SECOND GENERATION COMPUTERS
During the period of 1956 to 1963 second generation of computers were developed. The second generation computers emerged with development of Transistors. The transistor was invented in 1947 by three scientists J. Bardeen, H.W. Brattain and W. Shockley. A transistor is a small device made up of semiconductor material like germanium and silicon. Even though the Transistor were developed in 1947 but was not widely used until the end of 50s. The transistor made the second generation computers faster, smaller, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation computers. Even though the transistor used in the computer generated enormous amount of heat which ultimately would lead to the damage of the computers but was far better than vacuum tubes.
Second generation computers used the low level language i.e. machine level language and assembly language which made the programmers easier to specify the instructions. Later on High level language programming were introduced such as COBOL and FORTRAN. Magnetic core was used as primary storage. Second generation computer has faster input /output devices which thus brought improvement in the computer.
CHARACTERISTICS
1) Transistors were used in place of vacuum tubes.
2) Second generation computers were smaller in comparison with the first generation computers.
3) They were faster in comparison with the first generation computers.
4) They generated less heat and were less prone to failure.
5) They took comparatively less computational time.
6) Assembly language was used for programming.
7) Second generation computers has faster input/output devices.
During the period of 1956 to 1963 second generation of computers were developed. The second generation computers emerged with development of Transistors. The transistor was invented in 1947 by three scientists J. Bardeen, H.W. Brattain and W. Shockley. A transistor is a small device made up of semiconductor material like germanium and silicon. Even though the Transistor were developed in 1947 but was not widely used until the end of 50s. The transistor made the second generation computers faster, smaller, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation computers. Even though the transistor used in the computer generated enormous amount of heat which ultimately would lead to the damage of the computers but was far better than vacuum tubes.
Second generation computers used the low level language i.e. machine level language and assembly language which made the programmers easier to specify the instructions. Later on High level language programming were introduced such as COBOL and FORTRAN. Magnetic core was used as primary storage. Second generation computer has faster input /output devices which thus brought improvement in the computer.
CHARACTERISTICS
1) Transistors were used in place of vacuum tubes.
2) Second generation computers were smaller in comparison with the first generation computers.
3) They were faster in comparison with the first generation computers.
4) They generated less heat and were less prone to failure.
5) They took comparatively less computational time.
6) Assembly language was used for programming.
7) Second generation computers has faster input/output devices.
Some improvements were made during the 1950s with the development of assembly languages. Early software pioneers, such as Grace Hopper, realized that they could write programs in a type of programming short-hand and then have the computer translate this short-hand notation into machine code. The advantages of Assembly Languages included:
- Operations are given a meaningful name
- Names are assigned to storage locations
- Programs are easier to read and therefore easier to debug
- The Assembler program does the tedious translation of the program into machine language.
Disadvantages include:
- Assemblers are machine dependent and programmers needed very specific skills
- It is still a complex language and writing programs is slow and tedious to debug.
Has laoreet percipitur ad. Vide interesset in mei, no his legimus verterem. Et nostrum imperdiet appellantur usu, mnesarchum referrentur id vim.
0 comments:
Post a Comment