Computing

In a general way, we can define computing to mean any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computers.

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Encyclopedia

Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and developing computer

Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
 technology, computer hardware

Computer hardware

A personal computer is made up of computer hardware, multiple physical components onto which can be loaded into a multitude of software that perform the functions of the computer....
 and software

Computer software

Computer software, or just software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, Algorithm and Software documentation that perform some tasks on a computer system....
. It is the computer-specific part of information technology

Information technology

Information technology , as defined by the Information Technology Association of America , is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to data conv...
. Computer science

Computer science

Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
 (or computing science) is the study and the science of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems.

Computing Curricula 2005 defined computing:

In a general way, we can define computing to mean any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computers. Thus, computing includes designing and building hardware and software systems for a wide range of purposes; processing, structuring, and managing various kinds of information; doing scientific studies using computers; making computer systems behave intelligently; creating and using communications and entertainment media; finding and gathering information relevant to any particular purpose, and so on. The list is virtually endless, and the possibilities are vast.

Definitions

The term computing has sometimes been narrowly defined, as in a 1989 ACM

Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership was approximately 83,000 as of 2007....
 report on Computing as a Discipline:

The discipline of computing is the systematic study of algorithmic processes that describe and transform information: their theory, analysis, design, efficiency, implementation, and application. The fundamental question underlying all computing is 'What can be (efficiently) automated?

Computing Curricula 2005 also recognizes that the meaning of computing depends on the context:

Computing also has other meanings that are more specific, based on the context in which the term is used. For example, an information systems specialist will view computing somewhat differently from a software engineer. Regardless of the context, doing computing well can be complicated and difficult. Because society needs people to do computing well, we must think of computing not only as a profession but also as a discipline.

The term computing is also synonymous with counting and calculating. In earlier times it was used in reference to mechanical computing machines.

A computer is a electronic device that perfors certain arithmatic and logical operations without any errors.

Science and theory

• Computer science
  Computer science
  
  Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
  
• Theory of computation
  Theory of computation
  
  The theory of computation is the branch of computer science that deals with whether and how efficiently problems can be solved on a model of computation, using an algorithm....
  

Computational models

• Digital Bibliography & Library Project, as of July 2007, lists over 910 000 bibliographic entries on computer science and several thousand links to the home pages of computer scientist
  Computer scientist
  
  A computer scientist is a person who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
  s
• Scientific computing
• Metacomputing
  Metacomputing
  
  Metacomputing is all computing and computing-oriented activity which involves computing knowledge common for the research, development and application of different types of computing....
  
• Topological computing
  Topological computing
  
  Topological computing is the designing and building hardware and software based on the processing of topologically modulated signals or objects which differ from each other by their spatio-time topology....
  

Hardware

See information processor

Information processor

An information processor or information processing system, as its name suggests, is a system which takes information in one form and Information processinges it into another form, e.g....
 for a high-level block diagram.

• Computer
  Computer
  
  A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
  
• Computer Hardware Design
• Computer network
  Computer network
  
  A computer network is a group of interconnected computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics. This article provides a general overview of some types and categories and also presents the basic components of a network....
  
• Computer system
• History of computing hardware
  History of computing hardware
  
  The history of computing hardware encompasses computer hardware, its Computer architecture, and its impact on Computer software.The elements of computing hardware have undergone significant improvement over their history....
  

Instruction-level taxonomies

After the commoditization of memory

Random-access memory

Random-Assess Memory Card is a form of computer data storage. Today it takes the form of integrated circuits that allows the stored data to be accessed in any order ....
, attention turned to optimizing CPU performance at the instruction level. Various methods of speeding up the fetch-execute cycle include:

• designing instruction set architectures with simpler, faster instructions: RISC as opposed to CISC
  Complex instruction set computer
  
  A complex instruction set computer is a computer instruction set architecture in which each instruction can execute several low-level operations, such as a load from Memory , an arithmetic operator, and a memory , all in a single instruction....
  
