On April 7, 1964 IBM released its System/360 line of computers.

The System/360 release marked the beginning of the third generation of computers. - The System/360 computers used integrated circuits rather than individual transistors. - During the third generation, magnetic core memory was replaced with semiconductor memories. - The notion of upward compatibility was introduced during the third generation. (This means that applications made for a given computer/system will work with the next model, just like an Excel 97 spreadsheet will work with Excel 2000.) - Sophisticated operating systems were introduced, giving used unprecedented control over the computer. -IBMs System/360 and System/370 dominated the third generation computer market through the 1970s.
Greatest development of the computer means in the history of the progress of science and technology itself, today is marked by the creation of third generation computers. The turn between the second and third generation it was not clear but it is known that computers were the third generation began to be marketed in 1965. The specialty of this third-generation groups are used Monolithic Integrated Circuit (IC) replaces the use of Solid State Device or transistor in the second generation. With the basic use of these electronic devices, this machine runs much different from the previous generation capacity owned where much larger, more extensive use, the more complete the program facilities, use of multiprogramming and multi processing. In other words, this third-generation computer can run several programs for the same time, and physically smaller size of the equipment. Another specialty of the third generation machines now the greater part of the human factor both power and accuracy have been taken by the machine itself. On the basis of the development of computer machines mentioned above, the jobs are processed on the previous generation can be directly processed by the current generation. The third generation of computers on which there is a very important difference is the way to making the electronic energies are: 1. The first generation used vacuum tubes 2. The second generation using transistors (solid state device) 3. The third generation using IC (Integrated Circuit) From the development of second-generation computers and the third on goals we can know

the invention of computers has changed that is beyond human help in solving mathematical problems have turned into helping people in the field of information technology, especially technology.

The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers. A nonmetallic chemical element in the carbon family of elements. Silicon atomic symbol "Si" - is the second most abundant element in the earth's crust, surpassed only by oxygen. Silicon does not occur uncombined in nature. Sand and almost all rocks contain silicon combined with oxygen, forming silica. When silicon combines with other elements, such as iron, aluminum or potassium, a silicate is formed. Compounds of silicon also occur in the atmosphere, natural waters,many plants and in the bodies of some animals. Silicon is the basic material used to make computer chips, transistors, silicon diodes and other electronic circuits and switching devices because its atomic structure makes the element an ideal semiconductor. Silicon is commonly doped, or mixed,with other elements, such as boron, phosphorous and arsenic, to alter its conductive properties. A chip is a small piece of semi conducting material(usually silicon) on which an integrated circuit is embedded. A typical chip is less than -square inches and can contain millions of electronic components(transistors). Computers consist of many chips placed on electronic boards called printed circuit boards. There are different types of chips. For example, CPU chips (also

called microprocessors) contain an entire processing unit, whereas memory chips contain blank memory. Semiconductor is a material that is neither a good conductor of electricity (like copper) nor a good insulator (like rubber). The most common semiconductor materials are silicon and germanium. These materials are then doped to create an excess or lack of electrons. Computer chips, both for CPU and memory, are composed of semiconductor materials. Semiconductors make it possible to miniaturize electronic components, such as transistors. Not only does miniaturization mean that the components take up less space, it also means that they are faster and require less energy.

Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.