COMPUTER HARDWARE Two Major Components

Hardware is the most visible part of any 1. Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) –
information system; such as computers, executes the actual instructions. It
scanners and printers that is used to capture knows how to add or multiply numbers,
data compare data, or convert data into
Supercomputers – to denote the fastest different internal formats.
computing engines available at any given time 2. The Control Unit – housekeeping.
Mainframe computers – high-capacity Ensures that the instructions are
processing and data storage facilities processed on time, in the proper
Servers – large data storage capacities sequence, and operate on the correct
Workstations – high-level performance for data.
individual users Types of CPU’s
Personal computers – have a connected The CPU is an electronic device based
monitor, keyboard, and CPU on microchip technology; hence it is also often
Mobile devices – digital assistant or the latest called the microprocessor. It is truly the
generation of cellular telephones showcase and culmination of the state-of-the-
art in the electronics industry: a tiny silicon-
INPUT DEVICES based chip occupying less than 1 square cm
Keyboard – means a keyboard is displayed on contains several million transistor elements,
the monitor. QWERTY is designed to slow so measuring less than a thousandth of a
that the keys of the typewriter would not get millimeter across. They operate at speeds way
stuck beyond our comprehension: a typical CPU can
Magnetic card reader – reads the magnetized multiply more 7-digit numbers in one second
stripe on the back of plastic credit cards than a human could do in ten lifetimes, but uses
Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) – less energy than a light bulb!
for processing of cheques The best-known manufacturer is Intel,
Touch-tone devices – can use a voice telephone which produces microprocessors for the IBM-
to contact computer-based switchboards compatible personal computer (PC). Some of its
Digital cameras – to make pictures of physical competitors produce clones or imitations (e.g.
objects directly in a digital AMD), other manufacturers produce different
Biometric devices – to verify personal identity types of microprocessors or concentrate on
based on fingerprints, iris or retinal scanning, small volumes of highly specialized or very
hand geometry, facial characteristics fast microprocessors. Intel has produced a large
Voice-recognition – recently made a strong number of CPU types: the earliest model used in
entry into the market the Personal Computer was the 8088, followed
by the 8086, the 80286, then 386, 486, and the
POINTING DEVICES line of Pentium processors.
Computer mouse – an essential input device for
use with any graphical user interface
Touch screens – monitors that incorporate Von Neumann VS. Parallel CPU Archi
sensors on the screen panel itself Traditional computer – 1 single CPU; called the
Optical scanners – use light-emitting devices to Von Neumann architecture. He engineered this
illuminate the printing on paper approach to computers.
Parallel CPU Architecture – use only for
CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU) specialized applications such as weather
The real brain of the computer. It takes forecasting or fluid modeling.
specific program instructions, applies them to
the input data, and transforms the input into
output.
MAIN MEMORY objects that convey info, and represent actions
To provide temporary storage for that can be taken by the user.
instructions and data during the execution of a More user-friendly than a text-based command-
program. Known as Random Access Memory line interface.
(RAM). First developed at Xerox PARC by Alan Kay,
RAM – they double in capacity or power every Douglas Engelbart, and others in 1981.
18 months. The biggest advantage is that its Interface – physical device, port, or connection
contents are lost whenever the power is off. that interacts with the computer or other
Cache memory – ultra-fast memory that hardware device when referring to hardware.
operates at the speed of the CPU. It holds the Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) and SATA –
data and programs that are needed disk drive interfaces for computer hard drives
immediately by the CPU. ATAPI – an early interface for CD-ROM drives
Flash Memory – consist of special RAM within a Enhanced Small Disk Interface (ESDI) – the
tiny casing. It is non-volatile. It holds its drive can connect directly to the motherboard
contents even without power so it is useful as a or controller.
secondary storage. Enhanced IDE – common drive interfaces found
Read-Only Memory (ROM) – used to hold in IBM compatible computers.
program instructions that are unlikely to change IDE – visual tools that allow programmers to
during the lifetime of the compute. So-called develop programs more efficiently.
boot program: the instructions that the
computer must follow just after it has been SYSTEM SOFTWARE – designed to operate and
switched on to perform a self-diagnose and tell control the computer hardware and to provide
how to load the OS from secondary storage. a platform for running application software.
