First Generation Computers:- These computer were present in 1942 to 1955. These computers use Vacuum tube technology.

These computers were very large machines. These computers were work on machine language that mean the user who knew the machine language was only able to

work on these computers. These computers require a lot of power to run and produce so much heat that adequate air conditioning was required. These computer were not so reliable they had slow input, output devices. They were slow in processing and had small storage capacities.

Second Generation Computers:- These computer were present in 1955 to 1964. This was the era of transistors. Now the vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors. One transistorreplaced 40 vacuum tubes. Transistors were smaller less expensive generated no heat and required very little

power. So the second generation computers were smaller as compare to first generation computers. The processing speed was much higher. The storage capacity was increased.

Third Generation Computers:- The third generation computer were present in 1964 to 1975. This was the important mile stone in the field of computers. Now the integrated circuits were introduced. It is also called assembly Conductor chip. Ina single chips thousands of transistors can be

replaced. This reduced the physical size of computer and increases the reliability, processing speed and memory. Now the use of magnetic disk as a secondary storage devices begin. Now the use of operating system also started. Micro computers were developed.

Fourth Generation Computers:- These computers were started after 1975 and still we are using these computer. In this Era large scale integration(LSI) and very large scale integration(VLSI) technology was introduced as a result of this technology the physical size of computers get reduced and the past of computer decreased very much. These computers retained large memory capacity and high processing speed. Now the use of micro computersand mini computers started, these computer are very small and inexpensive yet they have large computing power. In fourth generation computers we can use high level language. Data base management system and graphics.

Fifth Generation Computers:- Fifth generation computers are the future computers which will be entirely fourth generation computers. It is believe in that these computers will artificial intelligence multipoint, input, output, large storage capacity, high speed. These computers are believed to the take auto decision. It is very difficult to define fifth generation computer. Since, these are under development countries like U.S.A, Japan, U.k and working on this technology.

How Electronic Computers Have Progressed

UNIVAC (1951-1970) (1968 vers.)

Kenbak 1 (1971)

IBM PC (1981)

Macintosh (1984)

Pentium III

Circuits

Tubes, Transistors, Integrated Circuits*

130 Integrated Circuits

Intel 8088 Microchip 29,000 Transistors

Motorola 68000

Intel P-III Microchip - 7.5 million transistors

Generation

I-II-III*

III

IV

IV

IV

RAM Memory

512 K

265 Bytes

256 K

640 K

128 Mb

Speed

1.3 MHz

1 KHz

4.77 Mhz

8 MHz

1000 MHz

Storage

100 MB Hard Drive Whole Room

none

Floppy Drive

Floppy Drives

Hard Drive, Floppy, CDRom Small Tower

Size

Briefcase (no monitor)

Briefcase + Monitor $1595

Two shoeboxes (integrated monitor) ~$4000

Cost

$1.6 million

$750

$1500