Computers Then and Now

Computer- For most of the people, computer is a machine used for a calculation or a computation, but actually it is much more than that. Precisely Computer is an electronic device for performing arithmetic and logical operation. Or “Computer is a device or a flexible machine to process data and converts it into information.” To know about the complete process that how computer works, we will have to come across the various terms such as Data, Processing and Information. First of all we will have to understand these terms in true sense. 1. DATA: “Data” is nothing but a mare collection of basic facts and figure without any sequence.

When the data is collected as facts and figure, it has no meaning at that time, for example, name of student, names of employees etc. 2.PROCESSING: -‘Processing’ is the set of instruction given by the user or the related data to output the meaningful information. Which can be used by the user? The work of processing may be the calculation, comparisons or the decision taken by the computer. 3. INFORMATION: -‘Information ’is the end point or the final output of any processed work. When the output data is meaning it is called information. As the time passed, the device of more suitable and reliable machine was need which could perform our work more quickly. During this time, in the year 1946, the first successful electronic computer called ENIAC was developed and it was the starting point of the current generation of computer FIRST GENERATION

ENIAC was the world first successful electronic computer which was develops by the two scientists namely J.P. Eckert and J. W. Mauchy. It was the beginning of first generation computer. The full form of ENIAC is “Electronic Numeric Integrated and Calculator” ENIAC was a very huge and big computer and its weight was 30 tones. It could store only limited or small amount of information. Initially in the first generation computer the concept of vacuum tubes was used. A vacuum tube was such an electronic component which had very less work efficiency and so it could not work properly and it required a large cooling system. SECOND GENERATION

As the development moved further, the second generation computers knocked the door. In this generation, transistors were used as the electronic component instead of vacuum tubes .A transistors is much smaller in the size than that of a vacuum tube. As the size of electrons components decreased from vacuum tube of transistor, the size of computer also decreased and it became much smaller than that of earlier computer. THIRD GENERATION

The third generation computers were invented in the year 1964. In this generation of computer, IC (Integrated circuits) was used as the electronic component for computers. The development of IC gave birth to a new field of microelectronics. The main advantage of IC is not only its small size but its superior performance and reliability than the previous circuits. It was first developed by T.S Kilby. This generation of computer has huge storage capacity and higher calculating speed.

FOURTH GENERATION
This is the generation where we are working today. The computers which we see around us belong to the fourth generation computers. ‘Microprocessor’ is the main concept behind this generation of computer. A microprocessor is a single chip (L.S.I circuit), which is used in a computer for any arithmetical or logical functions to be performed in any program. The honor of developing microprocessor goes to Ted Hoff of U.S.A. He developed first micro-processor, the Intel 4004, as he was working for Intel Corporation, U.S.A with the use of microprocessor in the fourth generation computers, the size of computer become very fast and efficient. It is evident that the next generation of computer i.e. fifth generation will be developed soon. In that generation, computer will possess artificial intelligence and it would be able to take self-decisions like a human being.

Computers have become indispensible in our modern day. We do everything with it – work, play, buy, sell – computers even help us sleep. It’s hard to imagine that it was just a lifetime ago where our grandparents had no access to computers – and it was only just 10 years ago that all of our computing was done on desktops and there were no laptops or smartphones to take on the go. It’s hard to imagine that since then, our computers have gone from these humble beginnings to our current class of super machines.