Computer is an electronic device that is designed to work with Information. The term computer is derived from the Latin term ‘computare’, this means to calculate or programmable machine.
Charles Babbage is called the “Grand Father” of the computer. The First mechanical computer designed by Charles Babbage was called Analytical Engine. It uses read-only memory in the form of punch cards.
Why We Need Computers??
Computers play many important roles in society, helping to promote communication and interaction with others as well as providing users a way to shop, play games and have access to education. Additionally, computers provide a convenient way to create and store valuable information along with media and files, making them particularly useful for businesses.
There are several different types of computers, each of which is geared towards a specific audience. For example, there are desktops and laptops for home use along with smaller, more easily portable computers for work or travel. In an educational setting, a teacher or instructor may use computers to help convey information or to create an efficient way for students to interact and learn valuable information. Another advantage of the computer is enhanced connectivity, especially in mobile devices, which promotes sharing of data and information.
According to functionality, computers are classified as:
• Analog Computer: A computer that represents numbers by some continuously variable physical quantity, whose variations mimic some system’s properties being modeled.
• Personal computer: A personal computer is a computer small and low cost. The term”personal computer” is used to describe desktop computers.
• Workstation: A terminal or desktop computer in a network. In this context, the workstation is just a generic term for a user’s machine (client machine) in contrast to a “server” or “mainframe.”
• Minicomputer: A minicomputer isn’t very mini. At least, not in the way most of us think of mini. You know how big your personal computer is and its related family.
• Mainframe: It refers to the kind of large computer that runs an entire corporation.
• Supercomputer: It is the most giant, fastest, and most expensive computers on earth.
• Hybrid: Computers that have features of both digital and anali
• Servers: Servers Are Large Repositories of Information. They Supply Information To Any Computer That Is On The Same Network as them. Many People Access Servers At The Same Time So Servers Need To Handle Large Amounts Of Traffic.
• Microcomputer: Your personal computer is a microcomputer.
Generations of Computers
A generation of computers refers to the specific improvements in computer technology with time. In 1946, electronic pathways called circuits were developed to perform the counting. It replaced the gears and other mechanical parts used for counting in previous computing machines.
In each new generation, the circuits became smaller and more advanced than the previous generation circuits. The miniaturization helped increase the speed, memory and power of computers. There are five generations of computers which are described below;
First Generation Computers
The first generation (1946-1959) computers were slow, huge and expensive. In these computers, vacuum tubes were used as the basic components of CPU and memory. These computers were mainly depended on batch operating system and punch cards. Magnetic tape and paper tape were used as output and input devices in this generation;
Some of the popular first generation computers are;
ENIAC ( Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)
EDVAC ( Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)
UNIVACI( Universal Automatic Computer)
IBM-701
IBM-650
Second Generation Computers
The second generation (1959-1965) was the era of the transistor computers. These computers used transistors which were cheap, compact and consuming less power; it made transistor computers faster than the first generation computers.
In this generation, magnetic cores were used as the primary memory and magnetic disc and tapes were used as the secondary storage. Assembly language and programming languages like COBOL and FORTRAN, and Batch processing and multiprogramming operating systems were used in these computers.
Some of the popular second generation computers are;
IBM 1620
IBM 7094
CDC 1604
CDC 3600
UNIVAC 1108
Third Generation Computers
The third generation computers used integrated circuits (ICs) instead of transistors. A single IC can pack huge number of transistors which increased the power of a computer and reduced the cost. The computers also became more reliable, efficient and smaller in size. These generation computers used remote processing, time-sharing, multi programming as operating system. Also, the high-level programming languages like FORTRON-II TO IV, COBOL, PASCAL PL/1, ALGOL-68 were used in this generation.
Some of the popular third generation computers are;
IBM-360 series
Honeywell-6000 series
PDP(Personal Data Processor)
IBM-370/168
TDC-316
Fourth Generation Computers
The fourth generation (1971-1980) computers used very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits; a chip containing millions of transistors and other circuit elements. These chips made this generation computers more compact, powerful, fast and affordable. These generation computers used real time, time sharing and distributed operating system. The programming languages like C, C++, DBASE were also used in this generation.
Some of the popular fourth generation computers are;
DEC 10
STAR 1000
PDP 11
CRAY-1(Super Computer)
CRAY-X-MP(Super Computer)
Fifth Generation Computers
In fifth generation (1980-till date) computers, the VLSI technology was replaced with ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration). It made possible the production of microprocessor chips with ten million electronic components. This generation computers used parallel processing hardware and AI (Artificial Intelligence) software. The programming languages used in this generation were C, C++, Java, .Net, etc.
Some of the popular fifth generation computers are;
Desktop
Laptop
NoteBook
UltraBook
ChromeBook
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