Computers

Generations
Computer Age:
Past, Present, and Future

CREATED BY WAN AKMAL SYAHIRAN

JMTI STUDENTS
The First generation
The Second Generation
The Third Generation
The Fourth Generation
The Fifth Generation
 Rapid changes
 Four generations over 50
years
 Trends across generations
 Decrease size
 Increase speed
  1951-1958  Magnetic core
 Vacuum Tube memory
 Heat  Storage
 Burnout  Punched cards
 Machine language  Tape (1957)

Characteristics of 1st Generation Computers

 Computers big and clumsy
 Electricity consumption is high
 Electric failure occurred regularly - computers not
very reliable
 Large air conditioners was necessary because the
computers generated heat
 Batch processing
 1951, UNIVAC
 Eckert and Mauchly completed the first
commercial computer in the USA – the
UNIVAC (Universal Automatic
Computer)
 First computer built for business
 Short Code - A set of instructions called
Short Code is developed for the
UNIVAC. Programmers
 1951, SAGE - Semi Automatic Ground Environment was
developed.
 IBM built the SAGE computers and became leaders in
real-time applications and used the technology of
Whirlwind.
 SAGE computers were used in an early U.S. air defense
system. They were fully deployed in 1963, that consisted
of 27 centers throughout North America, each with a
duplexed AN/FSQ-7 computer system containing over
50,000 vacuum tubes, weighing 250 tons and occupying
an acre of floor space.
 SAGE was the first large computer network to provide
man-machine interaction in real time.
 1952, EDVAC-
Electronic Discreet
Variable Computer
 John Von Neumann,
designed with a
central control unit
which would
calculate and output
all mathematical and
logical problems and
a memory which
could be written to
and read. (RAM in
modern terms) which
would store
programs and data.
 1953, IBM 701
 The 701 was formally
announced on May 21, 1952.
It was the unit of the overall
701 Data Processing System
in which actual calculations
were performed. That activity
involved 274 assemblies
executing all the system's
computing and control
functions by means of
electronic pulses emitted at
speeds ranging up to one
million a second.
 1953, The Whirlwind
 Whirlwind was a large scale,
general purpose digital
computer begun at the
Servomechanisms Laboratory
of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in
1946.
 1959-1964  Storage
 Transistor
 Removable disk pack
(1954)
 Smaller  Magnetic tape
 No warm-up time
 Programming
 Less energy
languages
 Less heat  Assembly language
 Faster  FORTRAN (1954)
 More reliable  COBOL(1959)

Used primarily by business,

university, government
 Computers became smaller  
 Generate less heat

 Electricity consumption lower

 More reliable and faster 

 Core memory developed

 Magnetic tapes and disks used

 First operating systems developed

 A new processing method was needed.

 Time-sharing (processing technique)

• 1963, Mini-computer: PDP-
8
– Digital introduces the first
successful minicomputer – the
PDP-8.  It was about as large as a
fridge and used transistors and
magnetic core memory. 
• 1964 Real-time reservation
system IBM developed a real-
time computerised ticket
reservation system for
American Airways.
– It was smaller than SAGE and
was called SABRE (Semi-
Automatic Business-Related
Environment).
 1964, IBM’s System
360
 It consisted of 6
processors and 40
peripheral units.
More than 100
computers per
month were
ordered.
 1964, BASIC
(programming
language)
 A programming language
was necessary that could
be used in a time-sharing
environment and that
could serve as a training
language.
 Use of a high level programming
language instead of Assembly
Language.
 Not machine specific.

