Contents

A. Early History .........................................................................................................................................................1

1. Abacus ..............................................................................................................................................................1
2. Pascaline ...........................................................................................................................................................1
3. Jacquard loom...................................................................................................................................................2
4. Analytical Engine .............................................................................................................................................2
B. Electronic Computer History ................................................................................................................................2
1. First Generation (1946-59) ...............................................................................................................................3
2. Second Generation (1959-65)...........................................................................................................................5
3. Third Generation (1965-71)..............................................................................................................................5
4. Fourth Generation (1971-80) ............................................................................................................................6
5. Fifth Generation (1980-onwards) .....................................................................................................................6

Early History

1. Abacus

An abacus is a manual aid to calculating that consists

of beads or disks that can be moved up and down on a
series of sticks or strings within a usually wooden
frame.
The abacus itself doesn't calculate; it's simply a device
for helping a human being to calculate by remembering
what has been counted.

2. Pascaline

Also called Arithmetic Machine, the first calculator or adding

machine to be produced in any quantity and actually used.
The Pascaline was designed and built by the French
mathematician-philosopher Blaise Pascal between 1642 and
1644. It could only do addition and subtraction, with numbers
being entered by manipulating its dials.
Gottfried Leibnitz improved on Pascal's adding machine so
that it could also perform multiplication, division and
calculate square roots.

Waqar Ahmad Khan

waqar.ahmad@cs.uol.edu.pk
 3. Jacquard loom

Joseph Marie Charles (called or nicknamed) Jacquard (7 July

1752 – 7 August 1834) was a French weaver and merchant. In
1801 he constructed a loom that used a series of punched cards
to control the pattern of longitudinal warp threads depressed
before each sideways passage of the shuttle.
Jacquard later developed a machine where the punched cards
were joined to form an endless loop that represented the
program for the repeating pattern used for cloth and carpet
designs. It played an important role in the development of other
programmable machines, such as computers.

Neither the abacus, nor the mechanical calculators really qualified as computers. A calculator is a device that
makes it quicker and easier for people to do sums—but it needs a human operator. A computer, on the other
hand, is a machine that can operate automatically, without any human help, by following a series of stored
instructions called a program (a kind of mathematical recipe). Calculators evolved into computers when people
devised ways of making entirely automatic, programmable calculators.

4. Analytical Engine

The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical

general-purpose computer designed by English
mathematician and computer pioneer Charles
Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the
successor to Babbage's difference engine, a design for
a simpler mechanical computer. The logical structure
of the Analytical Engine was essentially the same as
that which has dominated computer design in the
electronic era.
Charles Babbage is considered to be the father of
modern digital computers. Analytical Engine had an
input (a way of feeding in numbers), a memory
(something to store these numbers while complex
calculations were taking place), a processor (the
number-cruncher that carried out the calculations),
and an output (a printing mechanism).
Augusta Ada Byron (1815–1852) helped Babbage in
his work. She was an enthusiastic mathematician and
she helped to refine Babbage's ideas for making his
machine programmable. She is still, sometimes,
referred to as the world's first computer programmer.

A. Electronic Computer History

Electronic computer history is divided in five generations. “Generation” in computer talk is a step in technology. It
provides a framework for the growth of computer industry.
❖ First Generation (1946-1959)
❖ Second Generation (1959-1965)
❖ Third Generation (1965-1971)
❖ Fourth Generation (1971-1980)
❖ Fifth Generation (1980-onwards)

Waqar Ahmad Khan

waqar.ahmad@cs.uol.edu.pk
 1. First Generation (1946-59)

The computers of first generation used vacuum tubes as the basic components for memory and circuitry for CPU
(Central Processing Unit). These tubes, like electric bulbs, produced a lot of heat and the installations used to fuse
frequently. Therefore, they were very expensive and only large organizations were able to afford it.
In this generation, mainly batch processing operating system was used. Punch cards, paper tape, and magnetic tape
was used as input and output devices. The computers in this generation used machine code as the programming
language. The main features of the first generation are:
- Vacuum tube technology
- Unreliable
- Supported machine language only
- Very costly
- Generated a lot of heat
- Slow input and output devices
- Huge size
- Need of AC
- Non-portable
- Consumed a lot of electricity

Examples of second-generation computers include ENIAC, EDVAC, UNIVAC, etc.

