Computer Fundamentals

1.1 Computer:- Definition, History, Generation, Characteristic's, Types & Applications

 Definition:

An electronic device that stores, retrieves,and processes data, and can be programmed with instructions. A computer is composed of hardware and software, and can exist in a variety of
sizes and configurations.

       

 History:

Actually speaking electronic data processing does not go back more than just half a century i.e. they are in existence merely from early 1940’s. In early days when our ancestor used to reside in cave the counting was a problem. Still it is stated becoming difficult.

When they started using stone to count their animals or the possession they never knew that this day will lead to a computer of today. People today started following a set of procedure to perform calculation with these stones, which later led to creation of a digital counting device, which was the predecessor the first calculating device invented, was know as ABACUS.

THE ABACUS

Abacus is known to be the first mechanical calculating device. Which was used to be performed addition and subtraction easily and speedily? This device was a first develop Ed by the Egyptians in the 10th century B.C, but it was given it final shape in the 12th century A.D. by the Chinese educationists.

Abacus is made up of wooden frame in which rod where fitted across with rounds beads sliding on the rod. It id dividing into two parts called ‘Heaven’ and ‘Earth’. Heaven was the upper part and Earth was the lower one. Thus any no. can be represented by placing the beads at proper place.

NAPIER’S BONES

As the necessity demanded, scientist started inventing better calculating device. In thus process John Napier’s of Scotland invented a calculating device, in the year 1617 called the Napier Bones.

In the device, Napier’s used the bone rods of the counting purpose where some no. is printed on these rods. These rods that one can do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division easily.

PASCAL’S CALCULATOR

In the year 1642, Blaise Pascal a French scientist invented an adding machine called Pascal’s calculator, which represents the position of digit with the help of gears in it.

LEIBNZ CALCULATOR

In the year 1671, a German mathematics, Gottfried Leibniz modified the Pascal calculator and he developed a machine which could perform various calculation based on multiplication and division as well.

ANALYTICAL ENGINE

In the year 1833, a scientist form England knows to be Charles Babbage invented such a machine. Which could keep our data safely? This device was called Analytical engine and it deemed the first mechanical computer.

It included such feature which is used in today’s computer language. For this great invention of the computer, Sir Charles Babbage is also known as the father of the computer. 

	Generation:
	First Generation The period of first generation: 1946-1959.  Vacuum tube for circuitry Magnetic drums for memory Taking up entire rooms They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, the first computers generated a lot of heat. First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time examples  :UNIVAC and ENIAC UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.                                                               fig:Vacuum tube                                                            fig:First Generation
	Second Generation The period of second generation: 1959-1965.  Transistor based. Transistor was invented in 1947 but use in computers until the late 1950s. it is smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation computer Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output. 6. Use assembly languages which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. 7. These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.   8. The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry. fig:second generation computer
	Third Generation The period of third generation: 1965-1971. Integrated Circuit based. The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers. It uses through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. smaller and cheaper
	fig:Third Generation computer                                      Fourth Generation The period of fourth generation: 1971-1980. VLSI (Very-large-scale integration)microprocessor based. As thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971. from the central processing unit(CPU) and memory to input/output controls—on a single chip.  5. In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh.  6. Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.
	Fifth Generation The period of fifth generation: 1980-tilldate. ULSI(Ultra large-scale integration) microprocessor based. Based on Artificial Intelligence. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.