How to Select Hardware - Types of Hardware

USDA Farmers' Bulletin No. 2277: Computers on the Farm, by Deborah Takiff Smith is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. How to Select Hardware - Types of Hardware

Types of Hardware

Farmers are using several different types of computers. Besides the microcomputer, which is the most widely used, other kinds of farm computers include interactive terminals, videotex terminals, handheld processors, and minicomputers.

A microcomputer can be used as a stand-alone unit, working on its own with a software disk or tape. Or it can be connected to outside information sources if it is equipped with a device known as a modem, which allows the computer to communicate with other computers over the telephone. The modem turns the computer from an information processor and storage machine into a piece of communications equipment.

An interactive terminal has no data storage capability but is linked to a central computer through the telephone. This is called a "dumb" terminal because it can receive, display, and send information, but it cannot process that information. Programs and data are stored in the central computer and the user pays a fee to access the system.

A videotex keyboard terminal can be connected to a telephone jack and any television set. The user can request and receive any kind of information stored in the central computer. Some of the online services use this type of equipment (see section about online information systems on page 20).

Many farmers are also using handheld programmable calculators. These are convenient to use in the field, and can record often repeated data, such as daily milk production. They have little memory (usually 2K) and their output can be printed on 2-inch paper tape. They are much cheaper than the microcomputer.

Farmers use them to record daily milk production, formulate dairy and beef rations, estimate value of dairy forages, estimate cost of operating farm machinery, and calculate depreciation and investment tax credit.

Some very large farm operations use minicomputers, which are larger, have more memory, can do more functions than the microcomputers, and can support multiple users. However, the newer microcomputers have more memory and more functions, and the difference between minicomputers and microcomputers has narrowed.

Computer System Components

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Smith, Deborah Takiff. 2019. USDA Farmers: Bulletin No. 2277: Computer on the Farm. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59316/59316-h/59316-h.htm

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