Research Question: Why were the first-generation computer disadvantageous

Thesis Statement: The first-generation computer was not as efficient as such, in fact it was
buggy and Very disadvantaged. First generation computer was troublesome and inefficient

I. INTRODUCTION
A. General overview of the history of computers
B. Definition of some terms
1. Punch cards
2. Pascal
3. Bug
4. Abacus
II. TYPES OF FIRST-GENERATION COMPUTER
A. EDVAC
B. ENIAC
C. EDSAC
D. UNIVAC
III. DISADVANTAGES OF FIRST-GENERATION COMPUTER
A. Huge in size
B. Costly commercial production
C. Unreliable
D. Environmental Hazard
E. Slow
F. Consumed a lot of electricity
IV. ADVANTAGES OF FIRST-GENERATION COMPUTER
A. These computers fast and could calculate data in millisecond.
B. It has led to innovation of modern computers.
C. Vacuum tube technology made possible to make electronic digital
COMPUTERS
V. CONCLUSION
VI. REFERENCES

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 I. INTRODUCTION

A. general overview of the history of computers

The computer as we know it today had its beginning with a 19th century English mathematics
professor name Charles Babbage.
He designed the Analytical Engine and it was this design that the basic framework of the
computers of today are based on.

Generally speaking, computers can be classified into three generations. Each generation lasted
for a certain period of
time, and each gave us either a new and improved computer or an improvement to the existing
computer.

First generation: 1937 – 1946 - In 1937 the first electronic digital computer was built by Dr. John
V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. It was called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). In 1943 an
electronic computer name the Colossus was built for the military. Other developments
continued until in 1946 the first general– purpose digital computer, the Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was built. It is said that this computer weighed 30 tons, and
had 18,000 vacuum tubes which was used for processing. When this computer was turned on
for the first-time lights dim in sections of Philadelphia. Computers of this generation could only
perform single task, and they had no operating system.

In this generation vacuum tubes are used in computers and computers are big enough that one
computer could be such big as a whole room. there was nothing really good in the first
generation of computers all you could do was type a document, do a math problem. there was
no concept of architecture, the implementation was the architecture and every model of
computer was totally different. Software portability did not exist.

(Campbell, Kelly 1999)

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B. Definition of Some terms

1. Punch cards

Its memory was made of mercury filled acoustic delay lines that held digital numbers. It
used magnetic tapes that stored data.

(Lee J, lee 2009)

2. Pascal

A computer programming language developed about 1970 by Niklaus Wirth of

Switzerland to teach structured programming, which emphasizes the orderly use of
conditional and loop control structures without GOTO statements.

(Knuth, Donald 2005)

3. Bug

Is an error, flaw, failure or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to

produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways

(William, Michael 1985)

4. Abacus

An instrument for performing calculations by sliding counters along rods or in grooviest

was invented by the Chinese used to do tabulation of data.

(Knuth, Donald 2005)

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 II.TYPES OF FIRST-GENERATION COMPUTER

EDVAC was the first electronic stored-program digital computer to be proposed in the
U.S. ACE and EDVAC had fundamental difference - like Ace used distributed processing
while EDVAC had a centralized structure. Von Neumann, conceiver of EDVAC was a
distinguished figure and his writings and public addresses made the concept of high-
speed, stored-program digital computer, widely known. Thus, these computers, though
inappropriate, are often referred to as the "Von Neumann machine".

(Brinkley, Alan 1865)

ENIAC the first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer, built during
World War II by the United States. In the United States, government funding during the
war went to a project led by John Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert, Jr., and their colleagues at
the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania; their
objective was an all-electronic computer. Under contract to the army and under the
direction of Herman Goldstone, work began in early 1943 on ENIAC

(Campbell, Kelly 1946)

EDSAC The Electronic delay storage automatic calculator was an early British computer.
It became the first stored-program computer in regular use, heralding the transition
from test to tool. EDSAC performed its first calculation at the Cambridge University in
England. EDSAC used mercury delay lines for memory and 3,000 vacuum tubes for logic.

