The first generation computers (from 1940s till 1959) were very large in size and used thousands of vacuum tubes. Though their operations were very rapid in comparison with manual calculations they were slow by today’s standards.
The second generation computers began in 1959. The use of transistors instead of vacuum tubes made these computers smaller, more powerful, and more reliable. The second generation also saw thedevelopment of programming languages.
The third generation computers started in 1964. There were silicon chips instead of transistors. This advance made possible the invention of the microcomputer in the 1970s, which, because of its low cost, small size, ease of use, large capabilities, is the computer most characteristic of the fourth generation.
All computers of the present time, from the microcomputer to the supercomputer, belong to the fourth generation. This fourth generation is the first in which there are a lot of computers for the application in business, science, medicine, education, or for general use.
The computer revolution is very dynamic. We are on the threshold of the fifth generation of computers. Today researchers in the USA, Western Europe, Japan work at the problems of artificial intelligence1, the application of natural languages, very large-scale integration (VLSI)2 technologies, etc.
The fifth generation computer will not only differ in size, speed, and storage capacity. By contrast with the fourth generation systems, which mainly store and process data, it will have the following characteristics: the use of artificial intelligence and natural languages, a speech input, knowledge bases, very large-scale integration technologies, the application of optical fibres3 and videodisks, flexibility and high reliability.
The idea of artificial intelligence is the intensification of man’s creative activities with the aid of computers. Artificial intelligence is a machine intelligence. A programmer packs a program in the computer for the solution of some practical problems. In operation it looks like human intelligence. There are different categories of artificial intelligence uses, such as robots and machines with sensory capabilities, knowledge-based systems and expert systems. A knowledge base is more flexible and less structural than a database. It is able to function with fewer stored facts, to generate4 and infer5 new facts in the process of the problem solution. Expert systems are knowledge-based systems for highly specialized areas: branches of medicine, spectroscopic analysis, and the like.
Artificial intelligence needs new methods of program organization and construction. Very large-scale integration technologies will reduce the size of the computer, enlarge its speed and storage capacity. For the solution of these problems some researchers think of optical circuitry6, gallium arsenide7 circuitry, and cryogenic (extremely cold) circuitry. For the solution of still more difficult problems, such as the production of hyperintelligent robots, some researchers discuss the problems of biochip circuitry. This is a revolutionary idea and its realization is in the distant future.
Notes
1artificial intelligence – искусственный интеллект
2VLSI – сверхбольшая интегральная схема
3fibre – волокно
4to generate – производить
5to infer – делать заключение
6circuitry – cxема
7gallium arsenide – арсенид галлия
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