
What is a computer? | Britannica
Dec 22, 2025 · A computer is a machine that can store and process information. Most computers rely on a binary system, which uses two variables, 0 and 1, to complete tasks such as storing …
Computer - History, Technology, Innovation | Britannica
Dec 22, 2025 · It is not too great a stretch to say that, in the Jacquard loom, programming was invented before the computer. The close relationship between the device and the program …
Computer - Technology, Invention, History | Britannica
Dec 22, 2025 · Computer - Technology, Invention, History: By the second decade of the 19th century, a number of ideas necessary for the invention of the computer were in the air.
Personal computer (PC) | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica
personal computer (PC), a digital computer designed for use by only one person at a time.
computer summary | Britannica
Computer, device for processing, storing, and displaying information. Computer once meant a person who did computations, but now the term almost universally refers to automated …
Computer - Time-sharing, Minicomputers, Multitasking | Britannica
Dec 22, 2025 · It was built by Fernando Corbato and Robert Jano at MIT, and it connected an IBM 709 computer with three users typing away at IBM Flexowriters. This was only a prototype …
Computer graphics | Rendering, Animation & Visualization
Dec 26, 2025 · Computer graphics, production of images on computers for use in any medium. Images used in the graphic design of printed material are frequently produced on computers, …
Computer architecture | Definition & Facts | Britannica
Dec 15, 2025 · Computer architecture, structure of a digital computer, encompassing the design and layout of its instruction set and storage registers. The architecture of a computer is chosen …
Computer memory | Types, Capacity & Speed | Britannica
Jan 22, 2026 · Computer memory is divided into main (or primary) memory and auxiliary (or secondary) memory. Main memory holds instructions and data when a program is executing, …
123Movies | History, Shutdown, & Facts | Britannica
Jan 1, 2026 · Codecs have two components: an encoder that compresses the data before it leaves the server for the user’s computer and a decoder that decompresses the data once it …