GENERATION HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANT DETAILS

1ST , 1940 – 1956 Delivery of 1st
commercial computer
(UNIVAC & ENIAC) to
Bureau of the Census
 Vacuum tubes are about 5 – 10 cm length;
 1GM/1GC relied on machine language, these language is lowest-level programming language and could only solve one problem at a
time;
 Input was based on punched cards and paper tape , output was displayed on print outs;
 Vacuum Tubes are used as internal computer components

2nd , 1956 – 1963 Transistors as  Bell Labs developed transistors;

replacement for vacuum  Transistors is more reliable and consume less electricity;
tubes  Assembler language or symbolic language were used;
 Higher level languages were developed (Forton and Cobol)
3rd , 1964 – 1971 Creation of integrated  IC – complete circuits of hundreds of components were placed on a single silicon chip, 2 or 3 mm square;
circuits, keyboards, and  More than one program could share the computer resources at the same time (multi-tasking)
monitor
4th , 1971 – present Microprocessor  Thousand integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip, (one room vs. 1 palm of hand);
 Intel 4004 chip (1971) developed;
 Central processing unit, memory to input/output control were placed on a single chip;
 1984 Apple introduced Macintosh;
 Desktop computers, GUIs (Graphic User Interface) Mouse and hands’ held driver were discovered.
5th , present Artificial intelligence  Application such voice recognition and face of technology;
 Goal is develop devices that respond to nature language input and are capable of learning and self-organization;
 This goal is similar to produce machines that are capable of performing task same ways to human (capable in learning and capable
in interacting with human in natural language);
 Application of said goal is through Art Intelligence, Expert Systems and Natural Language
COMPUTER
an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.

1. Personal Computer: a small, single-user computer based on a microprocessor. In addition to the microprocessor, a personal computer has a keyboard for entering data, a monitor for displaying
information, and a storage device for saving data.
2. Workstation: a powerful, single-user computer. A workstation is like a personal computer, but it has a more powerful microprocessor and a higher-quality monitor.
3. Minicomputer: a multi-user computer capable of supporting from 10 to hundreds of users simultaneously.
4. mainframe: a powerful multi-user computer capable of supporting many hundreds or thousands of users simultaneously.
5. supercomputer: an extremely fast computer that can perform hundreds of millions of instructions per second.

HARDWARE
Refers to objects that you can actually touch, like disks, disk drives, display screens, keyboards, printers, boards, and chips. In contrast, software is untouchable. Software exists as ideas,
concepts, and symbols, but it has no substance.

SOFTWARE
Means computer  instructions  or  data. Anything that can be stored electronically is software, in contrast to storage devices and display devices which are called hardware.