The Basic Integrated Computer Work Station

Abstract

The basic integrated computer work station is the computer itself. Even the simplest personal or desktop computer is itself a system, with three major functions:

• input,

• interconnection, switching, and control, and

• output.

The above are the three essential elements of any device which does useful work and qualifies as a computer. Input may be by any of several means, as may output, but in today’s computers basic input is usually by keyboard, although supplemented often by disks and/or tapes, and output is usually by cathode ray tube (CRT) screen display, although often supplemented by printers (“hard copy” output) and/or other output devices.

An important main message: Work-station networks are, in fact, logical extensions of the computer itself—of computer functional principles. Ergo, to understand them, one must first understand the computer—truly understand it in a functional and philosophical sense.