-
First generation: Colossus
In 1943, a British project, under the leadership of the mathematician Alan Turing, put into operation a series of more ambitious machines, the Colossus, because instead of electromechanical relays, each new machine used 2,000 electronic valves. Colossus worked with symbols punched into a loop of paper tape, which was inserted into the photoelectric reading machine, comparing the encrypted message with known codes until a match was found. It processed 25,000 characters per second. -
First generation: EDVAC, EDSAC y LEO
The data was stored electronically in a material medium composed of a mercury-filled tube, known as a delay line, where crystals inside the tube generated electronic pulses that reflected back and forth as slowly as they could, similar to a gorge that it retains an echo, which Eckert discovered by chance while working with the radars. Another great feature of the EDVAC was being able to encode the information in binary rather than decimal form, greatly reducing the number of valves. -
First generation: ENIAC
The ENIAC (Eletronic Numerical Interpreter and Calculator) was born, also known by its Spanish translation as "Electronic Numerical Computer and Integrator", designed for military purposes. It was the first large-scale electronic digital computer and was designed by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. The ENIAC was a thousand times faster than any previous machine, doing 5,000 additions and subtractions, 350 multiplications, or 50 divisions per second. It weighed 27 tons. -
First generation: UNIVAC
The input and output of information was performed by a metal tape 1/2 inch wide and 400 m long. It was the first computer that processed information in real time, with data input from punched tape and output on a CRT (video monitor), or on the Flexowriter, a kind of typewriter. -
Second generation: Burroughs
With the advent of the transistor, what would become the second generation of computers arose. While a middle-level person would take about five minutes to multiply two ten-digit numbers, MARK I did it in five seconds, the ENIAC in two thousandths of a second. second, a transistorized computer in about four trillionths of a second, and a third-generation machine in even less time. -
Third generation: IBM 360
The first commercial mini computer emerged in 1965, the PDP-5, launched by the American DEC, Digital Equipment Corporation.
Depending on its configuration and accessories it could be purchased for the affordable price of US$18,000.00. The more competitively priced PDP-8 followed. Following his path other companies launched their models, making that at the end of the decade there were already about 100,000 computers scattered around the world. -
Fourth generation: 1980-PC XT
The CPU comprised a 40KB ROM memory and a 64KB RAM memory expandable up to 640KB, a ULA and a 16 bit Intel 8088 processor with a clock frequency of 4.77 MHZ. It was built with three separate modules: CPU, monitor and keyboard. The monitor was black and white with 25 lines by 80 columns and could be replaced by a monitor with 16 colors. -
Third generation: Osborne 1
The CPU had a memory of 64KB, a UAL and a Zilog Z80A Processor 8 bit at 4 MHZ. The box, of the attaché suitcase type weighing 11 Kg, housed 2 5" 1/4 floppy drives with 204 KB or with the option of 408 KB capacity, a 5" monitor (24 lines by 54 columns) in black and white and a tilting keyboard (it served as the lid of the suitcase) with two blocks of keys, one alphanumeric with ASCII characters and the other numeric. -
1982- The 286 appears / 1985- The 386 appears
Using 30-pin memory and 16-bit ISA slots, it was already equipped with cache memory to assist the processor in its functions. It used CGA monitors, in some rare models these monitors were colored but the vast majority were green, orange or gray. -
The 486 DX
From this moment on, the mathematical coprocessor together with the processor itself, there was also a noticeable improvement in speed due to the appearance of 72-pin memory, much faster than its 30-pin ancestor and 32-bit PCI cards. twice as fast as ISA plates. The equipment already had the capacity for SVGA plates that could reach up to 16 million colors, however this would be used commercially later with the appearance of Windows 95. The Fifth Generation of Computers (since 1991) -
Fifth generation: 1993- The Pentium is born
Big changes in this period would occur due to 108-pin DIMM memories, the appearance of AGP video cards and an improvement of PCI slots, further improving their performance. This advance in speed and processing capacity is firmly linked to the appearance in the market of Intel Pentium processors, the first of them, the Pentium I in the year 1997, the Pentium II in 1999 and finally the Pentium IV, in the year 2001. The fifth generation still between us. -
Fifth generation: Quantum computers
IBM introduces the world's first commercial quantum computer, called the IBM Q System One. This is considered one of the most important leaps in computing history. If we want to know what is going to happen from now on with computers, below these lines we will find all the developments that are taking place at this time. Many of which surely in a not too distant time will become part of our day to day. -
Sixth generation
The sixth generation will be built around intelligent computers based on artificial neural networks. -
Seventh Generation
Most scientists say that the seventh generation of computers will be defined by the massive use of world area networks. It will be defined by the massive use of world area networks, or Wide Area Network. Another point by which this generation of computers will be known is the aforementioned parallel processing, a technique also known as distributed computing. -
Eighth generation
In the eighth generation of computers, peripherals of any kind will not be needed to operate it, since we will have nanotechnology implants and services hosted in the cloud.