INTRODUCTION A computer is a general-purpose 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.
Conventionally, a computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central
processing unit (CPU), and some form of memory. The processing element carries out arithmetic
and logic operations, and a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in
response to stored information. Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external
source, and the result of operations saved and retrieved.
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]
Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than
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 what most people consider as
computers. However, theembedded computers found in many devices from MP3 players to fighter
aircraft and from electronic toys to industrial robots are the most numerous.

BIRTH OF A COMPUTER
Before the 1920s, computers (sometimes computors) were human clerks that performed
computations. They were usually under the lead of a physicist. Many thousands of computers were
employed in commerce, government, and research establishments. Most of these computers were
women.[citation needed] Some performed astronomical calculations for calendars, others ballistic tables for
the military.
After the 1920s, the expression computing machine referred to any machine that performed the work
of a human computer, especially those in accordance with effective methods of the Church-Turing
thesis. The thesis states that a mathematical method is effective if it could be set out as a list of

instructions able to be followed by a human clerk with paper and pencil, for as long as necessary,
and without ingenuity or insight .[citation needed]
Machines that computed with continuous values became known as the analog kind. They used
machinery that represented continuous numeric quantities, like the angle of a shaft rotation or
difference in electrical potential .[citation needed]
Digital machinery, in contrast to analog, were able to render a state of a numeric value and store
each individual digit. Digital machinery used difference engines or relays before the invention of
faster memory devices .[citation needed]
The phrase computing machine gradually gave away, after the late 1940s, to just computer as the
onset of electronic digital machinery became common. These computers were able to perform the
calculations that were performed by the previous human clerks .[citation needed]
Since the values stored by digital machines were not bound to physical properties like analog
devices, a logical computer, based on digital equipment, was able to do anything that could be
described "purely mechanical." The theoretical Turing Machine, created by Alan Turing, is a
hypothetical device theorized in order to study the properties of such hardware. [citation needed]

HISTORY OF COMPUTER
The history of computer science began long before the modern discipline of computer
science that emerged in the 20th century, and was hinted at in the centuries prior.[dubious discuss][citation
needed]

The progression, from mechanical inventions and mathematicaltheories towards modern

computer concepts and machines, led to a major academic field and the basis of a massive
worldwide industry.[1]
The earliest known tool for use in computation was the abacus, developed in the period between
27002300 BCE in Sumer. The Sumerians' abacus consisted of a table of successive columns
which delimited the successive orders of magnitude of their sexagesimal number system.[2]:11 Its
original style of usage was by lines drawn in sand with pebbles .[citation needed] Abaci of a more modern
design are still used as calculation tools today.[3]
The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest known mechanical analog computer.[4] It
was designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in 1901 in the Antikythera wreck
off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to c. 100 BCE.

Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not reappear until the 14th century, when
mechanical astronomical clocks appeared in Europe.[5]
When John Napier discovered logarithms for computational purposes in the early 17th century,[citation
needed]

there followed a period of considerable progress by inventors and scientists in making

calculating tools. In 1623 Wilhelm Schickard designed a calculating machine, but abandoned the
project, when the prototype he had started building was destroyed by a fire in 1624 . [citation needed]Around
1640, Blaise Pascal, a leading French mathematician, constructed a mechanical adding device
based on a design described by Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria.[6] Then in 1672 Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibnitz invented the Stepped Reckoner which he completed in 1694.[7]
In 1837 Charles Babbage first described his Analytical Engine which is accepted as the first design
for a modern computer. The analytical engine had expandable memory, an arithmetic unit, and logic
processing capabilities able to interpret a programming language with loops and conditional
branching. Although never built, the design has been studied extensively and is understood to
be Turing equivalent. The analytical engine would have had a memory capacity of less than 1
kilobyte of memory and a clock speed of less than 10 Hertz .[citation needed]
Considerable advancement in mathematics and electronics theory was required before the first
modern computers could be designed.[citation needed]
Home
Education

