Third Generation Computers: Integrated Circuits

Introducing the Integrated Circuits:

Starting from 1964 and ending in 1971, Integrated Circuits moved on to miniaturizing computers even more (The Five Generations of Computers)! The miniaturization of these specific computers however, made them look a lot like our modern computers today. This was the start of the third generation of computers.

Features and Information about the Integrated Circuits:

"Example of a 3rd Generation Computer"
<Khalil, Danish. "Computer Generation". Photo.
Blogspot.com 5 Oct. 2012. 5 Oct. 2013>

What made the Integrated Circuit Computers so new during this era was that instead of using just one transistor, they used multiple. This era added large amounts of transistors into one individual silicon, increasing the power of computers and decreasing the price for buyers. As the years went by, more and more transistors were added onto the integrated circuits (The Computer Chronicles - Computer Generations). These new computer's main memory was the integrated circuit (IC), RAM, and ROM User. The computers were also finally able to run different applications at once due to it's operating system. Their secondary storage were magnetic disks and magnetic tapes. The third generation computers used a high-level language as well such as LISP, PASCAL, BASIC, and more (Khalil, Danish). Also, the third generation computers moved away from push cards and printouts and finally moved on to the keyboards and mouse we know today (The Five Generations of Computers).

Examples of Integrated Circuits:

• IBM 360: First family computer introduce by IBM able to run multiple range of applications, large and small at the same time (IBM System/ 360).
• CDC 6000: Replaced the CDC 3000 Upper (Moore, Scott A.).
• PDP-8: First commercial minicomputer that was successful (PDP-8.).

Conclusion:

The third generation was the remarkable break-through that gave us our computers we so love to use. The changes made such as switching printouts to keyboards and mouse, gives us the idea of them using the exact same computers we are using right now in this era but it was very different. This is what we would think to be closest to our modern computers but there was more after, and even closer to our modern computers, the fourth generation.

Sources:

"IBM System/ 360." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Oct. 2013. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.

 

Hames, Roderick. "The Computer Chronicles - Computer Generations." The Computer Chronicles - Computer Generations. Alton C. Crews Middle School: CD Dept. - Articles, 2011. Web. 4 Oct. 2013

 

Khalil, Danish. "Computer Generation." Web log post. Computer Generation History of Danish Khalil. Blogger, 5 Oct. 2012. Web. 5 Oct. 2013.

 

"PDP-8." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Sept. 2013. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.

 

Moore, Scott A. "The CDC 6000 Series Computer." The CDC 6000 Series Computer. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct 2013.

 

The Five Generations of Computers. Webopedia. ITBusinessEdge, 2013.Web. 4 Oct. 2013.