Generations of the computer: a table, characteristics and history. What is meant by the term "computer generation"?

The appearance of modern computers, which we used to use, was preceded by a whole evolution in the development of computer technology. According to the widespread theory, the development of the computer industry has been going on for several separate generations.

Modern experts are inclined to think that there are six of them. Five of them have already taken place, another one is on the way. What exactly is the term "computer generation" understood by IT specialists? What are the fundamental differences between the individual periods of computer technology development ?

Prehistory of the appearance of a computer

The history of the development of five generations of computers is interesting and fascinating. But before you study it, it will be useful to find out the facts concerning which technological decisions preceded the development of a computer.

People have always sought to improve the procedures associated with calculations, calculations. Historians have established that tools for working with figures, having a mechanical nature, were invented even in ancient Egypt and other states of antiquity. In the Middle Ages, European inventors could design mechanisms by which, in particular, the periodicity of the lunar tides could be calculated.

The prototype of modern computers, some experts believe invented in the early 19th century, Babbage's machine, which had the functions of programming calculations. In the late 19th and early 20th century, devices appeared in which electronics was used. They were mainly involved in the telephone and radio communications industry.

In 1915 German immigrant Herman Hollerith , who moved to the United States, founded IBM, which later became one of the most recognizable brands in the IT industry. Among the most sensational inventions of Herman Hollerith were punch cards, which for decades served as the main carrier of information when using computer technology. By the end of the 30-ies there were technologies that allowed talking about the beginning of the computer age in the development of human civilization. The first computers appeared, which later became classified as belonging to the "first generation".

Signs of the COMPUTER

A key principle criterion for classifying a computing device as a computer, or a computer, experts call programmability. This type of machine, in particular, differ from calculators, no matter how powerful the latter are. Even if it is programming at a very low level, when using "zeros and ones" - the criterion is valid. Accordingly, as soon as the machines were invented, perhaps, by outward signs, they were very similar to calculators, but which could be programmed - they were called computers.

The term "computer generation" is understood, as a rule, to belong to a particular technological formation. That is, the base of hardware solutions on the basis of which the computer works. At the same time, based on the criteria offered by IT experts, the division of computers into generations is far from conditional (although, of course, there are transitional forms of computers that are difficult to unambiguously refer to any particular category).

After completing the theoretical excursion, we can begin to study the generations of computers. The table below will help us to orient ourselves in the periodization of each.

Next, we'll look at the technological features of computers for each category. We will determine the characteristics of generations of computers. The table, which we have now compiled, will be supplemented by others, in which the relevant categories and technological parameters will be correlated.

We note an important nuance - the following reasoning mainly concerns the evolution of computers, which today is customary to refer to personal computers. There are completely different classes of computers - military, industrial. There are so-called "supercomputers". Their appearance and development is a separate topic.

The first computers

In 1938, German engineer Konrad Zuse designed a device called Z1, and in 42 released his upgraded version - Z2. In 1943, the British invented their computer and called it "Colossus". Some experts tend to consider English and German machines as the first computers. In 1944, on the basis of intelligence from Germany, the computer is also created by the Americans. The computer developed in the US was called Mark I.

In 1946, American engineers make a small revolution in the field of computer engineering, creating a lamp computer ENIAC, 1000 times more productive than the "Mark I". The next famous American development was the computer created in 1951, named UNIAC. Its main feature is that it was the first computer to be used as a commercial product.

By that time, by the way, Soviet engineers had already invented their own computer, working in the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Our development was called MESM. Its performance, according to experts, was the highest among computers assembled in Europe.

Technological features of the first generation of computers

Actually, based on what criteria is determined the first generation of computer development? Such IT-experts consider, first of all, a component base in the form of vacuum lamps. Machines of the first generation also had a number of characteristic external features - a huge size, very high power consumption.

Their computing power was also relatively modest, it was several thousand hertz. At the same time, first-generation computers contained much that is available in modern computers. In particular, it is machine code that allows programming commands, as well as writing data to memory (using punched cards and electrostatic tubes).

The computers of the first generation required the highest qualification of the person using them. It required not only the possession of profile skills (expressed in working with punched cards, knowledge of machine code, etc.), but, as a rule, also engineering knowledge in the field of electronics.

In the first-generation computer, as we have already said, there was already operative memory. True, its volume was extremely modest, it was expressed in hundreds, at best - in thousands of bytes. The first modules of computer RAM could hardly be classified as an electronic component. They were mercury-filled containers in the form of tubes. The memory crystals were fixed in certain areas, and thus the data was preserved. However, soon after the invention of the first computers, a more perfect memory based on ferrite cores appeared.

