Introducation,Biref History And Generations

Course Objective

Computer is most advanced and fast growing technologies of the world. Each and every day a lot of improvement is emerging in both software and hardware of the computer. So now we will study computer,its history and generation. So it will be helpful for your later studies.

Computer Meaning And Significance

• Computer is a Latin word which means to compute or in other word we can say that it's a machine which can perform computations millions and billions time faster than human.
• And Computer is electronic machine what can solve different problem like in maths you can't do long calculation so computer can do it faster alot faster.
• Thing which make computer different from other electronic device:
• Accuracy: e.g: Password etc
• High Speed Processing
• Versatility
• Input and output (which other device don't have)

 Impact in Society

•  Today we find computer every where like for instance in daily life automobiles, wristwatches and many other so computer have covered all our modern society.
• Computer are mostly user to access data and information and other application that are used computer are as follow:
• Controlling space flight
• Landing air planes
• Tracking inventory
• Turning on lights at a specific time( Like Street Lights)
• Checking out groceries at the check out counter

History of Computers 

• The history of the computers starts out about 2000yrs ago with the birth of abacus. It was a wooden rack holding wires with beads strung on them when these beads moved around according to programming rules memorized by the users all arithmetic problems can be done.
• 2nd scientist that used same ideas but with different concept was Napier bones created a logarithm tables to facilitate calculation and perform arithmetic calculations.

Pascal's Pascaline Calculator:

•    Pascal a French mathematician invented a machine that had a system of gears a one tooth gear engages with another and than system of calculator was abolished in which +,-,/,* were been made and these were the refinements on design of pascal and Leibniz.
• Pascal Calculator is invented in the early 17th century.
• Pascal design the machine in 1642 and after 50 prototype he presented it to the public in 1645.
• So for more study about pascal so can read it on wikipedia Click Here.  

 Charles Babbage:

•  In 822 Charles Babbage (English Mathematician,Philosopher), sometimes called the "The Father Of Computer" build the difference Engine.
  
  • Machine design to automate the computation (tabulation) of polynomial functions (which are known to be good approximations of many useful functions).
  • Based on the "method of finite difference" 
  • Implements some storage. 
  In 1833 Babbage designed the Analytical Engine,but he died before he could built it.
  It was built after his death,powered by steam.
   

Advancement in 1950s- 1960s 

• In early 1950s two important engineering discoveries changed the image of the computer fields these discoveries were magnetic core memories and transistors circuit elements.
• These computers very expensive and complicated to operate such computers were found in computer centre and other research laboratories.

More Advancements 

• —As the time passed during 1970s moving towards single purpose computers to the wide range of computer systems. New application were designed and made more available for controlling a great range of manufacturing processes in which a revolution in computer hardware was made which allowed the size of computer to reduced.
• —In 1980s (VLSI)was developed in which hundreds of thousands of transistors were placed in a single chip and become more common.
• —After this introduction to personal computers (pc) was abolished and the size was smaller in size and was affordable to the users.
• —So we say that the size of a computer is shrinking but the thing are same and can be experience at any level.  
•   (Now moving to computer generations)

Generation of computers

Computer generation are divided into 5 types:

1.First Generation(Vacuum tubes)

2.Second Generation(Transistors)

3.Third Generation(Integrated Circuit)

4.Fourth Generation(Microprocessors)

5.Fifth Generation(Artificial Intelligence)

  First Generation (Vacuum Tubes):

• —Computers of this generation used vacuum tubes to perform calculations vacuum tubes were expensive because of the amount of material and skill needed to manufacture them. Vacuum tubes get hot and burn out computers of this generation were very large machines.
• —Special rooms with air conditioning were needed to house them because of the heat generated by the vacuum tubes. The most important computers of this generation were ENIAC-1 (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), UNIVAC – 1 (Universal Automatic Computer).

                                                                A typical vacuum tube

A vacuum tube also called a electron tubes is a sealed glass or metal-ceramic enclosure used in electronic circuitry to control the flow of electrons between the metal electrodes sealed inside the tubes. The air inside the tubes is removed by a vacuum. Vacuum tubes are used for: amplification of a weak current, rectification of an alternating current to direct current (AC to DC).

Second Generation(Vacuum Tube):

Transistors were invented in 1947 by William Shockley, john Bardeen, and William Brattain . They fill the half the room and were small in size but very efficient .

—Advantages :

• 200 transistors are about same size as one vacuum tube in a computer.
• Much less expensive than a vacuum tube.
• A transistor can work 40 times faster than a vacuum tube.
• Do not get hot & burn like a vacuum tube.

   Typical example of this generation are as follow :-

   IBM 7094 SERIES ,IBM 1400 SERIES , CDC 164 etc.

Third Generation(Integrated Circuit):

—(IC) or Integrated Circuits

•           The third generation was the major invention the concept of ic. A single ic chip contains thousands of transistors now the computer became smaller in size ,faster, more reliable and lower price and also became common medium to large scale in business. These computer used magnetic core memory as internal storage. The most successful computers of this generation were IBM system/360 and PDP - 8 others were Univac Ac 9000 and IBM 370 etc .

•              The concept of ic was developed by jack st. Clair kilby in 1958.
•              1st ic was invented and used in 1961 .
•              An ic was about ¼ inch square and contain thousands of transistors.

 Further Defination

• —      An integrated circuit (IC), sometimes called a chip or microchip, is a semiconductor wafer on which thousands or millions of tiny resistors, capacitors, and transistors are fabricated. An IC can function as an amplifier, oscillator, timer, counter, computer memory, or microprocessor. A particular IC is categorized as either linear (analog) or digital, depending on its intended application.
•            —Most electronic devices today use some form of integrated circuits placed on printed circuit boards-- thin pieces of Bakelite or fiberglass that have electrical connections etched onto them -- sometimes called a mother board.

Fourth Generation(Microprocessor):

•        The invention of the microprocessor (a single chip that could do all the processing of a full-scale computer).  By putting millions of transistors onto one single chip more calculation and faster speeds could be reached by computers.  Because electricity travels about a foot in a billionth of a second, the smaller the distance the greater the speed of computers.
•        —However what really triggered the tremendous growth of computers and its significant impact on our lives is the invention of the microprocessor.  Ted Hoff, employed by Intel invented a chip named 4004 the size of a pencil eraser that could do all the computing and logic work of a computer.  The microprocessor was made to be used in calculators, not computers.  It led, however, to the invention of personal computers, or microcomputers. And microprocessor are based on very large scale integration (VLSI). 

Fifth Generation(Artificial Intelligence):

• —The Fifth generations computers are only in the minds of advance research scientists still to be developed and being tested out in the laboratories. These computers will be under Artificial Intelligence(AI), They will be able to take commands in a audio visual way and carry out instructions. Many of the operations which requires low human intelligence will be performed by these computers.
• —Parallel Processing is coming and showing the possibility that the power of many CPU's can be used side by side, and computers will be more powerful than those under central processing. 

—Characteristics:

•        Combinations of some or all of the following technologies:
•        Extremely large scale integration
•        Parallel processing
•        High speed logic and memory chips
•        High performance, micro-miniaturization
•        Voice/Data integration; knowledge-based platforms
•        Artificial intelligence, expert systems
•        Virtual reality generation
•        Satellite links. 

this topic will be helpful to you if you have any question you can ask us in comment section below or if you find any error in this topic you can tell us in the comment.