The use of the computer has changed our life, we could say that as much as fire or the wheel, each of them being the protagonists of their moment. So much so that the invention and the development of these machines is divided into generations. Today we will see how the First Generation of Computers was.
Think that what for you now is one more element of your room, a few decades ago was a discovery that changed the way people workr, to live, coming to offer us countless and irreparable comforts that no one wants to sacrifice.
Thus, the history of computing deserves special interest and this time we will tell you how it starts making you know what this first stage of computers consisted of, how it was developed and who were the personalities and, of course, the most prominent machines. See all in full.
What characteristics define the first generation of computers?
This period covers from 1940 to 1952, always considering the commercial, recognition or launch dates of the pieces. If, in another way, we attend to the base in the operation of the devices, this extends until 1958Well, it is true that it was until that year that the main characteristic of this revolution was maintained as a standard.
Its features, by the way, are few and simple:
- Supposes the change from manual and semi-manual calculating machines to the start of automatic and digital work calculation and computing.
- These machines were built with vacuum valve systems. We come up with vacuum tubes to replace the mechanical, relays, punched cards, magnetic core memories…
- Its size was colossal, as was its power consumption.
- The language used to program them was machine languagethe simplest of those invented, a system of codes that a circuit could interpret.
- Its purpose was specific (academic and military, basically) and were designed to order.
What was the evolution and history of the 1st generation of computers?
The origin of computing is attributed to the Analytical Engineof the mathematical inventor C.Babbage. The design of him spoke of give orders to a machine to do the calculations as well as data storage.
Although there were similar ideas all over the planet and discoveries were being made at the same time, the truth is that, historically, the first computational machine recognized as such is the ENIACwhich stems from the previous idea and which was a precedent, in turn, of the first commercial design computer, the UNIVAC I.
With this milestone, in addition, The compiler was introduced in this model to be able to interpret two different languages. Another great advance that he incorporated was his system of magnetic tapes, interpretable in two directions and with the evident dressing of being able to detect errors with great ease.
When the stored program computers the sector begins to tremble before a “fervent” demand, of a few dozen, since this meant no need to reprogram the machine by hand (which meant disassembling it almost completely and reassembling it with the corresponding differentiated and programmed parts for the purpose in question) but also being able to use it for different purposes, making it much more versatile and interesting for a growing audience.
Best inventors of the first generation of computers
Of course, behind all this evolution there were great people who made it all possible:
- Von Neumann: Pioneer in the use of binary arithmetic in electrical computers. Together with other great thinking minds developed concepts that caused a sensation and that they are still useful today, as is the case with the “central concept”.
- J. Presper and J. Mauchly: Engineer and physicist respectively, they formed a company and were the builders of UNIVAC I, an automatic computer who had an important census work.
- howard aiken: It was the engineer who designed the ASCC electromechanical equipment, which, initially, worked to solve part of various differential equations. His computing ability caused much interest at IBM, which ended up funding a project to redesign the computer, the Harvard Mark I.
He continued to work on the successor models, introducing more and more electronic components. (until the construction of the first electronic computer was achieved) and other elements such as drum memory or magnetic core.
He got two awards the Harry H. Goode Medal in 1964 and the IEEE Edison Medal in 1070which reflected and appreciated his continued pioneering contributions to large-scale digital ordination and to his education.
What prominent computers appeared in the 1st generation of computers?
Regarding the machines that saw the light in these years, we have to highlight the following:
Z1 Computer
Was the first combined type machine (electromechanical), completed in 1938. It gave physical problems but was fully functional. It was overshadowed by the bad reputation of the German nationality of its inventor, konrad zuse.
Colossus
A set of 10 machines created with the sole purpose of deciphering messages from the Germans during world war II. These were destroyed by order of Churchil but, with more than a decade of work, it was possible to reconstruct one of them, which is currently on display in London. Physically, it is interesting to highlight the use of 15000 vacuum tubes.
abc
The Atanasoff Berry Computer was the first automatic type electronic digital computer. It was developed between the years 1937 and 1942.
Its two creators managed to make this machine capable of solve equations with 29 unknowns with complete accuracy. Today it may not seem like much, but at the time it was certainly an unprecedented feat.
MARK I
In this case we find a machine that combines electronics and mechanics that came from the hand of the well-known IBM and being director of the Howard Aiken project. It is worth mentioning that it was designed with a clear inspiration in the analytical engine.
It measured nothing more and nothing less than 15 meters in length and its height reached 2.4 meters, conforming to 800000 pieces. counted on rstorage wheels, electromagnetic relays, rotary switches, and parallel work calculators. Although it was not as fast as expected, it was really successful, to the point of being built the Mark II and the Mark III.
ENIAC
His name was Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer and it was designed between 1943 and 1946. The idea was to serve as calculation element to work in artillery shooting during the war but it ended before.
It is without a doubt, the first notable electronic computer, validating the use of electronic elements for large-scale computing usecapable of solving mathematical problems of various kinds and more than 100,000 simple operations per second.
It could be reprogrammed (rather rewired) with ease, making it “multi-purpose,” something of obvious appeal at the time. Thus, it is considered one of the first for general purposes. It was even bigger than the previous one, equaling it in length but with a depth of 9 meters. It included 40 panels. Its weight exceeded 30 tons.
Manchester Baby
This is designed jointly by several scientists who work at the University of the city that gives it its name, back in the year 1948. It was quite a revolution because it was the first to work with a program that was stored in data space and that, therefore, it could be used as such.
UNIVAC II
The Universal Automatic Computer, from the year 1951, came from the same hands as the ENIAC but, on this occasion, what was intended to be achieved with it was a machine for commercial use to process large amounts of data (it was the first, in fact).
It stands out, from its design, the inclusion of mercury delay lineswhich made it possible for the number of vacuum tubes to be considerably reduced to 5000, which also allowed the dimension of the apparatus to be reduced.
Regarding its capacity, we have more than a thousand complex calculations per second and hundreds of thousands in the case of simpler operations.
LEO
Leo is a computer that, despite not introducing anything new on a physical level or in terms of programming or use of elements, It has gone down in history for being used to solve business problems, which at the time meant a greater approach to the population and an injection in terms of research.beginning what would be a beastly development process, of decades and decades of duration and in which we are still immersed.
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