3rd Class Computers Science Growth of Modern Computer The First Generation Computers (1949-55)                

     The First Generation Computers (1949-55)  

The first generation computers were huge, slow, expensive and often undependable. In 1946, two Americans, Prosper Eckert and John Mauchly built the ENIAC electronic computer which used very large and heavy electronic vacuum tubes, which took up a lot of space and gave off a great deal of heat like the light bulbs. The ENIAC led to other vacuum tube type computers like the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) and UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer). They also used the concept of stored program. These computers were 5000 times faster than the MARK-1, which is considered to be the first electromechanical machine. These computers' used machine language for giving instructions.  

    Limitations:

Since first generation computer is a first step towards the invention of present form of computer, so it has many limitations.  

    Some of them are the following:  

• These computers were very big in size. The ENIAC machine was 30 x 50 feet in size and 30 tons in weight. So, these machines required a very large space to work.
• Their power consumption was very high.
• These computers had slow operating speed and small computing capacity.
• These computers had a very small memory.  

The ENIAC gave off so much heat that they had to be cooled by air conditioners. However, even with these huge coolers, vacuum tubes still overheated regularly. The major drawbacks of first generation computers were that they produced a large amount of heat, were not reliable and used machine language only. To overcome these drawbacks, 2nd generation computers were developed.  

 Few statements are given below about 1st Generation computer. Select the correct statement.

1. In 1964, two Americans, Prosper Eckert and John Mauchly built the ENIAC electronic computer.

2. These computers had high operating speed and small computing capacity.

3. The ENIAC gave off so much heat that they had to be cooled by air conditioners.

(A) 1 and 2                                                         

(B) 2 and 3

(C) Only 3                                                           

(D) All of these

(D) None of these  

Answer: (C)

Explanation

Correct Option:

(C) Statement 3 is correct. The ENIAC gave off so much heat that they had to be cooled by air conditioners.

Incorrect Options:

(A) Statements 1 and 2 are incorrect. That's why option (A) is incorrect.

(B) Statement 2 is incorrect where as statement 3 is correct. Therefore, option (B) is incorrect.

(D) All of the given statements are not correct. Therefore, option (D) is incorrect.

(E) All of the given statements are not incorrect. Therefore, option (E) is incorrect.      

 Fill in the blanks:

1. The ENIAC machine was ____ feet in size and _____ tons in weight.

2. The first generation computers were huge, slow, expensive and often________.

3. These computers had a________ memory.

(A) 50 x 30, 50, not dependable and medium

(B) 30 x 50, 30, not dependable and very small

(C) 30 x 30, 50, dependable and small

(D) 30 x 50, 30, dependable and high

(E) 50 x 30, 30, not dependable and small.  

Answer: (B)

Explanation

Correct Option:

(B) Option (B) is correctly arranged.

Incorrect Options:

(A) Incorrect data is given in option (A)

(C) Incorrect data is given in option (C)

(D) Incorrect data is given in option (D)

(E) Incorrect data is given in option (E)