SIZ Education | Evolution of computers.

I cannot imagine our live without these beautiful invention we called computer. Nowadays, computers play a huge role in our lives. But has our computer been always this smart? Or was they stages we have pass through to get to where we are today. In this article I will be discussing about the various generations our computers has been through to be this smart and intelligent computers we have today.

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Computer works through the integration of hardware and software. Computers has been around since the early 1940s. Since then, each generation has been define through a technology advancement that change how computing operation works. So now let talk about computer generations.

First Generation - Vacuum Tubes (1940-1956): This was the first computer which uses vacuum tubes as circuitry and also magnetic drums for recollection. For this type of computer to work a little effective, it has to be very big up to a room size and it takes a lot of resources to run such as electricity and it also produce lot of heat.

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It relied on machine language which as the basic programming language that computer understood back then. With all these been said I am sure you know that the computer will have limit to what it can do. To input information you have to use punch cards and paper tape. Since they was no screen for output, the only way was through print-out.

Second Generation – Transistors (1956-1965): Transistor came and replace vacuum tube because it was the latest technology we had then. It was first invented in 1947 but it was not use in computer till in the 1950s. With vacuum tube we were able to achieve a lot with computers. The size and heat were reduce, and also electricity consumption.

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Our machine language also change to symbolic assembly languages. With this huge change programmers were able to read instruction in words. We were able to develop high caliber programming language such as COBOL and FORTRAN. We can also store instructions.

Third Generation – Integrated circuits (1964-1971): At this stage transistors has now become miniaturized and was only use on silicon chips. With integrated circuits our computer became faster and smaller which led to a great effectiveness. This was what form the basis of computer we see today been a keyboard for input, a CPU for processing and a monitor as an output device. This allow our computers to perform multiple tasks at once.

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Fourth Generation – Microprocessors (1972-2010): I am sure most people reading this was aware of this computer generation and this was possible through Intel. The chip company make a great advancement in their intel 4004 chip back in 1971. This chip allow all computer component be located and control on just a single chip.

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With compere to what we have back in 1940s we can accomplish the same task with a device on our hand. The intel chip comprise of thousands of unified circuits. With this chip we were able to produce our first home use computer which was designed by IBM. In 1984, Apple produce macintosh which the vision was to be in ever home in the world or rather in United State of America.

Fifth Generation – Artificial Intelligence (2010 – Till date): This is still relative new because they is a lot of development still been done. An example is voice recognition even if it often use in advance country it still relatively new in developing country. This was achievable through the use of parallel processing and a superconductors. We cannot fully comprehend what we can achieve with AI till we were able to fully develop the technology.

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CONCLUSION

I have come to the end of today article on the evolution of computer. It is necessary to know where we are coming from to know where we are going. As discussed early between (1940 - 2010) we have achieve a lot in term of developing our computers which has been really helpful in the way we accomplish task.

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