Computer
Hardware Question 3: What is a first generation computer?
Answer: The first generation of computers is
represented by the first commercial electronic computers that were based on
the vacuum tube. After the conclusion of the Second World
War, the first commercially successful computer was produced by Mauchly and
Eckert. They formed the Electronic Controls Company, expressly for the purpose
of developing and selling electronic computers. One of their first projects, a
new and more powerful computer named the UNIVAC 1, was delivered to the U.S.
Census Bureau in 1951.
Computers of the first generation
were all very large, room-sized computers that used thousands of vacuum tubes
(the same kind of glowing glass tubes that were used in radios of that era).
Their design was functional for the time, but their role in business was
limited by three factors - their size, the heat they generated, and their
reliability problems. And, during this period, new methods
