Generations of Computers – IKnowHow IT Works

This is the second article in the History of Computers series. Here we talk about the generations of Computers and its evolution. The timeline of the history of computers can be studied with reference to five generations. The computer evolution could be noticed by looking into the characteristics of computers and how it evolved over time with the technology.

Characteristics of computers

Though computers are machines, there are certain characteristics that differentiate it from other machines. Let’s look into each of these characteristics in detail.

Limitations of Computers

Anyway, apart from these powerful characteristics, computers being an electronic machine, still shows some considerable limitations.

Number one no heuristics, means, computers do not possess the ability to learn from previous mistakes. This is a main drawback of computers besides its powerful capabilities.

Secondly, computers do not have their own IQ and finally the inability to make their own decisions.

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Definition of Computer Generations

Besides characteristics, the classification of computers into generations is mainly based on the technology used during its evolution and is divided into five generations.

How many generations of computers are there?

Remember, there is no hard and fast rule to draw a line between these generations.

What are the different generations of computers?

Let’s have a look into each generation and how it differs from the other.

The First Generation Computers

There are some special characteristics of the first generation of computers. Mainly, Vacuum tubes, and magnetic drums being used as memory, and these computers occupied a lot of space.

Based on the size and the technology used, they consumed a lot of electricity and generated a large amount of heat. Overall, this is very expensive to operate.

One of the examples of first-generation computers is called, ENIAC or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The Eniac was developed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.

The Eniac is considered as the first general-purpose and fully electronic digital computer. It consisted of over 18,000 vacuum tubes. Well, this explains the size and the heat it can generate while operating.

The other computers considered under this generation are Edvac or Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer and, Univac 1 or Universal Automatic Computer 1, IBM 701 and, IBM 650.

The Edvac was an improvement to Eniac with stored programs by design. This was developed by J Presper Eckert, John Mauchly, and John von Neumann.

Univac 1 on the other hand, was the first commercially successful computer available. It was also developed by J Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.

Overall, these computers were large and very unreliable. They would heat up and frequently shut down and could only be used for very basic computations.

Summary of the First Generation of Computers

The first generation of computers falls between the years 1940 to 1956.
Vacuum tubes and magnetic drums were used as memory.
They occupied a lot of space (bigger in size).
Consumed a lot of electricity.
Generated a large amount of heat.
Expensive to maintain and operate.
An example of first-generation computers is called ENIAC.
The Eniac was developed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.
The Eniac is considered as the first general-purpose and fully electronic digital computer.
The Eniac consisted of 18,000 vacuum tubes.
Examples of first-generation computers were Edvac (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) and, Univac 1 (Universal Automatic Computer 1), IBM 701 and, IBM 650.

The Second Generation Computers

The second generation of computers used transistors. The primary memory was stored on the magnetic cores and magnetic tape, and they used magnetic disks as secondary storage devices. Due to this, they were comparatively smaller and faster compared to the first generation.

Based on design and technology, they were cheaper to maintain and used higher-level languages like COBOL, FORTRAN, etc as input.

Some of the examples of second-generation computers are Univac 3, IBM 1401, IBM 700, NCR 300 series, Burroughs B5000, and 200 series, IBM 1620, IBM 7094, CDC 1604, CDC 3600, and UNIVAC 1108.

Summary of the Second Generation of Computers

They used transistors instead of Vacuum Tubes and Magnetic Memory.
The primary memory was stored on the magnetic cores and magnetic tape.
They used magnetic disks as secondary storage devices.
Comparatively smaller and faster.
Used higher-level languages like COBOL, FORTRAN, etc as input.
Examples of second-generation computers are Univac 3, IBM 1401, IBM 700, NCR 300 series, Burroughs B5000, and 200 series, IBM 1620, IBM 7094, CDC 1604, CDC 3600, and UNIVAC 1108

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The Third Generation Computers

The third generation of computers used much-advanced technology compared to the first generation of computers. They used integrated circuits, also called ICs or chips.

IC is a small electronic device made from a special material called semiconductor material. The ICs are smaller and can hold more than a million electronic components per Chip. Jack Kilby is credited with the invention of the Integrated Circuits.

These computers were faster and more efficient than the previous generations and consumed far less power. The input languages for these computers were FORTRAN-II up to FORTRAN-IV, COBOL, PASCAL, ALGOL-68, BASIC, etc.

