A computer

A computer is a general purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a finite set of
arithmetic or logical operations. Since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, the
computer can solve more than one kind of problem.

Conventionally, a computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central

processing unit (CPU) and some form of memory.
The processing element carries out arithmetic and
logic operations, and a sequencing and control unit
that can change the order of operations based on
stored information. Peripheral devices allow
information to be retrieved from an external
source, and the result of operations saved and
retrieved.

The first electronic digital computers were

developed between 1940 and 1945 in the United
Kingdom and United States. Originally they were the size of a large room, consuming as
much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs).[1] In this era mechanical
analog computers were used for military applications.

Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable
than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space.[2] Simple computers are small
enough to fit into mobile devices, and mobile computers can be powered by small batteries.
Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most
people think of as “computers.” However, the embedded computers found in many devices
from MP3 players to fighter aircraft and from toys to industrial robots are the most numerous.

History of computing
The Jacquard loom, on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester,
England, was one of the first programmable devices.
Main article: History of computing hardware

The first use of the word “computer” was recorded in 1613 in a book called “The yong mans
gleanings” by English writer Richard Braithwait I haue read the truest computer of Times,
and the best Arithmetician that euer breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number.
It referred to a person who carried out calculations, or computations, and the word continued
with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century
the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, a machine that carries out computations.
[3]

Limited-function early computers

The history of the modern computer begins with two separate technologies, automated
calculation and programmability. However no single device can be identified as the earliest
computer, partly because of the inconsistent application of that term. A few devices are worth
mentioning though, like some mechanical aids to computing, which were very successful and
survived for centuries until the advent of the electronic calculator, like the Sumerian abacus,
designed around 2500 BC[4] of which a descendant won a speed competition against a modern
desk calculating machine in Japan in 1946,[5] the slide rules, invented in the 1620s, which
were carried on five Apollo space missions, including to the moon[6] and arguably the
astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient astronomical computer built by the
Greeks around 80 BC.[7] The Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD) built a
mechanical theater which performed a play lasting 10 minutes and was operated by a complex
system of ropes and drums that might be considered to be a means of deciding which parts of
the mechanism performed which actions and when.[8] This is the essence of programmability.

Around the end of the 10th century, the French monk Gerbert d'Aurillac brought back from
Spain the drawings of a machine invented by the Moors that answered either Yes or No to the
questions it was asked.[9] Again in the 13th century, the monks Albertus Magnus and Roger
Bacon built talking androids without any further development (Albertus Magnus complained
that he had wasted forty years of his life when Thomas Aquinas, terrified by his machine,
destroyed it).[10]

In 1642, the Renaissance saw the invention of the mechanical calculator,[11] a device that
could perform all four arithmetic operations without relying on human intelligence.[12] The
mechanical calculator was at the root of the development of computers in two separate ways.
Initially, it was in trying to develop more powerful and more flexible calculators[13] that the
computer was first theorized by Charles Babbage[14][15] and then developed.[16] Secondly,
development of a low-cost electronic calculator, successor to the mechanical calculator,
resulted in the development by Intel[17] of the first commercially available microprocessor
integrated circuit.

First general-purpose computers

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to

the textile loom by introducing a series of punched paper
cards as a template which allowed his loom to weave
intricate patterns automatically. The resulting Jacquard
loom was an important step in the development of
computers because the use of punched cards to define
woven patterns can be viewed as an early, albeit limited,
form of programmability.

The Most Famous Image in the Early History of Computing[18]

This portrait of Jacquard was woven in silk on a Jacquard loom and required 24,000 punched
cards to create (1839). It was only produced to order. Charles Babbage owned one of these
portraits; it inspired him in using perforated cards in his analytical engine.[19]

The Zuse Z3, 1941, considered the world's first working programmable, fully automatic
computing machine.

It was the fusion of automatic calculation with programmability that produced the first
recognizable computers. In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a
fully programmable mechanical computer, his analytical engine.[20] Limited finances and
Babbage's inability to resist tinkering with the design meant that the device was never
completed—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. This machine was given to the Science museum in South
Kensington in 1910.

