FIRST GENERATION COMPUTER

Generation in computer terminology is a change in technology a computer is/was being used. Initially, the generation term was used to distinguish between varying hardware technologies. But nowadays, generation includes both hardware and software, which together make up an entire computer system. There are totally five computer generations known till date. Each generation has been discussedin detail along with their time period, characteristics. We've used approximate dates against each generations which are normally accepted. 

First Generation  

    The period of first generation was 1942-1954.

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 proFirst 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

The team working on the ENIAC was probably the first to recognize the importance of the stored program concept. Some of the people involved in the early developments of this concept were J. Presper Eckert Jr. (1919–1955) and John W. Mauchly (1907–1980), and John von Neumann (1903–1957). During the summer of 1946, a seminar was held at the Moore School that focused great attention on the design of a stored program computer. About thirty scientists from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean attended these discussions and several stored programmed machines were soon built.

One of the attendees at the Moore School seminar, Maurice Wilkes (1913–), led a British team that built the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) at Cambridge in 1949. On the American side, Richard Snyder led the team that completed the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) at the Moore School. Von Neumann helped design the IAS (Institute for Advanced Study) machine that was built at Princeton University in 1952. These machines, while still using vacuum tubes, were all built so that their programs could be stored internally.

Another important stored program machine of this generation was the UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer). It was the first successful commercially available machine. The UNIVAC was designed by Eckert and Mauchly. It used more than 5,000 vacuum tubes and employedmagnetic tape for bulk storage. The machine was used for tasks such as accounting, actuarial table computation, and election prediction. Forty-six of these machines were eventually installed.

The UNIVAC, which ran its first program in 1949, was able to execute ten times as many additions per second as the ENIAC. In modern dollars, the UNIVAC was priced at $4,996,000. Also, during this period, the first IBM computer was shipped. It was called the IBM 701 and nineteen of these machines were sold.