The Evolution of the Computer

1. First Generation (1939-1954) - vacuum tube

1937 - John V. Atanasoff designed the first digital electronic computer

1939 - Atanasoff and Clifford Berry demonstrate in Nov. the ABC prototype
1941 - Konrad Zuse in Germany developed in secret the Z3
1943 - In Britain, the Colossus was designed in secret at Bletchley Park to decode German messages
1944 - Howard Aiken developed the Harvard Mark I mechanical computer for the Navy
1945 - John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert built ENIAC at U of PA for the U.S. Army
1946 - Mauchly and Eckert start Electronic Control Co., received grant from National Bureau of Standards to
build a ENIAC-type computer with magnetic tape input/output, renamed UNIVAC in 1947 but run out of money,
formed in Dec. 1947 the new company Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC).
1948 - Howard Aiken developed the Harvard Mark III electronic computer with 5000 tubes
1948 - U of Manchester in Britain developed the SSEM Baby electronic computer with CRT memory

1949 - Mauchly and Eckert in March successfully tested the BINAC stored-program computer for Northrop

Aircraft, with mercury delay line memory and a primitive magentic tape drive; Remington Rand bought EMCC
Feb. 1950 and provided funds to finish UNIVAC
1950- Commander William C. Norris led Engineering Research Associates to develop the Atlas, based on

the secret code-breaking computers used by the Navy in WWII; the Atlas was 38 feet long, 20 feet wide, and used
2700 vacuum tubes
1951 - S. A. Lebedev developed the MESM computer in Russia
1951 - Remington Rand successfully tested UNIVAC March 30, 1951, and announced to the public its sale to

the Census Bureau June 14, 1951, the first commercial computer to feature a magnetic tape storage system, the
eight UNISERVO tape drives that stood separate from the CPU and control console on the other side of a garagesize room. Each tape drive was six feet high and three feet wide, used 1/2-inch metal tape of nickel-plated bronze
1200 feet long, recorded data on eight channels at 100 inches per second with a transfer rate of 7,200 characters
per second. The complete UNIVAC system weighed 29,000 pounds, included 5200 vacuum tubes, and an offline
typewriter-printer UNIPRINTER with an attached metal tape drive. Later, a punched card-to-tape machine was
added to read IBM 80-column and Remington Rand 90-column cards.
1952 - Remington Rand bought the ERA in Dec. 1951 and combined the UNIVAC product line in 1952: the

ERA 1101 computer became the UNIVAC 1101. The UNIVAC I was used in November to calculate the
presidential election returns and successfully predict the winner, although it was not trusted by the TV networks
who refused to use the prediction.
1954 - The SAGE aircraft-warning system was the largest vacuum tube computer system ever built. It began
in 1954 at MIT's Lincoln Lab with funding from the Air Force. The first of 23 Direction Centers went online in Nov.
1956, and the last in 1962. Each Center had two 55,000-tube computers built by IBM, MIT, AND Bell Labs. The
275-ton computers known as "Clyde" were based on Jay Forrester's Whirlwind I and had magnetic core memory,
magentic drum and magnetic tape storage. The Centers were connected by an early network, and pioneered
development of the modem and graphics display.

2.Second Generation Computers (1954 -1959) - transistor

1950 - National Bureau of Standards (NBS) introduced its Standards Eastern Automatic
Computer (SEAC) with 10,000 newly developed germanium diodes in its logic circuits, and the
first magnetic disk drive designed by Jacob Rabinow
1953 - Tom Watson, Jr., led IBM to introduce the model 604 computer, its first with transistors, that became
the basis of the model 608 of 1957, the first solid-state computer for the commercial market. Transistors were
expensive at first, cost $8 vs. $.75 for a vacuum tube. But Watson was impressed with the new transistor
radios and gave them to his engineers to study. IBM also developed the 650 Magnetic Drum Calculator, the first
by IBM to use magnetic drum memory rather punched cards, and began shipment of the 701 scientific "Defense
Calculator" that was the first of the Model 700 line that dominated main frame computers for the next decade
1955 - IBM introduced the 702 business computer; Watson on the cover of Time magazine March 28
1956 - Bendix G-15A small business computer sold for only $45,000, designed by Harry Huskey of NBS
1959 - General Electric Corporation delivered its Electronic Recording Machine Accounting (ERMA)
computing system to the Bank of America in California; based on a design by SRI, the ERMA system employed
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) as the means to capture data from the checks and introduced
automation in banking that continued with ATM machines in 1974

