Commercial Computers

1947 - Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation

The Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) (March 1946 – 1950) was founded by J.
Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. It was incorporated on December 22, 1947. After building
the ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania, Eckert and Mauchly formed EMCC to build new
computer designs for commercial and military applications.

• UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer)

The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) was the first general-purpose electronic
digital computer design for business application produced in the United States. It was designed
principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC. Design work was
started by their company, Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), and was completed
after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand.

• US Bureau of Census 1950 calculations

• Became part of Sperry-Rand Corporation

• Late 1950s - UNIVAC II

– Faster – More memory

IBM
• Punched-card processing equipment

Punch cards (or "punched cards"), also known as Hollerith cards or IBM cards, are paper cards
where holes may be punched by hand or machine to represent computer data and
instructions. They were a widely-used means of inputting data into early computers.

1953 - the 701

IBM introduced the 701 to the public on April 7, 1953. The 701 is IBM's first electric
computer .

In December 1952 IBM introduced the 701 , their first stored-program electronic
computer for commercial production. Designed by Nathaniel Rochester , and based on
the IAS machine at Princeton, the IBM 701 was intended for scientific use. Feeling that
the word "computer "” was too closely associated with UNIVAC, IBM called the 701 an
“electronic data processing machine.”

The 701 was designed for scientific and research purposes.

1955 - the 702

The IBM 702 was an early generation tube-based digital computer produced by IBM in
the early to mid-1950s.the 702 was aimed at business computing. The 702 was designed
for business data processing.

• Lead to 700/7000 series

The IBM 700/7000 series is a series of large-scale (mainframe) computer systems that were made
by IBM through the 1950s and early 1960s. The series includes several different, incompatible
processor architectures. The 700s use vacuum-tube logic and were made obsolete by the
introduction of the transistorized 7000s.

TRANSISTORS
The invention of the first transistor at Bell Labs in 1947. Transistors transformed the world of
electronics and had a huge impact on computer design. Transistors made of semiconductors
replaced tubes in the construction of computers. By replacing bulky and unreliable vacuum
tubes with transistors, computers could now perform the same functions, using less
power and space. transistor it can be used to create an integrated circuit, which is a much
smaller and cheaper alternative to the vacuum tube. The transistor was invented in 1947 by
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley at Bell Laboratories.

the transistor is a solid-state device that amplifies by controlling the flow of current carriers
through its semiconductor materials.

Silicon has historically been used to make transistors because it is a semiconductor, to alter
the flow of electrical current. Silicon has largely replaced germanium in transistors because of
its ability to continue operating at high temperatures.

Transistor Based Computers

A transistor computer, now often called a second-generation computer,[1] is a computer which
uses discrete transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The first generation of electronic computers used
vacuum tubes, which generated large amounts of heat, were bulky and unreliable.

NCR & RCA produced small transistor machines

The IBM 700/7000 series is a series of large-scale (mainframe) computer systems
that were made by IBM through the 1950s and early 1960s. The series includes
several different, incompatible processor architectures. The 700s use vacuum-tube logic
and were made obsolete by the introduction of the transistorized 7000s.
PDP- I
Around this time, the company’s first Programmed Data Processor, the PDP-1 computer, was
being designed. It used DIGITAL’s own system modules, which came from the existing range of
1OMC logic released in late 1959. The first PDP-1, delivered in December, was a high speed,
18.bit, small computer capable of addressing 32K of core memoy. An average configuration cost
$120,000 in an era when most computer systems were sold for a million dollars or more.

Generations of Computer
• Vacuum tube - 1946-1957

• Transistor - 1958-1964

• Small scale integration - 1965 on – Up to 100 devices on a chip

• Medium scale integration - to 1971 – 100-3,000 devices on a chip

• Large scale integration - 1971-1977 – 3,000 - 100,000 devices on a chip

• Very large scale integration - 1978 -1991 – 100,000 - 100,000,000 devices on a chip

Moore's law
Moore's law is the observation that over the history of computing hardware, the number of
transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. The period often
quoted as "18 months" is due to Intel executive David House, who predicted that period for a
doubling in chip performance (being a combination of the effect of more transistors and their
being faster). The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, who described the
trend in his 1965 paper. The paper noted that the number of components in integrated circuits
had doubled every year from the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 until 1965 and
predicted that the trend would continue "for at least ten years".His prediction has proven to be
uncannily accurate, in part because the law is now used in the semiconductor industry to guide
long-term planning and to set targets for research and development.

Since 1970’s development has slowed a little – Number of transistors doubles every 18 months

Cost of a chip has remained almost unchanged

Higher packing density means shorter electrical paths, giving higher performance
Smaller size gives increased flexibility .

Reduced power and cooling requirements

Fewer interconnections increases reliability