FREE online courses on the Basics of a Computer - SECOND GENERATION
COMPUTERS
The WHIRLWIND I was designed and
developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1952. This computer
used a magnetic core memory instead of the vacuum tube, which made it more
compact, reliable and fast.
The transistor was invented in
1948, but it was several years before it significantly affected the computer
industry. In the early 50's and 60's the switches used in computers were valves.
These were expensive. But in 1947 William Sharkley invented the transistor for
which he got a Nobel Prize. He used germanium to make the transistor. It was an
extremely simple device. The transistor brought an end to the valve industry.
Sharkley then set up a team of 8
brilliant scientists to help him make a transistor of silicon. The drawback of
germanium transistors was that hey stopped working when they got warm. The
US
army needed transistors that would withstand battle conditions, and they
contributed a huge sum of develop it. But his 7 scientists left him and with
Robert Noyce they set up a company by the name of Fairchild Corporation, here
they developed the technique of making several transistors on a single silicon
chip. In this way, by 1963, they managed to reduce the cost of transistors 10
times.
The second generation of computers
was marked by magnetic core storage and later by the use of transistors in place
of the vacuum tubes. The electronic time per operation was 1 to 10 microseconds.
Memory access time from the magnetic drum or core was 1-10 microseconds.
Magnetic tapes, drums and punched cards were used as secondary storage.
