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Vacuum Tubes (1st generation)
The first computer is called ''Z1'' and Konrad Zuse created it. The computer was electromechanical binary programmable and its main memory was in the form of magnetic drums. -
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Transistors (2nd generation)
''IBM 1620'' were cheaper, consume less power, more compact in size, more reliable and faster than computers from 1st generation. And they also had assembly language and high-level programming languages. Their main memory was in the form of RAM and ROM. -
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Integrated Circuits (3rd generation)
On the computer ''IBM-360 series'' transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, which increased a lot the speed and the efficiency of computers. Keyboards, monitors and interfaced with an operating system start appearing here. -
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Microprocessors (4th generation)
Here, on ''IBM 4341'' a lot of integrated circuits were built into a single silicon chip. What in the 1st generation filled a room could now fit in the palm of the hand. -
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Artificial Inteligence (5th generation)
The 5th generation computers are still in development, though there are some applications, like voice recognition, that nowadays we are useing it. Quantum computation, molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years. The goal of 5th generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.