Digital computer

A machine that represents and processes information using discrete values, usually binary digits. Its operations are governed by instructions encoded in a form the machine can execute.

Boolean algebra: An algebraic system in which variables take truth values and operations include AND, OR, and NOT. Logic circuits implement Boolean operations on binary signals.
Binary number: A number expressed in base two, using only the digits zero and one. Binary numbers are the standard representation of values inside digital computers.
Charles Babbage: An English mathematician and inventor who designed the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine in the nineteenth century. His Analytical Engine anticipated a programmable general-purpose computing machine.
Personal computer: A general-purpose computer designed for use by one person at a time. It brings digital computation to individual work, communication, and entertainment.
Analog computer: A machine that represents quantities through continuously varying physical values and computes by manipulating them. It contrasts with digital computers’ discrete representations and operations.
Logic gate: An electronic circuit that performs a Boolean operation on one or more input signals. Combinations of gates form the computer’s arithmetic and control circuits.
Bit: A unit of information that can have one of two values, commonly written as zero or one. Bits encode the discrete states from which computer data is built.
Ada Lovelace: An English mathematician who wrote notes describing how Babbage’s Analytical Engine could manipulate symbols. Her notes articulated the machine’s potential beyond numerical calculation.
Supercomputer: A computer system built to perform exceptionally large scientific or engineering calculations. It applies digital computation to simulations and workloads beyond ordinary machines.
Turing machine: An abstract mathematical model of computation with a tape, a read-write head, and finite control rules. It captures computability in theory rather than describing a practical digital computer.

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