Input Process Output.
What is this? Can you eat it?

No, you cannot eat it but Input Process Output or IPO has been the basis for computer operation since I can remember. One of my first lessons in computers and how they work was the concept of IPO.

Have you ever heard the term "Garbage in, garbage out". It's spot on. If you feed the computer with junk, it's going to give you junk.

You see, computers only do what you tell them to do. They cannot think for themselves. Artificial Intelligence or AI is not even close to the stage where a computer can think for itself.

They need humans to input stuff, like programs or data, the stuff get processed, and eventually you will receive some output. The output could be a host of devices, like computer screens, files or physical output in the form of paper.

This makes perfect sense since that's why computers were designed. They make our lives easier.

This is actually a very important concept to understand as all computers operate in this manner.

We can maybe also add another level to the IPO model, storage. You may argue that that should be part of the, output, and you are right. The thing is once the data has been processed the output will go to storage and later it could be used for input again without physically entering the data.

Don't break your head over the storage part. Just remember the importance of the IPO model.

Why do I even mention the IPO model? Because people think computers are difficult, and they're not.

This is a very easy concept to understand.

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