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In this article:
- Punched cards and early programmable computers
- First Generation Computers – Vacuum Tubes
- Second Generation Computers – Transistors
- Third Generation Computers – Integrated Circuits
- Fourth Generation Computers – Integrated Circuits with VLSI
- Fifth Generation Computers – Integrated Circuits with ULSI
Computers have changed the way we live. They have made the most complicated of things look simple. Calculations that would take a lot of time when done by a human can now be calculated in seconds by a computer. With the advent of the Internet and E-Mail, communication has become easier than ever. The computer was named the Man of The Year by the Time machine in 1982. That shows how important computers are. In this article, we will learn how the computer developed from a humble machine to the ‘monsters’ they are now.
Punched Cards and Early Programmable Computers
Punched cards were originally introduced back in 1801, not for computers though. Joseph-Marie Jacquard used punched cards to control the working of a loom at that time. The pioneer of computing, Charles Babbage, conceived the Analytical Engine in 1883 which was to use punched cards. However, it was never built. The real computing use of punched cards was done in 1890 by Herman Hollerith to handle the data for the Census in the United States. Hollerith’s company eventually became IBM and took the punched card technology to newer levels. It became a powerful tool to handle business data processing. Punched cards are still in use and their dimension is of 80 columns. Some other programmable computers were also developed, like the one by Percy Ludgate from Dublin, Ireland in 1909.
First Generation Computers – Vacuum Tubes (1940s)
The 1940s saw the coming of electronic circuits, relays and vacuum tubes and digital calculations. The computers built during that time used vacuum tubes for processing and punched cards acted as input devices as well as secondary storage. Acoustic Delay Lines and William Tubes served as primary memory (modern day RAM). ENIAC, one of the first digital computers was completed in 1945 (development started in 1941). The project was directed by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert. The ENIAC was a thousand times faster than the others in that era. The Harvard Mark I, a pioneer in digital computers developed by IBM began operation at the Harvard University in May of 1944. John von Nuemann laid down the EDVAC design based on the ENIAC design while taking into consideration its limitations. Based on this architecture, the Manchester “Baby” was built at the University of Manchester in 1948. There itself, the Manchester Mark I was built in 1949. The UNIVAC came in 1951, developed by Remington Rand who sold 46 units of the machine each for a whooping $1 million. It used a metal tape input instead of punched cards. The 1952 saw the advent of IBM’s first mainframe, IBM 701.
Second Generation Computers – Transistors (1950s to early 1960s)
Transistors had been invented in 1947 itself. However, they made their way into computers only in the 1950s and 1960s. IBM can be seen as a pioneer in this era. IBM released various transistor-based computers that included the IBM 7090 mainframe and the medium-scale IBM 1401 in 1959. IBM launched the IBM 1602 in 1960, a popular scientific calculator. DEC’s PDP-I was also launched in this year. The Burroughs’s B5000 launched in 1961 featured for the first time dual processor and virtual memory. Stack architecture and no direct assembly language programming was also major features of this computer. It was at this time that batch operating systems were developed. High level languages such as FORTRAN, COBOL, and ALGOL etc. were also developed at this time. The major advantage of the second generation computers was that they were easily programmable as compared to their predecessors. So also, they were smaller in size and used much less power.
Third Generation Computers – Integrated Circuits (1965 to 1975)
Integrated Chips were invented in 1958 by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. IC-chip based computers form the third generation of computers. These computers were powerful, reliable while still being small and less expensive. The IC chips used in these used small-scale and medium-scale integration technology that allowed fitting multiple components onto a single silicon chip. This era also saw the development of languages such as PASCAL and BASIC. The PDP-8 from DEC and the CDC 6600 are examples of computers of this era. The PDP-8 is more notable as it could easily sit on a single table and did not require a full-time operator. It used time-sharing which enabled more than one user to use it from different areas in a building at a time. In this era, for the first time, hardware and software were separated from each other. IBM, for example, priced its hardware and software titles separately. This enabled customers to choose and buy only the software they wanted instead of the whole package. This led to the emergence of individual software firms including Microsoft.
Fourth Generation Computers – Integrated Circuits with VLSI (1976-1989)
By this time, Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) technology had been developed which allowed integrating a million components on the same chip. This revolutionized the computer world. A social uplift took place and the personal computer (PC) was born. Computers were now all set to reach far and wide into the homes of families. Computers were incredibly fast yet inexpensive to build. Semiconductor memories replaced the existing magnetic core ones and increased the access time. Floppy disks emerged as a famous medium of portable storage between systems. Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WAN) boosted communication between computers. The personal computer was named the Man of the Year by the Time magazine in 1982.
Fifth Generation Computers – Integrated Circuits with ULSI (1990-present)
This era has seen the advent of Ultra Large Scale Integration technology with microprocessor chips having 10 million components. This era’s keyword is speed and reliability. Computers are now working at blazing speeds without being very complicated. Even desktop PCs being used at homes are capable of making a large number of times of calculations as compared to those in the first or second generations. Storage capacity has increased and so has the available mediums. Optical discs such as CDs and DVDs have made a huge impact on storage. The high-capacity hard disks have the cost per megabyte of storage fall to as low as 1/10th of a cent. The future seems bright…
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