Welcome! Computer 101 With Laura Crichton

 Associate of Applied Science  Baker College  Computer Programming  Computer Enthusiast!!

Agenda for Today:  Computers  What are they?  Hardware  Common types of computers—which is right for you?  Operating Systems (OS)  Programming Languages

The computer  Not a magic box  Not the internet  Made of hardware (not magic)

Hardware?

Hardware!  Case  PSU  Motherboard  CPU  RAM  Expansion cards  Graphics Card  Modem/Ethernet  Fans/cooling  Storage Devices  Hard Drives  USB  CD/DVD/Blu-Ray  Floppies (long gone)

Input & Output  Input  What devices do we use to tell the computer what we want it to do?  Output  How does it give us information?

Input & Output Devices  Input Devices  (Peripherals)  Keyboard  Mouse/Touchpad  Touchscreen  Joystick  Microphone  Image Scanner  Webcam  Output devices  Monitor  Display/screen  Printer  Headphones  Speakers  Plotter

Communication  The way that the hardware communicates and processes information is through various programming languages

Desktop Systems  Monitor  Case  Keyboard, Mouse  Extras  Speaker, printers, joysticks

Desktop Considerations  Advantages  Easily upgradable components make it the best investment  More USB ports  Disadvantages  Big  Not very portable  Can be noisy  Can use a lot of power

Laptops vs Netbooks  Laptop = Notebook  Larger screen size  More powerful hardware  Netbook  Smaller screen size  Smaller keyboard  Slower processor  Limited USB ports

Laptop & Netbooks - Considerations  Advantages  Portable  Allow for internet access anywhere there is a Wifi Connection  Disadvantages  Only a few components are upgradable  RAM  Hard drive  Expensive to fix  Prone to being dropped  Might not have DVD player  Might not have a numeric keypad

Nettop = MiniPC or MicroPC  Advantages  Low power consumption  Very quiet  Price ($ )  (not including monitor)  Great for  Basic interneting  Disadvantages  Limited processing power

Tablets  Generally operated by touch/finger gestures  5”-10” size  Generally Android operating system  Ipad runs Mac (iOS7)  Windows tablet

Tablet Considerations  Advantages  Total portability— under a pound  Very small—fit in any bag  Loads of free apps  Disadvantages  Nearly impossible to upgrade hardware = disposable  Surface subject to scratches  Small amount of storage  There are a lot of poor quality, cheap tablets out there

CPU  CPU – Central Processing Unit  AMD vs Intel  Number of Processors/Cores  Parallel processing  Intel i5 has 4 cores 3.6GHz ($180-$220)  AMD Phenom has 6 cores, 4.1GHz ($139)  Intel Xeon, 6 core, 2.6GHz ($649) (specialized for servers)  Intel Xeon has 12 cores (not released yet)  Measured in Hertz – speed  Now measuring in GHz (Gigahertz)  Many sites will show benchmarks, which measures performance. 

RAM – Random Access Memory  Largely dictates how fast programs will load & how many programs can be running at the same time before things become very slow.  Measured in Gigabytes (GB) - Capacity  Also measured in speed (MHz)  2x4GB DDR ($85)

Storage  Hard drive  Capacity  Measured in Gigabytes (GB)  1TB is ~ 1000 GB  3TB Western Digital ($135)

There are many Operating Systems  What operating systems do you know of?  What versions are you familiar with?

Operating systems  Windows 3.0 (1990) Windows NT, Win 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8  Mac – now on version 10, called OS X  Android – Used mainly on phones & tablets  Linux distributions – Open source  Ubuntu, Mint, Knoppix, Chromium, Tin Hat

Why is an operating system important  Provides a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for how you interact with your device.

Finding a balance CostValue  CPU (speed, type)  RAM (speed, amount (GB))  Hard Drive (space, GB or TB)  Software & OS  Battery (Laptops/netbooks)  Extended Warranty?  Refurbished?  Often include manufacturers warranty

Complex: Assembly language: 0x32c4 : addil 0,dp 0x32c8 : ldw 0x22c(sr0,r1),r26 0x32cc : ldil 0x3000,r31 0x32d0 : ble 0x3f8(sr4,r31) 0x32d4 : ldo 0(r31),rp 0x32d8 : addil -0x800,dp 0x32dc : ldo 0x588(r1),r26 0x32e0 : ldil 0x3000,r31

Easier: Code written in C: printf("hello, world");

6 levels of abstraction  Level 0 – All data travels in 1’s and 0’s—gate on or off, open or closed.  Level 1 – Control – Microcode or Hardwired  Level 2 – Machine language  Level 3 – System software – Operating system  Level 4 - Assembly language  Level 5 – C++, Java, Fortran  Level 6 – Executable programs, where we interact with the programs with our devices in our native language.

File Structures  Dos/Linux/Mac –all must use file structures to store and access the data.  File extensions—common: zip, exe, mp3, mp4, avi, dll