Introduction to Computers

(COMPUTER APPLICATIONS)

1
2 Objectives
 Define a computer
 Describe computer hardware and software
correctly
 Describe the four main parts of a computer
 List three examples of input, output and
storage devices
 Identify and list the functions of common
computer parts
 List the parts required to assemble a
computer
 What Is A Computer?
A computer is an electronic device, operating
under the control of instructions (software)
stored in its own memory unit, that can accept
data (input), manipulate data (process), and
produce information (output) from the
processing.

Input Process Output

3

Storage
 UNDERSTANDING A COMPUTER
What is a computer?
 A computer is an automatic electronic machine which performs the
following functions:

Accepts data and instructions

Stores the data and the instructions
Retrieves data
Processes data using the stored
instructions
Gives feedback or results in any desired
format
 5 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.
 The information can also be put in computer storage for
future use.
 Advantages of Using computers
6
 Speed: Computers can carry out instructions in
less than a millionth of a second. Work can
therefore be accomplished within a very short
time
 Accuracy and consistency : Computers can do
the calculations without errors and very
accurately. Consistency has to do with giving
the same results for the same input supplied.
 Diligence : Computers are capable of
performing any task given to them repetitively.
This allows them to be used to automate
tedious, routine and repetitive tasks.
 Storage Capacity : Computers can store large
volume of data and information on magnetic
media.
ADVANTAGES OF COMPUTERS (Continued)

 They can be used to do or monitor work in

inaccessible and dangerous places, e.g. high
temperature furnaces, space and nuclear
reactors.
 They can be linked in networks for the purposes
of communication and sharing resources, e.g.
data, hardware and software.
 They can make complex calculations easier.
 They can enable co-workers to collaborate on
tasks even when they are found in different
locations or parts of the world.
ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF COMPUTERS

These are financial savings that are

attributed to the use of computers, e.g.
Reduction in the time of processing data.
Reduction in the cost of storage facilities.
Reduction in the number of staff employed to
do routine tasks
Reduction of most operating costs.
They lead to improved customer service.
They can be used to gain competitive
advantage in business.
They can work for very long periods without
requiring rest and remuneration.
 LIMITATIONS OF COMPUTERS

Computers have limitations, i.e. they cannot

be expected to do everything.
Their limitations are due to the fact that they
are programmed machines.
This therefore means that they can only
manage to do work which was specified in
their programs by the programmers.
Computers cannot be used to perform new
tasks whose programs have not been made
and installed.
 A Computer System
10 A system is a collection of different parts that
work together to accomplish a given task.
A computer system therefore comprises two parts
namely Hardware and Software.

1. Hardware
 Hardware are the physical, tangible componets of the
computer system that we can see and touch
 e.g. Mouse, keyboard, monitor, processor
2. Software
 set of programs (which are step by step instructions)
telling the computer how to process data.
 Word processor, Operating system, media player,
games
 Parts of a Computer System
11
12 Parts of a computer system
The Central processing Unit (CPU)
• The central processing unit (CPU) contains
electronic circuits that cause processing to occur.
It is made up of two components i.e. the control
unit (CU) and the Arithmetic and Logic unit (ALU)
• CU manages the operations (Co-ordinates
operations) of all parts of the computer system i.e.
the input, output, memory.
• ALU performs the logical (<, >, =) and arithmetic
(+,-,*, /) processing
13 • It is considered the “brain” of the computer.
 BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF PROGRAM EXECUTION
BY THE CPU

 The main function of the CPU is to execute, i.e.

