Block, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, Check users, delete, edit, Moderators, move, oversight, protect, rollback
19,320
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 1:
Line 1: − + Line 12:
Line 12: +
quantum computing
A '''computer''' is a machine that is designed to perform a huge variety of information-processing tasks, depending on the program it has stored in its memory. Computers manipulate all data in the form of numbers, and encode all numbers in [[binary|binary code]], which is base 2. This means that there can only be a 1 or a 0 in any data. This makes it possible to process data electronically, since one voltage can be used to represent a zero and another voltage for a one.
A '''computer''' is a machine that is designed to perform a huge variety of information-processing tasks, depending on the program it has stored in its memory. Computers manipulate all data in the form of numbers, and encode all numbers in either [[binary|binary code]], which is base 2, or in the case of quantum computers, trinary code which is base 3. Binary means that there can only be a 1 or a 0 in any data. This makes it possible to process data electronically, since one voltage can be used to represent a zero and another voltage for a one. Trinary systems are far more complicated, and still in development. The average personal or server computer uses binary.
==History==
==History==
[[Image:Babbage.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Contemporary (1800's) illustration of what Charles Babbage's Difference Engine might have looked like.]]
[[Image:Babbage.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Contemporary (1800's) illustration of what Charles Babbage's Difference Engine might have looked like.]]
[[File:SSEM Replica.jpg|thumb|left|The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine is considered the world's first stored-program computer, 1948.]]
[[File:SSEM Replica.jpg|thumb|left|The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine is considered the world's first stored-program computer, 1948.]]
The first computer comparable to the modern day computer, an electronic calculation machine, was the [[ENIAC]]. Built as a artillery support machine, it was unveiled in early 1946.<ref>http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/comphist/</ref>
The first computer comparable to the modern day computer, an electronic calculation machine, was the [[ENIAC]]. Built as a artillery support machine, it was unveiled in early 1946.<ref>http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/comphist/</ref>
{{clear}}
==Kinds==
==Kinds==
Computers are divided into four categories. They are: personal computers, mainframe computers, dedicated computers, and embedded computers.
Computers are divided into four categories. They are: personal computers, mainframe computers, dedicated computers, and embedded computers.