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Computers which are in use today are digital computers. They manipulate numbers. They operate on binary digitals 0 and 1. They understand information composed of only 0s and 1s. In the case of alphabetic information, the alphabets are coded in binary digitals, A binary digit is called bit. A group of 8 bits is called a byte. Computers do not operate on analog quantities directly. If any analog quantity is to processed, it must be converted into digital quantity before processing. The output of a computer is also digital. If analog output is needed, the digital output has to be converted into analog quantity. If output is to be displayed in the form of text, the digital output is converted to alphabets. The components which convert alphanumeric characters to binary format and binary output to alphanumeric characters are the essential parts of a dightal computer. But the electronic components which convert analog quantity to digital quantity or digital quantity to analog quantity are connected to a digital computer as peripherals where needed. Processing of analog quantity is usually encountered in industrial control and instrumentation, not in general purpose computation, text manipulation or information storage, retrieval or transmission.

The computer which can process analog quantities is called analog computer. Today, analog computers are rarely used. Earlier, analog computer were used to simulate certain systems, They were used to solve differential equataions.

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