to run a program.
 A program consists of several instructions , or
steps.
 Each instruction tells the computer to perform
a specific task.
 A program is executed one instruction at a
time.
 Initially a program is loaded in RAM.
 The CU, the ALU and the RAM coordinate very
closely during program execution.
 THE CONTROL UNIT – CU
Controls all functions of the
computer, e.g.
Controlling operations of
input/output (i/o) systems.
Controlling flow of data within
the processor and between the
processor and the peripheral
devices.
Configuring and optimizing RAM
to ensure that it works efficiently.
 THE ALU
 This is the unit that does the actual processing of data.
 It processes data by doing arithmetic and logic operations.
 Arithmetic means addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
 Logic is comparing things so as to make appropriate choices.
 The CU and the ALU are made on the same computer chip called the
Central Processing Unit (CPU) or the microprocessor.
 RAM
 RAM is temporary storage.
 When power is switched off, everything is erased from RAM.
Functions of RAM include the following:
 Receiving raw data from input.
 Receiving processed data from the ALU.
 Storing instructions required by the CU.
 Holding data awaiting output.
 Holding data awaiting storage.
 Holding the operating system when the computer is running
 Holding Application programs when they are running
 ROM
 ROM stores instructions that are used to start the
computer.
 Instructions in ROM cannot be erased.
 During startup, the computer follows instructions in
ROM to do the following:
Read the amount of RAM present.
Check that monitor, keyboard and mouse are
connected and working.
Check that components on the motherboard are
working properly.
Check that the hard disk drive is connected and
working.
Load the operating system software in RAM from
storage.
 THE BIOS
 BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output Systems.
 Every computer has specifications such as hard
disk size, memory size, and processor speed.
 A bios is a unit (usually part of the ROM) which
keeps these specifications.
 During booting, the computer uses instructions in
the ROM to check that these parameters are
correct.
 Together, ROM and BIOS are called ROM-BIOS.
20 Processing Speed
 Measured in hertz (Hz)
 KHz (Kilohertz)
 MHz (Megahertz)
 GHz (Gigahertz)
HOW CU, ALU AND RAM WORK TOGETHER

 CU fetches an instruction from RAM and puts it

in its CIR (i.e. Current Instruction Register).
 CU decodes, i.e. interprets the instruction and
communicates with ALU.
 CU directs RAM to send data to ALU.
 ALU processes data and places the processed
data in its ACCUMULATOR.
 CU directs ALU to send processed data back to
RAM.
 CU directs RAM to send processed data to
Output or Storage.
 Current Instruction Register and Accumulator
are examples of Registers found in the CPU.
 INPUT DEVICES
Input devices are used to capture
data into the computer.
Input devices are also used for
entering commands.
Commands are instructions that users
give to the computer to initiate them
into action.
Since the computer’s processor can
only understand and do things in
machine language, an input device
is used to convert data from human
language to machine language.
23 Input Devices

Keyboard. sensors
Mouse. Magnetic
Touch card reader
Screen OMR
Scanner MICR
Microphone OCR
 Input Devices
24
25 Input Devices
 More Examples of input devices

Keyboard Mouse Track ball Joystick

Game Scanner Microphone

controller Camera
27 Output Devices
These convert digital information into a
format that can be understood by
humans. Examples include:
Sound, picture, text
Printer
Monitor or projector
COM
Graph plotter
speakers
 Output Devices
28
 Examples of output devices

CRT Monitor LCD Monitor Impact Dot Matrix Printer

DeskJet Printer LaserJet Printer Speakers

 Output Devices
30
Monitor
 Resolution in pixels (picture elements)
determines quality of image
 CRT
 Low resolution, High Refresh
 Rate, Cheap, energy inefficient
 LCD and LED
 Expensive, energy efficient
 High Resolution
 Low refresh rate
31 Exercise

Research on as many
types of sensors and how
they work.
 CRT MONITORS
 They have the cathode ray tube.
 CRT MONITORS (Continued)

Advantages:
They are cheaper than LCD
monitors.
They are easy to repair.
Disadvantages:
They occupy a lot of space on
the desk.
They consume a lot of electrical
energy.
 LCD MONITORS
They have liquid molecules.
Advantages:
They occupy less space on the desk.
They consume less electrical energy
than CRT monitors.
Disadvantages:
They cost more money.
They are not easily repaired when
they develop faults.
 Output Devices
35
Printers
1. Non impact
Inkjet/Desk jet
Cheap, expensive to operate,
Fast, can print pictures
Laser
Expensive, Cheaper to operate, very
fast, best quality
2. Impact
 These use force (impact) on an ink
ribbon to transfer characters
 Dot Matrix
Very cheap to operate, poor quality,
slow, noisy
 IMPACT PRINTERS
DOT MATRIX PRINTERS

They use an inked ribbon.

