What is a computer that uses transistors as physical device called?

Computers whose physical devices use transistors are called "transistor computers", also known as "second-generation electronic computers." The transistor computer refers to the second generation computer from the late 1950s to the 1960s. Its host computer uses transistor physical devices. Because the physical device was changed from electron tubes to transistors, it is very light and has a relatively fast computing speed, reaching tens of dozens per second. Thousands of times.

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

Computers whose physical devices use transistors are called transistor computers and are the second generation of electronic computers.

Transistor computers refer to computers from the late 1950s to the 1960s. The host uses transistor physical devices, uses drums and disks as auxiliary storage, uses algorithmic languages ​​(high-level languages) for programming, and operating systems begin to appear.

Because transistors are used instead of electron tubes, they are very light and the calculation speed is relatively fast, reaching hundreds of thousands of times per second. At the same time, computer software technology has also made major breakthroughs. The concept of operating systems has been proposed, and advanced programming languages ​​​​such as FORTRAN and COBOL have also been developed, which has greatly improved the work efficiency of computers. Transistor computers are small in size, light in weight, fast in speed, strong in logic operation, and greatly improved in reliability. Their application fields have expanded to data processing, industrial control and other fields.

The basic logic components of transistor computers were changed from electron tubes to transistors. The internal memory uses a large number of magnetic cores made of magnetic materials, and the external memory uses magnetic disks. 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.

Main features

(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 programmers must relearn a programming method every time they learn an operating system, which also limits their development to a certain extent.

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