English Assignment

Computer Today

Member of group:
1
2

Gusniar Arimbi
Ilham Ridwan Santoso

M3116033
M3116035

Karunia Rachmawati

M3116041

DIPLOMA III PROGRAM INFORMATICS

ENGINEERING
FACULTY OF MATHEMATICS AND
NATURAL SCIENCES
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
2016

COMPUTER TODAY
What is a computer?
A computer is an electronic machine that processes informationin other words,
an information processor: it takes in raw information (or data) at one end, stores it until it's
ready to work on it, chews and crunches it for a bit, then spits out the results at the other end.
All these processes have a name. Taking in information is called input, storing information is
better known as memory (or storage), chewing information is also known as processing, and
spitting out results is called output.
A computer is a device that accepts information (in the form of digitalized data) and
manipulates it for some result based on a program or sequence of instructions on how the data
is to be processed. Complex computers also include the means for storing data (including the
program, which is also a form of data) for some necessary duration. A program may be
invariable and built into the computer (and called logic circuitry as it is onmicroprocessors)
or different programs may be provided to the computer (loaded into its storage and then
started by an administrator or user). Today's computers have both kinds of programming.
In particular, when viewing the movies you should look for two things:

The progression in hardware representation of a bit of data:

1. Vacuum Tubes (1950s) - one bit on the size of a thumb;
2. Transistors (1950s and 1960s) - one bit on the size of a fingernail;
3. Integrated Circuits (1960s and 70s) - thousands of bits on the size of a hand
4. Silicon computer chips (1970s and on) - millions of bits on the size of a finger
nail.

The progression of the ease of use of computers:

1. Almost impossible to use except by very patient geniuses (1950s);

2. Programmable by highly trained people only (1960s and 1970s);
3. Useable by just about anyone (1980s and on).

GENERATION OF COMPUTER
FIRST GENERATION
ENIAC was the world first successful electronic computer which was develops by the
two scientists namely J. P. Eckert and J. W. Mauchy. It was the beginning of first generation
computer. The full form of ENIAC is Electronic Numeric Integrated And Calculator
ENIAC was a very huge and big computer and its weight was 30 tones. It could store only
limited or small amount of information. Initially in the first generation computer the concept
of vacuum tubes was used. A vacuum tube was such an electronic component which had very
less work efficiency and so it could not work properly and it required a large cooling system.
SECOND GENERATION
As the development moved further, the second generation computers knocked the
door. In this generation, transistors were used as the electronic component instead of vaccum
tubes .A transistors is much smaller in the size than that of a vaccum tube. As the size of
electrons components decreased from vaccum tube of transistor, the size of computer also
decreased and it became much smaller than that of earlier computer.
THIRD GENERATION
The third generation computers were invented in the year 1964. In this generation of
computer, IC (Integrated circuits) was used as the electronic component for computers. The
development of IC gave birth to a new field of microelectronics. The main advantage of IC is
not only its small size but its superior performance and reliability than the previous circuits. It
was first developed by T.S Kilby. This generation of computer has huge storage capacity and
higher calculating speed.
FOURTH GENERATION
This is the generation where we are working today. The computers which we see
around us belong to the fourth generation computers. Micro processor is the main concept
behind this generation of computer.
A microprocessor is a single chip (L.S.I circuit), which is used in a computer for any
arithmetical or logical functions to be performed in any program. The honaur of developing
microprocessor goes to Ted Hoff of U.S.A. He developed first micro-processor, the Intel
4004, as he was working for Intel Corporation, U.S.A with the use of microprocessor in the
fourth generation computers, the size of computer become very fast and efficient.
Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond)

Defining the fifth generation of computers is somewhat difficult because the field is in
its infancy. The most famous example of a fifth generation computer is the
fictional HAL9000 from Arthur C. Clarke's novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL performed
all of the functions currently envisioned for real-life fifth generation computers.
With artificial intelligence, HAL could reason well enough to hold conversations with its
human operators, use visual input, and learn from its own experiences. (Unfortunately, HAL
was a little too human and had a psychotic breakdown, commandeering a spaceship and
killing most humans on board.)
Many advances in the science of computer design and technology are coming together
to enable the creation of fifth-generation computers. Two such engineering advances are
parallel processing, which replaces von Neumann's single central processing unit design with
a system harnessing the power of many CPUs to work as one. Another advance
is superconductor technology, which allows the flow of electricity with little or no resistance,
greatly improving the speed of information flow. Computers today have some attributes of
fifth generation computers. For example, expert systems assist doctors in making diagnoses
by applying the problem-solving steps a doctor might use in assessing a patient's needs. It
will take several more years of development before expert systems are in widespread use.

Computer Today
A personal computer (PC) is a small, relatively inexpensive computer designed for
an individual user. In price, personal computers range anywhere from a few hundred dollars
to thousands of dollars. All are based on the microprocessor technology that enables
manufacturers to put an entire CPU on one chip.

What is a computer program today?

What makes a computer different from a calculator is that it can work all by itself.
You just give it your instructions (called a program) and off it goes, performing a long and
complex series of operations all by itself. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, if you wanted a home
computer to do almost anything at all, you had to write your own little program to do it. For
example, before you could write a letter on a computer, you had to write a program that
would read the letters you typed on the keyboard, store them in the memory, and display them
on the screen. Writing the program usually took more time than doing whatever it was that
you had originally wanted to do (writing the letter). Pretty soon, people started selling
programs like word processors to save you the need to write programs yourself.
Today, most computer users rely on prewritten programs like Microsoft Word and
Excel or download apps for their tablets and smartphones without caring much how they got
there. Hardly anyone writes programs any more, which is a shame, because it's great fun and
a really useful skill. Most people see their computers as tools that help them do jobs, rather
than complex electronic machines they have to pre-program. Some would say that's just as
well, because most of us have better things to do than computer programming. Then again, if
we all rely on computer programs and apps, someone has to write them, and those skills need
to survive. When you use computer and internet, its like World in your hand, You can do
everything, everytime, everywhere. For example, you dont need go out from yout house to
buy somthing, because you can buy anything just from your phone or your computer.

Conclusion:
Computers are capable of processing information much faster and more reliably than the
human brain as well as being able to store greater quantities of data.They have a number of
useful applications.Computers have evolved over time, the development is not limited, and
from time to time is designed to help people work more and more in the era of the allpowerful.

Sources

http://homepage.cs.uri.edu/faculty/wolfe/book/Readings/Reading03.html
www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/personal_computer.html
http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/definition/computer
http://wikieducator.org/History_of_Computer_Development_
%26_Generation_of_Computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aThCr0PsyuA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLrmN38TEmU
https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us/developers