What is Computer

December 25, 2020

What is Computer

Full form of "COMPUTER" is Commonly Operated Machine Particularly Used for Training Education and Research. The computer is an electronic device that receives data as input from the user, stores, and processes this data as per user instructions, and provides output in the desired format.

A computer is derived from the Latin word “computare” which means “to calculate”. So, the word computer means a "device that performs computation".

Charles Babbage is the "Father" of the computer. The First mechanical computer designed by Charles Babbage was called Analytical Engine. It uses read-only memory in the form of punch cards.

Computer consists of four parts:

1) Hardware

Hardware is the physical and tangible components of a computer i.e. the component that can be touched and seen. The hardware consists of external components and internal components. Input device and Output device; Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Printer, Scanner, Speaker, etc are the External components of a computer. CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Harddisk Drive, etc are the internal components of a computer.

2) Software

Software is a set of programs, which perform a specific task. A program is a set of instructions written in computer understandable format to solve a particular problem. The hardware of the computer cannot perform any task on its own. Software instructs the computer about the task to be performed. Software is of two types; System software and Application Software. An operating system, compiler, assembler are the example of System software. MS Office, Chrome, filmora, etc are the application software.

3) Data

The computer input is called Data. Data is raw facts and figures which have no much significance can be processed using arithmetic and logical operation to obtain meaningful information. Data is represented with characters such as alphabets (A-Z, a-z), digits (0-9), or special characters (+,-,/,*,<,>,=, etc.)

4) User

Users are a person who interacts with the computer or writes computer programs. Users may be programmers, data entry operators, system analysts, and computer hardware engineers.