Computers Basics

Computers are showing up everywhere you look, and even in places you can't see. Computers check out your groceries, pump your gas, dispense money at the ATM, turn the heat on and off, control the way your car runs. They're everywhere! They're everywhere!
In fact, the computer is rapidly becoming, if it hasn't already gotten there, as tightly woven into the fabric of our lives as the automobile. The analogy runs quite deep.
When automobiles were new, many people said "Those smelly, loud, complicated things will never replace the horse!" And "Those things break down in just a few miles, while my faithful horse goes on and on and repairs itself!" Nowadays it's hard to imagine the world without all the variety of four-wheeled, internal combustion vehicles. How many can you name? Sedans, pickup trucks, fire engines, front-end loaders, 4-wheelers, golf carts, bulldozers, cranes, vans, dump trucks... We have an "automobile" for every purpose under heaven - and in different models and colors, too.

What is a computer?

A computer is an electronic device that executes the instructions in a program.
A computer has four functions:

a. accepts data	Input	The Information Processing Cycle
b. processes data	Processing
c. produces output	Output
d. stores results	Storage
In the lessons that follow we will study the parts of the computer and each of the four parts of the Information Processing Cycle.