Computer

A computer is a
machine that can be
programmed to
automatically carry out
sequences of arithmetic
or logical operations
(computation). Modern
digital electronic
computers can perform
generic sets of
operations known as
programs. These
programs enable
computers to perform a
wide range of tasks. The
term computer system
may refer to a nominally
complete computer that
includes the hardware,
operating system, Computers and computing devices from different eras—left to right, top to bottom:
software, and peripheral
Early vacuum tube computer (ENIAC)
equipment needed and
Mainframe computer (IBM System 360)
used for full operation;
or to a group of Smartphone (LYF Water 2)
computers that are Desktop computer (IBM ThinkCentre S50 with monitor)
linked and function Video game console (Nintendo GameCube)
together, such as a Supercomputer (IBM Summit)
computer network or
computer cluster.

A broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers as control systems, including simple
special-purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls, and factory devices like industrial
robots. Computers are at the core of general-purpose devices such as personal computers and mobile
devices such as smartphones. Computers power the Internet, which links billions of computers and users.

Early computers were meant to be used only for calculations. Simple manual instruments like the abacus
have aided people in doing calculations since ancient times. Early in the Industrial Revolution, some
mechanical devices were built to automate long, tedious tasks, such as guiding patterns for looms. More
sophisticated electrical machines did specialized analog calculations in the early 20th century. The first
digital electronic calculating machines were developed during World War II, both electromechanical and
using thermionic valves. The first semiconductor transistors in the late 1940s were followed by the
silicon-based MOSFET (MOS transistor) and monolithic integrated circuit chip technologies in the late
1950s, leading to the microprocessor and the microcomputer revolution in the 1970s. The speed, power,
and versatility of computers have been increasing dramatically ever since then, with transistor counts
increasing at a rapid pace (Moore's law noted that counts doubled every two years), leading to the Digital
Revolution during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central
processing unit (CPU) in the form of a microprocessor, together with some type of computer memory,
typically semiconductor memory chips. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logical
operations, and a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in response to stored
information. Peripheral devices include input devices (keyboards, mice, joysticks, etc.), output devices
(monitors, printers, etc.), and input/output devices that perform both functions (e.g. touchscreens).
Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source, and they enable the results
of operations to be saved and retrieved.

Etymology
It was not until the mid-20th century that the word acquired
its modern definition; according to the Oxford English
Dictionary, the first known use of the word computer was in a
different sense, in a 1613 book called The Yong Mans
Gleanings by the English writer Richard Brathwait: "I haue
[sic] read the truest computer of Times, and the best
Arithmetician that euer [sic] breathed, and he reduceth thy
dayes into a short number." This usage of the term referred to
a human computer, a person who carried out calculations or
computations. The word continued to have the same meaning
until the middle of the 20th century. During the latter part of A human computer, with microscope and
this period, women were often hired as computers because calculator, 1952
they could be paid less than their male counterparts.[1] By
1943, most human computers were women.[2]

The Online Etymology Dictionary gives the first attested use of computer in the 1640s, meaning 'one who
calculates'; this is an "agent noun from compute (v.)". The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the
use of the term to mean " 'calculating machine' (of any type) is from 1897." The Online Etymology
Dictionary indicates that the "modern use" of the term, to mean 'programmable digital electronic
computer' dates from "1945 under this name; [in a] theoretical [sense] from 1937, as Turing machine".[3]
The name has remained, although modern computers are capable of many higher-level functions.

History

Pre-20th century
Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly
using one-to-one correspondence with fingers. The earliest counting device
was most likely a form of tally stick. Later record keeping aids throughout the
Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay spheres, cones, etc.) which represented
counts of items, likely livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay
containers.[a][4] The use of counting rods is one example.

The abacus was initially used for

arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus
was developed from devices used
in Babylonia as early as 2400 BCE.
Since then, many other forms of
The Ishango bone, a
reckoning boards or tables have bone tool dating back
been invented. In a medieval to prehistoric Africa
The Chinese suanpan (算盘). The
European counting house, a
number represented on this abacus is checkered cloth would be placed on
6,302,715,408. a table, and markers moved around on it according to certain
rules, as an aid to calculating sums of money.[5]

The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest known

mechanical analog computer, according to Derek J. de Solla Price.[6] It
was designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in
1901 in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera,
between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to approximately
c. 100 BCE. Devices of comparable complexity to the Antikythera
mechanism would not reappear until the fourteenth century.[7]

Many mechanical aids to calculation and measurement were constructed

The Antikythera mechanism,
for astronomical and navigation use. The planisphere was a star chart dating back to ancient
invented by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the early 11th century.[8] The Greece circa 150–100 BCE,
astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world in either the 1st or 2nd is an early analog computing
centuries BCE and is often attributed to Hipparchus. A combination of device.
the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe was effectively an analog
computer capable of working out several different kinds of problems in
spherical astronomy. An astrolabe incorporating a mechanical calendar computer[9][10] and gear-wheels
was invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan, Persia in 1235.[11] Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī invented the first
mechanical geared lunisolar calendar astrolabe,[12] an early fixed-wired knowledge processing
machine[13] with a gear train and gear-wheels,[14] c. 1000 AD.

The sector, a calculating instrument used for solving problems in proportion, trigonometry, multiplication
and division, and for various functions, such as squares and cube roots, was developed in the late 16th
century and found application in gunnery, surveying and navigation.

The planimeter was a manual instrument to calculate the area of a closed figure by tracing over it with a
mechanical linkage.
 The slide rule was invented around 1620–1630, by the
English clergyman William Oughtred, shortly after the
publication of the concept of the logarithm. It is a hand-
operated analog computer for doing multiplication and
division. As slide rule development progressed, added
A slide rule
scales provided reciprocals, squares and square roots,
cubes and cube roots, as well as transcendental functions
such as logarithms and exponentials, circular and hyperbolic trigonometry and other functions. Slide rules
with special scales are still used for quick performance of routine calculations, such as the E6B circular
slide rule used for time and distance calculations on light aircraft.

In the 1770s, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss watchmaker, built a mechanical doll (automaton) that could
write holding a quill pen. By switching the number and order of its internal wheels different letters, and
hence different messages, could be produced. In effect, it could be mechanically "programmed" to read
instructions. Along with two other complex machines, the doll is at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of
Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and still operates.[15]

In 1831–1835, mathematician and engineer Giovanni Plana devised a Perpetual Calendar machine, which
through a system of pulleys and cylinders could predict the perpetual calendar for every year from 0 CE
(that is, 1 BCE) to 4000 CE, keeping track of leap years and varying day length. The tide-predicting
machine invented by the Scottish scientist Sir William Thomson in 1872 was of great utility to navigation
in shallow waters. It used a system of pulleys and wires to automatically calculate predicted tide levels
for a set period at a particular location.

The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by
integration, used wheel-and-disc mechanisms to perform the integration. In 1876, Sir William Thomson
had already discussed the possible construction of such calculators, but he had been stymied by the
limited output torque of the ball-and-disk integrators.[16] In a differential analyzer, the output of one
integrator drove the input of the next integrator, or a graphing output. The torque amplifier was the
advance that allowed these machines to work. Starting in the 1920s, Vannevar Bush and others developed
mechanical differential analyzers.