They print by striking a pattern
of dots on paper through the
inked ribbon.
 IMPACT PRINTERS

Advantages:
They can be used with carbon paper to
print multiple copies at once.
Their ribbons are not very expensive.
Disadvantages:
They are very slow; they print one line or
one character at a time.
They make so much noise when
printing.
Print heads are difficult to replace when
they get worn out.
Their printout has low quality.
 NON-IMPACT PRINTERS
DESKJET PRINTERS
They use liquid ink to print.
Advantages:
They can print in colour.
They are less expensive.
They make less noise when printing.
They are very light; some are portable.
Their printout has good quality.
Disadvantages:
Their ink is expensive.
They cannot be used with carbon paper.
LASER JET PRINTERS
They use powdered ink known
as toner and laser light.
Advantages:
They print very fast.
They print quietly.
They can print in colour or
black.
Their printout is of high quality.
 LASER JET PRINTERS (Continued)
Disadvantages:
They are expensive to buy.
They use laser light which is
harmful when exposed to it.
They consume more
electrical energy as they use
a heating element to melt
the toner
 RESOLUTION OF AN OUPUT DEVICE
 Resolution refers to the sharpness or clarity of an
output.
 When relating to printers, resolution is measured in
dots per inch (dpi), i.e. the number of dots used to
form the image per square unit.
NOTE: When referring to screens, resolution is
measured in terms of pixels and not dots.
 The higher the resolution of an output device, the
better the quality of the output.
 Among the printers, the laser jet printer gives the
highest resolution, and the dot matrix printer the
lowest. (i.e. Laserjet followed by inkjet then dot
matrix)
42 Computer Memory
 Memory consists of electronic components that
store instructions waiting to be executed by the
 processor, data needed by those instructions,
and the results of processed data (information).
 Memory stores three basic categories of items:
 (1) the operating system and other system software
that control or maintain the computer and its devices;
 (2) application programs that carry out a specific task
such as word processing; and
 (3) the data being processed by the application
programs and resulting information.
43 Computer Memory
Functions of RAM include the following:
 Receiving raw data from input.
 Receiving processed data from the ALU.
 Storing instructions required by the CU.
 Holding data awaiting output.
 Holding data awaiting storage.
 Holding the operating system when the
computer is running
 Holding Application programs when they are running
 MACHINE LANGUAGE
 Machine language consists of codes of
characters in binary.
 In machine language, characters are
represented by bits (i.e. binary digits) consisting
of ones (1) and zeros (0).
 For example, in a coding scheme called ASCII,
A is 01000001, B is 01000010.
 MACHINE LANGUAGE (Continued)
 A binary representation of a character
represents the type of current that must
flow when the character is being entered
from the input to the processor.
 Each 1 in the code represents high current,
and each 0 represents low current.
 For a code 101010101, the current has the
wave form
MACHINE LANGUAGE (Continued)

Character ASCII Code Current

A 01000001
B 01000010
C 01000011
D 01000100
E 01000101
EXERCISE

 Write the ASCII codes and the corresponding current

wave forms for F, G, and H.
 STORAGE DEVICES

Storage devices are used to store user

data and computer software.
There are three types of storage
devices.
The three types are magnetic devices,
optical devices and semiconductor
devices.
 MAGNETIC STORAGE DEVICES
These use magnetic properties to store
data.
To make a storage device, a magnetic
powder, e.g. iron oxide, is coated on a
material.
Data is stored by forming a magnetic
pattern on the powder, similar to way
music is recorded on audio tapes.
 MAGNETIC STORAGE DEVICES
(Continued)

