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Mechanical Era (Dark Age)

The document provides a timeline of the evolution of computers from ancient times to the present organized into 5 generations: 1) The mechanical era from 3000 BC to 1822 used mechanical devices like the abacus. 2) The electro-mechanical era from 1890 to 1937 used electromechanical machines like Hollerith's tabulating machine. 3) The modern era is divided into 5 generations based on the core technology used: vacuum tubes (1940-1956), transistors (1956-1963), integrated circuits (1964-1971), microprocessors (1971-present), and artificial intelligence (present and beyond). Each generation saw improvements in size, speed, cost, programming languages, and applications.

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Fatima Ahmed
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945 views3 pages

Mechanical Era (Dark Age)

The document provides a timeline of the evolution of computers from ancient times to the present organized into 5 generations: 1) The mechanical era from 3000 BC to 1822 used mechanical devices like the abacus. 2) The electro-mechanical era from 1890 to 1937 used electromechanical machines like Hollerith's tabulating machine. 3) The modern era is divided into 5 generations based on the core technology used: vacuum tubes (1940-1956), transistors (1956-1963), integrated circuits (1964-1971), microprocessors (1971-present), and artificial intelligence (present and beyond). Each generation saw improvements in size, speed, cost, programming languages, and applications.

Uploaded by

Fatima Ahmed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Q# Develop a timeline to represent the evolution of computers.

Mechanical Era (Dark Age)

Year Machine Inventor


3000 BC Abacus Chinese Mathematician
1612 A.D Napier Bones John Napier
1622 A.D Slide Rule William Oughtred
1642 A.D Pascaline Blaise Pascal
1694 A.D Leibniz Calculator Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
1822 A.D Difference Engine Charles Babbage
1937 A.D Analytical Engine Charles Babbage

Electro-Mechanical Era (Middle Era)

Year Machine Inventor


1890 A.D Tabulating Machine Herman Hollerith

Q# Prepare a table of generations.


Examples of
Generations Period Technology
Machines
First 1940 to 1956 Vacuum Tubes ENIAC, UNIVAC
Second 1956 to 1963 Transistors IBM 7094, IMB 1401
Third 1964 to 1971 Integrated Circuits (ICs) IBM 360, IBM 370
Apple Macintosh, IBM
Fourth 1971 to present Microprocessors
PC
Fifth Present and beyond Artificial Intelligence Robots

Q# Write down the characteristics of all generations.


Generations of computer: The modern age is further divided into different generations on the basis of
the core technology used to build computers.

First Generation (1940-1956):


 The first generation computers used vacuum tubes.
 Magnetic drums were used as primary internal storage medium and punched cards for input.
 First generation computers relied on machine language.
 Batch processing system was used.
 They were not easy to operate.
 These computers were used primarily for scientific and research purposes.
 The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first generation computing devices.

Advantages:

 They were the first devices to hold memory.


 Use of vacuum tube technology made possible to make an electronic digital computer.

Disadvantages:

 The computers were very larger in size


 They consumed a large amount of energy.
 They heated very soon due to thousands of vacuum tubes.
 They were not very reliable and needed maintenance often.
 Air conditioning was required.

Second Generation (1956-1963):


 In this generation, vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors.
 Assembly language and a high-level language FORTRAN was introduced.
 Magnetic core was used as primary internal storage and punched cards were used for input.
 Batch processing and multiprogramming operating systems were used.
 These computer were mainly used for commercial productions, scientific and engineering
analysis and design.
 IBM 7094 and IBM 1401 are examples of first generation computing devices.

Advantages:

 The size of these computers reduced from the first generation.


 They were faster, reliable and more efficient.

Disadvantages:

 The cooling system was required.


 Constant maintenance required.

Third Generation (1954-1971):


 In this generation, Integrated circuits (ICs) were introduced.
 High level programming languages such as COBOL and Pascal were introduced.
 Instead of punch cards, users interacted with the third generation computers through keyboards
and monitors.
 Time sharing and Real-time operating system were used.
 The use of computers extended to database management and automatic industrial control.
 IBM 360 and IBM 370 are the examples of third generation computing devices.

Advantages:
 Due to the use of ICs, the size of the computers decrease.
 The speed and efficiency was increased.
 They were cheaper.

Disadvantages:

 Air conditioning was required.


 Highly sophisticated technology required for the manufacturing of IC chips.

Fourth Generation (1971-Present):


 In this generation, microprocessors were introduced in which thousands of integrated circuits
were built onto a single silicon chip.
 They used semi-conductor memories RAM and ROM.
 More high level languages were introduced like C, C++, Java etc.
 Fourth generation computers also saw the development of Graphical User Interface (GUIs).
 Time sharing and distributed operating systems are used.
 These computers are used in almost every field of life.
 Apple Macintosh and IBM PC are examples of fourth generation computing devices.

Advantages:

 Smaller in size and much reliable than other generations of computer.


 The heat generation was minor.
 No cooling system required in many cases of the fourth-generation computer.
 Portable and cheaper than the older versions.
 Fourth generations computer were much faster than the older generations.

Disadvantages:

 The latest technology is required for the manufacturing of Microprocessors.

Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond):


 Fifth generation computers are still being developed.
 These computers will be capable of self-learning, reasoning and generalization.
 They will have artificial intelligence.
 They will be able to recognize images, graphs and will also be able to process human languages.

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