Second Generation Computer

INTRODUCTION

Computers have been divided into five generations according to the development of technologies used to produce the processors, memories and I/O (input and output) units. In computers, generation refers to the improvement that was made in the developing of a product. The term “generation” is also used in the different improvement and development in computer technology. With every new generation, new changes and improvements were made to the internal and external parts of the computer which resulted in an increase in speed, power, memory, physical components become smaller. New ideas are always being explored and developed that are affecting our lives.

FIRST GENERATION COMPUTERS

The first generation of computers were developed in

An invention by Bell Telephone laboratories called transistors were incorporated in these computers. In this case, second generation computers usually had a printer, a type of storage mainly disk or tape, operating systems, stored programs, and also a memory. These computers were generally reliable and were solid in design. During the course of the early 1960’s, many second generation computers were used in business, universities and government. With the use of transistors for the second generation, computers became smaller, increased speed, inexpensive, energy-efficient and more reliable than the first generation. Due to the stored program and programming languages, second generation computers became cost effective and productive for business use. The stored program concept meant that specific functions were able to be stored in the memory of the computer and could easily be replaced to create new functions. For example in the business, invoices could be printed by the computer and minutes later, the computer can follow another function example calculate paychecks. The general characteristics of a second generation computer are; it’s based on transistors tech; smaller in size compared to the first generation; less maintenance due to being prone to hardware failures which makes it more reliable; assembly language was used which made programming more time efficient; generated less heat and these computers where more

Using VLSI circuits, it was possible to develop microcomputers for fourth generation computers due to the fact that about 5000 transistors, plus additional circuit components and their linked circuits where able to develop into one single chip. With this development, fourth generation computers became more powerful, inexpensive, smaller in size and reliable. Due to this it gave rise to Personal Computers (PC), Graphic User Inerface (GUI), mouse and handheld device. Time sharing, real time, networks, distributed operating systems were all used in this generation with advanced languages such as DBASE, C++, C and more. Some of the computers that were built in this generation where DEC 10, STAR 1000, PDP 11, CRAY-1(Supper Computer) and CRAY-X-MP (Super