1. TECHNOLOGY GUIDE 1: Hardware

2. TECHNOLOGY GUIDE 1: HARDWARE
TG1.1 Introduction TG1.2 Strategic Hardware Issues TG1.3 Computer Hierarchy TG1.4 Input and Output Technologies TG1.5 The Central Processing Unit
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

3. Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Identify the major hardware components of a computer system.
Discuss the strategic issues that link hardware design to business strategy.
Describe the hierarchy of computers according to power and their respective roles.
Differentiate the various types of input and output technologies and their uses.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

4. LEARNING OBJECTIVES (CONTINUED)
Describe the design and functioning of the central processing unit.
Discuss the relationships between microprocessor component designs and performance.
Describe the main types of primary and secondary storage.
Distinguish between primary and secondary storage along the dimensions of speed, cost, and capacity.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

5. Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada
TG 1.1 INTRODUCTION
Hardware consists of:
Central processing unit (CPU)
Primary storage
Secondary storage
Input technologies
Output technologies
Communication technologies
Central processing unit (CPU) manipulates the data and controls the tasks performed by the other components.
Primary storage temporarily stores data and program instructions during processing.
Secondary storage stores data and programs for future use.
Input technologies accept data and instructions and convert them to a form that the computer can understand.
Output technologies present data and information in a form people can understand.
Communication technologies provide for the flow of data from external computer networks (e.g. the Internet and intranets) to the CPU, and from the CPU to computer networks.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

6. TG1.2 STRATEGIC HARDWARE ISSUES
How do organizations keep up with the rapid price and performance advancements in hardware?
How often should an organization upgrade its computers and storage systems?
Will upgrades increase personal and organizational productivity?
How can organizations measure such increase?
How should organizations determine the need for new hardware infrastructures?
How do organizations manage employees who can “work from anywhere?”
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

7. Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada
TG1.3 COMPUTER HIERARCHY
Supercomputers
Mainframe Computers
Midrange Computers
Microcomputers
Supercomputer does not refer to a specific technology. Rather, it indicates the fastest computers available at any given time. Click on the image in this slide to watch a video on the IBM Blue Gene supercomputer.
Mainframes remain a distinct class of systems differentiated by hardware and software features.
Larger midrange computers, called minicomputers, are relatively small, inexpensive, and compact computers that perform the same functions as mainframe computers, but to a more limited extent.
Microcomputers—also called micros, personal computers, or PCs—are the smallest and least expensive category of general-purpose computers.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

8. Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada
MICROCOMPUTERS
Figure TG 1.1 in this slide illustrates examples of Microcomputers
The major categories of microcomputers are desktops, thin clients, notebooks and laptops, netbooks, and tablets.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

9. TG1.4 INPUT AND OUTPUT TECHNOLOGIES
Two Main Types of Input Technologies:
Human data-entry: keyboard, mouse, pointing stick, trackball, joystick, touch-screen, stylus, digital pen, Wii, Webcam, and, voice-recognition
Source-data automation: magnetic stripe reader, barcode scanners, optical mark reader, sensors, cameras, RFID, optical character recognition
Human data-entry devices, as their name implies, require a certain amount of human effort to input data.
source-data automation devices input data with minimal human intervention.
Source-data automation devices input data with minimal human intervention.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

10. TG1.5 THE CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT
Central processing unit (CPU) performs the actual computation or “number crunching” inside any computer.
The CPU is a Microprocessor made up of millions of microscopic transistors embedded in a circuit on a silicon wafer or chip. Parts of a microprocessor include:
Control unit
Arithmetic-logic unit (ALU)
Registers
Control unit sequentially accesses program instructions, decodes them and controls the flow
of data to and from the ALU, the registers, the caches, primary storage, secondary storage
and various output devices.
Arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) performs the mathematic calculations and makes logical comparisons.
Registers are high-speed storage areas that store very small amounts of data and instructions for
short periods of time.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

11. FIGURE TG 1.2 PARTS OF A MICROPROCESSOR
Control unit sequentially accesses program instructions, decodes them, and controls the flow of data to and from the ALU, the registers, the caches, primary storage, secondary storage, and various output devices.
Arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) performs mathematic calculations and makes logical comparisons.
Registers are high-speed storage areas that store very small amounts of data and instructions for short periods of time.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

12. FIGURE TG 1.3 HOW THE CPU WORKS
Inputs consist of data and brief instructions about what to do with the data. These instructions come into the CPU from random access memory (RAM).
Data and instructions travel in the chip via electrical pathways called buses.
Control unit directs the flow of data and instructions within the chip.
Arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) receives the data and instructions from the registers and performs the desired computation. These data and instructions have been translated into binary form, that is, only 0s and 1s. A “0” or a “1” is called a bit.
Data in their original form and the instructions are sent to storage registers, and then are sent back to a storage place outside the chip, such as the computer’s hard drive. This cycle of processing, known as a machine instruction cycle, occurs billions of times per second.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

