What is Computer?
Table of Content:
Computers were invented to compute to solve complex mathematical problems, as the dictionary still defines that word. They still do that, but that is not why we are living in an Information Age. That reflects other things that computers do: store and retrieve data, manage networks of communications, process text, generate and manipulate images and sounds, fly air and space craft, and so on.
Computers process data under the control of sets of instructions called computer programs. These computer programs guide the computer through orderly sets of actions specified by people called computer programmers .
A computer is comprised of various devices (such as the keyboard, screen, mouse, disks, memory, DVD, CD-ROM and processing units) that are referred to as hardware. The computer programs that run on a computer are referred to as software. Hardware costs have been declining dramatically in recent years, to the point that personal computers have become commodities. Unfortunately, for decades software development costs rose steadily as programmers developed ever more powerful and complex applications, without significantly improved technology for software development.
Computer is an advanced electronic device that takes raw data as an input from the user and processes it under the control of a set of instructions (called program), produces a result (output), and saves it for future use. This tutorial explains the foundational concepts of computer hardware, software, operating systems, peripherals, etc. along with how to get the most value and impact from computer technology.
Deep inside a computer are circuits that do those things by transforming them into a mathematical language. But most of us never see the equations, and few of us would understand them if we did. Most of us, nevertheless, participate in this digital culture, whether by using an ATM card, composing and printing an office newsletter, calling a mail-order house on a toll-free number and ordering some clothes for next-day delivery, or shopping at a mega-mall where the inventory is replenished just-in-time. For these and many other applications, we can use all the power of this invention without ever seeing an equation. As far as the public face is concerned, computing is the least important thing that computers do.
But it was to solve equations that the electronic digital computer was invented. The word computer originally meant a person who solved equations; it was only around 1945 that the name was carried over to machinery.
That an invention should find a place in society unforeseen by its inventors is not surprising. The story of the computer illustrates that. It is not that the computer ended up not being used for calculation, it is used for calculation by most practicing scientists and engineers today. That much, at least, the computer’s inventors predicted. But people found ways to get the invention to do a lot more. How they did that, transforming the mathematical engines of the 1940s to the networked information appliance of the 1990s.
(Source: The History of Mordern Computing)