first generation

1940 to 1956
vacuum tube or thermionic valve machine.
output was displayed on printouts
binary-coded concept (i.e., language of 0-1). Examples: ENIAC, EDVAC, etc.

Second Generation
1956 to 1963
transistor technology
size of second generation was smaller.

Third Generation
1963 to 1971
Integrated Circuit (IC) technology.
third generation was smaller.
consumed less power and also generated less heat.
maintenance cost of the computers in the third generation was also low.
easier for commercial use

Fourth Generation
1972 to 2010
microprocessor technology
it became portable
started generating very low amount of heat.
production cost reduced to very low
available for the common people as well.

Fifth Generation
2010 to till date and beyond
on the basis of hardware only, but the fifth generation technology also included software.
had high capability and large memory capacity.
multiple tasks could be performed simultaneously.
Artificial intelligence, Quantum computation, Nanotechnology, Parallel processing,