Features of a Computer

High speed, accuracy large storage capacity, high reliability and versatility are some of the important features of computers.

Speed:

It has a very speed of executing instruction. CPU of a computer can perform more than 10 million operations per second. All the instructions are executed in accordance with a clock, whose frequency is measured in Mhz. Normally, 3-4 cycles of this clock are required to execute one instruction. Recent computers have a speed of about 300 Mhz i.e one cycle of approx.3 X 10-9 Sec. This means that it can execute an instruction in about 10 nanosec (10X 10 -8 Sec). In other words it can execute 100 million instructions in one second. But the overall speed of performance of a computer decreases due to slower Input and Output devices, interfaced to CPU.

Storage:

The speed with which computers can process large quantities of data/ Information, the size of input so also the output is quite large. The size of information to be stored further increases due to graphic applications. All this information is to be stored in auxiliary memory i.e Hard Disk fitted inside the computer. Hard Disks now days have a storage capacity as large as 4 GB. The size of internal primary memory (RAM) has also been increases a lot to about 64 MB.

Accuracy:

The accuracy of results computed by a computer is consistently high. Due to digital techniques the error is very small. The errors in computing may be due to logical mistakes by a programmer or due to inaccurate data.

Reliability:

The reliability of results processed by a computer is very high. If a program is executed any number of times with the same set of data, every time the results would be the same.

Versality:

Computers are capable of performing almost task provided the task can be reduced to a series of logical steps so that an appropriate program in a suitable language can be fed to a computer memory. Ofcourse, the input and output devices should be capable of performing the desired task. Because of these capabilities, a number of processes can be automated with the help of a computer.

Apart from those outlined above, computer has some other features also. They are automatic to a great extent i.e they run with very little human interference. They can work endless at the same level of efficiency and productivity. Modern computers are becoming more and more user friendly i.e computer itself helps the user at every stage. Visual display, limited but effective use of natural language like English and appropriate software have made it very easy to operate computers.