In the 1890s, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo began to develop a series of advanced
analog machines that could solve real and complex roots of polynomials,[17][18][19][20] which were
published in 1901 by the Paris Academy of Sciences.[21]

First computer
Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and polymath, originated the concept of a
programmable computer. Considered the "father of the computer",[22] he conceptualized and invented the
first mechanical computer in the early 19th century.

After working on his difference engine he announced his invention in 1822, in a paper to the Royal
Astronomical Society, titled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical
and mathematical tables".[23] He also designed to aid in navigational calculations, in 1833 he realized that
a much more general design, an analytical engine, was possible. The input of programs and data was to
be provided to the machine via punched cards, a method being used at the time to direct mechanical
looms such as the Jacquard loom. For output, the machine would have a printer, a curve plotter and a bell.
 The machine would also be able to punch
numbers onto cards to be read in later.
The engine would incorporate an
arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the
form of conditional branching and loops,
and integrated memory, making it the
first design for a general-purpose
computer that could be described in
modern terms as Turing-complete.[24][25]

The machine was about a century ahead

Charles Babbage of its time. All the parts for his machine A diagram of a portion of
had to be made by hand – this was a Babbage's Difference
major problem for a device with engine
thousands of parts. Eventually, the project was dissolved with the decision
of the British Government to cease funding. Babbage's failure to complete
the analytical engine can be chiefly attributed to political and financial
difficulties as well as his desire to develop an increasingly sophisticated
computer and to move ahead faster than anyone else could follow.
Nevertheless, his son, Henry Babbage, completed a simplified version of
the analytical engine's computing unit (the mill) in 1888. He gave a
successful demonstration of its use in computing tables in 1906.
The Difference Engine
Electromechanical calculating machine Number 2 at the
Intellectual Ventures
In his work Essays on Automatics laboratory in Seattle
published in 1914, Leonardo Torres
Quevedo wrote a brief history of
Babbage's efforts at constructing a mechanical Difference Engine
and Analytical Engine. The paper contains a design of a machine
Electro-mechanical calculator capable to calculate formulas like , for a sequence of
(1920) by Leonardo Torres sets of values. The whole machine was to be controlled by a read-
Quevedo.
only program, which was complete with provisions for conditional
branching. He also introduced the idea of floating-point
arithmetic. [26][27][28] In 1920, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the invention of the arithmometer,
Torres presented in Paris the Electromechanical Arithmometer, which allowed a user to input arithmetic
problems through a keyboard, and computed and printed the results,[29][30][31][32] demonstrating the
feasibility of an electromechanical analytical engine.[33]

Analog computers
During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly
sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a
basis for computation. However, these were not programmable and generally lacked the versatility and
accuracy of modern digital computers.[34] The first modern analog computer was a tide-predicting
machine, invented by Sir William Thomson (later to become Lord Kelvin) in 1872. The differential
 analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential
equations by integration using wheel-and-disc mechanisms, was
conceptualized in 1876 by James Thomson, the elder brother of the
more famous Sir William Thomson.[16]

The art of mechanical analog computing reached its zenith with the
differential analyzer, built by H. L. Hazen and Vannevar Bush at MIT
starting in 1927. This built on the mechanical integrators of James
Thomson and the torque amplifiers invented by H. W. Nieman. A
dozen of these devices were built before their obsolescence became
Sir William Thomson's third tide- obvious. By the 1950s, the success of digital electronic computers
predicting machine design, had spelled the end for most analog computing machines, but analog
1879–81
computers remained in use during the 1950s in some specialized
applications such as education (slide rule) and aircraft (control
systems).

Digital computers

Electromechanical
Claude Shannon's 1937 master's thesis laid the foundations of digital computing, with his insight of
applying Boolean algebra to the analysis and synthesis of switching circuits being the basic concept
which underlies all electronic digital computers.[35][36]

By 1938, the United States Navy had developed an electromechanical analog computer small enough to
use aboard a submarine. This was the Torpedo Data Computer, which used trigonometry to solve the
problem of firing a torpedo at a moving target. During World War II similar devices were developed in
other countries as well.

Early digital computers were electromechanical; electric switches

drove mechanical relays to perform the calculation. These devices
had a low operating speed and were eventually superseded by much
faster all-electric computers, originally using vacuum tubes. The Z2,
created by German engineer Konrad Zuse in 1939 in Berlin, was one
of the earliest examples of an electromechanical relay computer.[37]

In 1941, Zuse followed his earlier machine up with the Z3, the
Replica of Konrad Zuse's Z3, the world's first working electromechanical programmable, fully
first fully automatic, digital automatic digital computer.[40][41] The Z3 was built with 2000 relays,
(electromechanical) computer
implementing a 22 bit word length that operated at a clock frequency
of about 5–10 Hz.[42] Program code was supplied on punched film
while data could be stored in 64 words of memory or supplied from the keyboard. It was quite similar to
modern machines in some respects, pioneering numerous advances such as floating-point numbers.
Rather than the harder-to-implement decimal system (used in Charles Babbage's earlier design), using a
binary system meant that Zuse's machines were easier to build and potentially more reliable, given the
technologies available at that time.[43] The Z3 was not itself a universal computer but could be extended
to be Turing complete.[44][45]
Zuse's next computer, the Z4, became the world's first commercial computer;
after initial delay due to the Second World War, it was completed in 1950 and
delivered to the ETH Zurich.[46] The computer was manufactured by Zuse's own
company, Zuse KG, which was founded in 1941 as the first company with the
sole purpose of developing computers in Berlin.[46] The Z4 served as the
inspiration for the construction of the ERMETH, the first Swiss computer and
one of the first in Europe.[47]

Vacuum tubes and digital electronic circuits Konrad Zuse,

Purely electronic circuit elements soon replaced their mechanical and inventor of the
electromechanical equivalents, at the same time that digital calculation replaced modern
analog. The engineer Tommy Flowers, working at the Post Office Research computer[38][39]

Station in London in the 1930s, began to explore the possible use of electronics
for the telephone exchange. Experimental equipment that he built in 1934 went into operation five years
later, converting a portion of the telephone exchange network into an electronic data processing system,
using thousands of vacuum tubes.[34] In the US, John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry of Iowa
State University developed and tested the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) in 1942,[48] the first
"automatic electronic digital computer".[49] This design was also all-electronic and used about 300
vacuum tubes, with capacitors fixed in a mechanically rotating drum for memory.[50]

During World War II, the British code-breakers at Bletchley

Park achieved a number of successes at breaking encrypted
German military communications. The German encryption
machine, Enigma, was first attacked with the help of the
electro-mechanical bombes which were often run by
women.[51][52] To crack the more sophisticated German
Lorenz SZ 40/42 machine, used for high-level Army
communications, Max Newman and his colleagues
commissioned Flowers to build the Colossus.[50] He spent
Colossus, the first electronic digital
eleven months from early February 1943 designing and programmable computing device, was
building the first Colossus.[53] After a functional test in used to break German ciphers during
December 1943, Colossus was shipped to Bletchley Park, World War II. It is seen here in use at
where it was delivered on 18 January 1944[54] and attacked Bletchley Park in 1943.
its first message on 5 February.[50]

