The basic electronic component of a computer is their basic electronic component. This component varies with the generation of computers. Generations of computer components explain the history of the development of computers based on evolving technologies. With each new generation, computer circuits, their sizes became smaller and smaller, information processing speeds doubled, memory became larger, and convenience and reliability improved. The timeline set for the definition of each generation is important for understanding what is the elemental base of computers. But it is not fully defined and is considered rather arbitrary. Element base generations are actually based on evolving chip technology, and not on any particular time frame.
First generation of computers
Five generations of computers can be characterized by electric current flowing:
- in vacuum tubes;
- in transistors;
- in integrated circuits;
- in microprocessor chips;
- in smart devices capable of artificial intelligence.
The first generation of computers appeared in the 1940s-1950s. First-generation computers were actually the first universal and true digital computers. They appeared to replace electromechanical systems that were too slow for assigned tasks. The first computer generators used vacuum tubes for switching. Sealed glass allowed current to flow wirelessly from filaments to metal plates.
How did the first computers work
The computer base, tubes, were made of sealed glass containers the size of a light bulb. There were no moving parts in the system. The elemental base of the first generation was lamps, which were called diodes and triodes. Entrance and exit were carried out using punch cards, magnetic drums, typewriters and punch card readers. The system interface was implemented using plugins and machine language.
The first-generation computer base was difficult to use. Technicians connected electrical circuits by connecting numerous cables to the connectors. Then they used special punch cards and waited several hours to get the result for some form of computation. The first computers were so large that they occupied entire rooms. Assembly language and operating system software were still missing. Systems could only solve one problem at a time. These machines were designed for low-level operations, and programming was performed using only the binary digits 0 and 1.
ENIAC - the most powerful of the first computers
One of the most distinguished computers of this era was the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), designed and built by engineer John Mockley and John Presper Eckert of the University of Pennsylvania. Its assembly was carried out by a team of fifty people. ENIAC was 1000 times faster than previous electromechanical computers, but much slower at reprogramming.
Among other things, ENIAC was used to study the capabilities of thermonuclear weapons, firing ballistic artillery and thermal ignition of the engine, and sometimes for weather forecasts. These systems were huge in size and occupied entire rooms, using a lot of electricity, which made them a source of unbearable heat.
Universal automatic computer
UNIVAC (universal automatic computer) was created by the same engineers - John Mockley and John Presper Eckert. The computer was the first in the same era that was developed for commercial purposes, in addition to military use. Using his element base, he manipulated the alphabet and numbers quite well and was used by the US Census Bureau to list the total population.
It was later used to compile reports on company sales and even to predict the results of the presidential election in 1952. Unlike over 17,000 vacuum tubes at ENIAC, UNIVAC I used just over 5,000 vacuum tubes. He was also half that of his predecessor. More than 46 of these computers were sold.
Second Generation Computers: 1950-1960s
Second-generation computers were computers in which transistors were used instead of vacuum tubes. This was the elemental base of the second generation. New computers were better than their predecessors, largely due to their relatively small size, speed, and lower cost. Transistors are the building blocks of almost any microchip, and they are also more reliable, energy efficient and able to conduct electricity faster and better than vacuum tubes.
Like tubes, the second-generation computer base, which included transistors, was switches or electronic gates that are used to amplify or control current or turn on or off electrical signals. Transistors are called semiconductors because they contain elements that are between the conductors and the insulators.
The invention of transistor semiconductors
Transistor semiconductors were invented at Bell Laboratories in 1947 by scientists William Shockley, John Bardin and Walter Brattent, but were not produced until the mid-1950s. Engineers and creators of the new element base saw the future of second-generation computers in improving data entry and output procedures.
Initially, these processes were similar to the latest models of first-generation computers. The work was quite laborious and tedious, because it included the work of several employees who wore punch cards from room to room.
Packet data system
In order to speed up the process, a batch system was created and implemented. It included collecting several jobs of data on several punch cards and feeding them into magnetic tapes using a relatively small and inexpensive system. IBM-1401 was one such computer. For it, the operating system IBM-7094 and the Fortran Monitor System were used.
When the data processing was completed, the files were transferred back to the tape. Using a smaller system, such as the IBM-1401, the data could be printed onto several punch cards as information output. These were the forerunners of operating system software.
Characteristics of second-generation computers
Then the process of updating restrictive binary machine code to languages that fully supported symbolic and alphanumeric coding began. Programmers could now write in assemblers and high-level languages such as FORTRAN, COBOL, SNOWBALL and BASIC.
Early supercomputers were just some of the machines that used transistors. Examples of these systems were the universal UNIVAC LARC unit from Sperry Rand (1960) and the IBM-7030 Stretch supercomputer (1961) and the CDC 6600 mainframe (1963).
The third generation of computers: 1960-1970s
The elemental base of the third generation of computers is integrated circuits and multi-program programming. Third-generation computers used an integrated circuit (IC) chip instead of transistors. The implementation of these computers also corresponded to Moore's Law, which noted that the size of the transistors decreased so quickly that their number in the circuit doubled every 2 years.
