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Computer-Generations New

The document discusses the five generations of computers from the 1940s to present. Each generation is defined by new technological developments, making computers smaller, cheaper, more powerful and efficient than previous generations. The first generation used vacuum tubes and magnetic drums. The second generation used transistors. The third generation used integrated circuits. The fourth generation used microprocessors on a single chip. The fifth generation focuses on artificial intelligence.

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Nihal Reddy Singasani
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49 views13 pages

Computer-Generations New

The document discusses the five generations of computers from the 1940s to present. Each generation is defined by new technological developments, making computers smaller, cheaper, more powerful and efficient than previous generations. The first generation used vacuum tubes and magnetic drums. The second generation used transistors. The third generation used integrated circuits. The fourth generation used microprocessors on a single chip. The fifth generation focuses on artificial intelligence.

Uploaded by

Nihal Reddy Singasani
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 PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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© Educational Technology Department,

Group Head Office, The City School. 1


Generations of Computer

The computer has evolved from a large-sized simple


calculating machine to a smaller but much more
powerful machine.

The evolution of computer to the current state is


defined in terms of the generations of computer.

Each generation of computer is designed based on a


new technological development, resulting in better,
cheaper and smaller computers that are more
powerful, faster and efficient than their predecessors.

. 2
Generations of Computer

Currently, there are five generations of


computer. In the following subsections, we
will discuss the generations of computer in
terms of the technology used by them
(hardware and software), computing
characteristics (speed, i.e., number of
instructions executed per second), physical
appearance, and their applications.

© Educational Technology Department,


Group Head Office, The City School. 3
First Generation Computers

(1940-1956)
 The first computers used vacuum tubes(a sealed glass tube
containing a near-vacuum which allows the free passage of
electric current.) for
circuitry and magnetic drums for memory.
 They were often enormous and taking up entire room.
 First generation computers relied on machine language.
 They were very expensive to operate and in addition to
using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat,
which was often the cause of malfunctions(defect or
breakdown).
 The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-
generation computing devices.

© Educational Technology Department,


Group Head Office, The City School. 4
First Generation
Computers
Advantages :
It was only electronic device
First device to hold memory

Disadvantages :
Too bulky i.e large in size
Vacuum tubes burn frequently
They were producing heat
Maintenance problems

© Educational Technology Department,


Group Head Office, The City School. 5
Second Generation
Computers
(1956-1963)
• Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and
ushered in the second generation of
computers.
• Second-generation computers moved from
cryptic binary machine language to symbolic.
•  High-level programming languages were also
being developed at this time, such as early
versions of COBOL and FORTRAN.
• These were also the first computers that
stored their instructions in their memory.
© Educational Technology Department,
Group Head Office, The City School. 6
Second Generation
Computers
Advantages :
Size reduced considerably
The very fast
Very much reliable

Disadvantages :
They over heated quickly
Maintenance problems

© Educational Technology Department,


Group Head Office, The City School. 7
Third Generation Computers
(1964-1971)
The development of the integrated circuit was
the hallmark of the third generation of
computers.
Transistors were miniaturized and placed
on siliconchips, called semiconductors.
Instead of punched cards and printouts, users
interacted with third generation computers
through keyboards and monitors and interfaced
with an operating system.
Allowed the device to run many
different applications at one time.
© Educational Technology Department,
Group Head Office, The City School. 8
Third generation
computers
Advantages :
IC’s are very small in size
Improved performance
Production cost cheap

Disadvantages :
IC’s are sophisticated

© Educational Technology Department,


Group Head Office, The City School. 9
Fourth Generation
Computers
(1971-present)
The microprocessor brought the fourth
generation of computers, as thousands of
integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon
chip.
The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located
all the components of the computer.
From the central processing unit and memory to
input/output controls—on a single chip.
. Fourth generation computers also saw the
development of GUIs, the mouse and
handheld devices.
© Educational Technology Department,
Group Head Office, The City School. 10
Fourth Generation
Computers

© Educational Technology Department,


Group Head Office, The City School. 11
Fifth Generation Computers
(present and beyond)
Fifth generation computing devices, based
on artificial intelligence.
Are still in development, though there are some
applications, such as voice recognition.
The use of parallel processing and
superconductors is helping to make artificial
intelligence a reality.
The goal of fifth-generation computing is to
develop devices that respond to natural
language input and are capable of learning and
self-organization.
© Educational Technology Department,
Group Head Office, The City School. 12
Fifth Generation
Computers

© Educational Technology Department,


Group Head Office, The City School. 13

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