If the device's main purpose is to gather information for the computer, then it's an input device. If its main purpose is to let the computer communicate information to the user, then it's an output device.

Now, let's look at a simple example of how input travels through a computer and becomes output. When you press a key on your keyboard, let's say the letter B, the keyboard converts the letter to a number. …

Computers need a way to manipulate those 1s and 0s, so that they can eventually do more complicated operations like calculating the 50th digit of π . Computers use logic gates to transform the 1s and 0s …

Input is data that is given to a computer or program for processing. When you hit a key on your keyboard, the fact of that keystroke is sent as data to the computer processor as input.

They may look different, but they all share the same underlying technology. The more we understand how that technology works, the more we can use the computers around us to help make our world …

How can the input of one computer become the output for another (and vice versa)?

Computer memory isn't infinite, so there's a limit to how much data we can input before we overflow the memory. Computers also vary a lot in memory size, usually because of physical size constraints.

What's the purpose of having a logic circuit? Wouldn't the outcome always just be the final gate's outcome? So basically you could just input whatever you need for the last gate and that's it... Or am I …

Computer components How does the computer receive, store, and process data? Explore how input and output devices, CPU, and computer memory work.

The CPU is the brain of a computer, containing all the circuitry needed to process input, store data, and output results. The CPU is constantly following instructions of computer programs that tell it which …