Hardware vs.

Software
Hardware
The computer equipment
Includes printers, monitors, disk drives, etc.
Software
Programs which tell the computer what to do
Examples - word processing, gradebook, tutorials,
games, etc.

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History of Computers
Charles Babbage - father of computer
1800’s planned analytical engine
ENIAC - developed at end of WW II
1951 - 1963 1st and 2nd generation
very large, used unreliable vacuum tubes
1963 - present - 3rd and 4th generation
smaller, faster - use transistors and integrated circuits

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History - Microcomputers
Apple
First sold in late 1970’s
Developed by Jobs and Wozniak
IBM Personal Computers
First sold in 1981
Was quickly accepted by businesses
IBM compatibles soon developed

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Computer - Social Impact
Threat to privacy
Reduce personal interactions
Displace workers and change workplace
Create two tiered society
Computer failures cause great damage
Artificial Intelligence
Create a “new life form”
Machines smarter than their creators

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Types of Computers – Personal 6

Computers (PC)
Also called
Microcomputers
Available in desktop size,
notebook size and
handheld
Can be IBM, IBM
Compatible or Apple
Types of Computers -
Minicomputers
Size of filing cabinet

Used by small and medium size companies and

institutions
Operated by computer specialist

Terminals allow many people to use

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Types of Computers - Mainframes
Very powerful

Very fast

Used by large corporations and governmental

agencies
Operated by computer specialist

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Types of Computers-
Supercomputers
Most powerful
Fastest
Most expensive
 Several million dollars each
Used only by
Governmental agencies
Large international corporations

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Input Processing Output

External Storage

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Input Devices - Keyboard
Most commonly used input device

Ergonomic - fit natural hand placement

Special keys

Enter, Function, Ctrl, Alt, Num Lock, Esc

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Input Devices - Mouse

Controls cursor on
screen
May be mechanical
or optical
Most models have a
“wheel” for scrolling
Input Devices - Other
Pointers (replaces mouse on notepads)
Track point, track ball, touch pad

Scanner

Digital camera

Touch screen

Voice

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Output Devices
Monitor

Printer

Disk Drive
Can also be input device

Modem
Can also be input device

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Monitors
Made up of tiny
elements called
pixels
Each row of pixels is
called a scan line
Picture is displayed
by an electronic beam
lighting up certain
pixels
Monitors - Resolution
Resolution is how sharp and clear the picture is

How many scan lines on the screen

 640 x 480 is low resolution
 1600 x 1200 is high resolution

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Monitors - Dot Pitch
Measures the distance between pixels

Commonly seen on monitors advertised

.49 (not very good)
.28 (much better)
.26 or lower (excellent)

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Monitors - Sizes
Screen measured diagonally
May also measure actual viewing area

14” or 15” on bargain systems

17” has become the standard

19 and 21” available but are more expensive.

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Monitors - LCD
Liquid Crystal Display
Similar to digital watch
Used for notebook computers
Should be an Active Matrix Screen
Also used in flat screen monitors
Much thinner than regular CRT monitor
More expensive than regular CRT monitor

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Monitors - Video Card
Processes info to send to monitor
Amount of video memory may speed up graphic
intensive programs
32 megs –general purpose
128 or more megs – graphic intensive use

AGP port can speed up graphics

3D accelerator card improves graphics

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Monitor - Buying Hints
17” or larger
.28 dot pitch or better
32 or more megs of memory on
video card

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Printers
Laser

Ink Jet

Dot Matrix
Printers - Laser
Works similar to a copy machine

Color printers available but more expensive

Fast, quite, with excellent quality

More expensive to buy and operate

Some units scan, photocopy, and print

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Printers - Ink Jet
Squirts small jet of ink onto paper to form characters
Replaced dot matrix
Quiet
Does good job on color
Good quality and reliability

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Printers - Dot Matrix
Strikes pins against ribbon to print

Comes in 9 and 24 pin

Once very popular

Now replaced by ink jet and laser

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Printers - Speed
Measured in pages per minute (PPM)

Laser printers range from 20-45 ppm

Color printing is slower

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Printers - Quality of Print
One measure is dots per inch (DPI)
300 dpi for general purpose uses
600 dpi for higher quality
1200 dpi for photo quality
May have different vertical and horizontal resolution
600 x 300
Other factors can affect quality

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Central Internal
Data
Processing Memory
Bus
Unit

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How Information Is Stored
Memory consist of switches which can be either on or
off - Off=0 On=1
Each on/off switch is called a bit
Eight bits make up a byte
It takes one byte to store a character
Character can be letter, space, punctuation, etc.
 ASCII code used

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Other Memory Terms
Byte is eight bits

Kilobyte (KB) is approx. 1,000 bytes

Megabyte (MB) is approx. 1million bytes

Gigabyte (GB) is approx. 1 billion bytes

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Central Processing Unit
Also called CPU, processor or microprocessor

Is the “brains” of the computer

Performs all computer operations

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CPU - IBM COMPATIBLES
Many made by company called Intel

Also made by AMD

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Pentium class processors
Needed to run most current software

Intel – Celeron or Pentium IV

AMD

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CPU - Clock Speed
Number of “cycles” per second computer can operate
Measured in megahertz (MHz)
One MHz = 1 million cycles per second
One gigahertz(GHz)=1 billion cycles
Current speeds 2-4 GHz

