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Published in:
Cover of the book

2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

1. What Is a Computer?

Author : Gerard O’Regan

Published in: Mathematics in Computing

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The first chapter introduces the computing field, where a computer is a programmable electronic device that can process, store and retrieve data. It processes data according to a set of instructions (or program), and all computers consist of two basic parts, namely, hardware and software. There are two distinct families of computing devices, namely, digital computers and the historical analog computer. These two types of computer operate on quite different principles, and the earliest computers were analog. We discuss the von Neumann architecture, which is the fundamental architecture underlying a digital computer.

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next chapter Foundations of Computing
Footnotes
1
Germanium is an important semiconductor material used in transistors and other electronic devices.
 
2
Eckert and Mauchly were working with him on this concept during their work on ENIAC and EDVAC, but their names were removed from the final report due to their resignation from the University of Pennsylvania to form their own computer company. von Neumann architecture includes a central processing unit which includes the control unit and the arithmetic unit, an input and output unit, and memory.
 
Literature
O’Regan G (2018) World of computing. Springer
O’Regan G (2018) Giants of computing. Springer
von Neumann J (1945) First draft of a report on the EDVAC. University of Pennsylvania
Metadata
Title
What Is a Computer?
Author
Gerard O’Regan
Copyright Year
2020
Book
Mathematics in Computing

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-34208-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-34209-8

Copyright Year: 2020

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34209-8_1

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