Introduction to Computer Studies

Debolina Halder Lina

University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh

debolinahalder.buet@gmail.com

February, 2019

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 Generations of Computer

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First generation: 1937 - 1946

In 1937 the first electronic digital computer was built by Dr. John V.
Atanasoff and Clifford Berry.
It was called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC).
In 1943 an electronic computer name the Colossus was built for the
military.
Other developments continued until in 1946 the first general purpose
digital computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
(ENIAC) was built. It is said that this computer weighed 30 tons, and
had 18,000 vacuum tubes which was used for processing. When this
computer was turned on for the first time lights dim in sections of
Philadelphia. Computers of this generation could only perform single
task, and they had no operating system.

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Second generation: 1947 - 1962

This generation of computers used transistors instead of vacuum

tubes which were more reliable.
In 1951 the first computer for commercial use was introduced to the
public; the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC 1).
In 1953 the International Business Machine (IBM) 650 and 700 series
computers made their mark in the computer world.
During this generation of computers over 100 computer programming
languages were developed, computers had memory and operating
systems.
Storage media such as tape and disk were in use; also were printers
for output.

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Third generation: 1963 - 1971

The invention of integrated circuit brought us the third generation of

computers. With this invention computers became smaller, more
powerful more reliable and they are able to run many different
programs at the same time.
These were the first computers where users interacted using
keyboards and monitors which interfaced with an operating system.
This enabled these machines to run several applications at once using
a central program which functioned to monitor memory.
As a result of these advances which again made machines cheaper
and smaller, a new mass market of users emerged during the 60s.

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 As a result of the various improvements to the development of the
computer we have seen the computer being used in all areas of life. It is a
very useful tool that will continue to experience new development as time
passes.

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Fourth generation: 1972 - 2010
This revolution can be summed in one word: Intel. The chip-maker
developed the Intel 4004 chip in 1971, which positioned all computer
components (CPU, memory, input/output controls) onto a single
chip.
The Intel chip housed thousands of integrated circuits.
In 1980 Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-Dos) was born and in
1981 IBM introduced the personal computer (PC) for home and office
use.
Three years later Apple gave us the Macintosh computer with its icon
driven interface and the 90s gave us Windows operating system.
Macintosh Launch Video Link
The increased power of these small computers meant they could be
linked, creating networks. Which ultimately led to the development,
birth and rapid evolution of the Internet.
Other major advances during this period have been the Graphical user
interface (GUI), the mouse and more recently the astounding
advances in lap-top capability and hand-held devices.
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Fifth generation: 2011 - present

Computer devices with artificial intelligence are still in development,

but some of these technologies are beginning to emerge and be used
such as voice recognition.
AI is a reality made possible by using parallel processing and
superconductors.
Leaning to the future, computers will be radically transformed again
by quantum computation, molecular and nano technology.
The essence of fifth generation will be using these technologies to
ultimately create machines which can process and respond to natural
language, and have capability to learn and organise themselves.

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Types of Computers

The four basic types of computers are-

Supercomputer
Mainframe Computer
Minicomputer
Microcomputer

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Super Computer

Seymour Cray designed the first Supercomputer ”CDC 6600” in 1964.

CDC 6600 is known as the first ever Supercomputer.
Most powerful computers in terms of performance and data
processing.
These are specialized and task specific computers used by large
organizations.
These computers are used for research and exploration purposes, like
NASA uses supercomputers for launching space shuttles, controlling
them and for space exploration purpose.
The supercomputers are very expensive and very large in size. It can
be accommodated in large air-conditioned rooms; some super
computers can span an entire building.

