Basic Concepts of I.T. Dr.

Richard Clark (IT + Web Support Trainer)

Staff Development Office – University of London [email protected]

1.1 What is a Computer?

A computer is a device that manipulates data according to a set of instructions (a

program). A computer can use many programs to carry out a wide range of useful
tasks.

A computer consists of two main elements: hardware and software.

• Hardware:
- Pieces of equipment that make up a computer system.

- These are the parts you can touch (although many parts are contained within
the computer’s case).

- Other parts/devices are connected to the computer (usually by

leads/connectors).

- These devices usually allow information (or data) to be entered (input) and
retrieved (output).

• Software:
- The instructions that a computer follows (from computer programs /
applications).

- Operating systems, office programs and games are examples of software.

- Software governs when and how various pieces of hardware can be put to a
variety of uses.

1.2 Types of computer.

There are many types of computer that are used for a variety of different needs.

• Mainframe

A mainframe is a large and powerful computer that is capable of serving a vast

number of users as the same time. Users do not sit down in front of the mainframe
itself, they connect to it using another smaller computer (or a dumb terminal). The
terminal consists simply of a keyboard and screen to enter and display information.
The terminal does not process or store any data itself.

Mainframes need to process and store information for many different users.
Therefore they require much more processing power and storage capacity than other
computers (they are generally faster and have more memory) and hence can be very
expensive.

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Basic Concepts of I.T. Dr. Richard Clark (IT + Web Support Trainer)
Staff Development Office – University of London [email protected]

A PC is often used as an intelligent terminal to connect to a mainframe or

minicomputer. The advantage of this over using a dumb terminal is that users can
process and store some information locally. This reduces the burden on the central
computer.

The main reason why the PC has become so popular for home and office uses is that
it is a versatile tool that can be used for a wide range of applications.

• Network Computer (NC)

A Network Computer (NC) is a low-cost version of the PC. NC’s are designed to
connect to and be managed by a central computer (i.e., a mainframe or
minicomputer). Every time the Network Computer is switched on (booted), it
retrieves the latest version of the software it needs from the central computer.
Therefore, components used to install and upgrade software (disk drive, CD-Rom etc)
are not required.

Network Computers tend to have slightly less processing power and storage capacity
than PC’s and are substantially less expensive. However, a Network Computer
cannot be used if it not connected to a central computer.

Network Computers tend to be used in call centres, help desks and data processing
departments where users do not require the flexibility of a PC – but instead need to
access centralised software and information. One main advantage is that when
software requires an upgrade, only the central computer is updated instead of having
to update each individual machine.

• Portable Computers (laptop, notebooks and palmtops)

A laptop computer (also often called a notebook) is a portable

computer designed to fit inside a briefcase. Most laptops are
approximately 12” (30 cm) wide by 9” (23 cm) deep by 2”
(5 cm) high.

Laptops have most of the features and components provided by PC’s and offer the
same level of flexibility in performing a wide range of tasks. However, the size of a
laptop makes it more costly to manufacture than a PC.

A palmtop computer is a hand-held device around 6” (15 cm) wide by 3” (8 cm) deep
and ¾” (2cm) high.

Palmtops do not have quite the same features and components as PC’s.
They are used mostly as personal organisers to store contact information,
to store lists and also for email/internet access.

Portable computers can be carried around easily and use a Liquid Crystal Display
(LCD) and special re-chargeable battery (which can last for many hours). Some units
can also work in extreme conditions (cold, underwater etc).

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Basic Concepts of I.T. Dr. Richard Clark (IT + Web Support Trainer)
Staff Development Office – University of London [email protected]

2.0 Computer Hardware

Theories of computing can be traced back some 300 years ago. Mathematicians and
philosophers like Pascal, Leibnitz, Babbage and Boole founded some of the
theoretical principles behind computing techniques. It was in the second half of this
century that science and technology sufficiently developed to allow practical use and
development of the earlier theories.

The modern PC uses the Von Neumann model, rooted back to the USA in the 1940s.
John von Neumann (1903-57) was a mathematician, born in Hungary. His basic
principles are still used in computer design today. The Von Neumann model describes
computer hardware in five primary elements: CPU, input, output, working memory
and permanent memory.

VDU (Visual Display Unit). Base Unit

Keyboard (Input)
Mouse (Input)

General Units of a Personal Computer (PC).

