Word: computerize
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Arithmetic and Logic. To handle, direct and process the flood of information, the computer relies on this unit, which Babbage dubbed the mill. It is here that the computer does its number crunching and data manipulation.
Control. This is the computer's traffic cop. It gets instructions stored in the memory section and interprets them; it regulates the memory and arithmetic-logic sections and the flow of information between them, and orders processed data to move from the memory to the output section.
Today such cards, as well as punched tape, are still used. But they have been supplemented by other methods, including magnetic tapes, discs and drums; the precisely tuned beep-beeps of the Touch-Tone telephone (whose lower left and right buttons have been reserved for computer communications and other information...
In every case, the object is the same: to translate information -letters, numbers, images, sounds, marks or simply magnetized ink on a check-into patterns of electrical pulses that are comprehensible to the computer.
Output. Processed data are translated by this section into electrical impulses that can control an almost endless variety of devices. Thus the output may take the form of words or numbers "read out" on high-speed printers or glowing cathode-ray tubes. It can also emerge as an artificial voice...