SECOND GENERATION COMPUTERS (1955-1964)
DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSISTORS
ADVANTAGES:
• Wider commercial use
• Better portability as compared to the first generation computers
• Calculates data in microseconds
• Used faster peripherals like tape drives, magnetic disks, printer etc.
• Used Assembly language instead of Machine language.
• Accuracy improved.
DISADVANTAGES:
• Cooling system was required
• Constant maintenance was required
• Commercial production was difficult
• Only used for specific purposes
• Costly and not versatile
• Punch cards were used for input
Some significant innovations of this era…
•Floating point units – for real number calculations
- performed by libraries of software routines in early computers
•Index registers – for controlling loops
High-level programming languages were developed this time
I. FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator)
•OLDEST HIGH-LEVEL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
•John Backus for IBM
•FORTRAN IV and FORTRAN 77
•FORTRAN 77 includes a number of features not available in older versions of FORTRAN
-used block-if statements(if, then, else, end if) which replaced the if goto statements
II. COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language)
III. ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language)
DIODE & TRANSISTOR TECHNOLOGY
•basis of the electronic switches
•switching time: 0.3 microseconds.
TRADIC & TX-O
•1st machines built with this technology
SUPER MAGNETIC CORE MEMORY
•memory technology was based on magnetic core
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES (2GL):
•PROPERTIES:
- The code can be read & written by a programmer. To run on a computer it must be converted into a machine readable form, a process called assembly.
-The language is specific to a particular processor family & environment
Some of the computers of the Second Generation were …
- RELIED ON PUNCH CARDS FOR INPUT AND PRINT OUTS OF DATA
- SMALLER
- FASTER
- CHEAPER
- MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT
- MORE RELIABLE
- ALLOWED PROGRAMMERS TO SPECIFY INSTRUCTIONS INTO WORDS
ADVANTAGES:
• Wider commercial use
• Better portability as compared to the first generation computers
• Calculates data in microseconds
• Used faster peripherals like tape drives, magnetic disks, printer etc.
• Used Assembly language instead of Machine language.
• Accuracy improved.
DISADVANTAGES:
• Cooling system was required
• Constant maintenance was required
• Commercial production was difficult
• Only used for specific purposes
• Costly and not versatile
• Punch cards were used for input
Some significant innovations of this era…
•Floating point units – for real number calculations
- performed by libraries of software routines in early computers
•Index registers – for controlling loops
High-level programming languages were developed this time
I. FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator)
•OLDEST HIGH-LEVEL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
•John Backus for IBM
•FORTRAN IV and FORTRAN 77
•FORTRAN 77 includes a number of features not available in older versions of FORTRAN
-used block-if statements(if, then, else, end if) which replaced the if goto statements
II. COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language)
- MOST WIDELY USED PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE IN THE WORLD
III. ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language)
- recursive subprograms—procedures that could invoke themselves to solve a problem by reducing it to a smaller problem of the same kind. ALGOL introduced block structure, in which a program is composed of blocks that might contain both data and instructions and have the same structure as an entire program. Block structure became a powerful tool for building large programs out of small components.
DIODE & TRANSISTOR TECHNOLOGY
•basis of the electronic switches
•switching time: 0.3 microseconds.
TRADIC & TX-O
•1st machines built with this technology
SUPER MAGNETIC CORE MEMORY
•memory technology was based on magnetic core
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES (2GL):
•PROPERTIES:
- The code can be read & written by a programmer. To run on a computer it must be converted into a machine readable form, a process called assembly.
-The language is specific to a particular processor family & environment
Some of the computers of the Second Generation were …