• Superscalar
  Superscalar
  
  A superscalar Central processing unit architecture implements a form of parallel computer called instruction level parallelism within a single processor....
   instruction execution
• VLIW
  Very long instruction word
  
  Very Long Instruction Word or VLIW refers to a Central processing unit architecture designed to take advantage of instruction level parallelism ....
   architectures, which make parallelism explicit

Software

Computer software

Computer software, or just software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, Algorithm and Software documentation that perform some tasks on a computer system....

• Software engineering
  Software engineering
  
  Software engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches....
  
• Computer programming
  Computer programming
  
  Computer programming is the process of writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in a programming language....
  
• Computational
  Computer
  
  A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
  
• Software patent
  Software patent
  
  Software patent does not have a universally accepted definition. One definition suggested by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure is that a software patent is a "patent on any performance of a computer realised by means of a computer program"....
  
• Firmware
  Firmware
  
  Firmware is a term sometimes used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs that internally control various electronic devices. Typical examples range from end user products such as remote controls or calculators, via computer parts and devices like harddisks, keyboard s, TFT screens or memory cards, all the way to scientific instr...
  
• Operating system
  Operating system
  
  An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
  s
• Application Software
  Application software
  
  Application software is any tool that functions and is operated by means of a computer, with the purpose of supporting or improving the software user 's work....
  
• Database
  Database
  
  A database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. The structure is achieved by organizing the data according to a database model....
  s
• Geographic information system
  Geographic Information System
  
  A geographic information system captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that refers to or is linked to location.In the strictest sense, the term describes any Information systems that integrates, stores, edits, analyzes, shares, and displays georeference information....
  
• Spreadsheet
  Spreadsheet
  
  A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper worksheet. It displays multiple cells that together make up a grid consisting of rows and columns, each cell containing either alphanumeric text or numeric values....
  
• Word processor
  Word processor
  
  A word processor is a computer Application software used for the production of any sort of printable material.Word processor may also refer to an obsolete type of stand-alone office machine, popular in the 1970s and 80s, combining the keyboard text-entry and printing functions of an electric typewriter with a dedicated computer for th...
  
• Programming languages
• interpreter
  Interpreter (computing)
  
  In computer science, an interpreter normally means a computer program that execution , i.e. performs, instructions written in a programming language....
  s
• compiler
  Compiler
  
  A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language . The most common reason for wanting to transform source code is to create an executable program....
  s
• Speech recognition
  Speech recognition
  
  Speech recognition converts spoken words to machine-readable input . The term "voice recognition" is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to speech recognition, when actually referring to speaker recognition, which attempts to identify the person speaking, as opposed to what is being said....
  

History of computing

• History of computing hardware
  History of computing hardware
  
  The history of computing hardware encompasses computer hardware, its Computer architecture, and its impact on Computer software.The elements of computing hardware have undergone significant improvement over their history....
   from the tally stick to the quantum computer
  Quantum computer
  
  A quantum computer is a device for computation that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomena, such as quantum superposition and quantum entanglement, to perform operations on data....
  
• History of computer science
  History of computer science
  
  The history of computer science began long before the modern discipline of computer science that emerged in the twentieth century. The progression, from mechanical inventions and mathematical theories towards the modern concepts and machines, formed a major academic field and the basis of a massive world-wide industry....
  
• Punch Card
  Punch card
  
  A punch card or punched card , is a piece of paperboard that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions....
  
• Unit record equipment
  Unit record equipment
  
  Before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical devices called unit record equipment, electric accounting machines or tabulating machines....
  
• IBM 700/7000 series
  IBM 700/7000 series
  
  The IBM 700/7000 series was a series of large scale computer systems made by International Business Machines through the 1950s and early 1960s....
  
• IBM 1400 series
  IBM 1400 series
  
  The IBM 1400 series were second generation mid-range business computers that IBM sold in the early 1960s. They could be operated as an independent systems, in conjunction with IBM punched card equipment, or as auxiliary equipment to other computer systems....
  
• System/360
  System/360
  
  The IBM System/360 is a mainframe computer system family announced by IBM on April 7, 1964. It was the first family of computers making a clear distinction between computer architecture and implementation, allowing IBM to release a suite of compatible designs at different price points....
  
