Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin APPENDIX A HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE APPENDIX A HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

A-2 INTRODUCTION  Information technology (IT) - Any computer-based tool that people use to work with information and support the information and information-processing needs of an organization Hardware - Consists of the physical devices associated with a computer system Software - The set of instructions that the hardware executes to carry out specific tasks

A-3 HARDWARE BASICS  Computer - An electronic device operating under the control of instructions stored in its own memory that can accept, manipulate, and store data  Hardware components include: 1.Central processing unit (CPU) 2.Primary storage 3.Secondary storage 4.Input device 5.Output device 6.Communication device

A-4 CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT  Central processing unit (CPU) (or microprocessor) - The actual hardware that interprets and executes the program (software) instructions and coordinates how all the other hardware devices work together  Control unit - Interprets software instructions and literally tells the other hardware devices what to do, based on the software instructions  Arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) - Performs all arithmetic operations (for example, addition and subtraction) and all logic operations (such as sorting and comparing numbers)

A-5 CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT  The number of CPU cycles per second determines the speed of a CPU Megahertz (MHz) - The number of millions of CPU cycles per second Gigahertz (GHz) - The number of billions of CPU cycles per second

A-6 PRIMARY STORAGE  Primary storage - The computer’s main memory, which consists of the random access memory (RAM), cache memory, and the read-only memory (ROM) that is directly accessible to the CPU

A-7 SECONDARY STORAGE  Secondary storage - Consists of equipment designed to store large volumes of data for long-term storage Megabyte (MB or M or Meg) - Roughly 1 million bytes Gigabyte (GB) - Roughly 1 billion bytes Terabyte (TB) - Roughly 1 trillion bytes

A-8 OPTICAL MEDIUM  Optical medium types include: Compact disk-read-only memory (CD-ROM) Compact disk-read-write (CD-RW) drive Digital video disk (DVD) DVD-ROM drive Digital video disk-read/write (DVD-RW)

A-9 INPUT DEVICES  Input device - Equipment used to capture information and commands Manual input devices  Joystick  Keyboard  Microphone Automated input devices  Bar code scanner  Digital camera  Magnetic ink character reader

A-10 OUTPUT DEVICES  Output device - Equipment used to see, hear, or otherwise accept the results of information processing requests Cathode-ray tube (CRT) Liquid crystal display (LCD) Laser printer Ink-jet printer Plotter

A-11 COMMUNICATION DEVICES  Communication device - Equipment used to send information and receive it from one location to another Dial-up access Cable Digital subscriber line Wireless Satellite

A-12 COMPUTER CATEGORIES  Computer categories include: Personal digital assistant (PDA) Laptop Tablet Desktop Workstation Minicomputer Mainframe computer Supercomputer

A-13 SOFTWARE BASICS  System software - Controls how the various technology tools work together along with the application software Operating system software Utility software Application software

A-14 UTILITY SOFTWARE  Types of utility software Crash-proof Disk image Disk optimization Encrypt data File and data recovery Text protect Preventative security Spyware Uninstaller

A-15 APPLICATION SOFTWARE  Types of application software Bowser Communication Data management Desktop publishing Groupware Presentation graphics Programming Spreadsheet Word processing