The Components of a Computer

Basic Functions of the Computer

A computer is a device that performs four basic functions:
1. Inputs data: getting data into the machine
2. Stores data: holding the information before and after processing.
3. Processes data: Manipulate data at high speed.
4. Output information: Sending the results out to the user via some display method.

MAJOR PARTS OF COMPUTER SYSTEM

What is Computer System?

 A computer system comprises the hardware, software, Data/information, People and
Procedures.
 By itself, a computer has no intelligence and is referred to as hardware, which means simply
the physical equipment. The hardware cannot be used until it is connected to other elements,
all of which constitute the 5 components of the computer based information systems.
Major components of Computer System
A. Hardware
B. Software
C. Human ware (user/ People)
D. Data/Information
E. Procedures
Relationship Between Parts of a Computer
 A. Computer Hardware
A computer hardware is an electronic device such as a keyboard, monitor, modem, mouse, Printer, etc that
you can see, touch and feel it.
1. Peripheral devices: are devices outside the central processing unit but under its control, they
may be input devices, output devices, such as printers, or storage devices, such as disk drives
2. Accessories devices: Are the device that support the proper handling of an electronic device,
such as computer. Example, Computer bag, computer stand etc.

Example of Computer Hardware

1. Monitor
2. System Unit
3. Mouse
4. CPU
5. RAM
6. HDD
7. Speaker
8. NIC
9. Keyboard
10. VGA Cable
11. Power Cable
Categories of Computer Hardware

Computer hardware can be categorized into five parts namely,

1. Input device
2. Processing device
3. Output device
4. Storage device
5. Communication devices
1. INPUT DEVICES
Is a Computer component which used to enter data and instructions into a Computer system. Examples;
Keyboard, Mouse, Scanner, Digital
Camera, Microphone, Touch pads, Joystick, Webcam, Light pen etc.

Keyboard
Keyboard is an important device that allows a user to enter text or symbols like letters and numbers into a
computer. It is the main input device for most computers
Keyboard Caps
ESC Lock

Shift Backspace
keys Enter
Tab
key

Windows button CT RL - Simulates

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ALT- clicking the
right hand
No. Keys Description

These keys include the letter keys (A-Z) and digits keys
1 Typing Keys (0-9) which generally give same layout as that of
typewriters.
It is used to enter numeric data or cursor movement.
Generally, it consists of a set of 17 keys that are laid
2 Numeric Keypad out in the same configuration used by most adding
machine and calculators.
The twelve functions keys are present on the keyboard.
These are arranged in a row along the top of the
3 Function Keys keyboard. Each function key has unique meaning and is
used for some specific purpose.
These keys provide cursor and screen control. It
includes four directional arrow key. Control keys also
4 Control keys include Home, End, Insert, Delete, Page Up, Page
Down, Control (Ctrl), Alternate (Alt), Escape (Esc).
5 Special Purpose Keys Keyboard also contains some special purpose keys such
as Enter, Shift, Caps Lock, Num Lock, Space bar, Tab,
and Print Screen.50

The keys following

Short Explanation of keyboard keys (Button)
ENTER or RETURN - Moves the cursor down one line and to the left margin.
1. DEL or DELETE - Deletes the character at cursor and/or characters to the right of the cursor and
all highlighted (or selected) text.
2. BKSP or BACKSPACE - Deletes the character to the left of cursor and all highlighted text.
3. SPACE BAR - Moves the cursor one space at a time
to the right
4. SHIFT KEY - Use the shift keys to type capital letters and to type the upper character on keys
with two characters on them
5. CAPS LOCK - Locks the keyboard so it types capital letters (a light goes on when caps lock is
on)
6. TAB - Moves the cursor five spaces to the right (number of spaces are usually adjustable).
7. ESC or ESCAPE - Cancels a menu or dialog box
8. ARROW KEYS - Moves the cursor around document without changing text
9. FUNCTION KEYS or F KEYS - Access commands by themselves or in combination with the
three command keys; CTRL, SHIFT, and ALT.

The Mouse
Mouse: Mouse is the pointing device which used to select different object. It has two buttons (left & Right)
that control the movement of the cursor.
Left button - used to select menu options or commands by pointing & pressing the button once.
Right button - used to access shortcut menu within windows and windows application.
Scroll wheel- Used to show the hidden part of the document in different applications, example In
Ms- Word, Ms-Excel.
 Scroll Wheel
Right Button

Left Button

The Mouse
Using the Mouse
Mouse Actions/Operations
1. Left click: Use your first finger to click the left button once.
2. Right click: Use your second finger to click the right button once
3. Double click: Use your first finger to click the left mouse button twice quickly
4. Drag: Click and hold the left mouse button, move the mouse as necessary then release the left mouse
button
5. Scroll wheel: Helps to move up and down a document in some applications
6. Point: To point an item means to move the mouse pointer so that it's touching the item.
7. Click: Point to the item, then tap (press and release) the left mouse button.
8. Double-click: Point to the item, and tap the left mouse button twice in rapid succession - click-click
as fast as you can.
9. Right-click: Point to the item, then tap the mouse button on the right.
10. Drag: Point to an item, then hold down the left mouse button as you move the mouse. To drop the
item, release the left mouse button.
Scanners
 Scanners: Allow user to copy or transfer photos, pictures, even some objects to a file on your
computer. It transfers the information to the computer as a bitmap.
 It will also allow you to scan a page of text using the OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
software to be able to later edit that text in your word processor. Twain software makes the

scanner

Touch Screen
Touch screen: Is a special kind of screen which is sensitive to touch. Touching with their finger the desired
icon or menu item displayed on the screen

