From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids
- For the formal concept of computation, see computation.
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Originally, the word computing was synonymous with counting and calculating, and a science and technology that deals with the original sense of computing mathematical calculations. "Computing" has come to mean the operation and usage of computing machines, the electrical processes carried out within the computing hardware itself, and the theoretical concepts governing them (computer science).
The following definition of computing is given in the ACM report Computing as a Discipline:
The discipline of computing is the systematic study of algorithmic processes that describe and transform information: their theory, analysis, design, efficiency, implementation, and application. The fundamental question underlying all computing is 'What can be (efficiently) automated?'
In short, the concept of computing relates to human knowledge and activities which develop and use computer technologies.
[edit] Science and theory
- Computer science
- Theory of computation
- Computational models
- DBLP, as of February 2006, now lists over 725 000 bibliographic entries on computer science and several thousand links to the home pages of computer scientists
- Scientific computing
- Metacomputing
[edit] Hardware
See information processor for a high-level block diagram.
[edit] Instruction-level taxonomies
After the commoditization of memory, attention turned to optimizing CPU performance at the instruction level. Various methods of speeding up the fetch-execute cycle include:
- designing instruction set architectures with simpler, faster instructions: RISC as opposed to CISC
- Superscalar instruction execution
- VLIW architectures, which make parallelism explicit
- History of computing hardware from the tally stick to the quantum computer
- Punch Card
- Unit record equipment
- IBM 700/7000 series
- IBM 1400 series
- System/360
- Early IBM disk storage
[edit] Business computing
- Accounting software
- Computer-aided design
- Computer-aided manufacturing
- Computer-assisted dispatch
- Customer relationship management
- Data warehouse
- Decision support system
- Electronic data processing
- Enterprise resource planning
- Geographic information system
- Management information system
- Material requirements planning
- Strategic enterprise management
- Supply chain management
- Product Lifecycle Management
- Utility Computing
[edit] Managed Service Provider, MSP
[edit] Human factors
- Accessible computing
- Human-computer interaction
- Human-centered computing
[edit] Computer security
- Cryptology - cryptography - information theory
- Cracking - demon dialing - Hacking - war dialing - war driving
- Social engineering - Dumpster diving
- Physical security - Black bag job
- Computer insecurity
- Computer surveillance
- defensive programming
- malware
- security engineering
[edit] Numeric data
- integral data types - bit, byte, etc.
- real data types:
- Floating point (Single precision, Double precision, etc.)
- Fixed point
- Rational number
- Decimal
- Binary-coded decimal (BCD)
- Excess-3 BCD (XS-3)
- Biquinary-coded decimal
- representation: Binary - Octal - Decimal - Hexadecimal (hex)
- Computer mathematics - Computer numbering formats -
[edit] Character data
- storage: Character - String - Text - Plain text
- representation: ASCII - Unicode - Multibyte - EBCDIC (Widecharacter, Multicharacter) - Fieldata - Baudot
[edit] Other data topics
[edit] Mechatronics
- Punch card
- Key punch
- Unit record equipment
[edit] Classes of computers
[edit] Companies - current
- Apple Computer
- Avaya
- Dell
- Fujitsu
- Gateway Computers
- Groupe Bull
- Hewlett-Packard
- Hitachi, Ltd.
- Intel Corporation
- IBM
- Microsoft
- NEC Corporation
- NetCB
- Novell
- Red Hat
- Silicon Graphics
- Sun Microsystems
- Unisys
[edit] Companies - historic
- Acorn, bought by Olivetti
- Bendix Corporation
- Burroughs, merged with UNIVAC to become Unisys
- Compaq, bought by Hewlett-Packard
- Control Data
- Cray
- Data General
- DEC, bought by Compaq, in turn bought by Hewlett-Packard
- Digital Research - a software company for the early microprocessor-based computers
- English Electric
- Ferranti
- General Electric, computer division bought by Honeywell, then Bull
- Honeywell, computer division bought by Bull and
- ICL
- Leo
- Lisp Machines, Inc.
- Marconi
- Nixdorf Computer, bought by Siemens
- Olivetti
- Osborne
- Packard Bell
- Raytheon
- Royal McBee
- RCA
- Scientific Data Systems, sold to Xerox
- Siemens
- Sinclair Research, created the ZX Spectrum, ZX80 and ZX81
- Symbolics
- UNIVAC, merged with Burroughs to become Unisys
- Varian
- Wang
[edit] Professional organizations
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- British Computer Society (BCS)
- Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS)
- Association for Survey Computing (ASC)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), in particular the IEEE Computer Society
- Institution of Electrical Engineers
- International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
[edit] Standards organizations and consortia
See also: Standardization
- International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
[edit] Miscellaneous
- List of computer term etymologies
- Load (computing)
- Indian Language Computing
