Background
The1950swasthefirstclimaxofcomputerdevelopment.Atthattime,themaincomponentsincomputerswereallmadeofelectrontubes,andlatergenerationswilluseelectrontubes.Thecomputeriscalledthefirst-generationcomputer.Thedevelopmentofcomputersinthisperiodhasthreecharacteristics:thatis,ithasexpandedfrommilitaryusetocivilianuse,fromlaboratorydevelopmenttoindustrialproduction,andatthesametime,ithasexpandedfromscientificcomputingtodataandtransactionprocessing.
Representedby"Agnac",abatchofcomputerswerequicklyintroducedtothemarket,formingthefirstgenerationofcomputerfamilies.Duringthisperiod,theAmericanHungarianscientistvonNeumannproposedtheconceptof"programstorage".Thebasicideawastomakesomecommonbasicoperationsintocircuits,andeachsuchoperationwasrepresentedbyanumber,soThisnumbercaninstructthecomputertoperformacertainoperation.Theprogrammerusesthesenumberstocompileaprogramaccordingtotherequirementsofsolvingtheproblem,andputstheprogramtogetherwiththedataintheinternalmemoryofthecomputer.Whenthecomputerisrunning,itcansequentiallyfetcheachinstructionintheprogramfromthememoryataveryhighspeedandexecutethemonebyonetocompleteallcalculationoperations.Itautomaticallyadvancesfromoneprograminstructiontothenext.Thejobsequenceisautomaticallycompletedbythe"conditionaltransfer"instruction."Programstorage"makesallcalculationsatrulyautomaticprocess.Itsappearanceishailedasamilestoneinthehistoryofelectroniccomputers,andthistypeofcomputeriscalled"vonNeumannmachine".
Features
Themainfeaturesofthefirstgenerationofcomputersare:
Usingelectrontubesasbasiccomponents;
Usingmercurydelaylinesasstoragedevices,andthengraduallytransitioningtousingmagneticcorememory;
Theinputandoutputdevicesaremainlypunchedcards,andusersuseItisveryinconvenient;
Thesystemsoftwareisstillveryprimitive,andtheusermustmasterthemethodofprogramminginabinarymachinelanguage.