Computer Hardware

● OBJECTIVES
1. Identify the essential hardware components of computer

2. List key peripherals attached to most computers

3. Describe the four basic operations of the central processing unit (CPU)

4. Explain how power is measured for computers

5. Described common computer input, output, and storage devices

6. List the name six types of computers and describe how they different

7. Describe computer network hardware and their functions

● KEY WORDS
CPU (central processing unit)

Motherboard

Memory

Peripherals

Hardware

INTRODUCTION
Computer hardware is defined as all of the physical components of a computer. A computer us a
machine that uses electronic components and instructions to the components to perform calculation,
repetitive and signals. Computer technology has evolved from huge, room-sized electronic calculators
developed with military funding during World War II to palm sized machines available to virtually
everybody. Today, computers are encountered in most areas of people’s lives. From the grocery stores
and the movie theater to the power grid, from the bedside alarm clock to the automobile accelerator,
and from infusion pumps to heart monitors, patient record systems, radiology machines, diagnostic
devices, order processing systems, and all kinds of machines in the operating room, computer
processors are employed so widely today’s society could not function without them.

The basic hardware of a computer composes the computer’s architecture, and includes the
electronic circuits, microchips, processors, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM),
and graphic and sound cards. These are attached to a component called motherboard. The motherboard
is a square or rectangular board with circuits into which are plugged the main electronics of the
computer. Devices that may be inside the computer case but are not part of the architecture include the
main storage device, which is usually an internal drive, the cooling system, a modem, Ethernet
connectors, and multiformat media card readers. In addition, devices attached or linked to a computer
that are peripheral to the main computer box are part of the system’s hardware. These include input
and output devices including the keyboard, touch screen, mouse, printer, and fax. The storage
components are external hard drive, thumb drives, floppy drives, tape drives, tape drivers, sound
systems (earphones, microphones, speakers, subwoofers), and the computer monitor. Typically,
computer systems are composed of many different components that enable the user to communicate
with the computer, and with other computers to produce work. The group of required and optional
hardware items that ae linked together to make up a computer system is called its configuration. When
computers are sold, many of the key components are placed inside a rigid plastic housing or case, which
is called box. What can typically be seen from outside is the box (Fig2.1) containing the internal
components, and the peripheral such as a keyboard, mouse, speaker and the printer.

REQUIRED HARDWARE COMPONENTS OF A

COMPUTER
A computer has four basic components, although most have many more add-on components. At
its most basic, a computer must consist of CPU, input and output controllers, and storage media. The
motherboard’s storage media is called memory. Memory includes the locations of the computer’s
internal or main working storage. Memory consists of registers (a small number of very high speed
memory location), Ram, which is the main storage area in which the computers places the programs and
data it is working on, and cache (a small memory storage area holding recently accessed data).

Memory refers to the electronic storage devices or chips on the motherboard of a computer. There are
three key types of memory in a computer. They are read-only memory (ROM), the main memory known
as a random access memory (RAM), and cache.

Read-Only Memory. Read-only memory (ROM) is a form of permanent storage in the computer. It
carries instructions that allow the computer to be booted (started), and other essential machine
instructions. Its programming is stored by the manufacturer and cannot be changed by the user. This
means that data and programs in ROM can only be read by the computer, and cannot be erased or
altered by users.

Random Access Memory. Random access memory (RAM) refers to working memory used for primary
storage. It is used as temporary storage. Also known as main memory, RAM can be accessed, used,
changed, and written on repeatedly. RAM is the work area available to the CPU for all processing
applications. When a user clicks on a program icon, such as a word processing program, the computer
loads all or part of the program into RAM where it can be accessed very quickly. It saves work done
through the programs until the user formally saves the work on the hard drive or other permanent
storage. RAM is a permanent part of the computer. Because everything in RAM unloads (is lost) when
the computer is turned off, RAM is called volatile memory.
Cache. Cache is a smaller form of RAM. Purpose is to speed up processing by storing frequently called
items in a small, rapid access memory location. To understand how cache works, think of a surgical
nursing unit. Prior to the 1980s, many hospitals did not have many volumetric pumps, and all were kept
in the central supply (CS) department-usually far away in the basement.

Input and Output

Input Devices. These devices allow the computer to receive information from the outside world.
keyboard and mouse. The most common input devices are the keyboard and mouse. Others commonly
seen on nursing workstations include the touch screen, light pen, voice, and scanner. A touch screen is
actually both an input and output device combined. Electronics allow the computer to "sense" when a
particular part of the screen is pressed or touched. In this way, user input information into computer.
The touch screen displays information back to the user, just as does any computer monitor. A light pen
is a device attached to the computer that has special software that allows the computer to sense when
the light pen is focused on a particular part of the screen. It allows smaller screen location discrimination
than does a touch screen. For both the touch screen and light pen, software interprets the meaning of
the user-identified screen location to the program. Many other input devices exist. Some devices are
used for security and can detect users’ fingerprints, retinal prints, voiceprints, or other personally
unique physical characteristics that identify users who have clearance to use the system. In healthcare
computing, many medical devices serve as input devices. For example, the electrodes placed on a
patient’s body provide input to the computerized physiologic monitors. The oximetry device placed in a
patient’s finger uses light waves to detect impulses that are sent to a computer and the interpreted as
oxygen levels in the blood. Voice system allow the nurses to speak into a microphone (which is input
device) to record data, submit laboratory orders, or request information from the computer. In
radiology, most machines today input images from the X-Ray machines to a computer rather than
storing them on film. In fact, the most advanced imaging machine could not exist without computer
technology. Computerized axial tomography (CAT) scans and medical resonance imaging (MRI) machines
are the best-known computerized imaging devices, but most of the radiology applications today are
computerized.