(Corry, Leo 2005)

• UNIVAC The Universal Automatic Computer or UNIVAC was a computer milestone

achieved by Dr. Presper Eckert and Dr. John Mauchly, the team that invented the ENIAC
computer. The UNIVAC had an add time of 120 microseconds, multiply time of 1,800
microseconds and a divide time of 3,600 microseconds.
• Input consisted of magnetic tape with a speed of 12,800 characters per second with a
read-in speed of 100 inches per second, records at 20 characters per inch, records at 50
characters per inch, card to tape converter 240 cards per minute, 80 column punched
card input 120 characters per inch, and punched paper tape to magnetic tape converter
200 characters a second.
• Output media/speed was magnetic tape/12,800 characters per second, unprinted/10-11
characters per second, high-speed printer/600 lines per minute, tape to card
converter/120 cards per minute, Rad Lab buffer storage/Hg 3,500 microsecond, or 60
words per minute.

(Knuth, Donald 2005)

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 III. DISADVANTAGES OF FIRST-GENERATION COMPUTERS

A. Huge in size
First generation computers were very huge in size. They used vacuum tube which were bulky
and gigantic. These made the computers less portable and very inefficient. In case of errors in
the components it was very hard for the problem to be realized. were huge in size majorly
because of their memory storage, even a kilo byte of data storage was stored in a huge device,
and also the processors also were huge. It took over weeks for the problem to be located. For
instance, the origin of the term Bug came about because of the problem that one of the
computers had it. The problem was later found after a long time that it had been an insect
stuck between the vacuum tube. The computers were huge that it could not fix in room. A lot of
space was wasted by the computers. The first-generation computers used vacuum tubes for
circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms.
(William, Michael 1985)

B. Costly commercial production

Materials used in making of the computers were very expensive to find, this made production
cost very expensive. This was mainly brought about because of the factor of world war. First
generation computers were developed in the first world war. Where machinery was very hard
and expensive to acquire. Labor force required in the making of the computers was large
because of its size and functionality. Also, it used to require high maintainers cost. Materials
used to wear out easily because of low quality. And also, in that they were very hard to acquire.
(Pennington, Ralph H 1985)

C. Unreliable
First generation computers were very unreliable, in that some of calculation is used to perform
were wrong at time. It was not perfect it had a lot of flaws and errors. Due to overheating the
computers were to be shut down for days in order for them to cool off and continue to perform
task. In case of errors. It was very hard for it to be noticed for that they were gigantic. So,
people found it hard sometime to be relied upon. First generation had poor programing
language. Only few people knew and were familiar with the language. In case of fault, the
programmer was waited for long to come and fix the system.
(Kaltman, Erick 2008)

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 D. Environmental Hazard

First generation used to produce a lot of heat, this made environment near it inconvenient for
life and human stay. Vacuum tubes produced a lot of radiation, which is hazardous to the
environment and life. The computers produced a lot of smoke to the environment. The smoke
and heat the computers produced were hazardous to the environment.
(Campbell, Kelly 2005)
E. Slow
First Generation used Vacuum Tubes systems which made computers too slow to perform all
calculations efficiently. They were slow input and output devices and took a long time to solve
problems, batch processing operating system were used. The machine had low processing
power in that it took a lot of time to process data into information that was readable to the
users. Punch cards used were not very interactive with the computer, this made input of data
very slow.
(http://web.a.ebcohost.com/)
F. Consumed a lot of electricity
Because of the vacuum tubes and magnetic drums, a lot of power was really wasted on the
computers. these early computers used vacuum tubes as circuitry and magnetic drums for
memory. As a result, they were enormous, literally taking up entire rooms and costing a fortune
to run. These were inefficient materials which generated a lot of heat, sucked huge electricity
and subsequently generated a lot of heat which caused ongoing breakdowns. This led to also
high cost of production.
(Richard, Harrington 1865)

IV. ADVANTAGES OF FIRST-GENERATION COMPUTERS

A. These computers fast and could calculate data in millisecond

1st generation computer was better and faster than doing computation by hand, which is what
was done before. If the baud rate of the terminal is about 300, you can scroll and read without
pausing. Fastest calculating device of their time. Vacuum tube were the electronic components
available during those days. first generation (programming) language (1GL) is a grouping of
programming languages that are machine level languages used to program first-generation
computers. Originally, no translator was used to compile or assemble the first-generation

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language. The first-generation programming instructions were entered through the panel
switches of the computer system.
The instructions in 1GL are made of binary numbers, represented by 1s and 0s. This makes the
language suitable for the understanding of the machine but far more difficult to interpret and
learn by the human programmer.
The main advantage of programming in 1GL is that the code can run very fast and very
efficiently, precisely because the instructions are executed directly by the central processing
unit (CPU). One of the main disadvantages of programming in a low level language is that when
an error occurs, the code is not as easy to fix.
First generation languages are very much adapted to a specific computer and CPU, and code
portability is therefore significantly reduced in comparison to languages. Even though the
lowest-level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they
could only solve one problem at a time. It would take operators days or even weeks to set-up a
new problem. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on
printouts.
(Warford, Stanley 1991)