• Early IBM disk storage
  Early IBM disk storage
  
  The invention of magnetic disk storage, pioneered by IBM in the 1950s, was a critical component of the computer revolution. This article surveys the major IBM computer disk drives introduced in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s....
  

Business computing

Human factors

• Accessible computing
• Human-computer interaction
• Human-centered computing
  Human-centered computing
  
  Human-centered computing is an emerging, interdisciplinarity academic field broadly concerned with computing and computational artifacts as they relate to the human condition....
  

Computer network

Computer network

A computer network is a group of interconnected computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics. This article provides a general overview of some types and categories and also presents the basic components of a network....

Wired and wireless computer network

• Types
• Wide Area Network
  Wide area network
  
  Wide Area Network is a computer network that covers a broad area . Contrast with personal area networks , local area networks , campus area networks , or metropolitan area networks which are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific metropolitan area respectively....
  
• Metropolitan Area Network
  Metropolitan area network
  
  Metropolitan area networks, or MANs, are large computer networks usually spanning a city. They typically use wireless infrastructure or Optical fiber connections to link their sites....
  
• City Area Network
• Village Area Network
  Village Area Network
  
  The concept of the Village Area Network or was coined to demonstrate the importance of a Computer networking community of technology users in small villages throughout the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta in southwest Alaska....
  
• Local Area Network
  Local area network
  
  A local area network is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport....
  
• Wireless Local Area Network
• Mesh networking
  Mesh networking
  
  Mesh networking is a way to route data, voice and instructions between node . It allows for continuous connections and reconfiguration around broken or blocked paths by ?hopping? from node to node until the destination is reached....
  
• Collaborative workspace
  Collaborative workspace
  
  A collaborative workspace or shared workspace is an inter-connected environment in which all the participants in dispersed locations can access and interact with each other just as inside a single entity....
  
• Internet
  Internet
  
  The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers, enabling users to share information along multiple channels. Typically, a computer that connects to the Internet can access information from a vast array of available server and other computers by moving information from them to the computer's local memory....
  
• Network Management
  Network management
  
  Network management refers to the activities, methods, procedures, and tools that pertain to the Operations management, administration, maintenance, and provisioning of networked systems....
  

Computing technology based wireless networking (CbWN)

The main of goal of CbWN is to optimize the system performance of the flexible wireless network.

• Source coding
  Source coding
  
  In information theory, Shannon's source coding theorem establishes the limits to possible data compression, and the operational meaning of the Shannon entropy....
  
• Codebook
  Codebook
  
  In cryptography, a codebook is a document used for implementing a code . A codebook contains a lookup table for coding and decoding; each word or phrase has one or more strings which replace it....
   design for side information based transmission techniques such as Precoding
  Precoding
  
  Precoding is generalized beamforming to support multi-layer transmission in Multiple-input multiple-output communications radio systems. Conventional beamforming considers linear single-layer precoding so that the same signal is emitted from each of the transmit antennas with appropriate weighting such that the signal power is maximized at th...
  
• Wyner-Ziv coding for Cooperative wireless communications

• Security
  Security
  
  Security is the degree of protection against danger, loss, and criminals. Individuals or actions that encroach upon the condition of protection are responsible for a "breach of security."...
  
• Dirty paper coding for cooperative multiple antenna or user precoding

• Intelligence
  Intelligence
  
  Intelligence is an umbrella term used to describe a property of the mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to problem solving, to think abstraction, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to Learning....
  
• Game theory
  Game theory
  
  Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences , biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science , and philosophy....
   for wireless networking
• Cognitive communications
  Cognitive radio
  
  cognition radio is a paradigm for wireless communication in which either a computer network or a wireless Node changes its transmission or reception parameters to communicate efficiently avoiding interference with licensed or unlicensed users....
  
