History of the computer

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Recommended: The history of the development of computers

Every day, millions of people use many forms of computers. From laptops to iPods™, they are used for many purposes. There are many, many things you could do with the power of a computer, but what really defines a computer and what composes it? The computer, a simple binary machine that was imagined by Charles Babbage now using many important parts, has progressed over many years to become the best invention ever to be conceived.

In definition, computers are devices that when given instructions and raw data (input), will give out finalized data through calculations (output) by the use of hardware and software. The definition derives from a name given to people that work out math problems. Albeit the computer is technically a calculator, it can do much more. For example, computers can: write documents, access multimedia, use the internet, be reprogrammed for other purposes, and much more. Forms of computers include desktops (meant as a stationary setup), laptops (portable computers that can fold in or out with an LED screen), media devices (for example, iPods™, smart phones), and tablet computers (comes in a touchscreen slate or a laptop form)

There are many things that a computer can do, but what is inside it? For a computer to operate and function there are six required parts needed to do so: the central processing unit (CPU), the printed circuit board (PCB or more commonly known as the motherboard), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hard disk drive (HDD or just “hard drive”), random access memory (RAM), and a power supply unit (PSU or simply “power supply”) which powers the computer.

The CPU, which stands for “central processing unit”, functions as the brain of the computer. It is the most essential part of the computer. Two...

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...omputers were destroyed along with Zuse’s company, Zuse Apparatebau (meaning Apparatus). Zuse began working on the Z4 and smuggled it in a military truck to be finished in Zurich’s Federal Polytechnical Institutes Applied Math Division

Works Cited

Searle, Bobbi 9. Inside a Computer. Danbury, CT: Grolier Educational, 2001.

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Black, Edwin. IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation. New York: Crown, 2001. Print.

Bellis, Mary. "The History of Computers." About.com Inventors. About.com, 05 Mar. 2014. Web.

3 Apr. 2014.

Hoyle, Michelle A. "Computers: From the Past to the Present." History of Computing Science:

Computer History from the Past. N.p., 30 July 2006. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

Computer Hope, Computer History. Retrieved May 11, 2014, from

http://www.computerhope.com/history/

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