Computer
Hardware Question 6: What is a fourth generation computer?
Answer: During the 1970s, The downsizing of mainframe
and minicomputers continued. By the late 1970s, most businesses were using
computers for at least part of their data-management needs.
However, the need for smaller and
faster computers meant that even the integrated circuits of the third
generation of computers had to be made more compact. Fourth generation
computers are based on large-scale integration (LSI) of
circuits. New chip manufacturing methods meant that tens of thousands and later
hundreds of thousands of circuits could be integrated into a single chip (known
as VLSI for very large-scale integration).
Nevertheless, at that time,
computing was still mostly seen as a time-sharing process. One mainframe or
minicomputer could service many users, each with a terminal that was connected
to the computer by wire. But during this period, a new concept of
"personal" computing was being developed. And, surprisingly, this new
type of computer was not being developed by the well-established computer
companies. It was the electronics hobbyists and a few fledgling electronics
companies that were beginning to create computing devices that used small,
limited processors, known as microprocessors. These
microprocessors were being built into small computers known as microcomputers
that were designed to be used by only one user at a time. For that reason, most
businesses did not at first recognize their value. To users who had grown up
with expensive room-sized mainframes that served the needs of the entire
organization, the idea of a small computer that could serve the needs of only
one user at a time seemed more like a toy. Many believed that these new
"personal" computers would continue to be only a hobby for
"electronics nuts." But this view was soon to change as new
microprocessor designs began to deliver considerable computing power in a very
small package.
Although several scientists were
working with microprocessor technology during this period, the best known team
was working for the Intel Corporation. The team of Ted Hoff, Jr.,
Frederick Faggin, and Stan Mazor were in the process of expanding
on the sophisticated electronics that were being used in the very small
Japanese calculators. They reduced all the processing power needed for basic
computing down to a set of four small circuits, or chips, one of which was to
become known as the Intel 4004 microprocessor. Several special-purpose
microprocessors followed and in 1974 Intel produced the 8080, their
first general-purpose microprocessor.
During this period Steven Jobs
and Steven Wozniak began putting together kit computers in Jobs' garage.
These personal computers sold very well and their endeavor eventually became
the Apple Computer Corporation, the most successful of the early
microcomputer companies.
But it was the world's largest computer
company that legitimized the personal computer (PC). In 1981, the International
Business Machine (IBM) Corporation introduced their own microcomputer. Its
widespread acceptance by the business community instigated a flood of copycat
PCs. During the next few years just about every company in the world that had
anything to do with electronics produced a microcomputer, most of them very
similar to the IBM PC.
During the 1980s, with the spread of
specialized software, personal computers found a role in almost all
organizations. As many businesses purchased an IBM PC (or one of its work-alike
"clones"), it gradually became something of a standard for PC design.
This much-needed standardization of PC design meant that programs that ran on
one brand of microcomputer would also run on other similar types of PCs that
used the same microprocessor.
Computer programming methods
continued to evolve during the fourth generation as new high-level programming
languages continued to be developed that were both easier to use and more
closely related to specific computer tasks.
Answer: Many believe that we are entering a fifth
generation of computing, a period of smaller faster computers that we can
talk to, computers that incorporate new software methods known as artificial
intelligence (AI). AI methods give computers the capability to make decisions
based on the evidence of the past, rather than on a set of programmed
procedures. If computers can be taught the rules of decision making used by
human experts, expert systems based on AI methods can be developed to take over
some human tasks.
Others believe that the emergence of
the internet and enhanced communications systems (including wireless) will make
the concept of computer generations irrelevant. The overriding trends in
computer evolution - smaller, faster, more powerful - continue today. Today's
little microcomputers are far faster and more capable than any of the earlier
generation computers; today's PCs are even more powerful than most of the huge
mainframe computers of the past. But today's mainframe and minicomputers are
also more powerful and they now work in close concert with PCs rather than
using the dumb terminals that used to be attached to large
computers.
Each new generation of computers is
faster, includes more memory and storage, and their operating system are
constantly being improved. Software development methods are being improved just
fast enough to keep up with the new computing capabilities and, despite the new
capabilities, new user-computer interface designs are making them easier to
use.
Perhaps the most important of
today's trends is the fact that computers and the internet are both becoming a
part of our daily lives. As computers continue to be used in marketing,
retailing, and banking, we will grow ever more accepting of their presence. As
computers are incorporated into other machines, we may find ourselves operating
a computer when we drive, buy a can of soda, or when we want a tank of gas or a
bite to eat. And as the computer's presence grows in our society, it will
become far easier to use. As this history of computing has demonstrated, it is
the needs of humans that continually drives the development of new computers
and new computing technologies.
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