Chapter 1

Computers and Digital Basics

1 Chapter Contents
 Section A: All Things Digital
Section B: Digital Devices
Section C: Digital Data Representation
Section D: Digital Processing
Section E: Password Security

Chapter 1: Computers and Digital Basics 2

1 A
SECTION

All Things Digital

The Digital Revolution
Convergence
Digital Society

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1 The Digital Revolution
The digital revolution is an ongoing process
of social, political, and economic change
brought about by digital technology, such as
computers and the Internet
A constellation of technologies, including
digital electronics, computers,
communications networks, the Web, and
digitization, are fueling the digital revolution

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1 The Digital Revolution
 Digital electronics use electronic circuits to
represent data
Today, digital electronic devices include computers,
portable media players such as iPods, digital
cameras and camcorders, cell phones, radios and
televisions, GPSs, DVD and CD players, e-book
readers, digital voice recorders, and arcade games

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1 The Digital Revolution

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1 The Digital Revolution
The second phase of the digital revolution
materialized when the Internet was opened
to public use
– E-mail
– Bulletin boards
– Chat groups
– Online social
networks

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1 The Digital Revolution
A computer network is a group of computers linked
by wired or wireless technology to share data and
resources
The Web is a collection of linked documents,
graphics, and sounds that can be accessed over
the Internet
Cyberspace is a term that refers to entities that
exist largely within computer networks
Digitization is the process of converting text,
numbers, sound, photos, and video into data that
can be processed by digital devices
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1 Convergence
Technological convergence is
a process by which several
technologies with distinct
functionalities evolve to form a
single product
Convergence tends to offer
enhanced functionality and
convenience

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1 Digital Society
Digital technologies and communications networks
make it easy to cross cultural and geographic
boundaries
Anonymous Internet sites, such as Freenet, and
anonymizer tools that cloak a person’s identity,
even make it possible to exercise freedom of
speech in situations where reprisals might repress it
Citizens of free societies have an expectation of
privacy
Intellectual property refers to the ownership of
certain types of information, ideas, or
representations

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1 Digital Society
Digital technology is an important factor in global
and national economies, in addition to affecting the
economic status of individuals
Globalization can be defined as the worldwide
economic interdependence of countries that occurs
as cross-border commerce increases and as money
flows more freely among countries
Individuals are affected by the digital divide, a term
that refers to the gap between people who have
access to technology and those who do not
Digital technology permeates the very core of
modern life

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1 B
SECTION

Digital Devices
Computer Basics
Personal Computers, Servers, Mainframes,
and Supercomputers
PDAs, Portable Players, and Smart Phones
Microcontrollers

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1 Computer Basics
 A computer is a multipurpose device that accepts input,
processes data, stores data, and produces output, all
according to a series of stored instructions

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1 Computer Basics
Computer input is whatever is typed,
submitted, or transmitted to a computer
system
Output is the result produced by a
computer
Data refers to the symbols that represent
facts, objects, and ideas
Computers manipulate data in many
ways, and this manipulation is called
processing
– Central Processing Unit (CPU)
– Microprocessor

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1 Computer Basics
Memory is an area of a computer that temporarily
holds data waiting to be processed, stored, or
output
Storage is the area where data can be left on a
permanent basis when it is not immediately needed
for processing
A file is a named collection of data that exists on a
storage medium
The series of instructions that tells a computer how
to carry out processing tasks is referred to as a
computer program
– Software

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1 Computer Basics
A stored program means that a series of
instructions for a computing task can be
loaded into a computer’s memory
– Allows you to switch between tasks
– Distinguishes a computer from other simpler
devices

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1 Computer Basics
Application software is a set of computer
programs that helps a person carry out a task
The primary purpose of system software is to
help the computer system monitor itself in
order to function efficiently
– Operating system (OS)

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1 Personal Computers, Servers,
Mainframes, and Supercomputers
A personal computer is a microprocessor-
based computing device designed to meet
the computing needs of an individual

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1 Personal Computers, Servers,
Mainframes, and Supercomputers
The term workstation has two meanings:
– An ordinary personal computer that is connected
to a network
– A powerful desktop computer used for high-
performance tasks

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1 Personal Computers, Servers,
Mainframes, and Supercomputers
A videogame console, such as
Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PlayStation,
or Microsoft’s Xbox, are not
generally referred to as personal
computers because of their history
as
dedicated game devices

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1 Personal Computers, Servers,
Mainframes, and Supercomputers
 The purpose of a server is to serve computers on a network
(such as the Internet or a home network) by supplying them
with data
 A mainframe computer (or simply a mainframe) is a large
and expensive computer capable of simultaneously
processing data for hundreds or thousands of users
 A computer falls into the supercomputer category if it is, at
the time of construction, one of the fastest computers in the
world
– A compute-intensive problem is one that requires massive amounts
of data to be processed using complex mathematical calculations

