The Computer Generations [Long Explanation ]

 

Generations of Computers

• 1st Generation 
• 2nd Generation 
• 3rd Generation 
• 4th Generation 
• 5th Generation 

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 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

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

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

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)

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

 

Sixth Generation Computers

The sixth generation of computers(since 1990) beginning at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, without a completion date since it is still considered to be in development. In effect, the technological advances of the previous generation are maintained in order to improve and/or expand them. The devices generated have the common feature of being designed for personal consumption, which has led to simplification, but at the same time, they are capable of performing different functions.

                Tim Berners-Lee: Computer scientist dedicated to working on the idea of a graphical browser user interface, in order to be able to navigate from texts connected to each other, generating a source of accessibility to the Internet. He develops the computer network called: Worldwide Web (WWW)

Some of the popular sixth generation computers and devices are;

• Laptops
• Pocket computers (PDAs):
• Multimedia devices
• Mobile Devices

Seventh Generation Computers

Using improved memory technologies and energy-efficient chipsets, they work faster and use less energy than any previous Intel CPUs. The 7th generation Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 desktop processors consume as little as 35W of power – with even the top-end CPU consuming a mere 95W

Eighth Generation Computers

As of 2001, it had been about 15 years since PCs had begun to support 32-bit processors (all processors from the 80386 up through the Intel Pentium 4 and AMD Athlon XP). In 2004, Intel introduced a series of 64-bit–enabled versions of its Pentium 4 desktop processor. ...

Questions from this unit:

1. What is generation?
2. What is the generation of computer?
3. The first generation of computer
4. Characteristics of the first generation of computer
5. Advantage of the first generation of computer
6. Disadvantage of the first generation of computer
7. The second generation of computer
8. Characteristics of the second generation of computer
9. Advantage of the second generation of computer
10. Disadvantage of the second generation of computer
11. The three generation of computer
12. Characteristics of the three generation of computer
13. Advantage of the three generation of computer
14. Disadvantage of the three generation of computer
15. The fourth generation of computer
16. Characteristics of the fourth generation of computer
17. Advantage of the fourth generation of computer
18. Disadvantage of the fourth generation of computer
19. The fifth generation of computer
20. Characteristics of the fifth generation of computer
21. Advantage of the fifth generation of computer
22. Disadvantage of the fifth generation of computer