Tuesday, 6 August 2013

First Generation (The period of first generation : 1946-1959. Vaccum tube based.)

The period of first generation was 1946-1959.

First generation of computer started with using vacuum tubes as the basic components for memory and circuitry for CPU(Central Processing Unit). These tubes like electric bulbs produced a lot of heat and were prone to frequent fusing of the installations, therefore, were very expensive and could be afforded only by very large organisations.


In this generation mainly batch processing operating system were used. In this generation Punched cards, Paper tape, Magnetic tape Input & Output device were used.

There were Machine code and electric wired board languages used.

The main features of First Generation are:

  • Vacuum tube technology
  • Unreliable
  • Supported Machine language only
  • Very costly
  • Generate lot of heat
  • Slow Input/Output device
  • Huge size
  • Need of A.C.
  • Non portable
  • Consumed lot of electricity
Some computer of this generation were:
  • ENIAC
  • EDVAC
  • UNIVAC
  • IBM-701
  • IBM-650

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