Computer Fundamentals and System Concepts

Digital computers represent data using discrete signals, typically in binary form (on/off states).

Mainframe computers are large, powerful systems designed to handle high-volume data processing and support multiple users simultaneously. Supercomputers are large but focus on computational speed rather than user support.

The vast majority of modern computers are digital, representing data as discrete binary values. Analog computers are largely obsolete, and hybrid computers are relatively rare.

Nanocomputer is the name given to the molecular-scale computer.

Nanocomputing describes computing that uses extremely small, or nanoscale, devices (one nanometer [nm] is one billionth of a meter). In 2001, state-of-the-art electronic devices could be as small as about 100 nm, which is about the same size as a virus. The integrated circuits (IC) industry, however, looks to the future to determine the smallest electronic devices possible within the limits of computing technology.

 Molecular scale electronics, also called single-molecule electronics, is a branch of nanotechnology that uses single molecules, or nanoscale collections of single molecules, as electronic components. Because single molecules constitute the smallest stable structures imaginable, this miniaturization is the ultimate goal for shrinking electrical circuits.

A modern digital computer has Extremely high speed,Large memory and Almost unlimited array.

A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance compared to a general-purpose computer. Performance of a supercomputer is measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS). As of 2017, there are supercomputers which can perform up to nearly a hundred quadrillion FLOPS. As of November 2017, all of the world's fastest 500 supercomputers run Linux-based operating systems. Additional research is being conducted in China, the United States, the European Union, Taiwan and Japan to build even faster, more powerful and more technologically superior exascale supercomputers.

Big memory is a term used to describe server workloads which need to run on machines with a large amount of RAM (random-access memory) memory. Some example workloads are databases, in-memory caches, and graph analytics. Or, more generally, data science and big data.Some database systems are designed to run mostly in memory, rarely if ever retrieving data from disk or flash memory.

The first electronic digital computer contained Electronic valves.

In electronics, a vacuum tube, an electron tube, or colloquially a tube (North America) or valve (British usage), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied.

In computer science, a digital electronic computer is a computer machine which is both an electronic computer and a digital computer. Examples of a digital electronic computers include the IBM PC, the Apple Macintosh as well as modern smartphones.

Vacuum tube. Alternatively referred to as an electron tube or valve and first developed by John Ambrose Fleming in 1904. The vacuum tube is a glass tube that has its gas removed, creating a vacuum. Vacuum tubes contain electrodes for controlling electron flow and were used in early computers as a switch or an amplifier

It represents the decimal numbers through a string of binary digits is true for the digital computer.

As we have seen in this Binary Numbers section of tutorials, there are many different binary codes used in digital and electronic circuits, each with its own specific use.

As we naturally live in a decimal (base-10) world we need some way of converting these decimal numbers into a binary (base-2) environment that computers and digital electronic devices understand, and binary coded decimal code allows us to do that.

We have seen previously that an n-bit binary code is a group of “n” bits that assume up to 2n distinct combinations of 1’s and 0’s. The advantage of the Binary Coded Decimal system is that each decimal digit is represented by a group of 4 binary digits or bits in much the same way as Hexadecimal. So for the 10 decimal digits (0-to-9) we need a 4-bit binary code.

A computer with CPU speed around 100 million instructions per second & with the word length of around 64 bits is known as Super computer.

A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance compared to a general-purpose computer. Performance of a supercomputer is measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS). As of 2017, there are supercomputers which can perform up to nearly a hundred quadrillion FLOPS. As of November 2017, all of the world's fastest 500 supercomputers run Linux-based operating systems. Additional research is being conducted in China, the United States, the European Union, Taiwan and Japan to build even faster, more powerful and more technologically superior exascale supercomputers.

The country unveiled the world's fastest supercomputer, the Sunway TaihuLight (above). This year, according to state news agency Xinhua, the government has set its sights on completing the world's first prototype exascale computer; a machine capable of making a billion billion calculations per second.

EDVAC is a kind of digital computer. it is abbreviated as Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer. It was a binary serial computer with automatic  addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It's average addition time was 864 microseconds

Analog computer works on the supply of Continuous electrical pulses.

