Computer is an electronic device that
receives input, stores and manipulates data and provides output in a useful
format. It is also a programmable machine for storing and processing data in
binary form. Computer is also an electronic machine that receives process and
present data. For example solving complex mathematic equations. It is capable
of performing calculations and other manipulation of various types of data,
under the control of a stored set of instructions.
This
device itself is the hardware and the instructions are the program or software.
HISTORY OF OPERATING SYSTEM
The first true digital camp was designed by the English mathematician
Charles Babbage (1772-1871) although Babbage spent most of his life and fortune
trying to build his analytical engine, he never got it working properly because
it was purely mechanical and technology of his day could not produce the
required wheels, gears and cogs to the high precision that he needed needless
to say, the analytical engine did not have an operating system.
As an
interesting historical aside, Babbage realized that he would need software for
his analytical engine so he hired a young woman named Ada Lovelace who was a
daughter of Famed British poet lord Byron, as the world’s first programmer. The
programming language Ada is named after her.
1st GENERATION (1945-55) VACCUM
TUBES AND PLUG BOARDS:
After
Babbage’s unsuccessful efforts, little progress was made in constructing
digital comp until World War II.
Around the
mid-1940s, Howard Aiken at Harvard, John Von Neumann at the institute for Adv
study in Princeton, J.Presper .Eckert and William Gauchely at the University of
Pennsylvania, and Conrad sues in Germany all succeeded in building calculating
engines.
The first
one used mechanical relay but were very slow, Relay were later replaced by Vacuum
tubes this machine were enormous, filling up entire rooms, with tens of
thousands Vacuum tubes, but were still millions of times slower than even the
cheapest personal computers available today.
Programming
language was unknown (even assembly language uses unknown) operating system
unheard of. By the early of 1950s, the routine had improved with the
introduction of punched card (input), for example UNIVAC and ENIAC and EDIVAC
computer 1st generation computer based on machine.
ADVANTAGES OF 1ST GENERATION
Vacuum tube used as electronic component, the computers at this time were ran
by using electricity, so they depended on the power supply.
Computations performed in
milliseconds, at those times the computers were functioning under the
milliseconds.
The fastest calculating devices of
their time, at this generation the computers were millions of time lower than
the computers we are using today.
Electronic digital computers were
developed for the first time, it was the first computer to be discovered and
first digital computer was designed by the English Mathematician.
DISADVANTAGES OF 1ST GENERATION, Too large in size in the first
generation the computers were of large size whereby they were able to fill the
room and they were not able to be carried by one person. They were unreliable,
during this generation the computers were not find easily all over the world,
they were found in the developed countries, mostly in the European country. Produce
large heat amount, at this stage the computers produces a lot of heat during
its operations. For example when a person wants to manipulate some data and
calculations they get heat at the same time. Not portable, during this time the
computers were transferable because they were very large, and not easy to be
carried from one place to another. Limited commercial use, this computers were
restricted to the few institutions whereby they were used for trade purposes,
and they were special for the mercantile.
MAIN FEATURE OF 1ST GENERATION, Major innovation-vacuum tubes, the
first generation vacuum tubes and plug boards after Babbage’s unsuccessful efforts
little progress was made in constructing digital computer until world war II .Main
memory-punched card, programming language were unknown even assembly language
were unknown, so the operating system were unknown. Input output
devices-punched card and papers were used at that time so as to operate devices
and to give out information’s. Language-low level machine languages are codes
or close to it, computer cannot understand instructions given in high level
languages. Operating system-human operators to set switches, the human being
were the one who operated the machines at that time. Size – main frame, for
example; ENIAC, UNIVAC, EDVAC. These were the size of the computers at that
time.
2ND GENERATION (1955 –
65) TRANSISTORS AND BATCH SYSTEM:
Introduction of
the transistor in the mid- 1950s changed the picture radically. Computer become
reliable enough, they could be manufactured and sold to paying customers with
the expectation that they could continue to function long enough to get some
useful work done. For the first time there were clear separations between
designers, builders, operators, programmers and maintenance personal. These
machines now called Mainframes Were locked away in specially air conditioned
computer rooms. Staff of professional operators run on them.
