List of All Generation Computers

  List of All Generation Computers 

Other Important Computers of First Generation

Some other computers of this time worth mentioning are the Whirlwind, developed at Massachussets Institute of Technology, and JOHNNIAC, by the Rand Corporation. The Whirlwind was the first computer to display real time video and use core memory. The JOHNNIAC was named in honor of Jon Von Neumann. Computers at this time were usually kept in special locations like government and university research labs or military compounds.

Limitations of First Generation Computer

Followings are the major drawbacks of First generation computers.

1.  They used valves or vacuum tubes as their main electronic component.

2. They were large in size, slow in processing and had less storage capacity.

3.  They consumed lots of electricity and produced lots of heat.

4.  Their computing capabilities were limited.

5. They were not so accurate and reliable.

6.  They used machine level language for programming.

7.  They were very expensive.

Example: ENIAC, UNIVAC, IBM 650 etc

(ii)  Second Generation (1955-1964) : The second-generation computer used transistors for CPU components & ferrite cores for main memory & magnetic disks for secondary memory. They used high-level languages such as FORTRAN (1956), ALGOL (1960) & COBOL (1960 - 1961). I/O processor was included to control I/O operations.

Around 1955 a device called Transistor replaced the bulky Vacuum tubes in the first generation computer. Transistors are smaller than Vacuum tubes and have higher operating speed. They have no filament and require no heating. Manufacturing cost was also very low. Thus the size of the computer got reduced considerably.

It is in the second generation that the concept of Central Processing Unit (CPU), memory, programming language and input and output units were developed. The programming languages such as COBOL, FORTRAN were developed during this period. Some of the computers of the Second Generation were                                                                           

1. IBM 1620: Its size was smaller as compared to First Generation computers and mostly used for scientific purpose.

2. IBM 1401: Its size was small to medium and used for business applications.

3. CDC 3600: Its size was large and is used for scientific purposes.

Features:

1.  Transistors were used instead of Vacuum Tube.

2.  Processing speed is faster than First Generation Computers (Micro Second)

3.  Smaller in Size (51 square feet)

4. The input and output devices were faster.

Example: IBM 1400 and 7000 Series, Control Data 3600 etc.

(iii)             Third Generation (1964-1977) : By the development of a small chip consisting of the capacity of the 300 transistors. These ICs are popularly known as Chips. A single IC has many transistors, registers and capacitors built on a single thin slice of silicon. So it is quite obvious that the size of the computer got further reduced. Some of the computers developed during this period were IBM-360, ICL-1900, IBM-370, and VAX-750. Higher level language such as BASIC (Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was developed during this period.  Computers of this generation were small in size, low cost, large memory and processing speed is very high. Very soon ICs Were replaced by LSI (Large Scale Integration), which consisted about 100 components. An IC containing about 100 components is called LSI.

Features:

1. They used Integrated Circuit (IC) chips in place of the transistors.

2. Semi conductor memory devices were used.

3.  The size was greatly reduced, the speed of processing was high, they were   more accurate and reliable.

4.  Large Scale Integration (LSI) and Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) were also developed.

5.  The mini computers were introduced in this generation.

6. They used high level language for programming.

Example: IBM 360, IBM 370 etc.

(iv)     Fourth Generation : An IC containing about 100 components is called LSI (Large Scale Integration) and the one, which has more than 1000 such components, is called as VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration). It uses large scale Integrated Circuits (LSIC) built on a single silicon chip called microprocessors. Due to the development of microprocessor it is possible to place computer’s central processing unit (CPU) on single chip. These computers are called microcomputers. Later very large scale Integrated Circuits (VLSIC) replaced LSICs. Thus the computer which was occupying a very large room in earlier days can now be placed on a table. The personal computer (PC) that you see in your school is a Fourth Generation Computer Main memory used fast semiconductors chips up to 4 M bits size. Hard disks were used as secondary memory. Keyboards, dot matrix printers etc. were developed. OS-such as MS-DOS, UNIX, Apple’s Macintosh were available. Object oriented language, C++ etc were developed.

Features:

1.  They used Microprocessor (VLSI) as their main switching element.

2. They are also called as micro computers or personal computers.

3.  Their size varies from desktop to laptop or palmtop.

4.  They have very high speed of processing; they are 100% accurate, reliable,   diligent and versatile.

5.  They have very large storage capacity.

Example: IBM PC, Apple-Macintosh etc.

(v)    Fifth Generation (1991- continued) : 5th generation computers use ULSI (Ultra-Large Scale Integration) chips. Millions of transistors are placed in a single IC in ULSI chips. 64 bit microprocessors have been developed during this period. Data flow & EPIC architecture of these processors have been developed. RISC & CISC, both types of designs are used in modern processors. Memory chips and flash memory up to 1 GB, hard disks up to 600 GB & optical disks up to 50 GB have been developed. fifth generation digital computer will be Artificial intelligence.