EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN ELECTROMAGNETIC DATA PROCESSING

All the early machine, except for Babbage's analytical engine, were essentially single- purpose devises. These machines were designed to perform a specific task or set of tasks. The major innovation of the first modern-age machines was its capability to perform automatically a long sequence of varied arithmetical and logical operations.

The completed device was known as the MARK I digital computer. The first electromagnetic digital computer to be put into full operation was built as a secret wartime project. This machine, which used vacuum tubes, was called the "ENIAC" computer. Following the war, work began on the "EDVAC", a computer which worked on the stored program concept.

1. MARK I = The official name of MARK I was Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator. It was approximately 50 feet long and 8 feet high, and consisted of some 700,000 moving parts and several hundreds miles of wiring. The MARK I could perform the four basic arithmetic operations and could locate information stored in tabular form. It processed numbers up to 23 digits long, and could multiply three eight-digit numbers in a second. Internal operations were controlled automatically with electromagnetic relays and the arithmetical counters were mechanical. It was not an electronic computer but was rather an electromechanical one since it was powered by an electric motor ans used switches ad relays. It was also the first automatic general-purpose digital computer.

2. THE ENIAC = was developed during the the period 1943 to 1946. It was the first Large - scale vacuum-tubes computer. The ENIAC is an acronym for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator. It consisted of over 18,000 vacuum tubes and required the manual setting of switches to achieve desired results. It could perform 300 multiplications per second. Operating instructions were not stored internally; rather they were fed trough externally located plugboards and switches.

3. THE EDVAC = In 1946 a Hungarian-born mathematician John von Neumann proposed a modified version of the ENIAC. The modified version, EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer), would differ from the ENIAC in two profoundly important respects. First, the EDVAC would employ binary arithmetic. The MARK I and the ENIAC both used decimal arithmetic in all their calculations. VonNeumann showed that binary arithmetic would make for much simpler computer circuitry. Second, the EDVAC would have stored- program capability. He also proposed wiring a permanent set of instructions within the computer and placing these operations under a central control. He further proposed that the instructions codes governing the operations be stored in the same way that the data were stored - as binary numbers.

The EDVAC was not the first stored-program machine to go into operation. That honor went to an English-made computer, the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator).

4. COMPUTER GENERATIONS = Fourth-generation computers represent the state of the art today and the fifth generation is on the way. The term"generation" it refers to major developments in electronic data processing.

The Generation are:

• First Generation Computers
• Second Generation Computers
• Third Generation Computers
• Fourth Generation Computers

6. FIRST GENERATION COMPUTERS(1951- 1959)
With the beginning of the Korean War in 1950, the demand of many different kinds of computation increased greatly. The appearance of the first commercial computer, the UNIVAC, in 1951, marked the beginning of computers belonging to the first generation. The major innovation s then were the use of vacuum tubes in place of relays as a means of storing data in memory and the use of the stored-program concept. The addition of memory made the punched card system and the calculators virtually obsolete. The wire board was replaced by computer programs written in a new languages for processing.

No educational programs precisely met the requirements of the technology when the first generation computer became available. Early users were pioneering in the use of a new tool not designed specifically for their particular needs. Computer installations had to be staffed with a new breed of workers who initially had to cope with the necessity of preparing programs in a tedious machine language.

7. Second Generation Computers( 1959- 1964)

Solid-State components( transistors and diodes) and magnetic core storage formed the basis for the second generation of computers. The new transistor technology made the previous generation obsolete. A transistors performs the same functions as a vacuum tube, except that electrons move through solid materials instead of through a vacuum.

8. Third Generation Computers (1965- 1970)

Integrated solid-state circuitry, improved secondary storage devices, and new input/output devices were the most important advantages in this generation. The new circuitry increased the speed of the computer by a factor of about 10, 000 over the first generation computers. Arithmetic and logical operations were now being performed in microseconds or even nanoseconds.

9. Fourth Generation Computers ( 1970- Present)

The major innovations were in the development of microelectronics and in the development of different areas in computer technology such as; multiprocessing, multiprogramming, miniaturization, time-sharing, operating speed, and virtual storage. Because of microprocessors, the fourth generation includes large greater data processing capacity than equivalent-sized third generation computers .