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COMPUTER

Computer

Based on Based on
Construction Configuration

Analogue Super
Computers Computers

Digital Micro
Computers Computers

Hybrid
Computers Mainframe

Micro
Computers
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COMPUTER

Contents
COMPUTER: -..............................................................................................................................................3
Based on Construction: -.............................................................................................................................3
1. Analogue Computers: -.......................................................................................................................3
2. Digital Computers: -............................................................................................................................4
3. Hybrid Computers: -............................................................................................................................5
Based on Configuration: -...........................................................................................................................5
4. Super Computers: -.............................................................................................................................5
5. Mainframe: -.......................................................................................................................................6
6. Mini Computers: -...............................................................................................................................7
7. Micro Computers: -.............................................................................................................................8

COMPUTER: -
Computer is defined as an electronic device,
operating under the control of instructions stored in its own
memory. It generally accepts data as an input, processes it in
the CPU and produces information as an output. It also has the
ability to store and retrieve1 personal date of the user.

1
To recover something or to bring back something.
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(As we have discussed above that the Computer is classified on
the basis of construction and configuration and the types
involved in these are explained as):

Based on Construction: -
Based on Construction, the computer has many
types including:
1.Analogue Computers: -
An analog computer or analogue
computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous
variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical,
mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (analog signals) to model the
problem being solved.
Analog computers were widely used in scientific and industrial
applications even after the advent of digital computers, because
at the time they were typically much faster, but they started to
become obsolete2 as early as the 1950s and 1960s, although
they remained in use in some specific applications, such as
aircraft flight simulators, the flight computer in aircraft, and for
teaching control systems in universities.
2.Digital Computers: -
Digital computer, any of a class of devices capable
of solving problems by processing information in discrete form.

2
no longer produced or used; out of date.
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It operates on data, including magnitudes, letters, and symbols,

that are expressed in binary code i.e., using only the two digits 0
and 1.
By counting, comparing, and manipulating these digits or their
combinations according to a set of instructions held in its
memory, a digital computer can perform such tasks as to control
industrial processes and regulate the operations of machines;
analyze and organize vast amounts of business data; and
simulate the behavior of dynamic systems (e.g., global weather
patterns and chemical reactions) in scientific research.
A typical digital computer system has four basic functional
elements:
(1) input-output equipment.
(2) main memory.
(3) control unit.
(4) arithmetic-logic unit.
3.Hybrid Computers: -
Hybrid computers are computers that
exhibit features of analog computers and digital computers.
The digital component normally serves as the controller and
provides logical and numerical operations, while the analog
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component often serves as a solver of differential equations and
other mathematically complex problems.

In the electronics world, anything that is a combination of analog

and digital technology is a hybrid. For example: D-A and A-D
converters3, some microprocessors, most telecom devises, and
if you stretch it, certainly digital microphones, some headsets,
cell phones and all laptops, PCs, iPads and the like.

Based on Configuration: -
Based on the configuration, the computers are
classified as follow:
4.Super Computers: -
Supercomputers are
defined as a particularly powerful mainframe computer.

Supercomputers are the fastest and the most expensive

computers. These huge computers are used to solve very
complex science and engineering problems.
Supercomputers get their processing power by taking
advantage of parallel processing4 they use lots of CPUs at the
same time on one problem. A typical supercomputer can do up
to ten trillion individual calculations every second.

3
D/A converter converts digital signals into analog format, and A/D converter converts analog into digital
4
Method of using 2 or more processors to handle separate tasks.
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Supercomputers are used in heavy industries and in scientific
labs including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate
research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling.
5.Mainframe: -
Mainframe (colloquially, "big iron")5 computers
are similar to supercomputers in many aspects, the main
difference between them is the fact that a supercomputer uses
all its raw power to focus on very few tasks, while a mainframe
performs thousands or millions of operations concurrently.
It is defined as computer used for large-scale, compute-
intensive purposes and tasks that require greater availability and
security than smaller-scale machines

Due to its nature, mainframes are often employed by large

organizations for bulk data processing, such as census, industry
and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning and
transaction processing.
6.Mini Computers: -
The personal or microcomputers are the one that are
built for being used by a single user or some personal use.
Its physical characteristics and low cost are appealing and
useful for its users. Early personal computers, generally called

5
to differentiate large computers from the smaller minicomputers.
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microcomputers, sold often in kit form and in limited volumes
and were of interest mostly to hobbyists.

An example of servers would be the computers that Wikipedia

stores its encyclopedia on. Those computers have to go and
find the page you're looking for and send it to you. In itself, it's
not a big task, but it becomes a job for a server when the
computers have to go and find lots of pages for a lot of people
and send them to the right place.
Some servers store app data too instead of files. These servers
include WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook servers.

7.Micro Computers: -
A microcomputer is a complete computer on a small
scale, designed for use by one person at a time.
An antiquated term, a microcomputer is now primarily called a
personal computer (PC), or a device based on a single-chip
microprocessor. Common microcomputers include laptops and
desktops. Beyond standard PCs, microcomputers also include
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some calculators, mobile phones, notebooks, workstations and
embedded systems.

Smaller than a mainframe or minicomputer, a microcomputer

uses a single integrated semiconductor chip for its central

processing unit (CPU). They also contain memory in the form of

read-only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM),
input/output (I/O) ports, and a bus or system of interconnecting
wires, all housed in a single unit usually referred to as a
motherboard.