COMPUTER GENERATION

The advancement in hardware technology with a specific span of time termed as Computer Generation. 

FIRST GENERATION (1945-1956)

The computers of the first generation were physically very large machines because they used vacuum tubes, they were very unreliable, required a lot of power to run, and produced so much heat that adequate air conditioning was critical to protect the computer parts. They had slow input and output devices, were slow in processing , and has small storage capacities. The programmers had to code all computer instructions  and data in actual machine language. They also had to keep track of where instructions and  data were stored in memory.

Electronic circuitry :-          Vacuum tubes

Input                         :-          Punched Card

Output                      :-          Paper

Storage                     :-         Magnetic tape

Example                   :-        UNICAC-I, IBM-650, 702, 705, BURROUGS-220, EDVAC, EDSAC,                                                   Mark -II, UNIVAC-II etc.

SECOND GENERATION (1956-1963)

The computers of the second generation were used transistors instead of vacuum tubes. Transistors were smaller, less expensive, generated almost no heat, and required very tittle power. The use of small, long lasting  transistors also increased processing speeds and reliability. The storage capacity was greatly increased with the magnetic disk, magnetic cores for main storage. High speed card readers, printers, and magnetic tape units were also introduced. Internal processing speeds increased. The programmers allow using mnemonic operation codes for instruction operations.

Electronic circuitry :-          Transistors

Input                         :-          Punched Card

Output                      :-          Paper

Storage                     :-         Magnetic Core Storage

Example                   :-        IBM-1400, IBM-7000, Control Data-3600, General Electric-365,                                                          Honeywell-200, SS-80, NCR-300, CDC-1604, CDC-160A etc.

 

THIRD GENERATION (1964-1971)

The computers of  this generation were used solid -state logic microcircuits or integrated circuit (IC) which reduces the physical size of computers even more and increases their durability and internal processing speeds. The smaller circuits allow for faster internal processing speeds resulting in faster execution of instructions. New mass storage,  such as the data cell, Drum and disk capacities and speed  have been increased, the portable disk pack has been developed, and faster, higher density magnetic tapes have come into use. Considerable improvements were made to card readers and printers. Applications using online processing, real-time processing, time sharing, multiprogramming, multiprocessing, and teleprocessing have become widely accepted.

Electronic circuitry :-         Integrated Circuits (IC), LSI

Input                         :-          Punched Card, Keyboard

Output                      :-          Paper, Monitor

Storage                     :-         Magnetic Disks, Magnetic tapes

Example                   :-        IBM System/360, UNVAC1108, UNVAC9000

FOURTH GENERATION (1971-PRESENT)

The computers of the fourth generation are used integrated circuit with great capacity is microprocessor. As a result of this technology, computers are significantly smaller in physical size & they have retained  large memory capacities  and are ultra fast. An entirely new breed of computers called microcomputers and minicomputers which provide large amount of computing power. The mass storage latest technology are used such as optical disk, DVD etc.

Electronic circuitry :-         VSLI (Very Large Integrated Circuits)

Input                         :-          Keyboard, Mouse, Scanner Digitizers

Output                      :-          Paper, Monitor, Plotter, Printer

Storage                     :-         Magnetic Disks, Optical Disk, DVD etc.

Example                   :-        IBM System/370, HP-3000, AMD Athelon, Pentium

FIFTH GENERATION (PRESENT AND BEYOND)

The PIM/m-1 machine, one of the few "fifth generation computers" ever produced. The fifth generation computer systems project was an initiative by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, begun in 1982, to create a "fifth generation computer which was supposed to perform much calculation  utilizing massive parallelism". The main aim of fifth generation computer systems is a disruptive technology. The New Generation Computer Technology  (ICOT) is creating a specialized hardware and an operating system entirely written in a variant of prolog programming language, as this was believed to be a truly parallelizable language. The "Parallel inference machines" were eventually produce.:

𝚹 PIM/m        𝚹 PIM/p        𝚹 PIM/i        𝚹 PIM/k        𝚹 PIM/c

This generation will be used completely Robotic and artificial intelligence. The biochip (organic chip) will be applied for dynamic & high power computation capability and very latest technology will be used for input, output and storage devices.

Electronic circuitry :-         Bio Chips (Organic Chips)

Technology                :-       AI, Expert Systems, High speed, large storage capacity, multi-point                                                      Input & Output etc.