Second generation of computers

The second generation of computers replaced vacuum tubes with transistors. That is why second generation computers are smaller and consume less electricity than the previous ones. Communication with these new computers is through languages more advanced than machine language, which are called "low-level languages".

The main characteristics of the second generation computers are:

• They were programmed with low-level languages.

• 1959: Maurice Wilkes invents microprogramming, which greatly simplifies the development of the CPUs

• 1959: IBM sent the mainframe IBM 1401 based on transistors, using perforated cards. It proved to be a general purpose computer and 12 000 units were sold, making it the most successful machine until then. It had a magnetic core memory of 4000 characters (after extending to 16 000 characters). Many aspects of their designs were based on the desire to replace the use of perforated cards, which were widely used from the 1920s to the early 1970s.

• 1960: IBM launched the mainframe IBM 1620 based on transistors, originally with only one perforated paper ribbon, but soon updated to perforated cards. It proved to be a popular scientific computer and sold approximately 2000 units. It used a magnetic core memory of over 60 000 digits of decimals.

• 1962: The first computer game is developed, called Spacewar!.

• DEC launched the PDP-1, the first machine for use by technical staff in laboratories and for research.

• 1964: IBM announced the 360 series, which was the first family of computers that could run the same software in different combinations of speed, capacity and price. It also opened the commercial use of microprograms, and a set of extended instructions to process many types of data, not just arithmetic. In addition, the IBM product line was unified, which previously had two separate lines, a “commercial” product line and a “scientific” line. The software provided with the System/350 also included further advances, including commercially available multi-programming, new programming languages, and independence of input/output device programs. More than 14 000 System/360 units had been delivered in