Desktop PC's take on many physical forms. The first devices that resemble modern computers date to around 1940 - 1941. Though the computer concept existed earlier. Early electric computers were as a large room, consuming the power of hundreds of modern PC's. Modern desktop computers are based on very small integrated circuits and are millions of times faster. These days, tiny circuit computers may be made small enough that are literally microns in size. Personal computers are leading the information age. Circuit computers are tiny, simple devices that are often used to control other devices. And are found in machines ranging from fighter aircraft to industrial robots, digital cameras, and even children's toys.The ability of computers to store and execute lists of instructions called programs, makes computers extremely versatile and sets them apart from calculators. To give an example of just how fast the modern desktop pc is evolving: Just a few short years ago computer processors ran into megs of speed. A meg is 1 million bits per second of information. Today's CPU's run into the gig's. One gig equals 1,000 megs so a 3 gig computer can process 3,000,000,000 bits of data per second.