Bar Code Reader (BCR)

A barcode is simply a numeric code represented as a series of lines. These lines can be read by a barcode
reader/scanner. convert the data into electrical signal and send them to computer for processing.
 Joysticks
Joystick: Used mainly for playing games. Small joysticks can also be found on some mobile phones.

Light Pen
A light pen is a device used as a pointing device to “write” on the screen of a computer.

Touchpad / Track pad

A pointing device found on most laptops

Digital Camera

Video Camera
Like a digital camera, most video cameras do not directly input data into a computer – the captured
movies are stored on video-tape or memory cards and later transferred to a computer.

Web Cam
This is a very basic video camera used to feed live video into a computer. The video data from a web cam
is low quality compared to a full video camera.
 Microphone
An input device that converts sound into a signal that can be fed into a computer.

Other Input Devices

 Tracker ball
 Touch sensitive pad
 Graphics tablets (Digitizers)
 Optical Character Readers
 Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
 Magnetic Ink Character Reader(MICR)
 Optical Mark Readers and Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)
 Punched Card
 Kimball tag
 Voice Recognition e.g. Microphone
 Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS)
 Electronic Fund Transfer at Point of sale (EFTPOS)
 Video digitizer
 Digital Camera
 Touch tone Telephones

2. PROCESSING DEVICES
 These are devices used to process (Convert) raw data into information. In computer
system this device is known as Central Processing Unit (CPU)
 Processing data may include the following; Calculating, Sorting, Searching, Storing,
Drawing

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Parts of the CPU 86

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Components / Elements of CPU

1. Control unit (CU)
Responsible for controlling and coordinating all components and
operations of the computer and selecting instructions from
memory and sends to ALU for executions through the following
functions;
 Coordinating the input and output devices.
 It directs the flow of data from the CPU and input and
output devices.
 Tell the rest of the computer system how to carry out a program instructions.
 Directs the movements of electronic signals between main memory and logic units.
 Directs electronic signals between main memory and the input/output devices.

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2. Arithmetic/Logic Unit (ALU)

ALU is responsible for the following functions;

 The ALU performs all calculations E.g. +, -, /, * etc and logical decisions in the
computer system e.g. comparison, equal to, not equal to, less than, greater than etc.
 Control operations of those operations.
3. Registers
 Immediate Access storage (Register): Is a very small amount of very fast memory that
is built into the CPU (central processing unit) in order to speed up its operations by
providing quick access to commonly used values. Registers are used to store data during
the execution of a program.
 Register is contained in CPU-in arithmetic logic unit. They are temporary memory that
store data temporarily during processing
 Provides working area for computation
 Hold programs instructions and data from main memory into registers just before
processing.
The CPU Speed
The speed of CPU is measured in HERTZ (Hz), i.e., number of operations can be done per
second. Nowadays, we usually use KHz, MHz, GHz (e.g.700 KHz, 300 MHz, 3.0 GHz).

There are several factors that determine the performance of a CPU.

a) Processor Speed
The processor gives you the speed you need to run applications, load images and download
images. The higher the bandwidth and clock speed and the greater the number of cores you have,
the higher the performance level of your computer.

b) Memory (RAM) and your Operating System

It is the RAM that allows you to work with more open program files without your system
crashing. RAM is a temporary storage place of data that flows from your computer and
processor. It is lost when you shut down your computer.

Operating system – How much memory does your operating system need to run efficiently? It
depends upon the system you want to use:

XP Professional – 512 MB memory

Vista – 1 GB of memory
Vista Home – 512 MB memory
Windows Vista Pro – 2 GB

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Vista Premium – 1 GB
Windows 7 – (Ram: 1 GB for 32 bit, 2 GB for 64 bit

c) Manufacturer

CPUs for personal computers are made by companies such as Intel, AMD, Cyrix, HP, Toshiba
and Motorola. Intel chips are the most popular.

d) Power Supply
Your power supply supplies the electrical power to your system-which includes every
component and peripheral you put on a hard drive.

e) Hard Drive
Your hard-drive has to be large enough to store your operating system, applications, and the
additional files that you add to your computer. The more space your computer has, the more data
you can save documents, movies, music, games and more. Most current desktops and laptops
come with at least 40 GB hard drive.

Functions of CPU
 Control the sequence of operation
 Give commands to all parts of the computer system, Like keyboard, mouse, Printer.
etc
 Interpret and execute program instructions (software)
 Communicate with the input device and storage device

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