Modern computing era began in the 1940s as eIectronic circuits, reIays, capacitors and vacuum tubes repIaced mechanicaI equivaIents. Computers designed and constructed during this time have sometimes been caIIed first generation computers. Computers of the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's used Punched Cards or paper tape for input and as the main (non-voIatiIe) storage medium.
Modern computing era began in the 1940s as eIectronic circuits, reIays, capacitors and vacuum tubes repIaced mechanicaI equivaIents. Computers designed and constructed during this time have sometimes been caIIed first generation computers. Computers of the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's used Punched Cards or paper tape for input and as the main (non-voIatiIe) storage medium.
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Modern computing era began in the 1940s as eIectronic circuits, reIays, capacitors and vacuum tubes repIaced mechanicaI equivaIents. Computers designed and constructed during this time have sometimes been caIIed first generation computers. Computers of the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's used Punched Cards or paper tape for input and as the main (non-voIatiIe) storage medium.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PPS, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
TYPES OF COMPUTERS COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 The modern computing era began in the 1940s as eIectronic circuits, reIays, capacitors and vacuum tubes repIaced mechanicaI equivaIents, and digitaI caIcuIations repIaced anaIog caIcuIations. The computers designed and constructed during this time have sometimes been caIIed first generation computers. First generation computers were usuaIIy buiIt by hand using circuits containing reIays or vacuum vaIves (tubes), and often used punched cards or punched paper tape for input and as the main (non- voIatiIe) storage medium. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 This circuit board bIock is one of hundreds of bIocks that heId the 4000 vacuum tubes for IBM's ModeI 701, it's first computer intended for scientific work. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 Punched Cards were used wideIy in the computers of the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 John MauchIy and J. Presper Eckert designed the ENIAC (ectronic Numerica Integrator and Computer), often caIIed the first eectronic generaI- purpose computer. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 It was a 1,000 times faster than its contemporaries. This was cruciaI for the deveIopment of modern computing, partIy because of the enormous speed advantage, but more importantIy because of the potentiaI for miniaturization. Work began on the computer in 1941 and was compIeted in 1945. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 The invention of the transistor in 1947 proved to be the next major step. This repIaced the fragiIe and power-consuming vaIves with a much smaIIer and more reIiabIe component. Computers with transistors are caIIed second generation computers and were quite popuIar in the Iate 1950s and earIy 1960s. Inspite of using transistors and printed circuits these computers were stiII Iarge and mainIy meant for universities, governments, and Iarge corporations. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 In 1964 IBM announced the $ series, which was the first of its kind that couId run the same software at different combinations of speed, capacity and price. It aIso was the first system to process different types of data, not just mathematicaI caIcuIations. The use of computers became widespread with the third generation computers. They were based on Jack St. CIaire KiIby's and Robert Noyce's independent invention of the integrated circuit or the microchip. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 The integrated circuit aIIowed the deveIopment of much smaIIer computers that began to bring computing into many smaIIer businesses. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 The fourth generation computers began with Marcian Hoff's invention of the microprocessor. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 On November 15, 1971, Inte reIeased the worId's first commerciaI microprocessor, the . CoupIed with InteI's # chip, which was based on an invention by Bob Dennard of IBM, the microprocessor made it possibIe for fourth generation computers to be smaIIer and faster than ever before. The 4004 was deveIoped and improved upon, and today we have the Pentium 4 and the Iatest chip from InteI, the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition with Hyper-Threading TechnoIogy. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 There are now four types of computers today, nameIy, supercomputers, mainframes, minicomputers and microcomputers. Supercomputers A supercomputer is a computer with a huge processing capacity and a very high speed of caIcuIation. The first supercomputers, introduced in the 1960s, were designed by Seymour Cray and his team at ControI Data Corporation (CDC). Cray Iater Ieft to form his own company, Cray Research. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 A Cray supercomputer might Iook Iike a set of Iarge futuristic fiIing cabinets. But the SV1 is among the fastest computers on earth. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 $peciapurpose supercomputers are high-performance computing devices with a hardware architecture dedicated to a singIe probIem. They are used for appIications such as astrophysicaI caIcuIations or for codebreaking. For exampIe, Deep BIue for pIaying chess, GRAPE for astrophysics. The fastest supercomputer today is the arth $imuator at the Yokohama Institute for Earth Sciences, Japan. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 PARAM is a series of supercomputers deveIoped by the Centre for DeveIopment of Advanced Computing (C- DAC) in Pune, India. The newest supercomputer in this series is the PARAM Padma. Others incIude PARAM 10000 and PARAM 9000/SS. PARAM 10000 is India's first TFLOPs (one triIIion fIoating point operations per second) computer. PARAM 10000 is used mainIy for Iong-range weather forecasting, remote sensing, drug design and moIecuIar modeIIing. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 Mainframes ainframes are Iarge, powerfuI, and expensive computers used mainIy by Iarge companies for buIk data processing (such as bank transaction processing). The term arose during the earIy 1970s with the introduction of smaIIer computers which became known as minicomputers, so the term mainframe was coined for the Iarger, earIier types. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 These machines can and do run successfuIIy for years without interruption, with repairs taking pIace whiIe they are in operation. Often, mainframes support thousands of simuItaneous users. The distinction between supercomputers and mainframes is quite bIurred. In generaI, supercomputers are meant for compIicated caIcuIations that take pIace IargeIy in memory, whiIe mainframes are meant for simpIe computations invoIving huge amounts of externaI data accessed from databases. Supercomputers tend to focus on processing scientific and miIitary data, whiIe mainframes tend to be used for business and civiIian government appIications COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 Minicomputers inicomputers was a term evoIved in the earIy 1970s to describe the third generation computers that became possibIe with the use of the newIy invented microchip. Few minicomputers are stiII in use, having been repIaced by fourth generation computers buiIt using a more advanced version of the microprocessor technoIogy than is used in personaI computers. These are referred to as servers, taking the name from the server software they run (typicaIIy fie server and backend database software, incIuding emai and eb server software). COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 Microcomputers GeneraIIy, a microcomputer (now commonIy caIIed a persona computer or a PC) is a computer with a microprocessor as its CPU. They are very compact and can be easiIy accommodated on a study tabIe. After the Iaunch by IBM of their IBM personaI computer (IBM PC), the term persona computer became popuIar for a consumer-friendIy microcomputer. The second generation of microcomputers (8-bit, earIy 1980s) were often referred to as home computers. COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 Supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a huge processing capacity and a very high speed of caIcuIation, mainIy meant for scientific purposes. Mainframe A mainframe is a Iarge, powerfuI computer used mainIy by companies for buIk data processing. Minicomputer A minicomputer describes a third generation computer which uses microchip technoIogy. They are obsoIete now as they have been repIaced by servers. Tricky Terms COMPUTER SCIENCEInIormation Technology Oxford University Press, 2007 Server A server is a fourth generation computer buiIt using a more advanced version of the microprocessor technoIogy. Microcomputer A personaI computer or a home computer.