Colossus was the world's first electronic digital programmable computer.[34] It used a large number of
valves (vacuum tubes). It had paper-tape input and was capable of being configured to perform a variety
of boolean logical operations on its data, but it was not Turing-complete. Nine Mk II Colossi were built
(The Mk I was converted to a Mk II making ten machines in total). Colossus Mark I contained 1,500
thermionic valves (tubes), but Mark II with 2,400 valves, was both five times faster and simpler to
operate than Mark I, greatly speeding the decoding process.[55][56]

The ENIAC[57] (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first electronic programmable
computer built in the U.S. Although the ENIAC was similar to the Colossus, it was much faster, more
flexible, and it was Turing-complete. Like the Colossus, a "program" on the ENIAC was defined by the
states of its patch cables and switches, a far cry from the stored program electronic machines that came
 later. Once a program was written, it had to be mechanically
set into the machine with manual resetting of plugs and
switches. The programmers of the ENIAC were six women,
often known collectively as the "ENIAC girls".[58][59]

It combined the high speed of electronics with the ability to

be programmed for many complex problems. It could add or
subtract 5000 times a second, a thousand times faster than any
other machine. It also had modules to multiply, divide, and
square root. High speed memory was limited to 20 words
ENIAC was the first electronic, Turing- (about 80 bytes). Built under the direction of John Mauchly
complete device, and performed ballistics
and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania,
trajectory calculations for the United
ENIAC's development and construction lasted from 1943 to
States Army.
full operation at the end of 1945. The machine was huge,
weighing 30 tons, using 200 kilowatts of electric power and
contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and
inductors.[60]

Modern computers

Concept of modern computer

The principle of the modern computer was proposed by Alan Turing in his seminal 1936 paper,[61] On
Computable Numbers. Turing proposed a simple device that he called "Universal Computing machine"
and that is now known as a universal Turing machine. He proved that such a machine is capable of
computing anything that is computable by executing instructions (program) stored on tape, allowing the
machine to be programmable. The fundamental concept of Turing's design is the stored program, where
all the instructions for computing are stored in memory. Von Neumann acknowledged that the central
concept of the modern computer was due to this paper.[62] Turing machines are to this day a central object
of study in theory of computation. Except for the limitations imposed by their finite memory stores,
modern computers are said to be Turing-complete, which is to say, they have algorithm execution
capability equivalent to a universal Turing machine.

Stored programs
Early computing machines had fixed programs. Changing its
function required the re-wiring and re-structuring of the
machine.[50] With the proposal of the stored-program
computer this changed. A stored-program computer includes
by design an instruction set and can store in memory a set of
instructions (a program) that details the computation. The
theoretical basis for the stored-program computer was laid out
by Alan Turing in his 1936 paper. In 1945, Turing joined the
National Physical Laboratory and began work on developing A section of the reconstructed
an electronic stored-program digital computer. His 1945 Manchester Baby, the first electronic
report "Proposed Electronic Calculator" was the first stored-program computer
specification for such a device. John von Neumann at the University of Pennsylvania also circulated his
First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC in 1945.[34]

The Manchester Baby was the world's first stored-program computer. It was built at the University of
Manchester in England by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill, and ran its first program
on 21 June 1948.[63] It was designed as a testbed for the Williams tube, the first random-access digital
storage device.[64] Although the computer was described as "small and primitive" by a 1998
retrospective, it was the first working machine to contain all of the elements essential to a modern
electronic computer.[65] As soon as the Baby had demonstrated the feasibility of its design, a project
began at the university to develop it into a practically useful computer, the Manchester Mark 1.

The Mark 1 in turn quickly became the prototype for the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercially
available general-purpose computer.[66] Built by Ferranti, it was delivered to the University of
Manchester in February 1951. At least seven of these later machines were delivered between 1953 and
1957, one of them to Shell labs in Amsterdam.[67] In October 1947 the directors of British catering
company J. Lyons & Company decided to take an active role in promoting the commercial development
of computers. Lyons's LEO I computer, modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC of 1949, became
operational in April 1951[68] and ran the world's first routine office computer job.

Transistors
The concept of a field-effect transistor was proposed by Julius
Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925. John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, while
working under William Shockley at Bell Labs, built the first
working transistor, the point-contact transistor, in 1947, which was
followed by Shockley's bipolar junction transistor in 1948.[69][70]
From 1955 onwards, transistors replaced vacuum tubes in
computer designs, giving rise to the "second generation" of
computers. Compared to vacuum tubes, transistors have many
advantages: they are smaller, and require less power than vacuum Bipolar junction transistor (BJT)
tubes, so give off less heat. Junction transistors were much more
reliable than vacuum tubes and had longer, indefinite, service life.
Transistorized computers could contain tens of thousands of binary logic circuits in a relatively compact
space. However, early junction transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to manufacture
on a mass-production basis, which limited them to a number of specialized applications.[71]

At the University of Manchester, a team under the leadership of Tom Kilburn designed and built a
machine using the newly developed transistors instead of valves.[72] Their first transistorized computer
and the first in the world, was operational by 1953, and a second version was completed there in April
1955. However, the machine did make use of valves to generate its 125 kHz clock waveforms and in the
circuitry to read and write on its magnetic drum memory, so it was not the first completely transistorized
computer. That distinction goes to the Harwell CADET of 1955,[73] built by the electronics division of
the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell.[73][74]

The metal–oxide–silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET), also known as the MOS transistor, was
invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960[75][76][77][78][79][80] and was the first truly compact
transistor that could be miniaturized and mass-produced for a wide range of uses.[71] With its high
scalability,[81] and much lower power consumption and higher density than bipolar junction
transistors,[82] the MOSFET made it possible to build high-density
integrated circuits.[83][84] In addition to data processing, it also
enabled the practical use of MOS transistors as memory cell
storage elements, leading to the development of MOS
semiconductor memory, which replaced earlier magnetic-core
memory in computers. The MOSFET led to the microcomputer
revolution,[85] and became the driving force behind the computer
revolution.[86][87] The MOSFET is the most widely used transistor MOSFET (MOS transistor), showing
in computers,[88][89] and is the fundamental building block of gate (G), body (B), source (S) and
digital electronics.[90] drain (D) terminals. The gate is
separated from the body by an
insulating layer (pink).
Integrated circuits
The next great advance in computing power came with the advent
of the integrated circuit (IC). The idea of the integrated circuit was
first conceived by a radar scientist working for the Royal Radar
Establishment of the Ministry of Defence, Geoffrey W.A.
Dummer. Dummer presented the first public description of an
integrated circuit at the Symposium on Progress in Quality
Electronic Components in Washington, D.C., on 7 May 1952.[91]

The first working ICs were invented by Jack Kilby at Texas

Integrated circuits are typically
Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor.[92]
packaged in plastic, metal, or
Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in ceramic cases to protect the IC from
July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working integrated damage and for ease of assembly.
example on 12 September 1958.[93] In his patent application of 6
February 1959, Kilby described his new device as "a body of
semiconductor material ... wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely
integrated".[94][95] However, Kilby's invention was a hybrid integrated circuit (hybrid IC), rather than a
monolithic integrated circuit (IC) chip.[96] Kilby's IC had external wire connections, which made it
difficult to mass-produce.[97]

