Computers 2 Essay, Research Paper

People use computers everyday. Some people know how to use one some people don’t. But not too many people can understand how the computer works and its processing. I have been taught how it works and I understand it very well. The best way to explain it would be to compare it to the United States Postal Service and how it works. From rain, to sleet, or even snow, nothing will stop the mail. Just like if you tell a computer to do something it will. Computers are always being upgraded and there have been major advances in mail since it has started.

On a computer the user does some sort of input whether it be a keyboard or mouse, this input is taken to the computers RAM, where it is temporarily stored. Then different commands are brought from the hard drive and in the central processing unit (CPU), the commands are executed and then any output is displayed on the screen. That seems pretty hard to understand doesn’t it? Well the United States Postal Service works a lot like that. First, someone writes a letter, or decides to send a package. Then they input it into their mailbox and the mailman who would be the registry takes it to the post office, which would be RAM. The post office workers who sort, cancel, check postage, and other mail related things, would be the different commands brought in from the Hard Drive. Where all this action is being taken place would represent the Central Processing Unit. Then the letters are then sent out to either another city or kept in the same city and sent to the address that the sender sent it to. Unless it gets sent to the wrong address, which happens, and in a computer errors also can happen.

Computers and USPS have evolved so much since they first started. The USPS was formerly known as the Pony Express where letters were delivered on horseback and it could take weeks or months for letters to get across the United States. Now we have airplanes that get letters across the United States in just a fraction of the time it used to. Computers have the same advancements. The first computer would take up an entire room, but now I have a faster, more powerful computer that fits on my desktop. The newest computers have a speed of almost a one thousand-megahertz. Five years ago a top of the line computer was one hundred-megahertz. So now commands are executed at a fraction of the time they used to.

Nothing can stop the USPS. If you send a letter it will always get there, well at least most of the time. Just like when you give your computer a command it will try it’s hardest to make you happy and do the command. Only an error or a power outage will stop it. The electronic sorting system can be stopped by a power outage, and if someone misplaces your letter, well it will take a really long time for it to get to where you want it to go. The USPS and computers do have some differences, such as computers take milliseconds to process a command, while it can take a few days to a week to deliver a letter, or even longer depending on where you are sending it.

So computers can take a while to understand, but when comparing them to the USPS it can make it a lot easier. They have similarities and differences, but for the most part it is a good comparison. On computers you can go almost anywhere all you have to type in is an Internet address and through the USPS you can send anything anywhere, all you have to do is put an address on a letter, put a stamp on it then send it.