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1st Generation of computer
The first generation computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms. The vacuum tube was developed by Lee DeForest. A vacuum tube is a device generally used to amplify a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. First generation computers were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfuntions. -
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The 2nd Generation.
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 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. -
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The 3rd Generation
The computers of third generation used integrated circuits (IC's) 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, multi-programming operating system were used. -
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The 4th Generation.
The computers of fourth generation used Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits. VLSI circuits having about 5000 transistors and other circuit elements and 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. -
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The 5th Generation
The fifth generation phase has brought self organizing skills to desktop devices, which enhanced their efficiency and speed in computations as well as graphic displays. Robotics, neural network, natural language, expert system and game playing were some of the important characteristics of fifth generation computer. -
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The 6th Generation.
The 6th generation of computer is much different from all previous generations in terms of size, processing speed and the complexity of tasks that computers can now perform.
Sixth Generation Computers have some good resemblance with the human brain, but are not exactly the same; Robot is a good example of it. It is surprising to see that all the transformation in technology is within blink of eye. In this generation of computers, we have actually seen the birth of artificial intelligence.