In The Name Of God

Computer Generations
 Contents
3....................................................................................................First Generation:
3............................................................................................................UNIVAC I:
4..................................................................................................................SAGE:
4...............................................................................................................EDVAC:
5.............................................................................................................IBM 701:
5....................................................................................................The Whirlwind:
6........................................................................................The Second Generation:
:The Second Generation
 :First Generation

The first generation computers were huge, slow,

expensive, and often undependable. In 1946two
Americans, Presper Eckert, and John Mauchly built the
ENIAC electronic computer which used vacuum tubes
instead of the mechanical switches of the Mark I. The
ENIAC used thousands of vacuum tubes, which took up
a lot of space and gave off a great deal of heat just like
light bulbs do. The ENIAC led to other vacuum tube
type computers like the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) and the
.(UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer
The vacuum tube was an extremely important step in the advancement of computers.
Vacuum tubes were invented the same time the light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison
and worked very similar to light bulbs. It's purpose was to act like an amplifier and a switch.
Without any moving parts, vacuum tubes could take very weak signals and make the signal
stronger (amplify it). Vacuum tubes could also stop and start the flow of electricity instantly
.(switch). These two properties made the ENIAC computer possible
The ENIAC gave off so much heat that they had to be cooled by gigantic air
conditioners. However even with these huge coolers, vacuum tubes still
.overheated regularly. It was time for something new

:Characteristics of 1st Generation Computers

Computers big and clumsy 

Electricity consumption is high 

Electric failure occurred regularly - 
computers not very reliable
Large air conditioners was necessary 
because the computers generated heat
Batch processing 
 :UNIVAC I
In June 1951, the UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic
Computer) was delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Remington Rand eventually sold 46 machines at more
than $1 million each ($8.38 million as of 2010). UNIVAC
was the first "mass produced" computer. It used 5,200
vacuum tubes and consumed 125 kW of power. Its
primary storage was serial-access mercury delay lines
capable of storing 1,000 words of 11 decimal digits plus
sign (72-bit words). A key feature of the UNIVAC system
was a newly invented type of metal magnetic tape, and
a high-speed tape unit, for non-volatile storage.
.Magnetic media are still used in many computers

:SAGE
In 1951 IBM developed SAGE which was short
term of Semi Automatic Ground Environment. By
developing this IBM became the leader leaders in
real-time applications and used the technology of
Whirlwind. These computers were used in an
early U.S. air defense system. They were fully
deployed in 1963 that consisted of 27 centers
throughout North America, each with a duplexes
AN/FSQ-7 computer system containing over
50,000 vacuum tubes, weighing 250 tons and
occupying an acre of floor space. SAGE was the
first large computer network to provide man-
.machine interaction in real time
 :EDVAC
In 1952 designed EDVAC (Electronic Discreet
Variable Computer) the first computer designed
with a central control unit which would calculate
and output all mathematical and logical problems
and a memory which could be written to and
read. (RAM in modern terms) which would store
.programs and data

:IBM 701
In 1953 IBM designed IBM 701. The 701 was
formally announced on May 21, 1952. It was the
unit of the overall 701 Data Processing System in
which actual calculations was performed. That
activity involved 274 assemblies executing all the
system's computing and control functions by
means of electronic pulses emitted at speeds
.ranging up to one million a second

:The Whirlwind
Developed in 1953, Whirlwind was a large scale,
general purpose digital computer begun at the
Servomechanisms Laboratory of the
.Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1946
 :The Second Generation
The transistor computer did not last as long as the vacuum tube computer
lasted, but it was no less important in the advancement of computer
technology. In 1947 three scientists, John Bardeen, William Shockley,
and Walter Brattain working at AT&T's Bell Labs invented what would
replace the vacuum tube forever. This invention was the transistor which
functions like a vacuum tube in that it can be used to relay and switch
.electronic signals
There were obvious differences between the transisitor and the vacuum tube. The transistor
was faster, more reliable, smaller, and much cheaper to build than a vacuum tube. One
transistor replaced the equivalent of 40 vacuum tubes. These transistors were made of solid
material, some of which is silicon, an abundant element (second only to oxygen) found in
beach sand and glass. Therefore they were very cheap to produce. Transistors were found to
conduct electricity faster and better than vacuum tubes. They were also much smaller and
gave off virtually no heat compared to vacuum tubes. Their use marked a new beginning for
the computer. Without this invention, space travel in the 1960's would not have been
possible. However, a new invention would even further advance our ability to use
.computers

