Paragraph on “Working of The Modern Electronic Computer” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

Working of The Modern Electronic Computer

Modern computers can work at great speed to make calculations and control complicated operations in offices, factories and hospitals, on ships and spacecraft, at school and in the home. The pocket calculator is a kind of small computer that can do instant calculations with numbers. When you press the keys of the calculator, the numbers are changed into on-off electric signals. Each number has a different signal. Then the ‘brain’ of the calculator adds the signals together to produce another signal, which is changed back into a number that gives the answer. The brain of the calculator is a microchip, which is a tiny device containing thousands of electric circuits that handle the signals.

The computer works in a similar way, but it can do many more tasks. This is because the Computer can be given instructions to carry out a particular operation. The instructions are called a computer program and this is fed into the computer’s memory. Here the program is stored in the form of electric signals. A computer can be given many different programs to carry out a wide range of tasks. The program can use the on-off electric signals not just to represent numbers, but words, pictures and even sounds. To use the computer, an input unit such as a keyboard is operated. This sends information to the computer’s central processing unit (CPU). This unit obeys the instructions in the program and uses the information to get the result. This goes to the computer’s output unit, which is often a video screen or printer that displays or prints the results.