THE VACUUM TUBE

-alternative called an electron tube or valve was 1st developed by John Ambrose Fleming in 1904.
The vacuum tube is a glass tube with its gas removed, creating a vacuum.
Vacuum tubes contain electrodes for controlling electron flow and were used in early computers as
a switch or amplifier.
-using vacuum tubes instead of mechanical relays, computers could move away from mechanical
switching and speed up switching on and off the flow of electrons.
Vacuum tubes were also use in radios, televisions, radar equipment, and telephone systems during
the first half of the 1900s.
The invention of the transistor started to replace the vacuum tube, as vacuum tube were larger,
fragile like a light bulb, and expensive.
-Alternatively called an electron tube or valve WAS first developed by John Ambrose Fleming in 1904.
The vacuum tube is a glass tube with its gas removed, creating a vacuum. Vacuum tubes contain
electrodes for controlling electron flow and were used in early computers as a switch or an amplifier.
The picture shows a collection of different vacuum tubes used with different devices.
By using vacuum tubes instead of mechanical relays, computers could move away from mechanical
switching and speed up switching on and off the flow of electrons. Vacuum tubes were also used in
radios, televisions, radar equipment, and telephone systems during the first half of the 1900s.
In the 1950s, the invention of the transistor started to replace the vacuum tube, as vacuum tubes
were larger, fragile like a light bulb, and expensive. As computing devices started to become smaller
in size, transistors were more ideal to use due to their smaller size.
Today, vacuum tubes are primarily used in high-end audio equipment, preferred by some audiophiles
as an alternative to digital systems.
CHARACTERISTICS OF VACUUM TUBE:
•Act as insulated, heat-resistant, tubular envelopes that surround a vacuum containing electrodes.
•Have electrical contacts placed on the ends of the vacuum tube, which direct the current to flow
through the vacuum via an airtight seal.
•Have leads designed to plug into a tube socket for easy replacement.
•Consist of two or more electrodes in a vacuum inside an airtight envelope.
•Have glass envelopes with a glass-to-metal seal based on kovar sealable borosilicate glasses, though
ceramic and metal envelopes (atop insulating bases) have been used.
•Have a positive electrode and a negative electrode between which a current is conducted through a
full or partial vacuum.
•Have a grid between the electrodes that controls the flow of electricity.
•Were used in early computers as a switch or an amplifier.
ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE OF 1st GENERATION COMPUTERS
The first generation of computers possessed characters that made this generation different from
other generations of computers. Although the first generation of computers was helpful during the
war times, the features of computers of first generation were incapable. For instance, all computers
made in the first generation were not able to calculate a large amount of data, and they were slow in
terms of speed.
It has been discussed by George Dyson that the technology vacuum tubes used in the first generation
of computers were very parochial and an inefficient technique; therefore, this generation of
computers had some of the features. On the use of computers made in the first generation, the
features of the computers of first generation had a general impact. Because as compared to the
advantages it carried, it brought various limitations. For instance, the size of the computer, it is one
of the limitations of using the first generation of computers. It was also unreliable and inconvenient,
Because when they were used, they produced an enormous amount of heat every time. That means
an air conditioner was needed by the first generation of computer users on the computer. This is
because the air conditioner keeps the computer's operating system cool down that led to work
effectively.
Additionally, they reduced the input and output devices as they were unreliable, which made it very
time consuming to use always. Also, because of the technology and size of the computers, they were
very expensive, that means that only big and established organization were able to purchase them.
the advantages and disadvantages of the first generation of Computers:
DISADVANTAGE-
 the first generation of computers was heavy in weight as about 30 tones and was very large in
size.
 They consumed high energy.
 As they used thousands of vacuum tubes through which they heated very soon.
 Due to the heat very soon, they were needed air condition in the computer room that keeps
computer's OS cool down, and computer work effectively.
 They needed constant miniatures, and sometimes they shut down automatically because of
heating the vacuum tubes.
 The only big and established organization were capable of buying the first generation of
computers as they were much expensive.
 They were not portable due to heavy in weight and large in size.
 They were very slow as they used a very narrow and inefficient technique (vacuum tubes).
 Also, due to the presence of magnetic drums, they included limited storage capacity only were
able to hold a small amount of information.
 They were not more functional as have limited programming capabilities.
 The first generation of the computer was dependent upon the lowest-level programming
language known as machine language, which is understandable only by the computer.
ADVANTAGES-
 computers were designed by using vacuum tubes that were the only available at that These time
in the form of electronic components.
 They were able to calculate data in a millisecond; also, they offered the pathway for the growth
of computer generations
 The first generation of computers were difficult to break, and as they were very robust.
 Also, vacuum tubes that were used in the first generation of computers; also made it possible to
make electronic digital computers
HISTORY OF COMPUTERS
Early History of Computer
Since the evolution of humans, devices have been used for calculations for thousands of years. One
of the earliest and most well-known devices was an abacus. Then in 1822, the father of computers,
Charles Babbage began developing what would be the first mechanical computer. And then in 1833
he actually designed an Analytical Engine which was a general-purpose computer. It contained an
ALU, some basic flow chart principles and the concept of integrated memory.
Then more than a century later in the history of computers, we got our first electronic computer for
general purpose. It was the ENIAC, which stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.
The inventors of this computer were John W. Mauchly and J.Presper Eckert.
And with times the technology developed and the computers got smaller and the processing got
faster. We got our first laptop in 1981 and it was introduced by Adam Osborne and EPSON.
The first computer that resembled the modern machines we see today was invented by Charles
Babbage between 1833 and 1871. He developed a device, the analytical engine, and worked on it for
nearly 40 years. It was a mechanical computer that was powerful enough to perform simple
calculations.
The first mechanical computer, The Babbage Difference Engine, was designed by Charles Babbage in
1822. The ABC was the basis for the modern computer we all use today. The ABC weighed over 700
pounds and used vacuum tubes. It had a rotating drum, a little bigger than a paint can, that had small
capacitors on it.
First general-purpose Computer
In 1837, Charles Babbage proposed the first general mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine
When was the 1st computer invented?
1822
In 1822, Charles Babbage conceptualized and began developing the Difference Engine, considered to
be the first automatic computing engine that was capable of computing several sets of numbers and
making hard copies of the results.
 ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANATGE OF VACUUM TUBE
ADVANATGES-

