COMPUTERS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

First generation-vaccum tubes.

Computers of this generation used vaccum tubes to perform calculations. Vaccum tubes were expensive because of the amount of material and skill needed to manufacture them. Vaccum tubes got hot and burnt out. Computers of this generation were very large machines. Special rooms with air conditioning were needed to house them because of the heat generated by the vaccum tubes.

Second generation-Transistors

Transistors was invented in 1947 by William Shockley, Jhon Bardeen, and William Brattain.

Advantages :

* 200 transistors are about the same size as one vaccum tube in a computer.

* They were much less expensive than a vaccum tube.

* A transistor could work 40 times faster than a vaccum tube.

* They did not got hot and get burnt out like a vaccum tube.

The major change in the electronic computers was the replacement of vaccum tubes with transistors. The transistor was invented at Bell labs in 1947. The transistor is smaller, cheaper, and dissipates less heat than a vaccum tube but can be used in the ame way as a vacum tube to construct computers.

As compared to first generation computers, second generation computers were smaller and had high processing speed. Most of these computers used magnetic core memories as internal storage.

Third generation-integrated circuits.

The concept of ic was developed by Jack st. Clair Kilby in 1958. First ic was developed and used in 1961 an ic is about one square inch and can contain thousands of transistors. The major invention of third generation of computers was the development of ic (integrated circuit). The computer became smaller in size, faster, more reliable, and lower in price and became very common in medium to large scale business.

Fourth generation-microprocessors

The microprocessor is a complete processing circuitry on a chip. Ted Hoff produced the first microprocessor in 1971 for intel, which was named as "intel 4004". Modern microprocessors are usually less than one square inch and can contain million of electronic circuits. Today microprocessors are used in almost everything in our life such as wristwatches, microwaves etc.

Fourth generation of computers started with the invention of microprocessors it revoloutionized the computer world. Advancements were made in the microprocessors. These computers used semiconductor memory, which increased the internal storage of the computers. These computers have high processing speed, more internal storage and are smaller in size.

Fifth generation-Present and Beyond: Artificial intelligence.

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development stage though there are some applications such as voice recognition that are being used today. The use of parrallel processing and super conducters is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum computation, molecular and nano technology will radically change the face of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth generation computing is to develope devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self organization.