FREE ESSAY ON THIRD GENERATION

THIRD GENERATION

Third Generation
In the third generation one of the key components was the development of the integrated
circuit. An integrated circuit is the idea of putting many transistors on one single chip
of silicon. Integrated circuits were essentially a step up from vacuum tubes. They are
much more reliable, save more energy, and are more powerful than the vacuum tubes.
Integrated circuits were invented by Jack St. Clair Kirby and Robert Noyce in 1958. One
of the most exiting parts of integrated circuits was that they were cheep, which in turn
would lower the price of a computer. Below is what an actual integrated circuits looks
like.
"Integrated Circuit, tiny electronic circuit used to perform a specific electronic
function, such as amplification; it is usually combined with other components to form a
more complex system. It is formed as a single unit by diffusing impurities into
single-crystal silicon, which then serves as a semiconductor material, or by etching the
silicon by means of electron beams. Several hundred identical integrated circuits (ICs)
are made at a time on a thin wafer several centimeters wide, and the wafer is
subsequently sliced into individual ICs called chips." 
With the invention of the integrated circuit came small-scale integration, medium-scale
integration, and large-scale integration. Small-scale integration could only hold a
measly 10 to 20 transistors. Then came along medium-scale integration which could hold
anywhere between 20 to 200 transistors on a single silicon chip. Large-scale integration
was achieved in the 1970's and could hold up to 5,000 transistors on a single silicon
chip. As you can see we have come a very long way since the beginning of integrated
circuits. 
Also in the third generation was the development of standards for computer networking.
WAN which stands for wide area network is a network that is capable of spanning
continents. This is a very useful network because it enables us to contact anyone in the
world as long as they are connected to the network. Another standard area network was
called LAN which stands for local area network. This is a network that connects all the
computers within a building. This is very useful for companies such as State Farm,
Country Companies, and Xerox corporation just to name a few.
Another very useful and time saving innovation was timesharing. In the second generation
computers were very frustrating for the simple fact they could only do on job at a time
(batch processing), but timesharing changed all of that. Timesharing made it possible for
many users to do work simultaneously.
In the third generation was the start of what we know today as the operating system. Like
we most know the operating system is the brain of the computer. It manages resources
(CPU, disk, tape, printer, memory, etc.), controls the input/output system, handles error
recovery, and manages memory just to name a few. So as you can clearly see the third
generation was a very big part in the evolution of the computer, as we know it today. 
Bibliography
tnt,risde,rutsd,1998