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PCs around the world unite to map the Milky Way

(PhysOrg.com) -- At this very moment, tens of thousands of home computers around the world are quietly working together to solve the largest and most basic mysteries of our galaxy.

Gaming computers offer huge, untapped energy savings potential

In the world of computer gaming, bragging rights are accorded to those who can boast of blazing-fast graphics cards, the most powerful processors, the highest-resolution monitors, and the coolest decorative lighting. They ...

Intel predicts the death of mobile computing as we know it

(PhysOrg.com) -- The folks over at Intel have come up with an interesting prediction, one that may make all of you feel a little bit foolish for buying a laptop, and a netbook or a tablet. They are predicting that as time ...

San Fran college's computer network compromised

(AP) -- The computer networks of a San Francisco community college have been infected with software viruses that illegally transmitted personal data from students and employees overseas, school officials said Friday.

Rapunzel, Leonardo and the physics of the ponytail

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research provides the first mathematical understanding of the shape of a ponytail and could have implications for the textile industry, computer animation and personal care products.

Facing the Windows XP apocalypse? Here are some options

Are you ready for the "XP Apocalypse" on April 8? That's when Microsoft Corp. plans to stop issuing security updates for the aging, but still-popular XP version of its flagship Windows operating system, which by some estimates ...

Robots learn to handle objects, understand places

(PhysOrg.com) -- Infants spend their first few months learning to find their way around and manipulating objects, and they are very flexible about it: Cups can come in different shapes and sizes, but they all have handles. ...

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Personal computer

A 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.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA