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The first generation is characterized by the emergence of costly commercial computers which were affordable only by big organizations. THey were bulky,used vacuum tubes as electronic switches that were prone to failure and were locked in rooms with limited access. -
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In the second generation vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors. This reduced their size and cost, and made them affordable to smaller corporations. At the same time, high-level programming languages like FORTAN and COBOL were invented and made programming easier -
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The third generation introducted the creation of the integrated circuit and the chip. This further made computers cheaper and smaller, while their processing power increased rapidly every two years. Minicomputers and the first software packages were created, signaling the creation of the software industry. These packages were canned programs, ready to be purchased and used by corporations. -
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The fourth generation is marked by the advancement of whole computer subsystems fitting on a single circuit board. The Altair 8800 that was the spark that ignited the microcomputer revolution released in 1975 along with IBM introducing the first computer to be labeled as a personal computer in 1981. In this generation the rise of computer networks was also prevalent -
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The fifth generation is mainly known for the miniaturization of computing machines, the appearance of laptop computers, numerous improvements in secondary storage media such as CD-ROM and DVD along with the use of multimedia,the rise of the Internet,the phenomenon of virtual reality and the revolutionary invention of the smartphone -