History of The Five Generations of Computers

History of  The Five Generations of Computers

First Generation (1940-1956) Vacuum Tubes

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, the first computers generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions.

First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time, and it could take days or weeks to set-up a new problem. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts.

The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.

Second Generation (1956-1963) Transistors

Transistors replace vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers. The transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the late 1950s. The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation predecessors.

Though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output.

Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.

The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.

Third Generation (1964-1971) Integrated Circuits

The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.

Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.

Fourth Generation (1971-Present) Microprocessors

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located all the components of the computer—from the central processing unit and memory to input/output controls—on a single chip.

In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.

As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.

Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond) Artificial Intelligence

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.

DeepMind’s new computer can learn from its own memory

DeepMind, an artificial intelligence firm that was acquired by Google in 2014 and is now under the Alphabet umbrella, has developed a computer than can refer to its own memory to learn facts and use that knowledge to answer questions.

That’s huge, because it means that future AI could respond to queries from humans without being taught every possible correct answer.

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DeepMind says its new AI model, called a differentiable neural computer (DNC), can be fed with things like a family tree and a map of the London Underground network, and can answer complex questions about the relationships between items in those data structures.

For example, you could get responses to questions like, “Starting at Bond street, and taking the Central line in a direction one stop, the Circle line in a direction for four stops, and the Jubilee line in a direction for two stops, at what stop do you wind up?” DeepMind says its DNC could also help you plan an efficient route from Moorgate to Piccadilly Circus.

Similarly, it could understand and answer questions about the relationships between people from a large family, like, ““Who is Freya’s maternal great uncle?” You can see a visualization of this below:

This discovery builds on the concept of neural networks, which mimic the way the human mind works. They are great for machine learning applications where you want a computer to learn to do things by recognizing patterns.

It’s these networks that helped DeepMind’s AlphaGo AI defeat world champions at the complex game of Go. But AlphaGo had to be trained by feeding it data about 30 million moves from historical games. By augmenting an AI’s capabilities with the power of learning from memory, it’ll likely be able to complete far more complex tasks on its own.

DeepMind hopes that its DNC, which it describes as “a learning machine that, without prior programming, can organise information into connected facts and use those facts to solve problems,” will allow for further breakthroughs in computing. It published its research findings in the scientific journal Nature, and you can read the paper here.

What Is Computer?

A computer is a machine (mostly electronic) that is able to take information (input), do some work on or make changes to the information (process), to make new information (output). Computers have existed for much of human history. Examples of early computers are theastrolabe and the abacus. There are four main processing steps in a computer, and they are: inputting, outputting, storage and processing.

Modern computers are very different from early computers. They can do billions of calculations per second. Most people have used apersonal computer in their home or at work. Computers do many different jobs where automation is useful. Some examples are controllingtraffic lights, vehicle computers, security systems, washing machines and digital televisions.

A computer user can control it by a user interface. Input devices include keyboard, mouse, buttons, touch screen. Some very new computers can also be controlled with voice commands or hand gestures or even brain signals through electrodes implanted in the brain or along nerves.

Computers can be designed to do almost anything with information. Computers are used to control large and small machines which in the past were controlled by humans. They are also in homes, where they are used for things such as listening to music, reading the news, and writing.

Modern computers are electronic machines. A computer is only useful if it has both hardware and software. Hardware is the physical parts the computer is made of - for example keyboard, mouse, screen, tower, and the circuits inside it. Software is the computer programs (mathematical instructions). The software uses the hardware, when the user gives it instructions, and gives useful output.

Many modern computers do billions of calculations each second. They do mathematical arithmetic very quickly but computers do not really "think". They only follow the instructions in their software programs.

Computer programs are designed or written by computer programmers. A few programmers write programs in the computer's own language called machine code. Most programs are written using a programming language like C++, Java, and Python. These programming languages are more like the language you talk and write with every day.

Five Computer We Use Everyday

Microsoft Windows
While not strictly a computer program (it’s what is known as an operating system), Windows is likely to be the face that greets you every day as you turn on your PC. Without it, many wouldn’t be able to access all of the programs that we need – so it is worthy of a place on our list.

Microsoft Internet Explorer
When we talking about computer programs we use every day, your instant thoughts may have been of Facebook, Twitter or Google. However, these are all examples of websites and without a web browser, you wouldn’t be able to see them. While Firefox and Google Chrome have gained popularity over the years, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still the market leader.

Microsoft Office and Outlook
Word, Excel, PowerPoint and even Publisher; how would we get anything done without them? Add Outlook on top of that and you have the complete Microsoft Office Suite. While you may not produce many documents or spreadsheets at home, in education and especially in the workplace, these programs are ubiquitous.

McAfee Antivirus 
To keep your computer safe from rogue viruses that abound on the internet, you need an antivirus on your PC. One of the most popular is the McAfee Antivirus program which operates in the background – so you use it every day without even knowing it. It appears on our list over other antivirus software due to their recent link up with many NHS trusts.

 Adobe PDF
The PDF is the one thing that can bring all of these programs together. Adobe’s PDF is viewable on all computers. PDFs are also easily distributed across the internet. Since 2007 it has been possible to create PDFs from Microsoft Office. The PDF remains the most popular way to distribute files via email and Adobe has recently announced two security updates which make PDFs the friend of the virus checker.

Future Of Computer

1. How would computers help us in the future? I think that in the future, computers will eventually take over TVs. Instead of having channels for a station, people will get large computer screens and watch programs on the internet.

2. How will computers change in the future? They would be Smaller, lighter, stronger, faster, and more storage capacity. They will be water resistant and totally portable. All computers will have a solar panel spreadable sheet so you will never be in trouble. They hill have Internet towers like cell towers today.

3. what will computers look like in the future?  As computers become more powerful they will grow more intelligent There seems no reason why machines should not become more intelligent than people in the future. Computers will start to design and build other computers. There will then be two forms of life and many thousands of years from now in the future there might be competition for power between computers and life and would probaly become large robots.

4. How Will Computers Be Used in the Future?

·         In the future rush to get to work, the day's tasks will be checked using a personal robotic butler,

·         the misplaced car keys will be located by entering the word keys.

·         The children will be monitored by sensors that detect their every movement.

·         At work, the office map uses the same kind of sensors to track down staff members for a meeting.

      The computers would look like robotic safety police in the future.

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5. What does the future holds for computer games? I think the future would be games that is of virtual reality, you know games that use goggles and a you wear something on your hand that enables your character move by the movement of your own hand, and this is played 0nline as a kind of sport game or something.