February 1, 2003

We all love our family. Having fun with your family is a sort of great enjoyment for all of us. Take a look at your surroundings. Apart from our human family there are many species which also have families. For example, animal family, plant family, etc. You can’t include a cat into a plant family because a cat has not a single character common with the members of a plant family. We are living in an information society, where we have another type of family, which is known as computer family.



What is a computer family?
Computers are electronic machines which can understand your commands and can perform actions in accordance with your commands by means of several tools and devices. No matter the outer structure of a computer is different from the other type; they have common characteristics and therefore constitute a family known as computer family.

Division of the computer family
Computer family is divided into four major groups according to their shape and capacity. There are four groups of computer family.

Characteristics of personal computer
• PC is also known as microcomputer.
• Its main memory has less capacity. PC has less storage power.
• The system is for one user at a time. In rare cases PC is developed to be used by more than one user.
• Its processing speed is slow.
• It is less expensive.
• You can’t install all available peripheral devices in a PC.
• A PC is small in size as compared to the other members of the family.
• Microcomputers are used at homes for entertainment (games, music, video, chatting), in school and colleges for education and in offices for business purposes.

Types of PC
Personal computers are divided into four major types. Each has a different physical size.

1. Palmtop
• The first palmtop was introduced in 1981.
• It is also known as pocket pc.
• It is light weight.
• Battery as well as an external power source can operate it.
• It is useful for those professionals who work outdoors.

2. Pen-based computer
• It works by means of a pen instead of keyboard.
• It is also known as hand held PC.

3. Laptop
• It is also known as a note book or briefcase computer.
• It is light weight (from 4 pounds to 18 pounds).
• The display screen is of two types: 1) colour, 2) black & white.
• Peripheral devices can be inserted into the laptop.
• It can be operated with or without battery.
• It is useful for travellers and students as well.

4. Desktop
• The PC we use at home and in institutions is known as a desktop computer.
• It is called a desktop because the system is set on the table or desk.
• Its weight varies from 30 to 50 pounds.
• A desktop needs external power to start its operation.
• It has a motherboard to connect peripheral devices.

5. Tower PC
• It is a high performance PC
• It can be connected with other PCs through terminals.
• It is useful for large business companies.
• It is connected with an external power source.

Workstation
• Its speed is higher than personal computer.
• It facilitates the graphical presentation.
• It has large main memory
• A workstation can be used alone and several workstations can be connected with each other via “bus” to form a network. So that many users may work together.

Mainframe
• Many users can operate it at a time.
• It is a sort of network in which several computers are combined via terminals with the host computer to share information.
• Its main memory is measured in millions of bytes.
• It is used in large business organizations, in banks and large government organizations.

Super computers
• It is a powerful computer.
• Due to its fast data processing speed it is highly expensive.
• The speed of processing is measured in “bips” which stands for billions of instructions per second.
• The main memory is very large and measured in “billions of bytes”.
• Because of its high performance it is used for scientific purposes. Such as:

— Designing high tech weapons,
— For metrological purpose (examining weather conditions).
— For the creation of special effects on movies and video. The extraordinary graphical effects in Jurassic park and Star wars are created by the means of super computer.

In addition to these members of computer family there are other members like minicomputers, super mini computers etc. All these members of computer family work together as well as separately to lead you in the exiting world of information.

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