Generations of Computer

Computer Generations

Computing equipment generations can be seen as the evolution of computing equipment over time, in product development terms a generation represents an upgrade. Technological developments include shrinking circuitry with each iteration while speed, power and memory have increased due to miniaturization; as new discoveries appear they often alter how we live our daily lives and play together with one another.

Technology advancements have played a decisive role in each generation of computers, making them smaller, cheaper, more powerful, more energy-efficient and dependable devices for our everyday needs. Learn about each era that led up to today's devices!

Generation I Vacuum tubes from 1940 to 1956

Early computers were massive affairs dominated by vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory storage, taking up entire rooms. A magnetic drum is a metal cylinder covered with magnetic iron-oxide material used to store both data and programs - it was initially primary storage but is now considered secondary.

Magnetic drum tracks are distributed around its perimeter as channels, creating circular bands around its circumference. One drum may contain up to 200 tracks. Read/write heads can deposit magnetic spots onto the drum during writing operations and detect these spots during reading operations while rotating at up to 3,000rpm - similar to magnetic tape or disk drives.

First-generation computers were expensive to run and consumed a great deal of power and heat, creating issues. Furthermore, first-generation computers used machine language that only computers understood; humans couldn't grasp its digit-based instructions, thus prompting computer programmers to employ assembly or high-level languages where instructions have names instead of numbers as seen with machine languages.

Compilers transform high-level programming languages into assembly or machine code; an assembler converts assembly language to machine language.

All CPUs possess their own machine language. For programs to run across systems, modifications or recompilations is often needed - punch cards and paper tapes provided input while prints were outputted as outputs.

First generation computers included UNIVAC and ENIAC; U.S. businesses received their first commercial computer, UNIVAC in 1951 at the Census Bureau.

Army Ordnance's Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, or ENIAC for short, was the world's first operational electronic digital computer during World War II and used to calculate ballistic firing tables. Completed in 1945 as a 30-ton 200 kW ENIAC comprised of 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1500 relays and over one million resistors capacitors and inductors was designed specifically to compute World War II ballistic firing tables; its capacity of 200kW enabled it to calculate ballistic firing tables as well as weather predictions; used also in ballistic calculations cosmic-ray investigations thermal ignition random number studies wind tunnel design wind tunnel design as other scientific uses until computer speeds increased beyond its usefulness - leaving behind ENIAC as its capabilities of operational digital computing began becoming outdated as computer speeds increased beyond what its capabilities provided it existed at that point; its capacity limited its capabilities when its abilities increased so quickly became outdated as computer speeds increased;

Second Generation Transistors from 1956-1963

Transistors revolutionized second-generation computing by replacing vacuum tubes. Semiconductor transistors use semiconducting transistors as amplifying signals or opening or closing circuits; Bell Labs first invented transistors in 1947 for use in digital circuits (such as computers). Today's CPU contains millions of such tiny transistors!

Before transistors existed, digital circuitry relied heavily on vacuum tubes which presented several drawbacks compared to their modern equivalent: larger size, greater energy use and heat dissipation potential as well as more likely failure rates than modern computers would exist without transistors today. Without their invention and introduction into modern computing environments would not exist today!

The transistor was invented in 1947 but did not become widely adopted into computers until late 1950s. It vastly outperformed vacuum tubes by making computers smaller, quicker, cheaper, energy-efficient and dependable; though still producing some heat. Two-generation machines used punched cards as input and printed out output.

Second-generation computers used symbolic, or assembly, languages instead of binary machine language for programming instructions in words rather than using binary machine code; early COBOL and FORTRAN programs were developed alongside them as they became the first computers that stored instructions magnetic core memory rather than magnetic drums.

Early computers of this generation were utilized primarily in nuclear energy research.

Third Generation, 1964 to 1971 ICs

Third-generation computers were defined by integrated circuits, or semiconductors. Miniaturizing transistors on silicon chips led to significant performance and efficiency gains when integrated circuits were utilized as computing platforms.