Memory
(working
memory)
Disk Drives
CPU (permanent
memory)
Ports

(Printer, Mouse,
Keyboard,Monitor)

Graphics Motherboard
Card.

Expansion
slots.

Inside a computer case (base unit).

PC’s are customisable as they use components that connect together to form the
whole ‘system’. You can add components for specific tasks (such as playing sound)
and choose more powerful and expensive parts to make a high-end (advanced
specification) PC. You can also specify less powerful and cheaper components for a
general style office PC.

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Basic Concepts of I.T. Dr. Richard Clark (IT + Web Support Trainer)
Staff Development Office – University of London [email protected]

• Base unit styles of a personal computer (PC).

Tower case: A tower-style base unit (case) is slightly larger than a

desktop PC. The tower case usually stands on a desk or
floor. Network servers are usually tower PCs as they
provide more room internally for extra devices.

Desktop case: A desktop-style base unit (case) is one that

usually sits flat on a desk. This style of base
unit does not have quite as much room as
the tower-style for expansion (i.e. adding
more internal devices).

2.1 Motherboard and CPU.

Motherboard: A motherboard is a large

printed circuit board with connections for other
components in a PC. The motherboard allows
the components to exchange data.

The type of motherboard determines the types

of CPU, memory and hard disk that can be
installed in a PC. The motherboard contains
several slots to plug expansion cards into.
These slots are referred to as:

o ISA: (Industry Standard Architecture) – Expansion cards used on older

PC’s. Not commonly found on newer PC’s, except to support “legacy”
cards when upgrading.
o PCI : (Peripheral Component Interconnect) – Standard expansions cards
used in new PC’s.
o AGP: (Accelerated Graphics Port) - High performance graphics cards.

ISA Card PCI Card AGP Card

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Basic Concepts of I.T. Dr. Richard Clark (IT + Web Support Trainer)
Staff Development Office – University of London [email protected]

CPU: The CPU, or Central Processing Unit, is the brains of the computer. All the
"thinking", calculating and processing is done by the CPU. The CPU is an advanced
microprocessor that performs calculations and determines what to do with the results.

The CPU is sent instructions by the computer’s software and can process many
millions of instructions per second. The results are passed to other components. The
speed at which the CPU operates can be the main factor influencing the overall
system performance. The CPU’s activities are co-ordinated by a clock that is used to
synchronise all internal processes. Each unit of time is called a cycle and speeds are
generally measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz).

1 megahertz = 1 million cycles per second.

1 gigahertz = 1000 megahertz.

The CPU also incorporates an Arithmetic Logic Unit (which performs the
calculations and logical operations within the computer) and a Control Unit (which
fetches, decodes and executes data from the memory).

There are three main manufacturers of CPU’s – Intel (Pentium and Celeron CPU’s),
AMD (K6, Athlon and Duron CPU’s) and Motorola (Apple Mac CPU’s). Each
manufacturer releases faster and improved CPU’s fairly often. At the time or writing
this document, entry-level CPU’s range from 1 GHz to 3.5 GHz.

Because a CPU runs more quickly than other components, immediate access
memory (cache) is usually incorporated as a buffer to maintain a consistent flow of
the data to and from the CPU. The CPU also requires a fan to keep it cool while the
computer is on (as CPU’s often generate quite a lot of heat).

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Basic Concepts of I.T. Dr. Richard Clark (IT + Web Support Trainer)
Staff Development Office – University of London [email protected]

2.2 Input devices.

An input device is any device that is used to supply information to a computer (as data
or for the selection of commands/menus/icons etc).
Keyboard: This is used to input/enter data into a computer.
With a keyboard, you can enter commands, select menu options
and enter data/values into applications (software).

Mouse: The mouse is used to point and click on

items/icons/menu’s on the screen. When you move the mouse, a
pointer on the screen also moves. If you press the mouse button
while the pointer is on certain icons or buttons, you can activate
commands or program options.

Light pen: A special pen that lets you draw directly onto the
screen, or click on buttons and menus.

Touch screen: Similar to an ordinary TV screen. Has a thin,

transparent layer of plastic covering that is touch-sensitive. When
you touch a part of the screen, it has the same effect as if you
clicked on that area with a mouse.

