Computer applications

What is a computer? – Computer applications

A broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers^* as control systems. Simple special-purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls are included, as are factory devices like industrial robots. There are general-purpose devices as well like personal computers and mobile devices like smartphones which are capable to run a lot of different applications.^* Computers power the Internet, which links billions of other computers and users.^⇒

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In this context, universal means that today's computers are extremely and amazingly versatile. In the first place, the programs are what enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks. To be more specific, computers are suitable to perform, in one way or another, almost any data processing task. Therefore present-day computers provide an enormous number of applications in almost all areas of the modern economy and society.

Some of the more important applications are as follows:

• scientific and other calculations (note that early computers were meant to be used for calculations; that is why we are still using the term 'computer', i.e "computing machine");
• military applications; the early computers, as well as the internet itself, have a military origin, i.e. they were all military developments:
  – the first digital electronic calculating machines were developed during World War II (including the famous ENIAC);
  – the ancestor of the internet raised from a project funded by the ARPA, the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of Defense (hence comes the name of the world's first wide area packet switched network, the ARPANET);
• business applications: managing the companies' databases (e.g. about employees, stock of goods, trading, sales, the users' behaviour etc.), sales analysis, budgeting, accounting, advertising, offering online access and services, ordering, shopping, reservations etc.;
• education and learning applications: e-learning, learning management systems (LMS), a wide range of educational and learning materials etc.;
• communication: web 2.0 services (blogs, forums, wikis, social and community networks etc.), mobile networks and devices, telecommunications networks etc.;
• (public) information and content providing services: various web pages and sites, search engines (e.g. the Google), public databases and services (electronic libraries, open access journals, web shops, public transport timetables, ticket reservations etc.), mass media and news services, GPS services etc.;
• entertainment: computer games, ebook readers, mp3 players, YouTube videos, movie streaming services etc.;
• design, simulation and manufacturing: computer-aided engineering, computer-aided design and computer-assisted manufacturing (CAD/CAM) applications (e.g. design and production of integrated circuits in electronics industry);
• virtual reality; computers are also capable to simulate the operation of other computers and automatons, including the implementation of the Universal Turing Machine (UTM) as well;
  
• industrial and commercial applications: a broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers as control systems (e.g. washing machines, remote controls and controlled devices etc.; robot pilots, industrial robots etc.).

In addition to the purely data processing applications, the capability of computers of being able to control other machines is of vital importance. We can try the RoboMind robot simulation program to get a basic idea of how the computer control works.