Third Generation of Computer

The third generation of computers was started in 1964 by replacing Germanium Transistors with silicon transistors.

The integrated circuit has ejected, a circuit consisting of transistors, resistors and capacitors grew on a single silicon chip, eliminating the wired interconnection between the components.

• Timetable: 1964 - 1971
• Use: Integrated Circuits

History: Third Generation of Computer

The technology was developed from small scale integrated circuits, which were approximately 10 transistors per chip, in which there were medium-scale integrated circuits with 100 transistors per chip.

The switching speed of the transistor is increased by 10 times, the reliability is increased by 10 times, the power consumption is reduced by 10 times and the size of the transistor switch is also reduced by 10 times.

The result of this development is the emergence of a very powerful CPU can execute 1 million instructions per second.

Some new architectural ideas, such as virtual memory, interrupts, basic registers, and DMA, become a part of commercial computers and are widely used.

Significantly improved in the design of magnetic core memories and the size of the main memories reached around 4 MB. Disk technology is growing rapidly and the 100 MB drives became feasible.

Three IC Circuit Chips

The combination of high-capacity memory, powerful CPU, and large disk storage has contributed to the development of a time-sharing operating system.

The Time shared system increases the productivity of the programmer.

Many important online systems are possible. In particular, a dynamic production control system, airline reservation system, interactive query system and real-time, closed-loop process control system were implemented.

Integrated database management systems were ejected and improved in high-level languages.

FORTRAN IV and optimizing FORTRAN compilers were developed in this generation.

COBOL 68 was standardized by the American National Standards Institute. PL / 1 of IBM was emerging and a quite powerful language. The third generation probably lasted until 1971.

The improvement between 1964 and 1971 was enormous, but no revolutionary new concept could be identified as the end of the third generation.

Read also:

First Generation of Computer
Second Generation of Computer

Fourth Generation of Computer

Fifth Generation of Computer