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Lesson 2
Elements of Computer System

What is a Computer?

A computer is a machine that stores, retrieves and processes information,

or data. You can use a computer to type documents, send email, and browse the
internet. You can also use it to perform tasks such as accounting, database
management, presentations, games, and more.

Computers come in different shapes, forms, and sizes. Personal

computers are maybe the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear
about computer, like desktop or laptop computers. But aside from those, there
are also mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; supercomputers
which are sophisticated computers that do complex tasks such as predicting the
weather or artificial intelligence; and embedded systems like the ones you find
on self-driving cars or those that control other mechanical devices.

Elements of Computer System

A computer system is a system that consists of hardware, software and

people that are constituted to collect, manipulate, store, and process data into
information.

A. Hardware

Hardware are the physical computer equipment used in computer

systems. They can be categorized as input device, central processing unit,
storage device, and output device.

An input device is a
hardware that is used to
enter data into a
computer or a similar
processing device such as
a smartphone. Examples
are keyboard, mouse,
touchpad, joystick,
touchscreen, scanner,
microphone, and digital
camera.

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The central processing unit (CPU) is

the brain or heart of the computer. It does
all the processing, manipulating, or
conversion of data. It is also known as the
microprocessor.

A storage device is any physical device where data are stored. Examples
of storage devices include hard disk, DVDs, CDs, magnetic tape, Flash
drive/thumb drive/Flash memory (USB memory sticks). This is where your files
and data go to. There are two types of storage devices: primary storage, which
is the Random Access Memory or RAM, and the secondary storage such as flash
drives, CDs, hard disks and SD cards. Primary storage is volatile, which means
that it needs a continuous supply of electricity to store data. When you turn off
the computer the data stored in the device is lost. On the other hand, secondary
devices are non-volatile, which does not need the continuous supply of
electricity so that when you turn off your computer, the data or files will still be
in the device.

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An output device is the hardware that is used to output or reproduce data

that has been previously entered into a computer. For example, a printer is an
output device that will produce a page of information when the correct
commands are sent to it from a computer. Some examples include monitor,
printer, plotter, projector, speaker, headphones, light / LED.

B. Software

A computer
needs to be told what to
do, otherwise it is just a
physical entity doing
nothing. It needs a
software. Software are
the programming
instructions that tell
your computer what to
do. Software enables
you to use a computer
for things such as
playing games, writing
an essay or listening to
music. There are two main types of software. They are system software and
application software. The system software controls the way the computer works
and tells it what to do. This software is vital to the operation of the computer.
Without it, the computer simply would not work. Examples include operating
system, utilities, user interface.

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The other type of software is called application software. It is this type of

software that lets you do specific tasks such as creating documents,
communicating with people, playing games, and more. Some examples include,
word processors, e-spreadsheets, databases, games, web browser and more.
Unlike system software, the application software is not vital to the operation of
the computer. For example, a game is an application software that even without
it the computer will still work.

C. Peopleware

Peopleware can refer to anything that has to do with the role of using
and development of computer software and hardware systems. Some of these
roles are computer operators, system administrators, computer programmers,
and computer technician.
Computer operators are those who regularly use the computer. They use
the computers for specific tasks like creating documents and spreadsheets. They
are sometimes called the end users. Simply, these are anyone who use a
computer. If you are using your phone for something like watching a video, you
can call yourself a computer operator.
System administrator are those who manage computers in a corporate
group such as institutions, businesses, and organizations. They manage and
troubleshoot computers. They make sure that all computer systems are
operational and kept up-to-date. Let me give you an example that you can relate
to. If you have been in an internet café, or computer shop as others call it, the
ones who manages the computer shop does the role of a system administrators.
Computer programmers are those who create software. They encode the
instructions that tell the computer what to do which is called computer
programming. Instructions used by the programmers are called programming
languages. Generally, the position requires a degree in computer science or
other computer courses.
Computer technicians are those who focus on the troubleshooting and
fixing of the hardware element of computer systems. Sometimes system
administrators can take the role of technicians. But unlike the system admin,
technicians tend to focus more on fixing hardware.
Hackers, they acquire knowledge and mastery in almost all of the roles
above and take advantage of it in using the computer for unconventional tasks.
We will learn more about these in our succeeding lessons.

The Computer Language

Hi! Mabuhay! Konnichiwa! Hola! Annyeonghaseyo! Which language does

the computer understand? Not English, not Japanese, and not Filipino. The basic
foundation of the computer is the language that it uses to accept, process, store
and communicate data or information. This language is called the machine
language. Machine language is in the form of bits (short for binary digits). In its
basic form computer data is represented by two digits which are 0 and 1. So how

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does it process a simple “Hi”. We have looked in the previous lesson about the
forms of data. Every forms of data are represented by bits (0 and 1) in the
computer. Let us take a look at an example. In your devices, the word “Hi” is
represented by 01001000 01101001. You can take a look at the chart below and
try to figure out how it became 1s and 0s. This chart is derived from the ASCII
chart (American Standard Code for Information Interchange).

How are these bits stored in the computer? Those bits can be represented
by a state. What we mean by state is anything that has opposite value such as,
black/white, north/south(magnet’s polarity), on/off, etc. So, a simple “Hi” in a
hard disk are represented as either north or south polarity, since hard disks use
magnetic fields.
Images also use bits. Images are made up of pixels (short for picture
elements). Each pixel is a color of the image. A color is represented by bits. For
example, red is 11111111 00000000 00000000.
Optionally, if you wish to know more about this you can visit the following
links:
Binary Representation of Images - https://bit.ly/31ub8fs
Binary Representation of Sound - https://bit.ly/32r6n5P

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Learning Activity

The computer system

1. Identify at least one computer that you can find in your household.

2. Identify the input, output and storage devices of this. You may take a
picture of the device and label the input, output and storage devices.

Your Name in Binary

3. Write your first name in machine language or binary. Refer to the chart in
our lesson.

Module I FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY