WEEK 2
First Generation (1940-1950) :: Vacuum
Tube
•ENIAC [1945]:
Designed by Mauchly
& Echert,
built by US army to calculate trajectories for ballistic shells during Worls War
II. Around 18000 vacuum tubes and 1500 relays were used to build ENIAC, and it
was programmed by manually setting switches
•UNIVAC [1950]: the
first commercial computer
•John Von Neumann architecture: Goldstine and
Von Neumann took the idea of ENIAC and developed concept of storing a program
in the memory. Known as the Von Neumann's architecture and has been the basis
for virtually every machine designed since then.
•Features:
–Electron
emitting devices
–Data
and programs are stored in a single read-write memory
–Memory
contents are addressable by location, regardless
of the
content itself
–Machine
language/Assemble language
–Sequential
execution
Second Generation (1950-1964) ::
Transistors
•William Shockley, John
Bardeen, and Walter Brattain invent the transistor that reduce size of
computers and improve reliability. Vacuum tubes have been replaced by
transistors.
•First operating Systems: handled one program at a
time
•On-off switches controlled by
electronically.
•High level languages (COBOL and FORTRAN)
•Floating point arithmetic
Third Generation (1964-1974) ::
Integrated Circuits (IC)
The mass increase
in the use of computers accelerated with 'Third Generation' computers.
These generally relied on Jack Kilby's invention of the integrated
circuits (or microchip), starting around 1965. However, the IBM
System/360 used hybrid circuits, which were solid-state devices
interconnected on a substrate with discrete wires.
The
first integrated circuit was produced in September 1958 but computers
using them didn't begin to appear until 1963. Some of their early uses
were in embedded systems, notably used by NASA for the Apollo Guidance
Computer by the military in the LGM-30 Minuteman intercontinental
ballistic missile,and in the Central Air Data Computer used for flight
control in the US Navy's F-14A Tomcat fighter jet.
By
1971, the Illiac IV supercomputer, which was the fastest computer in
the world for several years, used about a quarter-million small-scale
ECL logic gate integrated circuits to make up sixty-four parallel data
processors.
While
large mainframe computers such as the System/360 increased storage and
processing abilities, the integrated circuit also allowed development of
much smaller computers. The mini computer was a significant innovation
in the 1960s and 1970s. It brought computing power to more people, not
only through more convenient physical size but also through broadening
the computer vendor field. Digital Equipment Corporation became the
number two computer company behind IBM with their popular PDPand VAX
computer systems. Smaller, affordable hardware also brought about the
development of important new operating system like Unix.
Fourth Generation (1974-Present) :: VLSI
/
ULSI
Fourth Generation computers are the
modern day computers. The Size started to go down with the improvement
in the integerated circuits. Very Large Scale(VLSI) and Ultra Large
scale(ULSI) ensured that millions of components could be fit into a
small chip. It reduced the size and price of the computers at the same
time increasing power, efficiency and reliability. "The Intel 4004
chip, developed in 1971, took the integrated circuit one step further
by locating all the components of a computer (central processing unit,
memory, and input and output controls) on a minuscule chip."
Fifth Generation (now and the future)
Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond)
Fifth generations computers are only in the minds of advance
research scientists and being tested out in the laboratories. These
computers will be under Artificial Intelligence(AI), They will be able to
take commands in a audio visual way and carry out instructions. Many of
the operations which requires low human intelligence will be performed
by these computers.
Parallel Processing is coming and showing the possibility that
the power of many CPU's can be used side by side, and computers will be
more powerful than those under central processing. Advances in Super
Conductor technology will greatly improve the speed of information
traffic. Future looks bright for the computers.