Electronic Numerical Integrator and

Computer (ENIAC) was world’s first general
purpose electronic digital computer.
In World War II, The Army’s Ballistics Research
Laboratory (BRL) was having difficulty in
supplying trajectory tables accurately and within
a reasonable time frame. Without these firing
tables, the new weapons and artillery were
useless to gunners. Preparation of the tables for a
single weapon would take one person many
hours, even days.
John Mauchly, a professor of electrical
engineering at the University of Pennsylvania,
and John Eckert, one of his graduate students,
proposed to build a general-purpose computer
using vacuum tubes for the BRL’s application.
Work began on ENIAC in 1943 and completed in 1946. it was not finished in time to be used in the war effort. Its
first task was to perform a series of calculations that were used to help determine the feasibility of the hydrogen
bomb. It continued to operate under BRL management until 1955 when it was disassembled.

Problem
Major Drawback of ENIAC was that it had to be programmed manually by setting switches and plugging and
unplugging cables. The task of entering and altering programs was extremely tedious.

Waqar Ahmad Khan

waqar.ahmad@cs.uol.edu.pk
 ENIAC
Solution for ENIAC’s problem
- Vacuum Tubes: 18000, Speed:
This idea, known as the stored-program concept, is usually attributed to 5000 additions/sec, Weight: 30
the ENIAC designers, most notably the mathematician John von tons, Occupying Space: 1500
Neumann, who was a consultant on the ENIAC project. Suppose a square feet
program could be represented in a form suitable for storing in memory - (Decimal rather than binary)
alongside the data. Then, a computer could get its instructions by reading - Each digit was represented by a
them from memory, and a program could be set or altered by setting the ring of 10 vacuum tubes. Only
values of a portion of memory. It will overcome manual programming one vacuum tube was in the ON
problem. state to represent one of ten
digits.

Electronic Discrete Variable Computer

(EDVAC)
The first publication of the idea was in a 1945
proposal by von Neumann for a new computer,
the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable
Computer). In 1946, von Neumann and his
colleagues began the design of a new stored
program computer, referred to as the IAS
computer, at the Princeton Institute for
Advanced Studies. The IAS computer, although
not completed until 1952, is the prototype of all
subsequent general-purpose computers.

Program Control Unit interprets the

instructions in memory and causes them to be
executed

Structure of von Neumann Machine/ IAS computer.

Allan Turing
Turing presented a paper in 1946, which was the first detailed design of a stored-program computer. Von Neumann's
incomplete First Draft of “A Report on the EDVAC” had predated Turing's paper, but it was much less detailed.
Turing also introduced number of new ideas like Artificial Intelligence. Turing suggested that rather than building a
program to simulate the adult mind, it would be better rather to produce a simpler one to simulate a child's mind and
then to subject it to a course of education.

Waqar Ahmad Khan

waqar.ahmad@cs.uol.edu.pk
 2. Second Generation (1959-65)

The period of second generation was from 1956-1963. In this generation, transistors were used that were cheaper,
consumed less power, more compact in size, more reliable and faster than the first-generation machines made of
vacuum tubes. In this generation, magnetic cores were used as the primary memory and magnetic tape and magnetic
disks as secondary 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 second generation are:

- Use of transistors
- Reliable in comparison to first generation computers
- Smaller size as compared to first generation computers
- Generated less heat as compared to first generation computers
- Consumed less electricity as compared to first generation
computers
- Faster than first generation computers
- Still very costly
- AC required
- Supported machine and assembly languages

Examples of second-generation computers include IBM 1620, IBM 7094, CDC 1604, etc.

3. Third Generation (1965-71)

The computers of third generation used Integrated Circuits (ICs) in place of transistors. A single IC has many
transistors, resistors, and capacitors along with the associated circuitry.
The IC was invented by Jack Kilby. This development made computers smaller in size, reliable, and efficient. In this
generation remote processing, time-sharing, multiprogramming operating system were used. High-level languages
(FORTRAN-II TO IV, COBOL, PASCAL PL/1, BASIC etc.) were used during this generation.

