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.
There are five
generations of computers which are described below:
1.
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 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)
- UNIVACI(
Universal Automatic Computer)
- IBM-701
- IBM-650
2.
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 the 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
3.
Third
Generation Computers
The third generation
computers used integrated circuits (ICs) instead of transistors. A single IC
can pack 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, multi programming as 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
4.
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
system. 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)
5.
Fifth
Generation Computers
In 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 computers 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
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