Computer System has developed a lot from past decades. It’s very long Journey that Computer has passed through. The System we are looking now is Output of past 4-5 decades rigorous research and hardwork of many great scientists. Below is a brief History of Computer System and it’s developmental phases till now.
1951- 55
Hardware : Vacuum – Tube computers ; mercury delay line memories.
Methods: Assembly languages ; foundation concepts ;subprograms and data structures.
Languages: Experimental use of expression compilers.
1956 - 60
Hardware: Magnetic tape storage ; core memories ; transistor circuits.
Methods: Early compiler technology ; BNF grammars ; code optimization ; interpreters ; dynamic storage methods and list processing.
Languages: FORTRAN , ALGOL 58, ALGOL 60, LISP
1961 - 65
Hardware: Families of Compatible architectures ; magnetic disk storage's.
Methods: Multiprogramming Operating Systems ; syntax – directed compilers.
Languages: COBOL , ALGOL 60 (revised) , SNOBOL , JOVIAL ,
1966 - 70
Hardware: Increasing Speed , size decreasing cost ; micro programming ; integrated circuits.
Methods: time Sharing systems ; optimizing compilers ; translator writing systems.
Languages: APL , FORTRAN 66,COBOL 65, ALGOL 68,SNOBol 4, BASIC , PL/I , SIMULA 67 , ALGOL - W
1971 - 75
Hardware: Minicomputers ; small mass storage devices ; semiconductor memories.
Methods: Program verification ; structured programming ; software engineering.
Languages: Pascal , COBOL 74, PL/I(standard), C ,scheme , Prolog.
1976 - 80
Hardware: Micro Computers ;mass storage systems ; distributed computing.
Methods: Data Abstraction ; formal semantics ; concurrent, embedded and real time – Programming Techniques.
Languages: Smalltalk , Ada , FORTRAN 77, ML
1981 - 85
Hardware: Personal Computers ; work-stations; video games ; local area networks ; ARPANET.
Methods: object oriented programming; interactive environments ; syntax – directed editors.
Languages: Turbo Pascal , Smalltalk -80, use of Prolog , Ada 83, Postscript.
1986 - 90
Hardware: Ae of microcomputer ; engineering workstation ; RISC architecture ; Internet
Methods: Client / Server Cpmputing.
Languages: FORTRAN 90,C++ ,SML (Standard ML).
1991 - 95
Hardware: Very Fast inexpensive Workstations and microcomputers ;massively parallel Architectures ; voice , video , fax , multimedia.
Methods: Open Systems ; Environment frameworks.
Languages: Ada 95, Process Language (TCL, PERL) ,HTML.
1996 - 2000
Hardware: Computers as inexpensive appliances ; personal digital assistants ; World Wide web ; Cable – based Home networking , Gigabyte Storage.
Methods: E – commerce.
Languages: Java , Javascript,XML.
2001 - 2010
Hardware: Laptops , Tablet PC’s , Mobiles , Very fast and huge Work Stations , Storage Capacity upto Terabytes.
Methods: Process Threading , .NET frameworks.
Languages: Visual Basic , .NET , C#.
That is a Brief History for Computer Generation .