BASIC CONCEPTS OF COMPUTER
Concept of Computer
Introduction:
Nowadays, computer is an integral part of our lives. They are used for the reservation of tickets for airplanes and railways, payment of telephone and electricity bills, deposit and withdrawal of money from banks, processing of business data, forecasting of weather conditions, diagnosis of diseases, searching for information on the Internet, etc. Computers are also used extensively in schools, universities, organizations, music industry, movie industry, scientific research, law firms, fashion industry, etc.
A computer is a device that transforms unusable data into information. According to the set of instructions the user gives it, it processes the input and generates the desired outcome.
Simply speaking computer is a calculating device. The name is derived from the Latin word computare meaning “to compute”, and can be applied as properly to an abacus or an adding machine as to the modern computer. However, the concept of computer has come to mean a special type of programming machine having some basic characteristics.
Fast and reliable
Receive, process and store information
A multitasking machine perform quickly, accurately
What is Computer
Following are some definitions of computer which will clear your concept
An electronic machine can store and process information. It is defined as stored program digital computing system.
A Computer is an electronic device of wires, transistors, circuits, instructions and data that can transmit, store and manipulate information.
A Computer is a machine that accepts data and processes that data (data may be numbers, letters or both or even sounds). Information is turned into electrical pulses so that it may be processed by sorting, collating and deleting mathematical manipulation and other forms of data processing.
Computer System
A computer accepts information using an input device. The information is processed by a central processing unit or stored in a storage unit i.e. Hard Disk and then processed. The result is supplied by an output devices. If the input and output units are connected to a manufacturing process, the computer can control the process and the system is called a computing system.
Characteristics of Computer
Speed, accuracy, diligence, storage capability and versatility are some of the key characteristics of a computer. A brief overview of these characteristics are;-
Speed: The computer can process data very fast, at the rate of millions of instructions per second. Some calculations that would have taken hours and days to complete otherwise, can be completed in a few seconds using the computer. For example, calculation and generation of salary slips of thousands of employees of an organization, weather forecasting that requires analysis of a large amount of data related to temperature, pressure and humidity of various places, etc.
Accuracy: Computer provides a high degree of accuracy. For example, the computer can accurately give the result of division of any two numbers up to 10 decimal places.
Diligence: When used for a longer period of time, the computer does not get tired or fatigued. It can perform long and complex calculations with the same speed and accuracy from the start till the end.
Storage Capability: Large volumes of data and information can be stored in the computer and also retrieved whenever required. A limited amount of data can be stored, temporarily, in the primary memory. Secondary storage devices like floppy disk and compact disk can store a large amount of data permanently.
Versatility: Computer is versatile in nature. It can perform different types of tasks with the same ease. At one moment you can use the computer to prepare a letter document and in the next moment you may play music or print a document. Computers have several limitations too. Computer can only perform tasks that it has been programmed to do. Computer cannot do any work without instructions from the user. It executes instructions as specified by the user and does not take its own decisions.