SOFTWARE

=) Software is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computerwhat to do and how to do it.

=) Software  also is a conceptual entity which is a set of computer programs, procedures, and associated documentation concerned with the operation of a data processing system.

=) Software also is a collection of computer programs together with the related data.

=) In other words software is a set of programs, procedures, algorithms and its documentation.

=) Computer Software can be organized into categories based on common function, type, or field of use.

CATEGORIES OF SOFTWARE

=) This sofware is divided into THREE:
  ~System Software
  ~Application Software
  ~Programming Software

SYSTEM SOFTWARE~a generic term referring to the computer programs used to start and run computer systems and networks.

APPLICATION SOFTWARE~ general designation of computer programs for performing user tasks.

PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE~translate and combine computer program source code and libraries into executable rams (programs that will belong to one of the three said categories).

COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE

=) Computer architecture is a practical art of selecting and interconnecting hardware components to create computers that meet functional, performance and cost goals and the formal modelling of those systems.

(✿◠‿◠) FIFTH GENERATION COMPUTER (now and future) (✿◠‿◠)

=) Fifth generations computers are only in the minds of advance research scientiets and being tested out in the laboratories. These computers will be under Artifical Intelligence(AI), They will be able to take commands in a audio visual way and carry out instructions. Many of the operations which requires low human intelligence will be perfomed by these computers.

=) Parallel Processing is coming and showing the possibiliy that the power of many CPU's can be used side by side, and computers will be more powerful than thoes under central processing. Advances in Super Conductor technology will greatly improve the speed of information traffic. Future looks bright for the computer.
 

 

♥●•٠•..Fourth Generation Computer (1974-Present) ::VLSI / ULSI ♥ ♥ ♥

VLSI - (Very Large-Scale Integrated)
ULSI - (Ultra Large-Scale Integrated)

@ This fourth computer generation is a combination of millions transistors
@ By the 1980's, very large scale integration (VLSI) squeezed hundreds of thousands of components onto a chip.
@  The ability to fit so much onto an area about half the size of a U.S. dime helped diminish the size and price of computers.
@ Then, the single-chip processor and the single-board computer emerged.

PERSONAL COMPUTER (PC)

=) This kind of computer was introduced in 1981.
=) It used in the home, office, and schools.
=) The number of this PC in used more than doubled from 2 million in 1981 to 5.5 million in 1982.

As computers became more widespread in the workplace, new ways to harness their potential developed.  As smaller computers became more powerful, they could be linked together, or networked, to share memory space, software, information and communicate with each other.

✿ ƸӜƷ✿ ~THIRD GERATION COMPUTER (1964-1974)~ ✿ ƸӜƷ✿

Despite the fact that transistors were clearly an improvement over the vacuum tube, they still generated a great deal of heat, which damaged the computer's sensitive internal parts.  The quartz rock eliminated this problem.  Jack Kilby, an engineer with Texas Instruments, developed the integrated circuit (IC) in 1958.  The IC combined three electronic components onto a small silicon disc, which was made from quartz.  Scientists later managed to fit even more components on a single chip, called a semiconductor.  As a result, computers became ever smaller as more components were squeezed onto the chip.  Another third-generation development included the use of an operating system that allowed machines to run many different programs at once with a central program that monitored and coordinated the computer's memory (Gersting 35 - 39).

    Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp. built the first standard metal oxide semiconductor product for data processing applications, an eight-bit arithmetic unit and accumulator.  The fundamental components of this semiconductor laid the groundwork for the future discovery of the microprocessor in 1971.  Another company that took advantage of the third generation advancements was IBM with the unveiling of the IBM System/360.  The company was making a transition from discrete transistors to integrated circuits, and its major source of revenue moved from punched-card equipment to electronic computer systems.

    In 1969 AT&T Bell Laboratories programmers Kenneth Thompson and Dennis Ritchie developed the UNIX operating system on a spare DEC minicomputer.  UNIX was the first modern operating system that provided a sound intermediary between software and hardware.  UNIX provided the user with the means to allocate resources on the fly, rather than requiring the resources be allocated in the design stages.  The UNIX operating system quickly secured a wide following, particularly among engineers and scientists at universities and other computer science organizations.