B. led to innovation of modern computers

The History of computing hardware covers the development from early simple devices
to aid calculations were done to modern day computers. Before the 20th century, most
calculations were done by humans. Early mechanical tools to help humans with digital
calculations, such as the abacus, were called “calculating machines”, called by
proprietary names, or referred to as calculators. The machine operator was the
computer
The first aids to computing were purely mechanical devices which required the operator
to set up the initial values of an elementary arithmetic operation. Then manipulate the
device to obtain the result. Later, computers represented numbers in a continuous
form, for instance distance along a scale, rotation of a shaft, or a voltage. Numbers
could also be represented in the form of digits, automatically manipulated by a
mechanical mechanism. Although this approach generally required more complex
mechanism, it greatly increased the precision of results. A series of breakthroughs, such
as miniaturized transistor computers, and integrated circuits digital computers to largely
replace analog computers. The cost of computers generally became so low that by the
1990s, personal computers, and then, in the 2000s, mobile computers, (smartphones
and tablets) became ubiquitous. Through this, a lot of innovation were able to come
across. People opened their minds on computers and its functionality

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(Corry, Leo 2005)
C. Vacuum tube technology made possible to make electronic
digital computer

After Babbage`s Unsuccessful effort, little progress was made in constructing digital
computers until world war II, which stimulated an explosion of activity. Prof.John
Atanasoff and his graduate student Clifford Berry built what is now regarded as the first
digital computer at lowa state university. It used 300 vacuum tube. At about the same
time, Konrad ruse in Berlin the Z3 computer out of relays. In 1944, the colossus was built
by a group at Bletchley park, England, the, Mark 1 was built by Howard Aiken at
Harvard, and the ENIAC was built by William Muchley and his graduate student Presper
Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania’s were binary, some used vacuum tubes, some
were programmable, but all were very primitive and took seconds to perform even the
simplest calculation. In these early days, a single of people designed, built, programmed,
operated and maintained each machine. All programming was done in absolute machine
language, or even worse yet by writing up electrical circuits by connecting thousands of
cables to plugboard. Programming languages were unknown. Operated systems were
unheard of. From the usual mode of operation was modernized into what we use today.

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 V.CONCLUSION

In conclusion the first-generation computer was more disadvantageous than

advantageous. The existence of first-generation language (machine) is almost
certainly due to the continued maintenance of fairly old legacy hardware and
software. It is highly unlikely that future new software will be written in first
generation languages, considering the target computer systems which will be
candidates for modernization.

First generation computers were based on vacuum tubes. The operating systems
of the first-generation computers were very slow, they were very large in size.
Production of the heat was in large amount in first generation computers
Machine language was used for programming.

First generation computers were unreliable, they were difficult to program and
use. They were difficult to program and use. According to the research done on
disadvantages of the first-generation computer. I Harrison Saitabau Nchoe come
up with conclusion the even though it has led to great innovations we have today
it was defective and it was more disadvantageous to the generation it was built
on, compared to how great it has been in our time in terms of computer
technology. So, first generation computers were mostly disadvantageous and it
proves that the thesis statement is true

(Kaltman, Erick 2008)

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 VI.REFERENCES
Brinkley, Alan. (1865). E 178.1. B826.American History (volume2). New York: Richard
Harrington.
Campbell, Kelly. (2008, February). The History and Economics of America`s Early Computer
Clusters (part 1)

Corry, Leo (2005). The Father of The Modern Computer (p 50-58)

Kaltman, Erick. (2008, November). The Stabilization, Exploration and Expression of Computer
History

Knuth, Donald. (2005).QA76.6 K64 PT1(VOL 4) The Art of Computer Programming (2nd Edition).
Washington DC: G. Ervin

Lee J, Lee Kc. (2009 August). The Long-Term Deflection Predation from Computer Vision
Measured Data History for High speed Bridges

Pennington, Ralph H. (1958) Introductory Computer Methods and Numerical Analysis. United
States: Joseph Smith

Warford, Stanley. (1991). Computer Science. New York

Williams, Michael. (1985). QA71.W66 1985. A History of Computing Technology (4th Edition).
United States

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