Second Generation Computers (1956-1963)

By 1948, the invention of the transistor greatly changed the compu­ter's development. The transistor replaced the large, cumbersome vacu­um tube in televisions, radios and computers. As a result, the size of electronic machinery has been shrinking ever since. The transistor was at work in the computer by 1956. Coupled with early advances in magnet­ic-core memory, transistors led to second generation computers that were smaller, faster, more reliable and more energy-efficient than their prede­cessors. The first large-scale machines to take advantage of this transis­tor technology were early supercomputers, Stretch by IBM and LARC by Sperry-Rand. These computers, both developed for atomic energy laboratories, could handle an enormous amount of data, a capability much in demand by atomic scientists. The machines were costly, howev­er, and tended to be too powerful for the business sector's computing needs, thereby limiting their attractiveness. Only two LARCs were ever installed: one in the Lawrence Radiation Labs in Livermore, California, for which the computer was named (Livermore Atomic Research Com­puter) and the other at the U.S. Navy Research and Development Cent­er in Washington, D.C Second generation computers replaced machine language with assembly language, allowing abbreviated programming codes to replace long, difficult binary codes.

Throughout the early 1960's, there were a number of commercially successful second generation computers used in business, universities, and government from companies such as Burroughs, Control Data, Honeywell, IBM, Sperry-Rand, and others. These second generations

computers were also of solid state design, and contained transistors in place of vacuum tubes. They also contained all the components we asso­ciate with the modern day computer: printers, tape storage, disk storage, memory, operating systems, and stored programs. One important ex­ample was the IBM 1401, which was universally accepted throughout industry, and is considered by many to be the Model T of the computer industry. By 1965, most large business routinely processed financial in­formation using second generation computers.

It was the stored program and programming language that gave com­puters the flexibility to finally be cost effective and productive for busi­ness use. The stored program concept meant that instructions to run a computer for a specific function (known as a program) were held inside the computer's memory, and could quickly be replaced by a different set of instructions for a different function. A computer could print custom­er invoices and minutes later design products or calculate paychecks. More sophisticated high-level languages such as COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) and FORTRAN (Formula Translator) came into common use during this time, and have expanded to the cur­rent day. These languages replaced cryptic binary machine code with words, sentences, and mathematical formulas, making it much easier to program a computer. New types of careers (programmer, analyst, and computer systems expert) and the entire software industry began with second generation computers.

Ответьте на вопросы к тексту:

1. Who succeeded in producing an all-electronic calculater?

2. What was the main advantage of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer?

3. When did the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer design?

4.Did the invention of the transistor change the computer`s development?

5. Why were second generation computers used successfully in business in 1960`s?

6. What languages did replace cryptic binary machine code?

7. What types of careers did appear with second generation computers?