Third generation computers

Third Generation (1965—1974) Further development in electronics brought further reduction in size, ‘ greater reliability, speed and lower costs mmputer. Integrated circuits (IC) replaced the transistors, which was developed by JS Kilbi. This was the hallmark of the third generation of mmputers.

This development is known as Large Scale Integration and it refers to the ability to compress large number of integrated circuits on a single silicon chip. There is also VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration).

Another development that changed the way people use computers was time sharing. A time-shared computer allows many users, each working at a separate input/ output terminal, to use it at the same time.

Users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed ‘ the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to mass users because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors. Users could use software according to their need because Software and hardware were available separately.