Monday 16 January 2012

HISTORY OF FORTH GENERATION OF COMPUTER(1975-1985)

  THE FOURTH GENERATION OF COMPUTING SPANNED FROM 1975 TO 1985. COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY HAD ADVANCED SO RAPIDLY THAT COMPUTERS COULD FIT IN SOMETHING THE SIZE OF A TYPEWRITER. THESE WERE CALLED MICROCOMPUTERS, THE FIRST ONE BEING THE ALTAIR 8800. THE ALTAIR 8800 DEBUTED IN 1975 AS A MAIL-ORDER HOBBY KIT. MANY PEOPLE ACKNOWLEDGE THE ALTAIR 8800 AS THE COMPUTER THAT SPARKED THE MODERN COMPUTER REVOLUTION, ESPECIALLY SINCE BILL GATES AND PAUL ALLEN FOUNDED MICROSOFT WITH A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE CALLED ALTAIR BASIC– MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR THE 8800. NOW THAT COMPUTERS COULD FIT ON DESKS THEY BECAME MUCH MORE COMMON.
    A SMALL COMPANY CALLED APPLE COMPUTER, INC. WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1976 AND SINGLE HANDEDLY CHANGED THE INDUSTRY FOREVER. STEVE WOZNIAK AND STEVE JOBS BEGAN TO SELL THEIR APPLE 1 COMPUTER THAT SAME YEAR, AND IT QUICKLY GAINED POPULARITY. IT CAME WITH A KEYBOARD AND ONLY REQUIRED A MONITOR TO BE PLUGGED INTO THE BACK OF THE SYSTEM, WHICH WAS A NOVEL IDEA FOR COMPUTERS AT THAT TIME.  THE APPLE II WAS RELEASED THE NEXT YEAR AND WAS THE FIRST MASS PRODUCED MICROCOMPUTER TO BE COMMERCIALLY SOLD, AND ALSO USHERED IN THE ERA OF PERSONAL COMPUTING.
    IN 1981, MICROSOFT DISK OPERATING SYSTEM (MS-DOS) WAS RELEASED TO RUN ON THE INTEL 8086 MICROPROCESSOR. OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS MS-DOS BECAME THE MOST POPULAR OPERATING SYSTEM IN THE WORLD, EVENTUALLY LEADING TO MICROSOFT WINDOWS 1.0 BEING RELEASED IN 1985. IN 1984 APPLE INTRODUCED THEIR MAC OS, WHICH WAS THE FIRST OPERATING SYSTEM TO BE COMPLETELY GRAPHICAL. BOTH MAC OS AND WINDOWS USED PULL-DOWN MENUS, ICONS, AND WINDOWS TO MAKE COMPUTING MORE USER-FRIENDLY. COMPUTERS WERE NOW BEING CONTROLLED WITH A MOUSE AS WELL AS KEYBOARD. THE FIRST MOUSE WAS DEVELOPED IN 1981 BY XEROX.
    SOFTWARE BECAME MUCH MORE COMMON AND DIVERSE DURING THIS PERIOD WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPREADSHEETS, DATABASES, AND DRAWING PROGRAMS. COMPUTER NETWORKS AND E-MAIL BECAME MUCH MORE PREVALENT AS WELL.
    THE FIRST TRULY PORTABLE COMPUTER, CALLED THE OSBORNE 1, WAS RELEASED IN 1981. PORTABLE COMPUTERS LIKE THE TRS-80 MODEL 100 / 102 AND  IBM 5155 FOLLOWED AFTERWARD.
    NOT ALL THE COMPUTERS OF THE TIME WERE SMALL, OF COURSE. THERE WERE STILL BEING SUPERCOMPUTERS BUILT WITH THE AIM OF BEING AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. THESE SUPERCOMPUTERS WERE SOLD TO COMPANIES, UNIVERSITIES, AND THE MILITARY. AN EXAMPLE OF ONE SUCH SUPERCOMPUTER IS THE CRAY-1, WHICH WAS RELEASED IN 1976 BY CRAY RESEARCH.  IT BECAME ONE OF THE BEST KNOWN AND MOST SUCCESSFUL SUPERCOMPUTERS EVER FOR ITS UNIQUE DESIGN AND FAST SPEED OF 
250 MFLOPS.
    THIS GENERATION WAS ALSO IMPORTANT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS. THESE ARE SPECIAL SYSTEMS, USUALLY VERY TINY, THAT HAVE COMPUTERS INSIDE TO CONTROL THEIR OPERATION. THESE EMBEDDED SYSTEMS WERE PUT INTO THINGS LIKE CARS, THERMOSTATS, MICROWAVE OVENS, WRISTWATCHES, AND MORE

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