What electronic components were used in the second generation of electronic computers?

The electronic components used in the second generation of electronic computers are transistors. The second generation of electronic computers, also known as transistor computers, refers to computers from the late 1950s to the 1960s; the mainframe uses semiconductor devices such as transistors, uses drums and disks as auxiliary memory, uses algorithmic languages ​​(high-level languages) for programming, and begins The operating system appears.

The operating environment of this tutorial: Windows 7 system, Dell G3 computer.

The electronic components used in the second generation of electronic computers are transistors.

The second generation of electronic computers refers to electronic computers made of transistors, that is, transistor computers.

Transistor computers refer to computers from the late 1950s to the 1960s. Their hosts used semiconductor devices such as transistors, used drums and disks as auxiliary memories, and were programmed with algorithmic languages ​​(high-level languages). They began to appear operating system. Since transistors are used instead of electron tubes, they are very light and can operate at a relatively fast speed, reaching hundreds of thousands of operations per second.

• (1) Characteristics: In terms of hardware, transistors are used as logic components and magnetic core materials are used as memory; in terms of software, high-level programming is used, and in terms of applications, data processing and process control are used aspect expansion.

• (2) Major events: The emergence of the high-level language Fortran

  The basic logic components of transistor computers were changed from electron tubes to transistors (Transistor), and a large amount of magnetic materials were used in the internal memory The magnetic core is made, and the external memory uses a magnetic disk. At the same time, computer software technology has also developed greatly, and the concept of operating system has been proposed. In addition to assembly language, high-level programming languages ​​​​such as Ada, FORTRAN, and COBOL have also been developed, which greatly improves the work efficiency of computers.

The second generation computer has the following characteristics

(1) Transistors are used instead of electron tubes. Transistors have a series of advantages: small size, light weight, less heat, low power consumption, fast speed, long life, low price, and strong functionality. Using it as a switching component of a computer has brought a new leap forward in the structure and performance of the computer.

(2) Magnetic core memory is generally used as memory, and magnetic disks and tapes are used as memory. This increases storage capacity and improves reliability, creating conditions for the development of system software.

(3) Many far-reaching features in computer architecture have emerged one after another, such as index registers, floating-point data representation, interrupts, I/O processing, etc.

(4) Assembly language replaced machine language, and high-level languages ​​such as FORTRAN and CDBOL began to appear.

(5) The application scope of computers has further expanded and began to enter fields such as process control.

Compared with tube computers, transistor computers include an operating system, which can provide standardized programs for input and output, memory management, storage and other resource management activities. Developing applications no longer requires writing resource management programs. These operating systems allow programmers to call application software from operating system programs. However, early specialized operating systems developed by IBM and other computer manufacturers could only run on specific computers, and each had its own unique set of commands to call their programs. This means that every time a programmer learns an operating system, he or she must learn a new programming method, which also limits their development to a certain extent

Extended information:

The survival period of the second generation of foreign electronic computers is approximately 1957-1964. Its software began to use process-oriented programming languages, such as fortran, algol, etc. China's first transistor computer was built in 1967, with an operating speed of 50,000 operations per second.

Transistors generally refer to any single component based on semiconductor materials. Transistors have multiple functions such as detection, rectification, amplification, switching, voltage stabilization, and signal modulation. Transistors can be used in a variety of Digital and analog functions.

Transistors can not only realize the functions of electron tubes, but also have the advantages of small size, light weight, long life, high efficiency, low heat generation, and low power consumption.

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