This works perfectly fine for adding machines, calculators, computers embedded in modern automobiles, ATM banking machines, IBM mainframe computers, desktop PC's and even humans. However, the modern definition of the computer is not really complete without defining it fully like this:
As this illustration suggests, the modern computer can also store the raw input, any stage of the process and the output so that the computation can be continued or repeated at a later time. In general, the modern definition has been refined as:
Definition:
(Modern) Computer: Input => Process => Storage => Output
This information storage capability is such an important part of the modern definition of an electronic computer that some computers are completely devoted to doing nothing more than store data and information for retrieval and do little else, this being their primary function. And most modern general purpose digital electronic computers would be virtually useless without the ability to store data and information including their own operating systems so that they can start up and reach a point where they can execute a program that will accept the input data, process it and output the information at all.
The other major marketing concept involved in the IBM PC that allowed it to "win" the personal computer "war" that existed when it was introduced was backwards compatibility. As each new model of PC was introduced, IBM made sure that the newest model could still run all existing software that ran on the predecessors, and that all peripheral devices attached to the older models could also be removed from them and attached to the new model and function flawlessly. Well, most software and hardware could be moved to the new model.
The accidental open architecture strategy happened because IBM was in a hurry to get a personal computer into the suddenly booming personal computer market, so they borrowed everything, Intel's microprocessor, existing motherboards, and components. Since they did not make any of the parts, they could not patent them either. They proceeded to publish the interface standards and a third party market of software and hardware manufacturers literally exploded into existence. Everyone knew that if they got into that market they would do very well; and they did indeed.
The backwards compatibility ensured that the end user's hard earned dollars spent on software and hardware were never wasted, they could always move these into their new computer. And it extended the effective functional lifespan of virtually every product in the PC industry from all of the software packages which could run on PC's made years after the original release, to peripherals made years earlier.
This allowed the PC to effectively eliminate all competition within two years of its introduction in 1981. This accidentally caused the IBM PC to solve the single greatest threat to personal computing at that time: the lack of universal compatibility. Apple IIe owners could not share diskettes with Atari 800 owners who could not share data files with Texas Instruments TI-99 owners who could not share game programs with Tandy TRS-80 owners. In fact nothing could be shared between different personal computer models from the same manufacturer much less between different manufacturers equipment. It was segregating the computer users into little isolated groups, rather than working to unite all of the worlds nerds. The IBM PC in the end would unite them all by default: it was the only personal computer left standing, the only one everyone was using so of course all of the disks, files and programs worked since everyone was using the same computer. That's one way to solve the universal compatibility problem! Default is a commonly used term in the computing industry and means: the standard assigned value. When any program starts for the first time, it must have some values initialized to some value, rather than nothing at all, so that the program can begin to execute. The programmers therefore preload these values with "default" settings that can be changed once the program starts. The PC is full of default settings that can later be changed.
The terms hardware and software have been in heavy use here and should now be formally defined:
Hardware: physical components and peripherals.
Software: information, the numbers stored on and used by the hardware to perform computing tasks
There are two types of digital numeric values held in and used by the computer hardware:
Data: The raw data or the information resulting from the processes performed on the raw data.
Code: the machine language instructions listing the steps of the processing that the computer must perform on the input raw data that results in the output information.
The digital numeric values stored in and used by the computer are organized in ascending groups based on their sizes:
bit: The contraction of the words: Binary digIT means a single digit number but in the binary number system not the decimal number system that we normally use.
byte: an 8 Binary digIT number; the standard sized digital numeric value that is stored and used throughout the computer.
word: a 16-bit number.
dword - double word: a 32-bit number.
qword - quad word: a 64-bit number.
file: complete set of information, raw data, and/or code stored as bytes.
The two basic types of files are: executable files or programs that perform one or more tasks, and data files that hold either raw input data or information, data that has had some level of processing done to it by a program. There is a third type of file called an object that contains both data and executable code wrapped into one "object" for lack of a better term.
The largest organization or collection of digital numeric values described above was the file, and these complete sets of data or code are the most convenient units of computer information that users actually use. It is easier to copy a file than the first, then the second then the third bytes of data, and so on. Files however, are potentially quite large collections of data and/or code and must be organized so that they can be found again when needed by the user. The computer must therefore have a file system set up on the permanent storage devices for this purpose. Here are the computer file system's logical containers for information:
file: a complete set of information either data and/or code.
directory: a container for files and/or more directories.
volume or partition: a section of a permanent storage device that can hold the root directory of a complete isolated file system within it.