Only big corporations or major
government agencies or universities could afford the multimillion dollar price
tag, to run a job for example a program or set of programs. A programmer would
first write the program on paper in (FORTRAN or assembler) then punch it on
cards. He would then bring the card deck down to the input room and hand it to
one of the operators and go until the output was ready.
When the computer finished job which
was currently running, an operator would go over to the printer and tear off
the output and carry it over to the output room. So that programmer could
collect it later. Then he would take one of the card decks and read.
If FORTRAN computer was needed, the
operator would have got it from a file cabinet and read. Much computer time was
wasted while operators were working around the machine room.
Given the high cost of the equipment,
the instruments used at that time were very expensive. The solution generally
adopted was the batch system. The idea behind this it was to collect a tray
full of jobs in the input room and then read them on to a magnetic tape using a
small inexpensive computer, such as the IBM1401, which was very good reading
cards, copying tapes, and printing output. But not at all good at numerical
calculations.
Other more expensive machines example
IBM 7094 was used for the real computing.
After about an hour of collecting a
batch of jobs, the tape was rewound and brought in the machines room where it
was mounted on a tape drive and run it. The output written onto a second tape
instead of being printed. After each job finished operating system
automatically read the next job from the tape and began run on it. When whole
butch was done the operator remove input and output tapes replace the input
with the next butch and brought output to a 1401 for printing off line.(not
connected to the main computer).
There were the primitive control
cards were the forerunners of modern job control languages and command
interpreters example structure of a typical input jobs. It started with job card, specify the maximum run
time in minutes, the account number to be charged and the programmers and then
come as a Fortran cards compiler
from system tape followed by the program to be compiled then load card directing operating system to
load object program just compiled, next run
card telling operating system to run program with the data following it,
finally send card Marked the end of
job.
ADVANTAGES: Large
second generation computer used for scientific and engineering calculations
such as solving the partial differential equations that often occur in physics
and engineering. They were largely programmed in FORTRAN and assembly, it was
the only language which computer can understand, it designed to obey just one
language its machine code which is represented inside the computer by a string
of binary digits 0 and 1. Symbol 0 stands for the absence and 1 stands for
presence of electricity. Therefore it understands machine language. Typical
operating system was FORTRAN monitor system (FMS) and IBSYS, IBMS, operating
system for the 7094.Smaller in size compared to first generation, this is to
say that it is smaller in size and it occupies small area when put in a room. Less
heat was generated under this generation, it produces small amount of heat as
compared to the first generation computer.
DISADAVANTAGE
It is expensive for commercial use, due to the fact that the computers were
becoming efficient for running different programs and many people saw the
advantages if it. It needs frequency maintenance, the computers at this
generation were delicate and frequent services were needed. They needed also
the frequent cooling because it induces a lot of heat so it needed to be cooled.
MAIN FEATURES
Major innovation transistor as main component and their main memory are RAM and
ROM, the external storage were using the magnetic tape and magnetic disk this
were the devices used for input and output processing. Language used was the assembly
language and the high language example BASIC. The size of the computer was main
frame for example IBM 1401, NCR 300, IBM 600 and IBM 7094.The third generation
which is also known as Integrated Circuit (multi programming).The third
generation computer is found earlier in 1960s, most computer manufacturers had
two distinct and totally incompatible, product lines.
On the one hand there were the word
oriented large scale computer such as the 7094 which were used for numerical
calculations in science and engineering, on the other hand there were the
character oriented commercially computer such as 1401 which were widely used
for tape sorting and printing by banks and insurance companies.
Developing and maintaining two
completely different product lines was an expensive many new computer customers
initially needed many new computer customers a small machines but later on
outgrew it and wanted a bigger machine that would run all programs but more
faster.
IBM attempted to solve both problems
by introducing the system 360 was a series of soft ware compatible machine
ranging from 1401 size to much more powerful than the 7094. The machine differs
only in price and performance, (maximum memory, processor speed, the number of
I/O input or output permitted).
The 360 was a first major computer
line to use small scale integrated circuits. Thus providing a major price or
performance advantage over the second generation machines which were built up
from individual transistors. It was an immediate success and the idea of a
family of compatible computers was soon adapted by all other major
manufacturers.
Nowadays they are used for managing
data bases for example for airline reservation system or as server for world
wide websites that must process thousands of requests per second.
