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Muhammad Hashim Shoro (21SW019) : Introduction To Information and Communication Technology Assignment 01

This document discusses the five generations of computers from 1946 to present. It describes the key technologies and characteristics of each generation, including the transition from vacuum tubes to transistors to integrated circuits and microprocessors. The generations progressed from large, expensive machines to today's personal computers and parallel processing systems incorporating artificial intelligence.

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AliMuhammad Lalani
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100 views

Muhammad Hashim Shoro (21SW019) : Introduction To Information and Communication Technology Assignment 01

This document discusses the five generations of computers from 1946 to present. It describes the key technologies and characteristics of each generation, including the transition from vacuum tubes to transistors to integrated circuits and microprocessors. The generations progressed from large, expensive machines to today's personal computers and parallel processing systems incorporating artificial intelligence.

Uploaded by

AliMuhammad Lalani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction to Information and

Communication Technology
Assignment 01

Submitted by:
Muhammad Hashim Shoro (21SW019)

Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro.


Department of Software Engineering
Introduction to Information and Communication Technology

History/Generations of Computers
Generation in computer terminology is a change in technology a computer is/was being used.
There are FIVE generations of computer:

First Generation of Computer


• The period of first generation was 1946-1959.
• The computers of first generation used vacuum tubes as the basic components for
memory and circuitry for CPU (Central Processing Unit).
• These tubes, like electric bulbs, produced a lot of heat and were prone to frequent fusing
of the installations, therefore, were very expensive and could be afforded only by very
large organizations.
• In this generation mainly batch processing operating systems were used.
• Punched cards, paper tape, and magnetic tape were used as input and output devices.
• The computers in this generation used machine code as programming language.
The first-generation computers were very large, expensive, and required huge amount of
electricity.

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Introduction to Information and Communication Technology

Second Generation of Computer


• The period of second generation was 1959-1965.
• 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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Introduction to Information and Communication Technology

Third Generation of Computer


• The period of third generation was 1965-1971.
• 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.
• High-level languages (FORTRAN-II TO IV, COBOL, PASCAL PL/1, BASIC, ALGOL-68 etc.)
were used during this generation.

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Introduction to Information and Communication Technology

Fourth Generation of Computer


• The period of fourth generation was 1971-1980.
• 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.
• In this generation time sharing, real time, networks, distributed operating system were
used.
• All the high-level languages like C, C++, DBASE etc., were used in this generation.

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Introduction to Information and Communication Technology

Fifth Generation of Computer


• The period of fifth generation is 1980-till date.
• In the fifth generation, the VLSI technology became ULSI (Ultra Large-Scale Integration)
technology, resulting in the production of microprocessor chips having ten million
electronic components.
• This generation is based on parallel processing hardware and AI (Artificial Intelligence)
software.
• AI is an emerging branch in computer science, which interprets means and method of
making computers think like human beings.
• All the high-level languages like C and C++, Java, .Net etc., are used in this generation.

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Introduction to Information and Communication Technology

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