Noyce also came up with his own idea of an integrated circuit half a year later than Kilby.[98] Noyce's
invention was the first true monolithic IC chip.[99][97] His chip solved many practical problems that
Kilby's had not. Produced at Fairchild Semiconductor, it was made of silicon, whereas Kilby's chip was
made of germanium. Noyce's monolithic IC was fabricated using the planar process, developed by his
colleague Jean Hoerni in early 1959. In turn, the planar process was based on Carl Frosch and Lincoln
Derick work on semiconductor surface passivation by silicon dioxide.[100][101][102][103][104][105]

Modern monolithic ICs are predominantly MOS (metal–oxide–semiconductor) integrated circuits, built
from MOSFETs (MOS transistors).[106] The earliest experimental MOS IC to be fabricated was a 16-
transistor chip built by Fred Heiman and Steven Hofstein at RCA in 1962.[107] General Microelectronics
later introduced the first commercial MOS IC in 1964,[108] developed by Robert Norman.[107] Following
the development of the self-aligned gate (silicon-gate) MOS transistor by Robert Kerwin, Donald Klein
and John Sarace at Bell Labs in 1967, the first silicon-gate MOS IC with self-aligned gates was
developed by Federico Faggin at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968.[109] The MOSFET has since become
the most critical device component in modern ICs.[106]
The development of the MOS integrated circuit led to the
invention of the microprocessor,[110][111] and heralded an
explosion in the commercial and personal use of computers. While
the subject of exactly which device was the first microprocessor is
contentious, partly due to lack of agreement on the exact
definition of the term "microprocessor", it is largely undisputed
that the first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004,[112]
designed and realized by Federico Faggin with his silicon-gate
MOS IC technology,[110] along with Ted Hoff, Masatoshi Shima
and Stanley Mazor at Intel.[b][114] In the early 1970s, MOS IC
technology enabled the integration of more than 10,000 transistors
on a single chip.[84]
Die photograph of a MOS 6502, an
System on a Chip (SoCs) are complete computers on a microchip early 1970s microprocessor
(or chip) the size of a coin. [115] They may or may not have integrating 3500 transistors on a
integrated RAM and flash memory. If not integrated, the RAM is single chip
usually placed directly above (known as Package on package) or
below (on the opposite side of the circuit board) the SoC, and the
flash memory is usually placed right next to the SoC. This is done to improve data transfer speeds, as the
data signals do not have to travel long distances. Since ENIAC in 1945, computers have advanced
enormously, with modern SoCs (such as the Snapdragon 865) being the size of a coin while also being
hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than ENIAC, integrating billions of transistors, and
consuming only a few watts of power.

Mobile computers
The first mobile computers were heavy and ran from mains power. The 50 lb (23 kg) IBM 5100 was an
early example. Later portables such as the Osborne 1 and Compaq Portable were considerably lighter but
still needed to be plugged in. The first laptops, such as the Grid Compass, removed this requirement by
incorporating batteries – and with the continued miniaturization of computing resources and
advancements in portable battery life, portable computers grew in popularity in the 2000s.[116] The same
developments allowed manufacturers to integrate computing resources into cellular mobile phones by the
early 2000s.

These smartphones and tablets run on a variety of operating systems and recently became the dominant
computing device on the market.[117] These are powered by System on a Chip (SoCs), which are
complete computers on a microchip the size of a coin.[115]

Types
Computers can be classified in a number of different ways, including:

By architecture
Analog computer
Digital computer
 Hybrid computer
Harvard architecture
Von Neumann architecture
Complex instruction set computer
Reduced instruction set computer

By size, form-factor and purpose

Supercomputer
Mainframe computer
Minicomputer (term no longer used),[118] Midrange computer
Server
Rackmount server
Blade server
Tower server
Personal computer
Workstation
Microcomputer (term no longer used)[119]

Home computer (term fallen into disuse)[120]

Desktop computer
Tower desktop
Slimline desktop
Multimedia computer (non-linear editing system computers, video editing PCs
and the like, this term is no longer used)[121]
Gaming computer
All-in-one PC
Nettop (Small form factor PCs, Mini PCs)
Home theater PC
Keyboard computer
Portable computer
Thin client
Internet appliance
Laptop computer
Desktop replacement computer
Gaming laptop
Rugged laptop
2-in-1 PC
Ultrabook
Chromebook
Subnotebook
Smartbook
Netbook
 Mobile computer
Tablet computer
Smartphone
Ultra-mobile PC
Pocket PC
Palmtop PC
Handheld PC
Pocket computer
Wearable computer
Smartwatch
Smartglasses
Single-board computer
Plug computer
Stick PC
Programmable logic controller
Computer-on-module
System on module
System in a package
System-on-chip (Also known as an Application Processor or AP if it lacks circuitry such as
radio circuitry)
Microcontroller

Hardware

Video demonstrating the standard

components of a "slimline" computer
The term hardware covers all of those parts of a computer that are tangible physical objects. Circuits,
computer chips, graphic cards, sound cards, memory (RAM), motherboard, displays, power supplies,
cables, keyboards, printers and "mice" input devices are all hardware.

History of computing hardware

Pascal's calculator, Arithmometer, Difference

Calculators
engine, Quevedo's analytical machines
First generation
(mechanical/electromechanical) Jacquard loom, Analytical engine, IBM
Programmable
ASCC/Harvard Mark I, Harvard Mark II, IBM
devices
SSEC, Z1, Z2, Z3

Atanasoff–Berry Computer, IBM 604, UNIVAC

Calculators
60, UNIVAC 120
Second generation Colossus, ENIAC, Manchester Baby, EDSAC,
(vacuum tubes) Programmable Manchester Mark 1, Ferranti Pegasus, Ferranti
devices Mercury, CSIRAC, EDVAC, UNIVAC I, IBM 701,
IBM 702, IBM 650, Z22

Mainframes IBM 7090, IBM 7080, IBM System/360, BUNCH

Third generation
HP 2116A, IBM System/32, IBM System/36,
(discrete transistors and SSI, MSI, Minicomputer
LINC, PDP-8, PDP-11
LSI integrated circuits)
Desktop Computer HP 9100

Minicomputer VAX, IBM AS/400

4-bit
Intel 4004, Intel 4040
microcomputer
8-bit Intel 8008, Intel 8080, Motorola 6800, Motorola
microcomputer 6809, MOS Technology 6502, Zilog Z80

16-bit
Intel 8088, Zilog Z8000, WDC 65816/65802
microcomputer

Fourth generation 32-bit

Intel 80386, Pentium, Motorola 68000, ARM
(VLSI integrated circuits) microcomputer
64-bit Alpha, MIPS, PA-RISC, PowerPC, SPARC, x86-
microcomputer[c] 64, ARMv8-A

Embedded
Intel 8048, Intel 8051
computer

Desktop computer, Home computer, Laptop

computer, Personal digital assistant (PDA),
Personal computer
Portable computer, Tablet PC, Wearable
computer

Quantum computer IBM Q System One

Chemical computer

DNA computing

Theoretical/experimental Optical computer

Spintronics-based
computer

Wetware/Organic
computer
Other hardware topics

Mouse, keyboard, joystick, image scanner, webcam,

Input
graphics tablet, microphone
Peripheral device
Output Monitor, printer, loudspeaker
(input/output)
Floppy disk drive, hard disk drive, optical disc drive,
Both
teleprinter
Short range RS-232, SCSI, PCI, USB
Computer buses Long range (computer
Ethernet, ATM, FDDI
networking)

A general-purpose computer has four main components: the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), the control unit,
the memory, and the input and output devices (collectively termed I/O). These parts are interconnected by
buses, often made of groups of wires. Inside each of these parts are thousands to trillions of small
electrical circuits which can be turned off or on by means of an electronic switch. Each circuit represents
a bit (binary digit) of information so that when the circuit is on it represents a "1", and when off it
represents a "0" (in positive logic representation). The circuits are arranged in logic gates so that one or
more of the circuits may control the state of one or more of the other circuits.

