COMPUTER BASICS Computer Technology

WHAT IS A COMPUTER?  Electronic  Accepts data and instructions  Manipulates, processes, and displays the information  Stores data

LOOK HOW FAR WE HAVE COME! ENIAC ,468 vacuum tubes 70,000 resistors 30 tons 8-1/2 feet by 3 feet by 80 feet in size 680 square feet 160 kilowatts of power $500,000 then - ~$6 million today

INFORMATION PROCESSING CYCLE Input Processing Storage Retrieval OutputStorage

INPUT DEVICES  Accept data  Convert data to a form that can be processed

TYPES OF INPUT DEVICES

WHAT IS HARDWARE?  Tangible, physical parts of the computer  Stuff you can touch  Printer, monitor, keyboard, hard drive, mouse, CPU

PROCESSING HARDWARE  CPU – Central Processing Unit  The brain of the computer  Most important chip on motherboard  Made from silicone – melted sand

PROCESSING SPEED  Hertz – 1 cycle per second  (Mega)hertz (MHz) – 1 million cycles per second  (Giga)hertz (GHz) 1 billion cycles per second  How fast is the processor on your computer?  The higher the number – the faster the processor

MEMORY AND STORAGE CAPACITY  Approximate values:  b or bit – 1 binary digit – a 0 or 1  B or Byte – approx. 8 bits  KB or Kilobyte – 1 thousand bytes  MB or Megabyte – 1 million bytes  GB or Gigabyte – 1 billion bytes  TB or Terabyte – 1 trillion bytes

TEMPORARY MEMORY  (RAM) Random Access Memory Electronic components providing temporary working storage for data & instructions  Measured in kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes  Power off – contents are gone  Capacity  More memory means you can open more programs at one time  Typical: 2-8 GB  How much memory is on your computer?

PORTABLE STORAGE DEVICES  CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW  DVD-ROM, DVD-R; DVD-RW  USB – Jump/Flash drive  Cloud Storage

PERMANENT STORAGE Hard drive/hard disk Storage capacity – 500 Gb+ How big is the hard drive on your computer?

KEEP YOUR DATA SAFE!  Keep away from extreme temperatures.  Keep disks and CDs in storage cases.  Keep disks away from magnetic forces.  Back up files regularly.

OUTPUT DEVICES  Return (to you) processed data in form of information  Allow you to view and use information

TYPES OF OUTPUT DEVICES  Monitor  Printer  Speakers  Earphones

LAN – Local Area Network interconnects computers within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building

 Wired – telephone lines or cable  Wireless – routers, microwaves, satellites, and radio waves

FIBER OPTICS – DATA AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT

WHAT IS SOFTWARE? programs and other operating information used by a computer

OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE  Organizes and controls hardware and software so that the device it lives in behaves in a flexible but predictable way

WHAT IS APPLICATION SOFTWARE?  designed to carry out operations for a specific application.  cannot run on itself but is dependent on system software to execute.

APPLICATION SOFTWARE

MULTITASKING IS...  the apparent simultaneous performance of two or more tasks/programs by a computer's central processing unit