Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a list of directions. The first devices that be like modern computers date to the mid-20th century (around 1940 - 1945), although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed previous. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as numerous hundred modern personal computers. Modern computers are based on miniature integrated circuits and are millions to billions of times more competent while occupying a division of the space. Today, simple computers may be made small enough to fit into a timepiece and be powered from a watch battery. Personal computers in various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "a computer"; however, the most common form of computer in use today is the surrounded computer. Embedded computers are small, simple devices that are used to control other devices — for example, they may be found in machines ranging from fighter aircraft to manufacturing robots, digital cameras, and children's toys.

The capability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely adaptable and distinguishes them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a arithmetic statement of this flexibility: any computer with a certain minimum competence is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore, computers with competence and complication ranging from that of a personal digital subordinate to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks given enough time and storage capability.