Desktop Computers

Further Reading: Computers

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Computer Data Storage ... In contemporary usage, 'memory' usually refers to semiconductor storage read-write random-access memory, typically DRAM (Dynamic-RAM). Memory can refer to other forms of fast but temporary storage...

History Of The World Wide Web ... The hypertext portion of the Web in particular has an intricate intellectual history; notable influences and precursors include Vannevar Bush's Memex, IBM's Generalized Markup Language, and Ted Nelson's Project Xanadu. The concept of a home-based global information system goes at least as far back as "A Logic Named Joe", a 1946 short story by Murray Leinster, in which computer terminals, called "logics," were in every home...

Computer Program ... Computer source code is often written by computer programmers. Source code is written in a programming language that usually follows one of two main paradigms: imperative or declarative programming...

Rugged Computer ... Construction Virtually all rugged computers share an underlying design philosophy of providing a controlled environment for the installed electronics...

Computer ... Conventionally a computer consists of some form of memory, at least one element that carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a sequencing and control unit that can change the order of operations based on the information that is stored. Peripheral devices allow information to be entered from an external source, and allow the results of operations to be sent out...

Supercomputer ... in grid computing the processing power of a large number of computers in distributed, diverse administrative domains, is opportunistically used whenever a computer is available... History The history of supercomputing goes back to the 1960s when a series of computers at Control Data Corporation (CDC) were designed by Seymour Cray to use innovative designs and parallelism to achieve superior computational peak performance...

Multiprocessing ... Multiprocessing sometimes refers to the execution of multiple concurrent software processes in a system as opposed to a single process at any one instant. However, the terms multitasking or multiprogramming are more appropriate to describe this concept, which is implemented mostly in software, whereas multiprocessing is more appropriate to describe the use of multiple hardware CPUs...

Internet Access ... Broadband Internet access may give access to Internet services such as: Much faster world wide web browsing Telephony, radio, television and videoconferencing Virtual private networks and remote systems administration Online gaming especially massively multiplayer online role-playing games which are interaction-intensive "Broadband penetration" is now treated as a key economic indicator. Even though information signals generally travel nearly the speed of light in the medium no matter what the bit rate, higher rate services are often marketed as "faster" or "higher speeds"...

TOP500 ... The TOP500 list is compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim, Germany, Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Project history In the early 1990s, a new definition of supercomputer was needed to produce meaningful statistics...

Personal Digital Assistant ... The first PDA was released in 1986 by Psion, the Organizer II. Followed by Psion's Series 3, in 1991, which began to resemble the more familiar PDA style...

Central Processing Unit ... On personal computers and small workstations, the CPU is housed in a single silicon chip called a microprocessor...

Internet Privacy ... Internet privacy forms a subset of computer privacy. A number of experts within the field of Internet security and privacy believe that privacy doesn't exist; "Privacy is dead – get over it" according to Steve Rambam, private investigator specializing in Internet privacy cases...

Computer Network ... Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics such as the medium used to transport the data, communications protocol used, scale, topology, and organizational scope. Communications protocols define the rules and data formats for exchanging information in a computer network, and provide the basis for network programming...

Software Industry ... The software industry expanded in the early 1960s, almost immediately after computers were first sold in mass-produced quantities...

Control Unit ... This architecture is preferred in reduced instruction set computers (RISC) as it consists of a lesser instruction set...

Internet Protocol Suite ... The Internet protocol suite has four abstraction layers, each with its own protocols. From lowest to highest, the layers are: The link layer contains communication technologies for a local network...

Netbook ... More recently, Psion's now-discontinued netBook line, the OLPC XO-1 (initially called US$100 laptop) and the Palm Foleo were all small, portable, network-enabled computers...

Desktop Replacement Computer ... Desktop replacement computers are also often used with a port replicator, to fully enjoy the desktop comfort... Design features Modern desktop replacements generally perform better than traditional laptop-style computers as their size allows the inclusion of more powerful components... However, these advantages generally come at a price premium, with many computers in this class costing as much as two desktop computers with similar specifications...

Programming Language ... The earliest programming languages predate the invention of the computer, and were used to direct the behavior of machines such as Jacquard looms and player pianos. Thousands of different programming languages have been created, mainly in the computer field, with many more being created every year...

Subnotebook ... These computers are often confused with the "ultra-mobile PC" category, which is the name of a platform of small form-factor tablet PCs...

History Of Supercomputing ... In the 1970s, Cray formed his own company and using new approaches to machine architecture produced supercomputers which dominated the field until the end of the 1980s. While the supercomputers of the 1980s used only a few processors, in the 1990s, machines with thousands of processors began to appear both in the United States and in Japan, setting new computational performance records...

Unconventional Computing ... Some mechanical computers have a theoretical or didactic relevance, such as billiard-ball computers or hydraulic ones,... Light (optical computing) Computers can manipulate information as light (rather than electricity or billiard balls)...

History Of Computing Hardware ... Computing hardware evolved from machines that needed separate manual action to perform each arithmetic operation, to punched card machines, and then to stored-program computers... The history of stored-program computers relates first to computer architecture, that is, the organization of the units to perform input and output, to store data and to operate as an integrated mechanism (see block diagram to the right)... As all computers rely on digital storage, and tend to be limited by the size and speed of memory, the history of computer data storage is tied to the development of computers...

System Software ... The server performs some computational task on behalf of clients which may run on either the same computer or on other computers connected through a network...

Laptop ... As portable computers became smaller, lighter, cheaper, more powerful and as screens became larger and of better quality, laptops became very widely used for all sorts of purposes, by all sorts of people...