THE FOUR GENERATIONS OF DIGITAL

COMPUTING
THE FIRST-GENERATION
COMPUTERS (1951-1958)
1.Vacuum tubes as their main
logic elements.
2.Punch cards to input and
externally store data.
3.Rotating magnetic drums for
internal storage of data
and programs.
• Programs written in
• Machine language
• Assembly language
• Requires a compiler
 FIRST - GENERATION
• Computers had vacuum
tubes, resistors, and
welded joints.
• Large, slow, expensive,
and produced a lot of
heat.
• Often broke down because
of burned-out vacuum
tubes.
üAlso needed many experts
v 1945 – Presper Eckert and
John Mauchly developed the
1st operational electronic
digital computer, called
ENIAC, for the U.S. Army.
q ENIAC
•-- 1000 x faster than Mark 1, and

could perform 5,000

additons/second.
•-- had more than 18,000 vacuum

tubes, and took up 1,800 square

feet of space.
•-- Today, ENIAC tech. could fit in a

modern wristwatch.
v1951 – UNIVAC bacame
the 1st commercially
available electronic
computer designed by
Eckert and Mauchly
(designers of ENIAC) and
built by the Remington
Rand Corporation
•

• -- The first of these was

delivered to the U.S. Census
Bureau.
vBetween 1951 and 1953 –
Magnetic Core Memory
was developed, which
consists of tiny ferrite
“donuts” that were arranged
on a lattice of wires.
•-- The polarity of their

magnetization could be
changed or detected by passing
current through wires.
•-- This allowed each lattice point

store one “bit” – either 0 or 1.

•-- MCM was the fastest type of
v1953
•-- IBM 701, IBM’s first

electronic business
computer.
THE second-GENERATION
COMPUTERS (1959-1963)

1.Vacuum tubes replaced by

transistors as main
logic element.
2.Magnetic tape and disks
began to replace
punched cards as
external storage devices.
3.Magnetic cores (very
small donut-shaped
magnets that could be
polarized in one of two
directions to represent
data) strung on wire
within the computer
became the primary
internal storage
technology.
• High-level programming
languages
• E.g., FORTRAN and COBOL
 second - GENERATION

• Instead of vacuum tubes,

second-generation
computers used
transistors as exciting new
invention at the time John
Barden, Walter Brattain
and William Shockley of
Bell Telephone
Laboratories invented the
transistor.
qTransistors
•-- smaller, faster, cheaper,

required less power, and

produced less heat than
vacuum tubes.
•-- increasing speed and

enhancing reliability,
transistors can amplify a
signal, or open and close a
circuit.
•-- functions as an electronic

switch or bridge.
•-- allowed second-
generation computers to
communicate over
telephone lines.
•-- gave way to the concepts

of parallel processor and

multiprogramming.
•-- could run multiple

programs, and could

address input and output
at the same time.
v1964
•-- Digital Equipment

Corporation (DEC),
founded by Ken Olsen,
released the first
minicomputer,
• the PDP-8.
•-- IBM unveils the

System/360, the first

family of computers.
v1965
•-- Thomas Kurtz and John

Kemeny of Dartmouth
College developed BASIC
• (Beginners All
Purpose Symbolic
Instruction Code) as a
computer language to
help teach people how to
program.
 THE third-GENERATION
COMPUTERS (1963-1974)
1.Individual transistors were
replaced by integrated
circuits.
2.Magnetic tape and disks
completely replace punch
cards as external storage
devices.
3.Magnetic core internal
memories began to give way
to a new form, metal oxide
semi-conductor (MOS)
memory, which like
 third - GENERATION
• Relied on a new
technology called
integrated circuit.
qIntegrated Circuit
•-- single wafer or chip that

can hold many transistors

and electronic circuits.
•-- faster, offered improved

memory, and reduced the

price of computers.
•-- invented by Jack Kilby
v1958
•-- Jack Kilby joined Texas

Instruments Inc. in Dallas

where he was responsible for
integrated circuit
development and
applications.
•

v1959
•-- Jack Kilby invented the

monolithic integrated circuit,

which is still used in
electronic systems.
v1968
•-- Intel was founded by

Robert Noyce (one of the

inventors of the integrated
circuit) and others.
•

v1969
•-- ARPANET is set up.

ARPANET later becomes the

INTERNET.
•
v1972
•-- The C programming

language is developed at
AT&T Bell Labs by Brian
Kernighan and Dennis
Ritche.
•-- The UNIX operating

system, also written at

Bell Labs, is written using
C. This later makes UNIX
one of the most portable
operating systems
THE fourth-GENERATION
COMPUTERS (1979-present)
• Intel Corporation,
designed the 1st tiny
computer on a chip, it
was called a
microprocessor.
• From 1974 to present,
computers have relied
mainly on the
microprocessor which
has made computers the
fastest and most
qMicroprocessor
•-- an integrated circuit built

on a tiny piece of silicon.

•-- contains thousands, or

even millions, of
transistors, which are
interconnected via
superfine traces of
aluminum.
•-- The transistors work

together to store and

manipulate data so that
the microprocessor can
•-- its performance are
directed by software.
•-- Intel’s first microprocessor

was the 4004, introduced in

1971, and contained 2,300
transistors.
•-- Today’s Pentium® 4

processor, by contrast,
contains 55 million
transistors.
•-- to serve as the “brains”

inside personal computers,

but they deliver
The First Microcomputer,
or Personal Computer (PC)
v1975
•-- Micro Instrumentation

and Telemetry Systemsor

MITS produced the 1st PC.
•-- They named it Altair

8080, after the Star Trek

episode, “A Voyage to
Altair”.
•-- Bill Gates and Paul Allen

founded the Microsoft.

v1976
•-- Steve Jobs and Steve

Wozniak founded Apple

Computers.
•-- Their aim was to build a

simple yet powerful

computer that the average
person could unpack, plug
in, and begin using
immediately.
•-- Apple’s widely successful

PC was the Apple II

v1978
•-- VisiCalc is released.

