History of development: The world's first "computer" was invented by Americans Mao Qilei and Eckert in 1946. With the advancement of computer technology, "computers" have evolved from behemoths to today's microcomputers, which we call personal computers (PCs) for short. Generation O computer (1939~1946): The prototype computer was Harvard University's ASCC-MARK-I completed by Professor Aiken in 1944. In MARK-I, more than 3,000 relays (Relays) and a large number of gears are used. MARK-I is an electromechanical computer. The concept adopted by MARK-I is almost the same as that of today’s electrical system. In order to perform calculations, instructions are arranged in advance, a program manual is prepared, and it is converted into a punched combination on paper tape to instruct the machine, so that the machine can follow the program manual and perform calculations. This processing method is called automatic sequential control method. The first generation of computers (1946~1958) - Vacuum tube period: In 1946, Dr. John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Echert of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States built the first computer An automatic computer with vacuum tubes as electronic components is called ENIAC (short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator). It is 50 feet long, 30 feet wide (an area of ??about 42 square meters), weighs 30 tons, and 18,800 of them were used. The vacuum period was the beginning of the first generation of computers. The media used by ENIAC to process data was punched cards; the computer read the cards in accordance with the instruction process given to the computer by humans, that is to say, it was inserted. Wire reel method. However, the type and number of instructions that humans can give to the machine are limited, so it cannot be required to handle high-level work. In 1945, Dr. John Von Neumann used it as a controller. The program (Program) of the method is all stored inside the computer. This method of storing the program in the computer to perform calculation processing is called the Stored Program Method (EDSAC), which was completed by the University of Cambridge in 1949. Computers such as the EDVAC completed by the University of Pennsylvania in 1952 all used this principle. Since the 1952s, computers have entered the era of practical use. After passing the experimental research stage in the United States, computers have become commercial products and have also begun to be used in private enterprises. . The second generation of computers (1958~1963) - transistor era: With the rapid advancement of electronic technology, electronic components evolved from vacuum tubes to transistors (Transistors), which were only one-twentieth the size of vacuum tubes, and consumed less power and dissipated heat. A lot less. In 1954, the electronics industry succeeded in replacing vacuum tubes with transistors, which was the beginning of the second generation of computers. The use of magnetic cores in memory units was also one of the characteristics of this era. And the development of circuit theory inside computers has promoted the speed and stability of calculations and memories. There is a big difference in performance and stability between using vacuum tubes and transistors in circuit units. The life of vacuum tubes is relatively short. Compared with the transistor, there is a big difference in its performance and stability. The life of the vacuum tube is relatively short. Compared with this, the life of the transistor is almost equal to semi-permanent. Its reliability is also 100 times higher than that of the vacuum tube. From these facts. As you can see, computers have also ushered in the golden age of transistors. In this era, various computers have emerged to suit the purpose, that is, general-purpose computers that can be used for scientific and technical calculation processing, business data processing, or both. The characteristic of the era is the use of programming systems.
With the advent of programming systems, it has become easier to write programs (process manuals, programs) that direct the operation of computers. Before programming systems were used, humans wrote programs in machine language. Machine language is the language that computers can understand. It is a language that is both complex and difficult to deal with. Therefore, people write a program in a language that is easy for humans to understand, convert the programming language of the problems that people want to deal with into machine language, and then convert the machine language into the programming language of human problems into machine language, and then convert the programming language into machine language. Convert machine language into language that is easy for humans to understand. This work of compiling and converting languages ??is left to the computer to write a programming system. During this period, an application program (Application Program) suitable for communication services of various enterprises was also launched. In the second half of the second generation, a data communication system appeared. This system developed better in the third generation and was actually used in various fields. For example, train and airplane seat reservation systems, and artificial hygiene tracking systems are all in the form of data communication systems. Those who use data communication systems for real-time data processing are called online real-time processing (On-line Real-time System). The third generation of computers (1964~1971) - Integrated circuit era: The era of transistors lasted for ten years. On April 1, 1964, the giant in the computer industry - IBM of the United States announced to the world that integrated circuits The IBM 360 computer was successfully developed using IC (Integrated Circuit), which was the beginning of the third generation of computers. The computer was hundreds of times faster. An integrated circuit is a square thing about 1 millimeter (mm) in size, in which circuits such as transistors, diodes, and resistors are arranged. When it is enlarged, it looks like what is shown at the bottom of the photo. It is composed of about 20 transistors, 40 resistors or capacitors (Condenser) and other performance circuits. Due to the use of integrated circuits, the computer's size becomes lighter and more compact. But its greater advantage is to promote higher performance, higher reliability, and faster operation of computers.
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