Generations of Computers
A generation of computers refers to the specific improvements in computer technology with time. In 1946, electronic pathways called circuits were developed to perform the counting. It replaced the gears and other mechanical parts used for counting in previous computing machines.
In each new generation, the circuits became smaller and more advanced than the previous generation circuits. The miniaturization helped increase the speed, memory and power of computers. There are five generations of computers which are described below;
First Generation Computers
The first generation (1946-1959) computers were slow, huge and expensive. In these computers, vacuum tubes were used as the basic components of CPU and memory. These computers were mainly depended on the batch operating system and punch cards. Magnetic tape and paper tape were used as output and input devices in this generation;
Some of the popular first-generation computers are;
ENIAC ( Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)
EDVAC ( Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)
UNIVAC 1( Universal Automatic Computer)
IBM-701
IBM-650
Second Generation Computers
The second-generation (1959-1965) was the era of the transistor computers. These computers used transistors which were cheap, compact and consuming less power; it made transistor computers faster than the first generation computers.
In this generation, magnetic cores were used as the primary memory and magnetic disc and tapes were used as secondary storage. Assembly language and programming languages like COBOL and FORTRAN, and Batch processing and multiprogramming operating systems were used in these computers.
Some of the popular second-generation computers are;
IBM 1620
IBM 7094
CDC 1604
CDC 3600
UNIVAC 1108
Third Generation Computers
The third generation computers used integrated circuits (ICs) instead of transistors. A single IC can pack a huge number of transistors which increased the power of a computer and reduced the cost. The computers also became more reliable, efficient and smaller in size. These generation computers used remote processing, time-sharing, multiprogramming as the operating system. Also, the high-level programming languages like FORTRON-II TO IV, COBOL, PASCAL PL/1, ALGOL-68 were used in this generation.
Some of the popular third-generation computers are;
IBM-360 series
Honeywell-6000 series
PDP(Personal Data Processor)
IBM-370/168
TDC-316
Fourth Generation Computers
The fourth-generation (1971-1980) computers used very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits; a chip containing millions of transistors and other circuit elements. These chips made this generation computers more compact, powerful, fast and affordable. These generation computers used real-time, time-sharing and distributed operating systems. The programming languages like C, C++, DBASE were also used in this generation.
Some of the popular fourth-generation computers are;
DEC 10
STAR 1000
PDP 11
CRAY-1(Super Computer)
CRAY-X-MP(Super Computer)
Fifth Generation Computers
In the fifth generation (1980-till date) computers, the VLSI technology was replaced with ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration). It made possible the production of microprocessor chips with ten million electronic components. This generation computer used parallel processing hardware and AI (Artificial Intelligence) software. The programming languages used in this generation were C, C++, Java, .Net, etc.
Some of the popular fifth generation computers are;
Desktop
Laptop
NoteBook
UltraBook
Chromebook
Find the below link for further references:
http://www.ftms.edu.my/images/Document/CSCA0201%20-%20Fundamental%20of%20Computing/csca0201_ch01.pdf
Recommended Questions:
1. Explain the evolution of computers. Further, state how computers in one generation are better than their predecessors.
2. Broadly classify computers based on their speed, the amount of data they can hold and price.(mainly Pentium III, Pentium IV, dual-core, Core2 duo, i3, i5, i7)
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