The main features of third generation are:

- IC used
- More reliable in comparison to previous two generations
- Smaller size
- Generated less heat
- Faster
- Lesser maintenance
- Costly
- AC required
- Consumed lesser electricity
- Supported high-level language

Examples of third generation computers are IBM-360 series, Honeywell-6000 series, PDP (Personal Data
Processor), TDC-316, etc.

Waqar Ahmad Khan

waqar.ahmad@cs.uol.edu.pk
 4. Fourth Generation (1971-80)

Computers of fourth generation used Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits. VLSI circuits having about 5000
transistors and other circuit elements with their associated circuits on a single chip made it possible to have
microcomputers of fourth generation.
Fourth generation computers became more powerful, compact, reliable, and affordable. As a result, it gave rise to
Personal Computer (PC) revolution. In this generation, time sharing, real time networks, distributed operating
system were used. All the high-level languages like C, C++, DBASE etc., were used in this generation.

The main features of fourth generation are:

- VLSI technology used
- Very cheap
- Portable and reliable
- Use of PCs
- Very small size
- Pipeline processing
- No AC required
- Concept of internet was introduced
- Great developments in the fields of networks
- Computers became easily available

Examples of third generation computers are DEC 10, STAR 1000, CRAY-1(Super Computer), CRAY-X-MP (Super
Computer), etc.

5. Fifth Generation (1980-onwards)

The period of fifth generation is 1980-till date. In the fifth generation, VLSI technology became ULSI (Ultra Large-
Scale Integration) technology, resulting in the production of microprocessor chips having ten million electronic
components. All the high-level languages like C and C++, Java, .Net etc., are used in this generation.
This generation is based on parallel processing hardware and AI (Artificial Intelligence) software. AI is an emerging
branch in computer science, which interprets the means and method of making computers think like human beings.
AI includes robotics, neural networks, game playing, development of expert systems to make decisions in real-life
situations, natural language understanding and generation.

The main features of fifth generation are −

- ULSI technology
- Development of true artificial intelligence
- Development of Natural language processing
- Advancement in Parallel Processing
- Advancement in Superconductor technology
- More user-friendly interfaces with multimedia features
- Availability of very powerful and compact computers at cheaper rates

Some computer types of this generation are, Desktop, Laptop, Chromebook, etc.

Waqar Ahmad Khan

waqar.ahmad@cs.uol.edu.pk
 Computer Generations - Summary
Generation Key Hardware Technology Key Software Key Characteristics
Technology

First - Vacuum - Machine languages, - Bulky in size,

1946-59 tubes, - Mostly scientific Highly unreliable.
Vacuum Tube’s - Punched cards applications - Limited commercial use
Era secondary and costly
storage

Second - Transistors, - High-level - Faster, smaller, more

1959-65 - Disks for programming languages, reliable than first generation
Transistor’s Era secondary - Scientific and systems.
storage commercial applications - Commercial production was
still difficult and costly
Generation - Key Key Software Key Characteristics
Hardware Technology
Technology

Third - Integrated - Standardization of high- - Faster, smaller, more

1965-71 Circuits (ICs). level programming reliable than second
Integrated - Larger languages, generation.
Circuit’s Era capacity disks - Unbundling of software - Scientific, commercial and
for secondary from hardware interactive on-line
storage. applications.

Forth - Integrated - Operating systems for - Small, reliable

1972-80 Circuits PCs with Graphical User - Scientific, commercial and
Microprocessor’s - VLSI Interface. interactive on-line
Era (Intel, IBM - Larger applications.
PC) capacity hard
disks as in-
built
secondary
storage.
Fifth - Integrated Circuits - Internet applications, - Portable computers.
1980-present - ULSI Multimedia, AI - Rapid software
Artificial - Microprocessors development possible.
Intelligence’s - Artificial - Totally general-purpose
Era Intelligence machines.
- Disks for secondary
storage

Source:

Computer Fundamentals - by P.K.Sinha

https://www.tutorialspoint.com
www.webopedia.com
Internet

Waqar Ahmad Khan

waqar.ahmad@cs.uol.edu.pk