THE HISTORY OF COMPUTER

The history of computer development is often referred to in reference to the

different generations of computing devices. A generation refers to the state of
improvement in the product development process. This term is also used in the
different advancements of new computer technology. With each new generation,
the circuitry has gotten smaller and more advanced than the previous generation
before it. As a result of the miniaturization, speed, power, and computer
memory has proportionally increased. New discoveries are constantly being
developed that affect the way we live, work and play.
Each generation of computers is characterized by major technological
development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in
increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable
devices. Read about each generation and the developments that led to the current
devices that we use today.
 
 FIRST GENERATION - 1940-1956: VACUUM TUBES

 The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often
enormous, taking up entire rooms. A magnetic drum,also referred to as drum, is a metal cylinder coated with
magnetic iron-oxide material on which data and programs can be stored. Magnetic drums were once use das a
primary storage device but have since been implemented as auxiliary storage devices.
 The tracks on a magnetic drum are assigned to channels located around the circumference of the drum, forming
adjacent circular bands that wind around the drum. A single drum can have up to 200 tracks. As the drum
rotates at a speed of up to 3,000 rpm, the device's read/write heads deposit magnetized spots on the drum
during the write operation and sense these spots during a read operation. This action is similar to that of a
magnetic tape or disk drive.
 They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat,
which was often the cause of malfunctions. First generation computers relied on machine language to perform
operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Machine languages are the only languages
understood by computers. While easily understood by computers, machine languages are almost impossible for
humans to use because they consist entirely of numbers. Computer Programmers, therefore, use either high
level programming languages or an assembly language programming. An assembly language contains the
same instructions as a machine language, but the instructions and variables have names instead of being just
numbers.
 Programs written in  high level programming languages retranslated into assembly language or machine
language by a compiler. Assembly language program retranslated into machine language by a program called
an assembler (assembly language compiler).
 Every CPU has its own unique machine language. Programs must be rewritten or recompiled, therefore, to run
on different types of computers. Input was based onpunch card and paper tapes, and output was displayed on
printouts.
 The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The UNIVAC was
the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.
 Acronym for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, the world's first operational electronic digital
computer, developed by Army Ordnance to compute World War II ballistic firing tables. The ENIAC, weighing
30 tons, using 200 kilowatts of electric power and consisting of 18,000 vacuum tubes,1,500 relays, and
hundreds of thousands of resistors,capacitors, and inductors, was completed in 1945. In addition to ballistics,
the ENIAC's field of application included weather prediction, atomic-energy calculations, cosmic-ray studies,
thermal ignition,random-number studies, wind-tunnel design, and other scientific uses. The ENIAC soon
became obsolete as the need arose for faster computing speeds.
 SECOND GENERATION - 1956-1963: TRANSISTORS

 Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation computer. Transistor is a
device composed of semiconductor material that amplifies a signal or opens or closes a circuit.
Invented in 1947 at Bell Labs, transistors have become the key ingredient of all digital circuits,
including computers. Today's latest microprocessor contains tens of millions of microscopic
transistors.
 Prior to the invention of transistors, digital circuits were composed of vacuum tubes, which had
many disadvantages. They were much larger, required more energy, dissipated more heat, and
were more prone to failures. It's safe to say that without the invention of transistors, computing
as we know it today would not be possible.
 The transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the late
50s. The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube,allowing computers to become smaller,
faster, cheaper,more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation predecessors.
Though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to
damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still
relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output.
 Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or
assembly, languages,which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level
programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL
and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory,
which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.
 
 THIRD GENERATION - 1964-1971: INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

 The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors
were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed
and efficiency of computers.
 A nonmetallic chemical element in the carbon family of elements. Silicon - atomic symbol "Si" - is the second
most abundant element in the earth's crust, surpassed only by oxygen. Silicon does not occur uncombined in
nature. Sand and almost all rocks contain silicon combined with oxygen, forming silica. When silicon
combines with other elements, such as iron, aluminum or potassium, a silicate is formed. Compounds of
silicon also occur in the atmosphere, natural waters,many plants and in the bodies of some animals.
 Silicon is the basic material used to make computer chips, transistors, silicon diodes and other electronic
circuits and switching devices because its atomic structure makes the element an ideal semiconductor. Silicon
is commonly doped, or mixed,with other elements, such as boron, phosphorous and arsenic, to alter its
conductive properties.
 A chip is a small piece of semi conducting material(usually silicon) on which an integrated circuit is
embedded. A typical chip is less than ¼-square inches and can contain millions of electronic
components(transistors). Computers consist of many chips placed on electronic boards called printed circuit
boards. There are different types of chips. For example, CPU chips (also called microprocessors) contain an
entire processing unit, whereas memory chips contain blank memory.
 Semiconductor is a material that is neither a good conductor of electricity (like copper) nor a good insulator
(like rubber). The most common semiconductor materials are silicon and germanium. These materials are then
doped to create an excess or lack of electrons.
 Computer chips, both for CPU and memory, are composed of semiconductor materials. Semiconductors make
it possible to miniaturize electronic components, such as transistors. Not only does miniaturization mean that
the components take up less space, it also means that they are faster and require less energy.
 Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards
and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different
applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time
became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.
 
