device
Device is in the German language as the upper concept for a single, spatially delimited object and / or a group of objects with which something can be edited, produced or effected. Many individual genera exist, for example, electrical appliance, household appliance, measuring instrument, equipment, apparatus, machine, tool, radio or television set, below the collecting scope. A device is usually composed of modules. However, it may also be composed of a group of devices which are not clearly defined. The computer is, for example, a device with mostly individually addressable parts of the periphery, which are often also referred to as devices which are connected by communication. In the art, there are efforts to characterize the device as a mostly signal-converting or information-processing system. In contrast, a machine is defined as a predominantly energy- or material-converting system. In process engineering, the term apparatus is also used for a material-converting system.