Five Generation of Computer – five Generation of Computer

Five Generation of Computer – five Generation of Computer

Generation of Computer:

Every stage of technological advancement in computer development is referred to as a ‘Generation of Computer’. Starting from 1940s, computers’ performance, measured in terms of processing speed, storage capacity, accuracy of results, multi-tasking ability and versatility has improved significantly.

Five Generation of Computer:

First Generation (Vacuum Tubes)

Year

1940 – 1956

Characteristics

> Used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums as primary internal storage medium

> Enormous in size, occupying entire room

> Limited internal storage capacity

> Consumed lot of electricity

> Heating Issues

> Used punched cards for input and printouts for output

> Used binary machine language, which is the lowest level programming language

Used For

Primarily used for scientific computations

Examples

ENIAC – Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator

UNIVAC – Universal Automatic Computer

Second Generation (Transistors)

Year

1956 – 1963

Characteristics

> Used transistors instead of vacuum tubes for circuitry, which enabled computers of this generation to become smaller, faster, cheaper and more energy-efficient

> Used magnetic core instead of magnetic drums as primary internal storage medium

> Higher internal storage capacity compared to first generation computers

> Computers of this generation too faced heating issues

> Computers of this generation too used punched cards for input and printouts for output

> Used Assembly Language

Used For

Mainly used for commercial production, scientific and engineering analysis and design

Examples

IBM 7094 series

IBM 1400 series

CDC 164

Third Generation (Integrated Circuits)

Year

1964 – 1971

Characteristics

> Used integrated circuits (IC) which had several transistors, mounted through small scale integration (SSI). This resulted in decrease in overall size and phenomenal increase in speed

> Less expensive as compared to computers of previous two generations and thus became accessible for masses

> Used keyboard and monitor instead of punched cards and printouts

> Used High-level programming language such as FORTRAN and COBOL

Used For

Database management, automatic industrial control, airline reservation etc.

Examples

IBM 360 series

IBM 370 series

Fourth Generation (Microprocessors)

Year1971 – Present

Characteristics

> Uses microprocessors with Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits having about thousands of transistors

> Uses semi-conductor memories (RAM, ROM)

> Fastest, smallest and most reliable among all generations

> Least expensive among all generations

> Uses all high-level languages including C, C++ etc.

Used For

Used in almost every field including space applications, business and art work

Examples

Apple Macintosh

IBM PC

Fifth Generation (Artificial Intelligence)

Year Present and Beyond

Characteristics

> Fifth Generation computing devices are still in development

> Will be superior to all previous generations in terms of speed, accuracy, storage capacity, overall size and versatility

> Will be capable of self-learning and reasoning

> Will understand natural language input such as spoken words and hand signals

Examples

Voice Recognition Technology