First Generation Computers

By: Alexandra Smith and Taylor Foster

Early History…1837 Charles Babbage described, digital

computer called the analytical engineThomas Fowler demonstrated a primitive

wooden computer using sliding rods in 1841.1941 German engineer Konrad Zuse Z3

-airplanes and missiles In 1943, British

-secret code breaking computer called Colossus

analytical engine

Z3

Colossus

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIC)ENIC, was designed during WWII

University of Pennsylvania, to compute ballistics tables for the army

Room sized, with 18,000 vacuum tubes, was finished too late

Didn’t have a program stored in memory that could be easily changed.

ENIC

“Stored Program” breakthroughJune 21, 1948 University of Manchester

- “The Baby” (Test computer) no longer exists

1949, true computers began to appear.-The Johnniac, one of the first gen.

named for John Von NeumannImportant role in the invention of the modern

“stored program” computer

Johnniac

FactsSlowGradually evolvedThe First gen. started in 1946 (ENIAC) Or

1949 EDSAC1958 2,500 First gen. installed

What is the first generation computer?A computer from the earliest stage of computer

development, ending in the early 1960s, characterized by the use of vacuum tubes, the performance of one operation at a time in strictly sequential fashion, and elementary software, usually including a program loader, simple utility routines, and an assembler to assist in program writing.

Timeline 1942 ABC Atanasoff-Berry Computer binary vacuum tubes capacitors 1944 Collosus 1946 ENIAC Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer decimal vacuum tubes vacuum tubes 1947 EDVAC Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer binary vacuum tubes mercury delay

lines 1948 The Baby Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine binary vacuum tubes CRST 1949 UNIVAC I Universal Automatic Computer decimal vacuum tubes mercury delay lines 1949 EDSAC Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer binary vacuum tubes mercury delay lines 1952 IAS Institute for Advanced Study binary vacuum tubes cathode ray tubes 1953 IBM 701 binary vacuum tubes mercury delay lines