IcedTea asked:
A. 2nd Generation, integrated circuits B. 3rd Generation, programming languages C. 4th Generation, operating systems D. 5th Generation, artificial intelligence
A. 2nd Generation, integrated circuits B. 3rd Generation, programming languages C. 4th Generation, operating systems D. 5th Generation, artificial intelligence
I believe it would have to be “A. 2nd Generation, integrated circuits”. There were actually some mechanical computers way back when but the early computers as we think of them were made of vacuum tubes followed by transistors.
D. 5th Generation, artificial intelligence – there is no such thing as artificial intelligence YET so this term is 100% invalid.
C. 4th Generation, operating systems – computers have had operating systems for a pretty long time. The definition of an “OS” is pretty loose too. IBM had mainframe OS’s a long long long time ago. So it doesn’t really match the “4th Gen” at all.
B. 3rd Generation, programming languages – technically “machine language” is a programming language and technically programming languages are 100% isolated from machine architecture (take a look at ARM code – it may be fast but it is NOT related to any high level programming language at all period). So this one can’t be right.
I do not like the question.=%22generation+of+computers%22
But there is your answer.
Breeds of computers do not breed like the eukaryotes. So the concept of “generation” is weak. This is my opinion.
The mainframe I cut my teeth on was _called_ a third generation computer — an IBM 360 model 65. It had “solid logic” circuits which was just shy of using integrated circuits. However, it had a real operating system: OS/MFT by 1969 and MVT by 1973. Thus that machine cuts across a few of your generations defined here.
BTW, This is obviously an exam question. What textbook is used in this course? –Starling