Information Technology Topics
First Generation of Computers
The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer)
- Built by two professors at Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania
- The ENIAC included 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighed more than 30 tons, and occupied 15,000 square feet of floor space.
- The ENIAC could perform 5,000 additions or 500 multiplications per minute
Characteristics of the First Generation of Computers
- The First Generation of computers is generally considered to include machines built between 1946 and 1959, of which the ENIAC was the prototype.
- First Generation computers relied on vacuum tubes.
- The ENIAC and its immediate followers were custom-made and one-of-a-kind. In the early 1950s, though, the first mass-produced machines became available. These included the Sperry Rand Univac and the IBM 701.
- The IBM 650, introduced in 1954, was the first commercially successful computer. IBM sold more than 1,000 of the machines. (The company had expected to sell less than 100.) The success of the 650 enabled IBM to gain a lead in the computer industry.