The second generation of computers

What is the future history of computer development? Generations of computers began to develop further. In the 1960s, computers that use not only vacuum lamps, but also semiconductors, are distributed. The clock frequency of microcircuits has considerably increased - the indicator in 100 thousand hertz and above was considered as usual. The first magnetic disks appeared as an alternative to punched cards. In 1964, IBM released a unique product - a separate computer monitor with decent enough characteristics - a 12-inch diagonal, a resolution of 1024 by 1024 points, and a sweep frequency of 40 Hz.

Generation number three

What is remarkable about the third generation of computers? First of all, the transfer of computers from lamps and semiconductors to integrated circuits, which, apart from computers, have been used in a variety of other electronic devices.

For the first time, the possibilities of integrated circuits were shown to the world by the efforts of engineer Jack Kilby and Texas Instruments in 1959. Jack created a small design made on a plate of germanium metal, which was supposed to replace complex semiconductor structures. In turn, Texas Instruments has created a computer built on the basis of such records. The most remarkable thing is that it was 150 times smaller than a similar performance semiconductor computer. The technology of integrated circuits has been further developed. A big role in this was played by the research of Robert Noyce.

These hardware components allowed, first of all, to significantly reduce the size of the computer. As a result, there was a significant increase in computer performance. The third generation of computers was characterized by the release of a computer with a clock frequency expressed already in megahertz. The power consumption of computers has also decreased.

The technologies of data recording and processing them in RAM modules have become more advanced. As for RAM, ferrite elements have become more capacious, technologically perfect. Appeared first prototypes, and then the first versions of floppy disks, used as an external storage medium. In the architecture of the PC appeared cache memory. The standard environment for interaction between the user and the computer was the display window.

There was further improvement of software components. There were full-fledged operating systems, began to develop a variety of application software, were introduced the concept of multitasking in the work of a computer. In the third-generation computer there are such programs as database management systems, as well as software for automation of design work. There are more and more programming languages and environments within which software is being created.

Features of the fourth generation

The fourth generation of computers is characterized by the appearance of integrated circuits belonging to the class of large, as well as the so-called superlarge ones. In the architecture of the PC appeared the leading chip - the processor. Computers in their configuration have become closer to ordinary citizens. Using them became possible with minimal qualification training, while working with previous generations of computers required professional skills. Modules of RAM began to be produced not on the basis of ferrite elements, but on the basis of CMOS-microcircuits. By the fourth generation of computers it is customary to include the first Apple computer assembled in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Stefan Wozniak. Many IT experts believe that Apple is the world's first personal computer.

The fourth generation of computers also coincided with the beginning of the popularization of the Internet. In the same period, the most famous soft-industry brand, Microsoft, appeared today. The first versions of operating systems appeared, which we know today - Windows, MacOS. Computers began to actively spread around the world.

Fifth generation

The heyday of the fourth generation of computers - the mid-to-late 80's. But already in the early 1990s, processes began on the IT-technology market that allowed the beginning of the countdown to a new generation of computers. We are talking about significant steps forward, first of all, in engineering and technical developments related to processors. There were chips with architecture, attributed to the type of parallel-vector.

The fifth generation of computers is an incredible rate of growth in the productivity of machines from year to year. If in the early 90's clock speed of microprocessors of several tens of megahertz was considered a good indicator, by the beginning of the 2000s no one was surprised by gigahertz. Computers that we use now, as IT experts believe, are also the fifth generation of computers. That is, the technological backdrop of the early 90's is still relevant.

PCs related to the fifth generation, have become not just computers, but full-fledged multimedia tools. It became possible to mount films, work with images, record and process sound, create engineering projects, and launch realistic 3D games.

Characteristics of the sixth generation

In the foreseeable future, analysts say, we have the right to expect that the 6th generation of computers will appear. It will be characterized by the use of neural elements in the architecture of microcircuits, the use of processors within a distributed network.

The performance of computers in the next generation will probably be measured, probably not in gigahertz, but in a fundamentally different type of unit of calculus.

Feature Comparison

We studied the generations of computers. The table below will allow us to orient ourselves in relating computers belonging to one or another category and the technological base on which their functioning is based. The dependencies are as follows:

Visualization of correlation of productivity and a specific computer generation can also be useful. The table that we will now compile will also reflect this pattern. We take as a basis such parameter as the clock frequency.

Thus, we visualized key technological features for each computer generation. Table, any of the presented by us, will help us to correlate the relevant parameters and a specific category of computers with reference to one or another stage of the development of computer technology.