Computer
device · 1945 · Digital age
A programmable machine for processing information.
Inventor: Charles Babbage.
What it is made of
- Microprocessor — has part. The heart of a modern computer is the microprocessor.
- Flash memory — has part. Modern computers store data on SSDs with flash memory.
- Keyboard — has part. The keyboard is the main input device.
- Printed circuit board — has part. The main board.
- RAM — has part. RAM.
- Graphics processing unit — has part. The graphics processor draws the picture on screen and also runs neural-network maths.
Principles and materials it uses
- Boolean algebra — uses. Digital circuits implement Boolean logic.
- Von Neumann architecture — uses. Most computers store program and data in a shared memory.
- Program control of a machine — uses. A computer executes a stored program.
- Turing machine — uses. A computer is a universal Turing machine.
- Silicon — is made of. The chips are silicon.
- Copper — is made of. The conductors are copper.
Where it is used
- ARPANET — is part of. The nodes of the network are the computers of universities and laboratories.
- Internet — is part of. The Internet links billions of computers.
- CT scanner — is used in. A computer reconstructs the image.
- MRI — is used in. Image reconstruction.
- DNA sequencing — is used in. Assembling a genome is a computing task.
- Fly-by-wire — is used in. On-board computers.
- Flight simulator — is used in. Modern simulators are computer-based.
- Machine translation — is used in. The first experiment ran on an IBM 701.
- PET scanner — is used in. Reconstruction.
- Tetris — is used in. Written on an Elektronika-60.
- Lunar module — is used in. The Apollo Guidance Computer.
- SCADA — is used in. A control-room computer.
- PET scanner — is part of. Image reconstruction.
- Brain–computer interface — is part of. Decoding instructions.
History: what it evolved from and what it influenced
- Smartphone — evolved into. A smartphone is a pocket computer: it has a processor, memory and an operating system.
What it is a kind of
- Computing device — is a kind of. A computer is a computing device.
- Harvard Mark I — includes. One of the first programmable computers.
- ENIAC — includes. A general-purpose electronic computer.
- Zuse Z3 — includes. A programmable computer.
- Colossus — includes. An electronic computer.
- MESM — includes. A computer.
- UNIVAC I — includes. A computer.
- Mainframe — includes. A computer.
- Minicomputer — includes. A computer.
- Personal computer — includes. A computer.
- Server — includes. A computer.
- Supercomputer — includes. A computer.
- Game console — includes. A games console is a computer built for games.