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A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a clamshell form factor with a flat-panel screen on the inside of the upper lid and an alphanumeric keyboard and pointing device on the inside of the lower lid.
A notebook computer or notebook is, historically, a laptop whose length and width approximate that of letter paper (8.5 by 11 inches or 220 by 280 millimetres). [ a ] The term notebook was coined to describe slab-like portable computers that had a letter-paper footprint, such as Epson 's HX-20 and Tandy 's TRS-80 Model 100 of the early 1980s.
A human computer, with microscope and calculator, 1952. It was not until the mid-20th century that the word acquired its modern definition; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known use of the word computer was in a different sense, in a 1613 book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by the English writer Richard Brathwait: "I haue [] read the truest computer of Times, and the best ...
Most computers are designed to be more powerful than their cooling system, but their sustained operations cannot exceed the capacity of the cooling system. [32] While performance can be temporarily increased when the computer is not hot ( overclocking ), [ 33 ] in order to protect the hardware from excessive heat, the system will automatically ...
The first documented computer architecture was in the correspondence between Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, describing the analytical engine.While building the computer Z1 in 1936, Konrad Zuse described in two patent applications for his future projects that machine instructions could be stored in the same storage used for data, i.e., the stored-program concept.
Operating systems include the software that is always running, called a kernel—but can include other software as well. [6] [8] The two other types of programs that can run on a computer are system programs—which are associated with the operating system, but may not be part of the kernel—and applications—all other software. [8]
Serviceability or maintainability is the simplicity and speed with which a system can be repaired or maintained; if the time to repair a failed system increases, then availability will decrease. Serviceability includes various methods of easily diagnosing the system when problems arise. Early detection of faults can decrease or avoid system ...
The computer (or workstation) might be a "thin client" or X terminal, otherwise it may have its own disk for some or all system files, but usually will need to be networked to the rest of the system for full functionality. Such systems normally require a system administrator to set up and maintain the hardware and software.