ICT

COMPILATION

12
(ELECTIVE)
1.1. Python Introduction
What is Python?
Python is a popular programming language. It was created in 1991 by Guido van Rossum.
It is used for:
● web development (server-side),
● software development,
● mathematics,
● system scripting.

What can Python do?

● Python can be used on a server to create web applications.
● Python can be used alongside software to create workflows.
● Python can connect to database systems. It can also read and modify files.
● Python can be used to handle big data and perform complex mathematics.
● Python can be used for rapid prototyping, or for production-ready software development.
Why Python?
● Python works on different platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Raspberry Pi, etc).
● Python has a simple syntax similar to the English language.
● Python has syntax that allows developers to write programs with fewer lines than some
other programming languages.
● Python runs on an interpreter system, meaning that code can be executed as soon as it is
written. This means that prototyping can be very quick.
● Python can be treated in a procedural way, an object-oriented way or a functional way.

Good to know
● The most recent major version of Python is Python 3, which we shall be using in this
tutorial. However, Python 2, although not being updated with anything other than security
updates, is still quite popular.
● In this tutorial Python will be written in a text editor. It is possible to write Python in an
Integrated Development Environment, such as Thonny, Pycharm, Netbeans or Eclipse
which are particularly useful when managing larger collections of Python files.
Python Syntax compared to other programming languages
● Python was designed to for readability, and has some similarities to the English language
with influence from mathematics.
● Python uses new lines to complete a command, as opposed to other programming
languages which often use semicolons or parentheses.
● Python relies on indentation, using whitespace, to define scope; such as the scope of loops,
functions and classes. Other programming languages often use curly-brackets for this
purpose.

3
1.2. Python Syntax
Comments
Python has commenting capability for the purpose of in-code documentation. Comments start with
a #, and Python will render the rest of the line as a comment

Docstrings
Python also has extended documentation capability, called docstrings. Docstrings can be one line,
or multiline. Python uses triple quotes at the beginning and end of the docstring:

Exercises
1. Create a python script to print Programming is fun! four times.
2. Create a python script to print a short description about your hometown.
3. Create a python script to print your name using asterisks (*).

4
1.3. Python Variables
Creating Variables
Unlike other programming languages, Python has no command for declaring a variable. A variable is
created the moment you first assign a value to it.

Variables do not need to be declared with any particular type and can even change type after they have
been set.

Variable Names
A variable can have a short name (like x and y) or a more descriptive name (age, carname,
total_volume). Rules for Python variables:
● A variable name must start with a letter or the underscore ( _ ) character
● A variable name cannot start with a number
● A variable name can only contain alphanumeric characters and underscores (A-z, 0-9, and _ )
● Variable names are case-sensitive (Name, NamE and NAME are three different variables)

Output Variables

The Python print statement is often used to output variables.

To combine both text and a variable, Python uses the + character:

5
You can also use the + character to add a variable to another variable:

For numbers, the + character works as a mathematical operator:

Exercises
1. Will the following lines of code print the same thing? Explain why or why not.
x=4
print(4)
print("4")
2. Will the following lines of code print the same thing? Explain why or why not.
x=8
print(8)
print("8")

6
3. Classify each of the following as either a legal or illegal Python identifier:

Identifier Valid Invalid

jack

if

2y

-10

sum_result

sum-result

sumresult

WHILE

z3

Private

Public

$45

xThree

_static

_4

___

15%

b35789

Emy’s

4. Create a python script to print Johny, Johny yes papa! using three different variables.

7
Python Numbers
There are three numeric types in Python:
● int
● float
● complex
Variables of numeric types are created when you assign a value to them:

To verify the type of any object in Python, use the type() function:

Python Casting
There may be times when you want to specify a type on to a variable. This can be done with casting.
Python is an object-oriented language, and as such it uses classes to define data types, including its
primitive types.

