The modern computer systems stated over the past four decades. These computers are also called electronic computers because their major components were electronics. the modern computers to consider were the computers from 1938 to present. The first generation of computer started from 1938 to 1950. 1952 to 1963 computers were the second generation of computer. 1962 to 1975 computers were third generation of computer and 1970 to present computers are being considered as the fourth generation of computer. These four generations of development became possible due to the rapid changing of computer components (building blocks). The fourth generation of computer is still under development
The First Generation
The First Generation computer system (1938 - 1952) ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer ), EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer and Universal Automated Computer(UNIVAC), At this era, the Electro-mechanical relays and vacuum tubes were used. Magnetic drum and tape were used. The computers at this age were bulky and generated heat that could make the computer room very uncomfortable to the operator.
The Second Generation
The Second Generation (1952 - 1963) wee built up to discrete transistors and diodes. the first transistors digital computer was TRADIC, was built by Bell Laboratories in 1954 and IBM 1620 was built by IBM. At this time batch processing was popular. It's processing speed was higher than the first generation of computer. The heat dissipated was less compared with that of the first generation.
The Third Generation
The Third Generation (1962-1975, this generation employed the used of Small-Scale-Integrated (SSI) and Medium-Scale-Integrated (MSI) circuits, The computer at this era were CDC -6600, CDC -7600, IBM 360/91, Cyber -175, STAR -100, C.mmp and several Vector processor were developed, Multi programming was developed to allow the simultaneous execution of many program segments interleaved with input and output(I/O) operations.
The Fourth Generation
The Fourth Generation (1972 to present), this generation employed the use of Large-Scale integrated (LSI) circuits and Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) Circuit, The operating system were time sharing, multitasking, multiprocessing system e.t.c. At this generation, high speed mainframes and super computers appeared in Multiprocessor systems like the super computers appeared in multiprocessor systems like the UNIVAC - 1100/80 (1976) fujitsh M382 (1981), IMB 370/168Mp, the IBM 3081(1980), the Burrough B-7800 (1978) and the CrayX-mp (1983). A high degree of pipelining and multiprocessing is greatly used in super computer. A massively parrallel process (MPP) was custom-designed in 1982.
Fifth Generation of Computer
In this generation, the architecture of this computer is different from John Von Neumann model of the first four generations of computers. the fifth Generation, which is under development will require more than 1000 mega float point operations per second (megaflops) it will use artificial intelligence and Robots. This computer was expected to be found every where since 1990s but it is still under development.
Artificial Intelliegence is the ability of a computer to behave like an intelligent person.