1. Introduction to Computer Science
CIS August 28, 2007
David Goldschmidt, Ph.D.
Computer Science
The College of Saint Rose

2. Hardware (i) Hardware is physical equipment “flat-panel” “desktop”
“standard”
“laptop” or “notebook”
“tower”

3. Hardware (ii)
Tablet PCs combine laptop and PDA features

4. Hardware (iii)
Tablet PCs combine laptop and PDA features

5. Portable Flash Memory Drives
Looks like another hard drive in “My Computer”
Excellent for portability and for backing stuff up

6. Software Software is a computer program, which “runs” on hardware
Hardware does nothing without software

7. Application Software
Application software is software designed to perform specific tasks
Examples:
Word processing
Spreadsheets/databases
Presentations
Communications
Information Access

8. Please print your tent-card
In-Class Exercise
Use Microsoft Word to create a “tent-card” that displays your first name and the first letter of your last name
Use a big font (nothing too fancy)
Set the page into “landscape” mode
Center your name
Fold here
and here....
Dr. G
Please print your tent-card
and bring it to class!

9. Numbering Systems We count using our fingers....
Base 10:
Computers count using binary digits or bits....
Base 2:
009
008
012
013
007
011
010
000
006
002
001
003
004
005

10. Base Conversion A byte is a grouping of 8 bits
Convert an unsigned binary number ( ) to decimal (base 10):
What about negative integers?
unsigned byte ranges
from 0 to 255 1 2 4 8 16 32 64
128
base 10
value 1
128 64 + 16 + 8 + 1 +
= 217

11. Two’s Complement
Conversion from binary to decimal is identical, except the leftmost bit always has a negative weight
-128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
base 10
value
= -39 + + + +
two’s complement byte
ranges from -128 to 127