A transistor computer is a computer which uses discrete transistors instead of vacuum tubes.
The
first generation of electronic computers used vacuum tubes, which generated large amounts of heat,
were bulky, and were unreliable. A second generation of computers, through the late 1950s and
1960s featured boards filled with individual transistors and magnetic core memory. These machines
remained the mainstream design into the late 1960s, when integrated circuits started appearing and
led to the third generation machines.
History
The University of Manchester's experimental Transistor Computer was first operational in November
1953 and it is widely believed to be the first transistor computer to come into operation anywhere in
the world. There were two versions of the Transistor Computer, the prototype, operational in 1953,
and the full-size version, commissioned in April 1955. The 1953 machine had 92 point-contact
transistors and 550 diodes, manufactured by STC. It had a 48-bit machine word. The 1955 machine
had a total of 200 point-contact transistors and 1300 point diodes,[1] which resulted in a power
consumption of 150 watts. There were considerable reliability problems with the early batches of
transistors and the average error free run in 1955 was only 1.5 hours. The Computer also used a
small number of tubes in its clock generator, so it was not the first fully transistorized machine.[2]
The design of a full-size Transistor Computer was subsequently adopted by the Manchester firm
of Metropolitan-Vickers, who changed all the circuits to more reliable types of junction transistors.
The production version was known as the Metrovick 950 and was built from 1956 to the extent of
six[1]or seven machines, which were "used commercially within the company"[3] or "mainly for internal
use".[1]
First commercial fully transistorized calculator
In April 1955,[6] IBM announced the IBM 608 transistor calculator which was first shipped in
December 1957.[7] IBM and several historians thus consider the IBM 608 the first all solid-state
computing machine commercially marketed.[6][8][9][10] The development of the 608 was preceded by the
prototyping of an experimental all-transistor version of the 604. This was built and demonstrated in
October 1954, but was not commercialized
First commercial fully transistorized large-scale computer
The Philco Transac models S-1000 scientific computer and S-2000 electronic data processing
computer, were the first commercially produced large-scale all transistor computers, which were
introduced in 1957. The Philco computer name "Transac" stands for Transistor-Automatic-Computer.
Both of these Philco computer models used the surface-barrier transistor in its circuitry designs, the
world's first high-frequency transistor suitable for high-speed computers.[12][13][14] The surface-barrier
transistor was developed by Philco in 1953.[15]
In Italy, Olivetti's first commercial fully transistorized computer was the Olivetti Elea 9003, sold from
1959
SECOND GENERATION
COMPUTERS
During the period of 1956 to 1963 second generation of computers were developed. The second generation computers
emerged with development of Transistors. The transistor was invented in 1947 by three scientists J. Bardeen, H.W.
Brattain and W. Shockley. A transistor is a small device made up of semiconductor material like germanium and
silicon. Even though the Transistor were developed in 1947 but was not widely used until the end of 50s. The
transistor made the second generation computers faster, smaller, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable
than their first-generation computers. Even though the transistor used in the computer generated enormous amount
of heat which ultimately would lead to the damage of the computers but was far better than vacuum tubes.
Second generation computers used the low level language i.e. machine level language and assembly language which
made the programmers easier to specify the instructions. Later on High level language programming were introduced
such as COBOL and FORTRAN. Magnetic core was used as primary storage. Second generation computer has faster
input /output devices which thus brought improvement in the computer.
CHARACTERISTICS
1) Transistors were used in place of vacuum tubes.
2) Second generation computers were smaller in comparison with the first generation computers.
3) They were faster in comparison with the first generation computers.
4) They generated less heat and were less prone to failure.
5) They took comparatively less computational time.
6) Assembly language was used for programming.
7) Second generation computers has faster input/output devices.
IBM 7000, NCR 304, IBM 650, IBM 1401, ATLAS and Mark III are the examples of second generation computers.
THE IMPACT OF TRANSISTORS
Transistors transformed the world of electronics and had a huge impact on
computer design. Transistors made of semiconductors replaced tubes in the
construction of computers. By replacing bulky and unreliable vacuum tubes with
transistors, computers could now perform the same functions, using less power
and space.