Joystick: A hand-held stick that can be moved around in any

direction. Used mainly for playing games (i.e, flight simulators
etc).

Touchpad: Often used on laptops. With a touchpad, you can

move the mouse cursor on the screen by touching the pad and
moving your finger around. The two buttons, on the touch pad,
simulate the use of the left and right buttons on a mouse.

Trackerball: Instead of using a mouse, you can also use a

trackerball. The trackerball generally provides the same
functionality as a mouse, however, you do not have to move the
unit up/down/left/right etc to move the mouse pointer. Instead,
you can use your thumb on the roller-ball to move the cursor on
the screen.

Graphics Pad: This is a square piece of material that you can use
to draw pictures (as a mouse is not always practical for drawing
complicated lines and shapes).

Scanner: Used to scan images/documents into a computer. Can

be flatbed or hand-held. Also used for Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) and to scan microfilm/transparencies and
negatives.

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Basic Concepts of I.T. Dr. Richard Clark (IT + Web Support Trainer)
Staff Development Office – University of London [email protected]

2.3 Output devices (VDU/Monitors).

With modern software, the screen display can be the most important interface with the
user. Nearly all commands are issued using a keyboard and/or mouse (including a
trackerball/touchpad etc).

Displaying data on-screen requires a graphics card (such as an

AGP supported card described earlier) and a Visual Display Unit
(VDU).
AGP Card

VDU (also known as a Monitor): The screen/monitor/visual display unit is the part
of the computer that displays the current process or application (i.e., what’s going on
and what you are doing).

There are several types of VDU such as the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) and Flat
Screen/LCD style. CRT’s are cheaper but take up more desktop space whereas Flat
Screen/LCD styles take up less room, often display a much sharper screen but are
generally much more expensive.

CRT Flat Screen

Monitors often vary in size from 14” to 21” (30 – 60 cm). A

larger screen can display images at a higher resolution. The Horizontal
screen image is made up of pixels (a ‘dot’ or ‘point’ on the Resolution
screen display). The screen resolution is defined by the Vertical
maximum number of pixels displayed horizontally and Resolution
vertically. Most monitors can support a number of screen
resolutions such as 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768,
1280 x 1024 etc where the size n x n denotes the number of
pixels in width x height respectively.

The higher the screen resolution, the more graphical information you will be able to
fit on the screen (and objects will look smaller and sharper). Very high resolutions
(1024 x 768 and above) are often used for CAD (Computer Aided Design) tasks to
ensure an accurate representation of drawing objects.

A monitor should also have a sufficient refresh rate at the selected resolutions. The
refresh rate is the frequency with which an image is redrawn. If the refresh rate is set
too low, the image will appear to flicker and may cause eye strain and headaches.

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Basic Concepts of I.T. Dr. Richard Clark (IT + Web Support Trainer)
Staff Development Office – University of London [email protected]

2.4 Output Devices (Printers).

Printers are used to transfer information from the computer onto paper. For example,
if you typed a letter in a word processor, you could print out a paper copy to send.
There are many different types of printers (presented below).

Laser: These are large, expensive printers that work like a

photocopier. They usually have very high quality printouts and can
print very fast.

Inkjet and Bubble-Jet: These are smaller, cheaper printers that use
a little cartridge to spray a jet of ink onto the paper. They are fairly
quiet and of good quality, but are not as fast or produce such high
quality output as a laser printer. These printers are sometimes
known as line printers because they print each page one line at a
time.

Dot matrix/impact: An older type of printer that uses a ribbon and a

print head, like a typewriter. They are very loud and extremely
slow. However, they are very much cheaper.

Plotter: This is a special type of printer that draws pictures based on

commands from a computer. They are used by engineers and
designers who need to draw complicated diagrams (in conjunction
with CAD – Computer Aided Design – software).

2.5 Storage.

A PC processes the data in streams of bits (the smallest component of computer data).
Each bit can be in one of two states: 1 or 0 (on and off). These states are known as
binary digits.

Bits are combined in sets of eight to form a byte. Bytes are used to represent data
such as characters – for example, 01000001 is the character ‘A’ in binary code.
Binary codes are also used for instructions.

Further units used to measure data are called kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes.

A kilobyte (KB) is 1024 bytes. The size of files stored on your computer is often
measured in kilobytes.

