INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

IN
ELECTRONIC ERA
 ELECTRONIC ERA
It can be defined as the time between 1940 to the
present.

Electronic vacuum tubes replaced electromechanical

relays – switches. In 1939, a prototype with 300 tubes
was built in the United States.

Vacuum tube is
an electronic device that
controls the flow of electrons
in a vacuum. It is also called
as electron tube or valve.
 ELECTRONIC ERA
During World War II, Alan Turing was
engaged in solving the problem of
decommissioning German secret
messages. His approach to this problem
was based on finding a machine that
would be able to solve every problem
posed by a series of elementary
operations, and the memory should have
been large enough to store the
instructions required for the account. He
gave an abstract model of such a machine
known as the “Turing Machine”. It
contained 1800 pipes and could count
quickly.
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During the Second World War, Americans developed for the first time a fully
electronic computer ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer), the first real computer. It was made in November 1945. He worked
on the principle of electronic pipes and was primarily intended for the needs of the
army. It occupied a space of 139 square meters, it had 19,000 thermionic tubes and
diode and weighed about 30 tons.
 ELECTRONIC ERA
The basic principles of the architecture of today’s computers
were given by John von Neumann. He made a difference
between the physical part of the computer – the hardware
and logical part of the computer – the software.

He started working in 1943 at the Los Alamos Laboratory on

the EDVAK project together with John Mockley and John
Ekert. They invented the first fully electronic computer
that worked on the basis of a predetermined program.
 ELECTRONIC ERA
THE 4 MAIN SECTORS OF DIGITAL COMPUTING:
1. The first was the era of vacuum tubes and punch cards like
the ENIAC and Mark 1. Rotating magnetic drums were used
for internal storage.
2. The second generation replaced vacuum tubes with
transistors, punch cards were replaced with magnetic tape,
and rotating magnetic drums were replaced by magnetic cores
for internal storage.
3. The third generation replaced transistors with integrated
circuits, magnetic tape was used throughout all computers,
and magnetic core turned into metal oxide semiconductors.
4. The fourth and latest generation brought in CPUs (central
processing units) which contained memory, logic, and control
circuits all on a single chip. The personal computer was
developed (Apple II). The graphical user interface (GUI) was
developed.
 ELECTRONIC ERA
PAST PRESENT
ENIAC set speed A laptop today can
records with an do 500,000,000
amazing 5,000 additions per
additions per second.
second.
A notebook PC
ENIAC weighed today might weigh
more than 30 tons, in at about 3 pounds.
filled an 1,800-
square-foot room
and included 6,000
manual switches.
 ELECTRONIC ERA
TRIVIA:
• The term “bug” has been used for problems in machinery since electricity was invented.
But the first computer bug was actually a moth. In 1945, a computer being tested at
Harvard University stalled when a moth got caught inside. The engineers taped the moth
into their computer log with the note, “First actual case of bug being found.”

• You may know that “booting” your computer means starting it up. But did you know the
word comes from “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”? That’s an expression that
means taking charge of yourself, which is what a computer seems to do when it starts up.