THIRD GENERATION Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers 1964-1971: Integrated Circuits Instead of punched cards and printouts, 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 a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors (System 360 Mainframe from IBM, PDP-8 Mini Computer from Digital Equipment Corporation) Read more...