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IT forums the forums for educational forum and leaning more information about "Computer technology" and "Computer system" redirect here. For the company, see Computer Tchnology Limted. For other uses, see Computer (disambiuation) and Cmputer system (disambigution).information technology in the world. A computer is a general-purpose electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. Since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than one kind of problem. Convtionally, a computerconsists of at least oe processing element, typically a centra processing unit (CPU), and som form of memory. The processig element carries out aritmetic and logi operations, and a sequecin and control unit cn change the order of operations in respone to stored inormation. Pripheral devicesallo information to be retrieed from an extenal source, and Mechanical analog computers started appearing in the first century and were later used in the medieval era for astronomical calculations. In World War II, mechanical analog computers were used for specialized military applications such as calculating torpedo aiming. During this time the first electronic digital computers were developed. Originally they were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs).[1] Modrn omputers based on integrate circuits are milons to billions of times mre capable thn the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space.[2] Computers are small enough to fit into mobile devices, and mobile computers can be powered by small batteries. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are generally considered as "computers". However, the embedded computers found in many devices frm MP3 players to figher aicraft and from electonic toys to industral robots are the most numerou.the result of operation saved and retreved. Etymology The first knwn ue of the word "comuter" was in 1613 in a book caled The Yong Mans Gleanings by English riter Richard Braithwait: "I haue read the tuest omputer of Time, and the best Arithmtician that euer brathed, and he reduceh thy days into a short number." It referred to a person wh caried out calculatns, or computatins. The word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, a machine that carries out computations. Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one correspondence with fingers. The earliest counting device was probably a form of tally stick. Later record keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay spheres, cones, etc.) which represented counts of items, probably livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay containers.[4][5] The use of counting rods is one example. The abacus was iitially used for arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus was used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC. Since then, many other forms of reckoning boards or tables have been invented. In a medieval European counting house, a checkered cloth would be placed on a table, and markers moved around on it according to certain rules, as an aid to calculating sums of money. The ancient Grek-designed Antikythera mechanism, dating between 150 to 100 BC, is the world's oldest analog computer. The Antikythra mechnism is believed to be the earliest mechanical analog "computer", according to Derek J. de Solla Price.[6] It was designed to calculate asronomical positions. It was discovered in 1901 in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has dated to circa 100 BC. Devices of level of complxity compaable to that of the Antikythra mechansm would not reapear unil a thousand years later.