What is a computer?

Hardware
Numeral systems
Data sizes and speeds
Data Coding and Information Decoding
Types of computers
What is a motherboard?
Computer networks
Software
Information technology
 A computer is an electronic device that manipulates
information, or data. It has the ability to store, retrieve,
and process data. You may already know that you can use a
computer to type documents, send email, play games,
and browse the Web. You can also use it to edit or
create spreadsheets, presentations, and even videos.
 When most people hear the word computer, they think of
a personal computer such as a desktop or laptop. However,
computers come in many shapes and sizes, and they perform
many different functions in our daily lives. When you
withdraw cash from an ATM, scan groceries at the store, or
use a calculator, you're using a type of computer.
 Many people use desktop computers at work, home, and
school. Desktop computers are designed to be placed on a
desk, and they're typically made up of a few different parts,
including the computer case, monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
 The second type of computer you may be familiar
with is a laptop computer, commonly called a
laptop. Laptops are battery-powered computers
that are more portable than desktops, allowing you
to use them almost anywhere.
 ablet computersor tabletsare handheld computers that
are even more portable than laptops. Instead of a keyboard
and mouse, tablets use a touch-sensitive screenfor typing
and navigation. The iPad is an example of a tablet.
A server is a computer that serves up information to other
computers on a network. For example, whenever you use the
Internet, you're looking at something that's stored on a
server. Many businesses also use local file servers to store
and share files internally.
 Hardware is any part of your computer that has
a physical structure, such as the keyboard or mouse.
It also includes all of the computer's internal parts,
which you can see in the image below.
 When we type some letters or words, the computer
translates them in numbers as computers can understand
only numbers. A computer can understand the positional
number system where there are only a few symbols called
digits and these symbols represent different values
depending on the position they occupy in the number.
 When choosing a new computer we come across terms such
as "300GB hard drive" and "500MB download", and to the
uninitiated, this can be somewhat disconcerting. Data in a
computer is represented in a series of bits. Since the birth of
computers, bits have been the language that control the
processes that take place inside that mysterious box called
your computer. In this article, we look at the very language
that your computer uses to do its work.
 Alternatively referred to as
the mb, mainboard, mboard, mobo, mobd, backplane
board, base board, main circuit board, planar board, system
board, or a logic board on Apple computers.
The motherboard is a printed circuit board that is the
foundation of a computer, located on the back side or at the
bottom of the computer chassis. It allocates power and
allows communication to the CPU, RAM, and all other
computer hardware components.
 A computer network or data network is
a digital telecommunications network which allows nodes to
share resources. In computer networks,
networked computing devices exchange data with each
other using a data link. The connections between nodes are
established using either cable media or wireless media.
 Network computer devices that originate, route and terminate the
data are called network nodes. Nodes can include hosts such
as personal computers, phones, servers as well as networking
hardware. Two such devices can be said to be networked together
when one device is able to exchange information with the other
device, whether or not they have a direct connection to each
other.
 Computer networks support an enormous number
of applications and services such as access to the World wide
Web, digital video, digital audio, shared use of application
and storage servers, printers, and fax machines, and use
of email and instant messaging applications as well as many
others. Computer networks differ in the transmission
medium used to carry their signals, communications
protocols to organize network traffic, the network's
size, topology and organizational intent. The best-known
computer network is the Internet.
 Computer software, or simply software, is a part of
a computer system that consists of data or computer
instructions, in contrast to the physical hardware from which
the system is built. In computer science and software
engineering, computer software is all information processed
by computer systems, programs and data.
 At the lowest level, executable code consists of machine language
instructions specific to an individual processortypically a central processing
unit (CPU). A machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying
processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its
preceding state. For example, an instruction may change the value stored in
a particular storage location in the computeran effect that is not directly
observable to the user. An instruction may also (indirectly) cause something
to appear on a display of the computer systema state change which should
be visible to the user.
 The majority of software is written in high-level programming languages that
are easier and more efficient for programmers to use because they are closer
than machine languages to natural languages. High-level languages are
translated into machine language using a compiler or an interpreter or a
combination of the two. Software may also be written in a low-
level assembly language, which has strong correspondence to the
computer's machine language instructions and is translated into machine
language using an assembler.
 Is the application of computers to store, study, retrieve,
transmit, and manipulate data or information.