Computer
A computer is a device that accepts information and
manipulates it for some result based on a program or
sequence of instructions on how the data is to be processed. Complex computers
also include the means for storing data for some necessary duration. A program
may be invariable and built into the computer or different programs may be
provided to the computer. Today's computers have both kinds of programming.
Most histories of the modern computer begin
with the Analytical Engine envisioned by Charles Babbage following the mathematical ideas of George Boole, the mathematician
who first stated the principles of logic inherent in today's digital computer.
Babbage's assistant and collaborator, Ada Lovelace, is said to have introduced the ideas of program
loops and subroutines and is sometimes considered the first programmer. Apart
from mechanical calculators, the first really useable computers began with the vacuum tube, accelerated with the invention of the transistor, which then became embedded in large numbers
in integrated circuits, ultimately making possible the relatively low-cost
personal computer.
Modern computers inherently follow the ideas
of the stored program laid out by John von Neumann in 1945. Essentially, the program is read by
the computer one instruction at a time, an operation is performed, and the
computer then reads in the next instruction, and so on. Recently, computers and
programs have been devised that allow multiple programs (and computers) to work
on the same problem at the same time in parallel. With the advent of the
Internet and higher bandwidth data transmission,
programs and data that are part of the same overall project can be distributed
over a network and embody the Sun Microsystems slogan: "The network is the
computer."
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