Essential

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• Essential Computer Concepts

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Course ObjectivesAt the end of the course, you
will understand

• The components of a computer system
• The different types of computers
• Personal computer hardware and its functions
• Peripheral devices

• Hardware and software used to establish a network
  connection
• Internet, e-mail, and World Wide Web
• System software
• Popular application software
• Data sharing among different application software

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What is a Computer?

• A computer is a device that
• Accepts input
• Processes data
• Stores data
• Produces output
• A computer executes machine instructions.

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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.

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What is a Computer?

• A Computer System is made up of
• Hardwarethe physical components (physical body
  of a human being)
• Softwarethe programs or lists of instructions
  (mind, thought of a human being, issuing
  instructions to control the hardware to work
  properly)
• Peripherals (optional, not the core)the
  additional components

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How a Computer Works

• The hardware, software, and you work together to
  complete tasks.

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What is a Computer?

• 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?

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Types of Computers

• The categories of computers are
• Personal or microcomputers
• Desktop
• Notebook, Laptop, Table PC
• Hand-help or PDAs
• Mainframes
• Supercomputers

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Types of Computers

• Personal computers are used for general computing
  tasks and fit the needs of most users

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Types of Computers

• Hand-held computers fit in the palm of your hand
  and run on batteries.

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Types of Computers

• Mainframes are used by companies to provide
  centralized storage, processing, and management
  for large amounts of data.

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Types of Computers

• Supercomputers are the largest and fastest of
  computers, and can process an enormous volume of
  data.

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Computer Hardware

• Computer hardware includes
• CPU (processor, microprocessor)
• Memory
• Storage devices and media
• Input devices
• Output devices
• Communication devices

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Processing Hardware

• The two most important components of personal
  computers hardware are CPU (the microprocessor)
  and memory. (Together they can be compared to the
  brain of a human being.)
• These two factors directly affect the computers
  price and performance.

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The Microprocessor

• The microprocessor is a silicon chip designed to
  manipulate data.
• Its speed is determined by
• Clock speed
• Word size
• Cache size

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Computer Hardware

• The most important computer function is data
  processing.
• Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the processing
  hardware responsible for executing instructions
  to process data.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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Processing Hardware

• 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. For example A usually
  consumes 1 byte.

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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

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Storage Devices

• A storage device receives data from RAM and
  writes it on a storage medium. Later, it can be
  read and sent back to RAM.

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Storage Devices

• Data is stored as files.
• Executable files tell computers how to perform
  specific tasks.
• Data files are created by the user, usually with
  software.

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Storage Devices

• Files are kept on storage devices.
• There are
• Magnetic storage devices and
• Optical storage devices.

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Storage Devices

• Some common magnetic storage devices are
• Floppy disks
• Hard disk drives
• Tape drives
• Zip drives

A floppy disk
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Storage Devices

• Some common optical storage devices are
• CD-ROM drives
• DVD drives
• CD-R drives
• CD-RW drives

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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.

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Computer Hardware

• Some input devices are
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Wireless pointer
• Touch pad
• Track point

Cordless mouse
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Computer Hardware

• Output devices are
• Monitors and Printers are common output devices.
• CRT monitors and LCD (or flat panel display)
  monitors are two types of monitors.

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Computer Hardware

• Factors that influence a monitors quality are
• Screen Size
• Resolution
• Dot Pitch

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Types of Printers include

• Laser
• Ink-jet
• Dot Matrix

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Other media devices

• Media devices are generally related to storage,
  input and output functionalities.
• Multimedia devices are peripheral devices that
  include text, graphics, sound, animation, and
  video.
• Speakers and sound cards are common multimedia
  output devices

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Data Communications

• Data Communications is the transmission of text,
  numeric, voice, or video data from one computer
  to another.

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Data Bus

• The data bus is the communication between
  microprocessor, RAM, and the peripherals.

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Data Bus

• Computer expansion ports

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Networks
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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.

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Telecommunications

• Telecommunications is communicating over a
  telephone. In the telecommunications process,
  the modem converts digital signals to analog
  signals at the sending site and a second modem
  converts them back at the receiving site.
• For example, if you dialup to the Internet from
  your home, it is a kind of telecommuncation.

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Telecommunications
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The Internet

• The Internet is the worlds largest network.
• E-mail and the World Wide Web are two benefits of
  the Internet.

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The Internet

• A hyperlink is a place on a Web page allowing you
  to connect to a particular file.
• http//www.course.com/newperspectives

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The Internet

• A Web browser is
• the communications software that allows you to
  navigate the WWW.

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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.

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Software

• Software bridges the human beings world and
  machines world.
• Two levels
• Operating system software
• Application software

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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.

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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.

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• If you have a computer, then you must have heard
  of operating systems, since you are actually
  interacting with them everyday.

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• Any desktop or laptop PC that you buy normally
  comes pre-loaded Windows XP or its variants.
• Macintosh computers come pre-loaded with its
  proprietary operating system MAC OS X.
• Many corporate mainframe servers use the Linux or
  UNIX operating systems.

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• The operating system (OS) is the first thing
  loaded into a computers main memory to be run by
  CPU and is the most important program that runs
  on a computer.
• The "OS" performs basic tasks such as recognizing
  input from the keyboard, sending output to the
  display screen, keeping track of files and
  directories on the disk, and controlling
  peripheral devices such as disk drives and
  printers.
• It provides a stable, consistent way for
  applications to deal with the hardware without
  having to know all the details of the hardware.

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Functionalities of Operating System
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Application software

• Built upon system software, application oriented.
• Office 2003 suite (What we will learn!)
• Photoshop, photo processing software
• Winzip, a tool which can compress your file.
• Too many to list

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Office 2003 Application Software

• Enables you to perform specific tasks.
• Office 2003 suite software includes
• Document production software
• Spreadsheet software
• Database management software
• Graphics and presentation software
• Personal web page development
• An earlier version of Office 2003 is Office XP

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Application Software

• Document production software includes word
  processing, desktop publishing, and Web authoring
  software that assist you in writing and
  formatting documents.

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Application Software

• It often has grammar and spell-checking,
  thesaurus, search and replace, and template
  features.

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Application 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.

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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.

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Application Software

• Multimedia authoring software allows you to
  record digital sound files, video files, and
  animations that can be included in presentations
  and other documents.

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Application Software Integration

• 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.