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CPU - Misc.
Performance also affected by speed of data bus
400-800 MHz on most current systems
Cache can increase speed
Stores data you will likely need next in an area that has
faster access
Both memory cache and disk cache used
Should be 512 K or better

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CPU - Buying Hints
Minimum of Pentium IV or AMD Athlon

Minimum of 2 GHz clock speed

Minimum of 512K of cache

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Internal Memory - RAM
RAM - Random Access Memory
CPU can access any location as quickly as any other
Can not only read current info but also write new
info
Very important in determining capabilities of the
computer system
Computer should have at least 256 megs - 512
preferred (can add to later)

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Internal Memory - ROM
ROM - Read Only Memory
Can read info Stored in ROM
Can not write new info into ROM

Used for “internal workings” of computer

Buyer is not very concerned with ROM

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Floppy Drives
Comes in 5 1/4” and 3 1/2”

All systems now only have 3 1/2”

HD - High density - comes on all current systems

3 1/2” - 1.44 megs

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Hard Drives
Built into machine
Made up of stack of platters
Can store much more than floppy
drives
40 gigabytes should be minimum
Can access info much faster than
floppy drive

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CD ROM
Same as music CDs
Are read only
Can store over 650 megs
All programs now only sold on CD
Make multimedia possible
Come in different speeds - 20x, - 50x

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DVD-ROM
Digital Video Disk

Can store up to 17 GB

Can store full-length movies

Can also read CD-ROM disk

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CD-RW & DVD-RW DRIVES
Allows you to write to disk
Useful for
Data backup
Storage of large files
Recording music and other multimedia files
DVD-RW
Allows you to write to both CD and DVD disk
Still somewhat expensive

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Storage Devices - Other
USB drive
Very popular – 64-512 MB
Tape drive
Similar to cassette tape
Used for backup

Zip drive
100 MB to 2 GB capacity
Everyday use and backup

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Drives - Buying Advice
40 gigabyte hard drive

One 3 1/2” high density floppy drive

CD-RW drive

DVD not yet essential but useful

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Expansion Slots
Allows you to add capabilities

Example of cards you can add

Network card
Modem

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Ports
 Connects computer to another
device
 Parallel port
 Used primarily by printers

 Serial ports
 Modem, mouse, etc.

 SCSI - chain devices

 USB –may be needed for
 Digital Cameras
 Mp3 players
 Other devices
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Networks
Connects computers
LAN - Local Area
WAN - Wide Area
Wireless
Allows sharing of
programs, files,
printers, etc.
Server is “main”
computer
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Modems - General
Allows 2 computers to
communicate over
phone lines
Can be internal or
external
Can also have fax
capabilities
Modems
Bits per second(bps) indicates speed
Old modems - 9,600, 14,400, 28,800, 33,600
56,000 (56K) has becoming standard

Ways of connecting to the Internet

Dial-up modem – used in most homes
Cable modem – uses TV cable lines
DSL – modified phone line
T1 line – used by schools, businesses, etc.

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Buying Hints Summary - Min
Hardware Requirements
2 GHz Pentium IV Class Processor
256 megabytes of RAM
17”, .28 dot pitch monitor with 32 meg card
40 gigabyte hard drive
CD-RW
56k modem
Ink jet or laser printer

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Buying Hints - Software Bundles
Many systems come with software included
Productivity
Microsoft Works
Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite, etc
Quicken, Money, or other financial software
Reference
Microsoft Encarta or Compton’s encyclopedia
Games

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Buying Hints - Service and
Warranty
Toll-free 24 hr 7 day support (800 #)

1 year warranty on parts and labor

Optional extended warranty

30 day return policy

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Buying Hints - Web Sites
On-line computer stores

C-Net Hardware – reviews and prices from many

vendors
Dell - http://www.dell.com/
Gateway - http://www.gateway.com/

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Programs
Set of instructions to the computer

Programming languages
Machine language
Assembly language
Procedural languages
 Basic, Fortran, Cobol
Object oriented languages
 Visual Basic, C++, C#, Java

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Systems Software
Run fundamental operations
Loading and running programs
Saving and retrieving data
Communicating with printers, modems, etc.

Examples of systems software

DOS
Windows 3.1, 95, 98, Me, 2000, and XP
Unix
Linux

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Applications Software
Helps you to accomplish a certain task

Examples
Word processing - memos, reports, etc.
Spreadsheets - budgets, etc.
Database - search, sort, select data
Educational - simulations, practice
Graphics - charts, diagrams
Desktop publishing - pamphlets, etc.

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Software - Legal Issues
Commercial software
Can only make backup copies for yourself
Can only use on one machine at a time
 Site license - use on more that one machine

Shareware
Can use - make copies and give to anyone
Should pay if you continue to use

Freeware – can copy and use indefinitely

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Software Viruses
Illegal code added to a program
May spread to many computers
Copy files from one computer to another
Download files by modem
E-mail attachments
Virus may be relatively harmless
Writes “You’ve been stoned” on screen
Virus may also be very damaging
Erases everything on hard drive
Virus may activate on a certain date
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Virus Protection
Be careful where you copy files from
Do not open e-mail attachments unless you are sure
that it is safe
Use virus protection program
Detects and removes illegal code

Should be updated often

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End of Slide Show