Mini-computer: PDP-8 ,1963

Digital introduces the first successful minicomputer – the PDP-8. It was about as
.large as a fridge and used transistors and magnetic core memory

Real-time reservation system IBM developed a real-time computerised 1964

.ticket reservation system for American Airways

It was smaller than SAGE and was called SABRE (Semi-Automatic Business-
.(Related Environment

IBM’s System 360 ,1964

It consisted of 6 processors and 40 peripheral units. More than 100 computers

.per month were ordered

(BASIC (programming language ,1964

A programming language was necessary that could be used in a time-sharing

.environment and that could serve as a training language
 :The Third Generation
(Integrated Circuits - Miniaturizing the Computer) 1965-1970
Transistors were a tremendous breakthrough in advancing the computer.
However no one could predict that thousands even now millions of transistors
(circuits) could be compacted in such a small space. The integrated circuit, or as it is
sometimes referred to as semiconductor chip, packs a huge number of transistors onto a
single wafer of silicon. Robert Noyce of Fairchild Corporation and Jack Kilby of Texas
Instruments independently discovered the amazing attributes of integrated circuits. Placing
such large numbers of transistors on a single chip vastly increased the power of a single
.computer and lowered its cost considerably
Since the invention of integrated circuits, the number of
transistors that can be placed on a single chip has doubled every
two years, shrinking both the size and cost of computers even
further and further enhancing its power. Most electronic devices
today use some form of integrated circuits placed on printed circuit
boards-- thin pieces of bakelite or fiberglass that have electrical
.connections etched onto them -- sometimes called a mother board

These third generation computers could carry out instructions in billionths of a second.
The size of these machines dropped to the size of small file cabinets. Yet, the single biggest
.advancement in the computer era was yet to be discovered

Gordon Moore ,1965

The semi-conductor pioneer, Gordon Moore (founder of Intel), predicted that the number of
transistors that occurred on a microchip would double every year. It became known as
.Moore’s Law and is still valid today

Burroughs used integrated circuits in parts of two computers - the B2500 and the
.B3500

Control Data and NCR made two computers using only integrated circuits - the CDC
.7600 and the Century series respectively

.(Intel was founded (INTegrated Electronics ,1968

.They developed more sophisticated memory chips–

.Magnetic core memory was replaced by a microchip ,1968

The first 256 bit RAM microchips, and later the first 1Kb RAM (1024 byte)–
chips, caused the disappearance of Magnetic Core Memory that was used
.since the mid 1950's

IBM System/370 replaced their System/360 with the System/370 that only used ,1969
.integrated circuits
 :The Fourth Generation
(Today (The Microprocessor-1971
This generation can be
characterized by both the jump to
monolithic integrated circuits(millions
of transistors put onto one integrated
circuit chip) and the invention of the
microprocessor (a single chip that could
do all the processing of a full-scale
computer). By putting millions of
transistors onto one single chip more calculation and faster speeds could be reached
by computers. Because electricity travels about a foot in a billionth of a second, the
.smaller the distance the greater the speed of computers
However what really triggered the tremendous growth of computers and its
significant impact on our lives is the invention of the microprocessor. Ted Hoff,
employed by Intel (Robert Noyce's new company) invented a chip the size of a pencil
eraser that could do all the computing and logic work of a computer. The
microprocessor was made to be used in calculators, not computers. It led, however, to
.the invention of personal computers, or microcomputers
It wasn't until the 1970's that people began buying computer
for personal use. One of the earliest personal computers was the
Altair 8800 computer kit. In 1975 you could purchase this kit
and put it together to make your own personal computer. In
1977 the Apple II was sold to the public and in 1981 IBM
.entered the PC (personal computer) market
Today we have all heard of Intel and its Pentium ®

Processors and now we know how it all got started. The

computers of the next generation will have millions upon millions of transistors on
one chip and will perform over a billion calculations in a single second. There is no
.end in sight for the computer movement
(CP/M (Operating system ,1972

