HISTORY OF SECOND GENERATION OF COMPUTER(1957-1965)

THE SECOND GENERATION OF COMPUTING TOOK PLACE BETWEEN 1957 AND 1965. COMPUTERS WERE NOW IMPLEMENTING TRANSISTORS, WHICH HAD BEEN INVENTED IN 1947 BY A GROUP OF RESEACHERS AT BELL LABORATORIES, INSTEAD OF VACUUM TUBES. BECAUSE OF THE TRANSISTOR AND ADVANCES IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, COMPUTERS WERE NOW CHEAPER, FASTER, MORE RELIABLE, AND CHEAPER THAN EVER BEFORE. MORE UNIVERSITIES, BUSINESSES, AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES COULD ACTUALLY AFFORD COMPUTERS NOW. IN 1957 THE FIRST FORTRAN COMPILER WAS RELEASED. FORTRAN WAS THE FIRST HIGH-LEVEL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE EVER MADE. IT WAS DEVELOPED BY IBM FOR SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING USE. IN 1959, THE COMMON BUSINESS-ORIENTED LANGUAGE (COBOL) PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE WAS RELEASED. WHERE FORTRAN WAS DESIGNED FOR SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, COBOL WAS DESIGNED TO SERVE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS WITH THEIR FINANCES AND ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS. THESE TWO PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES ESSENTIALLY HELPED TO CREATE THE OCCUPATION OF A PROGRAMMER. BEFORE THESE LANGUAGES, PROGRAMMING COMPUTERS REQUIRED ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE. THIS GENERATION OF COMPUTERS ALSO HAD AN INCREASE IN THE USE OF CORE MEMORY AND DISKS FOR MASS STORAGE. A NOTABLE COMPUTER TO MENTION FROM THIS TIME PERIOD IS THE IBM SYSTEM/360, A MAINFRAME COMPUTER THAT IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE IMPORTANT MILESTONES IN THE INDUSTRY. IT WAS ACTUALLY A FAMILY OF COMPUTER MODELS THAT COULD BE SOLD TO A WIDE VARIETY OF BUSINESSES AND INSTITUTIONS.