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1.2 Meaning of computers
Para 1.2
BASI C COMPUTER CONCEPTS AND NET WORKI NG
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now-a- days has passedthrough vari ous stages of evol uti on before co m i ngi nits present for m . The present chapter is ai medto discuss the phases of evol uti on, characteristics and advantages of co mputers to hu man bei ngs. Further, the worki ng syste m of the co mputers and nu mber syste m are also discussed to knowthe functi onality of the co mputers i n this chapter.
1.2 MEANING OF COMPUTERS
The co mputer is a general purpose electronic device progra mmed to process data andtoconvertiti ntoi nfor mati on. Itis a progra mmable electronic machi ne which perfor ms hi gh speed mathe matical or l ogical operati ons. It is also pro gra mmedtostore, retrieve and correl atethei nfor mati on. It is a co mpositi on of hardware and soft ware that can exist i n a variety of sizes and confi gurati ons. A co mputer consists of many electronic co mponents or parts, each one havi ng a speci al role to perfor m . So me co mponents are hi ddeni nsi de the co mputer, whereas so me of the mare visi ble fro moutsi de.
Insi de a co mputer there is a
motherboard
whi ch gets its na me becauseitisli ke a mother to all of the other circuit boards. This is the mai n circuit board which connects all of the other i nternal co mponents. The CPU and the me mory are usuall y pl aced on the mother -board. Other syste ms may be onthe motherboard or may be connected to it through so me secondary connecti on. For exa mpl e, a sound card can be built onto the motherboard or connected through PCI ( Peri pheral Co mponent Interface). The co mputer, an electronic device, has to accept data and processes the data accordi ng to the progra mand produces the output. For all this the co mputer needst wotypes ofi nput onei nthefor mof datato be processed and otheri nthe for mof the set of i nstructi ons (also called co mputer progra m ) to process or act uponthe data. The co mputer is used as a data processor andit is progra mmed to handle the data which may vary i n size and struct ure. Sche maticall y this process is showni n fi gure 1. 2.