Programmable ROM - initially empty and can Operating Software (OS) – allows the parts of a
be custom-programmed once only using special computer to work together by performing tasks
equipment. like transferring data between memory and
Erasable PROM – like prom but using special disks or rendering output onto a display device,
equipment such as UV light gun, the memory runs high-level system and application software.
contents can be erased so that it can be re- Kernel – core part of the OS that defines an API
programmed. for applications programs and an interface to
Electrically EPROM – similar to EPROM but it device drivers.
can be re-programmed using special electronic Device drivers – provide basic functionality to
pulses rather than UV so special equipment is operate and control the hardware connected to
not required. or built into the computer.
User interface – allows user to interact with a
BINARY SYSTEM computer
Conversion of binary to decimal Utility software – to analyze, configure,
Decimal or Denary counting system use the optimize, and maintain the computer.
Base-10 where reach digit in a number takes on Anti-virus – scan for computer viruses
one of ten possible valuers, called digits, from 0 Archivers – single file when provided with a
to 9, example 21310 directory.
Backup software – can make copies of all info
COMPUTER INTERFACE stored on a disk and restore either the entire
Software – an interface is a program that allows disk or selected files.
a user to interact computers in person or over a Clipboard managers – expand the clipboard
network. Cryptographic utilities – encrypt and decrypt
Graphical User Interface (GUI) – system of streams and files
interactive visual components. It displays Data compression utilities – shorter stream or a
smaller file when provided with a stream of file
Data synchronization utilities – establish Boot loader – computer program that loads an
consistency among data from a source to a operating system for the computer after
target data storage and vice versa completion of the power-on self-tests. It is
File synchronization utilities – consistency loaded into main memory from persistent
between two sources, may be used to create memory, such as hard disk drive.
redundancy and to help users carry their digital Hibernating/Sleeping – doesn’t involve booting.
music. Boot – short for bootstrap (load). It calls
Revision control utilities – intended to deal attention to the requirement that some
with situations where more than one user mechanism must exist to load the initial
attempts to simultaneously modify the same software onto the computer.
file
Debuggers – used to test and debug other OPERATING SYSTEM (OS) – manages computer
programs, to solve programming errors. hardware and software resources and provides
Disk checkers – scan operating hard drive. common services for computer programs. It is
Disk cleaners – can find files that are an essential component of the system software
unnecessary to computer operation. in a computer system. It acts as an intermediary
Disk compression utilities – transparently between programs and the computer hardware.
compress/decompress the contents of a disk, Single-user OS – no facilities to distinguish users
increasing the capacity of the disk. but may allow multiple programs to run in
Disk defragmenters – can detect computer files tandem
whose contents are scattered across several Multi-user OS – extends the basic concept of
locations on the hard disk multi-tasking with facilities that identify
Disk partitions – divides an individual drive into processes and resources, and permits users to
multiple logical drive. interact with the system at the same time.
Disk space analyzers – the visualization of disk Distributed OS – manages a group of distinct
space usage by getting the size for each folder computers and makes them appear to be a
File managers – provide a convenient method single computer.
of performing routine data management tasks Templated OS – refers to creating a single
Hex editors – directly modify the text or data virtual machine image as a guest operating
Memory testers – check for memory failures system. It is both in visualization and cloud
Network utilities – analyze the computer’s computing management.
network connectivity Embedded OS – designed to operate on small
Package managers – used to configure other machines like PDAS with less autonomy. They
software on a computer are able to operate with a limited number of
Registry cleaners – clean and optimize the resources; very compact and extremely efficient
Windows Registry by removing old registry keys by design.
Screensavers – to prevent phosphor burn-in on Real-time OS – guaranties to process events or
CRT and plasma computer monitors by blanking data within a certain short amount of time. It
the screen or filling with moving images may be single or multi-tasking.
System monitor – monitoring resources and Alan Turning – master of this on the early
performance in a computer system Manchester Mark 1 machine, and he was
System profilers – detailed info about the already deriving the primitive conception of an
software installed and hardware attached to the OS from the principles of the universal Turing
computer machine.
Application software – allows users to do things
like create text documents, play games, listen to
music, or web browsers to surf the web.
Booting – initialization of a computerized
system.