COMPUTER

GENERATIONS

REVIEW
BY: ABDUL GAFAR
FIRST COMPUTER GENERATION

T h e p e r i o d o f fi r s t g e n e ra t i o n w a s f r o m 1 9 4 6 - 1 9 5 9 . T h e
c o m p u t e r s o f fi r s t g e n e ra t i o n u s e d va c u u m t u b e s a s t h e
b a s i c c o m p o n e n t s fo r m e m o r y a n d c i r c u i t r y fo r C P U
( C e n t ra l P r o c e s s i n g U n i t ) . T h e s e t u b e s , l i ke e l e c t r i c
bulbs, produced a lot of heat and the installations used
t o f u s e f r e q u e n t l y. T h e r e fo r e , t h e y w e r e ve r y e x p e n s i ve
a n d o n l y l a r g e o r g a n i z a t i o n s w e r e a b l e t o a ff o r d i t .

I n t h i s g e n e ra t i o n , m a i n l y b a t c h p r o c e s s i n g o p e ra t i n g
system was used. Punch cards, paper tape, and magnetic
tape was used as input and output devices. The
c o m p u t e r s i n t h i s g e n e ra t i o n u s e d m a c h i n e c o d e a s t h e
p r o g ra m m i n g l a n g u a g e .
The main features of the fi rst generation are:

Vacuum tube technology

Unreliable Suppor ted
machine language only
Ver y costly generated a
lot of heatSlow input and
output devices huge size
need of AC Non-por table
Consumed a lot of
electricity
Some computers of this
generation were:

ENIAC

EDVAC

UNIVAC

IBM-701

IBM-650
 SECOND COMPUTER
GENERATION
The period of second generation was from 1959-
1965. In this generation, transistors were used
that were cheaper, consumed less power, more
compact in size, more reliable and faster than the
fi rst generation machines made of vacuum tubes.
In this generation, magnetic cores were used as
the primar y memor y and magnetic tape and
magnetic disks as secondar y storage devices.

In this generation, assembly language and high-

level programming languages like FORTRAN, COBOL
were used. The computers used batch processing
and multiprogramming operating system.
The main features of the second generation are:

Use of transistorsReliable in comparison to fi rst generation

computersSmaller size as compared to fi rst generation
computersGenerated less heat as compared to fi rst generation
computersConsumed less electricity as compared to fi rst generation
computersFaster than fi rst generation computersStill very costlyAC
requiredSuppor ted machine and assembly languages
Some computer of
this generation were:

IBM 1620

IBM 7094

CDC 1604

CDC 3600

UNIVAC 1108
THIRD COMPUTER
GENERATION
T h e p e r i o d o f t h i r d g e n e ra t i o n w a s f r o m 1 9 6 5 - 1 9 7 1 . T h e
c o m p u t e r s o f t h i r d g e n e ra t i o n u s e d I n t e g ra t e d C i r c u i t s
( Ic s ) i n p l a c e o f t ra n s i s t o r s . A s i n g l e IC h a s m a n y
t ra n s i s t o r s , r e s i s t o r s , a n d c a p a c i t o r s a l o n g w i t h t h e
associated circuitry

T h e IC w a s i n ve n t e d b y J a c k K i l b y. T h i s d e ve l o p m e n t
m a d e c o m p u t e r s s m a l l e r i n s i z e , r e l i a b l e , a n d e ffi c i e n t .
I n t h i s g e n e ra t i o n r e m o t e p r o c e s s i n g , t i m e - s h a r i n g ,
m u l t i p r o g ra m m i n g o p e ra t i n g s y s t e m w e r e u s e d . H i g h -
l e ve l l a n g u a g e s ( F O RT R A N -I I TO I V, C O B O L , PA S C A L
P L / 1 , B A S IC , A LG O L- 6 8 e t c .) w e r e u s e d d u r i n g t h i s
g e n e ra t i o n .
The main features of the third generation are:

IC used more reliable in comparison to previous two generation’s

smaller size generated less heat Faster Lesser maintenance costly AC
requiredConsumed lesser electricity Supported high-level language
 Some computer of
this generation were:

IBM-360 series

Honeywell-6000 series

PDP (Personal Data Processor)

IBM-370/168

TDC-316
EDITED BY: NURUDEEN ABDUL GAFAR