Silicon is a carbon family nonmetallic chemical element. Second only to oxygen on Earth's crust is silicon (atomic symbol: Si). Silicon occurs naturally as mixed forms; for instance silica forms when combined with oxygen in rocks and minerals while silicates result from interactions with iron, aluminum, or potassium atoms; many forms can also be found in nature's waterways, plants and animals as compounds of silicon.

Computer chips, transistors, silicon diodes and other electronic circuits and switching devices rely heavily on silicon for its perfect semiconductor structure. Silicon can sometimes be doped with elements like boron, phosphorous or arsenic to increase conductivity further.

Chips are small pieces of semiconducting material (typically silicon) with integrated circuits on them, measuring less than 1/4 square inch and typically under. Each chip typically houses millions of electrical components known as transistors that make up computers; printed circuit boards contain thousands of chips interlinked together into systems; CPU (microprocessor) chips contain processing units while memory chips hold blank memory space for future use.

Semiconductors fall between conducting materials such as copper and insulating ones in terms of conductivity; their main constituents being silicon and germanium which may be doped to add or take away electrons as needed.

CPU and memory chips are semiconductors. Semiconductors allow transistor miniaturization; as a result, components become quicker, smaller, and less energy-intensive.

Fourth Generation (since 1971 ): Microprocessors

As hundreds of integrated circuits were recreated on one silicon chip, the microprocessor heralded the fourth generation of computers - computing systems featuring central processing units or CPUs on silicon chips. Microprocessor and CPU are commonly associated with each other in personal computing; all home and most workstation computers feature microprocessors while most digital devices such as clock radios or car fuel-injection systems also make use of them.

Three main differences distinguish microprocessors from each other:

Instruction set of a microprocessor.

Instruction bandwidth: Bits processed per instruction.

Clock Speed (in Megahertz (MHz)): Clock speeds measure how quickly instructions can be executed per second by CPUs; larger values indicate more powerful processors - for instance a 50MHz 32-bit CPU would outperform its counterpart, at 25MH 16Bit counterpart.

Once-huge first-generation items can now fit comfortably in your hand. Intel 4004 built in 1971 was an early example, converging all computer components - from CPU, memory and I/O controllers - onto one chip.

Central processing unit, also referred to simply as CPU, serves as the computer's brain and handles most computations - sometimes known by its acronym: processor. As its names implies, CPUs are among the most powerful computer components available today.

Massive machines require PCBs while PCs and small workstations feature microprocessors as their CPU.

CPUs often consist of two parts.

The ALU provides both mathematical and logic services.

Control units decode and execute memory instructions by calling upon ALUs when required. IBM first presented its personal computer in 1981 while Apple released their Macintosh in 1984; by 1988 more household appliances started featuring microprocessors than just desktop PCs could boast them.

As these small computers advanced, they became capable of creating networks which eventually evolved into the Internet. Fourth-generation computers introduced GUIs, mice and portable devices.

Fifth Gen--Now and Beyond: AI

Fifth-generation computer systems utilizing artificial intelligence are still under development; however, speech recognition has already been deployed on these machines.

Artificial Intelligence, commonly referred to by its acronym AI, refers to computer technology which emulates human thought patterns in ways similar to real humans. John McCarthy of MIT first coined this term back in 1956. AI includes:

Programme computers to play chess and checkers

Expert systems: programming computers to make real-life judgments (for instance helping physicians detect diseases through symptoms).

Use computers to understand natural human languages

Neural Networks: Systems which simulate animal brain connections to simulate intelligence.

Robotics: Teaching computers to perceive, hear and respond to sensory stimuli There has never been complete artificial intelligence on a computer that mimics human behavior exactly. Progress has mainly come through gaming; computer chess systems like Deep Blue from IBM were even capable of defeating world chess champion Gary Kasparov himself back in May 1997!

Modern manufacturing facilities use computers for robots, yet these robots only manage limited tasks. Their movement and handling of objects remains awkward while they struggle to differentiate them by sight or touch.

Natural-language processing holds immense promise as a means to allow individuals to utilize computers without special expertise - you could talk directly with a computer! Unfortunately, programming computers to understand natural languages is more challenging than anticipated; although basic translation systems exist that are similar in performance to human translators.

