GENERATIONS of COMPUTERS

Growth in the computer industry is determined by the development in technology.

Based on various stages of development, computers can be categroised into different generations.

Generation	Period	Main Component used	Merits/Demerits	Examples
First Generation	1940-1956	Vacuum tubes	Big in size: 8 feet × 100 feet × 3 feet Weighed about 27 tons Consumed more power: around 150 watts Malfunction due to overheat Machine Language was used	a) ENIAC b) EDVAC c) EDSAC d) UNIVAC-1 e) IBM-701
Second Generation	1956-1964	Transistors	Smaller compared to First Generation Generated Less Heat Consumed less power compared to first generation Punched cards were used First operating system was developed - Batch Processing and Multiprogramming Operating System Machine language as well as Assembly language was used	a) IBM-1401 b) IBM-1620 c) IBM-7030 d) UNIVAC-1108 e) UNIVAC-LARC f) Honeywell-400 g) CDC-1604
Third Generation	1964-1971	Integrated Circuits (IC)	Computers were smaller, faster and more reliable Consumed less power High Level Languages were used	a) IBM-360 b) IBM-370 c) PDP-8 d) PDP-11 e) CDC-6600
Fourth Generation	1971-1980	Microprocessor	Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits (VLSI) Smaller and Faster Microcomputer series were developed Portable Computers were introduced	a) IBM-PC b) Apple-II
Fifth Generation	1980-till date	Ultra Large Scale Integration (ULSI)	Parallel Processing Super conductors Computers size was drastically reduced Can recognise Images and Graphics Introduction of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems Able to solve high complex problems including decision making and logical reasoning	a) IBM-Notebooks b) Pentium-PCs c) SUN-Workstations
Sixth Generation	In future		Parallel and Distributed computing Computers have become smarter, faster and smaller Development of robotics Natural Language Processing Development of Voice Recognition Software

FIRST DIGITAL COMPUTER

The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator) was invented by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania and began construction in 1943 and was not completed until 1946.

It occupied about 1,800 square feet and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighing almost 50 tons.

ENIAC was the first digital computer because it was fully functional.

Sixth Generation Computing

In the Sixth Generation, computers could be defined as the era of intelligent computers, based on Artificial Neural Networks. One of the most dramatic changes in the sixth generation will be the explosive growth of Wide Area Networking. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a component of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It provides the ability to develop the computer program to understand human language. 

செயற்கை நரம்பியல்‌ வலையமைப்பின்‌ அடிப்படையில்‌ ஆறாவது தலைமுறை கணிப்பொறிகள்‌, அறிவு சார்ந்த கணிப்பொறிகள்‌ என வரையறுக்கப்படுகிறது. ஆறாவது தலைமுறை கணிப்பொறிகளின்‌ வியத்தகு மாற்றங்களில்‌ ஒன்று பரந்த வலையமைப்பின்‌ வளர்ச்சி ஆகும்‌. இயற்கை மொழி செயலாக்கம்‌ என்பது செயற்கை நுண்ணறிவின் ஒரு அங்கமாகும்‌. இது மனித மொழியைப்‌ புரிந்துகொள்ளக்‌ கூடிய ஒரு கணிப்பொறி நிரலை உருவாக்குவதற்கான திறனை வழங்குகிறது.

Optical Character Recognition (Optical Grapheme Recognition) engine for the Indus Scripts has been developed using Deep Learning Neural Networks (a sub-field of Artificial Intelligence).

TGiven photographs, scans, or any image feed of an Indus Valley Civilization artifact, the system will be able to recognise the inscriptions (the symbol/grapheme sequences) from the image.

There are totally 417 Symbols/ Graphemes/Characters in the Indus Scripts and just 3700+ text inscriptions of data for the machine to learn and attain expert-level status.

1 2 3 4 5 6