Computers :: essays research papers

Computers Computer are electronic device that can receive a set of instructions, or program, and then carry out a program by performing calculations on numbered data or by compiling and correlating other forms of information. The old world of technology could not believe about the making of computers. Different types and sizes of computers find uses throughout our world in the handling of data including secret governmental files and making banking transactions to private household accounts. Computers have opened up a new world in manufacturing through the developments of automation, and they have made modern communication systems. They are great tools in almost everything you want to do research and applied technology, including constructing models of the universe to producing tomorrow's weather reports, and their use has in itself opened up new areas of development. Database services and computer networks make available a great variety of information sources. The same new designs also make possible ideas of privacy and of restricted information sources, but computer crime has become a very important risk that society must face if it would enjoy the benefits of modern technology. Two main types of computers are in use today, analog and digital, although the term computer is often used to mean only the digital type. Everything that a digital computer does is based on one operation the ability to determine if a switch, or gate is open or closed. That is, the computer can recognize only two states in any of its microscopic circuits on or off, high voltage or low voltage, or—in the case of numbers—0 or 1. The speed at which the computer performs this simple act, however, is what makes it a marvel of modern technology. Computer speeds are measured in megaHertz, or millions of cycles per second. A computer with a "clock speed" of 10 mHz—a fairly representative speed for a microcomputer—is capable of executing 10 million discrete operations each second. Business microcomputers can perform 15 to 40 million operations per second, and supercomputers used in research and defense applications attain speeds of billions of cycles per second. Digital computer speed and calculating power are further enhanced by the amount of data handled during each cycle. If a computer checks only one switch at a time, that switch can represent only two commands or numbers; thus ON would symbolize one operation or number, and OFF would symbolize another. By checking groups of switches linked as a unit, however, the computer increases the number of operations it can recognize at each cycle. The first adding machine, a precursor of the digital computer, was