CS Series 👩‍🚀 : What is a Computer ? 🤔

• It's your laptop or your mobile device. Or your Microwave! but let's have a concise definition of what a computer is : any device that receives, stores, and process information
• We have:
  • Different types of computers: desktops, servers, embedded systems
  • Different uses of computers: automobiles, graphics, finance, gaming
  • Different Manufactures of computers : Intel, Apple, Microsoft, IBM
  • Different underlying technologies and different costs

A computer consist of 💻:

• Software
  • Operating System
  • Compilers
  • End user programs : Web Browsers, Email, Video Game
• Hardware
  • CPU, Main storage (DRAM,SRAM), secondary storage (Hard Drive, CD), Cache
  • I/O Devices : Keyboard, Monitor, Printer
• data : numbers, text, audio, video, images... (eventually it will be represented as binaries)

Van Neuman Architecture

• So any computer may have all these things above or some of them. but we can summarize the underlying architecture as the Von Neuman Architecture which represent the components of any modern computer:
  • Input/output devices
    • Inputs : Keyboard, Microphone, Mouse
    • Outputs : Monitor, Printer
  • CPU : the brains of the computer, responsible of controlling the internal working of the memory.
  • Memory : stores instructions and data

Additional research and references

Von Neumann Architecture - Computerphile