The history of computer technology is often used to refer to the origin of all the different generations of computers. From first to fifth each computer generation is characterized by significant technological development in their components, memory, and elements which essentially changed the way these devices work.
This development period of electronic computing technology is called Computer Generation. There are five generations of computers identified, although the sixth generation could be in development now in the early 21st century.
1st Generation of Computer (1940-1956)
This first generation of computers based on vacuum tube technology used for calculations, storage, and control, invented in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming. The vacuum tubes and diode valves were the chief components of the first generations of computers.
First-generation computers relied on the lowest-level machine language, in order to perform operations, and could only solve a single problem at a point in time.
2nd Generation of Computer (1956-1964)
The second generation of computers replaced the vacuum tubes with a reliable component called transistors for manufacturing of computers was invented by William Shockley in 1947.
The transistors were the revolution in the computer field because this component advantaged the 2nd gen computer by increasing the performance, operating speed (hundreds of thousands of operations per second), as well as decreased the electricity consumption of the computers.
3rd Generation of Computer (1964-1971)
The third generation appeared in the form of integrated circuits (invented by Jack Kilby in 1958 in year 1964). An IC (integrated circuit) is consists of many small transistors mounted on chips, which are called semiconductors.
This synchronized chip became an important foundation for the third generation computers when scientists combined hundreds of transistors fit in this circuit result in a more powerful electronic segment called an integrated circuit.
4th Generation of Computer (1971-2010)
The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits equivalent to about millions of transistors were assembled and brought the whole central processing unit and other fundamental elements of the machine into a small chip called a microprocessor fitted on the Motherboard.
The computers started to utilize high-speed memory systems on integrated circuits with a capacity of several megabytes. Computer performance has increased significantly (hundreds of millions of operations per second).
5th Generation of Computer (2010-At Present)
Artificial intelligence is the name of the fifth as well as the latest generation of computers based on ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration) technology is the process of integrating or embedding millions of transistors on a single silicon microchip.
Some computers are being intended to do all the work themselves as a human act, behave, and communicate. The best example of this is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based computing machine in the 5th generation of computers “Sophia” a robot.