1.High-Quality Sound – Vacuum tubes are prized for their warm, rich, and natural sound, making
them a popular choice for audiophiles and music lovers alike.

2.Longevity – Unlike solid-state electronics, vacuum tubes can last for decades, making them a cost-
effective and long-lasting investment.

3.Ease of Maintenance – Vacuum tubes are relatively simple to repair and maintain, making them a
reliable option for electronics enthusiasts.

4.Versatility – acuum tubes have been used in a variety of applications, from early radio and
television broadcasting to musical instruments and amplifiers.

5.Nostalgic Charm – Vacuum tubes have a unique aesthetic appeal, harkening back to the golden age
of electronics and inspiring a sense of nostalgia in many.

DISADVANATGE-

1.Inefficiency – Vacuum tubes require a significant amount of energy to operate, making them less
efficient than modern solid-state electronics.

2.Large Size – Vacuum tubes are relatively large and bulky compared to their solid-state
counterparts, making them less suitable for compact electronics.

3.Fragility – Vacuum tubes are delicate and can be easily damaged, requiring careful handling and
storage.

4.High Cost – Vacuum tubes are more expensive than solid-state components, making them a more
costly option for electronics enthusiasts.

5.Obsolete Technology – Vacuum tubes have been largely replaced by solid-state electronics, making
them less common and less accessible for those seeking to use or repair them.