3. Third Generation Computers (1959 -1971) - IC

1959 - Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments patented the first integrated circuit in Feb. 1959; Kilby had made his

first germanium IC in Oct. 1958; Robert Noyce at Fairchild used planar process to make connections of
components within a silicon IC in early 1959; the first commercial product using IC was the hearing aid in Dec.
1963; General Instrument made LSI chip (100+ components) for Hammond organs 1968
1964 - IBM produced SABRE, the first airline reservation tracking system for American Airlines; IBM

announced the System/360 all-purpose computer, using 8-bit character word length (a "byte") that was pioneered
in the 7030 of April 1961 that grew out of the AF contract of Oct. 1958 following Sputnik to develop transistor
computers for BMEWS
1968 - DEC introduced the first "mini-computer", the PDP-8, named after the mini-skirt; DEC was founded in

1957 by Kenneth H. Olsen who came for the SAGE project at MIT and began sales of the PDP-1 in 1960
1969 - Development began on ARPAnet, funded by the DOD
1971 - Intel produced large scale integrated (LSI) circuits that were used in the digital delay line, the first
digital audio device

4. Fourth Generation (1971-Present) - microprocessor

1971 - Gilbert Hyatt at Micro Computer Co. patented the microprocessor; Ted Hoff at Intel in February

introduced the 4-bit 4004, a VSLI of 2300 components, for the Japanese company Busicom to create a single chip
for a calculator; IBM introduced the first 8-inch "memory disk", as it was called then, or the "floppy disk" later;
Hoffmann-La Roche patented the passive LCD display for calculators and watches; in November Intel announced
the first microcomputer, the MCS-4; Nolan Bushnell designed the first commercial arcade video game "Computer
Space"
1972 - Intel made the 8-bit 8008 and 8080 microprocessors; Gary Kildall wrote his Control

Program/Microprocessor (CP/M) disk operating system to provide instructions for floppy disk drives to work with
the 8080 processor. He offered it to Intel, but was turned down, so he sold it on his own, and soon CP/M was the
standard operating system for 8-bit microcomputers; Bushnell created Atari and introduced the successful "Pong"
game
1973 - IBM developed the first true sealed hard disk drive, called the "Winchester" after the rifle company,
using two 30 Mb platters; Robert Metcalfe at Xerox PARC created Ethernet as the basis for a local area network,
and later founded 3COM

1974 - Xerox developed the Alto workstation at PARC, with a monitor, a graphical user interface, a mouse,

and an ethernet card for networking

1975 - the Altair personal computer is sold in kit form, and influenced Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
1976 - Jobs and Wozniak developed the Apple personal computer; Alan Shugart introduced the 5.25-inch

floppy disk
1977 - Nintendo in Japan began to make computer games that stored the data on chips inside a game

cartridge that sold for around $40 but only cost a few dollars to manufacture. It introduced its most popular game
"Donkey Kong" in 1981, Super Mario Bros in 1985
1978 - Visicalc spreadsheet software was written by Daniel Bricklin and Bob Frankston
1979 - Micropro released Wordstar that set the standard for word processing software
1980 - IBM signed a contract with the Microsoft Co. of Bill Gates and Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer to supply

an operating system for IBM's new PC model. Microsoft paid $25,000 to Seattle Computer for the rights to QDOS
that became Microsoft DOS, and Microsoft began its climb to become the dominant computer company in the
world.
1984 - Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh personal computer January 24.
1987 - Bill Atkinson of Apple Computers created a software program called HyperCard that was bundled free
with all Macintosh computers. This program for the first time made hypertext popular and useable to a wide
number of

5. Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond)

1991 - World-Wide Web (WWW) was developed by Tim Berners-Lee and released by CERN.
1993 - The first Web browser called Mosaic was created by student Marc Andreesen and programmer Eric

Bina at NCSA in the first 3 months of 1993. The beta version 0.5 of X Mosaic for UNIX was released Jan. 23 1993
and was instant success. The PC and Mac versions of Mosaic followed quickly in 1993. Mosaic was the first
software to interpret a new IMG tag, and to display graphics along with text. Berners-Lee objected to the IMG tag,
considered it frivolous, but image display became one of the most used features of the Web. The Web grew fast
because the infrastructure was already in place: the Internet, desktop PC, home modems connected to online
services such as AOL and Compuserve
1994 - Netscape Navigator 1.0 was released Dec. 1994, and was given away free, soon gaining 75% of

world browser market.