13. ADVANCES IN MICROPROCESSOR DESIGN
Moore’s Law: microprocessor complexity would double every two years.
Moore’s Law is that microprocessor complexity would double every two years as a result of the following:
• Increasingly miniaturized transistors.
• Multiple processors placed on a single chip.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

14. Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada
COMPUTER MEMORY
Two basic categories of computer memory:
Primary storage: stores small amounts of data and information that the CPU will use immediately.
Secondary storage: stores much larger amounts of data and information—an entire software program, for example—for extended periods of time.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

15. HIERARCHY OF MEMORY CAPACITY
Kilobyte (KB): one thousand bytes.
Megabyte (MB): one million bytes
Gigabyte (GB): 1 billion bytes
Terabyte: One trillion bytes.
Petabyte: One thousand terabytes.
Exabyte: One thousand petabytes.
Zettabyte: one thousand exabytes.
Note: all capacity is approximate, for example, Mega means 1 million, so a megabyte (MB) is approximately 1 million bytes.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

16. Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada
PRIMARY STORAGE
Primary storages stores three types of information for very brief periods of time:
data to be processed by the CPU
instructions for the CPU on how to process the data
operating system programs that manage various aspects of the computer’s operation
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

17. PRIMARY STORAGE (CONTINUED)
There are 4 main types of primary storage:
Registers
Random access memory (RAM)
Cache memory
Read-only memory (ROM)
Registers: registers are part of the CPU with the least capacity, storing extremely limited
amounts of instructions and data only immediately before and after processing.
Random access memory (RAM): The part of primary storage that holds a software program
and small amounts of data for processing.
Cache memory: is a type of high-speed memory that a processor can access more rapidly than main memory (RAM).
Read-only memory (ROM): is a type of chip where certain critical instructions are safeguarded. ROM is nonvolatile, so it retains instructions when the power to the computer is turned off. The “read-only” designation means that instructions in ROM can only be read, not changed.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

18. Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada
SECONDARY STORAGE
Secondary storage has the following characteristics:
nonvolatile
more time is needed to retrieve data from secondary storage than from RAM
cheaper than primary storage
consists of a variety of media, each with its own technology
Secondary storage is designed to store large amounts of data for extended periods of time.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

19. SECONDARY STORAGE (CONTINUED)
Types of secondary storage:
Magnetic tape
Magnetic disks (called hard drives)
Flash memory devices (or memory cards)
Optical disk drives (CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-ray disk)
Magnetic tape, is kept on a large open reel or in a smaller cartridge or cassette.
Magnetic disks, called hard drives or fixed disk drives, are the most commonly used mass storage devices because of their low cost, high speed, and large storage capacity.
Optical storage devices do not store data via magnetism. Rather, a laser reads the surface of a reflective plastic platter. Compact disk, read-only memory (CD-ROM) storage devices feature high capacity, low cost, and high durability.
The image in this slide illustrates a Thumb drive, a type of flash memory device also called memory stick, jump drive, or flash drive.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

20. PRIMARY MEMORY COMPARED TO SECONDARY STORAGE
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

21. TECHNICAL GUIDE CLOSING
Six major hardware components of a computer system: central processing unit (CPU), primary storage, secondary storage, input technologies, output technologies, and communications technologies.
There are several strategic issues linking hardware design to business strategy such as how do organizations keep up with the rapid price and performance advancements in hardware?
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

22. TECHNICAL GUIDE CLOSING (CONTINUED)
The hierarchy of computers according to power and their respective roles: Supercomputers, Mainframes, Midrange Minicomputers
The two types of input technologies are: human data-entry and source-data automation. Output technologies include various types of monitors, impact and nonimpact printers, plotters, and voice output.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

23. TECHNICAL GUIDE CLOSING (CONTINUED)
CPU is made up of the arithmetic-logic unit (ALU), registers and control unit.
Microprocessor designs aim to increase processing speed.
Four types of primary storage: registers, cache memory, random access memory (RAM), and read-only memory (ROM). Secondary storage includes magnetic media (tapes; hard drives; and thumb, or flash, drives) and optical media (CD-ROM, DVD, and Blu-ray disks).
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

24. TECHNICAL GUIDE CLOSING (CONTINUED)
Primary storage has much less capacity than secondary storage, and it is faster and more expensive per byte stored. Secondary storage is much slower and less expensive.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada

25. Copyright John Wiley & Sons Canada