 There are two types of magnetic storage

devices:
 The two types are magnetic tapes and
magnetic disks.
 Magnetic tapes are used very rarely
nowadays because they are slow.
 There are two types of magnetic disk.
 MAGNETIC DISKS

The two types of magnetic disk are

floppy disk and hard disk.
The hard disk stores more data than the
floppy disk.
The hard disk is made from hard
material such as aluminium.
The floppy disk is made from soft
material, i.e. plastic.
 MAGNETIC DISKS (Continued)
Floppy disks are no longer
popular on modern computers.
Floppy disks are removable from
the computer.
Hard disks are not removable
from the computer.
 OPTICAL DISKS
 Optical disks do not use magnetic
properties to store data.
 Optical disks use laser light to store data on
storage medium.
 Examples of optical disks are CDs, CD-
ROMs, and DVD-ROMs.
 Optical disks store more data than floppy
disks.
 SEMICONDUCTOR STORAGE
 A semiconductor storage device does not use
magnetism or light to store data.
 Semiconductor storage devices use electronic
chips to store data.
 An example of a semiconductor storage device is a
flash disk.
 Flash disks store more data than floppy disks, and
they are easier to carry.
 Some flash disks store more data than CD-ROMs
and DVD-ROMs.
 STORAGE CAPACITY

The storage capacity of a storage

medium is given in BYTES.
One byte of data is equal to eight
bits.
For example, in a coding system
called Extended Binary Coded
Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC),
the letter A is represented by
11110001.
11110001 is one byte.
 56 Measurement of Memory

 Units of measure
 All done relative to a Byte (8 bits - 1 character)
 Kb = Kilobyte - 1 thousand bytes (1024 [210])
 Mb = Megabyte - 1 million bytes (1,048,576[220])
 Gb = Gigabyte - 1 billion bytes (1,073,741,824[230])
 Tb = Terabyte - 1 trillion bytes (1099511627776[240])
 EXERCISE
1. How many bits make up one
character?
2. How many characters can a
512MB flash disk hold?
3. How many bits can a 160GB hard
disk hold?
4. What is the difference between
20b and 20B?
58 Types of computer Memory
1. Primary/ Main (Volatile)
When the computer’s power is
turned off, volatile memory loses its
contents.
Thus, volatile memory is temporary
Fast and has low storage capacity
(512mb- 16gb)
RAM is the most common type of
volatile memory.
59 Types of Memory
2. Secondary/ Auxiliary (Nonvolatile)
does not lose its contents when
power is removed from the
computer.
nonvolatile memory is permanent.
Slow access time and has large
storage capacity
Examples of nonvolatile memory
include ROM, flash memory, and
CMOS.
 Examples of Storage Devices

Hard Disk Floppy Disk CD-ROM

Zip Disk Flash Disk

 Storage devices
61 Type Characteristics Capacity Use

Hard-disk Magnetic principle for

operation
120Gb-2Tb Store programs
Metallic disks and information
Data stored on sectors
Direct Access

Floppy-disk Magnetic principle for

operation
1.44mb Transfer small
plastic disks files
Data stored on sectors

Magnetic Tape Magnetic principle for

operation
20Gb Backup of files
Plastic strip
Data stored on blocks
Sequential access

Compact Disks Light principle for operation

Made of plastic
650mb- Store software,
800mb pictures, music,
videos
Digital versatile Light principle for operation
Made of plastic
3.2Gb-16Gb Store software,
disk (DVD) pictures, music,
videos
Flash memory Form of EEPROM
512mb- Transfer files
Memory Cards 64Gb
 Optical Disks
62 In optical disks data is written and read using a
beam of intense light called a laser beam. The
process of writing data on a CD is called burning
because the intense laser beam burns a series of
holes on the smooth shinny surface of the CD.
 63
Inside the System Box

power
supply CD-ROM
drive

floppy
drive
cards
hard
drive

Introduction to Computers
motherboard 2/15/2019
Computer ports
 The socket used to attach devices to a computer

64
 DISK DRIVES

 In the computer, a disk (floppy, hard or

optical) is controlled by a mechanism called
a disk drive.
 Disk drives are identified by letters A, B, C, D,
and so on.
 Disk drives A and B are no longer used on
modern computers because they control
floppy disks.
 DISK DRIVES (Continued)

 Disk drive C is always for the first hard disk which was installed.

