Programs-3

Modern von Neumann computers display some traits of the Harvard architecture in their designs, such as in CPU caches. While it is possible to write computer programs as long lists of numbers (machine language) and this technique was used with many early computers, it is extremely tedious to do so in practice, especially for complicated [...]

Programs

In practical terms, a computer program may run from just a few instructions to many millions of instructions, as in a program for a word processor or a web browser. A typical modern computer can execute billions of instructions per second (gigahertz or GHz) and rarely make a mistake over many years of operation. Large [...]

Stored program architecture-1

Many computers directly support subroutines by providing a type of jump that “remembers” the location it jumped from and another instruction to return to the instruction following that jump instruction. 
Program execution might be likened to reading a book. While a person will normally read each word and line in sequence, they may at times jump [...]

Stored program architecture

The defining feature of modern computers which distinguishes them from all other machines is that they can be programmed. That is to say that a list of instructions (the program) can be given to the computer and it will store them and carry them out at some time in the future. 
In most cases, computer instructions [...]

History of computing-5

A number of projects to develop computers based on the stored-program architecture commenced around this time, the first of these being completed in Great Britain. The first to be demonstrated working was the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM or “Baby”), while the EDSAC, completed a year after SSEM, was the first practical implementation of the [...]

History of computing-4

Notable achievements include:
EDSAC was one of the first computers to implement the stored program (von Neumann) architecture. Konrad Zuse’s electromechanical “Z machines”. The Z3 (1941) was the first working machine featuring binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a measure of programmability. In 1998 the Z3 was proved to be Turing complete, therefore being [...]

History of computing-3

Large-scale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the U.S. Census in 1890 by tabulating machines designed by Herman Hollerith and manufactured by the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation, which later became IBM. By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later prove useful in the realization of practical [...]

History of computing-2

The length of day and night could be re-programmed every day in order to account for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year. 
The end of the middle Ages saw a re-invigoration of European mathematics and engineering, and Wilhelm Schickard’s 1623 device was the first of a number of mechanical calculators constructed by [...]

History of computing-1

It is difficult to identify any one device as the earliest computer, partly because the term “computer” has been subject to varying interpretations over time. Originally, the term “computer” referred to a person who performed numerical calculations (a human computer), often with the aid of a mechanical calculating device. 
The history of the modern computer begins [...]

Computer Software Overview

Computer software is often regarded as anything but hardware, meaning that the “hard” are the parts that are tangible (able to hold) while the “soft” part is the intangible objects inside the computer. Software encompasses an extremely wide array of products and technologies developed using different techniques like programming languages, scripting languages etc. The types [...]