Input devices
When unprocessed data is sent to the computer with the help of input devices, the data is processed and
sent to output devices. The input devices may be hand-operated or automated. The act of processing is
mainly regulated by the CPU. Some examples of input devices are:

Computer keyboard
Digital camera
Graphics tablet
Image scanner
Joystick
Microphone
Mouse
Overlay keyboard
Real-time clock
Trackball
Touchscreen
Light pen

Output devices
The means through which computer gives output are known as output devices. Some examples of output
devices are:

Computer monitor
Printer
PC speaker
Projector
 Sound card
Video card

Control unit
The control unit (often called a control system or
central controller) manages the computer's
various components; it reads and interprets
(decodes) the program instructions, transforming
them into control signals that activate other parts
of the computer.[d] Control systems in advanced
computers may change the order of execution of Diagram showing how a particular MIPS architecture
some instructions to improve performance. instruction would be decoded by the control system

A key component common to all CPUs is the

program counter, a special memory cell (a register) that keeps track of which location in memory the next
instruction is to be read from.[e]

The control system's function is as follows— this is a simplified description, and some of these steps may
be performed concurrently or in a different order depending on the type of CPU:

1. Read the code for the next instruction from the cell indicated by the program counter.
2. Decode the numerical code for the instruction into a set of commands or signals for each of
the other systems.
3. Increment the program counter so it points to the next instruction.
4. Read whatever data the instruction requires from cells in memory (or perhaps from an input
device). The location of this required data is typically stored within the instruction code.
5. Provide the necessary data to an ALU or register.
6. If the instruction requires an ALU or specialized hardware to complete, instruct the hardware
to perform the requested operation.
7. Write the result from the ALU back to a memory location or to a register or perhaps an
output device.
8. Jump back to step (1).
Since the program counter is (conceptually) just another set of memory cells, it can be changed by
calculations done in the ALU. Adding 100 to the program counter would cause the next instruction to be
read from a place 100 locations further down the program. Instructions that modify the program counter
are often known as "jumps" and allow for loops (instructions that are repeated by the computer) and often
conditional instruction execution (both examples of control flow).

The sequence of operations that the control unit goes through to process an instruction is in itself like a
short computer program, and indeed, in some more complex CPU designs, there is another yet smaller
computer called a microsequencer, which runs a microcode program that causes all of these events to
happen.

Central processing unit (CPU)

The control unit, ALU, and registers are collectively known as a central processing unit (CPU). Early
CPUs were composed of many separate components. Since the 1970s, CPUs have typically been
constructed on a single MOS integrated circuit chip called a microprocessor.

Arithmetic logic unit (ALU)

The ALU is capable of performing two classes of operations: arithmetic and logic.[122] The set of
arithmetic operations that a particular ALU supports may be limited to addition and subtraction, or might
include multiplication, division, trigonometry functions such as sine, cosine, etc., and square roots. Some
can operate only on whole numbers (integers) while others use floating point to represent real numbers,
albeit with limited precision. However, any computer that is capable of performing just the simplest
operations can be programmed to break down the more complex operations into simple steps that it can
perform. Therefore, any computer can be programmed to perform any arithmetic operation—although it
will take more time to do so if its ALU does not directly support the operation. An ALU may also
compare numbers and return Boolean truth values (true or false) depending on whether one is equal to,
greater than or less than the other ("is 64 greater than 65?"). Logic operations involve Boolean logic:
AND, OR, XOR, and NOT. These can be useful for creating complicated conditional statements and
processing Boolean logic.

Superscalar computers may contain multiple ALUs, allowing them to process several instructions
simultaneously.[123] Graphics processors and computers with SIMD and MIMD features often contain
ALUs that can perform arithmetic on vectors and matrices.

Memory
A computer's memory can be viewed as a list of cells into which
numbers can be placed or read. Each cell has a numbered
"address" and can store a single number. The computer can be
instructed to "put the number 123 into the cell numbered 1357" or
to "add the number that is in cell 1357 to the number that is in cell
2468 and put the answer into cell 1595." The information stored in
memory may represent practically anything. Letters, numbers,
even computer instructions can be placed into memory with equal
ease. Since the CPU does not differentiate between different types Magnetic-core memory (using
of information, it is the software's responsibility to give magnetic cores) was the computer
significance to what the memory sees as nothing but a series of memory of choice in the 1960s, until
numbers. it was replaced by semiconductor
memory (using MOS memory cells).
In almost all modern computers, each memory cell is set up to
store binary numbers in groups of eight bits (called a byte). Each
byte is able to represent 256 different numbers (28 = 256); either from 0 to 255 or −128 to +127. To store
larger numbers, several consecutive bytes may be used (typically, two, four or eight). When negative
numbers are required, they are usually stored in two's complement notation. Other arrangements are
possible, but are usually not seen outside of specialized applications or historical contexts. A computer
can store any kind of information in memory if it can be represented numerically. Modern computers
have billions or even trillions of bytes of memory.
The CPU contains a special set of memory cells called registers that can be read and written to much
more rapidly than the main memory area. There are typically between two and one hundred registers
depending on the type of CPU. Registers are used for the most frequently needed data items to avoid
having to access main memory every time data is needed. As data is constantly being worked on,
reducing the need to access main memory (which is often slow compared to the ALU and control units)
greatly increases the computer's speed.

Computer main memory comes in two principal varieties:

random-access memory or RAM

read-only memory or ROM
RAM can be read and written to anytime the CPU commands it, but ROM is preloaded with data and
software that never changes, therefore the CPU can only read from it. ROM is typically used to store the
computer's initial start-up instructions. In general, the contents of RAM are erased when the power to the
computer is turned off, but ROM retains its data indefinitely. In a PC, the ROM contains a specialized
program called the BIOS that orchestrates loading the computer's operating system from the hard disk
drive into RAM whenever the computer is turned on or reset. In embedded computers, which frequently
do not have disk drives, all of the required software may be stored in ROM. Software stored in ROM is
often called firmware, because it is notionally more like hardware than software. Flash memory blurs the
distinction between ROM and RAM, as it retains its data when turned off but is also rewritable. It is
typically much slower than conventional ROM and RAM however, so its use is restricted to applications
where high speed is unnecessary.[f]

In more sophisticated computers there may be one or more RAM cache memories, which are slower than
registers but faster than main memory. Generally computers with this sort of cache are designed to move
frequently needed data into the cache automatically, often without the need for any intervention on the
programmer's part.