• Flexible sectorization, Beamforming
  Beamforming
  
  Beamforming is a signal processing technique used in sensor arrays for directional signal transmission or reception. This spatial selectivity is achieved by using adaptive or fixed receive/transmit beampatterns....
   and SDMA
  SDMA
  
  SDMA may refer to :* "Spatial-Division Medium Access", a type of MIMO technology used in communication.* "Soft Direct Memory Access", a type of DMA specific to Xilinx's Multi-Port Memory Controller ....
  

• Software
• Software defined radio (SDR)
  Software-defined radio
  
  A Software-Defined Radio system is a radio telecommunications system where components that have typically been implemented in hardware are instead implemented using software on a personal computer or other embedded computing devices....
  
• Programmable air-interface
• Downloadable algorithm: e.g., downloadable codebook for Precoding
  Precoding
  
  Precoding is generalized beamforming to support multi-layer transmission in Multiple-input multiple-output communications radio systems. Conventional beamforming considers linear single-layer precoding so that the same signal is emitted from each of the transmit antennas with appropriate weighting such that the signal power is maximized at th...
  

Computer security

Computer security

Computer security is a branch of technology known as information security as applied to computers. The objective of computer security can include protection of information from theft or corruption, or the preservation of availability, as defined in the security policy....

Data

DATA

Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa is a multinational Non-governmental organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2's Bono along with Robert Sargent Shriver III and activists from the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt campaign....

Numeric data

• integral data types - bit, byte, etc.
• real data type
  Real data type
  
  A real data type is a data type used in a computer program to represent an approximation of a real number.Because the real numbers are not Countable set, computers cannot represent them exactly using a finite amount of information....
  s:
• Floating point
  Floating point
  
  In computing, floating point describes a system for numerical representation in which a String of digits represents a rational number.The term floating point refers to the fact that the radix point can "float": that is, it can be placed anywhere relative to the Significant figures of the number....
   (Single precision
  Single precision
  
  In computing, single precision is a computer numbering format that occupies one storage location in computer memory at a given address. A single-precision number, sometimes simply a single, may be defined to be an integer, fixed point, or floating point....
  , Double precision
  Double precision
  
  In computing, double precision is a computer numbering format that occupies two adjacent storage locations in computer memory. A double precision number, sometimes simply called a double, may be defined to be an integer, fixed point, or floating point....
  , etc.)
• Fixed point
  Fixed-point arithmetic
  
  In computing, a fixed-point number representation is a real data type for a number that has a fixed number of digits after the radix point . Fixed-point number representation can be compared to the more complicated floating point number representation....
  
• Rational number
  Rational number
  
  In mathematics, a rational number is a number which can be expressed as a quotient of two integers. Non-integer rational numbers are usually written as the vulgar fraction , where b is not 0 ....
  
• Decimal
  Decimal
  
  The decimal numeral system has 10 as its Base . It is the most widely used numeral system....
  
• Binary-coded decimal
  Binary-coded decimal
  
  In computing and electronics systems, binary-coded decimal is an encoding for decimal numbers in which each digit is represented by its own binary sequence....
   (BCD)
• Excess-3
  Excess-3
  
  Excess-3 binary-coded decimal ', also called biased representation or Excess-N, is a numeral system used on some older computers that uses a pre-specified number N as a biasing value....
   BCD (XS-3)
• Biquinary-coded decimal
  Bi-quinary coded decimal
  
  Bi-quinary coded decimal is a numeral system used in many abacuses and in some early computers, including the Colossus_computer. The term bi-quinary indicates that the code comprises both a two-state and a five-state component....
  
• representation: Binary
  Binary numeral system
  
  The binary numeral system, or notation with a radix of 2. Owing to its straightforward implementation in digital electronic circuitry using logic gates, the binary system is used internally by all modern computers....
   - Octal
  Octal
  
  The octal numeral system, or oct for short, is the radix-8 number system, and uses the digits 0 to 7. Numerals can be made from Binary numeral system numerals by grouping consecutive digits into groups of three ....
   - Decimal
  Decimal
  
  The decimal numeral system has 10 as its Base . It is the most widely used numeral system....
   - Hexadecimal
  Hexadecimal
  
  In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal is a numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0–9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F to represent values ten to fifteen....
   (hex)
• Computer mathematics
  Computer mathematics
  
