Personal Computer
A Personal Computer is a general-purpose computer that is designed for interactive individual use at the user's physical place of need.
- Context:
- It can range from being a Desktop Computer to being a Mobile Computer.
- It can range from being a Standalone Personal Computer to being a Networked Personal Computer.
- It can (typically) operate Personal Computer Applications: such as Personal Finance Software.
- It was introduced by the Personal Computer Invention.
- …
- Counter-Example(s):
- a Mainframe Computer.
- a Time-Sharing System.
- a Minicomputer.
- a Server Computer.
- a Tablet Computer.
- a Smartphone.
- See: End-User, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Databases, Web Browser, E-Mail, Digital Media, Personal Computer Game, Internet, World Wide Web, Local Area Network, Operating System, Commercial Software, Microsoft, Intel, MS-DOS, Windows PC, Apple Macintosh, Free And Open Source Software, Linux.
References
2013
- (Wikipedia, 2013) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer#computer Retrieved:2013-11-30.
- A personal computer (PC) is a general-purpose computer, whose size, capabilities, and original sale price makes it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator. This contrasted with the batch processing or time-sharing models which allowed larger, more expensive minicomputer and mainframe systems to be used by many people, usually at the same time. Large data processing systems require a full-time staff to operate efficiently.
Software applications for most personal computers include, but are not limited to, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, Web browsers and e-mail clients, digital media playback, games, and myriad personal productivity and special-purpose software applications. Modern personal computers often have connections to the Internet, allowing access to the World Wide Web and a wide range of other resources. Personal computers may be connected to a local area network (LAN), either by a cable or a wireless connection. A personal computer may be a desktop computer or a laptop, tablet, or a handheld PC.
Early PC owners usually had to write their own programs to do anything useful with the machines, even lacking an operating system. The very earliest microcomputers, equipped with a front panel, required hand-loading of a bootstrap program to load programs from external storage (paper tape, cassettes, or eventually diskettes). Before very long, automatic booting from permanent read-only memory became universal.
Today's users have access to a wide range of commercial software, freeware and free and open-source software, which is provided in ready-to-run or ready-to-compile form. Since the early 1990s, Microsoft operating systems and Intel hardware have dominated much of the personal computer market, first with MS-DOS and then with Windows. Popular alternatives to Microsoft's Windows operating systems include Apple's OS X and the free open-source Linux and BSD operating systems. AMD provides the major alternative to Intel's central processing units. Applications and games for PCs are typically developed and distributed independently from the hardware or OS manufacturers, whereas software for many mobile phones and other portable systems is approved and distributed through a centralized online store.
- A personal computer (PC) is a general-purpose computer, whose size, capabilities, and original sale price makes it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator. This contrasted with the batch processing or time-sharing models which allowed larger, more expensive minicomputer and mainframe systems to be used by many people, usually at the same time. Large data processing systems require a full-time staff to operate efficiently.