•-- This is the first

spreadsheet program and

it made microcomputers
useful to business.
•-- All modern spreadsheets,

such as Lotus 1-2-3 and

Excel, are descended from
Visicalc.
v1979
•-- The first microcomputer

word processor,
Wordstar, is released.
•-- This program later

developed into
WordPerfect.
v1981
•-- IBM enters the personal

computer market with the

PC.
•-- It came with DOS, an

operating system based

on CP/M.
•-- IBM chose to license DOS

from the tiny Microsoft

instead of writing its own
operating system.
v1984
•-- IBM develops a one-

million bit RAM.

•-- Apple Macintosh was

released, which features a

simple, graphical
interface, uses the 8-MHz,
32-bit Motorola 68000
CPU, and has a built-in 9-
inch B/W screen.
v1985
•-- The Amiga introduced the

world to multimedia.
•-- Amiga was the first

multimedia computer, but in

those days it was viewed
largely as a game machines.
•-- Microsoft Windows 1.0

ships in November, this

looked ugly, run slowly and
had a very little support
from third party software
developers.
v1990
•-- Windows 3 was

launched that multiple

programs could be run
simultaneously, virtual
memory was also
provided.
•-- Microsoft Word processor

and Microsoft Excel

spreadsheet was lined up.
v1993
•-- Intel introduced Pentium

Processor, a
microprocessor with 3.1
million transistors.
•-- Technological

developments continue to
change modern
computing.
v1994
•-- Apple announced the

PowerMac family, the first

Macs to be based on the
PowerPC chip, an
extremely fast processor
co-developed with IBM
and Motorola.
•-- The power PC processor

allowed Macs to compete

with, and in many cases
beat, the speed of Intel’s
newer processors.
v1995
•-- Microsoft finally released

Windows ‘95 on August

24th 1995.
•-- It was a massive global

multimedia marketing
hype-fest including TV,
radio, newspapers,
magazines, billboards and
just about everything else.
What about the fifth
generation of
computers?
• Some scientists speculate
the next generation of
computers will work with
individual atoms and
holographic storage.
• The fifth generation of
computers will again
change our world, as
science fiction once
again becomes fact.
 History of intel
microprocessor
v1971 : 4004
Microprocessor
•-- The 4004 was Intel’s first

microprocessor.
•--This breakthrough invention

powered the Busicom

calculator and paved the way
for embedding intelligence in
inanimate objects as well as
the personal computer.
v1972 : 8008
Microprocessor
•-- The 8008 was twice as

powerful as the 4004.

•-- A 1974 article in Radio

Electronics referred to a
device called the Mark-8
which used the 8008.
•-- The Mark-8 is known as one

of the first computers for the

home.
v1974 : 8080
Microprocessor
•-- The 8080 became the brains

of the first personal computer

–The Altair.
•-- Computer hobbyists could

purchase a kit for the Altair

for $395.
•-- Within months, it sold tens of

thousands, creating the first

PC back orders in history.
•
v1978 : 8086-8088
Microprocessor
•-- A pivotel sale to IBM’s new

personal computer division

made the 8088 the brains of
IBM’s new hit product—the
IBM PC.
•-- The 8088’s success propelled

Intel into the ranks of the

Fortune 500, and Fortune
magazine named the
company one of the “Business
Triumphs of the Seventies.”
v1982 : 286 Microprocessor
•-- Also known as 80286, was

the first Intel processor that

could run all the software
written for its predecessor.
•-- This software compatibility

remains a hallmark of Intel’s

family of microprocessors.
v1985 : Intel386™
Microprocessor
•-- The Intel386™ microprocessor

featured 275,000 transistors—

more than 100 times as many as
the original 4004.
•-- It was a 32-bit chip and was

“multi tasking,” meaning it could

run multiple programs at the
same time.
v1989 : Intel486™ DX
CPU Microprocessor
•-- Intel486™ was the first to

offer a built-in math

coprocessor, which speeds
up computing because it
offloads complex math
functions from the central
processor.
v1993 : Pentium®
Processor
•-- The Pentium® processor

allowed computers to more

easily incorporate “real
world” data such as speech,
sound, handwriting and
photographic images.
v1997 : Pentium® II
Processor
•-- It was introduced in

innovative Single Edge Contact

(S.E.C.) Cartridge that also
incorporated a high-speed
cache memory chip. With this
chip, PC users can capture,
edit and share digital photos
with friends and family via the
Internet.
v1999 : Pentium® III
Processor
•-- The Pentium® III processor

features 70 new instructions—

Internet Streaming SIMD
extensions-that dramatically
enhance the performance of
advanced imaging, 3D,
streaming audio, video and
speech recognition applications.
•-- The processor incorporates 9.5

million transistors.
v2000 : Pentium® 4
Processor
•-- Pentium® 4 PCs can create

professional-quality movies;
deliver TV-like video via the
Internet; communicate with
real-time video and voice;
render 3D graphics in real
time; etc..
•-- This is debuted with 42

million transistors and circuit

lines of 0.18 microns.
•-- It’s initial speed of 1.5