Casting in python is therefore done using constructor functions:

● int() - constructs an integer number from an integer literal, a float literal (by rounding down to
the previous whole number), or a string literal (providing the string represents a whole number)
● float() - constructs a float number from an integer literal, a float literal or a string literal
(providing the string represents a float or an integer)
● str() - constructs a string from a wide variety of data types, including strings, integer literals
and float literals

1.4. Python Strings

8
1.4. Python Strings

String Literals
String literals in python are surrounded by either single quotation marks, or double quotation marks.
'hello' is the same as "hello".
Strings can be output to screen using the print function. For example: print("hello").

Like many other popular programming languages, strings in Python are arrays of bytes representing
unicode characters. However, Python does not have a character data type, a single character is simply
a string with a length of 1. Square brackets can be used to access elements of the string.

Substring: Get the characters from position 2 to position 5 (not included):

The strip() method removes any whitespace from the beginning or the end:

The len() method returns the length of a string:

The lower() method returns the string in lower case:

The upper() method returns the string in upper case:

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The replace() method replaces a string with another string:

The split() method splits the string into substrings if it finds instances of the separator:

Exercises
1. Assume that we execute the following assignment statements:
width = 10
height = 15.0
For each of the following expressions, write the value of the expression and the type (of the
value of the expression).
a. width/2
b. width/2.0
c. height/3
d. 1 + 2 * 5

2. Create a python script to print: Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to
live forever.
a. Create two variables one for each sentence.
b. Display each sentence one below the other.
c. Create a variable to concatenate and display the sentences in one line
d. Determine and output the length of each sentence
e. The first 5 characters of the string in uppercase.
f. Replace all spaces with a "*". Display the replaced sentence.

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1.5. Python Operators

Python Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators are used with numeric values to perform common mathematical operations

Python Assignment Operators

Assignment operators are used to assign values to variables

Python Comparison Operators

Comparison operators are used to compare two values.

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Python Logical Operators
Logical operators are used to combine conditional statements

Exercises
1. What will be output of the following program.
a. x = 6
y=x+2
x = 5 print x, y

b. x, y = 4, 12
x, y = y, x + 4
print x, y

c. a, b = 4, 5
c, b = a, c + 6
print a, b, c

2. Given the following assignment: z = 4 Indicate what each of the following Python
statements would print.
a. print("z")
b. print(’z’)
c. print(z)
d. print("z + 2")
e. print(’z’ + 2)
f. print(z + 2)

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1.6. Python Lists
A list is a collection which is ordered and changeable. In Python lists are written with square brackets.

Access Items
You access the list items by referring to the index number:

Change Item Value

To change the value of a specific item, refer to the index number:

List Length
To determine how many items a list have, use the len() method

Add Items
To add an item to the end of the list, use the append() method:

To add an item at the specified index, use the insert() method:

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Remove Item
There are several methods to remove items from a list:

The del keyword removes the specified index:

Exercises
1. From given list gadgets = [“Monitor”, “PC”, 10, “Microphone”, 33.28, “Projector”,
22.00, “Radio”, 100, “Case”, “Camera”]
a. Sort list in ascending order
b. Delete Microphone
c. Add two new items Mouse and Keyboard at the list
d. Access just Projector item from the list
e. Change the item Camera with Scanner.

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1.7. Python Tuples

Tuple
A tuple is a collection which is ordered and unchangeable. In Python tuples are written with round
brackets.

Loop Through a Tuple

You can loop through the tuple items by using a for loop.

Tuple Length
To determine how many items a list have, use the len() method:

Exercises

1. From given tuple of books=(“No time for goodbye” , “Fahrenheit 451” , “Death of a
Salesman” , “Brave New World”)
a. Loop through the tuple
b. Print the tuple length.
2. Create a tuple with the science books of your grade. Print the length of the tuple and loop
through the tuple.

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1.8. Python Sets

A set is a collection which is unordered and unindexed. In Python sets are written with curly brackets

# Note: the set list is unordered, meaning: the items will appear in a random order.
# Refresh this page to see the change in the result.

Access Items
You cannot access items in a set by referring to an index, since sets are unordered the items has no
index.
But you can loop through the set items using a for loop, or ask if a specified value is present in a set,
by using the in keyword.

Change Items
Once a set is created, you cannot change its items, but you can add new items.