Output Devices. These devices allow the computer to report its results to the external world. Output
devices are defined as any equipment that translates the computer information into something readable
by people or other machines. Output can be in the form of text, data files, sound, graphics, or signals to
other devices. The most obvious output devices are the monitor (display screen) and printer. Other
commonly used output devices include storage devices such as the USB drive (also known as flash or
thumb drive) and optical media. In healthcare settings a variety of medical devices serve as output
devices. Heart monitors are outputs devices recording and displaying heart rhythm patterns, and
initiating alarms when certain condition are met. Volumetric infusion pump output includes both images
on a screen and fluids infused into the patient’s body. The pump delivers a specific volume of IV fluids
based on commands that the nurse inputs so the ordered fluid volume will be infused in the correct
time period.
Storage Media. Storage includes the main memory but also external devices on which programs and
data are stored. The most common storage device is the computer's hard drive. Other common media
include external hard drives, flash drives, and read/write digital versatile disks (DVDs) and compact disks
(CDs). The hard drive and diskettes are magnetic storage media. DVDs and CD-ROMs are a form of
optical storage. Optical media are read by a laser "eye" rather than a magnet.

Hard Drive. The hard drive is a peripheral device that has very high speed and high density (Fig. 2.4).
That is, it is a very fast means of storing and retrieving data as well as having a large storage capacity
compared with other types of storage. The hard drive is the main storage device of a computer. In small
computers, typically the inside of the case or box houses the CPR and other internal hardware. Internal
hard drives are not portable; they are plugged directly into the motherboard. The storage capacity every
few years. In 2014, most personal computers (PCs) are sold with about a terabyte of storage; in 1990
PCs had about 500 megabytes (MB) of storage capacity (Table 2.1). That is approximately a 2100%
increase. On the biggest computers, storage is measured in petabytes which is an almost unimaginably
huge number.

USB Flash Drive. With the rise demands for higher and higher density transportable storage, the
popularity of the USB disk has also risen. A USB flash drive is actually a form of a small, removable hard
drive that is inserted into the USB port of the computer. The USB drive is also known as pen drive, jump
drive, thistle drive, pocket drive and so forth. This is a device that can store 4 gigabytes (GB) of data for
about $10. Flash drives can be very tiny—only about ½ in. by 1 in. in some cases. They can be also be
much bigger and can store 128 GB or more data.

The flash drive is highly reliable and small enough to carry comfortably in a pants pocket or on a
lanyard as a necklace, or on one’s keychain. The device plugs into one of the computer box’s USB ports
and instead of saving to hard drive or CD-ROM or disk, the user simply saves to the flash drive. Since the
flash drive can store so much data in a package so much smaller than a CD or DVD, the convenience
makes it worth a slightly higher price to many users. Of course, as its popularity increases, it drops

Optical Media. Optical media include CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray. CD-ROM and DVDs are rigid disks that hold
a higher density of information and have higher speed. Until the late 1990s, CD-ROMs were strictly input
devices. They were designed to store sound and data, and held about 737 MB of information (see Table
2.1), and large laser writers were required to store data on them.

Other Storage Devices. As computers became more dard in offices during the 1990s, more and more
corporate and individual information was stored solely on computers.. Even when hard copy backups
were kept, Joss of information on the hard drive was usualLy inconvenient at the least and a disaster at
worst. Diskette'. could not store large amounts of data, no people began to search for economical and
speedy ways to back up the information on their hard drive. Zip drives, which were mini magnetic tape
devices, were a form of relatively fast (in their time) backup storage for people's data. Thumb (USB) and
external hard drives were faster than tape media and replaced it as the backup media of choice. Today,
many people purchase services that allow them to back up their data online, which means it gets stored
on commercial computers that themselves have backup facilities.
Cloud Storage. An extension of the online storage service offered by individual vendors is cloud storage.
Data stored "in the cloud" are still stored on commercial computers called servers. However, "cloud"
refers to a distributed system of many commercial, networked servers that communicate through the
Internet, and work together so closely that they can essentially function as one large system. Physically,
enormous numbers of servers that store data are located in buildings, many warehouse sized. These
data storage sites are called data centers. Multiple data centers are linked together to create cloud
storage. The advantage to the customer is safety of the stored data.