1. Microsoft Office 2003- Illustrated Introductory, Premium Edition
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

2. Objectives Defining computers Investigating types of computers
Examining input devices
Examining output devices
Investigating data processing
Understanding memory
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

3. Objectives Understanding magnetic storage devices and media
Understanding optical and flash storage devices and media
Exploring data communications
Learning about networks
Understanding system software
Understanding application software
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

4. Defining Computers A computer is an electronic device that:
Accepts input
Processes data
Stores data
Produces output
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

5. Defining Computers A computer system is made up of:
Hardware—the physical components
Software—the programs or lists of instructions
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

6. Defining Computers
Architecture or configuration is the design of the computer.
As in, what does the computer consist of?
Specification is the technical detail about each component.
As in, how big is the monitor?
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

7. How a Computer Works The hardware, software, and you work together to
complete tasks.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

8. How a Computer Works
The data you type into the computer is called input.
The result of the computer processing your input is called output.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

9. Investigating Types of Computers
The categories of computers are:
Personal or microcomputers
Desktop
Notebook, Laptop, Table PC
Hand-help or PDAs
Mainframes
Supercomputers
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

10. Types of Computers
Personal computers are used for general computing tasks.
Hand-held computers fit in the palm of your hand and run
on batteries.
Mainframes are used by companies to provide centralized
storage, processing, and management for large amounts of
data.
Supercomputers are the largest and fastest of computers,
and can process an enormous volume of data.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

11. Types of Computers Supercomputers are the largest and fastest of
computers, and can process an enormous
volume of data.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

12. Examining Input Devices
Some input devices are:
Keyboard
Mouse
Trackball
Track point
Touch pad
Wireless pointer
Cordless mouse
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

13. Examining Output Devices
Monitors and printers are common output devices.
CRT monitors and LCD (or flat panel display) monitors are two types of monitors.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

14. Computer Hardware Factors that influence a monitor’s quality are:
Screen Size
Resolution
Dot Pitch
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

15. Types of printers Laser Dot Matrix Ink-Jet Ink-Jet printer
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

16. Computer Hardware
Multimedia devices are peripheral devices that include text, graphics, sound, animation, and video.
Speakers and sound cards are common multimedia output devices
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

17. Investigating Data Processing
Computers interpret every signal as “on” or “off.”
1 (“on”) and 0 (“off”) are referred to as bits.
Eight bits is a byte. Each byte represents a unique character.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

18. Data Representation
Storage and memory capacity is the amount of data the storage device can handle.
Kilobyte (KB) is about one thousand bytes
Megabyte (MB) is about one million bytes
Gigabyte (GB) is about one billion bytes
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

19. Processing Hardware
The two most important components of personal computers hardware are the microprocessor and memory.
These two factors directly affect the computer’s price and performance.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

20. The Microprocessor
The microprocessor is a silicon chip designed to manipulate data.
Its speed is determined by:
Clock speed
Word size
Cache size
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

21. Understanding Memory
Computer memory is a set of storage locations on the motherboard.
There are four types of memory:
Random access memory (RAM)
Virtual memory
Read-only memory
Complementary metal oxide semiconductor memory (CMOS)
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

22. Understanding Memory
RAM is temporary memory that is constantly changing while the computer is on.
Virtual memory is extra memory that simulates RAM if more is needed.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

23. Understanding Memory
Read-only memory (ROM) is the permanent storage location for a set of instructions the computer uses.
CMOS memory is semi-permanent information about where essential software is stored.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

24. Understanding Magnetic Storage Devices and Media
A storage device receives data from RAM and writes it on a storage medium. Later, it can be read and sent back to RAM.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

25. Understanding Magnetic Storage Devices and Media
Floppy disks or diskettes are flat circles of iron oxide-coated plastic in a hard plastic case. Floppy disks can store 1.44 MB of data.
Tape drives provide inexpensive archival storage for large quantities of data.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

26. Storage Devices Some common magnetic storage devices are: Floppy disks
Hard disk drives
Tape drives
Zip drives
A floppy disk
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

