Amoud University

Faculty of Computing and ICT

Under Department:
Bachelor of Information
Technology
Sophomores
Lecturer: Ahmed Abdillahi
Sanco.
12/10/2021 Ahmed Abdillahi Sh. Ibrahim 1
 Chapter1
Introduction to
Computers
2
 What are computers?

Computers are electronic devices

that can follow instructions to
accept input, process the input and
then produce information.

3
 Computers are made of
1. HARDWARE
2. SOFTWARE

4
 Hardware

The parts of computer itself (tangible objects ) including :

 CPU (or Processor) and Primary memory (or
Main Memory)
 Input devices i.e the keyboard and mouse
 Output devices
 Storage devices

5
 Software

The instructions that tell the computer

what to do
1. Application Software - helps end-users
perform general purpose tasks
2. System Software - enables application
software to interact with the computer

6
 Generations of Computer

• The computer has evolved from a large-sized simple calculating machine

to a smaller but much more powerful machine.
• The first computer was created in 1946’s as first genetation .
• 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.

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Office, The City School.
7
 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.

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Office, The City School.
8
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.

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Office, The City School.
9
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.
10
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.

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Office, The City School.
11
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.
12
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.

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Office, The City School.
13
Third generation computers

Advantages :
• ICs are very small in size
• Improved performance
• Production cost cheap

Disadvantages :
• ICs are sophisticated

© Educational Technology Department, Group Head

Office, The City School.
14
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.
15
Fourth Generation Computers

© Educational Technology Department, Group Head

Office, The City School.
16
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.

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Office, The City School.
17
Fifth Generation Computers

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Office, The City School.
18
 Four Kinds of Computers

1. Microcomputers 2. Minicomputers

3. Mainframe computers 4. Supercomputers

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•Microcomputer =>Personal Computer
=> PC
•There are 3 types of the
Microcomputers :
1.Laptop
2.Desktop
3.Workstation

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• Personal Computer: A small, single-user computer based on a
microprocessor.
• Workstation: A powerful, single-user computer. A workstation is like a
personal computer, but it has :
 a more powerful microprocessor and,
 in general, a higher-quality monitor.

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 Minicomputer, Mainframe, and
Supercomputer

• Minicomputer: A multi-user computer capable of supporting up to

hundreds of users simultaneously.
• Mainframe: A powerful multi-user computer capable of supporting many
hundreds or thousands of users simultaneously.
• Supercomputer: An extremely fast computer that can perform hundreds
of millions of instructions per second.

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 Minicomputers

• Desk-sized
• More processing speed and
storage capacity than
microcomputers
• General data processing needs
at small companies
• Larger companies use them for
specific purposes

23
Mainframe Computers

• Larger machines with special

wiring and environmental
controls
• Faster processing and greater
storage than minicomputers
• Typical machine in large
organizations

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 Supercomputers
• The most powerful of the four categories
• Used by very large organizations, particularly for very math-intensive
types of tasks

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Supercomputers

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Characteristics of Computers

1- Store a large amount of data and

information for a long period of time.

2- process data and information in high

accuracy level .

3- Speed in processing data information.

4- Sharing of information / network. 27