Section 2 Systems technologies

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Section 2 Systems technologies

• Module 2.2
• Basic concepts of hardware

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The basic model of a computer
PROCESSING
INPUT
OUTPUT
STORAGE
COMMUNICATION
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Categories of hardware inside case
View all components you need to build you own PC
at e.g. http//www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/Getti
ng-Started-Building-Your-PC
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Motherboard

• What is the motherboard?
• Purpose the motherboard?
• Where do you find the motherboard?
• How do you fit the motherboard?

See a video how to install motherboard inside the
case e.g. http//www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/Ins
talling-The-Motherboard-Into-Your-Case
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CPU

• What is the role of the CPU?
• Where do you fit the CPU?
• Who manufactures CPUs for PCs?
• Who manufactures CPUs for smartphones and
  consumer tablets?
• What is the unit of measurement for the speed of
  a processor?
• What can be done to prevent damage from
  overheating?

See a video how to install CPU and fan e.g.
http//www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/Preparing-The
-Motherboard-And-CPU
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RAM Random Access Memory

• What is the role of RAM?
• Whys is the data transfer between RAM and CPU is
  fast?
• What is the effect when you increase RAM?
• How do you upgrade RAM?
• What does RAM is volatile mean?
• What limits the amount of RAM you can use?

Watch a video how to install memory e.g.
http//www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/Installing-Yo
ur-PCs-Memory
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Hard disk

• Physical composition of Hard Disk Drives.
• Storage is not electronic on HDD. Name the type
  of storage
• Why is the HDD slower than the RAM?
• Capacity and cost of storage on HDD.
• What will happen when you drop a hard drive while
  it is working?

• Two sides of the same hard drive.

View video on installing the hard drive e.g.
http//www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/Installing-Th
e-Hard-Drive
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Optical storage CD / DVD / Blu-ray

• How is data stored on optical drives?
• Which is slower, hard disk drives or CD drives?
• What is the storage capacity of CDs, DVDs and
  Blu-ray discs?
• How do you distinguish between CDs, DVDs and
  Blu-ray discs just by looking at it?

See how to install the CD/DVD drive at e.g.
http//www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/Installing-Th
e-Optical-Drive
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Solid State Drives

• How do Solid State Drives (SSDs) differ from HDDs
  and RAM?
• Which devices use SSDs?
• Which is faster, SSDs or RAM or HDDs or CDs?
• Comment on the cost and capacity of SSDs

Listen to a discussion on solid state hard drives
vs mechanical hard drives e.g. http//www.butters
cotch.com/show/Mechanical-Hard-Drives-Vs-Solid-Sta
te-Drives
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Ports and connectorsto connect peripherals
Adding extra storage using external drives is
simple, fast and easy
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USB

• Peripherals that can connect by using the USB
  ports.
• What can you do if you do not have enough USB
  ports?

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Firewire

• Where would you expect to find Firewire ports?
• Which is faster Thunderbolt, USB3, USB2, USB1
  or Firewire?

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Thunderbolt/ Lightpeak

• Launched in 2011.
• Available on all new Apple computers.
• Thunderbolt provides fastest external connection
  currently available.
• The connection supplies peripherals with 10 Watts
  of power and speeds of up to 10 Gb/s which can
  transfer a full-length HD movie in less than 30
  seconds or backup 1 year of continuous MP3
  playback in just over 10 minutes
  http//www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/thunderb
  olt/thunderbolt-technology-developer.html

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RJ45 to connect to cabled network
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Mini jacks for headphones and microphones
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Standard VGA connector
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Connect to Television
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Other connections
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Activity 1

• Do question 1 to 10 of activity 1

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Categories of hardware peripherals for input
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Keyboard

• Why do we say QWERTY keyboard?
• What can you do if you need a keyboard on a touch
  screen device?
• How do you connect a keyboard to the PC?

Input data is text or navigation or instructions
e.g. home and arrows and F1 for help
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Pointing devices

• Mouse actions
• How do Touchpads (trackpads) work?

Input the position and whether you click,
right-click, double-click, drag and scroll to
interact with the items on the screen, draw,
move, copy, etc.
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Microphone

• Discusss different type of microphones that are
  used by computers, smartphones and media tablets

Input the sound that can be recorded or the
computer can respond if it uses voice
recognition.
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Touch screen

• Name devices that use touchscreens
• Discuss the gestures to control the computer on
  touch screens

Capacitive touchscreens respond to fingers (or
things that conduct electricity)
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Game controllers

• Discuss specialised game controllers for the Xbox
  or PlayStations.
• Discuss the Wii motion sensitive controllers
• Discuss Microsoft Kinect for the Xbox users

Buttons on game controller provide options like
shooting and motion sensitive controllers or
cameras responds to your movement to play games
like tennis
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Camera

• How do you transfer photos and video to your
  computer?