  Computer mathematics could refer to:* Scientific computing - constructing numerical solutions and using computers to analyse and solve scientific and engineering problems...
   - Computer numbering formats
  Computer numbering formats
  
  The term computer numbering formats refers to the schemes implemented in digital computer and calculator hardware and software to represent numbers....
   -

Character data

• storage: Character
  Character (computing)
  
  In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme-like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written language form of a natural language....
   - String
  String (computer science)
  
  In computer programming and some branches of mathematics, a string is an ordered sequence of symbols. These symbols are chosen from a predetermined set or alphabet....
    - P
  Plain text
  
  In computing, plain text is a term used for an ordinary "unformatted" sequential file readable as textual material without much processing.The Character encoding has traditionally been either ASCII, one of its many derivatives such as ISO/IEC 646 etc., or sometimes EBCDIC....
  lain text
  Plain text
  
  In computing, plain text is a term used for an ordinary "unformatted" sequential file readable as textual material without much processing.The Character encoding has traditionally been either ASCII, one of its many derivatives such as ISO/IEC 646 etc., or sometimes EBCDIC....
  
• representation: ASCII
  ASCII
  
  American Standard Code for Information Interchange , is a coding standard that can be used for interchanging information, if the information is expressed mainly by the written form of English words....
   - Unicode
  Unicode
  
  Unicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate Character expressed in most of the world's writing systems....
   - Multibyte - EBCDIC
  EBCDIC
  
  Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code is an 8-bit character encoding used on IBM mainframe operating systems such as z/OS, OS/390, VM and VSE , as well as IBM midrange computer operating systems such as OS/400 and i5/OS ....
    (Widecharacter, Multicharacter) - Fieldata
  Fieldata
  
  Fieldata was a pioneering computer project run by the United States Army Signal Corps in the late 1950s that intended to create a single standard for collecting and distributing battlefield information....
   - Baudot
  Baudot
  
  Baudot:*Marc Antoine Baudot , French deputy during the French Revolution*?mile Baudot , French telegraph engineer, inventor of the Baudot code...
  

Other data topics

• Data compression
  Data compression
  
  In computer science and information theory, data compression or source coding is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than an code representation would use through use of specific encoding schemes....
  
• Digital signal processing
  Digital signal processing
  
  Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of the signal s by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals....
  
• Image processing
  Image processing
  
  In electrical engineering and computer science, image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an , such as photographs or video frame; the output of image processing can be either an image or a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image....
  
• Indexed
• Data management
  Data management
  
  Data management comprises all the List of academic disciplines related to managing data as a valuable resource....
  
• Routing
  Routing
  
  Routing is the process of selecting paths in a network along which to send network traffic. Routing is performed for many kinds of networks, including the PSTN, Computer network , and transport network....
  

Mechatronics

Mechatronics

Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, controls engineering and computer engineering to create useful products....

• Punch card
  Punch card
  
  A punch card or punched card , is a piece of paperboard that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions....
  
• Key punch
  Key punch
  
  File:IBM card punch 029.JPGA key punch is a device for entering data into punched cards by precisely punching holes at locations designated by the keys struck by the operator....
  
• Unit record equipment
  Unit record equipment
  
  Before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical devices called unit record equipment, electric accounting machines or tabulating machines....
  
• Data Protection Act

Classes of computers

Companies - current

Companies - historic

• Acorn, bought by Olivetti
  Olivetti
  
  Ing. C. Olivetti & Co., SpA., known as Olivetti, is an Italy manufacturer of computers, computer printers and other business machines....
  
• Bendix Corporation
  Bendix Corporation
  
  The Bendix Corporation was an United States manufacturing and engineering company which during various times in its 60 year existence made brake systems, aeronautical hydraulics, avionics, radios, televisions and computers, and which licensed its name for use on home washing machines....
  
• Burroughs Corporation, merged with Sperry
  Sperry Corporation
  
  Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the twentieth century....
   to become Unisys
  Unisys
  
  Unisys Corporation , based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, United States, and incorporated in Delaware, is a global provider of information technology services and programs....
  
