* Computers use extensive parallel processing, multiple pipelines, multiple processors etc. * Computers based on artificial intelligence are available. * Generation number beyond IV, have been used occasionally to describe some current computer system that have a dominant organizational or application driven feature. SUN work stations, Origin 2000, PARAM 10000, IBM SP/2) (IBM notebooks, Pentium PCs-Pentium 1/2/3/4/Dual core/Quad core. * Much increase in the speed of operation * High performance, lower cost and very compact * LAN and WANS were developed (where desktop work stations interconnected) * Parallelism, pipelining cache memory and virtual memory were applied in a better way * Secondary memory was composed of hard disks – Floppy disks & magnetic tapes were used for backup memory * Semiconductor memory chips were used as the main memory. * CRT screen, laser & ink jet printers, scanners etc were developed. * Tens of thousands of transistors can be placed in a single chip (VLSI design implemented) * Microprocessors were introduced as CPU– Complete processors and large section of main memory could be implemented in a single chip * Database management, multi-user application, online systems like closed loop process control, airline reservation, interactive query systems, automatic industrial control etc. * High level languages were standardized by ANSI eg. * Cache and virtual memories were introduced (Cache memory makes the main memory appear faster than it really is.
* Operating system software were introduced (efficient sharing of a computer system by several user programs)
* Microprogramming, parallel processing (pipelining, multiprocessor system etc), multiprogramming, multi-user system (time shared system) etc were introduced. Later they were replaced by semiconductor memories (RAM & ROM) * In the beginning magnetic core memories were used. * Small Scale Integration and Medium Scale Integration technology were implemented in CPU, I/O processors etc. (System 360 Mainframe from IBM, PDP-8 Mini Computer from Digital Equipment Corporation) * Increasingly used in business, industry and commercial organizations for preparation of payroll, inventory control, marketing, production planning, research, scientific & engineering analysis and design etc. Punched cards continued during this period also. * Separate input-output processors were developed that could operate in parallel with CPU. * High level languages such as FORTRAN, COBOL etc were used - Compilers were developed to translate the high-level program into corresponding assembly language program which was then translated into machine language. * Index registers were introduced which increased flexibility of programming. * Hardware for floating point arithmetic operations was developed. * Magnetic tapes and magnetic disks were used as secondary memory. * Magnetic ferrite core memories were used as main memory which is arandom - access nonvolatile memory. * Lesser power consumption and better performance * Transistors were used in place of vacuum tubes. (Manufacturers – IBM 7030, Digital Data Corporation’s PDP 1/5/8 Honeywell 400) * Mainly used for scientific computations. Magnetic tape / magnetic drum were used as secondary memory. * Punched cards and paper tape were invented to feed programs and data and to get results. * 100 to 1000 fold increase in speed relative to the earlier mechanical and relay based electromechanical technology. * Mercury delay line memories and Electrostatic memories were used These were translated into machine level language for execution.
* Uses assembly language to prepare programs. * Consume more power with limited performance
* Vacuum tubes were used – basic arithmetic operations took few milliseconds Bulky. UNIVAC – Universal Automatic Computer IBM 701) Generations of computers has been divided into five according to the development of technologies used to fabricate the processors, memories and I/O units.ĮNIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator and CalculatorĮDSAC – Electronic Delay Storage Automatic CalculatorĮDVAC – Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer Vacuum tubes were used to perform logic operations and to store data. The first electronic computer was designed and built at the University of Pennsylvania based on vacuum tube technology.