Charasteristics of Computer

The power and usefulness of this popular tool are mainly due to its following characteristics :

•  Speed : Computer is so fast that it can perform the given task in a few seconds as compared to man who can spend many months for for doing the same task. It can process millions of instructions per second.

• Accuracy : While doing calculations, a computer is more accurate  than a man. Man can make mistakes in calculation, but a computer does not if it is provided with accurate instructions.
  

• Automatic : Computers are automatic machines because once started on a job they carry on  until the job is finished, normally without any human assistance. However, computer being machines cannot start themselves. They cannot go out and find their own problems and solutions. They have to be instructed.

• High-Memory : A computer has much more memory or storage capacity than human beings. It can store millions of data ans instructions which can retrieved and recalled even after a number of years. This is not possible in case of human beings.

• Dilligence : A computer does not suffer from the human traits of tiredness and boredom. Man will tired and bored while doing millions of calculations, but computer being a machine does this job very efficiently without any tiredness and boredom.

• Versatility : Versatility is one of the most wonderful things about the computer. One moment, it is preparing the result of an examination, the next moment, it is busy preparing electricity bills and in between, it may be helping an office secretary to trace an important letter in seconds. Briefly, a computer is capable of performing almost any task, if the task can be reduced to a series of logical steps.

• No Intelligence / No I.Q. : A computer is a machine and obviously has no intelligence of its own. Each and every instruction must be given to the computer for doing a task. Man has intelligence and it is the man who invented computer and give it all the instructions and logic to work. The main drawback of computer is that it cannot take decision on its own.

• No Feelings : Computers are devoid of emotions. They have no feelings and no instructs because they are machines. Based on our feelings, taste, knowledge and experience, we often taken certain judgments in our day-to-day life. However, computers cannot make such judgments on their own. their judgment is based on the instructions given to them in the form of programs that are written by us.