Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A transistor computer, now often called a second-generation computer, [1] is a computer which uses discrete transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The first generation of electronic computers used vacuum tubes, which generated large amounts of heat, were bulky and unreliable.
The second-generation computer architectures initially varied; they included character-based decimal computers, sign-magnitude decimal computers with a 10-digit word, sign-magnitude binary computers, and ones' complement binary computers, although Philco, RCA, and Honeywell, for example, had some computers that were character-based binary ...
EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) was one of the earliest electronic computers. It was built by Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] : 626–628 Along with ORDVAC , it was a successor to the ENIAC .
The Bendix G-15 computer was introduced by the Bendix Corporation. 1956: NED Edsger Dijkstra invented an efficient algorithm for shortest paths in graphs as a demonstration of the abilities of the ARMAC computer. The example used was the Dutch railway system. The problem was chosen because it could be explained quickly and the result checked.
Typically, second-generation computers were composed of large numbers of printed circuit boards such as the IBM Standard Modular System, [143] each carrying one to four logic gates or flip-flops. At the University of Manchester, a team under the leadership of Tom Kilburn designed and built a machine using the newly developed transistors instead ...
The term computer remained one that referred to mostly women (now seen as "operator") until 1945, after which it took on the modern definition of machinery it presently holds. [ 44 ] The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was the first electronic general-purpose computer, announced to the public in 1946.
The second generation saw the introduction of features intended to support multiprogramming and multiprocessor configurations, including master/slave (supervisor/problem) mode, storage protection keys, limit registers, protection associated with address translation, and atomic instructions.
After the second world war he established the Computing Machine Laboratory at the University of Manchester where he created the project that built the world's first stored-program computer, the Manchester Baby. 1962 Nygaard, Kristen: With Ole-Johan Dahl, invented the proto-object oriented language SIMULA. 1642 Pascal, Blaise