Learnings of the Week (July 2 - 4, 2008) (ROLLORATA)

On the second week of discussion in Computer Education IV, we went on the THIRD and FOURTH GENERATION COMPUTERS.

The third generation computers covered only a short range of time. In the third generation, computers relied on a new technology called the integrated circuits. The integrated circuit is a single wafer or chip that can hold many transistors and electronic circuits. A circuit widely used in electronics system was invented in the year 1959 by Jack Kilby which is the monolithic integrated circuit. Intel was brought into being by Robert Noyce. The name Intel came from the term integrated electronics. Intel focused on making an affordable semiconductor that could hold enough memory to replace the magnetic core memory then used in computers. In 1969, ARPANET is set up by Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States Department of Defense. It was the network of about 60,000 medium-to-large-scale computers. In 1990 ARPANET was replaced by the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) to connect its supercomputers to regional networks. NSFNET now operates as the high-speed backbone of the Internet. C, in computer science, a programming language developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Laboratories in 1972; so named because its immediate predecessor was the B programming language. C is a compiled language that contains a small set of built-in functions that are machine dependent.

Innovations were widely established during this era and onwards.

The fourth generation computers is from 1971 up to the present time. The first microprocessor was the Intel 4004, produced in 1971. Altair 8800 (computer), a small computer introduced in 1975 by Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems of New Mexico. Although short-lived, the Altair is considered to have been the first successful “personal” computer. Although short-lived, the Altair is considered to have been the first successful “personal” computer. Microsoft was founded in 1975 by William H. Gates III and Paul Allen. Microsoft Corporation, the largest company in the world dedicated to creating computer software. VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet, is initiated. It changes many people's perception of microcomputers, convincing them to purchase the machines for business applications. Word Star, the first microcomputer word processor, was produced in the year 1979. [Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved]