First Generation Computers: The Vacuum Tubes

Introducing The Vacuum Tubes:

Starting from 1940 - 1956, Vacuum Tubes, also known as Electron Tubes are the first lists of computers ever made, creating the first generation of computers (The Five Generations of Computers). The first generation were "build during the World War II era" and mainly used for military actions (1st Generation Computers). Even though they weren't even compared to the technology of computers we have today, Vacuum tubes had a big role and one of the biggest things happening during that era.

 

Markiewicz, Pete.
"Plyojump - Computer history".
Photo. Plyojump.com 2013.
3 Oct. 2013

How Vacuum Tubes Worked:

Vacuum Tube were gigantic to the point they took up the whole room, very expensive, and had many problems, such as over heating, making them very unreliable sometimes (The Five Generations of Computers). As stated before, Vacuum Tubes were mainly used for military actions so we can guess that there were no Vacuum Tube computers available to the people. Memory (data) was stored by magnetic drums and mercury delay circuits while vacuum tubes were used to process all the data (and thus the name Vacuum Tube Computers) and create logic switches (The Five Generations of Computers). Thomas Edison, during this period, invented the light bulb and coincidently, the Vacuum Tube Computers were also invented during this period and worked very similar to the light bulb. This however made the Vacuum Tubes to overheat frequently (The Computer Chronicles - Computer Generations). The secondary storage for the Vacuum Tubes were punch cards and paper tapes, and the language of these computers were complete machine languages (machine-oriented machine language and assembly language).

Some Examples of Vacuum Tubes:

• Atanasoft - Barry Computer: Made by John Atanasoft and his assistant Clifford Barry, it was the very first electronic computer ever made.
• Z3: The first computer to use programs to control war materials such as airplanes and missiles. Created by Konrad Zuse.
• Colossus: Computer used to code breaking during the World War II against the Germans.
• Hardware Mark I: The first automatic computer using electromagnetic signals to move parts and it was also able to solve mathematical equations quickly, thus enabling the idea of automatic computers to the world.



The INIAC
"First Generation Computers (1940 - 1956)". 
Photo. Thinkquest.org. 3 Oct. 2013

• INIAC: "first general-purposed, all-electronic, programmable digital computer", but had a flaw of having to reprogram the entire computer after each task (1st Generation Computers).
  
  

Conclusion:

Vacuum Tubes may have been limited due to the era, time, resources, knowledge, and situations but it was definitely an important start that will lead to a bright future. The computers we so love have a war based, violent past but it was a giant flashing light just waiting to get in each one of our hands. 

 Sources:

 



Bestofmedia Team. "From Tubes To Transistors." Tom's Hardware. Bestofmedia Group, 23 Aug. 2011. Web. 5 Oct. 2013.

 

Hames, Roderick. "The Computer Chronicles - Computer Generations." The Computer Chronicles - Computer Generations. Alton C. Crews Middle School: CD Dept. - Articles, 2011. Web. 4 Oct. 2013

 

Markiewicz, Pete. "Plyojumo - Computer History." Plyojumo - Computer History. N.p., 2013. Web. 4 Oct. 2013.

 

Sheihk, Mohamed El, Nina Mann, Kareen El Mastry, and Khaled El Tanahey. 1st

Generation Computers (1940s - 1956) ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation, 1995 - 2001. Web. 4 Oct. 2013

 

The Five Generations of Computers. Webopedia. ITBusinessEdge, 2013.Web. 4 Oct. 2013.