The Five Generations of Computers

Introduction
The history of computer development is often referred to in reference to the different generations of
computing devices. Each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological development
that fundamentally changed the way computers operate resulting in increasingly smaller cheaper more
powerful and more efficient and reliable devices.
The first use word !computer! was recorded in "#"$ referring to a person who carried out calculations
or computations and the word continued to be used in that sense until the middle of the %&th century.
From the end of the "'th century onwards though the word began to ta(e on its more familiar meaning
describing a machine that carries out computations.
) definition of computer is a device capable of performing a series of arithmetic or logical operation.
Analog computers
*efore +orld +ar II mechanical and electrical analog computers were considered the !state of the art!
and many thought they were the future of computing. )nalog computers ta(e advantage of the strong
similarities between the mathematics of small,scale properties-the position and motion of wheels or the
voltage and current of electronic components-and the mathematics of other physical phenomena for
e.ample ballistic trajectories inertia resonance energy transfer momentum and so forth. They model
physical phenomena with electrical voltages and currents as the analog /uantities.
0nli(e modern digital computers analog computers are not very fle.ible and need to be rewired manually
to switch them from wor(ing on one problem to another. )nalog computers had an advantage over early
digital computers in that they could be used to solve comple. problems using behavioural analogues while
the earliest attempts at digital computers were /uite limited
First Generation (1940-1956) Vacuum Tubes
The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory and were often
enormous ta(ing up entire rooms. They were very e.pensive to operate and in addition to using a great
deal of electricity generated a lot of heat which was often the cause of malfunctions.
First generation computers relied on machine language the lowest,level programming language understood
by computers to perform operations and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on
punched cards and paper tape and output was displayed on printouts.
The 01I2)C and E1I)C computers are e.amples of first,generation computing devices. The 01I2)C
was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client the 0.3. Census *ureau in "'4".
*elow we will see more detailed the development of this generation5
This era of modern computing began with a flurry of development before and during +orld +ar II as
electronic circuit elements replaced mechanical e/uivalents and digital calculations replaced analog
calculations. 6achines such as the 7$ the )tanasoff8*erry Computer the Colossus computers and the
E1I)C were built by hand using circuits containing relays or valves 9vacuum tubes: and often used
punched cards or punched paper tape for input and as the main 9non,volatile: storage medium. This
computer was defined the !first computer;.
There were three parallel streams of computer development in the +orld +ar II era< the first stream
largely ignored and the second stream deliberately (ept secret. The first was the German wor( of
=onrad 7use. The second was the secret development of the Colossus computers in the 0=. 1either of
these had much influence on the various computing projects in the 0nited 3tates. The third stream of
computer development Ec(ert and 6auchly>s E1I)C and E?2)C was widely publicized.
)lan Turing>s "'$# proved enormously influential in computing and computer science the se/uential
process of the machines. Turing provided a definition of a universal computer which e.ecutes a program
stored on tape. This construct came to be called a Turing machine. E.cept for the limitations imposed by
their finite memory stores modern computers are said to be Turing,complete which is to say they have
algorithm e.ecution capability e/uivalent to a universal Turing machine. 9This process is related with the
e.ecuted process:
This computing machine to be a practical general,purpose computer there must be some convenient read,
write mechanism punched tape for e.ample. +ith (nowledge of )lan Turing>s theoretical >universal
computing machine> @ohn von 1eumann defined an architecture which uses the same memory both to
store programs and data5 virtually all contemporary computers use this architecture 9or some variant:.
+hile it is theoretically possible to implement a full computer entirely mechanically electronics made
possible the speed and later the miniaturization that characterize modern computers.
In "'$' development began at I*6>s Endicott laboratories on the Aarvard the first machine developed
was 6ar( I. =nown officially as the )utomatic 3e/uence Controlled Calculator the 6ar( I was a general
purpose electro,mechanical computer built with I*6 financing and with assistance from I*6 personnel
under the direction of Aarvard mathematician Aoward )i(en. Its design was influenced by *abbage>s
)nalytical Engine using decimal arithmetic and storage wheels and rotary switches in addition to
electromagnetic relays. It was programmable via punched paper tape and contained several calculation
units wor(ing in parallel. Bater versions contained several paper tape readers and the machine could
switch between readers based on a condition. The 6ar( I was moved to Aarvard 0niversity and began
operation in 6ay "'CC.
)fter the 6ar( I other machines developed as5
George 3tibitz is internationally recognized as one of the fathers of the modern digital computer. +hile
wor(ing at *ell Babs in 1ovember "'$D 3tibitz invented and built a relay,based calculator that he dubbed
the !6odel =! 9for !(itchen table! on which he had assembled it: which was the first to calculate using
binary form.
The )tanasoff,*erry Computer was the world>s first electronic digital computer. The design used over
$&& vacuum tubes and employed capacitors fi.ed in a mechanically rotating drum for memory. Though the
)*C machine was not programmable it was the first to use electronic tubes in an adder.
*ut one the machine most representative of this generation was the 03,built E1I)C 9Electronic
1umerical Integrator and Computer: was the first electronic general,purpose computer. It combined for
the first time the high speed of electronics with the ability to be programmed for many comple.
problems. It could add or subtract 4&&& times a second a thousand times faster than any other machine.
Aigh speed memory was limited to %& words 9about E& bytes:.
E1I)C>s development and construction lasted from "'C$ to full operation at the end of "'C4. The
machine was huge weighing $& tons and contained over "E&&& vacuum tubes. Fne of the major
engineering feats was to minimize tube burnout which was a common problem at that time. The machine
was in almost constant use for the ne.t ten years.
Even before the E1I)C was finished Ec(ert and 6auchly recognized its limitations and started the
design of a stored,program computer E?2)C 9Electronic ?iscrete 2ariable )utomatic Computer:. @ohn
von 1eumann was credited with a widely circulated report describing the E?2)C design in which both the
programs and wor(ing data were stored in a single unified store. This basic design denoted the von
1eumann architecture would serve as the foundation for the worldwide development of E1I)C>s
successors. In this generation of e/uipment temporary or wor(ing storage was provided by acoustic
delay lines which used the propagation time of sound through a medium such as li/uid mercury 9or
through a wire: to briefly store data. ) series of acoustic pulses is sent along a tube< after a time as the
pulse reached the end of the tube the circuitry detected whether the pulse represented a " or & and
caused the oscillator to re,send the pulse. Fthers used +illiamsGs tubes which use the ability of a small
cathode,ray tube 9CHT: to store and retrieve data as charged areas on the phosphor screen. *y "'4C
magnetic core memory was rapidly displacing most other forms of temporary storage and dominated the
field through the mid,"'D&s.
E?2)C was the first stored,program computer designed< however it was not the first to run. In "'C' by
the 6anchester 6ar( " computer a complete system using +illiamsGs tube and magnetic drum memory
and introducing inde. registers.
With EDVAC the first generation of computers ends and then starts the second generation using transistors.
Secon Generation (1956-196!) Transistors
From "'44 the transistors replaced vacuum tubes in computer designs giving rise to the !second
generation! of computers.
Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers. The transistor
was invented in "'CD but did not see widespread use in computers until the late "'4&s. )lso the first
computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.
The 3econd,generation of computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic or
assembly languages which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. Aigh,level programming
languages were also being developed at this time such as early versions of CF*FB and FFHTH)1. These
were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory which moved from a
magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.
The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube allowing computers to become smaller faster
cheaper more energy,efficient and more reliable than their first,generation predecessors. Though the
transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage it was a vast
improvement over the vacuum tube. 3econd,generation computers still relied on punched cards for input
and printouts for output.
The first transistorised computer was built at the 0niversity of 6anchester and was operational by
"'4$< a second version was completed there in )pril "'44. The later machine used %&& transistors and
"$&& solid,state diodes and had a power consumption of "4& watts. Aowever it still re/uired valves to
generate the cloc( waveforms at "%4 (Az and to read and write on the magnetic drum memory.
Compared to vacuum tubes transistors have many advantages5 they are smaller and re/uire less power
than vacuum tubes so give off less heat. 3ilicon junction transistors were much more reliable than
vacuum tubes and had longer indefinite service life. Transistorized computers could contain tens of
thousands of binary logic circuits in a relatively compact space. Transistors greatly reduced computers>
size initial cost and operating cost.
Transistorized electronics improved not only the CI0 9Central Irocessing 0nit: but also the peripheral
devices. The I*6 $4& H)6)C was introduced in "'4# and was the world>s first dis( drive. The second
generation dis( data storage units.
) removable dis( stac( can be easily e.changed with another stac( in a few seconds. Even if the
removable dis(s> capacity is smaller than fi.ed dis(s> their interchangeability guarantees a nearly
unlimited /uantity of data close at hand. 6agnetic tape provided archival capability for this data at a
lower cost than dis(.
6any second generation CI0s delegated peripheral device communications to a secondary processor. For
e.ample while the communication processor controlled card reading and punching the main CI0 e.ecuted
calculations and binary branch instructions.
?uring the second generation remote terminal units li(e telephone connections provided sufficient speed
for early remote terminals and allowed hundreds of (ilometers separation between remote,terminals and
the computing center. Eventually these stand,alone computer networ(s would be generalized into an
interconnected networ( of networ(s-the internet. These developments were the precedent for what we
now (now as internet
T"ir Generation (1964-19#1) $ntegrate %ircuits
The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmar( of the third generation of computers.
Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips called semiconductors which drastically
increased the speed and efficiency of computers.
The e.plosion in the use of computers began with !third,generation! computers ma(ing use of @ac( 3t.
Clair =ilby>s and Hobert 1oyce>s independent invention of the integrated circuit 9or microchip: which
later led to the invention of the microprocessor by Ted Aoff Federico Faggin and 3tanley 6azor at
Intel.
Instead of punched cards and printouts users interacted with third generation computers through
(eyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system which allowed the device to run many
different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the
first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their
predecessors.
The computer became small low,cost and that could be owned by individuals and small businesses.
6icrocomputers the first of which appeared in the "'D&s became ubi/uitous in the "'E&s and beyond.
3teve +oznia( co,founder of )pple Computer is sometimes erroneously credited with developing the
first mass,mar(et home computers.
Fourt" Generation (19#1-&0's) (icroprocessors
The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers as thousands of integrated circuits
were built onto a single silicon chip. +hat in the first generation filled an entire room could now fit in the
palm of the hand. The Intel C&&C chip developed in "'D" located all the components of the computer-
from the central processing unit and memory to inputJoutput controls-on a single chip.
In "'E" I*6 introduced its first computer for the home user and in "'EC )pple introduced the
6acintosh. 6icroprocessors also moved out of the realm of des(top computers and into many areas of life
as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.
)s these small computers became more powerful they could be lin(ed together to form networ(s which
eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the development
of the mouse and handheld devices etc.
Fi)t" Generation (*resent an +e,on) Arti)icial $ntelligence
Fifth generation computing devices based on artificial intelligence are still in development though there
are some applications such as voice recognition that are being used today. The use of parallel processing
and superconductors is helping to ma(e artificial intelligence a reality. Kuantum computation and
molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years to come. The goal of
fifth,generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable
of learning and self,organization.