Computer Generations & Hierarchies
Introduction:
Computer Generations
History of development of computers down the years is referred as Computer Generations. A generation refers to research and development done to improve the performance of computers. It also refers to the new technical breakthroughs and advancements in computers. A generation has significantly decreased the size of computers and increased the performance. With the increase in speed, power and memory and decrease in size, each generation has brought down the cost and to be available to the masses.
First Generation
Time Frame: 1940-1956
The computers in the first generation used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were huge in size, taking up entire rooms. A magnetic drum, , is a metal cylinder coated with magnetic iron-oxide material on which data and programs can be stored. These were once used as a primary storage device but have since been implemented as auxiliary storage devices.
The tracks on the magnetic drum are referred as channels located around the circumference of the drum, forming adjacent circular bands that wind around the drum. A single drum can have up to 200 tracks. As the drum rotates at a speed of up to 3,000 rpm(rotations per minute), the device's read/write heads deposit magnetized spots on the drum during the write operation and then senses these spots during a read operation. This action is similar to that of a presently used magnetic tape or disk drive.
They were very expensive to operate as they use a great deal of electricity, as a result generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions. First generation computers relied on machine language to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time, also known as batch operation. Machine languages are the only languages understood by computers. While easily understood by computers, machine languages are almost impossible for humans to use because they consist entirely of numbers. Computer
Computer Generations
History of development of computers down the years is referred as Computer Generations. A generation refers to research and development done to improve the performance of computers. It also refers to the new technical breakthroughs and advancements in computers. A generation has significantly decreased the size of computers and increased the performance. With the increase in speed, power and memory and decrease in size, each generation has brought down the cost and to be available to the masses.
First Generation
Time Frame: 1940-1956
The computers in the first generation used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were huge in size, taking up entire rooms. A magnetic drum, , is a metal cylinder coated with magnetic iron-oxide material on which data and programs can be stored. These were once used as a primary storage device but have since been implemented as auxiliary storage devices.
The tracks on the magnetic drum are referred as channels located around the circumference of the drum, forming adjacent circular bands that wind around the drum. A single drum can have up to 200 tracks. As the drum rotates at a speed of up to 3,000 rpm(rotations per minute), the device's read/write heads deposit magnetized spots on the drum during the write operation and then senses these spots during a read operation. This action is similar to that of a presently used magnetic tape or disk drive.
They were very expensive to operate as they use a great deal of electricity, as a result generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions. First generation computers relied on machine language to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time, also known as batch operation. Machine languages are the only languages understood by computers. While easily understood by computers, machine languages are almost impossible for humans to use because they consist entirely of numbers. Computer