Development of the Computer

Early Computers:

In, 1937, Howard Alken, of Harward University, designed a huge mechanical calculator called MARK I with a number of switches, mechanical relays and cards. The size was 15X 2.4 m X 0.6 m. This was the immediate predecessor of automatic electronic computers. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) designed in 1946was the first electronic calculator. It occupied a room of 15X 9m and its weight was 30 tons. It was water cooled and much faster than MARKXI.

Around 1950, a computer named EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Automatic Computer) was designed which was based on Neumann’s idea. (Frequently referred to as father of modern computer) He was first to use stored programme concept in computers. The storage capacity of EDVAC was 1024 words of 44 bits each. It also had an auxiliary storage of 20,000 words.

First Generation of Computers (1946-55):

The computers manufactured between 1945 -55 are called first Generation Computers. They were extremely large in size with vacuum tubes in their circuitry which generated considerable heat. Hence, special air conditioning arrangements were required to dissipate this heat.

They were extremely slow and their storage capacity was also very less compared to today’s computers. In these computers punched cards were used to enter data in to the computer. These were cards with rectangular holes punched in them using some punching devices. UNIVACI was the first commercially available computer, built in 1951 by Remington Rand Company. It had storage capacity of about 2000 words. These were used mostly for payroll, billing and some mathematical computing.

Second Generation Computers (1956-1965):

The computers, in which vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors made from semiconductors, were called second generation computers. The use of transistors reduced the heat generated during the operation. It also decreased the size and increased storage capacity. It required less power to operate and were much faster than first generation computers. Magnetic media was being used as an auxiliary storage of data. These computers used high level languages for writing computer programs. FORTRAN and COBOL were the languages used.