Which of the following hardware was used by the first generation computers?

Generation of Computers based on Hardware

Generation

Description

1^st Generation (1940 – 1956)

• used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory
• very expensive, large in size, slow in processing and had less storage capacity
• used machine level language for programming

2^nd Generation (1956 – 1963)

• transistors were used instead of vacuum tube
• smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient, and more reliable than the previous generation
• High-level programming languages were also being developed such as COBOL, FORTRAN

3^rd Generation (1964 – 1971)

• used Integrated Circuit(IC) consisting of the capacity of 300 transistors
• small in size, low cost, large memory and high processing speed
• known as minicomputers

4^th Generation (1972 – 2010)

• used VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration)
• became possible to place CPU on a single chip
• known as microcomputers

5^th Generation (2010 – to date)

• based on artificial intelligence
• portable, superior processing speed, and network connectivity
• the aim is to develop devices that will respond to natural language inputs and be capable of learning