First Generation of modern computer (1946 - 1954)

The period of first generation was 1946 - 1954. Computers of first generation used vacuum tubes as
the basic components for memory and circuitry for Central Processing Unit. The first electronic
computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and calculator) was developed in 1947 at the
University of Pennsylvania, USA. This machine had vacuum tubes as switching devices. Von Neumann
introduced the concept of stored program by around the same time and the first digital computer
using program, EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator), was announced in 1949.

They were very large in size, consumed lot of power and emitted too much of heat. They required to
be housed in large air-conditioned rooms.
During this period, computer programming was mainly done in machine language. The user had to
be both an electronics expert and a programmer to use the computer for any task.

Example of First Generation of Computer:

1. ENIAC (1946)

2. EDSAC (1949)

3. EDVAC (1950)

4. UNIVAC (1951)

5.IBM-650

6.IBM-701

EXAMPLES OF 1ST GENERATION COMPUTERS:

1.ENIAC(1946)- ENIAC, in full Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, the first programmable
general-purpose electronic digital computer, built during World War II by the United States.
American physicist John Mauchly, American engineer J. Presper Eckert, Jr., and their colleagues at the
Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania led a government-funded
project to build an all-electronic computer. Under contract to the army and under the direction of
Herman Goldstine, work began in early 1943 on ENIAC. The next year, mathematician John von
Neumann began frequent consultations with the group. Designed specifically for computing values
for artillery range tables, it lacked some features that would have made it a more generally useful
machine. It used plugboards for communicating instructions to the machine; this had the advantage
that, once the instructions were thus “programmed,” the machine ran at electronic speed.
Instructions read from a card reader or other slow mechanical device would not have been able to
keep up with the all-electronic ENIAC. The disadvantage was that it took days to rewire the machine
for each new problem. This was such a liability that only with some generosity could it be called
programmable. Nevertheless, ENIAC was the most powerful calculating device built to date. It was
the first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer. Like Charles Babbage’s
Analytical Engine (from the 19th century) and the British World War II computer Colossus, it had
conditional branching—that is, it could execute different instructions or alter the order of execution
of instructions based on the value of some data. (For instance, IF X>5 THEN GO TO LINE 23.) This gave
ENIAC a lot of flexibility and meant that, while it was built for a specific purpose, it could be used for
a wider range of problems.

ENIAC was enormous. It occupied the 50-by-30-foot (15-by-9-metre) basement of the Moore School,
where its 40 panels were arranged, U-shaped, along three walls. Each panel was about 2 feet wide by
2 feet deep by 8 feet high (0.6 metre by 0.6 metre by 2.4 metres). With more than 17,000 vacuum
tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 1,500 relays, it was easily the most
complex electronic system theretofore built. ENIAC ran continuously (in part to extend tube life),
generating 174 kilowatts of heat and thus requiring its own air conditioning system. It could execute
up to 5,000 additions per second, several orders of magnitude faster than its electromechanical
predecessors. It and subsequent computers employing vacuum tubes are known as first-generation
computers. (With 1,500 mechanical relays, ENIAC was still transitional to later, fully electronic
computers.)
Completed by February 1946, ENIAC had cost the government $400,000, and the war it was designed
to help win was over. Its first task was doing calculations for the construction of a hydrogen bomb. A
portion of the machine is on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

EDSAC(1949)- EDSAC, in full Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, the first full-size stored-
program computer, built at the University of Cambridge, Eng., by Maurice Wilkes and others to
provide a formal computing service for users. EDSAC was built according to the von Neumann
machine principles enunciated by the Hungarian American scientist John von Neumann and, like the
Manchester Mark I, became operational in 1949. Wilkes built the machine chiefly to study computer
programming issues, which he realized would become as important as the hardware details.

EDVAC(1950)- EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) was one of the earliest
electronic computers. It was built by Moore School of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania.[1][2]:
626–628 Along with ORDVAC, it was a successor to the ENIAC. Unlike ENIAC, it was binary rather
than decimal, and was designed to be a stored-program computer.

