Technology

COMPUTER

Introduction

Computer is the lifeline of modern day civilization . One can not even think of life without computer today . It has become a day to day need for each and every individual . Life of even those who are not using or even have not seen a computer is so heavily dependent on computer , that everything will become practically standstill once we remove computers from the society . It is therefore , only natural that we understand this wonderful machine called computer . What is a computer ? Computer literally means a person or a

device which can do computing . But then anybody can do computing and we do not call everybody a Computer . The fact that anybody can do computing can be explained by the fact that the human brain is a very good computer . So , what is a computer ? It is now a days no longer tough to define it . The way we perceive computers today is an electronic machine that does a lot of fantastic work . How it do so ? First of all let us define COMPUTER

A Computer is a machine which is used for manipulating data according to a list of instructions . It can also be defined as : A programmable machine having two principal characteristics

which responds to a specific set of instructions and

which can execute a prerecorded list of instructions

Hence , a computer can be defined as an electronic data processing device , capable of accepting data , applying a prescribed set of instructions to the data , and displaying in some manner or form Therefore , it has a means to accept data by using input devices it has a processor to processor to process the data as per the set of given instructions also termed a program , and a means to display data by means of an output devices . We will talk about all this , but lets begin with history of computers

The History of Computers

Who invented computer ? It is not simple to answer the question . The answer to the question is that many inventors contributed to the evolution of modern day computers

Primitive examples of mechanical calculating devices like Abacus (http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Abacus , Slide rule http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Slide_rule

and Antikythera mechanisms (http /www .math .sunysb .edu tony /whatsnew /column /antikytheraI-0400 /kyth 1 .html ) can be considered as initial computing devices . In 1837 Charles Babbage coceptualized and designed a fully programmable machinery which was termed as The Computer ( HYPERLINK "http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /computer http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /computer , it was essentially a mechanical computer . By the end of 19th century a number of technologies had begun to appear which proved useful in the realization of practical computers .Many new advancements were done during the first half of 20th century and more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in 1930s and 1940s .Vacuum-tube based computers were in use throughout the 1950s but they were largely replaced in the 1960s by transistor-based devices .The transistor-based devices proved to be cheaper...