*Microprocessor chips combines thousand of transistor,entire circuit on one compuer chip.
*Semiconductor memory
*Multiple computer models with different performance charactheristics
*The size of computer has been reduces drastically.

((¯`♥´¯))✿ •°*”˜˜”*°•.✿ ƸӜƷ✿ •°*”˜˜”*°•.✿ ƸӜƷ✿ •°*”˜˜”*°•.✿ ƸӜƷ✿
. `*.¸.*´                                                                                                                                                                                                            

SECOND GENERATION COMPUTER (1950-1964)

By 1948, the invention of the transistor greatly changed the computer's development.  The transistor replaced the large, cumbersome vacuum tube in televisions, radios and computers.  As a result, the size of electronic machinery has been shrinking ever since.  The transistor was at work in the computer by 1956.  Coupled with early advances in magnetic-core memory, transistors led to second generation computers that were smaller, faster, more reliable and more energy-efficient than their predecessors.  The first large-scale machines to take advantage of this transistor technology were early supercomputers, Stretch by IBM and LARC by Sperry-Rand.  These computers, both developed for atomic energy laboratories, could handle an enormous amount of data, a capability much in demand by atomic scientists.  The machines were costly, however, and tended to be too powerful for the business sector's computing needs, thereby limiting their attractiveness.

Throughout the early 1960's, there were a number of commercially successful second generation computers used in businesses, universities, and government from companies such as Burroughs, Control Data, Honeywell, IBM, Sperry-Rand, and others.  These second generation computers were also of solid state design, and contained transistors in place of vacuum tubes.  They also contained all the components we associate with the modern day computer: printers, tape storage, disk storage, memory, and stored programs.

~THE FIRST GENERATION COMPUTER~

The first generation of computers is said by some to have started in 1946 with ENIAC, the first 'computer' to use electronic valves (ie. vacuum tubes). Others would say it started in May 1949 with the introduction of EDSAC, the first stored program computer. Whichever, the distinguishing feature of the first generation computers was the use of electronic valves.My personal take on this is that ENIAC was the World's first electronic calculator and that the era of the first generation computers began in 1946 because that was the year when people consciously set out to build stored program computer.Two key events took place in the summer of 1946 at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. One was the completion of the ENIAC. The other was the delivery of a course of lectures on "The Theory and Techniques of Electronic Digital Computers". In particular, they described the need to store the instructions to manipulate data in the computer along with the data. The design features worked out by John von Neumann and his colleagues and described in these lectures laid the foundation for the development of the first generation of computers. That just left the technical problems.

In 1946 there was no 'best' way of storing instructions and data in a computer memory. There were four competing technologies for providing computer memory: electrostatic storage tubes, acoustic delay lines (mercury or nickel), magnetic drums (and disks?), and magnetic core storage.A high-speed electrostatic store was the heart of several early computers, including the computer at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. Professor F. C. Williams and Dr. T. Kilburn, who invented this type of store, described it in Proc.I.E.E. 96, Pt.III, 40 (March, 1949).

~COMPUTER HISTORY~

EARLY COMPUTER contains the computer systems made in the early era (i.e., the era in modern computer history defined as the period from the late 1930s to the early 1960s) utilizing mechanical, vacuum tube, discrete transistor, or other pre-integrated circuit technology.Other categories that may be of interest are:History of computing,History of Computing Hardware,Computer pioneers,One-of-a-kind-computer, Preserved Computer and Computer Museum.

Computer Hardware Basics..:-) Computer History,,Computer Architecture,Size,,Processing Power,,& Type of Computer

COMPUTER HISTORY...

=)There are about 6 generation of computer ~(before 1940-2011)

=)Pre-computer & Early Computer (before 1940s)

=)First Generation (1940-1950) *vacuum tube*

=)Second Generation (1950-1964) *transistor*

=)Third Generation (1964-1974) *integrated*

=)Fourth Generation (1974-present) *vlsi/ulsi)

=)Fifth Generation (now & future)