The document summarizes the five generations of computers from the first to fifth generation. The first generation used vacuum tubes which were large, hot and unreliable. The second generation used transistors which were smaller, cheaper, more reliable and replaced vacuum tubes. The third generation used integrated circuits which packed many transistors onto a single chip, greatly increasing power and lowering cost. The fourth generation used microprocessors, a single chip that could do all the computing of a computer, originally made for calculators but leading to personal computers. The fifth generation involves artificial intelligence applications.

1. COMPUTER
GENERATIONS

2. FIRST GENERATION (VACUUM TUBES)

3. • Computers were huge, slow, expensive, and
often undependable.
• Use thousands of vacuum tubes, which took
up a lot of space and gave off a great deal of
heat just like light bulbs do.
• It's (VACUUM TUBES) purpose was to act like
an amplifier and a switch.

4. COMPUTERS DURING 1ST GENERATION
• ENIAC
• EDVAC (ELECTRONIC DISCRETE VARIABLE
AUTOMATIC COMPUTER)
• UNIVAC (UNIVERSAL AUTOMATIC
COMPUTER)

5. SECOND GENERATION (TRANSISTOR)

6. • John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter
Brattain – invented the transistor the would
replace the vacuum tubes forever.
• Transistor was faster, more reliable, smaller,
and much cheaper to build than a vacuum
tube.
• One transistor replaced the equivalent of 40
vacuum tubes.

7. THIRD GENERATION (INTEGRATED
CIRCUIT)

8. • Packs a huge number of transistors onto a single
wafer of silicon.
• Robert Noyce of Fairchild Corporation and Jack
Kilby of Texas Instruments independently
discovered the amazing attributes of integrated
circuits.
• Placing such large numbers of transistors on a
single chip vastly increased the power of a single
computer and lowered its cost considerably.

9. FOURTH GENERATION
(MICROPROCESSOR)
•

10. • Microprocessor - a single chip that could do
all the processing of a full-scale computer.
• Ted Hoff- invented a chip the size of a pencil
eraser that could do all the computing and
logic work of a computer.
• The microprocessor was made to be used in
calculators, not computers. It
led, however, to the invention of personal
computers, or microcomputers.

11. FIFTH GENERATION (ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE)

12. • Artificial intelligence, are still in development,
though there are some applications, such as voice
recognition, that are being used today. The use of
parallel processing and superconductors is
helping to make artificial intelligence a reality.
Quantum computation and molecular and
nanotechnology will radically change the face of
computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-
generation computing is to develop devices that
respond to natural language input and are
capable of learning and self-organization.

13. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING:
• Why did the ENIAC and other computers like
it give off so much heat? (Be very specific)
• How was space travel made possible through
the invention of transistors?
• Intel was started by who?
• What characteristics made the transistors
better than the vacuum tube?
• What did the microprocessor allow the
computers to do? and What was the
microprocessor's original purpose?