Raw image files are sometimes called digital
negatives, as they are not directly usable as an
image, but has all of the information needed to
create an image.
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Scanners

• Types of scanners
• Flat bed scanners
• 3D scanners
• Bar-code scanners
• Magnetic strip scanners
• Biometric scanners
• How do you edit text after scanning a document?
• What is a QR code?

A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code)
is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional
code) that has become popular due to its fast
readability and comparatively large storage
capacity.
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Pen Tablet

• Discuss scenarios where the pen tablet (or the
  Tablet PC) will be most suitable and motivate
  your answers
• Discuss the unique characteristics of a pen
  tablet

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Other input devices

• Other input devices and where they are used, like
• buttons,
• scroll-wheels,
• toggle switches,
• rocker switches etc.

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Types of data input
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Text input

• Other ways to input text except for typing on the
  keyboard
• Batch scanning
• Barcodes
• Speech recognition

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Image input

• Devices you can use to input video/photos
• How do you connect these devices to the computer?

They really have made a car that can drive itself
in city traffic without causing
accidents http//www.youtube.com/watch?v-nYhKD8le
Ag
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Sound input

• Sound is most often simply recorded
• Discuss other ways in which sound input can be
  used, e.g. MIDI instruments, software to record
  and recognise sound patterns

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Sensor input

• There are also light sensors, gyroscopes,
  temperature sensors, etc. that allow devices to
  react to their environment in ways that were not
  possible before.
• Using the Scratch programming language you can
  easily create simple interactive programs based
  on the input from a light sensor, sound sensor, a
  button and a slider on a PicoBoard

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Activity 2 Input

• Answer question 1- 18 of Activity 2

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Categories of hardware peripherals for output
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Monitor or VDU

• Explain the meaning of VDU, LCD, LED, CRT.
• Monitors are typically classified according to
• Size
• Resolution
• Response time
• Connectors
• Contrast ratio

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Data projector

• How does a data projector work?
• Scenarios where a data projector will be suitable
• Compare with Smartboard

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Printers

• Explain hard copy and soft copy output.
• Why would a small business choose a
  multi-function device in stead of a simple
  printer?
• How do printers connect to computers?

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Main types of printers
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Speakers and headphones

• Two factors that determine the quality of the
  sound output.
• How to connect to electronic instruments and
  professional mixing boards, speakers ,
  headphones.
• Sound output can
• tell you when a task starts / completes
• make sounds when you click on an object
• to provide text-to-speech synthesizer.

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Activity 3

• Answer question 1- 10 activity 3

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Storage

• Disadvantages of optical disc drives (CD / DVD /
  Blu-ray)
• comparatively slow
• limited capacity
• expensive per GB compared to magnetic storage or
  even Solid State Disks (SSDs).
• easily damaged by being scratched or exposed to
  heat.
• comparatively large

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Flash drives

• Electronic storage.
• Faster than optical/magnetic storage.
• More expensive per GB than magnetic storage.
• Less likely to be damaged.
• High capacity range in size from 1 GB upwards.
• Small physical size.
• Power from the computer, through the USB port.

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Memory cards

• Digital cameras store their pictures on memory
  cards.
• Different types.
• Connect the camera to the computer with a cable
  (usually USB), or use a card reader.

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Portable hard drives

• Same magnetic media as internal hard drives.
• Connect via a USB, Firewire or Thunderbolt
  connection.
• Large capacity suited for backup.
• Two types
• 2.5" drives lower capacity and can run on the
  power that is supplied via the cable.
• 3.5" drives larger capacity but needs an extra
  power supply.

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Communication

• Modem (MOdulator DEModulator) was used to
  convert a computers digital data into analogue
  audio signals, and vice versa.
• Today data is transmitted digitally no
  conversion to analogue
• 3G modems
• ADSL modems
• Routers

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Activity 4

• Answer Question 1 to 9

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Smartphones versus computers
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Synchronising your phone and your computer

• Same data on more than one device - e.g.
  contacts in your e-mail address book and on your
  phone.
• If you edit the data on one device, the data on
  the other devices is out of date unless you
  synchronise the data between devices (i.e. make
  sure that each device has the latest copy of the
  data). Software needed
• DropBox - Cloud Syncing.

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Activity 5 Phone and computer

• Answer question 1 to 7 of Activity 5