The first generation of computers had vacuum tubes. Then came teh mainframes. Mainframes used transistors, which took the place of the unreliable vacuum tubes. The transistors were much less bulky than the vacuum tubes. Transistors control the flow of electric current in electronic devices. Mainframes today are fast computers with large memory. They can solve complicated problems, and store large amounts of information. They can be designed to solve a certain type of problem, or to do a variety of problems. The next phase came with the designing of integrated circuits, containing thousands of transistors and other tiny parts on a small chip. These devices helped people create minicomputers. This enabled computers to have a good memory and a larger capacity. Circuits were also placed on silicon chips. Some circuits contained logic; other chips, memory. Smaller computers became possible, and microcomputers were developed.  

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Software History