The greatest strength of the “one
family” idea was simultaneously its greatest weakness, the intension was that
all software including the operating system OS360 had to work in all models it
had to run on small system which often just replaced 1401 for copying cards to
tape and on very large system which often replaced 7094s for doing weather fore
casting and other and on systems with many peripherals. It had to work in
commercial environments and in scientific environment above all, it had to be
efficient for this entire event uses.
The major features present in the
third generation operation system were the ability to read jobs from cards onto
the disk as soon as they were brought to the computer room. Whenever a running
job finished the operating system could load a new job from the disk into the
now empty partition and run it. With the third generation system the time
between submitting job and getting back the output was often several hours.
The fourth generation 1980 to
present, in other name they are known as Personal Computers. With the development of LSI large scale
integration circuits chips containing thousands of transistors on a centimeter
square centimeter of silicon, the age of the personal computer dawned.
In the early of 1980s IBM designed
personal computer and looked around for the software to run on it people from
IBM contacted Bill Gates to license his BASIC interpreters they also asked him
if he news of an operating system to run on personal computer. When IBM come back, Gates realized that a
local computer manufacturer Seattle computer products had the suitable
operating system, DOS disk operating system. By the time the IBM PC/AT came out
in 1983 with the Intel 80286 CPU, MS DOS was firmly entrenched and CP/M was on
its last legs.
MS- DOS was fairly primitive
subsequent vision include more advanced features including many taken from
UNIX, Microsoft was well aware of UNIX even selling a microcomputer version it
is called XENIX. C P/M, MS-DOS and other operating system were based on user
tying in commands from the keyboard.
That eventually changed due to
research done by Dou Engelhard at Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s
Engelhard invented Graphic User Interface complete with windows icons, menus
and mouse. UNIX is stronger on workstations and other high end computers such
as network servers. Interesting development is that in mid 1980s is the growth
of networks of personal computers running network operating system and
distributed operating systems.
Disadvantages: The distributed
operation system require more than just adding a little code a uniprocessor
operating system because distributed and centralized system differ in critical
ways. A distributed operating system requires more than appear to its user as a
traditional uniprocessor system even though it is actually composed of multiple
processors.
The fifth generation
of computer present and beyond (Artificial intelligent).
This type of computer are still in progress whereby some
application such as voice recognition which are being used today, the use of
parallel processing and super conductors is helping to make artificial a
reality. The years to come this type of computer will be dominating the world
at large because it is used by different institutions all over the world.
The objectives of fifth generation
are to develop devices that respond to natural language input. And are capable
of learning and self organization.
Advantages of fifth generation are as follow,
they contain huge amount of storage capacity also it has long bit processor
builds. At this artificial intelligent language was developed.
Main features of the fifth generation
computer are as follows: The major innovation is ultra large scale integrated
circuit (UlSIC). The main memory of this type of computer is EEPROM, SIMM and
DIMM.
The external storage of this computer
is modified magnetic and optic disks, the input or output devices is the
keyboard, pointing device, scanner as input and monitor as main output. Languages used are artificial intelligence
(AL) expert system.
The operating system Graphic User Interface based for example
Windows 95, window New Technology (NT). The size of this generation is very
small in size and portable for example laptop, notebook, Digital Diary, Palm
top and pocket Personal Computer. This generation started from 1981 and still
continued, new technologies are adapted to fabricate Integrated Circuit chips
such as electron beam, X-Rays or laser rays. The very large scale integration.
CONCLUSION:
By conclusion, the machines such as
computers will dominate the whole world because as the generations are going on
the discovery of the technology lead to the introduction of the new face of the
world.
Since the system of recognizing the
human voice is started also it is possible for the technology to control the
human life. And different vehicles will be using computers for moving from one
place to another.
The electronic devices will be
replacing human activities, hence this can led to the lack of employment
opportunities, so we can say that the computers has both positive and negative
effects in human development.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1.
Andrew
S. Tanenbaum:( 2001 ) MODERN OPERATING
SYSTEM: 2nd Edition. printed in India by Saurabh Printers Pvt , Ltd.
2.
B.
J Holmes: (1929) STRUCTURED PROGRAMING IN COBOL: 2nd Edition.
Printed by The Guernsey, Press Company Ltd.
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