 |
| Generations of Computer |
Generation of computers is characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful, and more efficient and reliable devices. Here we are discussion briefly to understand and remember easily.
Generation: First
Period: 1946-1954
Technology: Vaccume Tube
Language: Machine Language
Important Computers: ENIAC, EDSAC, IBM650
Features: large in size, slow in processing and had small storage capacity, consumed lots of electricity and produced excessive heat,
Period: 1955-1964
Technology: Transistor
Language: Assembly language and some high level languages like COBOL & FORTRAN
Important Computers: IBM 1401, UNIVAC LARC
Features: Smaller, reliable and more powerful, Printers, tape storage, disk storage, memory were started, Processing speed improved to microseconds
Generation: Third
Period: 1964-1971
Technology: ICs (Integrated Circuits)
Language: High Level Language
Important Computers: IBM 360, PDP8, HP2115
Features: Reduce computational time from microseconds to nanoseconds, multitasking operating system, Users interacted with computers through keyboards and mouse, consumed less power and generated less heat, Computers rarely failed, the maintenance cost was quite low,
Generation: Fourth
Period: 1971 – 1982
Technology: LSIC, VLSIC, ULSIC
Language: improvement in operating systems and high level programming language.
Important Computers: mini computers and microcomputers, IBM PCs to make the personal computers more affordable.
Features: microprocessor, user friendly software packages like word-processor and spreadsheet calculation. WAN, MAN, LAN and PAN networks came into existence.
Generation: Fifth
Period: 1982 – Till Now
Technology: ULSI (Ultra Large Scale IC) and Bio-Chips.
Language: High Level Language and the ability to use natural language and acquire artificial intelligence (AI)
Important Computers: PIM/m, PIM/p, PIM/i, PIM/k, PIM/c
Features: Parallel processing, voice recognition systems and some level of intelligence, able to understand and use the language that we use in speaking
Some Important points to remember
- An international conference in1962 divided the development of computers into five distinct generations based on main electronic component used on them.
- The computers that used vacuum tubes are first generation.
- Vacuum tube diode was developed by the English physicist Sir John Ambrose Fleming.
- Vacuum tube triode was invented in 1906 by the American engineer Lee De Forest.
- Second generation computers used transistors as their main electronic component.
- Transistors were invented in 1947 by trio Bell Lab scientists – Walter Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Bradford Shockley.
- Magnetic tapes and disks were used as main secondary storage media.
- Third generation computers used integrated circuits (ICs) also called microchip as main electronic component.
- Transistors were invented by two scientists independently in 1958 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation.
- Monitors and Keyboards were introduced in third generation for input and output of data.
- Fourth generation computers used LSI and VLSI microprocessors.
- Invention of microprocessors is the most startling development in fourth generation.
- Personal Computers (PCs) were introduced and are very popular. GUI was developed in fourth generation.
- The first microprocessor called Intel 4004 was developed by American Intel Corporation in 1971.
- The fifth generation computer project conducted jointly by several Japanese computer manufacturers under the sponsorship of the Japanese government, emphasized artificial intelligence.
- Artificial intelligence is the branch of computer science concerned with designing intelligent computer system that possesses reasoning, learning and thinking capabilities resembling those of a human being.
- Fifth generation computers will use super conductor technology – Gallium Arsenide chips or Biochips.
- Quantum computation and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years to come.