WHAT IS A COMPUTER?

The term computer is used to describe a device made up of a combination of electronic and electromechanical (part electronic and part mechanical) components. Com­puter has no intelligence by itself and is referred to as hardware. A computer system is a combination of five elements:

• Hardware

• Software

• People

• Procedures

• Data/information

When one computer system is set up to communicate with another computer system, connectivity becomes the sixth system element. lit other words, the manner in which the various individual systems are connected — for ex­ample, by phone lines, microwave transmission, or sat­ellite — is an element of the total computer system.

Software is the term used to describe the instructions that tell the hardware how to perform a task. Without software instructions, the hardware doesn't know what to do. People, however, are the most important components of the computer system: they create the computer software instructions and respond to the procedures that those instructions present.

The basic job of the computer is the processing of in­formation. Computers accept information in the form of instruction called a program and characters called data to perform mathematical and logical operations, and then give the results. The data is raw material while informa­tion is organized, processed, refined and useful for decision making. Computer is used to convert data into in­formation. It is also used to store information in the digital form.

Answer the following questions:

1. What does the term «computer» describe? 2. Is computer intelligent? 3. What are five components of computer system? 4. What is connectivity? 5. What is software? What's the difference between hardware and software? 6. Why people are the most important components of a computer system? 7. In what way terms «data» and «information» differ? 8. How does computer convert data into information?