Ada Lovelace, considered to be the first computer programmer.[21]

Between 1842 and 1843, Ada Lovelace, an analyst of Charles Babbage's analytical engine,
translated an article by Italian military engineer Luigi Menabrea on the engine, which she
supplemented with an elaborate set of notes of her own, simply called Notes. These notes
contain what is considered the first computer program – that is, an algorithm encoded for
processing by a machine. Lovelace's notes are important in the early history of computers.
She also developed a vision on the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or
number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on those
capabilities.[22]

In the late 1880s, Herman Hollerith invented the recording of data on a machine-readable
medium. Earlier uses of machine-readable media had been for control, not data. “After some
initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards...”[23] To process these punched cards
he invented the tabulator, and the keypunch machines. These three inventions were the
foundation of the modern information processing industry. Large-scale automated data
processing of punched cards was performed for the 1890 United States Census by Hollerith's
company, which later became the core of IBM. By the end of the 19th century a number of
ideas and technologies, that would later prove useful in the realization of practical computers,
had begun to appear: Boolean algebra, the vacuum tube (thermionic valve), punched cards
and tape, and the teleprinter.

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.

Alan Turing is widely regarded as the father of modern computer science. In 1936, Turing
provided an influential formalization of the concept of the algorithm and computation with the
Turing machine, providing a blueprint for the electronic digital computer.[24] Of his role in the
creation of the modern computer, Time magazine in naming Turing one of the 100 most
influential people of the 20th century, states: “The fact remains that everyone who taps at a
keyboard, opening a spreadsheet or a word-processing program, is working on an incarnation
of a Turing machine.”[24]

The ENIAC, which became operational in 1946, is considered to be the first general-purpose
electronic computer. Programmers Betty Jean Jennings (left) and Fran Bilas (right) are
depicted here operating the ENIAC's main control panel.

EDSAC was one of the first computers to implement the stored-program (von Neumann)
architecture.

The Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) was the world's first electronic digital computer, albeit
not programmable.[25] Atanasoff is considered to be one of the fathers of the computer.[26]
Conceived in 1937 by Iowa State College physics professor John Atanasoff, and built with the
assistance of graduate student Clifford Berry,[27] the machine was not programmable, being
designed only to solve systems of linear equations. The computer did employ parallel
computation. A 1973 court ruling in a patent dispute found that the patent for the 1946
ENIAC computer derived from the Atanasoff–Berry Computer.

The first program-controlled computer was invented by Konrad Zuse, who built the Z3, an
electromechanical computing machine, in 1941.[28] The first programmable electronic
computer was the Colossus, built in 1943 by Tommy Flowers.

George Stibitz is internationally recognized as a father of the modern digital computer. While
working at Bell Labs in November 1937, Stibitz invented and built a relay-based calculator he
dubbed the “Model K” (for “kitchen table,” on which he had assembled it), which was the
first to use binary circuits to perform an arithmetic operation. Later models added greater
sophistication including complex arithmetic and programmability.[29]

A succession of steadily more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in
the 1930s and 1940s, gradually adding the key features that are seen in modern computers.
The use of digital electronics (largely invented by Claude Shannon in 1937) and more flexible
programmability were vitally important steps, but defining one point along this road as “the
first digital electronic computer” is difficult.Shannon 1940 Notable achievements include:
  Konrad Zuse's electromechanical “Z machines.” The Z3 (1941) was the first working
machine featuring binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a measure
of programmability. In 1998 the Z3 was proved to be Turing complete, therefore being
the world's first operational computer.[30]
 The non-programmable Atanasoff–Berry Computer (commenced in 1937, completed
in 1941) which used vacuum tube based computation, binary numbers, and
regenerative capacitor memory. The use of regenerative memory allowed it to be
much more compact than its peers (being approximately the size of a large desk or
workbench), since intermediate results could be stored and then fed back into the same
set of computation elements.
 The secret British Colossus computers (1943),[31] which had limited programmability
but demonstrated that a device using thousands of tubes could be reasonably reliable
and electronically re-programmable. It was used for breaking German wartime codes.
 The Harvard Mark I (1944), a large-scale electromechanical computer with limited
programmability.[32]
 The U.S. Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory ENIAC (1946), which used decimal
arithmetic and is sometimes called the first general purpose electronic computer (since
Konrad Zuse's Z3 of 1941 used electromagnets instead of electronics). Initially,
however, ENIAC had an architecture which required rewiring a plugboard to change
its programming.