An analog computers, works by measuring voltages and currents rather than by the process of counting. An analog computers works on supply of continuous electrical signals and display outputs continuously. Side rule is an example analog device in which numbered as expressed as distances.

A computer that operates with numbers represented by directly measurable quantities (such as voltages or rotations) — compare digital computer, hybrid computer. This contrasts with an analog signal, which represents continuous values; at any given time it represents a real number within a continuous range of values.

A digital computer did not score over an analog computer in terms of Accuracy.

The definition of a digital computer is the most commonly used type of computer and is used to process information with quantities using digits, usually using the binary number system. An example of a digital computer is a MacBook.

Digital computers are programmable machines that use electronic technology to generate, store and process data. This computer fills the space between the mainframe and microcomputer This may also be called a mid-range computer.

The basic difference between analog and digital computers is the type of data they process. ... Digital computer process data which is binary, i.e. in the form of 0 and 1. Analog computers operate on mathematical variables in the form of physical quantities that are continuously varying.

Computer scientists are exploring the possibility of culturing bacteria to create living chips which have digital electronic properties. these chips called Biochips.

A biochip is a collection of miniaturized test sites (microarrays) arranged on a solid substrate that permits many tests to be performed at the same time in order to achieve higher throughput and speed. Typically, a biochip's surface area is no larger than a fingernail. Like a computer chip that can perform millions of mathematical operations in one second, a biochip can perform thousands of biological reactions, such as decoding genes, in a few seconds.

A biochip is a miniaturized laboratory capable of performing thousands of simultaneous biochemical reactions. It is a collection of micro-test sites or microarrays which are arranged on the surface of a solid substrate and it is meant to perform multiple tests at the same time to achieve greater speed and throughput.

A biochip is much like a computer chip but instead of performing a multitude of mathematical operations per second, it performs biological reactions such as decoding genes and finding contaminations in a few seconds.

A modern digital computer has Extremely high speed, Large memory and Almost unlimited accuracy.

In computer science, a digital electronic computer is a computer machine which is both an electronic computer and a digital computer. Examples of a digital electronic computers include the IBM PC, the Apple Macintosh as well as modern smartphones.

The ALU performs the arithmetic and logic algorithms selected to process the incoming data at extremely high speeds—in many cases in nanoseconds (billionths of a second). The main memory, control unit, and ALU together make up the central processing unit (CPU) of most digital computer systems, while the input-output devices and auxiliary storage units constitute peripheral equipment.

Main memory is directly or indirectly connected to the central processing unit via a memory bus. ... Hence, non-volatile primary storage containing a small startup program (BIOS) is used to bootstrap the computer, that is, to read a larger program from non-volatile secondary storage to RAM and start to execute it.

IBM 7000 digital computer Has modular constructions.

Examples of modular systems are cars, computers, process systems, solar panels and wind turbines, elevators and modular buildings. ... Modular design is an attempt to combine the advantages of standardization (high volume normally equals low manufacturing costs) with those of customization.

A modular PC is a computer that has individually-housed components, which are interconnected but separately removable for service or upgrading. ... The Xi3 Piston is an extremely compact and power-efficient gaming computer.

The IBM 700/7000 series is a series of large-scale (mainframe) computer systems that were made by IBM through the 1950s and early 1960s. The series includes several different, incompatible processor architectures. The 700s use vacuum tube logic and were made obsolete by the introduction of the transistorized 7000s. The 7000s, in turn, were eventually replaced by System/360, which was announced in 1964.

IBM 7000 digital computer Has modular construction.

The IBM 700/7000 series is a series of large-scale (mainframe) computer systems that were made by IBM through the 1950s and early 1960s. The series includes several different, incompatible processor architectures. The 700s use vacuum tube logic and were made obsolete by the introduction of the transistorized 7000s. The 7000s, in turn, were eventually replaced by System/360, which was announced in 1964. However the 360/65, the first 360 powerful enough to replace 7000s, did not become available until November 1965. Early problems with OS/360 and the high cost of converting software kept many 7000s in service for years afterward.