Generation 1 (1946 to 1955)
The first generation of computers occurred between 1940s and 1950s. The very first Computers were powered by vacuum tubes. Vacuum tubes were glass tubes that allowed electricity to pass through them.
Vacuum tubes were used as amplifiers and switches that changed the flow of energy. Using vacuum tubes allowed computers to store and send data electronically. The computers were very expensive, enormous, used a lot of electricity, and could only do the most basic of calculations.
They used punched cards and paper tape and information was shown on paper documents. They used machine language which was the most basic language mostly in binary and numbers which only machines could understand. The ENIAC machine by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert was the first highspeed electronic digital computer made in 1946 and widely believed to be the forefather to today's electronic computers.
