A brief Introduction to Computer along with its Components

Introduction to Computer

World has been revolutionized due to many wonderful inventions. These remarkable inventions have facilitated our lives so much that now we cannot even imagine surviving without them. Computer is one of these remarkable inventions that preserve our precious time in every field of life.

Today's world is the world of technology and no doubt, computer has added a lot into this technological era by transforming our hours into minutes and minutes into seconds. We cannot even imagine that in early times, when we didn't even think about such a marvelous invention, how human beings used to calculate enormous figures we are calculating today within no time. That’s all because of computers which have made our lives more than efficient.

What is a Computer?

We may find many definitions of computers. However the brief definition that people prefer the most is that computer is an electronic machine. It gets input, process this input and provides us an output. That's how most of the people use to give an "introduction to computer" by simply providing this definition.

The definition explains us a lot about the working of a computer, i.e. a computer gets any data as an input from the user. This data can be in the form of text or it might be a graphic, a video or audio. You might be looking for any explanation about data. Data is in fact raw material and does not provide any valid arranged information. This data given to the computer is now processed and is provided to the user in the form of some useful information which is called output.

Components of computer

During above discussion, when we had a concise introduction to computer, we talked about the working of a computer system which states that computer gets an input from the user, process it and provide an output. Now the question arises: "how a user will provide the input to a computer? How is computer going to process that input and provide an output to the user? "

The answer to these questions leads us towards the components of computer. A computer consists of following components:

·      Input devices

·      Processor

·      Output devices

·      Storage devices

·      Communication devices

Let us move towards the brief explanation of these components.

Input devices

Such devices that are used to enter the data into the computer are called input devices. This data, as described earlier can be in the form of text, graphics, videos and audio etc. Read more in "Input devices of computer system"

For example: keyboard, mouse, scanner, microphone etc. These are all input devices.

Most commonly used input devices are keyboard and mouse. User enters the text mostly using keyboard and points towards different icons on the computer screen using mouse.

The standard keyboard called QWERTY keyboard is most commonly used by desktop computers. Numerical data, alphabetical text as well as different symbols can be entered using keyboard. Also read: Different Types of Computer Keyboards and Keys

Mouse, on the other hand, is used to point out and click different icons on the computer screen. It thus gives input to the computer system in the form of clicks telling the computer system to open the relative file or document etc. Learn: Types of Computer Mouse and its use

There are many other input devices that are used by the user to enter important data into the computer. User can also enter any audio or voice data using microphone.

Processor

In reality, the introduction to computer is incomplete if we do not   discuss the processor. After the data is entered into the computer, now there is a need to process that data given by the user as an input. For that purpose, computer has a processor called CPU, also known as "the brain of computer".

As in a human body, all the functions are controlled by human brain, similarly, CPU, the processor, also controls all the computer functionality. The CPU process the data entered by the user and provide us useful information on which several decisions can be made.

Output devices

Finally, after processing the data into useful information, the output can be provided to the user through output devices. The main purpose of output devices is to show the output.

The most commonly used output devices are monitor, printer and speaker.

Just like input, the output provided to the user can also be in the form of text, graphic, video, audio etc

Monitor is commonly used to show the text, graphics etc on the screen.

Similarly speaker is used to provide the audio output. This audio output can be a song, a voice documentary or any other sound recorded through a microphone.

Another useful output device is printer which is used to provide the hard copy output. This hard copy can be a printed document or it can be a printed photograph etc.

  

Storage devices

It is very important to store the important data so that can be used and processed later. For that purpose, computer contains a very important component called storage device.

These devices are used to store the data permanently in the computer so that important decisions can be made on it whenever it is needed. An important example is hard disk which has the capacity to store large amount of data into the computer system. Similarly, usbflash drive can also be used to store data permanently.  

Read: What is a Hard Disk Drive used for? Hard Disk types

 Communication devices

Now a days, one of
the major purposes of using computers is communication. Computer system consists of such hardware components that are used to communicate the data and other information from one computer to another.

One of the major examples is modem.

Hence, we can state that a brief introduction to computer and a concise knowledge about the components of computer is something that everyone needs to acquire in today's world of technology.