 COBOL

 FORTRAN
 Advantages
of the transistors over
vacuum tubes-
Weight
Power consumption

Heat output

 Because 2nd generation computers

used transistors, they were smaller,
faster and more reliable than the
1st generation computers.
 1965-1970
 Integrated Circuit
 Electronic circuit on 1. Computers smaller,
small silicon chip faster and more
 Reliability reliable
 Compactness 2. Power consumption
 Low cost lower
 Inexpensive – mass- 3. High-level
produced languages appeared
 1965, Gordon Moore
 The semi-conductor pioneer, Gordon Moore (founder
of Intel), predicted that the number of transistors that
occurred on a microchip would double every year. It
became known as Moore’s Law and is still valid today.
 Burroughs used integrated circuits in parts of
two computers - the B2500 and the B3500.
 Control Data and NCR made two computers
using only integrated circuits - the CDC 7600
and the Century series respectively.
 1968, Intel was founded (INTegrated
Electronics).
 They developed more sophisticated memory chips.
 1968, Magnetic core memory was
replaced by a microchip.
 The first 256 bit RAM microchips, and later the first
1Kb RAM (1024 byte) chips, caused the
disappearance of Magnetic Core Memory that was
used since the mid 1950's. 
 1969, IBM System/370 replaced their
System/360 with the System/370 that only
used integrated circuits.
 1971-Present  Integrated circuits, smaller
 Microprocessor and faster
 General-purpose
processor on a chip  Micro computer series
 Explosive growth such as IBM and APPLE
 Digital watches developed
 Pocket calculators
 Personal computers  Portable computers
 Cars developed
 Copy machines
 Television sets
 Great development in data
communication
 Different types of
secondary memory with
high storage capacity and
fast access developed
 1971,  1971, Pascal (programming
Microprocessor language) Early programming
languages
 Intel developed the – Niklaus Wirth - a Swedish
first microprocessor computer scientist - developed
- a CPU on a the Pascal language in 1971.
microchip. This language was specifically
designed to teach the concepts
 It was called the of structured programming.
4004 and consisted Pascal remains the most
of 2-250 transistors popular language for learning
capable of the basic principles of good
processing 4 bits at a programming.
rate of 60,000
transac-tions/second.  1972, 8008
– Intel released the 8008 - an 8
bit processor powerful enough
to be used as the CPU of a
minicomputer
 1972, CP/M (Operating  MARK-8 Johnathan Titus
system)
 The first operating
(a chemist with an interest
system for in electronics) ordered an
microcomputers was
developed by Gary Kildall 8008 processor from Intel.
and John Torode.
– He built a computer with
 Torode developed
hardware to connect a six(6) circuit boards
diskette (floppy disk) to which had 256 bytes
the CPU. 
RAM.
 1974
 8080 Microprocessor, was  Motorola’s 6800
released - it made the
development of the processor developed a
microcomputer possible. processor
– the 6800. which could
perform all the functions of
the 8080.
  Apple- Steve Wozniak and
 1975 -  January Steve Jobs founded the Apple
 Altair 8800- Popular Company .
Mechanics published an – They built a micro-
article which announced
the development of a computer motherboard that
true personal computer used a 8-bit processor.
 Developed by MITS – The motherboard was a
(Micro Instrumentation single circuit board and
and Telemetry Systems). held 4 Kb RAM.
It used the 8-bit Intel  1976, MOS 6502 processor
8080 microprocessor – MOS technologies
and was made available
in a complete kit, announced the develop-
including all components ment of the 6502
and assembly processor, an 8-bit
instructions. processor with very few
 256 bytes of RAM was registers and 16-bit
available. 16 slots were address bus.
left open to include – It was used in the design
more RAM when of the Apple II
necessary.
 1977. Apple II  1978 Intel’s 8086
Wozniak and Jobs processor that con-
released the Apple tained 16-bit registers
II. It was cheap, had and used segmented
16 Kb RAM and was memory addressing.
ideal for playing – All x86 processors had to
video games. be compatible with the
set of instructions, first
 It was sold with a used in this processor.
keyboard, a power  1979, Motorola’s 68000
supply and included 8
processor which was used
slots for peripherals. in the Apple Lisa and
It could therefore be Macintosh computers.
used with a wider
variety of peripherals
and programs.
 First spreadsheet :  1981, IBM PCIBM
VisiCalcDan Bricklin and