Before transistors, digital circuits were composed of vacuum tubes. The story
of ENIAC computer speaks volumes about the disadvantages of vacuum tubes in
computers.
A transistor is a device composed of semiconductor materials (germanium
and silicon) that can both conduct and insulate Transistors switch and modulate
electronic current. The transistor was the first device designed to act as both a
transmitter, converting sound waves into electronic waves, and resistor,
controlling electronic current.
The name transistor comes from the 'trans' of transmitter and 'sistor' of resistor.
THE TRANSISTOR INVENTORS
John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain were all scientists at the
Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. They were researching
the behavior of germanium crystals as semiconductors in an attempt to replace
vacuum tubes as mechanical relays in telecommunications.
The vacuum tube, used to amplify music and voice, made long-distance calling
practical, but the tubes consumed power, created heat and burned out rapidly,
requiring high maintenance.
The team's research was about to come to a fruitless end when the last attempt to
try a purer substance as a contact point lead to the invention of the first "point-
contact" transistor amplifier. Walter Brattain and John Bardeen were the ones
who built the point-contact transistor, made of two gold foil contacts sitting on a
germanium crystal. When electric current is applied to one contact, the
germanium boosts the strength of the current flowing through the other contact.
William Shockley improved upon their work creating a junction transistor with
"sandwiches" of N- and P-type germanium. In 1956, the team received the Nobel
Prize in Physics for the invention of the transistor.
In 1952, the junction transistor was first used in a commercial product, a
Sonotone hearing aid. In 1954, the first transistor radio, the Regency TR1 was
manufactured.
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain took out a patent for their transistor. William
Shockley applied for a patent for the transistor effect and a transistor amplifier.
Processr=
Central Processing Unit
A central processing unit (CPU) is the electronic circuitry within a computer that carries out
the instructionsof a computer program by performing the basic arithmetic, logical, control
and input/output (I/O) operations specified by the instructions. The computer industry has used the
term "central processing unit" at least since the early 1960s.[1] Traditionally, the term "CPU" refers to
a processor, more specifically to its processing unit and control unit (CU), distinguishing these core
elements of a computer from external components such as main memory and I/O circuitry.[2]
The form, design, and implementation of CPUs have changed over the course of their history, but
their fundamental operation remains almost unchanged. Principal components of a CPU include
the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) that performs arithmetic and logic operations, processor registers that
supply operands to the ALU and store the results of ALU operations, and a control unit that
orchestrates the fetching (from memory) and execution of instructions by directing the coordinated
operations of the ALU, registers and other components.
Most modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning they are contained on a single integrated
circuit (IC) chip. An IC that contains a CPU may also contain memory, peripheral interfaces, and
other components of a computer; such integrated devices are variously
called microcontrollers or systems on a chip (SoC). Some computers employ a multi-core processor,
which is a single chip containing two or more CPUs called "cores"; in that context, one can speak of
such single chips as "sockets".[3] Array processors or vector processors have multiple processors
that operate in parallel, with no unit considered central. There also exists the concept of virtual
CPUs which are an abstraction of dynamical aggregated computational resources.[4]
History
Early computers such as the ENIAC had to be physically rewired to perform different tasks, which
caused these machines to be called "fixed-program computers".[5] Since the term "CPU" is generally
defined as a device for software (computer program) execution, the earliest devices that could rightly
be called CPUs came with the advent of the stored-program computer.
The idea of a stored-program computer was already present in the design of J. Presper
Eckert and John William Mauchly's ENIAC, but was initially omitted so that it could be finished
sooner.[6] On June 30, 1945, before ENIAC was made, mathematician John von
Neumann distributed the paper entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC. It was the outline of a
stored-program computer that would eventually be completed in August 1949.[7] EDVAC was
designed to perform a certain number of instructions (or operations) of various types. Significantly,
the programs written for EDVAC were to be stored in high-speed computer memory rather than
specified by the physical wiring of the computer.[8] This overcame a severe limitation of ENIAC, which
was the considerable time and effort required to reconfigure the computer to perform a new task.
