Computer

A "complete" computer including the hardware, the operating system (main software), and peripheral equipment required and used for "full" operation can be referred to as a computer system.

Computer hardware includes the physical, tangible parts or components of a computer, such as the cabinet, central processing unit, monitor, keyboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, speakers and motherboard.

Modern computers have the ability to follow generalized sets of operations, called programs. These programs enable computers to perform an extremely wide range of tasks.

A computer program is a collection of instructions that performs a specific task when executed by a computer.

This term may as well be used for a group of computers that are connected and work together, in particular a computer network or computer cluster.

A computer cluster is a set of loosely or tightly connected computers that work together so that, in many respects, they can be viewed as a single system.

Computers are used as control systems for a wide variety of industrial and consumer devices.

A programmable logic controller (PLC) or programmable controller is an industrial digital computer which has been ruggedized and adapted for the control of manufacturing processes, such as assembly lines, or robotic devices, or any activity that requires high reliability control and ease of programming and process fault diagnosis.

This includes simple special purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls, factory devices such as industrial robots and computer-aided design, and also general purpose devices like personal computers and mobile devices such as smartphones.

A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use.

This includes simple special purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls, factory devices such as industrial robots and computer-aided design, and also general purpose devices like personal computers and mobile devices such as smartphones.

Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or workstations) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design.

A "complete" computer including the hardware, the operating system (main software), and peripheral equipment required and used for "full" operation can be referred to as a computer system.

A peripheral or peripheral device is "an input or output deviceancillary device used to put information into and get information out of the computer".

The Internet is run on computers and it connects hundreds of millions of other computers and their users.

The linking of commercial networks and enterprises by the early 1990s marked the beginning of the transition to the modern Internet, and generated a sustained exponential growth as generations of institutional, personal, and mobile computers were connected to the network.

More sophisticated electrical machines did specialized analog calculations in the early 20th century.

They can also include computers and sensors that monitor performance and plan movement, often called mechanical systems.

A computer is a machine that can be instructed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically via computer programming.

The purpose of programming is to find a sequence of instructions that will automate the performance of a task (which can be as complex as an operating system) on a computer, often for solving a given problem.

Conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU) in the form of a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) microprocessor, along with some type of computer memory, typically MOS semiconductor memory chips.

A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor or main processor, is the electronic circuitry within a computer that executes instructions that make up a computer program.

Conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU) in the form of a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) microprocessor, along with some type of computer memory, typically MOS semiconductor memory chips.

In computing, memory refers to a device that is used to store information for immediate use in a computer or related computer hardware device.

This usage of the term referred to a human computer, a person who carried out calculations or computations.

The term "computer", in use from the early 17th century (the first known written reference dates from 1613), meant "one who computes": a person performing mathematical calculations, before electronic computers became commercially available.

The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest mechanical analog "computer", according to Derek J. de Solla Price. During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation.

An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuously changeable aspects of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved.

The speed, power and versatility of computers have been increasing dramatically ever since then, with MOS transistor counts increasing at a rapid pace (as predicted by Moore's law), leading to the Digital Revolution during the late 20th to early 21st centuries.

In terms of computer systems that consist of numerous integrated circuits, the supercomputer with the highest transistor count is the Chinese-designed Sunway TaihuLight, which has for all CPUs/nodes (10 12 for the 10 million cores and for RAM 10 15 for the 1.3 million GB) combined "about 400 trillion transistors in the processing part of the hardware" and "the DRAM includes about 12 quadrillion transistors, and that’s about 97 percent of all the transistors."

Since ancient times, simple manual devices like the abacus aided people in doing calculations.

Although today many use calculators and computers instead of abacuses to calculate, abacuses still remain in common use in some countries.

The first semiconductor transistors in the late 1940s were followed by the silicon-based MOSFET (MOS transistor) and monolithic integrated circuit (IC) chip technologies in the late 1950s, leading to the microprocessor and the microcomputer revolution in the 1970s.

The relatively small portion of very highly purified elemental silicon used in semiconductor electronics (< 10%) is essential to the metal-oxide-silicon (MOS) transistors and integrated circuit chips used in most modern technology (such as computers and cell phones, for example).

The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the use of the term to mean calculating machine' (of any type) is from 1897." The Online Etymology Dictionary indicates that the "modern use" of the term, to mean "programmable digital electronic computer" dates from "1945 under this name; [in a] theoretical [sense] from 1937, as Turing machine".

While they can express arbitrary computations, their minimalist design makes them unsuitable for computation in practice: real-world computers are based on different designs that, unlike Turing machines, use random-access memory.

Conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU) in the form of a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) microprocessor, along with some type of computer memory, typically MOS semiconductor memory chips. The first semiconductor transistors in the late 1940s were followed by the silicon-based MOSFET (MOS transistor) and monolithic integrated circuit (IC) chip technologies in the late 1950s, leading to the microprocessor and the microcomputer revolution in the 1970s.

The advent of low-cost computers on integrated circuits has transformed modern society.

During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation.

Computing is any activity that uses computers to manage, process, and communicate information.

The first semiconductor transistors in the late 1940s were followed by the silicon-based MOSFET (MOS transistor) and monolithic integrated circuit (IC) chip technologies in the late 1950s, leading to the microprocessor and the microcomputer revolution in the 1970s.

Although there were far more advanced machines at the time of its construction, the Simon represented the first experience of building an automatic simple digital computer, for educational purposes.

The input of programs and data was to be provided to the machine via punched cards, a method being used at the time to direct mechanical looms such as the Jacquard loom.

Many early digital computers used punched cards, often prepared using keypunch machines, as the primary medium for input of both computer programs and data.

In the US, John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry of Iowa State University developed and tested the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) in 1942, the first "automatic electronic digital computer".

John Vincent Atanasoff, (October 4, 1903 – June 15, 1995) was an American physicist and inventor, best known for being credited with inventing the first electronic digital computer.

The Z2, created by German engineer Konrad Zuse in 1939, was one of the earliest examples of an electromechanical relay computer.

The Z2 was a mechanical and relay computer completed by Konrad Zuse in 1940.

Computers are used as control systems for a wide variety of industrial and consumer devices.

In the 2010s, most consumer electronics have become based on digital technologies, and have largely merged with the computer industry in what is increasingly referred to as the consumerization of information technology.