We use computers immensely, whether for working, for social networking or online shopping, and many more tasks. It's interesting to see how fast computers have evolved from bulky, expensive and unreliable to smaller, affordable, and much much more reliable and sophisticated inventions. But have you ever wondered how this took place and how the computers looked like in their early years?
To appease your curiosities, here goes.. (p/s: don't fret, I will not bore you with lengthy descriptions of the inventions..)
1940 - 1956
ENIAC and UNIVAC, built by Presper Eckett and William Mauchly, were examples of first generation computers. First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts.
The computers used more than 2000 vacuum tubes and took up a lot of space.Vacuum tubes heat up fast causing many problems in climate control and tubes also burned out frequently. Computers were also highly inefficient, consumed a great deal of electricity and occupied a lot of space. They were also very expensive to operate and maintain.
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| First generation computer (ENIAC) (Source: http://homepage.cs.uri.edu/faculty/wolfe/book/Readings/Reading03.htm) |
2nd GENERATION COMPUTERS: (TRANSISTORS)
1956 - 1963
Vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors. This made computers smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their predecessors. They still generated a lot of heat though. Computers in this era still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output.
Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.
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| Second generation computer (Source: http://www.shirazjju.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2nd.jpg) |
1964 - 1971
Transistors were then replaced by the use of integrated circuits (IC). Transistors were miniaturised and placed on silicon chips (semiconductors) which greatly improved the speed and efficiency of computers. 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.
Since the computers were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors, they were available to be purchased by mass audience.
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| The first Commercial GUI (Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/gui) |
4th GENERATION COMPUTERS: (MICROPROCESSORS)
1971 - present
In this era, transistors were replaced by microprocessors. Thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. Computers become much smaller in size. First generation computer took up an entire room, fourth generation computer fit in the palm of your hand!
Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.
5th GENERATION COMPUTERS: (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE)
Present and beyond
This phase is still in development and there is wide usage of superconductors, parallel processing, silicone chips, intelligent systems, and virtual reality. Computers will also radically change contributed by quantum computation and nanotechnology as technologies are more advanced, sophisticated, and modern. The goal is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organisation. Latest inventions are supercomputers, mainframe computers, mini computers, mobile computers
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| Sony Tap 20 SVJ20215CXW All-in-One PC (Source: www.pcworld.com) |
.. So there you have it, the history of computers. However, even when IT technologies become more advanced, computers will just remain as tools for data processing or collecting information and unless they are utilised to bring something positive to the existing and future generations, then at best they will remain as just tools. Computers and IT technologies should benefit the community at large since the real assets are people. The tools should be developed to shape people or community into a better society whether intellectually or socially.
For all it's worth, I have utmost respect for the brains behind those developments. My capabilities are limited to switching on the computer, use it, save the data, use internet, print, and switching off the computer. If anything unseemingly happens, I tend to break out in sweat, my bp goes up, panic is an understatement, and I assume everything can be solved with ctrl-alt-del.. So much for claiming I'm a genius.. Hehe
References:
http://www.slideshare.net/panitiaict/evolution-of-the-computers
http://homepage.cs.uri.edu/faculty/wolfe/book/Readings/Reading03.htm
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2002/FiveGenerations.asp
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