Wikijunior:How Things Work/Computer
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[edit] What does it do?
Computers are designed to do things that require very fast and accurate mathematical ability and memory, but no creativity. Computers can be used to remember information like books or songs, and they can be used to add thousands of numbers per second.
[edit] Who invented it?
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The computer was not invented by any one person, but is rather an evolution of many devices. A German scholar, Wilhelm Schickard, was the first to create a calculator, which is a type of simple computer. However, the first computer that could be taught to do new things, or programmed, was created by Konrad Zuse more than three centuries later. The first personal computer, like the ones that sit on desks, was created by the Computer Terminal Corporation with the Datapoint 2200. Although modern computers are created by many different companies, their operating systems are generally either Windows, developed under Bill Gates, or Mac OS, developed under Steve Jobs. Also free software based GNU/Linux operating system developed by everyone.
[edit] How does it get power?
Computers draw their power from an electrical source, like a plug or a battery.
[edit] How does it work?
Modern computers work by taking input, processing it, and returning it as output, millions of times per second.
[edit] Where does it get its input?
Different types of input come from different places. The keyboard10 sends letters and numbers to the computer, a mouse9 sends information on what to do with the cursor, and a microphone sends sounds. Although you don't control it directly, the internet can also send input. Even though all this information is different, it is all transmitted in the same language that all computers use, binary, which is just a series of ones and zeros.
[edit] How does it process this input?
All the input in the computer is sent to the central processing unit, or CPU3. The binary ones and zeros, or data, go through millions of tiny gates, each of which takes some inputs and returns an output.The CPU's gates also get data from the hard drive8 of the computer, which remembers information, the CD drive7, which is where you put disks for the computer to read, and other parts of the computer. Once the gates have processed all the data, the results are sent from the processor. Some of the results go to the outputs, while others go inside the computer to tell all the other parts of the computer what to do, like telling the hard drive to remember something.
[edit] What happens to the output?
The outputs of the computer are connected to external devices. The most important device is the screen1. The screen takes its inputs from the computer and understands the data as a picture. The screen then displays the picture on the screen. Another output device is the speakers. They take output from the computer and change it into sound. There is also output that you can't see or hear - for example when the computer sends data to the internet to ask for a web page.
[edit] How does it vary?
Computers are created by many different companies. However, almost all CPUs are created by either Intel or AMD, which are both companies. The operating system can be different as well, although the three leading operating systems are Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
Different computers have different parts on the inside. Some have better hard drives so they remember more, or better processors so they work faster.
[edit] How has it changed the world?
Computers have completely changed the way we solve problems and get things done.
[edit] What idea(s) and/or inventions had to be developed before it could be created?
- the transistor, an electronic switch that can be in two positions - either on (1) or off (0)
[edit] References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Schickard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datapoint_2200
