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CAP170 Types and Generations

This document discusses the five generations of computers from the 1940s to present. Each generation saw technological advancements that made computers smaller, faster, more powerful and efficient. The first generation used vacuum tubes and were large and prone to overheating. The second generation used transistors and were smaller. The third generation used integrated circuits on microchips. The fourth generation had microprocessors that located all components on a single chip. The fifth generation aims to develop artificial intelligence capabilities. Computers are also classified by size as supercomputers, mainframes, mini computers, and microcomputers.

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42 views

CAP170 Types and Generations

This document discusses the five generations of computers from the 1940s to present. Each generation saw technological advancements that made computers smaller, faster, more powerful and efficient. The first generation used vacuum tubes and were large and prone to overheating. The second generation used transistors and were smaller. The third generation used integrated circuits on microchips. The fourth generation had microprocessors that located all components on a single chip. The fifth generation aims to develop artificial intelligence capabilities. Computers are also classified by size as supercomputers, mainframes, mini computers, and microcomputers.

Uploaded by

hauwauibrahimmagaji532
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Generations of

Computers

By Ms Deepika

Assistant Professor | Lovely professional University


• The computer has evolved from a large-sized simple
calculating machine to a smaller but much more powerful
machine.

• The evolution of computer to the current state is defined in


terms of the generations of computer.

• Each generation of computer is designed based on a new


technological development, resulting in better, cheaper and
smaller computers that are more powerful, faster and efficient
than their predecessors.
• Currently, there are five generations of computer. In the
following subsections, we will discuss the generations of
computer in terms of the technology used by them
(hardware and software), computing characteristics (speed,
i.e., number of instructions executed per second), physical
appearance, and their applications.
(1940-1956)
• The first computers used vacuum tubes(a sealed glass tube containing a
near-vacuum which allows the free passage of electric current.) for
circuitry and magnetic drums for memory.
• They were often enormous and taking up entire room.
• First generation computers relied on machine language.
• 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(defect or breakdown).
• The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation
computing devices.
First Generation Computers
Advantages :
•It was only electronic device
•First device to hold memory

Disadvantages :
•Too bulky i.e large in size
•Vacuum tubes burn frequently
•They were producing heat
•Maintenance problems
Second Generation Computers
(1956-1963)
• Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second
generation of computers.
• Second-generation computers moved from
cryptic binary machine language to symbolic.
• 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.
Second Generation
Computers
Advantages :
•Size reduced considerably
•The very fast
•Very much reliable

Disadvantages :
•They over heated quickly
•Maintenance problems
Third Generation Computers
(1964-1971)
• The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of
the third generation of computers.
• Transistors were miniaturized and placed on siliconchips,
called semiconductors.
• Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with
third generation computers through keyboards
and monitors and interfaced with an operating system.
• Allowed the device to run many different applications at one
time.
Third generation
computers
Advantages :
•ICs are very small in size
•Improved performance
•Production cost cheap

Disadvantages :
•ICs are sophisticated
Fourth Generation Computers
(1971-present)
• The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of
computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto
a single silicon chip.
• The Intel 4004 chip, 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.
• . Fourth generation computers also saw the development
of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.
Fourth Generation
Computers
Fifth Generation Computers
(present and beyond)
• Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial
intelligence.
• Are still in development, though there are some applications,
such as voice recognition.
• The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping
to make artificial intelligence a reality.
• The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices
that respond to natural language input and are capable of
learning and self-organization.
Fifth Generation Computers
Classification on the basis
of size of computers
• Super Computer
• Super computers are the fastest, most-powerful and most
expensive computers.
• It has the ability to recover automatically from failures.
• It has the ability to support several Giga Bytes of RAM.
Super Computer
• Unlike conventional computers, which have a single processor
to process one instruction at a time, supercomputers have
multiple processors (or CPUs) that process multiple
instructions at a time.
• Supercomputers are widely used in scientific applications such
as aerodynamic design and simulation, processing of
geological data.
• One of the most powerful supercomputers today is “The
Cray-2” and some others are CRAY 1, CRAY-MP, SX-2,
HITAC S-300, etc.
Super computer
Mainframe Computer
• A mainframe computer is usually slower, less power and less
expensive than supercomputers.
• Very large in size with approximately 1000 square ft. area.
• Mainframe process several million instructions per second (MIPS).
More than 1000 remote workstations can be accommodated by a
typical mainframe computer.
• Mainframes are used by banks and many more business to update
inventory, etc.
• Many modern mainframe have multiprocessing capabilities.
• E.g. IBM 4300 series, IBM 308X series, HP 9000
Mainframe Computers
Mini computer
• These are also a general purpose computer, smaller than mainframe
computer. Medium sized computer, occupying approximately 10 sq
ft of area.
• They have slower operating speed, smaller backup storage, limited
hardware and less memory than mainframes.
• Minicomputers are well adapted for functions such as accounting,
word processing, database management, statistical packages for
social sciences.
• More than 50 terminals and large storage capacity device than
microcomputers but smaller than mainframe computers. E.g. Prime
9755
Mini computers
Micro computer
• A microcomputer is the smallest, least expensive of all the
computers.
• Microcomputers have smallest memory and less power.
• Microcomputers are also called personal computers.
• The most common type of microcomputer is a desktop
computer, which is a non-portable personal computer.
• E.g. Desktop, laptop, notebook computers etc.
Micro Computers
Memory units

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