COMPUTERS

Then and Now

Computers are very useful for everyone. Some people use them for work while some people use them just for fun. It is one of the important devices for kids, teenagers and adults. Here is a brief history of computers over the last 60 years. You will learn how computers improved throughout the time.

First Generation Computers

In the 1940’s and 1950’s, the computers such as the ENIAC and the UNIVAC were huge. They occupied a big place but they were very slow and difficult to program. For example, the ENIAC was 30 tons and it could do very limited number of things such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. The UNIVAC was better than that since it was smaller and faster. You could manage to do computations in these computers in thousandths of a second.

Second Generation Computers

In the late 1950’s the size of the computers changed. It is for sure that they were much faster than the previous ones and they could be used for magnetic tape for storing and retrieving data. At those times, programming languages such as FORTRAN and COBOL could be used by these computers. These computers could perform computations in millionths of a second.

Third Generation Computers

The third generation computers made the size of the computers smaller in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. These computers had a single silicon chip and many electrical circuits could be included on it. These computers could perform computations in billionths of a second. In the mid 1970’s people could put large numbers of circuits on one chip and the size of the computers got smaller and smaller and the terminology of “microcomputers” started to be used.

Uses of Computers Today

In today’s technology people may not be aware of all the uses of computers since there are many. Computers are used in the space program, in the mail system, in our houses and offices. On the other hand, we are surrounded by the use of chips in many other places. You can see chips used at hospitals as a sensing device for body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and brain function or you can see police officers using them to access information about the drivers’ license or registration or to match finger prints.