FIRST GENERATION COMPUTERS (1940-1956)

The first  generation computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory and were often very large taking up entire rooms.

These generation used binary code that consists of strings of only zero's (0's) and one's (1's). The use of binary code is difficult to learn and use.

First generation computers relied on machine language (series of 1's and 0's), the lowest level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time.

Input was based on punch cards and paper tapes, and output was displayed on printouts.