1996 - Microsoft failed to recognized the importance of the Web, but finally released the much imporoved
browser Explorer 3.0 in the summer.

INPUT DEVICES
a)

Graphics Tablets

b)

Cameras

c)

Video Capture Hardware

d)

Trackballs

e)

Barcode reader

f)

Digital camera

g)

Gamepad

h)

Joystick

i)

Keyboard

j)

Microphone

k)

MIDI keyboard

l)

Mouse (pointing device)

m)

Scanner

n)

Webcam

o)

Touchpads

p)

Pen Input

q)

Microphone

r)

Electronic Whiteboard

OUTPUT DEVICES
1.

Monitor

2.

Printers (all types)

3.

Plotters

4.

Projector

5.

LCD Projection Panels

6.

Computer Output Microfilm (COM)

7.

Speaker(s)

Input and Output Devices

Before a computer can process your data, you need

some method to input the data into the machine.
The device you use will depend on what form this
data takes (be it text, sound, artwork, etc.).
Similarly, after the computer has processed your
data, you often need to produce output of the
results. This output could be a display on the
computer screen, hardcopy on printed pages, or
even the audio playback of music you composed
on the computer.
The terms input and output are used both as
verbs to describe the process of entering or
displaying the data, and as nouns referring to the
data itself entered into or displayed by the
computer.
Below we discuss the variety of peripheral devices
used for computer input and output.

Input Devices
Keyboard

The computer keyboard is used to enter text

information into the computer, as when you type
the contents of a report. The keyboard can also be
used to type commands directing the computer to
perform certain actions. Commands are typically
chosen from an on-screen menu using a mouse,
but there are often keyboard shortcuts for giving
these same commands.
In addition to the keys of the main keyboard (used
for typing text), keyboards usually also have a

PC Keyboard (you have

one in front of you that
you can see for a closer

numeric keypad (for entering numerical data

efficiently), a bank of editing keys (used in text
editing operations), and a row of function keys
along the top (to easily invoke certain program
functions). Laptop computers, which dont have
room for large keyboards, often include a fn key
so that other keys can perform double duty (such
as having a numeric keypad function embedded
within the main keyboard keys).
Improper use or positioning of a keyboard can
lead to repetitive-stress injuries.
Some ergonomic keyboards are designed with
angled arrangements of keys and with built-in
wrist rests that can minimize your risk of RSIs.
Most keyboards attach to the PC via a PS/2
connector or USB port (newer). Older Macintosh
computers used an ABD connector, but for several
years now all Mac keyboards have connected using
USB.
Pointing Devices

The graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in use today

require some kind of device for positioning the onscreen cursor. Typical pointing devices are: mouse,
trackball, touch pad, trackpoint, graphics tablet,
joystick, and touch screen.
Pointing devices, such as a mouse, connected to
the PC via aserial ports (old), PS/2 mouse port
(newer), or USB port (newest). Older Macs used
ADB to connect their mice, but all recent Macs
use USB (usually to a USB port right on the USB
keyboard).

look)

Mouse

The mouse pointing device sits on your work

surface and is moved with your hand. In older
mice, a ball in the bottom of the mouse rolls on the
surface as you move the mouse, and internal
rollers sense the ball movement and transmit the
information to the computer via the cord of the
mouse.
The newer optical mouse does not use a rolling
ball, but instead uses a light and a small optical
sensor to detect the motion of the mouse by
tracking a tiny image of the desk surface. Optical
mice avoid the problem of a dirty mouse ball,
which causes regular mice to roll unsmoothly if the
mouse ball and internal rollers are not cleaned
frequently.
A cordless or wireless mouse communicates
with the computer via radio waves (often
using BlueTooth hardware and protocol) so that
a cord is not needed (but such mice need internal
batteries).
A mouse also includes one or more buttons (and
possibly a scroll wheel) to allow users to interact
with the GUI. The traditional PC mouse has two
buttons, while the traditional Macintosh mouse
has one button. On either type of computer you
can also use mice with three or more buttons and a
small scroll wheel (which can also usually be
clicked like a button).
Touch pad

