History and Generation of Computer short essay

History and Generation of Computer

This article is about History and Generation of Computer. Computer development can be divided in following eras:-

The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)

In this era Leibniz developed calculating machine, Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine, came into existence in 1842,  George Boole research also did help in early developments.

First Generation Electronic Computers (1937-1953)

In this era vacuum tubes were used. An early electronic machine was Colossus, developed by Alan Turing for the  in 1943.  Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), developed by J. Presper Eckert and John V. Mauchly at  Pennsylvania in mid 1940s, it was employed in development of hydrogen bomb.  After this EDVAC was developed.

Second Generation Computers (1954-1962)

Transistors were used in this generation. During this era high level programming languages  such as  FORTRAN , ALGOL , and COBOL . IBM 704 ,709 and 7094 was important machines of this generation.

Third Generation Computers (1963-1972)

Semiconductor ICs (integrated circuits) is the main achievement of this generation, which not only shrinked the computers but gave a boost in speeding. Personal computer concept came in this generation due to development of processors.

Fourth Generation Computers (1972-1984)

LSI i.e. large scale integration  and VLSI  very large scale integration are the main development during this phase.  Programming languages of this era were, C programming language and the UNIX operating system. In 1972, Dennis Ritchie, developed at first instance  CPL where as Thompson’s B, formulated C language.

Fifth Generation Computers (1984-1990)

Parallel processing was employed in 5th generation. due to this idea computer became very fast and more accurate. This era came with new and modern personal computers and supercomputers. Idea of artificial intelligence for computers can in practice.

Sixth Generation Computers (1990-2000)

In this era development in computing was extensively made and this generation computers were smaller and most intelligent machines eve made. Internet and wireless computing are main features of this era.

Seventh generation of computers(2000-

Touch screen and touch pads are common practices of this generation.