• Compaq
  Compaq
  
  Compaq Computer Corporation was an United States personal computer company founded in 1982, and is now a brand name of Hewlett-Packard Company....
  , bought by Hewlett-Packard
  Hewlett-Packard
  
  The Hewlett-Packard Company , commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States....
  
• Control Data
• Cray
  Cray
  
  Cray Inc. is a supercomputer manufacturer based in Seattle, Washington. The company's predecessor, Cray Research, Inc. , was founded in 1972 by computer designer Seymour Cray....
  
• Data General
  Data General
  
  Data General was one of the first minicomputer firms from the late 1960s. Three of the four founders were former employees of Digital Equipment Corporation....
  
• Digital Equipment Corporation
  Digital Equipment Corporation
  
  Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering United States company in the computer industry. It is often referred to within the computing industry as DEC ....
  , bought by Compaq
  Compaq
  
  Compaq Computer Corporation was an United States personal computer company founded in 1982, and is now a brand name of Hewlett-Packard Company....
  , in turn bought by Hewlett-Packard
  Hewlett-Packard
  
  The Hewlett-Packard Company , commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States....
  
• Digital Research
  Digital Research
  
  Digital Research, Inc. was the company created by Dr. Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related products. It was the first large software company in the microcomputer world....
   - produced system software for early Intel microprocessor-based computers
• English Electric Company
• Ferranti
  Ferranti
  
  Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a major UK electrical engineering and equipment firm known primarily for defence electronics and power grid systems....
  
• General Electric
  General Electric
  
  The General Electric Company, or GE is a multinational corporation United States technology and Service s conglomerate incorporated in the State of New York....
  , computer division bought by Honeywell
  Honeywell
  
  Honeywell is a major United States multinational corporation list of conglomerates company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
  , then Bull
  Groupe Bull
  
  Groupe Bull is a France owned computer company headquartered in Les Clayes-sous-Bois, outside Paris. The company has also been known at various times as Bull General Electric, Honeywell Bull, CII Honeywell Bull, and Bull HN....
  
• Honeywell
  Honeywell
  
  Honeywell is a major United States multinational corporation list of conglomerates company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
  , computer division bought by Bull
  Groupe Bull
  
  Groupe Bull is a France owned computer company headquartered in Les Clayes-sous-Bois, outside Paris. The company has also been known at various times as Bull General Electric, Honeywell Bull, CII Honeywell Bull, and Bull HN....
  
• ICL
• Leo
• Lisp Machines, Inc.
• Marconi
  Marconi Company
  
  The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company . It was renamed Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company in 1900 and The Marconi Company in 1963....
  
• Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems
  Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems
  
  Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems was an Albuquerque, New Mexico, New Mexico company founded in 1969 by Forrest Mims and H. Edward Roberts....
   produced the first widely sold microcomputer system (kit and assembled)
• Nixdorf Computer
  Nixdorf Computer AG
  
  Nixdorf Computer AG was a computer company founded by Heinz Nixdorf in 1952. Headquartered in Paderborn, Germany, it became the fourth largest computer company in Europe, and a worldwide specialist in banking and point-of-sale systems....
  , bought by Siemens
  Siemens AG
  
  Siemens Aktiengesellschaft is Europe's largest engineering Conglomerate . Siemens' international headquarters are located in Berlin and Munich, Germany....
  
• Olivetti
  Olivetti
  
  Ing. C. Olivetti & Co., SpA., known as Olivetti, is an Italy manufacturer of computers, computer printers and other business machines....
  
• Osborne
  Osborne Computer Corporation
  
  The Osborne Computer Corporation was founded by Adam Osborne in 1980 based on a product of not just personal computers but portable computers....
  
• Packard Bell
  Packard Bell
  
  Packard Bell is a subsidiary of Taiwan-based Acer Inc.. It is a name used by two different consumer electronics companies. The first was an American radio manufacturer founded in 1926, that later became a defense contractor and manufacturer of other consumer electronics, such as television sets....
  