Bob Frankston of the announced it's first
Software Arts Company Personal Computer -
developed the first
spreadsheet program for the IBM PC - an Intel
use on microcomputers,
namely VisiCalc. It was 8088 processor
distributed by Personal
Software for use on all  1982, Intel’s 286
Apple computers.Word
processor processor. Intel
 WordStar announced the 80286
 The word processing
program WordStar was microprocessor.
developed by Seymour
Rubenstein's firm – This was used in the IBM
MicroPro and became the PC AT (Advanced
best seller in the CP/M
operating environment. Technology).
 1983, Apple’s Lisa
 Apple announced the Lisa, a computer that used a mouse
to move a cursor on the screen in order to select
commands. The Lisa was the first commercial computer
to use a Graphical User Interface (GUI)
 1983, IBM announced the PC XT
(eXtended Technology). Memory was expanded to 640 Kb
and it featured:
 4,77 MHz processor speed
 Double floppy disks
 MS DOS version 3.3
 Later versions also had 10 or 20 Mb hard disk drives
available.
 1990, Windows 3.0 (operating system)
 Microsoft released Windows 3.0.
 Mid 1990’s Applications for 5th Gen computers
 Intelligent  Intelligent robots that could ‘see’ their
computers environment (visual input - e.g. a video
 Artificial
camera) and could be programmed to
carry out certain tasks and should be able
intelligenc
to decide for itself how the task should be
e
accomplished, based on the observations
 Expert
it made of its environment.
systems  Intelligent systems that could control the
 Natural
route of a missile and defence-systems
language that could fend off attacks.
 Word processors that could be controlled
by means of speech recognition.
 Programs that could translate documents
from one language to another.
 Some technological developments that could
make the development of fifth-generation
computers possible, include:
 Parallel-processing - many processors are grouped to
function as one large group processor.
 Superconductors - a superconductor is a conductor
through which electricity can travel without any
resistance resulting in faster transfer of information
between the components of a computer.
 Expert Systems helps doctors to reach a diagnosis by
following the logical steps of problem solving just as if
the doctor would have done it himself. 
 Speech recognition systems, capable of recognising
dictation and entering the text into a word processor,
are already available.
 How computers can be used for
tasks that required human
characteristics
 An important aspect of intelligence is goal-based problem
solving. The solution of many problems (e.g. noughts and
crosses, timetabling, chess) can be described by finding a
sequence of actions that lead to a desirable goal. Each
action changes the state and the aim is to find the sequence
of actions and states that lead from the initial (start) state
to a final (goal) state.

 A well-defined problem can be described by:

1. Initial state
2. Operator or successor function - for any state x returns s(x),
the set of states reachable from x with one action
3. State space - all states reachable from initial by any sequence
of actions
4. Path - sequence through state space
5. Path cost - function that assigns a cost to a path. Cost of a path
is the sum of costs of individual actions along the path
6. Goal test - test to determine if at goal state
 Software used with an
extensive set of
organized data that
presents the computer
as an expert on a
particular topic
 Humans communicate
with computers in the
language they use on a
daily basis
  Computer-controlled
device that can
physically
manipulate its
surroundings

Robot development firm

Speecys Corp. of Tokyo
developed a small
humanoid robot, powered
entirely by easy-to-replace,
environmentally friendly
fuel-cell batteries.

THOR on display and demonstration circa 1981

 Engage a user in a
computer-created
environment
 User physically
interacts with
computer-created
environment
The Generation of computer Development
Generation Years Circuitry Characterized by
First 1950’s Vacuum tubes Difficult to
program, used only
machine language

Second Early 1960’s Transistors Easier to program,

could work with
business tabulating
machines, cheaper

Third Mid 1960-1970’s Integrated circuits Time scanning

mini-computer
Fourth Mid 1970’s to VLSI and the micro Personal computer,
1990’s processor graphical user, user
interface, internet

Fifth 1990’s till date Micro and Nano Laptops,

Chips, WiFi Robotics,Nanotech
nology
THE END