Computer

History

5 Generations, a big history

Computers

A computer is an electronic device which is capable of receiving

information (data) in a particular form and of performing a
sequence of operations in accordance with a predetermined but
variable set of procedural instructions (program) to produce a
result in the form of information or signals.

Computers have been constantly involving since the first

computers around the 1940s and so on.

Pre-Computer Age
Charles Babbage(pre
1930s
The calculating engines of English mathematician Charles

Babbage (1791-1871) are among the most celebrated icons in

the prehistory of computing. Babbages Difference Engine No.1
was the first successful automatic calculator and remains one of
the finest examples of precision engineering of the time.

1st Generation
Vacuum Tubes (40-56)

Vacuum tubes for circuit and magnetic drums for memory and
were often enormous.

Very Expensive

Univac and Eniac computers

Relied on machine language

Enormous

2nd Generation
Transistors (56-63)

Replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in 2nd generation

computers.

Far superior to a vacuum tube.

From binary to symbolic language.

From cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or assembly,

languages

First computers of this generation were developed for the atomic

energy industry.

rd

Generation
Integrated Circuits (6471)

Integrated circuits was the hallmark of 3rd Gen Computers

Keyboards and monitors

Applications

For the first time became accessible to a mass audience

Smaller and cheaper

4th Generation
Microprocessors (71
present)
Thousands of integrated circuits onto a single chip.

Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, all components of computer

in the palm of your hand.

Become more powerful over the years.

1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in
1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh.

Also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld

devices.

5th Generation
Artificial Intelligence (present-beyond)

Based on artificial intelligence

Voice recognition

Quantum computation

Molecular Nanotechnology

The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that

respond to natural language input and are capable of learning
and self-organization.

Most Important advancement?

Laptops

Designed in 1979 by a Briton, William Moggridge, for Grid

Systems Corporation, the Grid Compass was one fifth the weight
of any model equivalent in performance and was used by NASA
on the space shuttle program in the early 1980's.

The computer considered by most historians to be the first true

portable computer was the Osborne 1. Adam Osborne, an exbook publisher founded Osborne Computer and produced the
Osborne 1 in 1981, a portable computer that weighed 24 pounds
and cost $1795.

From on that point laptops have become a very common and

necessary things for people who need to move it around.

Bibliography
"The Five Generations of Computers." - Webopedia. N.p., n.d.
Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
<http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/Fiv
eGenerations.asp>.

"About CBI." Charles Babbage Institute: Who Was Charles

Babbage? N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
<http://www.cbi.umn.edu/about/babbage.html

Bellis, Mary. "History of Laptop Computers." About.com Inventors.

About.com, 17 June 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.
<http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllaptop.htm>.

Thank you!