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General-Purpose Computer

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
general-purpose computer
Refers to computers that follow instructions, thus virtually all computers from micro to mainframe are general purpose. Even computers in toys, games and single-function devices follow instructions in their built-in program. In contrast, computational devices can be designed from scratch for special purposes (see ASIC).
general-purpose computer [¦jen·rəl ¦pər·pəs kəm′pyüd·ər]
(computer science)
A device that manipulates data without detailed, step-by step control by human hand and is designed to be used for many different types of problems.

General-Purpose Computer 

a digital computer that is used to solve a wide range of scientific and technical, economic, and other problems, such as the design of complex engineering structures, the computation of spacecraft flight trajectories, and the calculation of payrolls. In contrast to a special-purpose computer, a general-purpose computer is not designed to solve any particular problem. A general-purpose computer is characterized by a large memory that is organized according to the hierarchical principle, a well-developed man/machine interface, and branching operations. Examples of general-purpose computers include the BESM-6 computer (USSR), the ES family of computers (COMECON countries), the Atlas and System 4 computers (Great Britain), and the CDC 6600 computer and the IBM 370 family of computers (USA).



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The ministry, on the other hand, will relax its control on general-purpose computers, citing the speed of technological innovations in the area, which it says has slashed the effects of such regulation.
PIM systems attach to general-purpose computers through a shared memory interface.
So we've tried to define a new rule: We rank only software companies that target general-purpose computers.
 
 
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