Input/output (I/O)
I/O is the means by which a computer exchanges information with
the outside world.[125] Devices that provide input or output to the
computer are called peripherals.[126] On a typical personal
computer, peripherals include input devices like the keyboard and
mouse, and output devices such as the display and printer. Hard
disk drives, floppy disk drives and optical disc drives serve as both
input and output devices. Computer networking is another form of
I/O. I/O devices are often complex computers in their own right, Hard disk drives are common
with their own CPU and memory. A graphics processing unit storage devices used with
might contain fifty or more tiny computers that perform the computers.
calculations necessary to display 3D graphics. Modern desktop
computers contain many smaller computers that assist the main
CPU in performing I/O. A 2016-era flat screen display contains its own computer circuitry.

Multitasking
While a computer may be viewed as running one gigantic program stored in its main memory, in some
systems it is necessary to give the appearance of running several programs simultaneously. This is
achieved by multitasking i.e. having the computer switch rapidly between running each program in
turn.[127] One means by which this is done is with a special signal called an interrupt, which can
periodically cause the computer to stop executing instructions where it was and do something else
instead. By remembering where it was executing prior to the interrupt, the computer can return to that
task later. If several programs are running "at the same time". then the interrupt generator might be
causing several hundred interrupts per second, causing a program switch each time. Since modern
computers typically execute instructions several orders of magnitude faster than human perception, it may
appear that many programs are running at the same time even though only one is ever executing in any
given instant. This method of multitasking is sometimes termed "time-sharing" since each program is
allocated a "slice" of time in turn.[128]

Before the era of inexpensive computers, the principal use for multitasking was to allow many people to
share the same computer. Seemingly, multitasking would cause a computer that is switching between
several programs to run more slowly, in direct proportion to the number of programs it is running, but
most programs spend much of their time waiting for slow input/output devices to complete their tasks. If
a program is waiting for the user to click on the mouse or press a key on the keyboard, then it will not
take a "time slice" until the event it is waiting for has occurred. This frees up time for other programs to
execute so that many programs may be run simultaneously without unacceptable speed loss.

Multiprocessing
Some computers are designed to distribute their work across
several CPUs in a multiprocessing configuration, a technique
once employed in only large and powerful machines such as
supercomputers, mainframe computers and servers.
Multiprocessor and multi-core (multiple CPUs on a single
integrated circuit) personal and laptop computers are now
widely available, and are being increasingly used in lower-
end markets as a result.

Supercomputers in particular often have highly unique

Cray designed many supercomputers
architectures that differ significantly from the basic stored- that used multiprocessing heavily.
program architecture and from general-purpose computers.[g]
They often feature thousands of CPUs, customized high-
speed interconnects, and specialized computing hardware. Such designs tend to be useful for only
specialized tasks due to the large scale of program organization required to use most of the available
resources at once. Supercomputers usually see usage in large-scale simulation, graphics rendering, and
cryptography applications, as well as with other so-called "embarrassingly parallel" tasks.

Software
Software refers to parts of the computer which do not have a material form, such as programs, data,
protocols, etc. Software is that part of a computer system that consists of encoded information or
computer instructions, in contrast to the physical hardware from which the system is built. Computer
software includes computer programs, libraries and related non-executable data, such as online
documentation or digital media. It is often divided into system software and application software.
Computer hardware and software require each other and neither can be realistically used on its own.
When software is stored in hardware that cannot easily be modified, such as with BIOS ROM in an IBM
PC compatible computer, it is sometimes called "firmware".
 UNIX System V, IBM AIX, HP-UX, Solaris (SunOS), IRIX, List of
Unix and BSD
BSD operating systems

Linux List of Linux distributions, Comparison of Linux distributions

Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows

Microsoft Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8,
Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11
Operating system
/System Software DOS 86-DOS (QDOS), IBM PC DOS, MS-DOS, DR-DOS, FreeDOS

Macintosh
Classic Mac OS, macOS (previously OS X and Mac OS X)
operating systems

Embedded and
List of embedded operating systems
real-time
Experimental Amoeba, Oberon–AOS, Bluebottle, A2, Plan 9 from Bell Labs

Multimedia DirectX, OpenGL, OpenAL, Vulkan (API)

Library Programming
C standard library, Standard Template Library
library
Protocol TCP/IP, Kermit, FTP, HTTP, SMTP
Data
File format HTML, XML, JPEG, MPEG, PNG

Graphical user
Microsoft Windows, GNOME, KDE, QNX Photon, CDE, GEM, Aqua
interface (WIMP)
User interface
Text-based user
Command-line interface, Text user interface
interface

Word processing, Desktop publishing, Presentation program,

Office suite Database management system, Scheduling & Time management,
Spreadsheet, Accounting software

Browser, Email client, Web server, Mail transfer agent, Instant

Internet Access
messaging
Design and Computer-aided design, Computer-aided manufacturing, Plant
manufacturing management, Robotic manufacturing, Supply chain management

Raster graphics editor, Vector graphics editor, 3D modeler,

Graphics Animation editor, 3D computer graphics, Video editing, Image
processing
Application
Software Digital audio editor, Audio playback, Mixing, Audio synthesis,
Audio
Computer music

Compiler, Assembler, Interpreter, Debugger, Text editor, Integrated

Software
development environment, Software performance analysis,
engineering
Revision control, Software configuration management

Educational Edutainment, Educational game, Serious game, Flight simulator

Strategy, Arcade, Puzzle, Simulation, First-person shooter,
Games
Platform, Massively multiplayer, Interactive fiction

Artificial intelligence, Antivirus software, Malware scanner,

Misc
Installer/Package management systems, File manager

Languages
There are thousands of different programming languages—some intended for general purpose, others
useful for only highly specialized applications.
 Programming languages
Timeline of programming languages, List of programming languages by category,
Lists of programming
Generational list of programming languages, List of programming languages,
languages
Non-English-based programming languages

Commonly used assembly

ARM, MIPS, x86
languages

Commonly used high-level Ada, BASIC, C, C++, C#, COBOL, Fortran, PL/I, REXX, Java, Lisp, Pascal,
programming languages Object Pascal
Commonly used scripting
Bourne script, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP, Perl
languages

Programs
The defining feature of modern computers which distinguishes them from all other machines is that they
can be programmed. That is to say that some type of instructions (the program) can be given to the
computer, and it will process them. Modern computers based on the von Neumann architecture often have
machine code in the form of an imperative programming language. In practical terms, a computer
program may be just a few instructions or extend to many millions of instructions, as do the programs for
word processors and web browsers for example. A typical modern computer can execute billions of
instructions per second (gigaflops) and rarely makes a mistake over many years of operation. Large
computer programs consisting of several million instructions may take teams of programmers years to
write, and due to the complexity of the task almost certainly contain errors.

Stored program architecture

This section applies to most common RAM machine–based
computers.