Another special milestone reached by making these computers available for the general public for the first time in computer history. This was achievable because they were smaller and, cheaper to operate and therefore affordable.

The keyboard and Mouse were used to operate these computers for the first time using an Operating system application. This application was capable to run different applications simultaneously.

Some of the examples of third-generation computers were Univac 900 series, ICL 1900, IBM 360, IBM-360 series, Honeywell-6000 series, PDP (Personal Data Processor), and IBM-370/168, and Burroughs 6700 design.

Summary of the Third Generation of Computers

They used integrated circuits, also called ICs or chips.
ICs are smaller and can hold more than a million electronic components per Chip.
Jack Kilby is credited with the invention of the Integrated Circuits.
Were faster and more efficient than the previous generations.
Consumed far less power.
Used higher-level languages like FORTRAN-II up to FORTRAN-IV, COBOL, PASCAL, ALGOL-68, BASIC, etc as input languages.
These computers available for the general public for the first time.
They were smaller, cheaper, and affordable to operate.
The keyboard and Mouse were used to operate these computers.
Used an Operating System to operate the computer.
They were capable to run different applications simultaneously (Multi-tasking).
Examples are Univac 900 series, ICL 1900, IBM 360, IBM-360 series, Honeywell-6000 series, PDP (Personal Data Processor), and IBM-370/168, and Burroughs 6700 design.

The Fourth Generation Computers

They use VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) that could fit thousands of components on to a single smaller chip. VLSI circuits had almost about 5000 transistors on a very small chip and were capable of performing many high-level tasks and computations. Therefore they were also known as microprocessors. Intel was the first company to develop a microprocessor.

These are smaller in size when compared with the third generation computers and also cheaper and energy-efficient to operate. Above all, they are robust and reliable in handling complex tasks quickly.

Noteworthy, this generation of computers had the first “supercomputer” that could perform many calculations accurately and was also used in networking. This transformation laid the foundation to build a worldwide network called the Internet.

These computers used a higher level and more complex computer languages as their inputs like C, C+, C++, DBASE, etc.

Examples are STAR 1000, CRAY-X-MP Super Computer, DEC-10, PDP 11, CRAY-1. The first “Personal Computer” or PC developed by IBM, belonged to this generation.

Summary of the Fourth Generation of Computers

They use VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) that could fit thousands of components on to a single smaller chip.
Intel was the first company to develop a microprocessor.
These are smaller in size when compared with the third generation computers.
Cheaper and energy-efficient to operate.
Robust and reliable in handling complex tasks.
Had the first “supercomputer” that could perform many calculations accurately.
Used for networking.
Used higher level more complex computer languages as their inputs like C, C+, C++, DBASE, etc.
Examples are STAR 1000, CRAY-X-MP Super Computer, DEC-10, PDP 11, CRAY-1.
The first “Personal Computer” or PC developed by IBM, belonged to this generation.

The Fifth-generation computers

The fifth generation of computers is the present generation and used in many areas. These are extremely reliable and employ the “ULSI” or the Ultra Large Scale Integration technology.

The input methods are modern high-level languages like Python, R, C#, Java, etc.

Examples include the Intel Pentium series, i3 to i10, AMD Athlon, etc.

These computers use artificial intelligence (AI) to break some of its major limitations that are decision-making ability. AI is a branch of computer science that deals with computers to make it capable to think and make human-like decisions. These machines are able to accept audiovisual commands as input and perform predefined processes to produce an output of any form.

Summary of the Fifth Generation of Computers

The fifth generation of computers is the present generation in use.
Uses “ULSI” (Ultra Large Scale Integration) technology.
Uses modern high-level languages like Python, R, C#, Java, etc as input methods.
Examples include the Intel Pentium series, i3 to i10, AMD Athlon, etc
These computers use artificial intelligence (AI).
AI is a branch of computer science that deals with computers to make it capable to think and make human-like decisions.

Computers keep evolving every day. Neural networks, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data, etc are a few examples. Computers have evolved into a position to communicate and interact with humans and even reliable to substitute many humans depended-work across many fields.

This concludes the initial chapter of the history of computer series. We hope you enjoyed it. See you in the next chapter about computer memory.

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