Add Items
To add one item to a set use the add() method.
To add more than one item to a set use the update() method.

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Get the Length of a Set
To determine how many items a set have, use the len() method.

Remove Item
To remove an item in a set, use the remove(), or the discard() method.

Exercises
1. From given set music = { “Rock”, “Jazz”, “Blues”, “Pop Music”, “Classical Music” }
a. Check if Musical Theatre is in the set.
b. Remove Blues
c. Add two new items Folk Music and Hip Hop Music at the set
d. Determine how many items do you have in the set.

2. From given set genres = { “Satire”, “Drama”, “Mystery”, “Science”, “Poetry” }

a. Check if Encyclopedias is in the set.
b. Remove Science.
c. Add two new items Travel and Art at the set
d. Determine how many items do you have in the set.

3. Create a set of vegetables and play with it as much as possible.

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1.9. Python Dictionaries
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection which is unordered, changeable and indexed. In Python dictionaries are
written with curly brackets, and they have keys and values.

Accessing Items
You can access the items of a dictionary by referring to its key name:

There are also a method called get() that will give you the same result:

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Change Values
You can change the value of a specific item by referring to its key name:

Loop Through a Dictionary

You can loop through a dictionary by using a for loop. When looping through a dictionary, the return
value are the keys of the dictionary, but there are methods to return the values as well.

You can also use the values() function to return values of a dictionary:

19
Loop through both keys and values, by using the items() function:

Adding Items
Adding an item to the dictionary is done by using a new index key and assigning a value to it:

Removing Items
There are several methods to remove items from a dictionary:

The pop() method removes the item with the specified key name:

20
The popitem() method removes the last item:

The clear() keyword empties the dictionary:

Exercises
1. From given dictionary
Eurovision_Songs = {
Singer:“Eugent Bushpepa”,
Title: “Mall” ,
Composer: “Eugent Bushpepa”,
Country: “Albania”
}
a. Print the singer’s name.
b. Change Country from Albania to Shqiperi
c. Add two new items Guitar: “Denis Hima” and Drums: “Gerti Hima”
d. Remove Composer and the last item that we inserted.

2. From given dictionary

singers = {
Year_2004= “Anjeza Shahini”,
Year_2006=“Luiz Ejlli”,
Year_2008=“Frederik Ndoci”,
Year_2010=“Juliana Pasha”,
}
a. Print theYear_2010 value.
b. Change Year_2008 from Frederik Ndoci to Olta Boka
c. Add two new items Year_2012: “Rona Nishliu” and Year_2015: “Elhaida Dani”
d. Remove Year_2006.

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1.10. Python If ... Else

Python Conditions and If statements

Python supports the usual logical conditions from mathematics:
● Equals: x == y
● Not Equals: x != y
● Less than: x < y
● Less than or equal to: x <= y
● Greater than: x > y
● Greater than or equal to: x >= y
These conditions can be used in several ways, most commonly in "if statements" and loops.
An "if statement" is written by using the if keyword.

Indentation
Python relies on indentation, using whitespace, to define scope in the code. Other programming
languages often use curly-brackets for this purpose.

Elif
The elif keyword is pythons way of saying "if the previous conditions were not true, then try this
condition".

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Else
The else keyword catches anything which isn't caught by the preceding conditions.

In this example x is greater to y, so the first condition is not true, also the elif condition is not true, so
we go to the else condition and print to screen that "x is greater than y".
You can also have an else without the elif:

Shorthand If
If you have only one statement to execute, you can put it on the same line as the if statement.

And
The and keyword is a logical operator, and is used to combine conditional statements:

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Or
The or keyword is a logical operator, and is used to combine conditional statements:

Exercises
1. What happens when the following code is executed? Will it give any error? Explain the
reasons.
x=2
if x == 2:
print x
else:
print y
2. What happens the following code is executed? Will it give any error? Explain the reasons.
x=2
if x == 2:
print x
else:
x+
3. Write a Python program that requests the age value from the user. If the value is between
1 and 17 inclusive, print “You can NOT take the driving license” otherwise, print “You
can take the driving license”

4. Write a Python program that allows a user to type in an English day of the week (Sunday,
Monday, etc.). The program should print the Albanian equivalent, if possible.

