A computer appliance is generally a separate and discrete hardware device with integrated software (firmware), specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. These devices became known as "appliances" because of their similarity to home appliances, which are generally "closed and sealed" – not serviceable by the owner. The hardware and software are pre-integrated and pre-configured before delivery to customer, to provide a "turn-key" solution to a particular problem. Unlike general purpose computers, appliances are generally not designed to allow the customers to change the software (including the underlying operating system), or to flexibly reconfigure the hardware.
Read more about Computer Appliance: Overview, Tradeoffs of The Computer Appliance Approach, Types of Appliances, Consumer Appliances, Appliances in Industrial Automation, Internal Structure
Famous quotes containing the words computer and/or appliance:
“The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower.”
—Robert M. Pirsig (b. 1928)
“Diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)