Stored-program architecture

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adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July
2012)

Several developers of ENIAC, recognizing its flaws, came up with a far more flexible and
elegant design, which came to be known as the “stored-program architecture” or von
Neumann architecture. This design was first formally described by John von Neumann in the
paper First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, distributed in 1945. A number of projects to
develop computers based on the stored-program architecture commenced around this time, the
first of which was completed in 1948 at the University of Manchester in England, the
Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM or “Baby”). The Electronic Delay
Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), completed a year after the SSEM at Cambridge
University, was the first practical, non-experimental implementation of the stored-program
design and was put to use immediately for research work at the university. Shortly thereafter,
the machine originally described by von Neumann's paper—EDVAC—was completed but did
not see full-time use for an additional two years.

Nearly all modern computers implement some form of the stored-program architecture,
making it the single trait by which the word “computer” is now defined. While the
technologies used in computers have changed dramatically since the first electronic, general-
purpose computers of the 1940s, most still use the von Neumann architecture.

Die of an Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor (actual size: 12×6.75 mm) in its packaging

Beginning in the 1950s, Soviet scientists Sergei Sobolev and Nikolay Brusentsov conducted
research on ternary computers, devices that operated on a base three numbering system of -1,
0, and 1 rather than the conventional binary numbering system upon which most computers
are based. They designed the Setun, a functional ternary computer, at Moscow State
University. The device was put into limited production in the Soviet Union, but supplanted by
the more common binary architecture.

Semiconductors and microprocessors

Computers using vacuum tubes as their electronic elements were in use throughout the 1950s,
but by the 1960s they had been largely replaced by transistor-based machines, which were
smaller, faster, cheaper to produce, required less power, and were more reliable. The first
transistorized computer was demonstrated at the University of Manchester in 1953.[33] In the
1970s, integrated circuit technology and the subsequent creation of microprocessors, such as
the Intel 4004, further decreased size and cost and further increased speed and reliability of
computers. By the late 1970s, many products such as video recorders contained dedicated
computers called microcontrollers, and they started to appear as a replacement to mechanical
controls in domestic appliances such as washing machines. The 1980s witnessed home
computers and the now ubiquitous personal computer. With the evolution of the Internet,
personal computers are becoming as common as the television and the telephone in the
household.[citation needed]

Modern smartphones are fully programmable computers in their own right, and as of 2009
may well be the most common form of such computers in existence.[citation needed]

Programs
Alan Turing was an influential computer scientist.

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

Replica of the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), the world's first stored-program
computer, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England

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 usually specialized instructions to tell the computer to
jump ahead or backwards to some other place in the program and to carry on executing from
there. These are called “jump” instructions (or branches). Furthermore, jump instructions may
be made to happen 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. For example:

mov No. 0, sum ; set sum to 0

mov No. 1, num ; set num to 1
loop: add num, sum ; add num to sum
add No. 1, num ; add 1 to num
cmp num, #1000 ; compare num to 1000
ble loop ; if num <= 1000, go back to 'loop'
halt ; end of program. stop running

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 about a millionth of a second.[34]

Bugs

Main article: Software bug

The actual first computer bug, a moth found trapped on a relay of the Harvard Mark II
computer

Errors in computer programs are called “bugs.” They may be benign and not affect the
usefulness of the program, or have only subtle effects. But 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. 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.[35]

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 Harvard Mark II computer in September 1947.[36]

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. 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,[37] 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.

A 1970s punched card containing one line from a FORTRAN program. The card reads: “Z(1)
= Y + W(1)” and is labeled “PROJ039” for identification purposes.

