Computers have become an integral part of modern life and are used for a wide variety of tasks like booking tickets, paying bills, banking, processing data, and more. They provide speed, accuracy, can work diligently for long periods without tiring, have large storage capabilities, and are versatile in the types of tasks they can perform. However, computers are limited in that they can only do what they are programmed to do and cannot take actions or make decisions without user instructions.
2. Nowadays, computers are an integral part of our
lives. They are used for the reservation of tickets
for Aeroplane and railways, payment of telephone
and electricity bills, deposit and withdrawal of
money from
banks, processing of business data, forecasting of
weatherconditions, diagnosis of diseases,
searching for information on the internet, etc.
Computers are also used extensively in schools,
universities, music industry, movie industry,
scientific research, law, fashion industry, etc.
3. Data:
Data is nothing but just collection of basic facts and figures
without any sequence. When the data is collected as facts
and figures, it has no meaning at that time. For example,
names of students, names of teachers etc.
4. Processing:
Processing is the set of instructions given by the
user to output the meaningful information which
can be used by the user. The work of processing
may be the calculation, comparison or the decision
taking by the computer.
5. Characteristics of Computer:
Speed, accuracy, diligence, storage
capability and versatility are some of the
key characteristics of a computer.
6. Speed:
The computer can process data very fast, at the rate of
millions of instructions per second'. Some calculations that
would have taken hours and days to complete otherwise,
can be completed in a few seconds using the computer. For
example, calculation and generation of salary slips of
thousands o! employees of an organization, weather
forecasting that requires analysis of a large amount of data
related to temperature, pressure and humidity of various
places, etc.
7. Accuracy:
Computer provides a high degree of accuracy. For
example, the computer can accurately give the result of
division of any two numbers up to 10 decimal places.
Normally when any work is done at high speed there
always is a great chance of mistakes but the computer
does work at very high speed without any mistakes.
8. Diligence:
When used for a longer time, the computer does not get
tired or fatigued. It can perform long complex
calculations with same speed and accuracy from the
start till the end.
9. Large volumes of data and information can be stored in
the computer and also retrieved whenever required. A
limited amount of data can be stored, temporarily, in the
primary memory. Secondary storage devices like floppy
disk and compact disk can store a large amount of data
permanently.
Storage Capability:
10. Versatility:
Computer is versatile in nature. It can perform different
types of tasks with the same ease. At one moment you
can use the computer to prepare a letter document in the
next moment you may play music or print a document.
Nowadays even you can do so many things on a
computer at the same moment. It means you can type
some text while listening to any audio track.
11. With all these characteristics the computer has become a
very powerful and amazing machine but at the same time
computers have several limitations too. Computer can only
perform tasks that it has been programmed to do. Computer
cannot do any work without instructions from the user. It
executes instructions as specified by the user and does not
take its own decisions.