5. Write a Python program that requests 6 integer values from the user. It then prints the
maximum and minimum values entered. If the user enters the values 9, 8, 5, 0, and 2, the
program would indicate that 9 is the maximum and 0 is the minimum. Your program should
handle ties properly; for example, if the user enters 3, 5, 3, 4 and 4, the program should
report 3 as the minimum and 5 as maximum

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1.11. Python Loops
Python has two primitive loop commands:
● while loops
● for loops

The while Loop

With the while loop we can execute a set of statements as long as a condition is true.

The break Statement

With the break statement we can stop the loop even if the while condition is true:

The continue Statement

With the continue statement we can stop the current iteration, and continue with the next:

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Python For Loops
A for loop is used for iterating over a sequence (that is either a list, a tuple, a dictionary, a set, or a
string).
This is less like the for keyword in other programming language, and works more like an iterator
method as found in other object-oriented programming languages.
With the for loop we can execute a set of statements, once for each item in a list, tuple, set etc.

Looping Through a String

Even strings are iterable objects, they contain a sequence of characters:

The range() Function

To loop through a set of code a specified number of times, we can use the range() function,
The range() function returns a sequence of numbers, starting from 0 by default, and increments by 1
(by default), and ends at a specified number.

26
The range() function defaults to 0 as a starting value, however it is possible to specify the starting
value by adding a parameter: range(12, 18), which means values from 12 to 18

The range() function defaults to increment the sequence by 1, however it is possible to specify the
increment value by adding a third parameter:

Else in For Loop

The else keyword in a for loop specifies a block of code to be executed when the loop is finished:

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Nested Loops
A nested loop is a loop inside a loop. The "inner loop" will be executed one time for each iteration of
the "outer loop":

Exercises

1. Write a Python program to find those numbers which are divisible by 7 and multiple of 5,
between 1500 and 2700 (both included).

2. Write a Python program to convert temperatures to and from celsius, fahrenheit.

Formula : c/5 = f-32/9 [ where c = temperature in celsius; f = temperature in fahrenheit ]
Expected Output :
60°C is 140 in Fahrenheit
45°F is 7 in Celsius

3. Write a Python program to guess a number between 1 to 9.

Note : User is prompted to enter a guess. If the user guesses wrong then the prompt appears
again until the guess is correct, on successful guess, user will get a "Well guessed!"
message, and the program will exit.

4. Write a Python program to construct the following pattern, using a nested for loop.
*
**
***
****
*****
****
***
**
*
5. Write a Python program to count the number of even and odd numbers from a series of
numbers.
Sample numbers : numbers = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Expected Output :

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 Number of even numbers : 5
Number of odd numbers : 4

6. Write a Python program to get the Fibonacci series between 0 to 50.

Note : The Fibonacci Sequence is the series of numbers :
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, ....
Every next number is found by adding up the two numbers before it.
Expected Output : 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34

7. Write a Python program which iterates the integers from 1 to 50. For multiples of three
print "Fizz" instead of the number and for the multiples of five print "Buzz". For numbers
which are multiples of both three and five print "FizzBuzz".
Sample Output :
fizzbuzz
1
2
fizz
4
buzz

1.12. Python Functions

A function is a block of code which only runs when it is called. You can pass data, known as
parameters, into a function. A function can return data as a result.

Creating a Function
In Python a function is defined using the def keyword:

Calling a Function
To call a function, use the function name followed by parenthesis:

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Parameters
Information can be passed to functions as parameter.
Parameters are specified after the function name, inside the parentheses. You can add as many
parameters as you want, just separate them with a comma.
The following example has a function with one parameter (fname). When the function is called, we
pass along a first name, which is used inside the function to print the full name:

Return Values
To let a function return a value, use the return statement:

1.13. Python Lambda

A lambda function is a small anonymous function. A lambda function can take any number of
arguments, but can only have one expression.

