The Four Generations of Computers
Nadia Akthar
The 4 Generations of Computers
Each generation increases in reliability, speed, efficiency and ease of use and decreases in cost & size.
The first Generation (1945 - 1955)
Very large computers made up of vacuum tubes and often programmed using wiring plugboards Programmed using machine language.
The Second Generation (1955 - 1965)
Mainframes made up of transistors Mainframes made up of transistors At first punch cards were used to provide input, then tapes were used (for batch processing).
The Third Generation (1965 - 1980)
Mainframes based on small scale ICs were used.Capable of multiprogramming (running several jobs at the same time)Fixed disks were used and new jobs on cards to be executed could be read on to the disk.
The Fourth Generation (1980 . . . )
Mainframes, Minicomputers, Workstations, Personal Computers (Desktop and portable) based on VLSI components Network operating systems that facilitate file sharing, remote logging etc. and Client Server computing.