• Prime Computer
  Prime Computer
  
  Prime Computer was a Natick, Massachusetts-based producer of minicomputers from 1972 until 1992. The alternative spellings "PR1ME" and "PR1ME Computer" were used as brand names or logos by the company....
  
• Raytheon
  Raytheon
  
  Raytheon Company is a major United States defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in defense systems and defense and commercial electronics....
  
• Royal McBee
  Royal McBee
  
  Royal McBee was the name of the computer manufacturing and retail division of Royal Typewriter which made the early computers RPC 4000 and RPC 9000....
  
• RCA
  RCA
  
  RCA Corporation, founded as Radio Corporation of America, was an electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. Today, the RCA is owned by the France conglomerate Thomson SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Thomson....
  
• Scientific Data Systems
  Scientific Data Systems
  
  Scientific Data Systems, or SDS, was an United States computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky, a veteran of Packard Bell and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists....
  , sold to Xerox
  Xerox
  
  Xerox Corporation is a global document management company which manufactures and sells a range of color and black-and-white Computer printer, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies....
  
• Siemens
  Siemens AG
  
  Siemens Aktiengesellschaft is Europe's largest engineering Conglomerate . Siemens' international headquarters are located in Berlin and Munich, Germany....
  
• Sinclair Research
  Sinclair Research Ltd
  
  Sinclair Research Ltd is a consumer electronics company founded by Sir Clive Sinclair in Cambridge, England. Originally incorporated in 1973, it remained dormant until 1976, and didn't adopt the name Sinclair Research until 1981....
  , created the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, ZX80
  Sinclair ZX80
  
  The Sinclair ZX80 was a home computer brought to market in 1980 by Science of Cambridge Ltd., later to be better known as Sinclair Research. It was notable for being the first computer available in the United Kingdom for less than a hundred Pound Sterling ....
   and ZX81
  Sinclair ZX81
  
  The Sinclair ZX81 was a home computer released in 1981 by Sinclair Research. It was the follow-up to the Sinclair ZX80.The machine's distinctive appearance was the work of industrial designer Rick Dickinson....
  
• Southweat Technical products Corporation
  SWTPC
  
  The United States company SWTPC started in 1964 as DEMCO . It was incorporated in 1967 as Southwest Technical Products Corporation of San Antonio, Texas....
   produced microcomputers systems (kit and assembled), peripherals, and software based on Motorola
  Motorola
  
  Motorola, Inc. is an United States, multinational, Fortune 100, telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It is a manufacturer of wireless telephone handsets, also designing and selling wireless network infrastructure equipment such as cellular transmission base stations and signal amplifiers....
   6800
  Motorola 6800
  
  The 6800 is an 8-bit microprocessor produced by Motorola and released shortly after the Intel 8080 in late 1974. It had 78 instructions, including the famous, undocumented Halt and Catch Fire bus test instruction....
   and 6809
  Motorola 6809
  
  The Motorola 6809 is an 8-bit microprocessor central processing unit from Motorola, introduced circa 1977-78. It was a major advance over both its predecessor, the Motorola 6800, and the related, MOS Technology 6502....
   microcomputer chips
• Sperry
  Sperry Corporation
  
  Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the twentieth century....
  , which bought UNIVAC
  UNIVAC
  
  UNIVAC is the name of a business unit and division of the Remington Rand company formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J....
  , and later merged with Burroughs to become Unisys
  Unisys
  
  Unisys Corporation , based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, United States, and incorporated in Delaware, is a global provider of information technology services and programs....
  
• Symbolics
  Symbolics
  
  Symbolics refers to two companies: now-defunct computer manufacturer Symbolics, Inc., and a privately-held company that acquired the assets of the former company and continues to sell and maintain the Open Genera Lisp system and the Macsyma computer algebra system....
  
• UNIVAC
  UNIVAC
  
  UNIVAC is the name of a business unit and division of the Remington Rand company formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J....
  
