we are going to talk about the first generation of computers.

Today we will know in detail what is the first generation computer? What were their features and what were their advantages and disadvantages?

So without wasting any time, let us know about the First Generation Computer.

First Generation Computer

Computers made between 1946-1959 are called first-generation computers.

The first generation of computers were very different from today's computers. The computers of that time were based on batch-processing operating systems and vacuum tubes were used as processors.

The vacuum tube was a glass tube which you can see in the picture above. The vacuum tube was invented by Lee De Forest in 1906.

Because the first-generation computers used large numbers of vacuum tubes, these computers generated a lot of heat.

Their size was the size of a very large room, and they also consumed a lot of electricity, so they were expensive to operate.

The first generation of computers required many people to operate, and the machines were prone to frequent malfunctions, so they required constant maintenance.

At present, thousands of programming languages like C/C++, Java, Python, etc. are available to simplify our tasks, but at the time of first-generation computers, programming languages were not developed, at that time only machine language was used. Was.

All input was provided in machine language known as 1GL (First Generation Languages).

First-generation languages were low-level or machine-level languages and since only machine language is understood by computers, first-generation computers worked only on machine language code.

Since the first generation computers used machine language, they were difficult to program.

First-generation computers were not designed for the general market because first-generation computers were very expensive and only large organizations or rich people could afford them.

The first generation computers used magnetic drums as storage and punched cards, paper tape and magnetic tape as input and output devices.

The first generation of computers did not support multitasking. Depending on the complexity of the operation, computers took days or even weeks to complete them.

Features of First Generation Computer

The first-generation computers have the following characteristics :

Use of vacuum tube: Vacuum tubes were used in the circuits of these computers.
Bulky size: 1st generation computers were very large and heavy in size, hence large rooms were required to keep them.
Use of punched card: Input and output operations were done by punched cards.
Use of magnetic memory: Magnetic tape was used as external storage and magnetic drum was used as internal storage.
Limited applications: Since these computers were difficult to program and use, their uses are limited.
Speed: Their processing speed was very low. These computers could execute only a hundred instructions per second.
Power consumption: These computers consume more energy and generate a large amount of heat.
Programming in machine: The programming capability in these computers was very limited. In these, machine language was used for programming.
Reliability: These computers were not very reliable due to frequent circuit failures.
Cost: The price of these computers was very high.
Operating system: A batch operating system was used in the computers of this time.

Examples of First Generation Computers

The first-generation computers are:

ENIAC
EDVAC
UNIVAC
IBM700
IBM7001
IBM709
MARK I
MARK II

Let us now learn about some selected computers among these computers.

1) ENIAC

ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator and computer, was the first successful electronic computer, developed in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert and JW Mauchly.

IMAGE CREDIT: www.britannica.com

In this computer, paper tape, magnetic tape, and punch cards were used as input, and printouts were used as output.

A total of 17,000 vacuum tubes, 10,000 capacitors, and 70,000 resistors were used to build this computer. It had 15,000 square feet of space and weighed 30 tons. It seemed as if there was an entire room.

ENIAC was approximately 5000 times faster than the MARK-1. MARK-1 is considered to be the first large electronic machine.

2) EDVAC

EDVAC, whose full name is Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer, was developed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. It was one of the earliest electronic computers.

IMAGE CREDIT: WIKIPEDIA

This was the first machine that stored programs completely.

The table of square numbers and the list of prime numbers were first calculated on this machine.

It was the first mainframe computer to use the binary system instead of the decimal system.

Magnetic tape was used in EDVAC due to which it could run for 20 hours a day.

It carried out mathematical operations with a memory capacity of 5.5 kb.

3) UNIVAC

UNIVAC, which stands for UNIVersal Automatic Computer, was the first commercial computer invented by J. Presper Eckert and JW Mauchly. In 1951, UNIVAC was given to the US Census Bureau. UNIVAC was also the end of the first generation of computers.

IMAGE CREDIT: WIKIPEDIA

Advantages of First Generation Computer

The first-generation computers had the following advantages :

The advantage of the first-generation computers was that these computers could perform calculations in milliseconds.
The first generation of computers used vacuum tubes as basic components, which were the only electronic components available at that time.
These were completely scientific.
The first-generation computers were relatively fast due to the use of machine language.
The first-generation computers were used in calculations related to the development of atomic bombs.

Disadvantages of first generation computer

The first-generation computers had the following disadvantages :

The first-generation computers were quite expensive.
The size of these computers used to be quite large. It took as much space as a big room to keep them.
Due to their large size, these computers were quite heavy.
A lot of electricity was consumed by these computers due to which they
Used to generate excessive amounts of heat.
The first generation of computers used vacuum tubes, so a large cooling system was required.
The storage capacity of first-generation computers was limited, so only small amounts of information could be stored in them.
These computers were not very reliable, and they were also difficult to use.

Limitations of First Generation Computer

The first-generation computers were limited to large calculations and general calculations.
This computer could solve only one problem at a time.
It was not able to do multitasking.
There was very little storage due to which large programs could not be stored.
The first-generation computers were both large in size and quite expensive.
Those computers used a lot of electricity.
The speed of doing any work was very slow.

So, these were some of the limitations of the first generation computer, overcoming which the second generation computer was developed.

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Conclusion

In today's article, we talked about the first-generation computer and learned what is the first-generation computer? What were their features and what were their advantages and disadvantages?

I hope that after reading today's article, you will have got all the information related to First Generation Computer.

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First Generation Computer

First Generation Computer

Features of First Generation Computer