Which electronic components were used in Fourth Generation Computers?

Fourth Generation (1978 - present):

- An IC containing about 100 components is called LSI (Large Scale Integration) and the one, which has more than 1000 such components, is called as VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration).

- It uses large-scale Integrated Circuits(LSIC) built on a single silicon chip called microprocessors.

- Due to the development of the 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. 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 can be seen in school is a Fourth Generation Computer

- Some of the Fourth generation computers are IBM PC, Apple-Macintosh, etc.

- Hard disks were used as secondary memory.

- Keyboards, dot matrix printers etc. were developed.

- Operating System (OS)-such as MS-DOS, UNIX, Apple's Macintosh was available.

- An object-oriented language, C++ etc were developed.

Notes:

Generation
Duration
Electronic Component Used

First Generation Computers
1946-1954
Vacuum Tubes

Second Generation Computer
1955-1964
Transistors

Third Generation Computer
1964-1977
Integrated Circuits

Fourth Generation Computer
1978 - Present
VLSI or Microprocessors

Fifth Generation Computer
Present and Future
ULSI or Bio-Chips