• Varian Data Machines
  Varian Data Machines
  
  Varian Data Machines was a division of Varian Associates which sold minicomputers. It entered the market in 1966, but met stiff competition and was bought by Sperry Corporation in 1977....
  , a division of Varian Associates
  Varian Associates
  
  Varian Associates was a high-tech company founded in 1948 by Russell H. Varian and Sigurd F. Varian, William Webster Hansen, and Edward Ginzton to sell the klystron, the first tube which could generate electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies, and other electromagnetic equipment....
   which was bought by Sperry
  Sperry
  
  Sperry may refer to:...
  
• Wang
  Wang Laboratories
  
  Wang Laboratories was a computer company founded in 1951 by Dr. An Wang and Dr. G. Y. Chu. The company was successively headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts , Tewksbury, Massachusetts , and Lowell, Massachusetts ....
  

Organizations

Professional

• Association for Computing Machinery
  Association for Computing Machinery
  
  The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership was approximately 83,000 as of 2007....
   (ACM)
• (ASC)
• British Computer Society
  British Computer Society
  
  The British Computer Society is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology. Established in 1957, it is the largest United Kingdom-based professional body for computing....
   (BCS)
• Canadian Information Processing Society
  Canadian Information Processing Society
  
  The Canadian Information Processing Society is the Information Technology professional society in Canada. The society certifies and regulates the Information Systems Professional designation in most provinces....
   (CIPS)
• Computer Measurement Group
  Computer Measurement Group
  
  The Computer Measurement Group , founded in 1974, is a worldwide non-profit organization of data processing professionals whose work involves measuring and managing the performance of computing systems....
   (CMG)
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
  
  The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE is an international non-profit, professional body for the advancement of technology related to electricity....
   (IEEE), in particular the IEEE Computer Society
  IEEE Computer Society
  
  IEEE Computer Society is an organizational unit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers . It was established in 1963 when the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers merged to create the IEEE....
  
• Institution of Electrical Engineers
  Institution of Electrical Engineers
  
  The Institution of Electrical Engineers or IEE was a British professional organisation for electronics, electrical, manufacturing and Information technology professionals....
  
• International Electrotechnical Commission
  International Electrotechnical Commission
  
  The International Electrotechnical Commission is a Non-profit organization, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies ? collectively known as "electrotechnology"....
   (IEC)

Standards bodies

See also: Standardization

Standardization

Standardization is the process of developing and agreeing upon Standard . A standard is a document that establishes uniform engineering or technical specifications, criteria, methods, processes, or practices....
 and Standards organization

Standards organization

A standards organization, standards body, standards development organization or SDO is any entity whose primary activities are developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise maintaining standards that address the interests of a wide base of users outside the standards develo...

• International Electrotechnical Commission
  International Electrotechnical Commission
  
  The International Electrotechnical Commission is a Non-profit organization, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies ? collectively known as "electrotechnology"....
   (IEC)
• International Organization for Standardization
  International Organization for Standardization
  
  The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO , is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations....
   (ISO)
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Internet Engineering Task Force
  Internet Engineering Task Force
  
  The Internet Engineering Task Force develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the World Wide Web Consortium and International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission standard bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite....
   (IETF)
• World Wide Web Consortium
  World Wide Web Consortium
  
  The World Wide Web Consortium is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web . It is arranged as a consortium where member organizations maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the World Wide Web....
   (W3C)

Open standards

See also Open standard

Open standard

An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and various properties of how it was designed....

• Apdex Alliance
  Apdex
  
  Apdex is an open standard developed by an alliance of companies. It defines a standard method for reporting and comparing the performance of software applications in computing....
   -- Application Performance Index
• Application Response Measurement
  Application Response Measurement
  
  Application Response Measurement is an open standard published by the Open Group for monitoring and diagnosing performance bottlenecks within complex enterprise applications that use loose coupling designs or service-oriented architectures....
   (ARM)

See also

• List of computer term etymologies
  List of computer term etymologies
  
  This is a list of the origins of computer-related terms or terms used in the computing world . It relates to both computer hardware and computer software....
  
• Load (computing)
  Load (computing)
  
  In UNIX computing, the system load is a measure of the amount of work that a computer system is doing. The load average is the average system load over a period of time....