First Generation of Computer

All of us should know about the history of the first generation of computers because when we use something it’s human nature that question arises in the mind of the user that how? How did this brilliant machine come into existence? Who would have thought of building such a useful machine that had reduced a lot of human work? Who was the person who thought that we needed a machine of such kind and why? In this article, all these questions would be answers and all the details and information about the history of the first generation of computers would be discussed briefly.

Charles Babbage and the History of the first generation of computer

Whenever the history of the first generation of computers will be discussed a name would always be the part of that discussion and that name is Charles Babbage. This man was the person who played the most basic role in the invention of the computers. Before the invention of development of the invention, the most important thing is its idea. If you don’t have any idea about the thing how can you invent it?

So, the idea is the most basic and important part of any invention. This person named Charles Babbage came with an idea to design an analytical engine for the very first time in history. After that, he himself designed the very first analytical engine and introduced it to the whole world for the first time. After that, his work became the main idea and the basic framework of the computers and this framework is being utilized to this day.

Time duration and the history of the first generation of computer

According to the history of the first generation of computers, it is clearly mentioned that the time period or the years when the first generation of computers was considered to the best technology of that time were from 1937 to 1946.

The first-ever computer amazed the world because nobody had seen such an excellent machine before this which could be so, accurate and useful for the human. So, at that time people really liked those computers and their prices were also very much higher as there were very few of these computers in the world because no manufacturing of these computers was being performed on the commercial scale.

The first electronic digital computer and the history of the first generation of computer

When we go back to the history of the first generation of computers. The historians have very responsibly saved all the dates and information that has reached us generation after generation. From this history, we came to know that the first time when a digital electronic computer was introduced to the world was in the year 1937. This year an American physicist John Vincent Atanasoff along with his colleague who was a computer scientist and his name was Clifford Berry worked for years and in the end, they finally invented the first-ever electronic digital computer.

It was a great invention as their idea of the computer has to lead the world towards modernization. They both had played an important role in all the development of the computer industry that is the reason why their name is still present in the history of the first generation of computer.

ABC Computer from the history of the first generation of computers

As we have discussed earlier from the history of the first generation of computers that two men worked for years and in the 19th century and they invented the very first electronic digital computer and both of those men became the part of the computer history.

The computer that the American Physicist named John Vincent Atanasoff and a computer scientist Clifford Berry built and invented in the nineteenth century was called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer which is also famous as the ABC computer.

Role of Colossus according to the history of the first generation of computer

In this part of the article, we are going to go through the details of the history of the first generation of computer about the role of Colossus. First of all, we should know that what Colossus actually is? The Colossus is basically a Computer and it was invented in 1943.

As we can see nowadays computers are vastly being used in the armed forces including military, navy, and especially in air forces. We can imagine a country to be safe for just even one day if all the computers being used in its armed forces departments stop working. So from this, it can be imagined that how important computer is in the departments of the armed forces.

All the progress that the computers had made in the defense department its first step was taken in 1943 when the scientist related to the military developed the first computer that was to be used for military purposes only and that computer was named as Colossus. It was a great achievement of that time because all the progress that is made today in the defense field related to computers is on the base of Colossus.

Development of ENIAC and the first generation of computer

When we go through the history of the first generation of computer we would see the word ENIAC again and again. So, the question arises what actually ENIAC is and what is its role in the history of the first generation of computer? This question would be answered in this part of the article.

The biggest and most important invention of the first generation of the computer is the computer that was built for general purpose only and tills is part of the history. The electronic numerical integrator and computer were made to perform both integration and computations in it. It was invented in the year 1946 at the end of the first generation of the computer because after this great invention the downfall of the first generation of computer technology started.

This computer was famous with the name of ENIAC and was huge in size according to history its weight was about thirty tons and it was made using the vacuum tube technology so a large number of vacuum tubes were used in its manufacturing about eighteen hundred and these vacuum tubes help the computer to perform a different task.

The first generation of computer was the greatest innovation in the field of technology. It’s a common question that arises in the mind of a computer student or is asked by any teacher or student related to the field of computing that who introduced the first generation of computer? In this article, you will be informed about that with all related and important pieces of information and details regarding the invention of the first generation computer. When the first stored-program computer came into existence and it was introduced to the whole world at that time. Every institute related to technology and innovation wanted it for them for their research purposes and in their lab so that their teaching standard would rise. But there rose question where could the whole worlds institutes and universities can get this computer from?