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Syntax
lambda arguments : expression The expression is executed and the result is returned:

1.14. Python Arrays

Arrays
Arrays are used to store multiple values in one single variable:

Access the Elements of an Array

You refer to an array element by referring to the index number.

The Length of an Array

Use the len() method to return the length of an array (the number of elements in an array).

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Looping Array Elements
You can use the for in loop to loop through all the elements of an array.

Adding Array Elements

You can use the append() method to add an element to an array.

Removing Array Elements

You can use the pop() method to remove an element from the array.
You can also use the remove() method to remove an element from the array.

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1. SQL BASICS
SQL is a standard language for storing, manipulating and retrieving data in databases.

What is SQL? For detailed information about data &

database check this on Activities file:
• SQL stands for Structured Query Language Video 1.1
• SQL lets you access and manipulate databases
• SQL became a standard of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1986, and of the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1987

What Can SQL do?

• SQL can execute queries against a database
• SQL can retrieve data from a database
• SQL can insert records in a database
• SQL can update records in a database
• SQL can delete records from a database
• SQL can create new databases
• SQL can create new tables in a database
• SQL can create stored procedures in a database
• SQL can create views in a database
• SQL can set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

Using SQL in Your Web Site

To build a web site that shows data from a database, you will need:

• An RDBMS database program (i.e. MS Access, SQL Server, MySQL)

• To use a server-side scripting language, like PHP or ASP
• To use SQL to get the data you want
• To use HTML / CSS to style the page

RDBMS
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RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management System.

RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and for all modern database systems such as MS SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle, MySQL,
and Microsoft Access.

The data in RDBMS is stored in database objects called tables. A table is a collection of related data entries and it
consists of columns and rows. Here is an example table:

Image from: w3schools.com

Every table is broken up into smaller entities called fields. The fields in the Customers table consist of CustomerID,
CustomerName, ContactName, Address, City, PostalCode and Country. A field is a column in a table that is designed
to maintain specific information about
every record in the table.

A record, also called a row, is each

individual entry that exists in a table. For
example, there are 10 records in the above
Customers table. A record is a horizontal
entity in a table.

A column is a vertical entity in a table that

contains all information associated with a
specific field in a table.

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2. SQL Syntax
Database Tables
A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified by a name (e.g. "Customers" or
"Orders"). Tables contain records (rows) with data.

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:

The table above contains five records (one for each customer) and seven columns (CustomerID, CustomerName,
ContactName, Address, City, PostalCode, and Country).

SQL Statements
Most of the actions you need to perform on a database are done with SQL statements.

The following SQL statement selects all the records in the "Customers" table:

SELECT * FROM Customers;

SQL keywords are NOT case sensitive: select is the same as SELECT

Check this on Activities file:

Example 2.1

36
Semicolon after SQL Statements?
Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of each SQL statement.

Semicolon is the standard way to separate each SQL statement in database systems that allow more than one SQL
statement to be executed in the same call to the server.

Some of The Most Important SQL Commands

SELECT extracts data from a database

UPDATE updates data in a database

DELETE deletes data from a database

INSERT INTO inserts new data into a database

CREATE DATABASE creates a new database

ALTER DATABASE modifies a database

CREATE TABLE creates a new table

ALTER TABLE modifies a table

DROP TABLE deletes a table

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3. SELECT Statement
The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.

The data returned is stored in a result table, called the result-set.

Select Syntax

SELECT column1, column2, … FROM table_name;

Here, column1, column2, ... are the field names of the table you want to select data from.

If you want to select all the fields available in the table, use the following syntax:

SELECT * FROM table_name;

Example 3.1: The following SQL statement selects the "CustomerName" and "City" columns from the
"Customers" table:

SELECT CustomerName, City FROM Customers;

Example 3.2: The following SQL statement selects all the columns from the "Customers" table:

SELECT * FROM Customers;

Practice: Try selecting other columns using links on Activities file.

Check these on Activities file:

Example 3.1
Example 3.2

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4. SELECT DISTINCT Statement
The SELECT DISTINCT statement is used to return only distinct (different) values.

Inside a table, a column often contains many duplicate values; and sometimes you only want to list the different
(distinct) values.

