EAST AFRICA UNIVERSITY

Faculty of information Technology

Course: Computer introduction
Academic Year:2024/2025
Lecture: Osman Harare

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 Chapter One

What Is A Computer?
A computer is an electronic device, operating
under the control of instructions
(Hardware): is a term that refers to all of
the tangible and physical components of a
computer (software) stored in its own
memory unit, that can accept data (input),
manipulate data (process), and produce
information (output) from the processing.
Generally, the term is used to describe a
collection of devices that function together as
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a system.

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 Devices that comprise a computer system
Monitor Speaker
(output) (output) System unit
(processor, memory…)

Printer
(output)

Storage devices
(CD-RW, Floppy,
Hard disk, zip,…)
Mouse
(input)
Scanner Keyboard
(input) (input)

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What Does A Computer Do?

Computers can perform four general

operations, which comprise the information
processing cycle.

◼ Input
◼ Process
◼ Output
◼ Storage

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What Do Computers Do?
◼ Input, Process, Output, & Store
data

Input Process Output

Store Data

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 Data and Information
◼ All computer processing requires data, which is a collection of
raw facts, figures and symbols, such as numbers, words, images,
video and sound, given to the computer during the input phase.
◼ Computers manipulate data to create information. Information
is data that is organized, meaningful, and useful.
◼ During the output Phase, the information that has been created
is put into some form, such as a printed report.
◼ The information can also be put in computer storage for future
use.

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 Why Is A Computer So Powerful?
◼ The ability to perform the information
processing cycle with amazing speed.
◼ Reliability (low failure rate).
◼ Accuracy.
◼ Ability to store huge amounts of data and
information.
◼ Ability to communicate with other computers.

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 How Does a Computer Know
what to do?
◼ It must be given a detailed list of instructions,
called a compute program or software,
that tells it exactly what to do.
◼ Before processing a specific job, the
computer program corresponding to that job
must be stored in memory.
◼ Once the program is stored in memory the
compute can start the operation by executing
the program instructions one after the other.
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 What Are The Primary
Components Of A Computer ?
◼ Input devices.
◼ Central Processing Unit
(containing the control
unit and the
arithmetic/logic unit).
◼ Memory.
◼ Output devices.
◼ Storage devices.

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 Uses of Computer

PC at Home
Common uses for the computer within the home
◼ Computer games
◼ Working from Home
◼ Banking from Home
◼ Connecting to the Web

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 Uses of Computer

Office Applications
Stock Control
Stock control is ideal for automation and in many
companies it is now completely computerized. The
stock control system keeps track of the number of
items in stock and can automatically order
replacement items when required.
Accounts / Payroll
In most large organizations the accounts are
maintained by a computerized system. Due to the
repetitive nature of accounts a computer system is
ideally suited to this task and accuracy is
guaranteed.
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Uses of Computer

Automated Production Systems

Many car factories are almost completely automated and
the cars are assembled by computer-controlled robots. This
automation is becoming increasingly common throughout
industry.
Design Systems
Many products are designed using CAD (Computer Aided
Design) programs to produce exact specifications and
detailed drawings on the computer before producing
models of new products.

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Uses of Computer

Computers in Daily Life

◼ Accounts

◼ Games

◼ Educational

◼ On-line banking

◼ Smart ID cards

◼ Supermarkets

◼ Working from home (Tele-working)

◼ Internet
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 CHAPTER TWO
Types of Computers

Types of Computers

Microcomputer Minicomputer Mainframe Supercomputer

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Microcomputer
◼ Can be classified into:
◼ Desktop PCs
◼ sits on desks, rarely moved, large and bulky.
◼ Memory capacity, graphics capacity and
software availability vary from one computer to
another Used both for business and home
applications

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Microcomputer
◼ Portable PCs
◼ Can be moved easily from place to place
◼ Weight may varies
◼ Small PCs are popular known as laptop
◼ Widely used by students, scientist, reporters,
etc

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 Microcomputer Model
Desktop Laptop Notebook

Subnotebook Palmtop

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Microcomputer
◼ Advantages
◼ Small size
◼ Low cost
◼ Portability
◼ Low Computing Power
◼ Commonly used for personal applications
◼ Disadvantages
◼ Low processing speed
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Uses of Microcomputer
◼ Word Processing
◼ Home entertainment
◼ Home banking
◼ Printing
◼ Surfing the internet
◼ etc

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Minicomputer
◼ Medium sized computer
◼ Also called the minis
◼ e.g. IBM36, HP9000, etc
◼ Computing power lies between
microcomputer and mainframe
computer

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MiniComputer
◼ Characteristics
◼ Bigger size than PCs
◼ Expensive than PCs
◼ Multi-User
◼ Difficult to use
◼ More computing power than PCs
◼ Used by medium sized business organizations,
colleges, libraries and banks.

