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Mod 1 Basics2

This document defines and describes the main hardware and software components of a computer system. It discusses input devices like keyboards, mice, and scanners; output devices like monitors and printers; storage devices like hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and memory; the CPU; and software components like operating systems and applications. It provides details on how these various components work together to allow users to interact with and use a computer.

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Anit Jacob Philip
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43 views

Mod 1 Basics2

This document defines and describes the main hardware and software components of a computer system. It discusses input devices like keyboards, mice, and scanners; output devices like monitors and printers; storage devices like hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and memory; the CPU; and software components like operating systems and applications. It provides details on how these various components work together to allow users to interact with and use a computer.

Uploaded by

Anit Jacob Philip
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Computer Hardware

Hardware
 The term hardware refers to the physical
components of your computer such as the
system unit, mouse, keyboard, monitor etc.
Hardware Components

Input Devices – “How to tell it what to do”


 - A keyboard and mouse are the standard

way to interact with the computer. Other


devices include joysticks and game pads used
primarily for games.
INPUT DEVICES
 The Mouse
 Keyboard
 Tracker Balls
A pointing device consisting of a ball housed in a
socket containing sensors to detect rotation of the
ball about two axes - like an upside-down mouse.
The user rolls the ball with his thumb or the palm
of his hand to move a cursor. Tracker balls are
common on CAD workstations for ease of use and
on modern portable computers, where there may
be no desk space on which to use a mouse
 Scanner
 Touch Pads

A touchpad (or trackpad) is a pointing device


featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized
surface that can translate the motion and
position of a user's fingers to a relative
position on screen. Touchpads are a common
feature of laptop computers, and are also
used as a substitute for a mouse where desk
space is scarce.
 Light Pens
 A light pen, also called a selector pen, is a

computer input device in the form of a light-


sensitive wand used in conjunction with a
computer's CRT display. It allows the user to
point to displayed objects or draw on the
screen in a similar way to a touchscreen but
with greater positional accuracy
 Joysticks
 A joystick is an input device consisting of a
stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle
or direction to the device it is controlling. A
joystick, also known as the control column, is
the principal control device in the cockpit of
many civilian and military aircraft,.Joysticks are
often used to control video games, and usually
have one or more push-buttons whose state
can also be read by the computer.
Output Devices -- "How it shows you what it
is doing"
 The monitor (the screen) is how the computer

sends information back to you. A printer is


also an output device.
OUTPUT DEVICES

Screen
The computer screen is used for outputting
information in an understandable format
 Printers

There are many different types of printers.


In large organizations laser printers are
most commonly used due to the fact that
they can print very fast and give a very
high quality output.
 Plotters
A plotter is an output device similar to a
printer, but normally allows you to print
larger images.
 Speakers

Enhances the value of educational and


presentation products.
Storage Devices -- "How it saves data
and programs“

 Hard disk
Hard disk drives are an internal, higher
capacity drive which also stores the operating
system which runs when you power on the
computer.
Hard disk
Speed:
Very fast!
The speed of a hard disk is often quoted as "average
access time" speed, measured in milliseconds. The
smaller this number the faster the disk.
 Capacity:

Enormous! Often in Gigabytes. A Gigabyte is


equivalent to 1024 Megabytes.
 Cost:

Hard disks costs are falling and normally


represent the cheapest way of storing data.
Diskettes (Floppy Disks)
 Speed:
Very slow!
 Capacity:
Normally 1.44 Mbytes.
 Cost:
Very cheap.
CD-ROM Disks
Speed:
Much slower than hard disks. The original
CD-ROM speciation is given a value of 1x
speed, and later, faster CD-ROMs are quoted
as a multiple of this value.
 Capacity:

Around 650 Mbytes and more


DVD Drives
Speed:
Much faster than CD-ROM drives but not as
fast as hard disks.
 Capacity:

Up to 17 Gbytes or more
 Cost:

Slightly higher than CD-ROM drives.


Memory -- "How the processor stores and uses immediate data“

 RAM - Random Access Memory


 The main 'working' memory used by the

computer. When the operating system loads


from disk when you first switch on the
computer, it is copied into RAM.
 Data and programs stored in RAM are volatile

(i.e. the information is lost when you switch


off the computer).
ROM – Read Only Memory

Read Only Memory (ROM) as the name


suggests is a special type of memory chip
that holds software that can be read but not
written to.
 A good example is the ROM-BIOS chip, which

contains readonly software. Often network


cards and video cards also contain ROM chips
How Computer Memory Is measured
 Bit
All computers work on a binary numbering system, i.e.
they process data in one's or zero's. This 1 or 0 level of
storage is called a bit.
 Byte
A byte consists of eight bits.
 Kilobyte
A kilobyte (KB) consists of 1024 bytes.
 Megabyte
A megabyte (MB) consists of 1024 kilobytes.
 Gigabyte
A gigabyte (GB) consists of 1024 megabytes.
CPU (Central Processing Unit)
It determines how fast your computer will run
and is measured by its MHz speed. Thus a
600 MHz Pentium is much faster than say a
400 MHz Pentium CPU.
 It is the CPU that performs all the

calculations within the computer


Some of the Factors that Impact on a
Computer's Performance
 CPU speed
 RAM size
 Hard disk speed and capacity
Software
 The software is the instructions that makes
the computer work. Software is held either
on your computers hard disk, CD-ROM,
DVD or on a diskette (floppy disk) and is
loaded (i.e. copied) from the disk into the
computers RAM (Random Access Memory),
as and when required.
Operating systems software
 The operating system is a special type of
program that loads automatically when you start
your computer.
 The operating system allows you to use the

advanced features of a modern computer


without having to learn all the details of how
the hardware works
 The link between the hardware and you, the user

 Makes the computer easy to use without having

to understand bits and bytes


Applications software
 An application program is the type of
program that you use once the operating
system has been loaded.

 Examples include word-processing programs,


spreadsheets and databases
Application Software

Word processing applications


Microsoft Word
Lotus Word Pro
 WordPerfect

Spreadsheets
Microsoft Excel
Lotus 123
 Database

Microsoft Access
Lotus Approach
Payroll
Sage software
 Presentation tools

Microsoft PowerPoint
Lotus Freelance
 Desktop publishing

Abode Photoshop
 Multimedia applications

Microsoft's Encarta CD-ROM based


encyclopaedias
Software packages
 Computer software, or just software, is a
collection of computer programs and related
data that provides the instructions for telling
a computer what to do and how to do it.

 Software Packages it is a collection of many


different components that work together to
offer a functional service.
 Eg-MS Office

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