Second generation computers represented a major leap forward in technological advances in computing. These new devices were based on transistor circuitry technology. Although the transistor was invented in the late 1940’s, transistor based computing did not come into its own until the mid ’50s and into the 60’s. Transistors, in addition to being much less bulky than their vacuum tube predecessors, were much faster tools for computing. The second generation of computer technology saw the early development of computing languages like COBOL that expanded the applications of computer technology. The transistor based computers were developed hand in hand with the rise of nuclear militarization.
Second generation computers relied on tiny solid state transistors that reduced the size and increased the efficiency of computers. This image is taken from http://216.54.19.111/~mountaintop/sam101/scopage_dir/Compfund/devcomp.html
jeremiahcomputerhistory 