The computers had its beginning in the 19th century by a professor named Charles Babbage.
Computers can be classified into three generations. Each generation lasted for a certain period of time and each gave us either a new computer or an improvement to the existing one.
FIRST GENERATION (1937-46):
The first electronic digital computer was invented by Dr. John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. It was called the Atanasoff-Berry computer. Developments continued until 1946. It is said that the first general purpose computer weighed 30 tons and had 18000 vacuum tubes which were used for processing. Computers of this generation could only perform a single task and had no operating system.
SECOND GENERATION (1947-62):
This generation of the computer used transistors instead of vacuum tubes which were more reliable. In 1951 the first computer for commercial use was introduced to the public. In 1953, International Business Machine (IBM) 650 and 700 series made their mark in the computer world. During this generation over 100 computer programming languages were developed. Computers now had memory and operating systems. Storage media such as tape and disc were in use and printers for output.
THIRD GENERATION (1963-present):
The invention of integrated circuit brought us the third generation of computers. With this invention, computers became smaller, more powerful and reliable. Now they're able to perform multitasking. In 1980, Microsoft Disc Operating System was born and in 1981 IBM introduced personal computer for home and office use. Three years later, Apple gave us the Macintosh computers with its icon driven interface and the 90's gave us Windows operating system.
As a result of various improvements to the development of the computers, we've seen computer is being used in almost every field and sector. It has gradually emerged as a tool that'll continue to develop with time.