27. Understanding Optical and Flash Storage Devices and Media
Some common optical storage devices
are:
CD-ROM drives
DVD drives
CD-R drives
CD-RW drives
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

28. Storage Devices CD-ROMs are for “read-only” access.
CD-R drives allow you to record data on a CD-R disk.
CD-RW drives allow you to write data on a CD-RW disk and access and modify data.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

29. Exploring Data Communications
Data Communications is the transmission of
text, numeric, voice, or video data from one
computer to another.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

30. Data Communications Data Communications is the transmission of text,
numeric, voice, or video data from one computer to
another.
The four essential components of data communications
are:
Sender
Channel
Receiver
Protocols
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

31. Data Communications
A sender is the computer that originates the message.
The message is sent over a channel, such as a telephone.
The receiver is the computer at the message’s destination.
Protocols are the rules that establish the transfer of data between sender and receiver.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

32. Data Bus Microcomputers have several types of ports: Parallel Serial
Small computer system interface (SCSI)
Musical instrument digital interface (MIDI)
Universal serial bus (USB)
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

33. Data Bus
A parallel port transmits data eight bits at a time, and is often used to connect a nearby printer.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

34. Data Bus
A serial port transmits data one bit at a time, and often connects a mouse, keyboard, or modem.
A SCSI (“scuzzy”) connection can allow many devices to use the same port, and are popular on Macs and notebooks.
MIDI cards are used to record and play back musical data.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

35. Data Bus Computer expansion ports
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

36. Data Bus USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports replace
numerous connectors with one plug and port
combination. The device you install must have
a USB connector.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

37. Learning About Networks
A network connects one computer to other computers and peripherals.
In a local area network (LAN), computers and peripherals are close to each other.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

38. Networks
A client/server network is a network with a file server. A file server acts as the central storage location.
A network without a file server is a peer-to-peer network. All of the computers are equal.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

39. Networks
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

40. Networks Each computer that is part of the network must
have a network interface card and network
software.
Then it becomes a workstation.
Any device connected to the network is called a
node.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

41. Computer Software
Software is the instructions and data that direct the
computer to accomplish the task. It can refer to a single
program or a package.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

42. Understanding System Software
System software helps the computer carry out it s basic operating tasks.
Application software helps the user carry out a variety of tasks.
The four types of system software are:
Operating systems
Utilities
Device drivers
Programming languages
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

43. Understanding System Software
The operating system controls the I/O or input/output,
the flow of data from microprocessor to memory to
peripherals.
The operating system makes multitasking
possible.
Some types of system software include:
Virus protection software
Utilities
Device drivers
Computer programming languages
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

44. Understanding Application Software
Application software enables you to perform specific
tasks. Application software includes:
Document production software
Spreadsheet software
Database management software
Graphics and presentation software
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

45. Understanding Application Software
Document production software includes word
processing, desktop publishing, and Web authoring
software that assist you in writing and formatting
documents.
It often has grammar and spell-checking, thesaurus,
search and replace, and template features.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

46. Understanding Application Software
Numbers and text are displayed in a grid of rows and columns. Cell B5 contains the result of a calculation performed by the spreadsheet software
With spreadsheet software, you can create formulas
that perform calculations. Spreadsheet software creates
worksheets with columns and rows. The intersection of a
column and row is a cell.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

47. Understanding Application Software
Database management software creates structured databases to contain information.
Graphics and presentation software allow you to create illustrations, diagrams, and charts to be presented or transmitted. Most allow you to include graphics.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

48. Understanding Application Software
Database management software creates structured databases to contain information.
Graphics and presentation software allow you to create illustrations, diagrams, and charts to be presented or transmitted. Most allow you to include graphics.
Multimedia authoring software allows you to record digital sound files, video files, and animations that can be included in presentations and other documents.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts

49. Understanding Application Software
Object linking and embedding (OLE) is the ability to use data from another file, called the source.
This integration between applications has become an important skill in business.
Understanding Essential Computer Concepts