Also known as: Personal computer, PC

A personal computer is a general-purpose computer sized and priced for one user, in two main forms — the desktop and the laptop.¹

Overview

Whatever the form factor, a personal computer is built from the same four building blocks: a CPU, RAM, storage, and input/output. What sets it apart from smaller devices is headroom: a full operating system and gigabytes of memory, enough to run essentially the whole programming-language landscape without compromise.

Where it fits

The personal computer is the machine most developers write and test code on — the “development machine.” Because it has the OS, memory, and storage to host compilers, editors, and full toolchains, SDR software and decoders like GopherTrunk run comfortably on one. This entry is the umbrella for the desktop-vs-laptop category; the two sub-entries cover the trade-offs.

Sources

1. Personal computer — Wikipedia, on the general-purpose single-user computer and its forms. ↩

See also

• Desktop computer
• Laptop
• Central processing unit (CPU)
• Random-access memory (RAM)
• Operating system
• Computer hardware

Learn it step by step

• Choosing a development machine