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Bioinorganic Chemistry: A Short Course, Second Edition, by Rosette M. Roat-Malone
Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

4.2 Computer Hardware,

SOFTWARE, AND COMPUTATIONAL

CHEMISTRY METHODS

4.1 INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER - BASED METHODS

Chemists use computers for many purposes. As the chapter on instrumental
methods (Chapter 3 ) has illustrated, every modern analytical instrument
must include a computer interface. Chemical structure drawing, visualization,
and modeling programs are important computer - supported applications
required in academic, industrial, and governmental educational and research
enterprises. Computational chemistry has allowed practicing chemists to
predict molecular structures of known and theoretical compounds and to
design and test new compounds on computers rather than at the laboratory
bench.

4.2 COMPUTER HARDWARE

A basic review of computers and computing is given in reference 1. A short
summary of this introductory material is presented here.
The basic elements of a computer are:

1. The central processor unit (CPU) that does the work


2. Memory locations where programs are controlled and results are
   stored