 FOURTH GENERATION - 1971-PRESENT:
MICROPROCESSORS

 The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits we rebuilt
onto a single silicon chip. A silicon chip that contains a CPU. In the world of personal computers,the terms
microprocessor and CPU are used interchangeably. At the heart of all personal computers and most
workstations sits a microprocessor. Microprocessors also control the logic of almost all digital devices, from
clock radios to fuel-injection systems for automobiles.
 Three basic characteristics differentiate microprocessors:
 Instruction Set: The set of instructions that the microprocessor can execute.
  
 Bandwidth: The number of bits processed in a single instruction.
  
 Clock Speed: Given in megahertz (MHz), the clock speed determines how many instructions per second the
processor can execute.
 In both cases, the higher the value, the more powerful the CPU. For example, a 32-bit microprocessor that runs
at 50MHz is more powerful than a 16-bitmicroprocessor that runs at 25MHz.
 What in the first generation filled an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004chip,
developed in 1971, located all the components of the computer - from the central processing unit and memory
to input/output controls - on a single chip.
 Abbreviation of central processing unit, and pronounced as separate letters. The CPU is the brains of the
computer. Sometimes referred to simply as the processor or central processor, the CPU is where most
calculations take place. In terms of computing power,the CPU is the most important element of a computer
system.
 
 On large machines, CPUs require one or more printed circuit boards. On personal computers and small
workstations, the CPU is housed in a single chip called a microprocessor.
 Two typical components of a CPU are:
 The arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs arithmetic and logical operations.
  
 The control unit, which extracts instructions from memory and decodes and executes them, calling on the ALU
when necessary.
 In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh.
Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many areas of life as more and
more everyday products began to use microprocessors.
 As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks, which
eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the development of
GUI's, the mouse and handheld devices
 FIFTH GENERATION - PRESENT AND BEYOND: ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE
 Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in
development,though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used
today.
 Artificial Intelligence is the branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave
like humans. The term was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Artificial intelligence includes:
 Games Playing: programming computers to play games such as chess and checkers
  
 Expert Systems: programming computers to make decisions in real-life situations (for example,
some expert systems help doctors diagnose diseases based on symptoms)
  
 Natural Language: programming computers to understand natural human languages
  
 Neural Networks: Systems that simulate intelligence by attempting to reproduce the types of
physical connections that occur in animal brains
  
 Robotics: programming computers to see and hear and react to other sensory stimuli
 Currently, no computers exhibit full artificial intelligence (that is, are able to simulate human
behavior). The greatest advances have occurred in the field of games playing. The best computer
chess programs are now capable of beating humans. In May,1997, an IBM super-computer called
Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov in a chess match.
 In the area of robotics, computers are now widely used in assembly plants, but they are
capable only of very limited tasks. Robots have great difficulty identifying objects based on
appearance or feel, and they still move and handle objects clumsily.
 Natural-language processing offers the greatest potential rewards because it would allow
people to interact with computers without needing any specialized knowledge. You could
simply walk up to a computer and talk to it. Unfortunately, programming computers to
understand natural languages has proved to be more difficult than originally thought. Some
rudimentary translation systems that translate from one human language to another are in
existence, but they are not nearly as good as human translators.
 There are also voice recognition systems that can convert spoken sounds into written words,
but they do not understand what they are writing; they simply take dictation. Even these
systems are quite limited -- you must speak slowly and distinctly.
 In the early 1980s, expert systems were believed to represent the future of artificial
intelligence and of computers in general. To date, however, they have not lived up to
expectations. Many expert systems help human experts in such fields as medicine and
engineering, but they are very expensive to produce and are helpful only in special situations.
 Today, the hottest area of artificial intelligence is neural networks, which are proving
successful in an umber of disciplines such as voice recognition and natural-language
processing.
 There are several programming languages that are known as AI languages because they are
used almost exclusively for AI applications. The two most common are LISP and Prolog.