THE HISTORY OF THE COMPUTER

FIRST GENERATION OF COMPUTERS

• Used vacuum tubes for circuitry
• Took up entire room
• Were very expensive
• Generated a lot of heat
• Relied on machine language

SECOND GENERATION OF COMPUTERS

• Transistors replaced vacuum tubes
• Became smaller, faster, cheaper
• Was more energy-efficient and more reliable
• Moved to symbolic, or assembly, languages
• Developed for the atomic energy industry

THIRD GENERATION OF COMPUTERS

• Transistors placed on silicon chips
• Keyboard and monitor became input devices
• Operating system was invented
• Became smaller, cheaper and faster

FOURTH GENERATION OF COMPUTERS

• Microprocessor
• Became more powerful
• Linked together to form networks
• GUI, mouse and handheld devices were invented

FIFTH GENERATION OF COMPUTER