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Super Computer

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Exascale Supercomputer

On 29th July, 2015, President of the United States, Barack Obama,

approved the development of an Exascale Super Computer.
The Exascale Super computer will be 30 times faster and more
powerful than todays fastest Super Computers.
The need to develop such a high performance Supercomputer comes
after Chinas surge in high performance computing.
However, the US still tops the list of Supercomputers with 233 high
performance machines. China has 37 Supercomputers but they lead
the list of the most powerful and high performance supercomputers
since June 2013.
Presently, Chinas ”Tianhe 2” is the worlds faster Supercomputer.
The Tianhe 2 can perform 100 Petaflops, i.e quadrillions of floating
point operations per second

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Usages of Supercomputers

Space Exploration: Supercomputers are used to study the origin of

the universe, the dark-matters. For these studies scientist use IBMs
powerful supercomputer Roadrunner at National Laboratory Los
Alamos.
Earthquake studies: Supercomputers are used to study the
Earthquakes phenomenon. Besides that supercomputers are used for
natural resources exploration, like natural gas, petroleum, coal, etc.
Weather Forecasting: Supercomputers are used for weather
forecasting, and to study the nature and extent of Hurricanes,
Rainfalls, windstorms, etc.
Nuclear weapons testing: Supercomputers are used to run weapon
simulation that can test the Range, accuracy impact of Nuclear
weapons.

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Popular Supercomputers

IBMs Sequoia, in United States

Fujitsus K Computer in Japan
IBMs Mira in United States
IBMs SuperMUC in Germany
NUDT Tianhe-1A in China

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Mainframe computer

Although Mainframes are not as powerful as supercomputers, but

certainly they are quite expensive
Many large firms government organizations uses Mainframes to run
their business operations.
The Mainframe computers can be accommodated in large
air-conditioned rooms because of its size.
Super-computers are the fastest computers with large data storage
capacity, Mainframes can also process store large amount of data.
Banks, educational institutions insurance companies use mainframe
computers to store data about their customers, students insurance
policy holders.

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Popular Mainframe computers

Fujitsus ICL VME

Hitachis Z800

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Mini computers

Minicomputers are used by small businesses firms.

Minicomputers are also called as Midrange Computers.
These are small machines and can be accommodated on a disk with
not as processing and data storage capabilities as super-computers
Mainframes.
These computers are not designed for a single user.
Individual departments of a large company or organizations use
Mini-computers for specific purposes.
For example, a production department can use Mini-computers for
monitoring certain production process.

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Popular Mini computers

K-202
Texas Instrument TI-990
SDS-92
IBM Midrange computers

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Popular Mini computers

K-202
Texas Instrument TI-990
SDS-92
IBM Midrange computers

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Micro computers

Desktop computers, laptops, personal digital assistant (PDA), tablets

smartphones are all types of microcomputers.
The micro-computers are widely used the fastest growing computers.
These computers are the cheapest among the other three types of
computers.
The Micro-computers are specially designed for general usage like
entertainment, education and work purposes.
Well known manufacturers of Micro-computer are Dell, Apple,
Samsung, Sony Toshiba.
Desktop computers, Gaming consoles, Sound Navigation system of a
car, Netbooks, Notebooks, PDAs, Tablet PCs, Smartphones,
Calculators are all type of Microcomputers.

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Micro computers

Desktop computers, laptops, personal digital assistant (PDA), tablets

smartphones are all types of microcomputers.
The micro-computers are widely used the fastest growing computers.
These computers are the cheapest among the other three types of
computers.
The Micro-computers are specially designed for general usage like
entertainment, education and work purposes.
Well known manufacturers of Micro-computer are Dell, Apple,
Samsung, Sony Toshiba.
Desktop computers, Gaming consoles, Sound Navigation system of a
car, Netbooks, Notebooks, PDAs, Tablet PCs, Smartphones,
Calculators are all type of Microcomputers.

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Applications of Computer

Think about the applications of

computers

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Applications of Computer

Banking and Financial company

Education
Industries
Entertainment
Hospital
Data processing
Science and Engineering
Office
Advertisement
Communication
Library
Robotic controllers

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Limitations of Computer

Think about the limitations of computers

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Limitations of Computer

Depend on users input.

Computer have no imagination.
Cannot detect error in logic.
Only expert user can work on it.
Cannot take its own decisions.
Cannot feel anything.

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Functionalities of a computer

Takes data as input

stores the data into memory
Process the data
generate the output
Control all the above steps

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