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UNIVAC
. In 1951, UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was made by Eckert and Mauchly. This was the first computer built for business. -
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1st Generation Computer
The First Generation Computer were big and clumsy, high on electricity, had electrical failures often, and needed large air conditioners because the computer generated heat. -
SAGE
In the same year of 1951, SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) was developed by IBM. -
RAM
In 1952, John Von Neumann, 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
This device was where the actual calculations were performed. The electronic pulses emitted at speeds ranging up to one million a second. -
Whirlwind
In the same year, The Whirlwind was built. Whirlwind was a large scale, general purpose digital computer begun at the Servomechanisms Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1946. -
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2nd Generation Computers
The second Generation had a transistor, which helped the computer to be smaller, no warm-up time, less energy, less heat, faster and more reliable. For storage, there was the Removable disk pack (1954) and magnetic tape. The programming language is the assembly language, FORTRAN and COBOL. -
Mini-Computer: PDP-8
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The Real-Time Reservation System
In 1964, IBM developed a real-time computerised ticket reservation system for American Airways. It was smaller than SAGE and was called SABRE (Semi-Automatic Business-Related Environment). -
IBM's System 360
It consisted of 6 processors and 40 peripheral units. More than 100 computers per month were ordered. -
BASIC
A programming language was necessary that could be used in a time-sharing environment and that could serve as a training language. -
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Third Generation Computers
These computers had Integrated Circuits. computers smaller, faster and more reliable. Power consumption lower. High-level languages appeared. -
Gordon Moore
The semi-conductor pioneer, Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors that occured on a microchip would double every year. It became known as Moore's Law and is still valid today. -
Intel
Intel was founded (INTegrated ELectronics). They developed more sophisticated memory chips. -
Magnetic Core Memory
Magnetic Core Memory was replaced by a microchip. 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
IBM System 370 Replaced their System/360 with the System/370 that only used integrated circuits. -
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The fourth Generation Computer
The microprocessor is the General-purpose processor on a chip. Digital watches, pocket calculators, personal computers, cars, copy machines, and Television sets have these Microprocessors. -
Pascal
Niklaus Wirth- a Swedish computer scientist - developed the Pascal language in 1971. This language was specifically designed to teach comcepts of structured programming. Pascal remains the most popular language for learning the basic principles of good programming. -
CP/M
The fist operating system for microcomputers was developed by Gary Kidall and John Torode. Torode developed hardware to connect a diskette (floppy disk) to the CPU. -
8008
Intel released the 8008- an 8 bit processor powerful enough to be used as the CPU of a minicomputer. -
8008 microprocessor
the 8008 Microprocessor, was released - it made the development of the microcomputer possible. -
Altair 8800
Popular Mechanics published an article which announced the development of a true personal computer. Developed by MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telementry Systems). It used the 8-bit Intel 8080 microprocessor and was made available in a complete kit, including all components and assembly instructions. 256 bytes of RAM was available. 16 slots were left open to include more RAM when necessary. -
MOS 6502 processor
MOS technolagies announced the development 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
Apple II Wozniak and Jobs released the Apple II. It was cheap -
Apple's Lisa
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) -
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The fifth generation computers
Intelligent robots that could 'see' their environment (visual input - e.g. a video camera) and could be programmed to carry out certain tasks and should be accomplished, based on the observations it made of its environment. Intelligent systems that could control the route of a missile and defence-systems that could fend off attacks. Word processors that could be controlled by means of speech recognition. Programs that could translate documents from one language to another. -
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. -
Expert Systems
Software used with an extensive set of organized data that presents the computer as an expert on a particular topic. -
Natural Language
Humans communicate with computers in the language they use on a daiily basis. -
Robotics
Computer-Controlled device that can physically manipulate its surroundings. Robot development firm Speecys Corp. of Tokyo developed a small humanoid robot, powered entirely by easy-to-replace, environmentally friendly fuel-cell batteries. -
Parallel Processing
Parallel processing are many processors are grouped to function as one large group processor. -
VR-Virtual Reality
Engage a user in a computer-created environment. User physically interacts with computer-created environment.
