Computer Sciences

Automatic design of metaheuristics: The future of optimization?

To discourage the inefficient manual invention and configuration of new metaheuristic optimization algorithms, a research team at IRIDIA, the artificial intelligence laboratory of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, studied ...

Computer Sciences

Computing's quantum shift

With the race to build a new generation of computers heating up, European companies are eyeing the game-changing opportunities.

Machine learning & AI

Researchers enhance peripheral vision in AI models

Peripheral vision enables humans to see shapes that aren't directly in our line of sight, albeit with less detail. This ability expands our field of vision and can be helpful in many situations, such as detecting a vehicle ...

Machine learning & AI

New research works to improve image classification and analysis

A new field promises to usher in a new era of using machine learning and computer vision to tackle small and large-scale questions about the biology of organisms around the globe. The field of imageomics aims to help explore ...

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Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.

Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century (1940–1945). These were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs). Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space. Simple computers are small enough to fit into a wristwatch, and can be powered by a watch battery. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "computers". The embedded computers found in many devices from MP3 players to fighter aircraft and from toys to industrial robots are however the most numerous.

The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile, distinguishing them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore computers ranging from a mobile phone to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks, given enough time and storage capacity.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA