A computer is a machine that is programmable and can compute a series of instructions. Computers can carry out a set of instructions this is called a program.
Types of computer architectures
Types of a computer
Main wiki page: Types of a computer
Computer hardware
Main wiki page: hardware Computers have hardware to run the software.
Main computer components
Computer architecture
Main wiki page: Machine architecture
Computers have different architectures. The most common are Von Neuman architecture and Harvard architectutre. Each architecture either is a CISC or RISC.
Computer architectures:
- arm - 32-bit Advanced RISC Machine
- arm64 - 64-bit Advanced RISC Machine
- ia32 - 32-bit Intel Architecture
- mips - 32-bit Microprocessor
- mipsel - 64-bit Microprocessor
- ppc - PowerPC Architecture
- ppc64 - 64-bit PowerPC Architecture
- s390 - 31-bit The IBM System/390
- s390x - 64-bit The IBM System/390
- i386 - 32-bit extended systems
- x86_64 - 64-bit extended systems
- sparc - Sun Microsystems SPARC Architecture
- sparc64 - 64-bit Sun Microsystems SPARC Architecture
- alpha - Alpha Architecture
- hexagon - Qualcomm Hexagon Architecture
- m68k - Motorola 680x0 Architecture
Computer bit size
Computers have different bit sizes. The most common are 32-bit and 64-bit. The bit size of a computer is the size of the CPU registers. The bit size of a computer determines the maximum amount of RAM the computer can use.
Input and output
Computers have different input and output devices. The most common are keyboard and mouse for input and monitor for output.
Input devices
Main wiki page: Input devices
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Touchpad
- Trackball
- Touchscreen
- Graphics tablet
- Microphone
- Webcam
- Scanner
- Barcode scanner
- Scanner
- OCR
- MICR
- MSR
- Smart card
- Biometric sensor
- Light pen
- Gesture recognition device
- MIDI controller
Output devices
Main wiki page: Output devices
- Monitor
- Cathode ray tube display
- Light-emitting diode display
- Electroluminescent display
- Electronic paper
- Plasma display panel
- Liquid crystal display
- High-Performance Addressing display
- Thin-film transistor display
- Organic light-emitting diode display
- Digital Light Processing display
- Surface-conduction electron-emitter display
- Field emission display
- Laser TV
- Carbon nanotubes
- Quantum dot display
- Interferometric modulator display
- Digital microshutter display
- microLED
- Swept-volume display
- Laser display
- Holographic display
- Light field displays
- Ticker tape
- Split-flap display
- Flip-disc display
- Vane display
- Rollsign
- Tactile electronic displays
- Speaker
- Haptic
- Printer
- Light
- Projector
Computer peripherals
Main wiki page: computer peripherals
- Network card
- GPU
- Sound card
- Video capture card
- TV tuner card
- Modem
- NIC
- RAID controller
- Host adapter
- Expansion card
- PSU
- Computer case
- Computer cooling
Computer Software
Computers need software to run. Software is a set of instructions that the computer can run. Software can be open source or proprietary.
Operating systems
Main wiki page: operating system
A operating system is a set of software that manages the computer hardware and software. The operating system is the most important software on a computer. The operating system is the first software that runs when the computer is turned on. The operating system is the software that the user interacts with.
Programming languages
In order to write software you need to use a programming language. There are lots of programming languages.
- Assembly (Lowest level)
- C
- Java
- JavaScript
- Python
- PHP
- Ruby
- Swift
- Go
- Rust
- Kotlin
- TypeScript
- Dart
- Scala
- Haskell
- Clojure
- Erlang
- Elixir
- Lisp
- Prolog
- SQL
- COBOL
- Fortran
- Pascal
- Ada
- BASIC