FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER

Detailed explanation-1: -The IBM 608 calculator (shown at left) was the first completely transistorized computer available for commercial installation. Announced in April 1955, the 608 began the transition of IBM’s line of small and intermediate electronic calculators from vacuum tube to transistor operation.

Detailed explanation-2: -This was so obscure that a 12-day training session was necessary to get started with it. But IBM’s engineers saw a way to improve things. The transistor had been invented a few years before, in 1947, by a Bell Labs research team led by William Shockley.

Detailed explanation-3: -Working under Tom Kilburn at Manchester University, Richard Grimsdale and Douglas Webb, demonstrated a prototype transistorized computer on November 16, 1953. The 48-bit machine used 92 point-contact transistors and 550 diodes fabricated by STC, the UK arm of ITT.

Detailed explanation-4: -In January of 1954, supported by the military, engineers from Bell Labs built the first computer without vacuum tubes. Known as TRADIC (for TRAnsistorized DIgital Computer), the machine was a mere three cubic feet, a mind-boggling size when compared with the 1000 square feet ENIAC hogged.

Detailed explanation-5: -The chief designer of the circuits used in the IBM 608 was Robert A. Henle, who later oversaw the development of emitter-coupled logic (ECL) class of circuits. The development of the 608 was preceded by the prototyping of an experimental all-transistor version of the 604.