In information processing

Information processing

Information processing is the change of information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process which describes everything which happens in the universe, from the falling of a rock to the printing of a text file from a digital computer system...

,a Data Processing System is a system

System

System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....

 which processes data

Data processing

Computer data processing is any process that a computer program does to enter data and summarise, analyse or otherwise convert data into usable information. The process may be automated and run on a computer. It involves recording, analysing, sorting, summarising, calculating, disseminating and...

 which has been captured and encoded

Code

A code is a rule for converting a piece of information into another form or representation , not necessarily of the same type....

 in a format

File format

A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...

 recognizable by the data processing system or has been created and stored by another unit of an information processing system.

A data entry is a specialized component or form of an information processing (sub)system. Its chief difference is that it tends to perform a dedicated function (i.e., its program

Computer program

A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...

 is not readily changeable). Its dedicated function is normally to perform some (intermediate) step of converting input ('raw' or unprocessed) data, or semi-processed information, in one form into a further or final form of information through a process

Process (computing)

In computing, a process is an instance of a computer program that is being executed. It contains the program code and its current activity. Depending on the operating system , a process may be made up of multiple threads of execution that execute instructions concurrently.A computer program is a...

 called decoding / encod

Code

A code is a rule for converting a piece of information into another form or representation , not necessarily of the same type....

ing or formatting or re-formatting or translation

Translation

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...

 or data conversion

Data conversion

Data conversion is the conversion of computer data from one format to another. Throughout a computer environment, data is encoded in a variety of ways. For example, computer hardware is built on the basis of certain standards, which requires that data contains, for example, parity bit checks....

 before the information can be output

Output

Output is the term denoting either an exit or changes which exit a system and which activate/modify a process. It is an abstract concept, used in the modeling, system design and system exploitation.-In control theory:...

 from the data processor to a further step in the information processing system.

For the hardware data processing system, this information may be used to change the sequential states of a (hardware) machine called a computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

 or (prior to computers) Unit record equipment

Unit record equipment

Before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical devices called unit record equipment, electric accounting machines or tabulating machines. Unit record machines were as ubiquitous in industry and government in the first half of the twentieth century...

. In all essential aspects, the hardware data processing unit is indistinguishable from a computer's central processing unit

Central processing unit

The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...

 (CPU), i.e. the hardware data processing unit is just a dedicated computer. However, the hardware data processing unit is normally dedicated to the specific computer application of format translation.

A software code compiler

Compiler

A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...

 (e.g., for Fortran

Fortran

Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...

 or ALGOL

ALGOL

ALGOL is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which greatly influenced many other languages and became the de facto way algorithms were described in textbooks and academic works for almost the next 30 years...

) is an example of a software data processing system. The software data processing system makes use of a (general purpose) computer in order to complete its functions. A software data processing system is normally a standalone unit of software, in that its output can be directed to any number of other (not necessarily as yet identified) information processing (sub)systems.