Talking about computers means taking a tour of the last century. Although the first electromechanical computing machine was born in 1938, this time we want you to know more about what happened in later years.in what is known as the “Second Generation of Computers“.
This period of our history lasts only six years but it shows us, without a doubt, significant advances for the sector, many of them essential for the subsequent development of concepts and computing machines.
We are going to tell you what this era meant for history, by what elements it is characterized, how it developed and who were the main men and machines of the moment. See all in full.
What characteristics define the second generation of computers?
Half as long as , it occupies only six years of our history, occurring from 1958 to 1964.
What characterizes it includes:
- The first and main of its characteristics is the introduction of transistorswhich were invented some years before, in the architecture of computers, being the vacuum valve replacements. A vacuum tube occupied the same as 200 transistors.
- This aspect leads us to another of the significant aspects of the computers of these years: their size. This replacement allowed to build considerably smaller machines.
- They also produced less heat, so ventilation needs decreased.
- This also affects energy consumption, which becomes lower.
- These use more advanced languages than the one known up to now (machine language, which was binary). They are called “high level“and, indeed, we saw more than one in the different devices that came on the market.
- Processors are designed much more simply thanks to the microprogramminga concept that develops in 1959.
- The magnetic core memories are widely used, almost completely replacing rotating drums.
- The set of previous characteristics and others such as their increasing reliability and power make them more commercial devices, closer to society.
- is marketed COBOLthe first high-level programming language that, despite being designed in the previous generation, does not go to market until several years later.
- The .
- More features are included, such as the ability to print.
- Specific role programs become much more salable and, with it, of course, also computers.
- The use of these machines extendscovering storage, inventory management, registration, accounting, payroll…
What was the evolution and history of the 2nd generation of computers?
This is given from the year 1958being the milestone that characterizes it and that begins this the introduction of transistors to replace vacuum tubes, something that we see in previous years but without patents.
We start with the development of two LARC supercomputerswhose use was exclusive to the atomic energy sector, installing one of them in California and ceding another to the US Navy, which designed the first flight simulator with it.
The computers that are happening They are considerably better than the previous ones., one after the other, being most of them, of great importance, each one in an aspect. No one makes a device equal to the competition.
FORTRAN appears hand in hand with IBM, considered the first general-purpose high-level programming languagewhich was part of one of the leading machines of the generation, the IBM 1401.
It is interesting to know that it is at this point, In the year 1962, when the first video game appeared known to the world, called space war!
This era ends with the launch of IMB 360, a series of computers of different characteristics that only shared softwarebeing quite a bombshell for being useful to a wide audience and becoming, depending on the model, more accessible.
It’s fair to say that IBM was the leading companyby a landslide, during these six years, still creating the group BUNCH, a group of corporations united to try to overshadow him (without success). The last years of this time witness what would be an attempt at a minicomputer, a computing device of a considerably smaller size than seen so far.
Best inventors of the second generation of computers
Of course, achieving all of the above would not have been possible without a few brains that have undoubtedly gone down in history in their respective fields and in computing in general.
Gene Amdahl
We start with someone who does not stand out as an inventor but who still deserves recognition in this post because he was the chief architect of the first series of slot machines from the same software but with different specifications and sizes, which stood out precisely for its design and variable but perfect architectures for each and every one of the machines.
This man, founder of four successful companies in the sector, was awarded in 1983 for his contributions to the design, manufacture, and application of high-performance computers. In 1987 also receives the award Eckert-Mauchly of computational innovation. Two years later receives an award as an entrepreneurial businessman in the computer sector. All of this means that, in 1992Magazine computer world consider it one of the 25 people who changed the world.
In addition to the above, it names a law () which is nothing more than a formula to verify that, from a point on, it did not make sense to include more processors in a parallel system.
J. Bardeen, W. Brattain and W. Shockley
Equally deserving are these three men, the first being a physical-electrical engineer and the following physicists, they invented the transistor, which was already announced in 1948 but took four years to see the light. That is, they are responsible for the second generation of computers.
This milestone and the excellent work they did in the study of semiconductors made the three received shortly after, in 1956, the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Maurice Wilkes
To this computational researcher we owe microprogramminga concept that was finished developing in 1951 but that was not used operationally in a market computer, the EDSAC 2 until 1958.
Other ideas that were implemented very well and that further improved the recognition of this man were macros, symbolic tags for code, or function librariesessential of any programming language.
The Royal Society decides to make him a member his in 1956. Upon returning to England in 1993, he was given the honorary title of PhD in Science. It appears in the Year Honors List of the year 2000.
What prominent computers appeared in the second generation of computers?
Of course, we have certain machines that were the complete protagonists of these years:
IBM 1401
It is launched in 1959, being a machine transistor base that worked with the well-known perforated cards. It had a general purpose and its 12,000 units sold have made it a success, being considered, in fact, the most successful in the history of computing.
Its other aspect to highlight was the 4000 character magnetic core memoryextended, shortly after, to 16000.
ibm 1620
A 1959 mainframe, also based on transistors, of course, which had, in principle, with a single tape of punched paper that was soon replaced by punched cards. It had a magnetic core memory of 60000 decimal digits.
Its use was scientific and, unlike all previous ones designed for this purpose, it was considered the first cheap computer.
PDP-1
Programmed Data Processor-1 it is a machine that, on the other hand, comes from DEC. This was the first to be used in the laboratory by personnel from this and not by specialized computer technicians. Its goal was to help in scientific research.
It was launched in the year 1960 and, in addition to that, it is a point in the history of computing for being the used to run what was the first video game as well as becoming a staple in hacker culture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
It used the perforated paper tape to store informationinspiring some text editing software.
360 series
This was a whole family of computers that they ran the same software but mounting different specifications for speed (from 0.034 MiPS to 1.7) and capacity (from 8 Kb to 8 MB) and, consequently, being of a different price.
They appear in 1964, being a whole revolutionsince they could reach a “huge” number of users, also giving them different uses, both commercial and scientific.
Its design is also importantbeing the inspiration for future devices and being considered, therefore, also as the starting point of what would be the next computational generation.
IBM Stranch
It’s about the first supercomputer built with this system of transistors that characterizes the second generation of computers.
Appears in 1961 and, despite falling short of expectations, it was the fastest for three years. Far from having the expected success, it showed a difference between the expected and the actual performance that the price of it was divided in two in order to sell it.
Still, it is considered one of the most important machines in generating various technologies that they were really successful, being used for many years, as modular transistor system logic, generalized interrupts, memory protection, multiprogramming or instruction pipeline.
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