Personal computer
hideA personal computer (PC) is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end user, with no intervening computer operator.
A personal computer may be a desktop computer, a laptop computer or a tablet computer. The most common current operating systems for personal computers are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, while the most common microprocessors are x86-compatible CPUs, ARM architecture CPUs and PowerPC CPUs. Software applications for personal computers include word processing, spreadsheets, databases, Web browsers and e-mail clients, games, and myriad personal productivity and special-purpose software. Modern personal computers often have high-speed or dial-up connections to the Internet, allowing access to the World Wide Web and a wide range of other resources.
A PC may be used at home, or may be found in an office, often connected to a local area network (LAN). This is in contrast to the batch processing or time-sharing models which allowed large expensive systems to be used by many people, usually at the same time, or large data processing systems which required a full-time staff to operate efficiently.
While early PC owners usually had to write their own programs to do anything useful with the machines, today's users have access to a wide range of commercial and non-commercial software which is provided in ready-to-run form. Since the 1980s, Microsoft and Intel have been dominating much of the personal computer market with the Wintel platform.
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News tagged with personal computer
Intel hit with more antitrust charges in FTC suit
Dec 16, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
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(AP) -- The Federal Trade Commission piled on new antitrust charges against Intel Corp. on Wednesday, seeking to end what it described as a decade of illegal sales tactics that have crippled rivals and kept ...
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Our devices will spin denser webs of data in 2010s
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
Dec 15, 2009 |
5 / 5 (5) |
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(AP) -- Ten years ago, we would have been blown away by a cell phone with far more computing power and memory than the average PC had in 1999, along with a built-in camera and programs to manage every aspect ...
Taiwan says no to Tiger Woods-style animated news
Dec 11, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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(AP) -- Taiwanese regulators have turned down an application for a television license from a Hong Kong company whose local affiliate conquered the Internet earlier this month with a fanciful video of golf ...
UCSD Experts Calculate How Much Information Americans Consume
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Dec 14, 2009 |
3.5 / 5 (2) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- U.S. households consumed approximately 3.6 zettabytes of information in 2008, according to the "How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers," released today by the University of ...
Helpful or creepy? Overpersonalized Web sites may spook shoppers
Dec 10, 2009 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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Michael Redding describes the get-to-know-you game between man and machine as a version of "Name That Tune."
Jules Verne, desperado?
Dec 15, 2009 |
3 / 5 (1) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Jules Verne (1828-1905) is often remembered as a 19th-century founder of science fiction, whose enthusiasm for invention fills his books — from the spacecraft in From the Earth to the Moon ...
Going vertical: Fleeing tsunamis by moving up, not out
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 14, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the minutes after a strong earthquake struck offshore of the Indonesian city of Padang on Sept. 30, fears of a tsunami prompted hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate the coastal ...
Science not faked, but not pretty
Dec 12, 2009 |
3.1 / 5 (54) |
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(AP) -- E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled skeptics and discussed hiding data - but the messages don't support claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an ...
Developing countries end boycott at climate talks
Dec 14, 2009 |
1 / 5 (2) |
4
(AP) -- Poor countries ended a boycott of U.N. climate talks Monday after getting assurances that rich nations were not conspiring to soften their commitments to cutting greenhouse gases, European officials ...
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