 If a computer has two hard disk drives, the first is C and the
second is D.

 A computer denotes a flash disk as a removable disk.

 For a computer with one hard disk drive, flash disks are
assigned letters D, E, F, G, and so on.

 To check how many and which drives a computer has, you

simply open the My Computer folder on the Windows
Desktop.
67
68
Computer Software
 Software, also called a program, is a series of instructions
that tells the computer what to do and how to do it.
 You interact with a program through its user interface.
 graphical user interface (GUI )
 WIMP (Windows, Icons
 . Menus and Pointers)

 Command line interface

 user responds to a visual prompt by typing in a command on a
specified line
 Types of software
69
1. System Software
 programs that control or maintain the operations of the
computer and its devices.
 serves as the interface between the user, the application
software, and the computer’s hardware.
 Two types of system software are the operating system
and utility programs.
 Examples of soft
2. Application Software
 consists of programs designed to make users more
productive and/or assist them with personal tasks.
 Web browser, word processing software, spreadsheet
software, database software, and presentation graphics
software.
70
Operating Systems
 set of programs containing
instructions that coordinate
all the activities among
computer hardware
resources.
 starting a computer,
 providing a user interface,
 managing programs,
 Managing memory,
 scheduling jobs,
 configuring devices
 Monitoring performance
 providing file management
utilities
 HOME WORK
Some people believe that
computerising operations of an
organisation always leads to
unemployment. This belief is not
exactly correct. Give details to show
that this belief is based on biased
conclusions.
 COMPUTER SOFTWARE

 Computer hardware requires software to tell it what

to do and how to do it.
 A computer consists of many, many different types
of software.
 Every software has a specific purpose in the
computer.
 Computer software is in three types – Systems
software, Utility software, and Applications software.
 OPERATING SYSTEM

This is the most important type of software in

a computer.
Operating system is part of systems software.
It is the one that tells the hardware what to
do and how to do it.
It interprets the user’s commands.
It acts as an interface, i.e. as a link, between
applications software and the hardware.
It directs the flow of data from input to
output or storage.
 EXAMPLES OF OPERATING
SYSTEMS

 Microsoft Windows 95, 98, NT, Me, 2000, XP, Server

2003,Vista, 7, 10.
 Unix
 Linux
 Mac OS 9, X
 UTILITY PROGRAMS

Utility programs are those used for certain

purposes to extend the capability of the
Operating System.
Examples of utilities are:
Antivirus software, e.g. Norton, Dr. Solomon,
McAfee, AVG, Panda, Avast - for checking and
protecting a computer against viruses.
Scandisk - for checking the integrity of disks.
Disk Defragmenter - for correcting disks that have
become fragmented.
Device drivers - for effecting communication
between input/output units, (e.g. keyboard,
mouse, monitor, printer) and the CPU.
 APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE

This is software in a computer which users

employ to do their work.
Whereas a computer may have one
Operating System software, it always has
several Applications software, all being
serviced by the same Operating System.
Applications software interacts with users
directly – it is the one which knows how to
manipulate data the way the user wants it
to be.
It does not have the capacity to control or
interact with the hardware directly.
 STARTING THE COMPUTER

Locate the power switches on the

system unit (or CPU) and on the
monitor.
Switch on the monitor.
Switch on the system unit.
Wait for the computer to be ready.
Starting a computer is also called
BOOTING.
 COMPUTER-RELATED CRIME

Computers can also be used to

perpetuate and perpetrate various
forms of crime.
Examples of computer-related crimes
are:
Piracy of intellectual property, e.g. software,
music and video.
Unauthorized access to information through
methods such as identity theft.
Pornography.
Virus attacks.
Harassment and victimization.
Theft or destruction of data.