How computer is a powerful tool. Describe the categories of computer and their uses?

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A computer is a device that can be instructed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically via computer programming. Modern computers have the ability to follow generalized sets of operations, called programs. These programs enable computers to perform an extremely wide range of tasks. Computers are used as control systems for a wide variety of industrial and consumer devices. This includes simple special purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls, factory devices such as industrial robots and computer-aided design, and also general purpose devices like personal computers and mobile devices such as smartphones. Computers are powerful tools because they can process information with incredible speed, accuracy and dependability. They can efficiently perform input, process, output and storage operations, and they can store massive amounts of data.

Computers enable users to access information whenever necessary and to share information with other users. They allow people to use the Internet, which is a global network connecting millions of individuals, educational institutions, businesses and government agencies.

Through the Internet, users communicate with each other, search for helpful information, buy products and services, and access various types of entertainment. A widely used component of the Internet is the World Wide Web, which consists of numerous documents known as Web pages. These pages are composed of text, video, sound, graphics and other types of content.

Desktop computers typically comprise a system unit, input devices and output devices that fit on a table, whereas notebook computers are small, portable machines. Many people use desktop and notebook computers to access the Internet or accomplish tasks that require the use of application programs.

Computers that fit in the hand are called handheld computers. Midrange servers are bigger and more powerful than workstation computers. The quickest and most powerful type of computer is called a supercomputer. Another extremely efficient computer is the mainframe, which can simultaneously manage thousands of linked users.

Categories of computer and their uses:
Below you’ll find an extensive, descriptive list of the five types of computers, from supercomputers to mobile computers, and everything in between.

Supercomputers

A supercomputer is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It’s a term used to describe computers that have the most capable processing power of its time. Early supercomputers in the 60s and 70s used just a couple processors, while the 90s saw supercomputers with thousands of processors at a time. Today, modern supercomputers run hundreds of thousands of processors, capable of computing quadrillions of calculations in just a few nanoseconds. You probably won’t be needing that kind of power to access Facebook… Actually, supercomputers are used in computational science to calculate and carry out a plethora of complex tasks. Modeling molecular structures, weather forecasting, and the field of quantum mechanics, among others, rely on supercomputers and their intense processing power to solve their equations.

Mainframe Computers
Like supercomputers, mainframe computers are huge, towering machines with lots of processing power. Mainframe computers are mostly used by corporations, government agencies, and banks – organizations that need a way to store large quantities of information. They are not the same as supercomputers. The processing capabilities of mainframe computers are measured in MIPS, or millions of instructions per second. Supercomputers, on the other hand, are measured in FLOPS, or floating point operations per seconds.

Minicomputers
A minicomputer is a multiprocessing machine that can support up to about 200 users at the same time. It’s like a less powerful mainframe computer, and is about the size of a refrigerator. A server can be an example of a minicomputer, but not all servers are minicomputers. Despite their name, a minicomputer is not a personal computer like the desktop machine you might have at home or work. They are much larger than that. Because of the ways microcomputers – which we’ll cover next – have excelled in processing power even beyond minicomputers, and at a much smaller size, minicomputers have become pretty much obsolete.

Microcomputers
Microcomputers are the ones people are most familiar with on a daily, non-professional basis, but of course that doesn’t mean they’re exclusive to the home. Microcomputers are smaller computers that run on microprocessors in their central processing units. They are much, much cheaper than supercomputers, mainframe computers and even minicomputers, because they’re meant for everyday uses that are more practical than professional. The range of capabilities for microcomputers are still vast, though. A film editor might use a microcomputer to run many intensive editing programs at once, while a student might use a microcomputer for Facebook and word processing.