The SELECT DISTINCT statement is used to return only distinct (different) values.

SELECT DISTINCT Syntax

SELECT DISTINCT column1, column2, … FROM table_name;

SELECT DISTINCT Examples

Example 4.1: The following SQL statement selects only the DISTINCT values from the "Country" column in the
"Customers" table:

SELECT DISTINCT Country FROM Customers;

Example 4.2: The following SQL statement lists the number of different (distinct) customer countries:

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT Country) FROM Customers;

Check these on Activities file:

Example 4.1
Example 4.2
Example 4.3

Note: The example above (4.1 & 4.2) will not work in Firefox and Microsoft Edge! Because COUNT(DISTINCT
column_name) is not supported in Microsoft Access databases. Firefox and Microsoft Edge are using
Microsoft Access in our examples. In that case use Example 4.3

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5. WHERE Clause
The WHERE clause is used to filter records.

The WHERE clause is used to extract only those records that fulfill a specified condition.

WHERE Syntax

SELECT column1, column2, ...

FROM table_name
WHERE condition;

Note: The WHERE clause is not only used in SELECT statement, it is also used in UPDATE, DELETE
statement, etc.!

Example 5.1: The following SQL statement selects all the customers from the country "Mexico", in the
"Customers" table:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE Country=’Mexico’;

Text Fields vs. Numeric Fields

SQL requires single quotes around text values (most database systems will also allow double quotes).

However, numeric fields should not be enclosed in quotes:

Example 5.2: SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE CustomerID=1;

Check these on Activities file:

Example 5.1
Example 5.2

40
Operators in WHERE Clause
The following operators can be used in the WHERE clause:

Practice: Try some of these operators using links on Activities file.

41
6. AND, OR and NOT (Logical) Operators
The WHERE clause can be combined with AND, OR, and NOT operators.

The AND and OR operators are used to filter records based on more than one condition:

• The AND operator displays a record if all the conditions separated by AND is TRUE.
• The OR operator displays a record if any of the conditions separated by OR is TRUE.

The NOT operator displays a record if the condition(s) is NOT TRUE.

AND Syntax

SELECT column1, column2, ... FROM table_name

WHERE condition1 AND condition2 AND
condition3 … ;

OR Syntax

SELECT column1, column2, ... FROM table_name

WHERE condition1 OR condition2 OR condition3 … ;

NOT Syntax

SELECT column1, column2, ... FROM table_name

WHERE NOT condition;

Examples
Example 6.1 (AND): The following SQL statement selects all fields from "Customers" where country is
"Germany" AND city is "Berlin":

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE Country=’Germany’ AND City=’München’;

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Example 6.2 (OR): The following SQL statement selects all fields from "Customers" where city is "Berlin"
OR "München":

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City=’Berlin’ OR City=’München’;

Example 6.3 (NOT): The following SQL statement selects all fields from "Customers" where country is NOT
"Germany":

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE NOT Country=’Germany’;

Check these on Activities file:

Example 6.1
Example 6.2
Example 6.3

Combining AND, OR and NOT

You can also combine the AND, OR and NOT operators.

The following SQL statement selects all fields from "Customers" where country is "Germany" AND city must be

"Berlin" OR "München" (use parenthesis to form complex expressions): (Example 6.4)

SELECT * FROM Customers

WHERE Country=’Germany’ AND (City=’Berlin’ OR City=’München’);

Example 6.5: The following SQL statement selects all fields from "Customers" where country is NOT
"Germany" and NOT "USA":

SELECT * FROM Customers

WHERE NOT Country=’Germany’ AND NOT Country=’USA’;

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7. ORDER BY Keyword
The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set in ascending or descending order.

The ORDER BY keyword sorts the records in ascending order by default. To sort the records in descending order,
use the DESC keyword.

ORDER BY Syntax

SELECT column1, column2, ...

FROM table_name
ORDER BY column1, column2, ... ASC|DESC;

Example 7.1: The following SQL statement selects all customers from the "Customers" table, sorted by the
"Country" column (ASCENDING as default):

SELECT * FROM Customers ORDER BY Country;

SELECT * FROM Customers ORDER BY Country ASC;

These two definitions above will show the same result.