Voice recognition systems can also write words, but their comprehension of spoken dictation remains limited; therefore it's best to speak clearly and slowly when communicating through these systems.

Expert systems were once seen as the future of AI and computers; unfortunately they have yet to live up to expectations. Although some expert systems help medical and technical specialists in rare instances, their creation remains expensive and potentially only beneficial when needed.

Neural networks have emerged as one of the hottest AI trends, specializing in voice recognition and natural-language processing.

Many programming languages used exclusively for AI applications have earned themselves the moniker AI Languages; such as LISP and Prolog.

Speech Recognition

is the field of computer science concerned with creating speech-recognizing systems. Voice recognition means machines can accept dictation without translating it, while natural language processing understands human languages. There are various speech recognition technologies available today with some strong ones capable of recognising several hundred words at once while speaker-dependent computer systems require extensive training before they are capable of understanding your unique voice or accent.

Many systems require speakers to speak slowly and clearly with brief pauses between words - these are discrete speech systems. Recently however, continuous speech systems - voice recognition technologies that let you speak naturally- have been making great strides forward on personal computers; such systems exist through various programs installed as software packages on PCs.

Voice recognition systems have only recently seen widespread usage due to their expensive nature and limited functionality. Voice recognition technologies enable users to enter data without using keyboards when their hands are full or incapacitated; users simply speak into headsets instead. As costs continue to decline and functionality improves, these voice recognition technologies are replacing keyboards entirely.

Superconductors and parallel processing are at the core of AI development. Parallel processing makes use of multiple CPUs to run one program at once; its goal should be to speed it up using more cores - though in practice this often fails due to difficulty partitioning software so multiple cores run certain sections independently without interference between each other.

One computer can contain several central processing units (CPUs); most computers only feature one CPU. Some systems even boast thousands of them! Networks made up of single CPU machines allow parallel computing; this requires advanced distributed processing tools for its implementation.

Parallel processing stands in contrast with multitasking, in which one CPU runs many applications concurrently.

Parallel computing means parallel processing.

Quantum computing, molecular, and nanotechnology will revolutionize computers over the coming decades. First imagined in the 1970s, quantum computing utilizes quantum physics capabilities of atoms or nuclei to form qubits - computer processors and memories which interact when isolated - as qubits enable exponentially quicker computation than their conventional counterparts.

Qubits don't use binary computing; rather, quantum computers store information as quantum-mechanical states like spin directions of electrons or photon polarization orientations that represent either 1 or 0; combination thereof or numbers representing between these states to indicate whether their qubit's state lies between 1 and 1. Traditional computers can only perform calculations on one set of numbers at the same time; binary computers cannot perform arbitrarily reversible classical computing on all numbers simultaneously whereas quantum computers are capable of this action and even interfering among results to produce one answer that result from multiple calculations performed simultaneously using only one processing unit while computing many different numbers simultaneously before interfering results to come up with one answer that only result from interference among them all!

Quantum computing excels at cryptography, modeling and indexing massive datasets but cannot manage word processing or email efficiently.

Nanotechnology uses tiny particles and molecules to construct computer chips hundreds of times smaller than current technologies. Current semiconductor fabrication employs lithography as its method, though its performance has advanced considerably during recent decades, enabling certain production units to build circuits smaller than one micron (1,000 nanometers) without issue; nonetheless it still manipulates millions of atoms; many feel lithography may soon reach its physical limit so new methods of controlling individual atoms must be devised; this is known as nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology was officially coined by George K.; however, Richard P. Feynman's 1959 presentation marked its inception. Engines of Creation by Eric Drexler in 1986 provided further inspiration.

Due to media reporting on any submicron process being considered nanotechnology - including lithography - many scientists now refer to actual molecular nanotechnology as nanotechnology.

Fifth-generation computing strives to build devices capable of learning and organizing themselves via natural language input.

Here, natural language refers to human languages such as English, French and Chinese; fortran and C do not count.

Create language-aware machines is one of the toughest challenges of computer science, despite years of efforts. Unfortunately, this problem still stands unresolved; fourth-generation programming languages come closest to representing natural languages.