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Role of IAS in the invention of first generation of computers

There were very few stored-program computers or the first generation computers for a lot of institutes and universities. Furthermore, these computers were manufactured manually and they were not available in the market or at any other commercial place so, if anyone wanted it then it had to manufacture it for him. Some designs of these computers were published so, some of the manufactures used them and some built the computers independently using their own designs. Then all of sudden, an institute named Princeton’s Institute of Advanced Study as known as IAS came with a theory that attracted the whole world interested in computing, including the emerging companies of technology.

Idea of IAS about the first generation of computers

The IAS provided the world with an idea and a theory this was enough to initialize the whole but further research and a lot of improvements were to be made for that in 1946 a Hungarian mathematician named John von Neumann for the very first time introduced a stored-program computer. In this way, the IAS with the help of Mr. John von Neumann in 1951, provided the world with its design for a stored-program first generation computers. Now the hardware was freely available and everyone was free to make changes in it and use it the way they wanted to. In this way, the first generation computers were introduced and this is how John von Neumann invented the first generation of the computer. The below-shown picture is of the inventor of the first generation of the computer, the guy who converted the study, research, theories, and ideas of an institute into the hardware machine that actually worked as it was expected and that machine is now known as the computer.

Man behind the First generation of computers

In previous paragraphs, we had discussed the basic information about John von Neumann that he introduced the first generation computer. But there is much more about him which we haven’t discussed yet. That’s what we’ll discuss here. John von Neumann was a Hungarian national. His father’s name was Max von Neumann. John von Neumann was professionally a mathematician and with his knowledge, he played an important role in the fields of mathematics, physics, computer science, and most importantly he contributed a lot in the field of artificial life. He introduced and contributed to this field of artificial life that is now known as artificial intelligence so, what he did at that time is continued till this day.

Inventor of the first generation of computer about artificial life

This man John von Neumann the inventor of first generation computer had a concept about the artificial life and his concept about artificial life was that the machine should work automatically, he wanted a machine to be capable of detecting, analyzing, and solving the problem so that it would be easy for us humans to live because most of our works would be done by machines or in today’s language computers. Now we can see that the concept of John von Neumann was completely right and following that the world has come so far in the computing field and now all of our works and need are computerized. Now we can’t imagine a life without these machines named computers because now they have become an important part of our life all credit goes to John von Neumann who set the base brick for this building..

Why first generation of computers were invented?

The first generation computers were not as useful as the computers are now. A computer is a very useful machine as it can perform different functions such as calculations including the logical and the arithmetical operations on its own using the code installed in it using the instructions provided to it using the programming language. Now, these machines have become modern with respect to the technology and now these machines are called computers and they being used as the control system in all field globe wise from to the industries, factories to the consumer usage things.

Why we needed the first generation of computer?

Basically, the reason why we needed first generation computers was that humans wanted to reduce their work so we wanted a smart machine that could help us in our works including the accounts, manufacturing, and other deeds including the commercial and local needs. In that time of the nineteen century, many new machines were introduced to the world and it was the age of technology and innovation so some present-minded people present at that time worked on this idea of the first generation computer as it was one of the most needed things at that time by the world.

First generation computers to Artificial Intelligence

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the very first intelligent and smart machine known as the first generation computer was introduced worldwide. At that time the first generation computer was nothing but just a calculator because what it could perform was nothing but some basic calculations using high-level language coding. But according to that time was a great achievement and was really appreciated. All of the great institutes and countries were impressed and wanted this computer as an honor so that more research could be done to make it more reliable and intelligent as it is today. With the time we experienced that from performing some calculations to becoming the control system of the industrial, commercial, and user-level computer has improved a lot. Now the world wants this machine to think itself for that a lot of work is going on the artificial intelligence and some achievements have been made but still it gets better every day and soon the first generation computer that covered the space of a whole room and performed some basic calculations that a simple calculator of this time could easily perform the computer have become human-like machine called robot that even thinks be itself with the help of artificial intelligence.