In most cases, computer instructions are simple: add one number

to another, move some data from one location to another, send a
message to some external device, etc. These instructions are read
from the computer's memory and are generally carried out
(executed) in the order they were given. However, there are
Replica of the Manchester Baby, the
usually specialized instructions to tell the computer to jump ahead world's first electronic stored-
or backwards to some other place in the program and to carry on program computer, at the Museum
executing from there. These are called "jump" instructions (or of Science and Industry in
branches). Furthermore, jump instructions may be made to happen Manchester, England
conditionally so that different sequences of instructions may be
used depending on the result of some previous calculation or some
external event. Many computers directly support subroutines by providing a type of jump that
"remembers" the location it jumped from and another instruction to return to the instruction following
that jump instruction.

Program execution might be likened to reading a book. While a person will normally read each word and
line in sequence, they may at times jump back to an earlier place in the text or skip sections that are not of
interest. Similarly, a computer may sometimes go back and repeat the instructions in some section of the
program over and over again until some internal condition is met. This is called the flow of control within
the program and it is what allows the computer to perform tasks repeatedly without human intervention.
Comparatively, a person using a pocket calculator can perform a basic arithmetic operation such as
adding two numbers with just a few button presses. But to add together all of the numbers from 1 to 1,000
would take thousands of button presses and a lot of time, with a near certainty of making a mistake. On
the other hand, a computer may be programmed to do this with just a few simple instructions. The
following example is written in the MIPS assembly language:

begin:
addi $8, $0, 0 # initialize sum to 0
addi $9, $0, 1 # set first number to add = 1
loop:
slti $10, $9, 1000 # check if the number is less than 1000
beq $10, $0, finish # if odd number is greater than n then exit
add $8, $8, $9 # update sum
addi $9, $9, 1 # get next number
j loop # repeat the summing process
finish:
add $2, $8, $0 # put sum in output register

Once told to run this program, the computer will perform the repetitive addition task without further
human intervention. It will almost never make a mistake and a modern PC can complete the task in a
fraction of a second.

Machine code
In most computers, individual instructions are stored as machine code with each instruction being given a
unique number (its operation code or opcode for short). The command to add two numbers together
would have one opcode; the command to multiply them would have a different opcode, and so on. The
simplest computers are able to perform any of a handful of different instructions; the more complex
computers have several hundred to choose from, each with a unique numerical code. Since the computer's
memory is able to store numbers, it can also store the instruction codes. This leads to the important fact
that entire programs (which are just lists of these instructions) can be represented as lists of numbers and
can themselves be manipulated inside the computer in the same way as numeric data. The fundamental
concept of storing programs in the computer's memory alongside the data they operate on is the crux of
the von Neumann, or stored program, architecture.[130][131] In some cases, a computer might store some
or all of its program in memory that is kept separate from the data it operates on. This is called the
Harvard architecture after the Harvard Mark I computer. Modern von Neumann computers display some
traits of the Harvard architecture in their designs, such as in CPU caches.

While it is possible to write computer programs as long lists of numbers (machine language) and while
this technique was used with many early computers,[h] it is extremely tedious and potentially error-prone
to do so in practice, especially for complicated programs. Instead, each basic instruction can be given a
short name that is indicative of its function and easy to remember – a mnemonic such as ADD, SUB,
MULT or JUMP. These mnemonics are collectively known as a computer's assembly language.
Converting programs written in assembly language into something the computer can actually understand
(machine language) is usually done by a computer program called an assembler.

Programming language
Programming languages provide various ways of specifying programs for computers to run. Unlike
natural languages, programming languages are designed to permit no ambiguity and to be concise. They
are purely written languages and are often difficult to read aloud. They are generally either translated into
machine code by a compiler or an assembler before being run, or
translated directly at run time by an interpreter. Sometimes
programs are executed by a hybrid method of the two techniques.

Low-level languages
Machine languages and the assembly languages that represent A 1970s punched card containing
them (collectively termed low-level programming languages) are one line from a Fortran program.
The card reads: "Z(1) = Y + W(1)"
generally unique to the particular architecture of a computer's
and is labeled "PROJ039" for
central processing unit (CPU). For instance, an ARM architecture
identification purposes.
CPU (such as may be found in a smartphone or a hand-held
videogame) cannot understand the machine language of an x86
CPU that might be in a PC.[i] Historically a significant number of other cpu architectures were created
and saw extensive use, notably including the MOS Technology 6502 and 6510 in addition to the Zilog
Z80.

High-level languages
Although considerably easier than in machine language, writing long programs in assembly language is
often difficult and is also error prone. Therefore, most practical programs are written in more abstract
high-level programming languages that are able to express the needs of the programmer more
conveniently (and thereby help reduce programmer error). High level languages are usually "compiled"
into machine language (or sometimes into assembly language and then into machine language) using
another computer program called a compiler.[j] High level languages are less related to the workings of
the target computer than assembly language, and more related to the language and structure of the
problem(s) to be solved by the final program. It is therefore often possible to use different compilers to
translate the same high level language program into the machine language of many different types of
computer. This is part of the means by which software like video games may be made available for
different computer architectures such as personal computers and various video game consoles.

Program design
Program design of small programs is relatively simple and involves the analysis of the problem,
collection of inputs, using the programming constructs within languages, devising or using established
procedures and algorithms, providing data for output devices and solutions to the problem as
applicable.[132] As problems become larger and more complex, features such as subprograms, modules,
formal documentation, and new paradigms such as object-oriented programming are encountered.[133]
Large programs involving thousands of line of code and more require formal software
methodologies.[134] The task of developing large software systems presents a significant intellectual
challenge.[135] Producing software with an acceptably high reliability within a predictable schedule and
budget has historically been difficult;[136] the academic and professional discipline of software
engineering concentrates specifically on this challenge.[137]

Bugs
Errors in computer programs are called "bugs". They may be benign and not affect the usefulness of the
program, or have only subtle effects. However, in some cases they may cause the program or the entire
system to "hang", becoming unresponsive to input such as mouse clicks or keystrokes, to completely fail,
or to crash.[138] Otherwise benign bugs may sometimes be
harnessed for malicious intent by an unscrupulous user writing an
exploit, code designed to take advantage of a bug and disrupt a
computer's proper execution. Bugs are usually not the fault of the
computer. Since computers merely execute the instructions they
are given, bugs are nearly always the result of programmer error
or an oversight made in the program's design.[k] Admiral Grace
Hopper, an American computer scientist and developer of the first
compiler, is credited for having first used the term "bugs" in
computing after a dead moth was found shorting a relay in the The actual first computer bug, a
moth found trapped on a relay of the
Harvard Mark II computer in September 1947.[139]
Harvard Mark II computer

Networking and the Internet

Computers have been used to coordinate information between
multiple locations since the 1950s. The U.S. military's SAGE
system was the first large-scale example of such a system, which
led to a number of special-purpose commercial systems such as
Sabre.[140] In the 1970s, computer engineers at research
institutions throughout the United States began to link their
computers together using telecommunications technology. The
effort was funded by ARPA (now DARPA), and the computer
network that resulted was called the ARPANET.[141] The
technologies that made the Arpanet possible spread and evolved.

