General purpose computer

When you hear the term 'General Purpose Computer' in an OCR exam question do not think of a standard PC or laptop sitting on your desk - it is more basic than that!

According to the OCR AS syllabus, a 'General Purpose Computer' is a machine that is capable of carrying out some general data processing under program control.


It is made up of the following parts:

  • A Control Unit that tells the machine where and how to handle the data. The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is part of the Control Unit.
  • Memory to hold data and program instructions. The memory is normally RAM
  • An Arithmetic Logic Unit. This does all the data manipulation and processing under the control of the Control Unit. Often calle the ALU.

Challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you

Click on this link: General Purpose Computer

2020-10

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