The first operating system for microcomputers was developed by–

.Gary Kildall and John Torode

Torode developed hardware to connect a diskette (floppy disk) to–

.the CPU

1974

Microprocessor, was released - it made the development of 8080–

.the microcomputer possible

MARK-8 Johnathan Titus (a chemist with an interest in electronics) ordered

.an 8008 processor from Intel

He built a computer with six(6) circuit boards which had 256 bytes–
.RAM

Motorola’s 6800 processor developed a processor

 .the 6800. which could perform all the functions of the 8080–

January - 1975

Altair 8800- Popular Mechanics published an article which–

announced the development of a true personal computer

Developed by MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems).–

It used the 8-bit Intel 8080 microprocessor and was made available
in a complete kit, including all components and assembly
.instructions

bytes of RAM was available. 16 slots were left open to include 256–
.more RAM when necessary

. Apple- Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded the Apple Company

They built a micro-computer motherboard that used an 8-bit–

.processor

.The motherboard was a single circuit board and held 4 Kb RAM–

MOS 6502 processor ,1976

MOS technologies–

announced the develop-ment of the 6502 processor, an 8-bit processor

.with very few registers and 16-bit address bus

It was used in the design of the Apple II–

Apple II Wozniak and Jobs released the Apple II. It was cheap, .1977–
.had 16 Kb RAM and was ideal for playing video games

It was sold with a keyboard, a power supply and included 8 slots for–
peripherals. It could therefore be used with a wider variety of
.peripherals and programs

Intel’s 8086 processor that con-tained 16-bit registers and 1978–

.used segmented memory addressing

All x86 processors had to be compatible with the set of instructions,–

.first used in this processor

Motorola’s 68000 processor which was used in the Apple Lisa and ,1979

: Macintosh computers First spreadsheet

VisiCalcDan Bricklin and Bob Frankston of the Software Arts –

Company developed the first spreadsheet program for use on
microcomputers, namely VisiCalc. It was distributed by Personal
.Software for use on all Apple computers
 WordStar

The word processing program WordStar was developed by Seymour

Rubenstein's firm MicroPro and became the best seller in the CP/M

operating environment 1981, IBM PCIBM announced it's first Personal

Computer - the IBM PC - an Intel 8088 processor

.Intel’s 286 processor. Intel announced the 80286 microprocessor ,1982

.(This was used in the IBM PC AT (Advanced Technology–

Apple’s Lisa ,1983

Apple announced the Lisa, a computer that used a mouse to move a–

cursor on the screen in order to select commands. The Lisa was the
(first commercial computer to use a Graphical User Interface (GUI

IBM announced the PC XT (eXtended Technology). Memory was ,1983

:expanded to 640 Kb and it featured

MHz processor speed 4,77–

Double floppy disks–

MS DOS version 3.3–

.Later versions also had 10 or 20 Mb hard disk drives available–

(Windows 3.0 (operating system ,1990

.Microsoft released Windows 3.0–

 :The Fifth Generation
Present and Beyond) Artificial Intelligence)
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 make artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum
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

:Problem Solving by Search

An important aspect of intelligence is goal-based problem solving. The solution of
many problems (e.g. noughts and crosses, timetabling, chess) can be described
by finding a sequence of actions that lead to a desirable goal. Each action
changes the state and the aim is to find the sequence of actions and states that
.lead from the initial (start) state to a final (goal) state

:A well-defined problem can be described by

Initial state

Operator or successor function - for any state x returns s(x), the set of
states reachable from x with one action

State space - all states reachable from initial by any sequence of actions

Path - sequence through state space

Path cost - function that assigns a cost to a path. Cost of a path is the sum
of costs of individual actions along the path

Goal test - test to determine if at goal state

:The Fifth Generation Expert Systems

Software used with an extensive set of organized data that presents the
computer as an expert on a particular topic

:The Fifth Generation Natural Language

Humans communicate with computers in the language they use on a daily basis

:The Fifth Generation Robotics

Computer-controlled device that can physically manipulate
its surroundings

:The Fifth Generation VR – Virtual Reality

Engage a user in a computer-created environment

User physically interacts with computer-created environment