Visualization of a portion of the In time, the network spread beyond academic and military
routes on the Internet institutions and became known as the Internet. The emergence of
networking involved a redefinition of the nature and boundaries of
the computer. Computer operating systems and applications were
modified to include the ability to define and access the resources of other computers on the network, such
as peripheral devices, stored information, and the like, as extensions of the resources of an individual
computer. Initially these facilities were available primarily to people working in high-tech environments,
but in the 1990s the spread of applications like e-mail and the World Wide Web, combined with the
development of cheap, fast networking technologies like Ethernet and ADSL saw computer networking
become almost ubiquitous. In fact, the number of computers that are networked is growing phenomenally.
A very large proportion of personal computers regularly connect to the Internet to communicate and
receive information. "Wireless" networking, often utilizing mobile phone networks, has meant
networking is becoming increasingly ubiquitous even in mobile computing environments.

Unconventional computers
A computer does not need to be electronic, nor even have a processor, nor RAM, nor even a hard disk.
While popular usage of the word "computer" is synonymous with a personal electronic computer,[l] a
typical modern definition of a computer is: "A device that computes, especially a programmable [usually]
electronic machine that performs high-speed mathematical or logical operations or that assembles, stores,
correlates, or otherwise processes information."[142] According to this definition, any device that
processes information qualifies as a computer.

Future
There is active research to make unconventional computers out of many promising new types of
technology, such as optical computers, DNA computers, neural computers, and quantum computers. Most
computers are universal, and are able to calculate any computable function, and are limited only by their
memory capacity and operating speed. However different designs of computers can give very different
performance for particular problems; for example quantum computers can potentially break some modern
encryption algorithms (by quantum factoring) very quickly.

Computer architecture paradigms

There are many types of computer architectures:

Quantum computer vs. Chemical computer

Scalar processor vs. Vector processor
Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) computers
Register machine vs. Stack machine
Harvard architecture vs. von Neumann architecture
Cellular architecture
Of all these abstract machines, a quantum computer holds the most promise for revolutionizing
computing.[143] Logic gates are a common abstraction which can apply to most of the above digital or
analog paradigms. The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers
extremely versatile, distinguishing them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical
statement of this versatility: any computer with a minimum capability (being Turing-complete) is, in
principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore, any type
of computer (netbook, supercomputer, cellular automaton, etc.) is able to perform the same computational
tasks, given enough time and storage capacity.

Artificial intelligence
A computer will solve problems in exactly the way it is programmed to, without regard to efficiency,
alternative solutions, possible shortcuts, or possible errors in the code. Computer programs that learn and
adapt are part of the emerging field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Artificial intelligence
based products generally fall into two major categories: rule-based systems and pattern recognition
systems. Rule-based systems attempt to represent the rules used by human experts and tend to be
expensive to develop. Pattern-based systems use data about a problem to generate conclusions. Examples
of pattern-based systems include voice recognition, font recognition, translation and the emerging field of
on-line marketing.

Professions and organizations

As the use of computers has spread throughout society, there are an increasing number of careers
involving computers.

Computer-related professions
Hardware- Electrical engineering, Electronic engineering, Computer engineering, Telecommunications
related engineering, Optical engineering, Nanoengineering

Computer science, Computer engineering, Desktop publishing, Human–computer interaction,

Software-
Information technology, Information systems, Computational science, Software engineering,
related
Video game industry, Web design

The need for computers to work well together and to be able to exchange information has spawned the
need for many standards organizations, clubs and societies of both a formal and informal nature.

Organizations
Standards groups ANSI, IEC, IEEE, IETF, ISO, W3C

Professional societies ACM, AIS, IET, IFIP, BCS

Free/open source software Free Software Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Apache Software
groups Foundation

See also
Computability theory List of films about computers
Computer security List of pioneers in computer science
Glossary of computer hardware terms Outline of computers
History of computer science Pulse computation
List of computer term etymologies TOP500 (list of most powerful computers)
List of computer system manufacturers Unconventional computing
List of fictional computers

Notes
a. According to Schmandt-Besserat 1981, these clay containers contained tokens, the total of
which were the count of objects being transferred. The containers thus served as something
of a bill of lading or an accounts book. In order to avoid breaking open the containers, first,
clay impressions of the tokens were placed on the outside of the containers, for the count;
the shapes of the impressions were abstracted into stylized marks; finally, the abstract
marks were systematically used as numerals; these numerals were finally formalized as
numbers.
Eventually the marks on the outside of the containers were all that were needed to convey
the count, and the clay containers evolved into clay tablets with marks for the count.
Schmandt-Besserat 1999 estimates it took 4000 years.
b. The Intel 4004 (1971) die was 12 mm2, composed of 2300 transistors; by comparison, the
Pentium Pro was 306 mm2, composed of 5.5 million transistors.[113]
c. Most major 64-bit instruction set architectures are extensions of earlier designs. All of the
architectures listed in this table, except for Alpha, existed in 32-bit forms before their 64-bit
incarnations were introduced.
d. The control unit's role in interpreting instructions has varied somewhat in the past. Although
the control unit is solely responsible for instruction interpretation in most modern computers,
this is not always the case. Some computers have instructions that are partially interpreted
by the control unit with further interpretation performed by another device. For example,
EDVAC, one of the earliest stored-program computers, used a central control unit that
interpreted only four instructions. All of the arithmetic-related instructions were passed on to
its arithmetic unit and further decoded there.
e. Instructions often occupy more than one memory address, therefore the program counter
usually increases by the number of memory locations required to store one instruction.
f. Flash memory also may only be rewritten a limited number of times before wearing out,
making it less useful for heavy random access usage.[124]
g. However, it is also very common to construct supercomputers out of many pieces of cheap
commodity hardware; usually individual computers connected by networks. These so-called
computer clusters can often provide supercomputer performance at a much lower cost than
customized designs. While custom architectures are still used for most of the most powerful
supercomputers, there has been a proliferation of cluster computers in recent years.[129]
h. Even some later computers were commonly programmed directly in machine code. Some
minicomputers like the DEC PDP-8 could be programmed directly from a panel of switches.
However, this method was usually used only as part of the booting process. Most modern
computers boot entirely automatically by reading a boot program from some non-volatile
memory.
i. However, there is sometimes some form of machine language compatibility between
different computers. An x86-64 compatible microprocessor like the AMD Athlon 64 is able to
run most of the same programs that an Intel Core 2 microprocessor can, as well as
programs designed for earlier microprocessors like the Intel Pentiums and Intel 80486. This
contrasts with very early commercial computers, which were often one-of-a-kind and totally
incompatible with other computers.
j. High level languages are also often interpreted rather than compiled. Interpreted languages
are translated into machine code on the fly, while running, by another program called an
interpreter.
k. It is not universally true that bugs are solely due to programmer oversight. Computer
hardware may fail or may itself have a fundamental problem that produces unexpected
results in certain situations. For instance, the Pentium FDIV bug caused some Intel
microprocessors in the early 1990s to produce inaccurate results for certain floating point
division operations. This was caused by a flaw in the microprocessor design and resulted in
a partial recall of the affected devices.
l. According to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (6th ed, 2007), the word computer dates
back to the mid 17th century, when it referred to "A person who makes calculations;
specifically a person employed for this in an observatory etc."

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