Sixth Generation of Computers; origin, history and evolution

Do you know how to define the computer-computational moment in which we find ourselves? And, above all, do you know what it is due to? This is the sixth generation of computers and today we are going to see it in detail.

Is starts in the year 2000that is, with the millennium, and it still extends up to the moment you are reading these words, and it gradually transforms every day that passes In fact, its days are numbered, being very close what will be the seventh generation, scheduled for very shortly.

Do you want to know what the milestones of this completely technological moment in which we find ourselves have been? We’re going to explain it all to you. from the characteristics that define it to the main inventions through recognized personalities and historical moments. See all generations of computers full.

What characteristics define the sixth generation of computers?

The beginning of this time is given with the introduction of wireless connectivity elements (bluetooth, WiFi, WiMax…) to connect different devices, first to networks and then to each other. However, the characteristics of this moment are several and very diverse.

These include:

• Gets better of physical connectivity systems (ADSL and fiber).
• Bandwidths are huge.
• Daily and totally standardized use of the internetfirst on desktops and then on all kinds of devices.
• Total revolution in terms of quantity and quality of hardware elements (CPU, GPU, memories…).
• Overwhelming amount of software.
• Developing of all kinds of elements until obtaining efficient products that offer unthinkable results a few years ago.
• computers with parallel and vector architectures.
• The artificial intelligence develops considerably.
• appear all kinds of smart gadgetsincluding wireless (smartphones, televisions, refrigerators, ovens, cleaning devices, watches…).
• Total freedom of design in any device, not only with miniaturization, although this is totally common and surprising.
• processors use superconductorswhich save energy.
• are made millions and millions of operations per second.
• Multimedia develops and becomes a standard method of consumption In Internet.
• I work in the cloud.
• Development of online commerce.
• Biometrics is a great incentive, given, initially, with the fingerprint reader.
• Development of specific operating systems for each type of device.
• It works, in general, to satisfy a demand for personal consumption.

As you can see, it is difficult to define the characteristics of this generation due to the fact that there are many well-differentiated aspects that are of great interest to the current user, all of which are worthy of mention.

In addition, we cannot forget that this list is expanding as the years go by, so that what is now only an outline will soon be a standard.

What we can say, without a doubt about this stage, is that corresponds to a moment of absolute and constant revolution in the technological market.

What was the evolution and history of the 6th generation of computers?

As you can imagine taking a look at the previous point, the evolution of this era can be immensely long since everything that is achieved turns out to be an advance in computational technology at one level or another. Therefore, we will attend to the most relevant aspects.

This begins, as we anticipated, with the incorporation of WiFi as a wireless connection method so that our computers (and later other devices) could connect to the network without using cables. The technology begins to be devised in 1999 and sees the light in 2000.

Other forms of wireless connectivity are also being developed, such as WiMax and Bluetoothwhich allow the sending and receiving of data by microwave and radio frequency, respectively.

Work is being done in parallel on a number of aspects, finding ourselves at a time when technology is not a novelty but rather a field for improvement.

A) Yes, appear, also in 2000, the tablets to meet the needs of users who came using the PDAs in previous years and who were looking for more comfortable and versatile devices.

These they have never been really successfulnot existing, in fact, a boom in use, but it is fair to recognize that, in terms of design and functionality, they meant a lot, considerably reducing the size of laptops and maintaining functionalities basic that any user would want to use regularly and domestically.

So does the “Blackberry”, a telephone with a keyboard and the first intelligent functions. This opens the way to smartphones, which make a phone useful for anything besides making and receiving calls.

The inclusion of its functionalities, yes, was very slow. Until a few years ago we could talk about real pocket computers (with ultra-powerful processors, large RAM memory, etc.). Once these functionalities are developed, yes, the models that appear on the market month after month multiply, giving an offer that is much higher than the demand.

As for computers, a lot of work is done to speed up processors, which improves practically exponentially with each advance. He too Masive storage It is a strong point, going to use equipment with enormous memories practically from one day to the next.

Likewise, graphics cards become important, giving them the ability to load with processing workrelieving the work of the CPU.

