Inputs Data Into The Computer example essay topic

Computers The Computer that you know these days is a small thing that sits on a desk in your room that is composed of a monitor, keyboard, mouse and a small box. But computers have changed so much that if you seen old computer you would never recognize it. The first computer was built in the early 17 hundreds. You probably heard that the first computer was made in the 1950's but computers have been around for hundreds of years. All a computer is is something that calculates number. So these computers of the 1700's were made from gears that worked together to make a answer.

"In the nineteenth century, Englishman Charles Babbage designed a steam powered machine that could calculate square roots, cube roots and other exponential functions". (1) The first computer was an abacus. "The Chinese abacus consists of a wooden frame divided into an upper and lower section". (2) These are all computer that have been around 100's of years. Latter in the 20th century the government started to work on a top-secret project. That was the birth of type of computer.

Similar to your computer but still very vary different. You would probably still would have never have guest what it is. The computer had no screen and it was the size of a office building. This computer was programmed differently too instead of typing in to a computer they had to make cards with holes in it that stood for different thing for it to do. They first had to make a program for typing so that they could have a keyboard connected to it. But still that was not good enough they need a program so that they could use the keyboard program on the system.

This is called a operating system. The operating system is a lot like windows, it's what keeps your computer interactive with you. But at that time they didn't have a operating system and had to create one. One of the first operating systems open to the public was DOS. The computer for years had been improved to smaller and smaller parts to run it faster and faster. Soon the computer was the size of a house.

By then everyone knew about a computer. It was not until 1985 that the computer industry was able to take off and become one of the most important necessities in this world. Microsoft is the main reason why the industry was such a booming success. They made the programs that made life easy. Today In the 21st century we use the computers that fit in your home, briefcase, or your pocket. The average computer is a 400-800 MMX (megahertz) system.

With a 10-15 gig hard drive. With over a 128 megs of ram and all the pins and plugs are made from gold for higher and faster performances. The processor is a small microchip that is cooled by a large fan. That is the main part of the computer. The Computer in made of many parts there is the I / O witch is the Input and the output.

The output is the equipment outside the computer. The keyboard is he input because it inputs data into the computer. The mouse is the input also it inputs to select things or to move the icon on the screen. But the printer is an output. The computer outputs the data to the printer to tell it to make a picture these picture can be anything a letter of a drawling. There many types of inputs and outputs for a computer but the one thing that works for both input and output is the fax.

The fax has to output information to the fax to send the fax to the number specified in the computer. Also the fax can input the data into the computer when a fax comes in. The hard drive is the storing of the data in the computer. The data is saved by Electromagnetic charging of Billions of clusters in the hard drive. Each cluster stands for a bit that is electrically charge for not electrically charge. If it is not charged then it is 0 if it is charge then it is a 1 and then they come together to make bytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and so on.

The ram is also a memory of the computer but this memory is static electricity. This stays on as long as the computer stays powered. But the hard drive is magnetically charged so is does not require the constant flow of power to it. This is how the memory is stored with out loss of data. The Processor is the chip that controls the system and tells it where everything has to go. This chip goes on the motherboard and has a fan on it because the chip heats up to high temperatures.

This blows down on to the protective box of the chip. The box is meant to protect the chip from degrading, wear, and most important to protect it from you damaging it. The Box is about one and half by one and a half inches square. Inside the chip lies.

The chip is about the size of a pinky fingernail. The wires inside the chip are "as fine as human hairs carry electrical signals to and from the chip's circuitry. These gold or aluminum wires resist corrosion and carry electricity well" (3). The reason it gets so hot is because each electrical signal is a bit and all the information that the computer process must go through the chip and so it must analyze and reads billions of bits a minute and know what it is and where it must go. The information that comes from the processor goes to one of three things in the I / O; the printer, fax, modem or monitor.

Another place that it goes is to the ram to be kept in suspended memory and the last place it might go is the hard drive to save the data so that it maybe pulled up again in a later date. The computer electrical signals are in flashes if there is a flash then it's 1 if not than it is seen as a 0. The 1 and 0 are grouped up into things called bytes these bytes stand for different things like letter, symbols, and number higher than 1. But the computer can not add higher then 1 so the computer must have a 7 digit code for each number and each symbol and letter.

So if the computer does not understand more one then for it to understand 1+2 = 3 it takes the 7 digit code for one and the 7 digit code for 2 and adds it together in a way that gives them the 7 digit code which is 3. This is called Binary code "In the binary system, as in the decimal, the value of a digits is determined by where is stands in relation to the other digits in a number" (5) Along with this and the being able to get word into the computer by typing has lead to the programming with words and from there that lead to new programs like Bios, Dos, Operating systems and so on. A Program is a series of line of code that are instructions for the computer telling it what to do. "The computer reads the commands into 0's and 1's; then caries out the instructions".

(4) Now understanding the basic hardware and software of the computer. The computer also deals with sounds also, like music. The analog signal is the waves that come off the speaker. The signal is basically wave that makes music but the only wave a computer understands is 1 for signal and 0 for no signal.

So the computer reads the signals by the amount of volts per period of time which is vary small length of time. Then the computer would give the number to each portion of time. The numbers are based on amount of volts being passed at that time. This is how the computer transmits the analog sound wave into the digital form. The computer was a top-secret device that was worked on in the 1950 but the future had great future rolls for the computer. After the computer had became something faster and smaller the government started to work on something called the Internet.

The Internet was primarily for the transition of data from one computer to another over a phone line. This prevented the fear of a air craft coming in and blowing up the main computer and whipping out all the computer data for the military. So with the invention of the Internet and the computer the military was able to work faster so that the information can be past around at the speed of light and not worry about miss handling or loss information. The Internet these days is not just computer connection. The Internet is made up of thousands of severs that serve millions of computers in this world today. The Internet has became one of the most fastest improving thing on that man has ever created.

The development of a network system also came into play. This allows you to share files in your system to other computers in other system. Also for security basses a network can have a server as well as an intranet witch is a internal internet in your computer network. Valley Center High School has a intranet in their network that allows us a website upload into the server at the school. The school has there web page on the server. The server can be contacted through the network on any computer connected to the network at the school and can have files loaded to it but at the same time if you go to the website on a computer that was not connected to their network and connected to the internet and went to the website you would still be connected to the server at the school.

So for hundreds of years there where computers but it was not until the late 20th century that they had gotten so advanced. Also how the entire computer is an continues transmit of electrical flashes and magnetized clusters and with all this tied together can make as complexes as a computer of the 21st century. 1) Time Life, Computer age; Page 6 2) Time Life, Computer age; Page 7 3) Time Life, Computer age; Page 21 4) Time Life, Computer age; Page 485) Time Life, Computer basics; Page 40.