Introduction to Computer कम्प्यूटर का परिचय

 Introduction to Computer 

The Computer of today is much more a new piece of education technology than a super -calculating machine. It is a basic requirement of Information Technology , Many people think that computer is a calculating machine only. But it is much more than a fast number crunching machine. It is an electronic magic machine having the capabilities like choosing, copying, moving and comparing texts and performing non-arithmetic operations by following a set of instructions, technically a 'program. This program is going to be prepared by a user or a professional person, a 'Programmer' who directs the computer to function in a specific way to produce the desire results. 

Generations of Computer 

The Generation of computers may be classified in the following way.

First Generation Computer

The first electronic computer came into use at the end of II World War. Development of this machine was started in 1943 and was completed in 1946. This electronic computer was known as ENIVAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator )and was designed by Dr. Presper Eckert and Dr. John Mauchley. It contained approximately 18500 vacuum tubes 70000 resistors and 10000 capacitors and weighed about 30 tonners. It also consumed a large amount of electrical power, considerable space and a large amount of money.

Second Generation Computer 

In this generation, the large bulky vacuum tubes were replaced with the much smaller transistors. This major technological advancement was developed by scientists of Bell Laboratories in 1948. The transistors were not only smaller in size but also more reliable and consumed less energy , besides reducing the size of the computers considerably. Also second generation computers was the development of random access storage devices, through which the information irrespective of the sequential order of the stored information 

Third Generation Computer

 The Third generation of computer began in 1960 , after the invention of integrated circuit of chip . This chip was a one quarter-inch-square piece of material on which thousand of electronic circuits (replacements for vacuum tubes, transistors, resistors and capacitors) could be implanted. This is considered to be the backbone of today's modern electronic computers.

Fourth  Generation Computer

This generation of computers was characterized by the development of microprocessor or a microchip in 1970 Approximately  70,000 or more vacuum tube equivalents or transistors could be embedded in a single chip of this kind. They were very powerful in terms of the speed of processing and memory. 

  Fifth Generation Computer

The fifth generation computer of 1990s was much faster and more powerful and perhaps intelligent enough to process information and draw conclusions like human beings. Therefore this generation of computer is characterized by 'Artificial Intelligence".

Because of the rapid growth of technological advancements in computer . 

Types of Computers

Generally computers may be classified into three types viz, 

(Classification of Computers)

1. Analog 2: Digital and 3: Hybrid Computers 

Analogue Computer

Computers , which operate by measuring continuously varying quantities like voltage and current for their operations are called Analog Computers. We can say that analogue computers are used where we don't need exact values always such as speed, temperature, pressure and current