New Computer Architectures
Finally, there exist other hardware architectures. One example is field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), which are integrated circuits that a customer or designer configures after the integrated circuit is manufactured. Graphics processing units (GPUs) are small, massively parallel processors originally designed for game graphics, and that are generally a major component of graphics cards. Their utility for general purpose computing was recognized when GPU manufacturers added programmability to their units. There is also a large array of special-purpose computers, which are designed for a specific well-defined task.
The Deep Blue supercomputer from IBM, which gained notoriety in 1996 when it won the first game of a six-game Chess match against world champion Garry Kasparov, is considered to be a type of special purpose computer.
To summarize, computer science can be considered as the study of algorithms. An algorithm was defined as a well-ordered collection of unambiguous and effectively computable operations that, when executed, produces a result, and that halts in a finite amount of time. If an algorithm can be specified or formulated to solve a problem, then the solution to that problem can be automated and executed on computational devices (computers), which were developed from early mechanical calculating devices, and which evolved to the modern electronic devices that are the results of miniaturization, and that are in use at the present time (Schneider & Gersting, 2018).
