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Vacuum Tubes
The first generation of computers used vacuum tubes. They also used magnetic drums for memory. They were very expensive to operate. They used up a lot of electricity. They generated lots of heat which lead to malfunctions. They were so big they took up a whole entire room. -
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Trnsistors
Transistors are what replaced the vacuum tubes in the second generation of computers. They were smaller, faster, cheaper, and more energy efficient. They went from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic language. This made it possible for the computers to let their programmers specify the commands in words. -
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Integrated Circuits
The development of integrated circuits came to life in the third generation of computers. Instead of punched cards and print-outs, which were used in the 1st and 2nd generation, were now replaced with monitors and keyboards which enabled the user to give commands. At this point, the third generation computer can run multiple tasks now. -
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Microprocessors
What made the fourth generation of computer come to life was the development of microprocessors. They could be connected together by using a network. This is the development of what soon became an idea of “Internet.” -
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Artificial Intelligence
You can just call this Artificial Intelligence. The goal is to make the computer respond to natural language input and the capability of learning and self-organization.