Cross-Section Articles
INTRODUCATION
Computer is the most powerful tool man has ever created. Computers have made a great impact on our everyday life. Their presence is felt at almost every working place, viz. Homes. Schools, colleges, offices, industries, hospitals, banks, retail stores, railways, research and design organizations and so on. Computers, large and small, are used nowadays by all kinds of people for a variety of tasks in a modern and industrialized society.
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DIGITAL AND ANALOG COMPUTERS
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.
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MAJOR COMPONENTS OF A DIGITAL COMPUTER
The major components of a digital computer are: CPU (central processing unit), memory, input device and output device. The input and output devices are also known as peripherals.
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COMPUTER CLASSIFICATION
Modern computers are classified as follow:
(1) Palmtop computer, also known as palm PCs or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).
(2) Notebook computer, also known as laptop computer. Some trade names of notebook computer are: IBM’s Thinkpad 570, Compaq’s Armada – E700, M700, M300 servies, H.P.’s Omnibook, Siemen’s Scenic mobile 750 AGB (high-end multimedia notebook), Apply’s ibook, etc.
(3) Desktop Computers
(4) Workstations
(5) Servers
(6) Super Computers
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HARDWARE, SOFTWARE AND FIRMWARE
The physical components of a computer are called hardware. A physical component may be electronic, electrical, magnetic, mechanical or optical. Examples of hardware are microprocessors and other ICs, hard disks, floppy disks, optical disks, cathode ray tube (CRT), keyboard, printer, plotter, etc.
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