Programming language

Main article: 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

Main article: Low-level programming language

Machine languages and the assembly languages that represent them (collectively termed low-
level programming languages) tend to be unique to a particular type of computer. For
instance, an ARM architecture computer (such as may be found in a PDA or a hand-held
videogame) cannot understand the machine language of an Intel Pentium or the AMD Athlon
64 computer that might be in a PC.[38]

Higher-level languages
Main article: High-level programming language

Though 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.
[39]
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

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section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged
and removed. (July 2012)

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. As problems become larger and more complex, features such as
subprograms, modules, formal documentation, and new paradigms such as object-oriented
programming are encountered. Large programs involving thousands of line of code and more
require formal software methodologies. The task of developing large software systems
presents a significant intellectual challenge. Producing software with an acceptably high
reliability within a predictable schedule and budget has historically been difficult; the
academic and professional discipline of software engineering concentrates specifically on this
challenge.

Components
Main articles: Central processing unit and Microprocessor

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.

The control unit, ALU, registers, and basic I/O (and often other hardware closely linked with
these) are collectively known as a central processing unit (CPU). Early CPUs were composed
of many separate components but since the mid-1970s CPUs have typically been constructed
on a single integrated circuit called a microprocessor.

Control unit

Main articles: CPU design and Control unit

Diagram showing how a particular MIPS architecture instruction would be decoded by the
control system.

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 a series of control signals which activate other parts of the computer.[40] Control
systems in advanced computers may change the order of some instructions so as to improve
performance.

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.
[41]

The control system's function is as follows—note that 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.

Arithmetic logic unit (ALU)

Main article: Arithmetic logic unit

The ALU is capable of performing two classes of operations: arithmetic and logic. [42]

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 only operate on whole numbers (integers) whilst
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.[43] Graphics processors and computers with SIMD and MIMD
features often contain ALUs that can perform arithmetic on vectors and matrices.

Memory

Main article: Computer data storage

Magnetic core memory was the computer memory of choice throughout the 1960s, until it
was replaced by semiconductor 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 of information, it is the software's responsibility to give
significance to what the memory sees as nothing but a series of numbers.

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 (2^8 = 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
and 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.[44]

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)

Main article: Input/output

Hard disk drives are common storage devices used with computers.

I/O is the means by which a computer exchanges information with the outside world.[45]
Devices that provide input or output to the computer are called peripherals.[46] 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, with their own CPU and memory.
A graphics processing unit might contain fifty or more tiny computers that perform the
calculations necessary to display 3D graphics.[citation needed] Modern desktop computers contain
many smaller computers that assist the main CPU in performing I/O.

Multitasking

Main article: Computer 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.[47]

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. [48]

Before the era of cheap 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

Main article: Multiprocessing

Cray designed many supercomputers that used

multiprocessing heavily.

Some computers are designed to distribute their work across

several CPUs in a multiprocessing configuration, a technique
once employed only in 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 architectures that differ significantly
from the basic stored-program architecture and from general purpose computers.[49] They
often feature thousands of CPUs, customized high-speed interconnects, and specialized
computing hardware. Such designs tend to be useful only for specialized tasks due to the large
scale of program organization required to successfully utilize 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.

Networking and the Internet

Visualization of a portion of the routes on 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.[50]

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.[51] The technologies that made the Arpanet possible spread and evolved.
In time, the network spread beyond academic and military 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.

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

The quantum computer architecture holds the most promise to revolutionize computing.[52]

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.

Misconceptions
Women as computers in NACA High Speed Flight Station
"Computer Room"

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, the modern[53] definition of a computer is literally “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.” [54]
Any device which processes information qualifies as a computer, especially if the processing
is purposeful.

Required technology

Main article: Unconventional computing

Historically, computers evolved from mechanical computers and eventually from vacuum
tubes to transistors. However, conceptually computational systems as flexible as a personal
computer can be built out of almost anything. For example, a computer can be made out of
billiard balls (billiard ball computer); an often quoted example.[citation needed] More realistically,
modern computers are made out of transistors made of photolithographed semiconductors.

There is active research to make 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.