The essential characteristic of all modern computers is speed. Their prodigious memories can be probed with split-second precision; they can race through reams of complex equations with astonishing agility. Their swift skill is made possible by a battery of relatively simple devices, transistors that can turn an electric current off and on in as little as a billionth of a second.
In effect, those switches speak the "yes-no" binary language of computer technology. Their simple answers can be combined to solve intricate problems. But fast as such combinations can be made, computer speed is...
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