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1 Personal Computers, Servers,
Mainframes, and Supercomputers

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1 PDAs, Portable Players,
and Smart Phones
 A PDA (personal digital assistant) is a pocket-sized digital
appointment book with a small qwerty keyboard or a touch-
sensitive screen, designed to run on batteries and be used
while holding it
 A handheld computer is essentially a PDA enhanced with
features such as removable storage, e-mail, Web access, voice
communications, built-in camera, and GPS
 A smart phone, which in addition to voice communication,
includes features such as full qwerty keypad, text messaging,
e-mail, Web access, removable storage, camera, FM radio,
digital music player, and software options for games, financial
management, personal organizer, GPS, and maps
 iPods and similar devices are classified as portable media
players because their main strength is playing music, showing
videos, and storing photos

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1 PDAs, Portable Players,
and Smart Phones

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1 Microcontrollers
A microcontroller is a special-purpose
microprocessor that is built into the machine
it controls
Microcontrollers can be embedded in all
sorts of everyday devices

Chapter 1: Computers and Digital Basics 25

1 C
SECTION

Digital Data Representation

Data Representation Basics
Representing Numbers, Text, and Pictures
Quantifying Bits and Bytes
Circuits and Chips

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1 Data Representation
 Data representation refers to the form in which
data is stored, processed, and transmitted
Digital devices work with distinct and separate
data
Analog devices work with continuous data

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1 Representing Numbers, Text,
and Pictures
Numeric data
– Binary number system
Character data
– ASCII, Extended ASCII,
EBCDIC, and Unicode
Digitizing is the
process of converting
analog data into digital
format

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1 Data Representation

Chapter 1: Computers and Digital Basics 29

1 Quantifying Bits and Bytes

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1 Circuits and Chips
An integrated circuit (computer chip) is a
super-thin slice of semiconducting material
packed with microscopic circuit elements

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1 Circuits and Chips
The electronic
components of most
digital devices are
mounted on a circuit
board called a system
board

Chapter 1: Computers and Digital Basics 32

1 D
SECTION

Digital Processing
Programs and Instruction Sets
Processor Logic

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1 Programs and Instruction Sets
Computers, portable media players, handheld
computers, and smart phones all work with digital
data
Computer programmers create programs that
control digital devices. These programs are usually
written in a high-level programming language
The human-readable version of a program, like the
one above, created in a high-level language by a
programmer is called source code

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1 Programs and Instruction Sets

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1 Programs and Instruction Sets
An instruction set is a collection of
preprogrammed activities a microprocessor is
hardwired to perform
Each instruction has a corresponding
sequence of 0s and 1s
The end product is called machine code
– 1s and 0s

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1 Programs and Instruction Sets
An op code (short for operation code) is a
command word for an operation such as add,
compare, or jump
The operand for an instruction specifies the
data (or the address of the data) for the
operation
In the following instruction, the op code
means add and the operand is 1, so the
instruction means Add 1

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1 Programs and Instruction Sets

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1 Processor Logic
The ALU (arithmetic logic unit) is the part of the
microprocessor that performs arithmetic operations
The ALU uses registers to hold data that is being
processed
The microprocessor’s control unit fetches each
instruction, just as you get each ingredient out of a
cupboard or the refrigerator
The term instruction cycle refers to the process in
which a computer executes a single instruction

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1 Processor Logic

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1 Processor Logic

Chapter 1: Computers and Digital Basics 41

1 E
SECTION

Password Security
Authentication Protocols
Password Hacks
Password Security

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1 Authentication Protocols
Security experts use the term authentication
protocol to refer to any method that confirms a
person’s identity using something the person
knows, something the person possesses, or
something the person is
– A person can also be identified by biometrics, such as a
fingerprint, facial features (photo), or retinal pattern
– A user ID is a series of characters—letters and possibly
numbers or special symbols—that becomes a person’s
unique identifier
– A password is a series of characters that verifies a user
ID and guarantees that you are the person you claim to
be

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1 Authentication Protocols

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1 Password Hacks
When someone gains unauthorized access to your
personal data and uses it illegally, it is called identity
theft
Hackers can employ a whole range of ways to steal
passwords
A dictionary attack helps hackers guess your
password by stepping through a dictionary
containing thousands of the most commonly used
passwords
The brute force attack also uses password-cracking
software, but its range is much more extensive than
the dictionary attack

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1 Password Hacks
If hackers can’t guess a password, they can
use another technique called sniffing, which
intercepts information sent out over computer
networks
An even more sophisticated approach to
password theft is phishing
A keylogger is software that secretly records
a user’s keystrokes and sends the
information to a hacker

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1 Password Security

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1 Password Security
Strive to select a unique user ID that you can
use for more than one site
Maintain two or three tiers of passwords

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1 Password Security
A password manager is utility software that
generates secure passwords and stores
them along with user IDs and their
corresponding sites

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Chapter 1 Complete
Computers and Digital Basics