A turning point was launch of the SSD, a non-volatile memory hard drive with which we store data, just as we do with HDDs. Among its characteristics we find that they have almost no moving parts, they are silent, they take up very little space, their latency is minimal and, most importantly, your typing speed is much higher.

Appears in 1999 with a base in flash. In 2007 it is sold as an expansion card. In 2010 it was launched as an alternative to the HDDbeing for many the best invention of the century in the computer industry.

The laptop wins in performance, becoming an equivalent to desktop, which makes it more expensive. To combat this, other smaller portable devices with more modest features appear: netbooks, ultrabooks and notebooks.

The devices, all of them, in general, can be manufactured in a much smaller size, this being something that is left to the taste of each one, since the offer in terms of device design is infinite.

Fiber optics appears as an option to consider instead of ADSL to have a network connection in homes and businesses. Its operation is simple and known for several years. centuries but its usefulness in this sector began to be studied at the end of the 90s and was finally applied in 2005 in our country.

Bandwidths, extremely limited at first, have become enormous, allowing us to download a huge amount of content in minutes and making content streaming possible.

The amount of software that is made available to the user is countless, with a large number of them for anything you can think of, first on computers and then on other machines. A) Yes, app stores are a must At present, a digitization process is taking place, favored by the facilities that software is capable of offering in all kinds of tasks.

This also makes the cloud appeara place for everyone and no one where we can store content and work without occupying physical or virtual space in our facilities and equipment. This method of resource consumption is actually used today and is the basis of elements that we all consult daily (see the example of Google Drive).

Though supercomputers they are not machines that are in the mouth of society, relegating themselves to activities that most of us cannot even imagine, these have also multiplied their possibilities and there is a real race to have the most powerful in the world in many countries, capable of performing millions and millions of millions of operations per second.

The summary of the history of the sixth generation of computers is that it is a time when innovations are not focused on any aspect but rather we always work so that the user uses more technological equipment and lives connected. Everyone develops, and with it, improvements are released that target everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

What computers and other notable gadgets and items appeared in the 6th generation of computers?

On this occasion, due to the diversity of all kinds of devices, we do not want to highlight a particular model but the great revolutionaries that have been appearing since this last generation of computers began:

Tablet

a tablet is a mobile device that includes enough software and hardware to work like a computer but whose size is reduced and its shape consists of a rectangle of minimum thickness and between 7 and 12 inches on the diagonal. Is about a touch screen (it works with a stylus or with your own fingers) that allows us to interact with the installed elements (games, office suites, browsers, etc).

Although its concept was seen a long time ago in audiovisual products such as 2001, a space odyssey or Star Trek, the truth is that nothing similar materially existed until a long time later.

In 1972 A. Kay developed the concept of dynabook, although it was not able to carry it out due to the impossibility of developing adequate technologies. In 1987 Apple presents a video of a similar device, but totally futuristic.

It is the year 2001 that lets us see the first tablet as such, coming from the hand of Microsoft. In the following months, Nokia did the same. Microsoft again launches Mira, which was renamed Tablet PC shortly after and which was a set of screen-devices without a keyboard.

blackberry

Although this is a brand, the truth is that it is the name we have chosen to refer to the mobile devices that include a full QWERTY keyboard under their screen.

It is a predecessor of the smart mobile phone or smartphone, because with this device we sent emails, had to-do lists, etc.

Smartphone

Although the mobile phone appeared much earlier, and we can consider PDAs as pocket computers, it was not until 1999 that what we can define as the first smartphone on the market appeared. This was the i mode, from the Japanese company NTT DoCoMo. It transmitted data and allowed access to web services such as sending emails or online purchases.

This, however, was not known worldwide until much later, when other smartphone models had already been launched on the other side of the globe in 2002. based on Windows Mobile OS and BlackBerry phones.

As expected, at first they were very limited, including both very simple hardware and software that would evolve over the years to allow us, at present, to carry out the same activities that we have available on a computer.

games, drafting documents, access to all kinds of websites (both as a user and an administrator, being able to even modify sites on the network), viewing videos, updating our profiles on social networks, etc.

Nowadays, the specifications of smartphones are very similar to those of computers (include powerful graphics, 8-core processors, large internal memory and expandable even up to 2 TB…).

mobile operating systems

Indeed, the appearance of smartphones makes operating systems need to be modified so that the use of these devices is more functional, according to their characteristics.