With von Neumann's design, the program that EDVAC ran could be changed simply by changing the
contents of the memory. EDVAC, however, was not the first stored-program computer;
the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, a small prototype stored-program computer, ran
its first program on 21 June 1948[9] and the Manchester Mark 1 ran its first program during the night
of 16–17 June 1949.[10]
Early CPUs were custom designs used as part of a larger and sometimes distinctive
computer.[11] However, this method of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has largely
given way to the development of multi-purpose processors produced in large quantities. This
standardization began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has
rapidly accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit (IC). The IC has allowed
increasingly complex CPUs to be designed and manufactured to tolerances on the order
of nanometers.[12] Both the miniaturization and standardization of CPUs have increased the presence
of digital devices in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated computing machines.
Modern microprocessors appear in electronic devices ranging from automobiles[13] to
cellphones,[14] and sometimes even in toys.[15]
While von Neumann is most often credited with the design of the stored-program computer because
of his design of EDVAC, and the design became known as the von Neumann architecture, others
before him, such as Konrad Zuse, had suggested and implemented similar ideas.[16] The so-
called Harvard architecture of the Harvard Mark I, which was completed before EDVAC,[17][18] also
utilized a stored-program design using punched paper tape rather than electronic memory.[19] The
key difference between the von Neumann and Harvard architectures is that the latter separates the
storage and treatment of CPU instructions and data, while the former uses the same memory space
for both.[20] Most modern CPUs are primarily von Neumann in design, but CPUs with the Harvard
architecture are seen as well, especially in embedded applications; for instance, the Atmel
AVRmicrocontrollers are Harvard architecture processors.[21]
Relays and vacuum tubes (thermionic tubes) were commonly used as switching elements;[22][23] a
useful computer requires thousands or tens of thousands of switching devices. The overall speed of
a system is dependent on the speed of the switches. Tube computers like EDVAC tended to
average eight hours between failures, whereas relay computers like the (slower, but earlier) Harvard
Mark I failed very rarely.[1] In the end, tube-based CPUs became dominant because the significant
speed advantages afforded generally outweighed the reliability problems. Most of these early
synchronous CPUs ran at low clock rates compared to modern microelectronic designs. Clock signal
frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 4 MHz were very common at this time, limited largely by the
speed of the switching devices they were built with.
Microprocessors
Since the introduction of the first commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 4004 in 1970, and
the first widely used microprocessor, the Intel 8080 in 1974, this class of CPUs has almost
completely overtaken all other central processing unit implementation methods. Mainframe and
minicomputer manufacturers of the time launched proprietary IC development programs to upgrade
their older computer architectures, and eventually produced instruction set compatible
microprocessors that were backward-compatible with their older hardware and software. Combined
with the advent and eventual success of the ubiquitous personal computer, the term CPU is now
applied almost exclusively[a] to microprocessors. Several CPUs (denoted cores) can be combined in
a single processing chip.[42]
Previous generations of CPUs were implemented as discrete components and numerous
small integrated circuits (ICs) on one or more circuit boards.[43] Microprocessors, on the other hand,
are CPUs manufactured on a very small number of ICs; usually just one.[44] The overall smaller CPU
size, as a result of being implemented on a single die, means faster switching time because of
physical factors like decreased gate parasitic capacitance.[45][46] This has allowed synchronous
microprocessors to have clock rates ranging from tens of megahertz to several gigahertz.
Additionally, the ability to construct exceedingly small transistors on an IC has increased the
complexity and number of transistors in a single CPU many fold. This widely observed trend is
described by Moore's law, which has proven to be a fairly accurate predictor of the growth of CPU
(and other IC) complexity.[47]
While the complexity, size, construction, and general form of CPUs have changed enormously since
1950,[48] it is notable that the basic design and function has not changed much at all. Almost all
common CPUs today can be very accurately described as von Neumann stored-program
machines.[b] As the aforementioned Moore's law continues to hold true,[47] concerns have arisen
about the limits of integrated circuit transistor technology. Extreme miniaturization of electronic
gates is causing the effects of phenomena like electromigration and subthreshold leakage to
become much more significant. These newer concerns are among the many factors causing
researchers to investigate new methods of computing such as the quantum computer, as well as to
expand the usage of parallelism and other methods that extend the usefulness of the classical von
Neumann model.