ENIAC inventors, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, proposed the EDVAC's construction in August
1944. A contract to build the new computer was signed in April 1946 with an initial budget of
US$100,000. EDVAC was delivered to the Ballistic Research Laboratory in 1949. The Ballistic Research
Laboratory became a part of the US Army Research Laboratory in 1952.

Functionally, EDVAC was a binary serial computer with automatic addition, subtraction,
multiplication, programmed division and automatic checking with an ultrasonic serial memory[3]
having a capacity of 1,024 44-bit words. EDVAC's average addition time was 864 microseconds and its
average multiplication time was 2,900 microseconds.

UNIVAC(1951)- EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) was one of the earliest
electronic computers. It was built by Moore School of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania.[1][2]:
626–628 Along with ORDVAC, it was a successor to the ENIAC. Unlike ENIAC, it was binary rather
than decimal, and was designed to be a stored-program computer.

ENIAC inventors, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, proposed the EDVAC's construction in August
1944. A contract to build the new computer was signed in April 1946 with an initial budget of
US$100,000. EDVAC was delivered to the Ballistic Research Laboratory in 1949. The Ballistic Research
Laboratory became a part of the US Army Research Laboratory in 1952.

Functionally, EDVAC was a binary serial computer with automatic addition, subtraction,
multiplication, programmed division and automatic checking with an ultrasonic serial memory[3]
having a capacity of 1,024 44-bit words. EDVAC's average addition time was 864 microseconds and its
average multiplication time was 2,900 microseconds.

IBM-650 - The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is an early digital computer
produced by IBM in the mid-1950s.[1][2] It was the first mass produced computer in the world.[3][4]
Almost 2,000 systems were produced, the last in 1962,[5][6] and it was the first computer to make a
meaningful profit.[6] The first one was installed in late 1954 and it was the most-popular computer
of the 1950s.

The 650 was marketed to business, scientific and engineering users as a general-purpose version of
the IBM 701 and IBM 702 computers which were for scientific and business purposes respectively.It
was also marketed to users of punched card machines who were upgrading from calculating
punches, such as the IBM 604, to computers.

Because of its relatively low cost and ease of programming, the 650 was used to pioneer a wide
variety of applications, from modeling submarine crew performance to teaching high school and
college students computer programming. The IBM 650 became highly popular in universities, where
a generation of students first learned programming.

It was announced in 1953 and in 1956 enhanced as the IBM 650 RAMAC with the addition of up to
four disk storage units. The purchase price for the bare IBM 650 console, without the reader punch
unit, was $150,000 in 1959,[13] or roughly $1,500,000 as of 2023. Support for the 650 and its
component units was withdrawn in 1969.

The 650 was a two-address, bi-quinary coded decimal computer (both data and addresses were
decimal), with memory on a rotating magnetic drum. Character support was provided by the
input/output units converting punched card alphabetical and special character encodings to/from a
two-digit decimal code.

The 650 was clocked at a frequency of 125 kHz.[14] It could add or subtract in 1.63 milliseconds,
multiply in 12.96 ms, and divide in 16.90 ms. The average speed of the 650 was estimated to be
around 27.6 ms per instruction, or roughly 40 instructions per second.

IBM-701 - The IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine, known as the Defense Calculator while
in development, was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer and its first series production
mainframe computer, which was announced to the public on May 21, 1952.[1] It was invented and
developed by Jerrier Haddad and Nathaniel Rochester based on the IAS machine at Princeton.

The IBM 701 was the first computer in the IBM 700/7000 series, which were IBM’s high-end
computers until the arrival of the IBM System/360 in 1964.

The business-oriented sibling of the 701 was the IBM 702 and a lower-cost general-purpose sibling
was the IBM 650, which gained fame as the first mass-produced computer.