Two-button mouse with

scroll wheel

Wireless Macintosh
mouse

Most laptop computers today have a touch

pad pointing device. You move the on-screen
cursor by sliding your finger along the surface of
the touch pad. The buttons are located below the
pad, but most touch pads allow you to perform
mouse clicks by tapping on the pad itself.
Touch pads have the advantage over mice that
Touch pad of a PC laptop
they take up much less room to use. They have the
advantage over trackballs (which were used on
early laptops) that there are no moving parts to get
dirty and result in jumpy cursor control.
Trackpoint

Some sub-notebook computers (such as the IBM

ThinkPad), which lack room for even a touch pad,
incorporate atrackpoint, a small rubber
projection embedded between the keys of the
keyboard. The trackpoint acts like a little joystick
that can be used to control the position of the onscreen cursor.

Trackpoint

Trackball

The trackball is sort of like an upside-down

mouse, with the ball located on top. You use your
fingers to roll the trackball, and internal rollers
(similar to whats inside a mouse) sense the
motion which is transmitted to the computer.
Trackballs have the advantage over mice in that
the body of the trackball remains stationary on
your desk, so you dont need as much room to use
the trackball. Early laptop computers often used
trackballs (before superior touch pads came
along).

Trackball

Trackballs have traditionally had the same

problem as mice: dirty rollers can make their
cursor control jumpy and unsmooth. But there are
modern optical trackballs that dont have this
problem because their designs eliminate the
rollers.
Joysticks

Joysticks and other game controllers can also be

connected to a computer as pointing devices. They
are generally used for playing games, and not for
controlling the on-screen cursor in productivity
software.
Touch screen

Some computers, especially small hand-held

PDAs, have touch sensitive display screens. The
user can make choices and press button images on
the screen. You often use a stylus, which you hold
like a pen, to write on the surface of a small
touch screen.
Graphics tablet

A graphics tablet consists of an electronic writing

area and a special pen that works with it.
Graphics tablets allows artists to create graphical
images with motions and actions similar to using
more traditional drawing tools. The pen of the
graphics tablet is pressure sensitive, so pressing
harder or softer can result in brush strokes of
different width (in an appropriate graphics
program).
Scanners

Graphics tablet.

A scanner is a device that images a printed page

or graphic by digitizing it, producing an image
made of tiny pixels of different brightness and
color values which are represented numerically
and sent to the computer. Scanners scan graphics,
but they can also scan pages of text which are then
run through OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
software that identifies the individual letter shapes
and creates a text file of the page's contents.
Microphone

A microphone can be attached to a computer to

record sound (usually through a sound card input
or circuitry built into the motherboard). The
sound is digitizedturned into numbers that
represent the original analog sound wavesand
stored in the computer to later processing and
playback.
MIDI Devices

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital

Interface) is a system designed to transmit
information between electronic musical
instruments. A MIDI musical keyboard can be
attached to a computer and allow a performer to
play music that is captured by the computer
system as a sequence of notes with the associated
timing (instead of recording digitized sound
waves).

Output Devices
CRT Monitor

The traditional output device of a personal

computer has been the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)
monitor. Just like a television set (an older one,
anyway) the CRT monitor contains a large cathode
ray tube that uses an electron beam of varying
strength to paint a picture onto the color
phosphorescent dots on the inside of the screen.
CRT monitors are heavy and use more electrical
power than flat panel displays, but they are
preferred by some graphic artists for their accurate CRT monitor
color rendition, and preferred by some gamers for
faster response to rapidly changing graphics.
Monitor screen size is measured diagonally
across the screen, in inches. Not all of the screen
area may be usable for image display, so the
viewable area is also specified. The resolutionof
the monitor is the maximum number of pixels it
can display horizontally and vertically (such as
800 x 600, or 1024 x 768, or 1600 x 1200). Most
monitors can display several resolutions below its
maximum setting. Pixels (short for picture
elements) are the small dots that make of the
image displayed on the screen. The spacing of the
screens tiny phosphor dots is called the dot
pitch (dp), typically .28 or .26 (measured in
millimeters). A screen with a smaller dot pitch
produces sharper images.
Your computer must produce a video signal that a
monitor can display. This may be handled by
circuitry on the motherboard, but is usually
handled by a video card in one of the
computers expansion slots; often the slot is a
special one dedicated to video use, such as
an AGP slot (Accelerated Graphics Port).