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Uses of Minicomputer
◼ Control of Automated Teller Machine
(ATMs)
◼ Payroll
◼ Hospital patients registration
◼ Inventory Control for supermarket
◼ Insurance claims processing
◼ Small bank accounting and customer
details tracking
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Minicomputer
◼ Advantage
◼ Cater to multiple users
◼ Lower costs than mainframes
◼ Disadvantage
◼ Large
◼ Bulky

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Mainframe

◼ Known as enterprise
servers
◼ Occupies entire rooms or
floors
◼ Used for centralized
computing
◼ Serve distributed users and
small servers in a computing
network

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 Main Frame
◼ Large, fast and expensive computer
◼ Cost millions of dollar
◼ e.g. IBM3091, ICL39, etc
◼ Characteristics:
◼ Bigger in size than minicomputers
◼ Very expensive
◼ Support a few hundred users simultaneously (Multi-Users)
◼ Difficult to use
◼ More computing power than minicomputers
◼ Have to be kept in a special air-conditioned room
◼ Used in big business organizations and government
departments
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 Areas where mainframes are used
◼ Airline reservation
◼ Big banks with hundreds of branches located all over
the world
◼ Big universities with thousands of enrollment
◼ Natural gas and oil exploration companies
◼ Space Vehicle control
◼ Weather forecasting
◼ Animated Cartoon
◼ Some mainframes are designed to be extremely fast
and called super computers. It is used for space
launching, monitoring and controlling.
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Mainframe
◼ Advantage
◼ Supports many users and instructions
◼ Large memory
◼ Disadvantage
◼ Huge size
◼ Expensive

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Supercomputer

◼ Fastest and expensive

◼ Used by applications for
molecular chemistry, nuclear
research, weather reports,
and advanced physics
◼ Consists of several computers
that work in parallel as a
single system

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Super Computer

◼ Advantage
◼ Speed

◼ Disadvantage
◼ Generate a large

amount of heat
during operation

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 CHAPTER THREE
Computer System
A computer system consists of three primary
units:
Input units – accept data
Processor unit – processes data by performing
comparisons and calculations
Output units – present the results

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 COMPUTER SYSTEM
MONITOR

PROCESSOR

KEYBOARD

Storage
devices

PRINTER
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 Input Devices
Data are facts, numbers and characters that are
entered into the computer via keyboard.
Other types of input devices are mouse,
joystick, light pens, scanners, camera, etc.

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Computer Input Devices

◼ Keyboard ◼ Touch screen

◼ Mouse/Trackball ◼ Bar code reader
◼ Joystick ◼ Scanner
◼ Light pen ◼ Microphone
◼ Pointing Stick ◼ Graphics Tablet
◼ Touchpad ◼ Digital Cameras

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 Processor Unit
Two main parts:
CPU – where the actual processing
takes place; and
Main memory – where data are
stored.
The contents of main memory can be
transferred to auxiliary storage devices
such as hard disks, floppy diskettes, zip
disks, compact disks, or USB flash disk.

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 Central Processing Unit

The microprocessor, the brains of the

computer. Referred to a CPU or
processor

Housed on a tiny silicon chip

Chip contains millions of switches and

pathways that help your computer
make important decisions.
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 CPU knows which switches to turn on
and which to turn off because it
receives its instructions from
computer programs (software).

CPU has two primary sections:

Arithmetic/logic unit
Control unit
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Arithmetic/logic unit (ALU):
- Performs arithmetic computations and
logical operations; by combining these two
operations the ALU can execute complex
tasks.
- Arithmetic operations include addition,
subtractions, multiplication, and division.
- Logical operations involve
comparisons.
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Control Unit: is the “boss” and
coordinates all of the CPU’s activities.
Uses programming instructions, it
controls the flow of information through
the processor by controlling what
happens inside the processor.
We communicate with the computer
through programming languages.
Examples: COBOL, C++,
HTML, Java Script or
VisualBasic.net
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 Memory
Found on the motherboard

❑ Short term

Random Access Memory (RAM)

❑ Long term

Read Only Memory (ROM)

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Random Access Memory (RAM)

Memory on the motherboard that is short

term; where data, information, and
program instructions are stored
temporarily on a RAM chip or a set of RAM
chips. Known as the main memory.
This memory is considered volatile.
The computer can read from
and write to RAM.
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When the computer is turned off or if
there is loss of power, what ever is
stored in RAM disappears.

