How many generations of computers are there, and what are they?

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GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS

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In this page you will learn about generations of computers with its complete history of each generations of computers. After reading this page you will know about all five generations of computer and also components used in generation of computers with its image.

The growth of modern computer is commonly considered in the terms of generations of computers. 

It is categorized into five different generations of computers:-

• First generations of computers (1945-1956)

• Second generations of computers (1956-1963)

• Third generations of computers (1964-1971)

• Fourth generations of computers (1971-Present)

• Fifth generations of computers (Present-beyond) 

Explaining each generations of computers one by one:-

First generations of computers(1945-1956)

First generations of computers are made of vacuum tubes to build the circuitry and magnetic Drums for the memory design. This computer is huge of size of the room, bulky and heavy. The information is fed to the computer through punch card and the information is stored in external storage device magnetic tapes. The operation of the computer was very expensive and generated a lot of heat and consumed heavy power. This machine used machine and assembly language. 

 

Vacuum Tubes

Examples:-

ENIAC- Electronic Numerical Integration and calculator

UNIVAC- Universal Automatic Computer

Second generations of computers (1956-1963)

In the Second generations of computers, vacuum tube is replaced by silicon transistors. William Shockley is a engineer in bell lab who replaced first point contact transistor into bipolar junction transistor. In the same year Germanium is replaced by silicon. Replacement of transistor reduced the drastic space of machine and increased the speed of operations. Even though vacuum tube has been replaced, the silicon transistor consumed great deal of power and generated very high heat, which in turn made the machine damage and required cooling system. The information is fed to the system using punched card and output as printouts. This generation computers moved from assembly language to high level programming language like FORTAN, COBOL and Basic. The first computer of this generation was developed for atomic energy industry.   

Silicon Transistors

                                               

Third generations of computers (1964-1971)

In the Third generations of computers, transistor are replaced by the integrated circuits. All transistor and circuit components are manufactured in a single silicon chip is called Integrated Circuit (IC). The size of the system is drastically reduced and generated less heat, consume less power and increase enormous speed of operations. The input data is feed through keyboard and output is viewed in the monitor. Keyboard and monitor are interfaced with an OS, Which allow the device to run many different applications. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessor.

Integrated Circuits

Fourth generations of computers (1971-Present)

In the Fourth generations of computers, thousand of Integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. The size started to go down with the improvement in the integrated circuits. The Fourth generation computers can fit in the palm of hand. The concept of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) is used and that led to decrease of the size of the computers, consumed very less power, increased the efficiency and reliability. The cost of computer is very much accessible to the common man. Intel 4004 chip developed in 1971, took the Integrated Circuit (IC) one step further by locating all components of a computer on a minuscule chip. Fourth generations of computers also saw the development of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), mouse and handheld devices.

Silicon Chips

In 1981, IBM introduced its first computer for the home user.

Fifth generations of computers (Present-beyond)

In the Fifth generations of computers, It is expected respond to the actin. Recent innovation in transistor miniaturization and efficient design metrics like high performance computing and parallel processing has started to lead us to this new generation of computers. The current trends in designing computer hardware and software are produce less power consumption, less heat generation, very high speed and performance.

Artificial Intelligence

This generations of computers are based on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Example:- These application are voice recognition, face recognition, finger recognition and other advanced techniques are used today.

Conclusion:

In this article, we have thoroughly read about Generations of computers with brief description of each generation of computer. Generations of computers are:

• First generations of computers (1945-1956) - Vacuum Tubes

• Second generations of computers (1956-1963) - Silicon Transistor

• Third generations of computers (1964-1971) - Integrated Circuit

• Fourth generations of computers (1971-Present) - Silicon Chip

• Fifth generations of computers (Present-beyond) - Artificial Intelligence 

If you are interested then also read:

Most important Computer related Full Form from A to Z

What is definition of Computer and its functions

Hope you enjoy this information about Generations of Computers.

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Tags: Generations of computers, First generations of computers, Second generations of computers, Third generations of computers, Fourth generations of computers, Fifth generations of computers, Generations of computers with its main components image

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