Video cards are also called video display

adapters, and graphics cards. Many video
cards contain separate processors and dedicated
video memory for generating complex graphics
quickly without burdening the CPU.
These accelerated graphics cards are loved by
gamers.
Flat Panel Monitor

A flat panel display usually uses

an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen to
display output from the computer. The LCD
consists of several thin layers that polarize the
light passing through them. The polarization of
one layer, containing long thin molecules called
liquid crystals, can be controlled electronically at
each pixel, blocking varying amounts of the light
to make a pixel lighter or darker. Other types of
flat panel technology exist (such as plasma
displays) but LCDs are most commonly used in
computers, especially laptops.
Older LCDs had slow response times and low
contrast, butactive matrix LCD screens have a
transparent thin film transistor (TFT) controlling
each pixel, so response, contrast, and viewing
angle are much improved.
Flat panel displays are much lighter and less bulky
than CRT monitors, and they consume much less
power. They have been more expensive than CRTs
in the past, but the price gap is narrowing. You will
see many more flat panels in the future.
As with CRTs, the display size of a flat panel is
expressed in inches, and the resolution is the

Flat panel display (LCD)

number of pixels horizontally and vertically on the

display.
Ink Jet Printer

For hardcopy (printed) output, you need some

kind of printer attached to your computer (or
available over a network). The most common type
of printer for home systems is the color ink
jet printer. These printers form the image on the
page by spraying tiny droplets of ink from the
print head. The printer needs several colors of ink
(cyan, yellow, magenta, and black) to make color
images. Some photo-quality ink jet printers have
more colors of ink.

Inkjet Printer

Ink jet printers are inexpensive, but the cost of

consumables (ink cartridges and special paper)
make them costly to operate in the long run for
many purposes.
Laser Printer

A laser printer produces good quality images by

the same technology that photocopiers use. A
drum coated with photosensitive material is
charged, then an image is written onto it by a laser
(or LEDs) which makes those areas lose the
charge. The drum then rolls through toner (tiny
plastic particles of pigment) that are attracted to
Laser Printer
the charged areas of the drum. The toner is then
deposited onto the paper, and then fused into the
paper with heat.
Most laser printers are monochrome (one color
only, usually black), but more expensive laser
printers with multiple color toner cartridges can

produce color output.

Laser printers are faster than ink jet printers.
Their speed is rated in pages per
minute (ppm). Laser printers are more
expensive than ink jets, but they are cheaper to
run in the long term if you just need good quality
black & white pages.
Other Printers

Multi-function printers are available that not only

operate as a computer printer, but also include the
hardware needed to be a scanner, photocopier,
and FAX machine as well.
Dot matrix printers use small
electromagnetically activated pins in the print
head, and an inked ribbon, to produce images by
impact. These printers are slow and noisy, and are
not commonly used for personal computers
anymore (but they can print multi-layer forms,
which neither ink jet or laser printers can).
Sound Output

Computers also produce sound output, ranging

from simple beeps alerting the user, to impressive
game sound effects, to concert quality music. The
circuitry to produce sound may be included on the
motherboard, but high quality audio output from a
PC usually requires a sound card in one of the
expansion slots, connected to a set of good quality
external speakers or headphones.
Multimedia is a term describing computer
output that includes sound, text, graphics, movies,

and animation.
CONCLUSION :I hope you have a better understanding of how the
computer developed from giant machinery to something that fits in
your hand. It took many people and over seventy years for the
electronic computer to become what you know today. What once
began as a giant calculator can now communicate with people
around the world. Talk to your parents and grandparents about their
first experience with computers. Many never touched a computer
until high school or even college. Today computer technology is in
almost everything.