Generations of Computers: explanation & differences

There are five generations of computers, So, let’s begin to know them deeply.

First Generation Computers (1942-1955)

• The First Generation of computers was introduced by Lee Deforest.
• It was based on vacuum tubes and punch cards.

Vacuum tubes:- is a glass tube that has its gas removed and it has electrodes for controlling electron flow and were used in an early computer as a switch(a connecting device) or in an Amplifier.

Punch Cards:- Paper cards containing several holes that were punched by machine or hand to represent data. It is used for storage purposes.

Software Technologies:- Machine language-based programs.

Physical Characteristics:- Large Computer, Consume more power, Costly, Slow Speed, Limited Commercial use.

eg. UNIVAC-1

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Second Generation Computers (1955-1964)

• Second Generation Computers were introduced by J.H.W, W- Shockey(1955-1964).
• It is based on the semiconductor device.
• A semiconductor device is used to amplify or switch electronic signals.
• It has many transistors, resistors, and capacitors.

Software Technologies:- Assembly Language, Batch OS,

Physical Characteristics:- Small Computer, Consume Less Power, Cheap, Fast Speed, More Commercial used as compared to above.
eg. IBM 1400.

Third Generation Computer (1964-1975)

• It is based on IC, magnetic core memories.

Software Technologies:- Standardize HCL, Multi-Programming/Multi-Tasking OS.
 
Computing/Physical Characteristics:- Small computers Consume less power, cheap, fast speed, more commercial used computer to above.
eg. IBM-370,

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Fourth Generation Computer (1975-1989)

It is used based on LSI/VLSI, semiconductor memories.

VLSI/LSI:- It includes almost 5000 transistors. It was developed an Intel employee (Ted Hoff)

Software Technologies:- GUI, Computer Network,
Computing/Physical Characteristics:- Small computers Consume less power, cheap, fast speed, more commercial used computer to above.
eg. IBM-PC

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Fifth Generations of Computers (1990-Present)

It is based on ULSI, Optical Disk.

ULSI:- Ultra Large Scale Integration, it was introduced by James Maddox.
Software Technologies:- Internet Facilities, and Multimedia.
Computing/Physical Characteristics:- Small computers Consume less power, cheap, fast speed, more commercial used computer to above.
eg. IBM, HP, Dell, MAC-PC.

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