First Generation Computers

First generation computers were enormous and unwieldy computing devices.  These massive pieces of equipment often filled whole rooms.  They are visually delightful and strange pieces of equipment that speak to the hunger for “futuristic” technology that marked the early 20th century.  These early digital technology apparatuses were run on vacuum tube technology and stored information on magnetic drums.  In addition to being huge, these early computers of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s were prone to malfunction as a result of the enormous heat they generated.  Despite their challenges, there were early adopters of the computer.  Among the early adopters of this technology was the US Census Bureau.

A first generation computer. Image from fahmirahman.wordpress.com

Second Generation Computers

Second generation computers represented a major leap forward in technological advances in computing.  These new devices were based on transistor circuitry technology.  Although the transistor was invented in the late 1940’s, transistor based computing did not come into its own until the mid ’50s and into the 60’s. Transistors, in addition to being much less bulky than their vacuum tube predecessors, were much faster tools for computing.  The second generation of computer technology saw the early development of computing languages like COBOL that expanded the applications of computer technology.  The transistor based computers were developed hand in hand with the rise of nuclear militarization.

Second generation computers relied on tiny solid state transistors that reduced the size and increased the efficiency of computers. This image is taken from http://216.54.19.111/~mountaintop/sam101/scopage_dir/Compfund/devcomp.html

Third Generation Computers

Third generation computers saw computing devices even more reduced in size and increased in efficiency and productivity.  Transistors were miniaturized with the use of silicone chips.   For the first time, computers were controlled by keyboards and included a screen interface, thus introducing familiar technologies, the typewriter and the television, into the computing experience.  These new interface elements helped increase the comfortability of the the computer and paved the way for the introduction of the computer into all aspects of life.  These computers included a primitive operating system  and user interface that allowed users to interact with the computer in a way that related more closely to other aspects of human experience.

Third generation computers included early Apple computers. This image is taken from cimota.com

Fourth Generation Computers

We are currently living in the fourth generation of computer evolution. The development of the microprocessor in the early 1970’s allowed all elements of the computer’s system to be located in the same chip.  The fourth generation also marked the rise of home computers.  In the previous decades of computer technology, the computer was rarely found in the home and was the sole province of government bodies and large corporations involved in high volume computing.  Now, all the computing power that would previously have been the province of a specialized few, is accessible to nearly all.  The development of the home computer by IBM in 1981, followed shortly after by Apples version, insured the entrance of the computer into all aspects of life, both in the private and public sphere.

Fourth generation computers are marked by high design concept and extreme accessibility. This image is taken from blog.mirchimart.com