We talk about low-level software that is designed specifically for mobile devices, be it phones, tablets or others. These allow us to get hold of other applications and use them. It is worth mentioning that somewhat modified versions of these are integrated for smart TVs.

The most used are Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS and Windows Phone although there are many others. In general, they are based on a model of layers in which one or several of them are modifiable so that each provider offers the user a personalized OS.

netbook

appears the netbook, a device similar to a laptop but smaller in size and with fewer capabilities. It is ideal for those who need to perform tasks that consume minimal resources and need a totally portable device that can be moved comfortably all day.

Similar to this we have notebook and ultrabookdevices that are gaining in performance but also in size, without becoming as powerful as a laptop in use today.

Thus, we have a wide range of laptops with more or less powerful specifications that represent an advantage or a disadvantage depending on our need.

Wifi

This is a technology that we are all used to using but when it was launched it was such a game changer that it was hard to believe that it can offer a wireless connectivity between devices and other devices and/or networks.

We see that devices such as computers, telephones, televisions and even all kinds of home automation elements are interconnected and manage each other without the need for cables. For this, the requirement is that they comply with the 802.11 standards. We also get these to connect to the network through an access point.

It is in 1999 that several companies come together to solve the problem of the lack of wireless connectivity. A few months later, already in 2000, equipment interoperability can be certified with this IEEE 802.11b standardregistering the mark “WiFi”.

Optical fiber

Its invention is considerably older, dating back to 1792 as the oldest moment in which a communicative moment occurs using optical telegraphy. However, it has not been until the new millennium that fiber optics has not reached homes (Telefónica tried its luck in our country in 2005), completely changing the how we consume data over the internet.

This is much faster than ADSL, a resource used up to now to have an internet connection in homes and premises. Also, includes a better balance between download and upload speed in most cases, especially as we move forward in time.

In fact, symmetrical fiber, which offers exactly the same upload as download, that is, it allows us to upload any file at the same speed as we download another.

Its installation is more difficult because it is its most delicate parts, although it can be taken to any place, currently there is a whole deployment of networks that takes it to every city, its implementation being almost as good as that of ADSL.

mass storage memory

As for storage memories, in this latest generation we have seen how have increased dramatically in terms of capacity. Thus, the common thing is that any simple computer already includes its 1024 GB of internal memory.

In the case of mobile phones, there is greater diversity, although it is still surprising that models with up to 256 GB are launched and that their expansion can be up to 2 TB. External hard drives, the standard is already at 4 TB, having a more than affordable price and being a storage device that we all have at home.

SSD

Also very notable is the SSD or solid state drive, a type of hard drive that is much faster and smaller in size than HDDs, which we have used until very recently (and still use for most home use cases). These were launched at a very high price, being inaccessible to many for years and being able to get hold of the most modest in terms of capacity.

This has changed and we can now enjoy very capable and fast drives (with truly amazing transfer speeds) that take up minimal space, allowing us to start our computer in just 10 seconds or less and making these work, in general, much more quickly.

Smart TV (Smart TV)

One of the last items related to computers that have become standardized are smart TVs.

These are TV sets that have been incorporating functions similar to those found in computers and smartphones. In this way, we are allowed access to more audiovisual content, so fashionable at this time in which we find ourselves.

We do this either by using browsers, just like we do on a PC, or by downloading and running apps from a store like google play or any other that is integrated into the model that we have acquired.

Also, overall connectivity is improvedbeing much more delicate and there is a greater offer in terms of types of devices that can be connected to the television (from consoles to sound bars, players, tablets, bluetooth speakers, etc), but also other types of smart devices that we can, even control from the living room.

Ethernet, WiFi and bluetooth are essential in SmartTVs and, in addition, there are many other connectivity and convergence options. We connect to the internet, wirelessly or by cable, we control household appliances, we see the content of our mobile phones and even computers on them… Without a doubt, an invention that improves the experience!

Its commercialization occurs from 2010 although it is true that a few years before, smart boxes were already being sold, which are little boxes that connect to the conventional TV and provide it with the same functionalities.