GENERATION OF COMPUTER NEW

(Chapter-6) Generation of Computer:-

 Generation in computer terminology is a change in technology a computer is/was being used.
Initially, the generation term was used to distinguish between varying hardware technologies.
Nowadays, generation includes both hardware and software, which together make up an entire
computer system.
 There are five computer generations known till date. Each generation has been discussed in detail
along with their time period and characteristics.
o First Generation of Computer (1942-1955)
o Second Generation of Computer (1955-1964)
o Third Generation of Computer (1964-1975)
o Fourth Generation of Computer (1975-1989)
o Fifth Generation of Computer (1989-Present)
 First Generation of Computer (1942-1955):-
 In first Generation computer used thousands of Vacuum Tubes.
 A Vacuum Tube was a Fragile Glass Device, which used filaments as a source of electronics and
could control and amplify electronics Signals.
 It was the only high speed electronic switching device available in those days.
 These Vacuum Tube computer could perform computation in milliseconds and were referred to as
First Generation Computer.
 The Memory of these computers used Electromagnetic Relays , and all data
and instructions were fed into the system from punched card.
 The instructions were written in machine and assembly languages because
high level programming languages were introduced much later.
 Since machine and assembly languages are difficult to work with only a few
specialists understood how to program these early computers.
 They were the fastest calculating device of their time.
 They were too bulky in size, requiring large rooms for installation.
 They used thousands of Vacuum tubes that emitted large amount of heat
and burnt out frequently. Hence, the rooms/areas in which these computers
were located had to be properly air-conditioned.
 Each vacuum tube consumed about half a watt of power. Since a computer
typically used more than ten thousand vacuum tube, power consumption of
these computer was very high.
 As Vacuum Tube tubes used filaments, they had a limited life. Because a computer used thousands
of vacuum tube, these computers were prone to frequent hardware failures.
 Due to low mean time between failures, these computers required constant maintenance.
 In these computers, thousands of individual components were assembled manually by hand into
electronics circuits. Hence, commercial production of these computers was difficult and costly.
 Since these computers were difficult to program and use, they had limited commercial use.
 Ex-ENIAC, EDVAC, EDSAC, UNIVAC 1 and IBM.
Second Generation of Computer (1955-1964):-
 John Bardeen, Willian Shockley and Walter Brattain invented a new electronic switching device
called transister.
 Transistors soon proved to be better electronic switching device than Vaccum Tubes due to their
following properties:-
o They were more rugged and easier to handle than tubes since they were made of Germanium
Semiconductor material rather than glass.
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 GENERATION OF COMPUTER NEW

o They were highly reliable as compared to tubes since they had no parts like a filament that
could burn transistors could operate much faster than their counterparts made of tubes.
o They consumed almost one-tenth the power consumed by a tube.
o They much smaller than a tube.
o They were less expensive to produce.
o They produced much less heat as compared to Vacuum Tube.
 The Sedond Generation computers were manufactured using transistors instead of vacuum tube.
 Due to the properties of transistors listed above, these computers were more powerful, more
reliable, less expensive, smaller and cooler to operate than the first generation computer.
 They used Magnetic Cores for Main Memory and
Magnetic disk and Tape as Secondary storage media.
 On software front, high-level programming languages
like (FORTRAN, COBOL, ALGOL, and SNOBOL) and
batch operating system emerged during Second
Generation.
 High level programming languages were easier for
people to understand and work with than assembly or
machine languages making second generation
computers easier to program and use than First generation Computers.
 In these computers, thousands of individual transistors had to be assembled manually by hand into
electronic circuits making commercial production of these computers difficult and costly.
 Ex:-Honeywell 400, IBM 7030, CDC 1604, UNIVAC LARC.
Third Generation of Computer (1964-1975):-
 In 1958, Jack St. Clair Kilby and Robert Noyce
invented the first Integrated Circuit.
 Integrated Circuits are circuits consisting of
several electronic components like transistor,
resistors and capacitors grown on a single
chip of silicon eliminating wired
interconnection between components.
 The IC technology was also known as
“Microelectronics” technology because it
made it possible to intigrate larger number of
circuit components into very small(less than 5
mm square) surface of silicon, known as
“Chip”.
 Initially the integrated circuits contains only about 10-20 components, this technology was named
Small Scale Integration (SSI).
 Later with the advancement in technology for manufacturing IC’s , it became possible to integrate
up to about hundred components on a single chip, this technology came to be known as Medium
Scale Integration (MSI).
 IC’s were smaller, less expensive to produce, more rugged and reliable, faster in operation,
dissipated less heat and consumed less powr than circuits built by wiring electronic components
manually.
 Hence, third generation computers are more powerful, more reliable, less expensive, smaller, and
cooler to operate than second generation computer.