A megabyte (MB) is 1,048,576 bytes (1024 kilobytes). MB’s are often used to
measure the storage capacity of a disk or the amount of main memory in a computer
system. As an example, 1MB is approximately 5000 pages of double-spaced text.

A gigabyte (GB) is 1,024 megabyte’s. Devices such as hard drives are often
measured in gigabytes.

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Basic Concepts of I.T. Dr. Richard Clark (IT + Web Support Trainer)
Staff Development Office – University of London [email protected]

Kilobytes (size of a file). 60,096 KB = 68MB’s

Examples of file sizes.

Often you will also see hardware and software described

as supporting a certain number of bits. These numbers
refer to how much information the hardware or software
can process at any one time. For example, newer 64-bit
processors can process 64 bits of data in each clock
cycle.

• Memory
Volatile: This type of memory loses all its data when the PC is turned off. RAM is
volatile memory.

Non-volatile: This type of memory keeps the data it contains even when the PC is
switched off.

ROM (Read Only Memory): This is a special type of memory which contains all the
information the computer needs to switch itself on, check that all its systems are
working and to tell the PC what things are plugged into it. It cannot be changed or
overwritten by you, and stays the same even when the PC is switched off. An
example of ROM on a PC is the BIOS software (Basic Input Output System) that
enables the computer to start up and allows components to communicate with each
other.

RAM (Random Access Memory): Random access memory is used in a PC to

temporarily store data when you are using applications. RAM is also used to store
program instructions and feed information to the CPU to process. RAM is not
permanent, when you switch off the PC (or shut down), the contents of RAM are lost
or emptied. There are two main uses of RAM in a computer system. These are main
memory and cache.

Main memory (or system memory): Main memory is the largest amount of RAM
installed on the motherboard of a PC. It is used to run software applications and
temporarily store data that is entered by the user. Every piece of software needs a
certain amount of main memory to operate efficiently.

Cache: Cache is a very fast type of RAM directly attached to particular components
such as the CPU, hard disk or graphics card. Cache enables an amount of data to be
copied from the main memory so the component can access it more quickly. Cache
balances the ability of relatively slow components (disk drives) to keep fast
components (CPU) supplied with a constant stream of data.

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Basic Concepts of I.T. Dr. Richard Clark (IT + Web Support Trainer)
Staff Development Office – University of London [email protected]

• Disk Storage Devices

Disk drives are used to store and transfer data files. After data is entered into a
computer, is must be saved as a file to preserve its contents after the computer is
switched off.

A software application must also install files onto the main disk drive in order to run
when the user requests its use.

Hard disk: Usually fixed inside the computer and stores large
volumes of data, which can be accessed and retrieved quickly. The
seek time of a hard disk is much lower and the transfer rate much
higher than any other type of disk drive.

The drive consists of a number of rigid magnetic disks in a

protective casing. Data is recorded magnetically onto concentric
circular tracks that are divided into a number of sectors. An arm
moves over the surface of the disk to read the data. At the time of
writing this document, hard disk sizes range from 40GB to 180GB
for a standard desktop PC.

Floppy disk drive: A floppy disk drive is like a hard disk, but with
removable disks called floppies, floppy disks or diskettes. Floppies
can be used to transfer small files from one PC to another (up to
1.4MB). Older floppies really were floppy, as they came in soft
plastic or card cases. Today's floppies are a bit more sturdy,
although the disk itself is very floppy and wobbly (which is why it
is housed in a strong plastic case).

Floppy disks are used when you need to transfer a small file from
one PC to another. Some drives support 120MB floppy disks
(super disks) but these drives are more expensive and the diskettes
cannot be read in a standard floppy drive.

ZIP/JAZ drives are another type of floppy drive that

use special disks instead of floppy disks. Zip disks can
hold about 100 times as much as a floppy disk. JAZ
disks can hold much more data. Currently, ZIP and JAZ
disks range from 100MB diskettes to around 2GB’s.

CD-ROM/DVD-ROM Drive: CD-ROM (Compact Disk – Read

Only Memory) drives read data from CD’s that can hold up to
800MB’s of data (standard sizes are 650MB’s and 700MB’s).
DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disk) drives can store up to
17 gigabytes of data and are designed for video and multimedia
applications. Modern PC’s are often fitted with DVD-ROM drives
as these drives can also read standard CD’s.

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