Defination And Notes On : What Is Computer ? & What Are The Characteristics Of Computer ?

1. WHAT IS A COMPUTER? & WHAT ARE CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTER ? 


WHAT IS A COMPUTER : Computer is an electronic device. It can do arithmetic calculations faster. But as you will see later it does much more than that. It can be compared to a magic box, which serves different purpose to different people. For a common man computer is simply a calculator, which works automatic and quite fast. For a person who knows much about it, computer is a machine capable of solving problems and manipulating data. It accepts data, processes the data by doing some mathematical and logical operations and gives us the desired output.

Therefore, we may define computer as a device that transforms data. Data can be anything like marks obtained by you in various subjects. It can also be name, age, sex, weight, height, etc. of all the students in your class or income, savings, investments, etc., of a country. Computer can be defined in terms of its functions.

• It can accept the data,
• It can store the data,
• It can process the data as required by the user, 
• It can retrieve the stored data as and when required by the user,
• It can print the result in desired format. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTER :

• Speed: Speed of the computer is wonderful. They can produce results instantaneously. A computer can do 10 lacs calculations in one second. The characteristic of speed is highly useful in various areas like space research, weather forecast, airplanes etc.

• Accuracy: Computers are highly accurate machines. They produce error free results. Any errors shown, is the result of wrong input entered in the computer. Errors are generally mammal. It has to do all those functions which it is instructed to do so.

• Storage: Computer can store enormous amount of data in it. The information can be retrieved from the storage devices almost instantaneously. Hard Disk (Magnetic Disk) is used to store the data. Think of storing a data on an 80 Giga byte on hard-disk. It can store nearly about - 10, 00, 000, 00 pages of data on it.

• Versatile: Computer is a versatile machine. It can perform the job instructed to it without any taking any break for a continued duration. Due to this characteristic, computers are working round the clock in various departments like Railway, Banks, Hospitals, Industries, etc.

• Diligence: Computer can work for a long time and does not suffer from the tiredness. It can perform the job several hours with same speed and accuracy.

• No Feeling: It does not have any feelings, emotion, taste, knowledge and experience. Thus it does not get tired even after long hours of work. It does not distinguish between users. 

• No IQ: Computer is a dumb machine and it cannot do any work without instruction from the user. It performs the instructions at tremendous speed and with accuracy. It is you to decide what you want to do and in what sequence. So a computer cannot take its own decision as you can.
  
  

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