Benefits of Integrated Circuits
The semiconductor IC included a huge number of transistors, capacitors and diodes. Then they were printed on separate parts of the board. Manual connection of capacitors and diodes in transistors was laborious and not completely reliable. Jack Kilby from Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce from Fairchild Corporation separately discovered the benefits of integrated circuits in 1958 and 1959, respectively. Kilby built his IC in Germany, while Noyce built on a silicon chip.
The first system to use IP was the IBM 360, which was used to process both commercial and scientific assignments. After placing several transistors on a single chip, in addition to reducing cost, the speed and performance of any one computer also increased significantly. Since its invention, IP speeds have doubled every two years, further reducing the size and cost of computers.
The use of integrated circuits in modern computers
Today, almost all electronic devices use some form of integrated circuit located on printed circuit boards. Unlike the IC circuitry, interaction with computers has improved. Instead of punch cards for data input and output, information is displayed through visual displays, keyboards are used, as well as improved peripheral input devices.
Computers now use operating system software to manage equipment and resources, which allowed systems to run different applications simultaneously. This was due to centralized applications that controlled memory allocation. Computers have become available to a wide audience due to size and fair value.
This generation also opened up the concept of the “computer family”, which prompted manufacturers to come up with computer components compatible with other systems. Examples of these systems were Scientific Systems Systems Sigma 7 (1966) supercomputers and IBM-360 (1964) and CDC 8600 (1969) supercomputers.
The fourth generation of computers: from the 1970s to the present
Microprocessor, OS and graphical interface are the element base of modern computers. The birth of the microprocessor was at the same time the birth of a microcomputer. This was also consistent with Moore’s law, which predicted the exponential growth of transistors and microchips starting in 1965. Intel, its engineers Ted Hoff, Federico Faggin and Stan Mazor in November 1971 introduced the world's first single-chip microprocessor Intel 4004.
What in the first generation filled the entire room could now be set in the palm of your hand. Of course, the new microchip was as powerful as the ENIAC computer since 1946. The fourth generation and its elementary base plays an important role in the creation of various devices.
Intel 4004 processor
Soon, manufacturers began integrating these microchips into their new computers. In 1973, Xerox Alto from PARC was released. It was a real personal computer, which included an Ethernet port, a mouse, and a bitmap graphic interface, the first of its kind. In 1974, Intel introduced an 8-bit general purpose microprocessor called the “8808”. Programmer Gary Arlen Kildall then proceeded to create disk-based software known as the Microcomputer Management Program (CPM). It became the prototype of the modern PC hardware.
First home personal computer
In 1981, the International Business Machine introduced its first home computer that ran the 4004. It was known as the IBM PC. The company partnered with Bill Gates, who bought the Disk Operating System from the Seattle Computer Product and distributed it from a new IBM computer. The architecture of the IBM PC has become the standard market model.
Creating a Windows Operating System
Steve Jobs' Apple changed the software game when it launched the Apple Macintosh computer in 1984 with an enhanced graphical user interface (GUI) using the interface idea from Xerox PARC. Both control programs for the microcomputer and the disk operating system were command line based operating systems when the user had to interact with the computer using the keyboard.
Following the success of the Apple GUI, Microsoft integrated the shell version of Windows in the 1985 DOS version. Windows was used for the next 10 years until it was reinvented as Windows 95. It was real operating system software with all the necessary utilities.
Linux Appearance
While software became commonplace and corporations began to charge money for it, a new programmer movement launched Linux in 1991. Led by Linux Torvalds, they pioneered a free open source operating system project called Linux. In addition to Linux, other open source operating systems and free software have been distributed to serve office, network, and home computers.
Mobile device distribution
In the 1980s and 2000s, personal computers and desktop computers became commonplace. They were installed in offices, schools and homes, their cost became acceptable, and the size compact. The software running on these computers has also become more affordable. Soon, microprocessors came out of monopolization with desktop computers and switched to other platforms.
First came a laptop, and then tablets and smartphones, consoles, embedded systems, smart cards, which became popular due to the need to use the Internet while driving. According to recent studies, mobile phones accounted for 60% of all digital devices worldwide.
Fifth generation of computers: present and future
Fifth-generation computers are built on technological advances from previous generations of computers. Modern engineers hope to improve the interaction between people and the machine through the use of human intelligence and big data accumulated from the very beginning of the digital age. They come from the theory of the concept and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
AI - this is what the elemental base of Generation 5 computers is. It is a reality made possible by parallel processing and superconductors. Computer devices with artificial intelligence are still under development, but some of these technologies are beginning to appear and are used, such as voice recognition. AI and ML may be different, but are used interchangeably to create devices and programs that are intelligent enough to interact with people, other computers, the environment and programs.
The essence of the fifth generation will be to use these technologies in order to ultimately create machines that can process and respond to natural language, as well as have the opportunity to learn and organize themselves.
The proliferation of computing devices with the possibility of self-learning, reacting and interacting in various ways, based on the experience gained and the environment, also gave impetus to the concept of IoT (Internet of things). At their peak and with the right algorithms, computers are likely to demonstrate high levels of learning, surpassing the intelligence of people. Many Artificial Intelligence projects are already being implemented, while others are still under development.
Pioneers in this area are Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Tesla. The first implementations began on smart home devices that are designed to automate and integrate activities in the home, audio and visual devices, as well as autopilot cars.