“Temporary Memory” – Short Term

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Read-Only Memory (ROM)
Memory on the motherboard that is
long term; where the specific
instructions that are needed for the
computer to operate are stored.
This memory is nonvolatile and
your computer can only read from
a ROM chip.

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The instructions remain on the chip
regardless if the power is turned on
or off.
Most common is the BIOS ROM;
where the computer uses instructions
contained on this chip to boot or
start the system when you turn on
your computer.

“Permanent Memory” – Long

Term
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Output Unit
After the data has been
processed, the results are output
in the form of useful information.
Output units such as monitors
and printers make the result
accessible for use by people.

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 Computer Output Devices

Monitor: screen that Speakers: allow you

display information such to hear voice,
music, and other
as text, numbers, and
sounds from your
pictures-softcopy. computer.
Printer: gives you Modem: allows you
information from the to use your
computer in printed form computer to
– hardcopy. communicate with
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other computers.

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Input Devices
◼ Keyboard.
◼ Mouse.

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 Chapter four

The Parts of a Computer System

• A complete computer system includes four distinct

parts:

Hardware
Software
Firmware
User

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◼ A computer's hardware consists of electronic
devices; the parts you can see and touch.

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 Chapter five
Serrial Connector
Serial Port Monitor is a feature-rich utility that lets
you monitor and record any data going through serial
ports of your computer. This dedicated solution will
come in handy for development, testing and
debugging of your COM-based programs and devices

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 Chapter Six

HDD is an electro-mechanical storage

device, which is an abbreviation of Hard
Disk Drive. It uses magnetic storage for
storing and retrieving the digital data. It is
a non-volatile storage device.

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HD
track

sector

head

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 Chapter seven
◼ The optical disk storage system includes a
rotating disk coated with a diminished layer of
metal that facilitates a reflective surface and a
laser beam, which is used as a read/write head
for recording information onto the disk.

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Optical Discs
Use laser technology to read and write
data on silver platters
Compact Disk (CD) can store 650MB to
800MB of information and data. CD-
ROM (Read Only Memory) can only read
data from a CD-ROM.
You can store data on a CD only if you
have a CD Burner and CD-R (writable)
or CD-RW (rewritable) CD.

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DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) is the size
of a regular CD and can be played in
a regular in a DVD movie player.
DVD can store 4.8GB to 8.0GB of
information and data. DVD-ROM is
readable only (a movie DVD).
You can store data on a DVD only if
you have a DVD Burner and
DVD+R/DVD-R (writable)
or DVD-RW
(rewritable) DVD.
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 Chapter Eight
The motherboard serves as a single
platform to connect all of the parts of a
computer together. It connects the CPU,
memory, hard drives, optical drives, video
card, sound card, and other ports and
expansion cards directly or via cables. It can
be considered as the backbone of a
computer.

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PC Subsystems
◼ Motherboard – The main circuit board
of a microcomputer

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 Chapten Nine
I/O Ports
A connection point that acts as interface between the
computer and external devices like mouse, printer,
modem, etc. is called port. Ports are of two types
Internal port − It connects the motherboard to
internal devices like hard disk drive, CD drive,
internal modem, etc.
External port − It connects the motherboard to
external devices like modem, mouse, printer, flash
drives, etc.
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 Chapter Then 10
Bringing the Machine to Life –
What is Software?
• Software is a set of electronic instructions that tells
the computer how to do certain tasks. A set of
instructions is often called a program.

• When a computer is using a particular program, it is

said to be running or executing the program.

• The two most common types of programs are system

software and application software.

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Computer Software
Computer software is the key to
productive use of computers.
Software can be categorized into
two types:

◼ Operating system software

◼ Application software.

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Operating System Software
Operating system software tells the computer
how to perform the functions of loading,
storing and executing an application and how
to transfer data.
Today, many computers use an operating
system that has a graphical user interface
(GUI) that provides visual clues such as icon
symbols to help the user. Microsoft Windows
98 is a widely used graphical operating
system. DOS (Disk Operating System) is an
older but still widely used operating system
that is text-based.
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 Word Processing

◼ Word Processing software is used to create and print

documents. A key advantage of word processing
software is that users easily can make changes in
documents.

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 Electronic Spreadsheets

◼ Electronic spreadsheet software allows the user to

add, subtract, and perform user-defined calculations
on rows and columns of numbers. These numbers can
be changed and the spreadsheet quickly recalculates
the new results.

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 Database Software

◼ Allows the user to enter, retrieve, and update data in

an organized and efficient manner, with flexible inquiry
and reporting capabilities.

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 Presentation Graphics

◼ Presentation graphic software allows the user to

create documents called slides to be used in making
the presentations. Using special projection devices,
the slides display as they appear on the computer
screen.

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