What is a computer

A computer is a machine or device that performs processes, calculations and operations based on instructions provided by a software or hardware program. It is designed to execute applications and provides a variety of solutions by combining integrated hardware and software components.

A computer is made up of multiple parts and components that facilitate user functionality. A computer has two primary categories:

• Hardware: Physical structure that houses a computer's processor, memory, storage, communication ports and peripheral devices
• Software: Includes operating system (OS) and software applications

A computer works with software programs that are sent to its underlying hardware architecture for reading, interpretation and execution. Computers are classified according to computing power, capacity, size, mobility and other factors, as personal computers (PC), desktop computers, laptop computers, minicomputers, handheld computers and devices, mainframes or supercomputers.

A computer is an electronic device that takes input or output such as numbers, text, sound, image, animations, video, etc., processes it, and converts it into meaningful information that could be understood, presenting the changed input (processed input) as output. All numbers, text, sound, images, animations, and video used as input are called data, and all numbers, text, sound, images, animations, and video returned as output are called information.

A computer is composed of five crucial parts:

v  An input device

v  A storage facility to hold numbers for processing

v  A processor or number calculator

v  A control unit to direct tasks to be performed

v  An output device