A computer is a machine that can store and process information. Most computers rely on a binary system, which uses two variables, 0 and 1, to complete tasks such as storing data, calculating algorithms, and displaying information.
Computer software is divided into two basic types—the operating system and application software. The operating system controls how the different parts of hardware work together. Application software gives the computer instructions for doing specific tasks, such as word processing or playing games.
Computer - Home Use, Microprocessors, Software: Before 1970, computers were big machines requiring thousands of separate transistors. They were operated by specialized technicians, who often dressed in white lab coats and were commonly referred to as a computer priesthood.
Computer - Output Devices: Printers are a common example of output devices. New multifunction peripherals that integrate printing, scanning, and copying into a single device are also popular. Computer monitors are sometimes treated as peripherals.
Computer - Memory, Storage, Processing: The earliest forms of computer main memory were mercury delay lines, which were tubes of mercury that stored data as ultrasonic waves, and cathode-ray tubes, which stored data as charges on the tubes’ screens.
Since the development of the Harvard Mark I, the digital computer has evolved at a rapid pace. The succession of advances in computer equipment, principally in logic circuitry, is often divided into generations, with each generation comprising a group of machines that share a common technology.
Although other automated systems are typically controlled by computer, the term computer process control is generally associated with continuous or semicontinuous production operations involving materials such as chemicals, petroleum, foods, and certain basic metals.
Computer science - Programming Languages, Syntax, Algorithms: Programming languages are the languages with which a programmer implements a piece of software to run on a computer.
It was built by Fernando Corbato and Robert Jano at MIT, and it connected an IBM 709 computer with three users typing away at IBM Flexowriters. This was only a prototype for a more elaborate time-sharing system that Corbato was working on, called Compatible Time-Sharing System, or CTSS.
