The word computer comes from the word ‘compute’ which means
to calculate. Hence, a computer is normally considered to be a calculating
device, which can perform arithmetic operation at enormous speed.
In fact, the original objective for invention the computer
was to create a fast calculating machine. However, more than 80% of the work
done by computer today is non-numerical nature. Hence, to define a computer
merely as a calculating device is to ignore over 80% of its functions.
More accurately, a computer
may be defined as a device, which operates upon data. Data can be anything like
bio-data of various applicants when the computer is used for recruiting personnel,
or the marks obtained by various students in various subjects when the computer
is used to prepare results, or the details (name, age, sex etc) of various
passengers when the computer is employed for marking airline or railway
reservations, or numbers of different types in case of use computers for solving
scientific research problems, etc.
Hence, data comes in various shapes and sizes, depending
upon the type of computer application. A computer can store, process and
retrieve data as and when desired. The fact that computers process data is so
fundamental that many people have started calling it a data processor.
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