FREE online courses on the Basics of a Computer - What Software is used for
Traditionally, the origin of
computers was aimed at number crunching. Its vast capabilities were seen as best
suited for doing long and tedious calculations impossible to do manually or
extremely time consuming. Today, computers are used for a wide spectrum of work.
In addition to scientific and number crunching based computers have been found
productive and effective even in commercial areas like sales and finance, and
'art' areas - you may have heard of computer designs !
A number of general purpose
software package such as word processors, spread sheets and database management
systems are not available. These allow the users to build using them, their very
own system - small or big.
Large powerful computers continue
to be used mainly for scientific and technical work-we have supercomputers being
used in the space industry, defense and meteorology. Here the number crunching
ability is fully exploited. In fact the development of even more powerful
computers is mainly egged on by the scientific community asking for more and
more power and speed from computers. Supercomputers and parallel processors are
to areas growing to fulfill this need.
The ability of computers to store
vast masses of data and access them fast is also exploited in systems such as
on-line reservation, where all available seats and their status (vacant, booked)
needs to be accessed and updated simultaneously across many booking counters
spanning vast geographic areas - across cities, states and countries. Automatic
tellers and the facilities of a depositor to withdraw from her account in one
city while she is in another, is also a result of such large databanks with fast
accesses possible across many tellers.
The capacity of computers to do
fast computing is also used in engineering application such as computer aided
design and manufacturer, and in drafting. Graphics are also done using computers
to condense a picture in a mass of data.
In fact, computers have invaded
almost all spheres of human activity - right from drawing to design to
publishing. They help a diversity of people and professions - from medicine to
space science to commerce and business. Big or small, all computers are deployed
for various applications depending on their capabilities and speed of operation.
Even the humble PC is not really small, as a lot can be done using it. Many
commercial areas can successfully benefit from computerization done using a PC
or a set of PCs, or a minicomputer.
