Computer Generations Northern India （电脑一代又一代印度北部）.pdf

Computer Generations Generation in computer terminology is a change in technology a computer is/was being used. Initially, the generation term was used to distinguish between varying hardware technologies. But nowadays, generation includes both hardware and software, which together make up an entire computer system. There are totally five computer generations known till date. Each generation has been discussedin detail along with their time period, characteristics. Weve used approximate dates against each generations which are normally accepted. Following are the main five generations of computers S.N. Generation Description First Generation 1 The period of first generation : 1942-1954. Vaccum tube based. Second Generation 2 The period of second generation : 1952-1964. Transistor based. Third Generation 3 The period of third generation : 1964-1972. Integrated Circuit based. Fourth Generation 4 The period of fourth generation : 1972-1990. VLSI microprocessor based. Fifth Generation 5 The period of fifth generation : 1990-onwards.ULSI microprocessor based First Generation The period of first generation was 1942-1954. First generation of computer started with using vacuum tubes as the basic components for memory and circuitry for CPU(Central Processing Unit). These tubes like electric bulbs produced a lot of heat and were prone to frequent fusing of the installations, therefore, were very expensive and could be afforded only by very large organisations. In this generation mainly batch processing operating system were used. In this generation Punched cards, Paper tape, Magnetic tape Input Output device were used. There were Machine code and electric wired board languages used. The main features of First Generation are:  Vacuum tube technology  Unreliable