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 GENERATION OF COMPUTER NEW

 Parallel advancement in storage technologies allowed construction of larger magnetic core based
random access memory as well as larger capacity magnetic disks and tapes.
 On software front, standardization of high-level programming language, timesharing operating
systems, unbundling of software from hardware, and creation of an independent software industry
happened during third generation.
 FORTRAN and COBOL were the most popular high level programming languages in those days.
 American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standardized them in 1966 and 1968 respectively,
and the standardized versons were called ANSI FORTRAN and ANSI COBOL.
 Ex:- IBM 360/370, PDP-8, PDP-11, CDC 6600.
Fourth Generation of Computer (1975 – 1989):-
 Average number of electronic components packed on a
silicon chip doubled each year after 1965.
 This progress soon led to the era of Large Scale Integration
(LSI) when it was possible to integrate over 30,000 electronic
components on a single chip.
 Followed by Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) when it was
possible to integrate about one Million electronic
components on a single chip.
 This progress led to a dramatic developement- creation of a
Microprocessor.
 A Microprocessor contains all circuits needed to perform
Arithmetic Logic and control functions, the core activities of all computers, on a single chip.
 Hence it became possible to build a completecomputer with microprocessor, a few additional
primary storage chip, and other support Circuitry.
 During fourth generation, semiconductor memories replaced magnetic core memories resulting in
large random access memories with very fast access time.
 On the other hand, hard disks became cheaper, smaller, and larger in capacity.
 Another significant development during fourth generation period was spread of high speed
Computer Networking enabling interconnection of multiple computers to enable them to
communicate and share data.
 Local Area Networks (LANs) became popular for connecting computers within an organization or
within a campus.
 Wide Area Networks (WANs) became popular for connecting computers located at large
distances.
 On software front, several new developments emerged to match the new technologies of fourth
generation. For example, several new operating systems(MS-DOS, MS-Windows, and Apple’s
propriety OS) were developed for PCs.
 In fourth generation developed Graphical User Interface (GUI).
 A Graphical User Interface (GUI) provides icons and menus that users can select with a mouse.
This enables new computer users to use a PC quickly.
 Fourth generation computer consumed less power than third generation.
 They were general purpose machines.
 The fourth generation mainframes required proper air conditioning of the rooms/areas in which
they were located, no air conditioning was required for PCs.
 Ex- IBM PC and its clones, Apple II, TRS-80, VAX 9000, CRAY-1, CRAY-2, CRAY-XMP.
Fifth Generation of Computer (1989- Present):-

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 GENERATION OF COMPUTER NEW

 The trend of further development of electronic components, dramatic increase in power of

Microprocessor chips, and increase in capacity of
main memory and hard disk continued during
fifth generation.
 VLSI technology became ULSI (Ultra Large Scale
Integration) technology in fifth generation
resulting in production of microprocessor chips
having Ten Million electronic Components with
Artificial Intelligence (AI).
 In fact, the speed of microprocessor and the size
of main memory and hard Disk doubled almost
every eighteen Months.
 Storage technology advanced very fast making
larger and larger main memory and disk storage available in newly introduced systems.
 During fifth generation, optical disk also emerged as a popular portable mass storage media such
as CD-ROM (Compact Disk- Read Only Memory).
 During fifth generation, there was tremendous outgrowth of computer networks.
 In this generation, the Internet made it possible for computer users sitting across the globe to
communicate with each other within minutes by use of Electronic Mail (E-Mail) facility.
 A vast ocean of information became readily available to computer users through the World Wide
Web (WWW) .
 Several new types of exciting applications like electronics commerce, virtual Libraries, virtual
classrooms, distance education, etc emerged during the period.
 Ex-IBM notebooks, Pentium PCs, SUN Workstations, IBM SP/2, SGI Origin 2000, PARAM 10000.

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