A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations.

The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem. Conventionally a computer consists of some form of memory for data storage, at least one element that carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a sequencing and control element that can change the order of operations based on the information that is stored. Peripheral devices allow information to be entered from an external source, and allow the results of operations to be sent out. A computer's processing unit executes series of instructions that make it read, manipulate and then store data. Conditional instructions change the sequence of instructions as a function of the current state of the machine or its environment. The first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century (19401945). Originally, they were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs).[1] Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space.[2] Simple computers are small enough to fit into mobile devices, and mobile computers can be powered by small batteries. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "computers". However, the embedded computers found in many devices from mp3 players to fighter aircraft and from toys to industrial robots are the most numerous.

Contents
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1 History of computing o 1.1 Limited-function early computers o 1.2 First general-purpose computers o 1.3 Stored-program architecture o 1.4 Semiconductors and microprocessors 2 Programs o 2.1 Stored program architecture o 2.2 Bugs o 2.3 Machine code o 2.4 Higher-level languages and program design 3 Function o 3.1 Control unit o 3.2 Arithmetic/logic unit (ALU) o 3.3 Memory

3.4 Input/output (I/O) 3.5 Multitasking 3.6 Multiprocessing 3.7 Networking and the Internet 4 Misconceptions o 4.1 Required technology o 4.2 Computer architecture paradigms o 4.3 Limited-function computers o 4.4 Virtual computers 5 Further topics o 5.1 Artificial intelligence o 5.2 Hardware o 5.3 Software o 5.4 Programming languages o 5.5 Professions and organizations 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References
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9 External links

History of computing
Main article: History of computing hardware The first use of the word "computer" was recorded in 1613, referring to a person who carried out calculations, or computations, and the word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century onwards, the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, describing a machine that carries out computations.[3]

Limited-function early computers

The Jacquard loom, on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England, was one of the first programmable devices. The history of the modern computer begins with two separate technologiesautomated calculation and programmabilitybut no single device can be identified as the earliest computer, partly because of the inconsistent application of that term. A few devices are worth mentioning though, like some mechanical aids to computing, which were very successful and survived for centuries until the advent of the electronic calculator, like the Sumerian abacus, designed around 2500 BC[4] which descendant won a speed competition against a modern desk calculating machine in Japan in 1946,[5] the slide rules, invented in the 1620s, which were carried on five Apollo space missions, including

to the moon[6] and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient astronomical computer built by the Greeks around 80 BC.[7] The Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria (c. 1070 AD) built a mechanical theater which performed a play lasting 10 minutes and was operated by a complex system of ropes and drums that might be considered to be a means of deciding which parts of the mechanism performed which actions and when.[8] This is the essence of programmability. Around the end of the tenth century, the French monk Gerbert d'Aurillac brought back from Spain the drawings of a machine invented by the Moors that answered Yes or No to the questions it was asked (binary arithmetic).[9] Again in the thirteenth century, the monks Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon built talking androids without any further development (Albertus Magnus complained that he had wasted forty years of his life when Thomas Aquinas, terrified by his machine, destroyed it).[10] In 1642, the Renaissance saw the invention of the mechanical calculator,[11] a device that could perform all four arithmetic operations without relying on human intelligence.[12] The mechanical calculator was at the root of the development of computers in two separate ways ; initially, it is in trying to develop more powerful and more flexible calculators[13] that the computer was first theorized by Charles Babbage[14][15] and then developed,[16] leading to the development of mainframe computers in the 1960s, but also the microprocessor, which started the personal computer revolution, and which is now at the heart of all computer systems regardless of size or purpose,[17] was invented serendipitously by Intel[18] during the development of an electronic calculator, a direct descendant to the mechanical calculator.[19]

First general-purpose computers

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the textile loom by introducing a series of punched paper cards as a template which allowed his loom to weave intricate patterns automatically. The resulting Jacquard loom was an important step in the development of computers because the use of punched cards to define woven patterns can be viewed as an early, albeit limited, form of programmability. The Most Famous Image in the Early History of Computing[20] This portrait of Jacquard was woven in silk on a Jacquard loom and required 24,000 punched cards to create (1839). It was only produced to order. Charles Babbage owned one of these portraits ; it inspired him in using perforated cards in his analytical engine[21] It was the fusion of automatic calculation with programmability that produced the first recognizable computers. In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable mechanical computer, his analytical engine.[22] Limited finances and Babbage's inability to resist tinkering with the design meant that the device was never completed ; nevertheless his son, Henry Babbage, completed a simplified version of the analytical engine's computing unit (the mill) in 1888. He gave a successful

demonstration of its use in computing tables in 1906. This machine was given to the Science museum in South Kensington in 1910. In the late 1880s, Herman Hollerith invented the recording of data on a machine readable medium. Prior uses of machine readable media, above, had been for control, not data. "After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards ..."[23] To process these punched cards he invented the tabulator, and the keypunch machines. These three inventions were the foundation of the modern information processing industry. Largescale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the 1890 United States Census by Hollerith's company, which later became the core of IBM. By the end of the 19th century a number of ideas and technologies, that would later prove useful in the realization of practical computers, had begun to appear: Boolean algebra, the vacuum tube (thermionic valve), punched cards and tape, and the teleprinter. During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. However, these were not programmable and generally lacked the versatility and accuracy of modern digital computers. Alan Turing is widely regarded to be the father of modern computer science. In 1936 Turing provided an influential formalisation of the concept of the algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, providing a blueprint for the electronic digital computer.[24] Of his role in the creation of the modern computer, Time magazine in naming Turing one of the 100 most influentia