UGC NET Study Notes On Information and Communication Technology

By Mohit Choudhary|Updated : February 6th, 2023

UGC NET Exam consists of Paper-1 and Paper-2. Paper-1 is common for all students, and Paper-2 is subject-specific. Information and Communication Technology is the most important part of paper-1. Every year 5 questions come directly from this part. Any aspirant aiming to clear NET/NET-JRF will have to prepare every topic holistically. No topic should be left. Today's post provides study notes on the Generation of Computers and Types of Computers for UGC NET Exam 2023. UGC will soon announce the date of the exam. Keep working hard.

 

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The history of the development of each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate. It has resulted in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and efficient and reliable devices. Here the term generation refers to the time period during which a computer had been developed.

First Generation (1940-50)

  • Entirely electronic.
  • Used Vacuum tubes to store instructions.
  • For memory Magnetic drums were used.
  • They were often enormous, taking up entire rooms.
  • Very expensive to operate.
  • Very limited storage capacity.
  • Used a lot of electricity and generated a lot of heat.
  • Relied on lowest level-level programming language understood by computers to perform functions- machine language (1s and 0s).
  • Slow input/output.
  • Examples- UNIVAC 1, ENVIAC and MARK 1.

Second Generation (1950-60)

  • Vacuum tubes were replaced by Transistors.
  • This made computer to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient
  • and more reliable.
  • Magnetic disks and tape were used.
  • Use of magnetic core as primary internal storage medium.
  • Increased main storage capacity.
  • Faster input / output.
  • Example- IBM 400, IBM1600, IBM1401, HONEWELL 200, CDC 1604, FORTRAN and COBOL.

Third Generation (1960-1970)

  • Transistors were replaced by Integrated circuits (IC)
  • Use of magnetic core as primary storage medium.
  • This led to reduction in size, greater reliability, speed and lower costs.
  • Small-scale integration (SSI) and medium-scale technology (MSI) was used.
  • Use of magnetic core as primary storage medium.
  • More flexible input / output.
  • Increased speed and better performance.
  • Extensive use of high-level programming languages- BASIC and PASCAL.
  • Examples- PDP-8, ICL 2900, IBM-360, and IBM-370.

Fourth Generation (1970- present)

  • Microprocessor bought the Fourth generation computers.
  • Thousands of integrated circuits were built into single silicon chips.
  • Large scale integration (LSI) and very large scale integration(VLSI) technology used.
  • Microprocessor were produced using LSI technology.
  • Development of portable computers.
  • Micro computer became available.
  • RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) technology was used for data storage.
  • Greater versatility of Input / Output devices.
  • Used in Virtual reality multimedia, and simulation.
  • Examples- IBM-PC, Apple Macintosh 

Fifth generation

  • It is mainly aimed at reducing complex programming.
  • These are used in parallel processing, speech recognition, intelligent robots, and artificial intelligence.
  • For development of Natural language processing.
  • For advancement in Parallel Processing.
  • For advancement in Superconductor technology.
  • More user-friendly interfaces with multimedia features.
  • Availability of very powerful and compact computers at cheaper rates.

Types of computer

On the basis of operation

1. Digital computer

  • In this binary is used like '0' and '1' or ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’.
  • Used for business and scientific data processing.
  • These can process numeric and non-numeric data.
  • Digital computer is better suited for solving complex problems in science, engineering, and technology. 

2. Analog Computer

  • Data is represented as physical quantities.
  • It process the analog data; such data is always continuous and not dicrete.
  • Speed of this computer is slow.
  • Example- voltmeter, thermometer and barometer.

3. Hybrid Computer

  • These are combination of analog and digital computers.
  • In this input and output is in analog form and processing is in digital form.
  • These have accuracy and memory of digital computers, and high speed of analog computers.
  • These can process continuous as well as discrete data.

On the basis of size

1. Online Classroom Program computers

  • It is used for stock analysis, weather forecasting, research, engineering,analysing geological data.
  • These can process billions of instructions per second.
  • Param is India’s first Online Classroom Program computer.
  • Other examples are CRAY, IBM, HP, etc.

2. Mainframe Computers

  • These process data at very high speed.
  • They are large, powerful, multi-user computers.
  • These can be used for recording huge amount of data.
  • These can accommodate thousands of workstation simultaneously. 

3. Minicomputers

  • These are less powerful than supercomputers and mainframe computers.
  • They are mid sized multiprocessing computers.
  • It supports time sharing, batch processing, etc.
  • Used in scientific research, industries, recording data, etc.
  • They can perform several actions at the same time and can support 4 to 200 users simultaneously.

4. Microcomputers

  • Also called as personal computers.
  • We generally use this at office or at home.
  • It is small and relatively inexpensive computer.
  • It consists of display screen, keyboard, CPU, one or more disk drives.
  • Examples- Desktop, laptop, tablets, smartphones.

We hope you all understood about generation of computers and types of computers for UGC NET Exam 2023.

Thank you,

Team BYJU'S Exam Prep.

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