Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
An artist's depiction of a 2000s-era desktop-style personal computer, which includes a metal case with the computing components, a display and a keyboard (mouse not shown). A personal computer, often referred to as a PC or simply computer, is a computer designed for individual use. [1]
It has a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and a computer tower. The computer tower contains the motherboard and processor. A desktop computer, often abbreviated as desktop, [1] is a personal computer designed for regular use at a stationary location on or near a desk (as opposed to a portable computer) due to its
A human computer, with microscope and calculator, 1952. It was not until the mid-20th century that the word acquired its modern definition; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known use of the word computer was in a different sense, in a 1613 book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by the English writer Richard Brathwait: "I haue [] read the truest computer of Times, and the best ...
The history of the personal computer as a mass-market consumer electronic device began with the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s. A personal computer is one intended for interactive individual use, as opposed to a mainframe computer where the end user's requests are filtered through operating staff, or a time-sharing system in which one large processor is shared by many individuals.
In 1968, computer scientist Alan Kay envisioned a KiddiComp; [17] [18] he developed and described the concept as a Dynabook in his proposal, A personal computer for children of all ages (1972), [19] which outlines functionality similar to that supplied via a laptop computer, or (in some of its other incarnations) a tablet or slate computer ...
A personal computer has one user who may also be the owner (although the term has also come also mean any computer hardware somewhat like the original IBM PC, irrespective of how it is used). This user often may use all hardware resources, has complete access to any part of the computer and has rights to install/remove software. Personal ...
The term computer remained one that referred to mostly women (now seen as "operator") until 1945, after which it took on the modern definition of machinery it presently holds. [ 44 ] The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was the first electronic general-purpose computer, announced to the public in 1946.
Because SCAMP was the first to emulate APL\1130 performance on a portable, single user computer, PC Magazine in 1983 designated SCAMP a "revolutionary concept" and "the world's first personal computer". [8] [9] The engineering prototype is in the Smithsonian Institution. [10]