Introduction, History and Generation of Computer - 1 - Free MCQ Practice

Vacuum tubes, which produced a lot of heat, were bulky, and unreliable, and were employed in the first generation of electronic computers.

Machine language is the only language that a computer can understand or use. It can be understood by computers because it simply has binary values of 0s and 1. Simply explained, the computer only comprehends binary code, which consists of 0s and 1s.

Before the first generation of computers, electro-mechanical computers were constructed. More quickly than any other device at the time, this computer can calculate.

As thousands of integrated circuits were packed onto a single silicon chip, the microprocessor gave rise to the fourth generation of computers.

The Electronic Computer (ENIAC), which had over 19000 vacuum tubes, weighed close to 30 tonnes and had a volume of 3000 cubic feet, is an example of a first-generation computer. Computers from the first generation had speeds measured in milliseconds (thousands of a second).

First-generation computers used machine language, a type of programming language. A collection of machine-level programming languages used to create programs for first-generation computers is referred to as a first-generation (or 1GL) language.

The third generation spanned the years 1965 to 1971. Third-generation computers substituted integrated circuits (ICs) for transistors. Numerous transistors, resistors, and capacitors, as well as the related circuitry, are found in a single integrated circuit (IC). Jack Kilby was the man who created the IC.

Transistors were used in place of vacuum tubes in the second generation of computers. From 1956 through 1963, transistors were a common component in computers. Because transistors were more compact than vacuum tubes, computers could be made more compactly, more quickly, and more affordably.

The material silicon, which makes up the majority of ICs, is common in beach sand. At standard room temperature, pure crystalline silicon exhibits extremely high resistance to electrical current, similar to other semiconducting materials.

A semiconductor wafer on which thousands or millions of tiny resistors, capacitors, and transistors are manufactured is known as an integrated circuit (IC), sometimes known as a chip or microchip. A microprocessor, oscillator, timer, counter, computer memory, or amplifier are all examples of ICs.