3. COMPUTER GENERATION
Computer has become a part of our life. Today along with calculations,
their work area is very wide-supermarket scaneners scan and calculate
our grocery bill and also keep store inventory, automatic teller
machines (atms) help us in banking transaction.
How the technology has developed and what its future course is. To
understand this first we should know about the different generation of
computers.
4. The Generations of Computer
A generation refers to the state of improvement in the
development of a product. This term is also used in the different
advancements of ICT.
The development of computer has undergone five major stages
known as computer generation.
With each new generation, the circuitry has gone smaller and more
advanced than the generation before it.
As a result, the speed, memory, and power of the computers have
increased proportionally.
5. Generations Time period Main component
First generation 1946- 1959 Vacuum tubes
Second generation 1959-1965 Transistors
Third generation 1965-1971 Integrated circuit (IC)
Fourth generation 1971-1980 LSI or VLSI
(Microprocessor)
Fifth generation 1980-onwards Artificial intelligence (AI)
6. 1st Generation
The First Generation computers were developed by Lee
DeForest during the period of 1940 to 1956.
First-generation computers used vacuum tubes and values as
their basic electronic component. They were extremely large
in size and reliable. The language used for storing and
processing data was machine language.
They were very expensive to operate and produced a lot of heat
often causing malfunctions.
They generate lots of heat .
7. 1st Generation (Continue)
The characteristics of the 1st Generation computers are the
following:-
1) The operating systems of the first generation computers were very
slow.
2) Machine language was used for programming.
3) First generation computers were unreliable.
4) They were very difficult to program and use.
UNIVAC, EDVAC, EDSAC, and ENIAC computers
are examples of first generation computing devices.
8. The disadvantages of the first-generation computers are:
1.They were too bulky.
2.They emitted large amounts of heat because they used lots of
vacuum tubes
3.AIR conditioning was required.
4.They were prone to frequent failure that’s why they were
unreliable.
5.They were not portable.
9.
10.
11. 2nd Generation
Second Generation computers were invented in 1947 by 3 scientists J.
Bardeen, H.W. Brattain, and W. Shockley but weren’t widely used until
the 50s.
In this generation of computers, transistors were used in place of
vacuum tubes.
Transistors are more compact than vacuum tubes as they are made up
of semiconductors. They are also more durable than vacuum tubes.
The Transistor made the second generation computers faster, smaller,
cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than the first-
generation computers.
Although it generated huge amounts of heat which could damage the
computer, it was still better than vacuum tubes.
12. 2nd Generation (Continue)
Second generation computer used the low level language
i.e. machine level language and assembly language which made
the programmers easier to specify the instructions.
In second generation computers, magnetic core was used as
primary storage.
Second generation computer had faster input /output devices which
thus brought improvement in the computer.
IBM 7000, NCR 304, IBM 650, IBM 1401, ATLAS, and Mark III are
some examples of Second generation computers.
14. The advantages that the second-generation computers had
over the
generation computers are:
They were smaller as compared to first-generation computers.
They generated less heat.
They took less computers time.
They were less prone to failure.
15. The disadvantages that second generation computer
had over the first generation commuter are:
They required Air Conditioning.
Frequent maintenance was required.
They were difficult and quite expensive
16.
17. 3rd Generation
During the period of 1964 to 1971, the Third generation computers
were developed by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.
In the third generation of computers integrated circuits (ICs)
began to be used. These ICs were called chips.
These ICs are more compact than a transistor. Single ICs has
many transistors, registers and capacitors, placed on a single thin
of silicon. So the computer built of such components became
smaller.
18. 3rd Generation (Continue)
The Third generation computers were faster, more reliable, smaller,
and cheaper compared to the Second generation computers.
It was due to the invention of Integrated Circuits that high level
language was developed.
They were able to reduce computational time and had low
maintenance cost.
Examples of third generation computers are PDP-8, PDP- 11, ICL
2900, IBM 360 and IBM 370.
19. Some of the computers developed during this period were :
IBM- 360- Developed by IBM in 1964.
PDP – 8 -Developed by DEC in 1965.
PDP- 11 - Developed by DEC IN 1970.
CRA 1 - Developed by CRAY research in 1974.
VAX - Developed by DEC 1978.
21. THE advantages that the third-generated computers had over the second-
generation computers were:
1.They were smaller in size as compared to the second-generation
computers.
2.They generated less heat.
3.They reduced computational time.
4.They involved low maintenance cost.
5.They were easily portable.
6.They were comparatively cheaper.
22.
23. 4th Generation
The Fourth generation computers uses microprocessors which was
1st introduced by Intel, invented by their employee Ted Hoff.
A microprocessor is a computer processor which incorporates the
functions of a computer's CPU on a single integrated circuit (IC), or
at most a few integrated circuits.
In microprocessors, thousands of integrated circuits are built onto a
single silicon chip, which means more speed, accuracy, and reliability.
24. 4th Generation (Continue)
The Fourth generation computers are the cheapest among all the
computer generations.
Many high-level languages were developed in the fourth generation
such as COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC, PASCAL and C language.
The fourth generation computers emerged with development of
the VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration).
Some Examples of Fourth generation computers are
IBM4341,DEC10,STAR1000,PUP11,and APPLEII.
26. THE ADVANTAGES OF FOURTH GENERATION
COMPUTERS OVER THIRD-GENERATION
COMPUTERS ARE:
They were cheaper.
They had a larger memory and high functional speed.
They consumed less power.
They generated a less amount of heat.
27.
28. 5th Generation
The Fifth Generation Computers have not still been developed
as it is in its developmental stage.
The goal of the fifth generation is to develop the device which
could respond to natural language input and are capable of
learning and self-organization.
Quantum computation and nanotechnology will be used in this
technology.
29. 5th Generation (Continue)
It is said that the fifth generation computers will use super large
scale integratedchips.
They will be able to recognize images and graphs.
They will be able to use more than one CPU for faster speeding
process.
Artificial Intelligence are intended to work with a natural language.
So we can say that artificial intelligence will have the power of human
intelligence.
32. Some useful technical terms
1. Raw facts or symbol used in computer.
2. Process of converting raw data in to information.
3. Data and instruction given to the computer.
4. The major part of computer that performs the processing
task.
5. An error due to wrong input.
6. The result of data processing.
7. Time period of forst generation computer.
Data
Data proc
Input
CPU
GIGO
Information
1946- 1959
33. 8. Main component used in the seconds generation of
computer.
9. A collection of four bits.
10. The repeatedly working capability of computer.
11. The capability of computer that tells that it can be used
in all fields.
12. The computer which are used for general purpose.
13. Error in the program.
14. Process of removing error in the program.
15. Main component used in the first generation of
computer.
Transistor
Nibble
Diligence
Versatility
Bug
Debug
PC
