In computer science, a digital electronic computer is a

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

machine which is both an electronic computer and a digital computer. Examples of digital electronic computers include the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

, the Apple Macintosh, and modern smartphones. When computers that were both

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

and electronic appeared, they displaced almost all other kinds of computers, but

computation Computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that follows a well-defined model (e.g., an algorithm). Mechanical or electronic devices (or, historically, people) that perform computations are known as ''computers''. An es ...

has historically been performed in various non-digital and non-electronic ways: the

Lehmer sieve Lehmer sieves are mechanical devices that implement sieves in number theory. Lehmer sieves are named for Derrick Norman Lehmer and his son Derrick Henry Lehmer. The father was a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley a ...

is an example of a digital non-electronic computer, while analog computers are examples of non-digital computers which can be electronic (with analog electronics), and mechanical computers are examples of non-electronic computers (which may be digital or not). An example of a computer which is both non-digital and non-electronic is the ancient Antikythera mechanism found in Greece. All kinds of computers, whether they are digital or analog, and electronic or non-electronic, can be Turing complete if they have sufficient memory. A digital electronic computer is not necessarily a

programmable computer A stored-program computer is a computer that stores program instructions in electronically or optically accessible memory. This contrasts with systems that stored the program instructions with plugboards or similar mechanisms. The definition ...

, a stored program computer, or a general purpose computer, since in essence a digital electronic computer can be built for one specific application and be non-reprogrammable. , most personal computers and smartphones in people's homes that use

multicore A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such a ...

central processing units (such as AMD FX, Intel Core i7, or the multicore varieties of ARM-based chips) are also parallel computers using the

MIMD In computing, multiple instruction, multiple data (MIMD) is a technique employed to achieve parallelism. Machines using MIMD have a number of processors that function asynchronously and independently. At any time, different processors may be exe ...

(multiple instruction, multiple data) paradigm, a technology previously only used in digital electronic

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...

s. , most digital electronic supercomputers are also

cluster computer A computer cluster is a set of computers that work together so that they can be viewed as a single system. Unlike grid computers, computer clusters have each node set to perform the same task, controlled and scheduled by software. The comp ...

s, a technology that can be used at home in the form of small

Beowulf cluster A Beowulf cluster is a computer cluster of what are normally identical, commodity-grade computers networked into a small local area network with libraries and programs installed which allow processing to be shared among them. The result is a hig ...

s. Parallel computation is also possible with non-digital or non-electronic computers. An example of a parallel computation system using the abacus would be a group of human computers using a number of abacus machines for computation and communicating using

natural language In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...

. A digital computer can perform its operations in the

decimal The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers of the Hindu–Arabic numeral ...

system, in binary, in

ternary Ternary (from Latin ''ternarius'') or trinary is an adjective meaning "composed of three items". It can refer to: Mathematics and logic * Ternary numeral system, a base-3 counting system ** Balanced ternary, a positional numeral system, useful ...

or in other numeral systems. {{As of, 2019, all digital electronic computers commonly used, whether personal computers or server computers or

s, are working in the binary number system and also use binary logic. A few

ternary computer A ternary computer, also called trinary computer, is one that uses ternary logic (i.e., base 3) instead of the more common binary system (i.e., base 2) in its calculations. This means it uses trits (instead of bits, as most computers do). Types ...

s using ternary logic were built mainly in the Soviet Union as research projects. A digital electronic computer is not necessarily a

transistorized computer A transistor computer, now often called a second-generation computer, is a computer which uses discrete transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The first generation of electronic computers used vacuum tubes, which generated large amounts of heat, ...

: before the advent of the transistor, computers used vacuum tubes. The transistor enabled electronic computers to become much more powerful, and recent and future developments in digital electronics may enable humanity to build even more powerful electronic computers. One such possible development is the memristor. People living in the beginning of the 21st century use digital electronic computers for storing data, such as photos, music, documents, for performing complex mathematical computations, or for communication, commonly over a worldwide computer network called the internet which connects many of the world's computers. All these activities made possible by digital electronic computers could, in essence, be performed with non-digital or non-electronic computers if they were sufficiently powerful, but it was only the combination of electronics technology with digital computation in binary that enabled humanity to reach the computation power necessary for today's computing. Advances in

quantum computing Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...

, DNA computing,

optical computing Optical computing or photonic computing uses light waves produced by lasers or incoherent sources for data processing, data storage or data communication for computing. For decades, photons have shown promise to enable a higher bandwidth than the ...

or other technologies could lead to the development of more powerful computers in the future. Digital computers are inherently best described by

discrete mathematics Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that can be considered "discrete" (in a way analogous to discrete variables, having a bijection with the set of natural numbers) rather than "continuous" (analogously to continuous f ...

, while analog computers are most commonly associated with continuous mathematics. The philosophy of digital physics views the universe as being digital. Konrad Zuse wrote a book known as ''

Rechnender Raum ''Calculating Space'' (german: Rechnender Raum) is Konrad Zuse's 1969 book on automata theory. He proposed that all processes in the universe are computational. This view is known today as the simulation hypothesis, digital philosophy, digital ...

'' in which he described the whole universe as one all-encompassing computer.

See also