Introduction to Computers

The word computer has evolved from the word compute, which means, "calculate." So a computer is normally considered to be a calculating device that can perform arithmetic operations at enormous speed.

More accurately, a computer may be defined as a device that operates upon data and produces information. Data are raw facts and figures and when they are given a meaningful shape by processing, they are called information. A computer does this processing. So we can call a computer a data processor.

Features of computer

Speed: A computer is a very fast device. It can perform in a few seconds the amount of work that a human being can do in the entire year. While talking about the speed of a computer, we do not talk in terms of seconds r millisecond (10^-3) .The unit of speed of a computer is microsecond (10^-6), nanosecond (10^-9) and even the picoseconds (10^-12). A powerful computer is capable of performing about 3 to 4 million simple arithmetic operations per second.

Accuracy: The accuracy of a computer is consistently high and the degree of accuracy of a particular computer depends upon its design. But for a particular computer, each and every calculation is performed with the same accuracy. The errors can occur in a computer, but these are mainly due to human rather than technological weaknesses, that are due to inaccurate data or due to imprecise thinking by the programmer.

Diligence: Unlike human beings, a computer is free from monotony, tiredness, lack of concentration etc., and hence can work for hours together without creating any error and without grumbling. Due to this property, computers obviously score over human beings in doing routine type of jobs, which require great accuracy. If ten million calculations have to be performed, a computer will perform the tenth million calculations with exactly the same accuracy and speed as the first one.

Versatility: Versatility is one of the most wonderful things about the computer. One moment, it is preparing the result of an examination, the next moment it busy preparing bill and in between it may prepared a letter for a friend. All that is required to change its talent is to switch from one program to another.

Power of remembering: As a human being acquires new knowledge, the brain subconsciously selects what it feels to be important and worth retaining in its memory, and relegates unimportant details to the back f the mind or just forgets them. This is not the case with a computer, which can store and recall any amount of information because of its secondary storage capability.

No I.Q.: A computer posses no I.Q. of its own. It has zero intelligence.

No feelings: Computer is devoid of emotions. They have no feelings and no instincts because they are machine.

Uses of Computer

There are numerous areas where computers are used but some fields cannot work without a computer in this century.

1. Weather forecasting: Super computers are used in the meteorological department to forecast the weather conditions in the country and the world. The prevailing weather conditions are fed into the computer as parameters and then it predict about the atmosphere and weather in the coming hours and the bad weather conditions.
2. Census: Census is the task, which requires data collection, storage and evaluation. This job cannot be done manually and if done would generate errors. This job can be easily done with the computer where a computer can store the lists, sort and merge and count the data very easily.
3. Oil exploration: Oil exploration is easily done with the help of super computers. These computers provide fire alarms, danger signals, and temperature parameters to the scientists, These jobs if manually done would definitely lead to mishapes or mistakes.
4. Speech recognition: This task involves the recognition of the voice of various persons. The voice is stored in the computer and they can be converted to written text) Sometimes the text can be converted into voice. This branch of computer is called artificial intelligence and it is extremely useful when a human being is to be substituted by a machine.
5. Banking and commerce: Today banking and commerce is handicapped without computer. ATM cards are used to with draw money, which is inserted, and the reader reads the magnetized strip. Besides MICR is used to read the cheque number from cheques. This reduces human mistakes and simultaneously increases the speed of the job. All the account balances etc. are also stored in computer for future calculations etc.
6. Publishing: Computer are used in the design of newspapers, magazines, newsletters, brochures etc. All publishing work can be easily done with the help of a computer. PageMaker, CorelDraw etc. are softwares which can produce attractive layouts of magazines, cover pages, newspapers etc.
7. Accounting: Accounting is done with the help of various accounting softwares like TALLY etc. This software accepts the data and generates, profit and loss statement, balanced sheets. Etc. very easily, which is otherwise very difficult.
8. Research: In research, various super computer are used which store data and generate various forecast and results.