GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER

Each Generation of Computer is designed based on the new technological development,  resulting in better, cheaper and smaller computers that are more powerful, faster and efficient than their predecessors.

1st Generation 

Vacuum Tubes

Machine language uses 0s and 1s for coding of the instructions. The first generation computers could solve one problem at a time. The computation time was in milliseconds. enormous in size and required a large room for installation. used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory.

Examples: UNIVersal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC), Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator (ENIAC), and Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC).

2nd Generation 

Transistors

The instructions were written using the assembly language. The computation time was in microseconds. smaller in size compared to vacuum tubes.  used magnetic core technology for primary memory. They used magnetic tapes and magnetic disks for secondary storage.

Examples: PDP-8, IBM 1401 and CDC 1604. 

3rd Generation 

Integrated Circuits

The keyboard and the monitor were interfaced through the operating system. High-level languages were used extensively for programming, instead of machine language and assembly language. The computation time was in nanoseconds.  quite small compared to the second generation computers.  multiple transistors are placed on a silicon chip.

Examples: IBM 370, PDP 11.

4th Generation 

Microprocessors

Several new operating systems like the MS-DOS and MS-Windows developed during this time. This generation of computers supported Graphical User Interface (GUI).The computation time is in picoseconds. smaller than the computers of the previous generation. became widely available for commercial purposes.

Examples:  In 1981, IBM introduced the first computer for home use. In 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh.

5th Generation

Artificial Intelligence

The goal of fifth generation computing is to develop computers that are capable of learning and self-organization. The fifth generation computers use Super Large Scale Integrated (SLSI) chips that are able to store millions of components on a single chip. These computers have large memory requirements. The fifth generation computers are based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). They try to simulate the human way of thinking and reasoning.

Artificial Intelligence such as Expert System (ES), Natural Language Processing (NLP), speech recognition, voice recognition, robotics, etc.