List of Intel microprocessors
This generational list of Intel processors attempts to present all of Intel's processors from the
pioneering 4-bit 4004 (1971) to the present high-end offerings, which include the 64-bit Itanium
2 (2002), Intel Core i9, and Xeon E3 and E5 series processors (2015). Concise technical data is
given for each product.
1Latest desktop and mobile processors for consumers
o 1.18th generation Core/Coffee Lake/Kaby Lake Refresh
1.1.1Desktop
1.1.2Mobile
o 1.27th generation Core/Kaby Lake/Skylake-X/Apollo Lake
1.2.1Desktop
1.2.2Mobile
2All processors
o 2.1The 4-bit processors
2.1.1Intel 4004
o 2.2The 8-bit processors
2.2.18008
2.2.28080
2.2.38085
o 2.3Microcontrollers
2.3.1Intel 8048
2.3.2Intel 8051
2.3.3Intel 80151
2.3.4Intel 80251
2.3.5MCS-96 family
o 2.4The bit-slice processor
2.4.13000 Family
o 2.5The 16-bit processors: MCS-86 family
2.5.18086
2.5.28088
2.5.380186
2.5.480188
2.5.580286
o 2.632-bit processors: the non-x86 microprocessors
2.6.1iAPX 432
2.6.2i960 a.k.a. 80960
2.6.3i860 a.k.a. 80860
2.6.4XScale
o 2.732-bit processors: the 80386 range
2.7.180386DX
2.7.280386SX
2.7.380376
2.7.480386SL
2.7.580386EX
o 2.832-bit processors: the 80486 range
2.8.180486DX
2.8.280486SX
2.8.380486DX2
2.8.480486SL
2.8.580486DX4
o 2.932-bit processors: P5 microarchitecture
2.9.1Original Pentium
2.9.2Pentium with MMX Technology
o 2.1032-bit processors: P6/Pentium M microarchitecture
2.10.1Pentium Pro
2.10.2Pentium II
2.10.3Celeron (Pentium II-based)
2.10.4Pentium III
2.10.5Pentium II and III Xeon
2.10.6Celeron (Pentium III Coppermine-based)
2.10.7Pentium III Tualatin-based
2.10.8Celeron (Pentium III Tualatin-based)
2.10.9Pentium M
2.10.10Celeron M
2.10.11Intel Core
2.10.12Dual-Core Xeon LV
o 2.1132-bit processors: NetBurst microarchitecture
2.11.1Pentium 4
2.11.2Xeon
2.11.3Mobile Pentium 4-M
2.11.4Pentium 4 EE
2.11.5Pentium 4E
o 2.1264-bit processors: IA-64
2.12.1Itanium
2.12.2Itanium 2
o 2.1364-bit processors: Intel 64 – NetBurst microarchitecture
2.13.1Pentium 4F
2.13.2Pentium D
2.13.3Pentium Extreme Edition
2.13.4Xeon
o 2.1464-bit processors: Intel 64 – Core microarchitecture
2.14.1Intel Core 2
2.14.2Intel Pentium Dual-Core
2.14.3Celeron
2.14.4Celeron M
o 2.1564-bit processors: Intel 64 – Nehalem microarchitecture
2.15.1Intel Pentium
2.15.2Core i3
2.15.3Core i5
2.15.4Core i7
2.15.5Xeon
o 2.1664-bit processors: Intel 64 – Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge microarchitecture
2.16.1Celeron
2.16.2Pentium
2.16.3Core i3
2.16.4Core i5
2.16.5Core i7
o 2.1764-bit processors: Intel 64 – Haswell microarchitecture
o 2.1864-bit processors: Intel 64 – Broadwell microarchitecture
2.18.1Core i3
2.18.2Core i5
2.18.3Core i7
o 2.1964-bit processors: Intel 64 – Skylake microarchitecture
2.19.1Core i3
2.19.2Core i5
2.19.3Core i7
o 2.2064-bit processors: Intel 64 – Kaby Lake microarchitecture
o 2.2164-bit processors: Intel 64 – Coffee Lake microarchitecture
o 2.2264-bit processors: Intel 64 – Cannonlake microarchitecture
o 2.23Intel Tera-Scale
o 2.24Intel 805xx product codes
o 2.25Intel 806xx product codes
