The present day computers that you see today are the fourth generation computers that started around 1975. It uses Large Scale Integrated Circuits (LSIC) built on a single silicon chip called microprocessors. Due to the development of microprocessor it is possible to place computer’s central processing unit (CPU) on a single chip. These computers are called microcomputers. Later very large scale Integrated Circuits (VLSIC) replaced LSICs. These integrated circuits are so advanced that they incorporate hundreds of thousands of active components in volumes of a fraction of an inch.
Thus the computer, which was occupying a very large room in earlier days, can now be placed on a table. The personal computer (PC) that you see in your school is a Fourth Generation Computer.
The salient features of this generation are:
- very fast
- very low heat generation
- smaller in size
- very reliable
- negligible hardware failure
- highly sophisticated
