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Computer#Digital computers

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-In [[computer science]], a '''digital electronic computer''' is a [[computer]] machine which is both an [[electronic computer]] and a [[digital computer]]. Examples of a digital electronic computers include the [[IBM PC]], the [[Apple Macintosh]] as well as modern [[smartphone]]s. When computers that were both [[digital]] and electronic appeared, they displaced almost all other kinds of computers, but [[computation]] has historically been performed in various non-digital and non-electronic ways: [[analog computer]]s are examples of non-digital computers, and [[mechanical computer]]s are examples of non-electronic computers. An example of a computer which is both non-digital and non-electronic is the ancient [[Antikythera mechanism]] found in [[Greece]]. All kinds of computers, whether they are digital or analog, and electronic or non-electronic, can be [[Turing complete]] if they have sufficient [[computer memory|memory]]. A digital electronic computer is not necessarily a [[programmable computer]], a [[stored program computer]], or a [[general purpose computer]], since in essence a digital electronic computer can be built for one specific application and be non-reprogrammable. As of 2014, most [[personal computer]]s and [[smartphone]]s in people's homes that use [[multicore]] [[central processing unit]]s (such as [[AMD FX]], [[Intel Core i7]], or the multicore varieties of [[ARM]]-based chips) are also [[parallel computer]]s using the [[MIMD]] (multiple instructions - multiple data) paradigm, a technology previously only used in digital electronic [[supercomputer]]s. As of 2014, most digital electronic supercomputers are also [[cluster computer]]s, a technology that can be used at home in the form of small [[Beowulf cluster]]s. Parallel computation is also possible with non-digital or non-electronic computers. An example of a parallel computation system using the [[abacus]] would be a group of [[human computer]]s using a number of abacus machines for computation and communicating using [[natural language]].
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-A digital computer can perform its operations in the [[decimal]] system, in [[binary]], in [[ternary]] or in other [[numeral system]]s. As of 2014, all digital electronic computers commonly used, whether [[personal computer]]s or [[supercomputer]]s, are working in the binary number system and also use [[binary logic]]. A few [[ternary computer]]s using [[ternary logic]] were built mainly in the [[Soviet Union]] as research projects (googling for it can lead to some web-based simulators of those ternary computers).
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-A digital electronic computer is not necessarily a [[transistorized computer]]: before the advent of the [[transistor]], computers used [[vacuum tube]]s. The transistor enabled electronic computers to become much more powerful, and recent and future developments in [[digital electronics]] may enable humanity to build even more powerful electronic computers. One such possible development is the [[memristor]].
-People living in the beginning of the [[21st century]] use digital electronic computers for [[computer storage|storing]] [[data]], such as [[photograph|photo]]s, [[music]], [[document]]s, and for performing complex mathematical computations or for communication, commonly over a worldwide [[computer network]] called the [[internet]] which connects many of the world's computers.  All these activities made possible by digital electronic computers could, in essence, be performed with non-digital or non-electronic computers if they were sufficiently powerful, but it was only the combination of electronics technology with digital computation in binary that enabled humanity to reach the computation power necessary for today's computing. Advances in [[quantum computing]], [[DNA computing]], [[optical computing]] or other technologies could lead to the development of more powerful computers in the future.
-Digital computers are inherently best described by [[discrete mathematics]], while analog computers are most commonly associated with [[continuous mathematics]].
-The philosophy of [[digital physics]] views the [[universe]] as being digital. [[Konrad Zuse]] wrote a book known as ''[[Rechnender Raum]]'' in which he described the whole universe as one all-encompassing computer.
-==See also==
-*[[Abacus]]
-*[[ENIAC]]
-*[[EDVAC]]
-*[[List of vacuum tube computers]]
-*[[History of computing hardware]]
-*[[List of transistorized computers]]
-{{compu-sci-stub}}
-[[Category:Computer science]]