Example 7.2: The following SQL statement selects all customers from the "Customers" table, sorted
DESCENDING by the "Country" column:

SELECT * FROM Customers ORDER BY Country DESC;

Example 7.3: The following SQL statement selects all customers from the "Customers" table, sorted by the
"Country" and the "CustomerName" column:

SELECT * FROM Customers ORDER BY Country, CustomerName;

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Example 7.4: The following SQL statement selects all customers from the "Customers" table, sorted
ascending by the "Country" and descending by the "CustomerName" column:

SELECT * FROM Customers ORDER BY Country ASC, CustomerName DESC;

8. INSERT INTO Statement

The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert new records in a table.

INSERT INTO Syntax

It is possible to write the INSERT INTO statement in two ways.

The first way specifies both the column names and the values to be inserted:

INSERT INTO table_name(column1, column2, coulmn3, ...)

VALUES (value1, value2, value3, …);

If you are adding values for all the columns of the table, you do not need to specify the column names in the SQL
query. However, make sure the order of the values is in the same order as the columns in the table. The INSERT
INTO syntax would be as follows:

INSERT INTO table_name VALUES (value1, value2, value3, …);

Example 8.1: The following SQL statement inserts a new record in the "Customers" table:

INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerName, ContactName, Address, City,

PostalCode, Country) VALUES ('Cardinal', 'Tom B. Erichsen', 'Skagen
21', 'Stavanger', '4006', 'Norway');
45
The selection from the "Customers" table will now look like this:

Did you notice that the CustomerID field never mentioned?

The CustomerID column is an auto-increment field and will be generated

automatically when a new record is inserted into the table.

Insert Data Only in Specified Columns

It is also possible to only insert data in specific columns.

Example 8.2: The following SQL statement will insert a new record, but only insert data in the
"CustomerName", "City", and "Country" columns (CustomerID will be updated automatically):

INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerName, City, Country)

VALUES ('Cardinal', 'Stavanger', 'Norway');

The selection from the "Customers" table will now look like this:

Check these on Activities file:

Example 8.1
Example 8.2
46
9. UPDATE Statement
The UPDATE statement is used to modify the existing records in a table.

UPDATE Syntax

UPDATE table_name
SET column1 = value1, column2 = value2, ...
WHERE condition;

Note: Be careful when updating records in a table! Notice the WHERE clause in the UPDATE statement.
The WHERE clause specifies which record(s) that should be updated. If you omit the WHERE clause, all
records in the table will be updated!

UPDATE Table
Example 9.1: The following SQL statement updates the first customer (CustomerID = 1) with a new contact
person and a new city.

UPDATE Customers SET Contact_Name = 'Alfred Schmidt', City = ‘Frankfurt’

WHERE Customer_ID = 1;

The selection from the "Customers" table will now look like this:

47
UPDATE Multiple Records
It is the WHERE clause that determines how many records that will be updated.

Example 9.2: The following SQL statement will update the Contactname to "Juan" for all records where
country is "Mexico":

UPDATE Customers SET Contact_Name = 'Juan' WHERE Counntry = ‘Mexico’;

The selection from the "Customers" table will now look like this:

Update Warning!
Be careful when updating records. If you omit the WHERE clause, ALL records will be updated!

Example 9.3:

UPDATE Customers SET Contact_Name = 'Juan'

The selection from the "Customers" table will now look like this:

48
 Check these on Activities file:

Example 9.1
Example 9.2
Example 9.3

10. DELETE Statement

The DELETE statement is used to delete existing records in a table.

DELETE Syntax

DELETE FROM table_name

WHERE condition;

Note: Be careful when deleting records in a table! Notice the WHERE clause in the DELETE statement.
The WHERE clause specifies which record(s) should be deleted. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records in
the table will be deleted!

49
Example 10.1: The following SQL statement deletes the customer "Alfreds Futterkiste" from the "Customers"
table:

DELETE FROM Customers WHERE Customer_Name = 'Alfreds Futterkiste'

The "Customers" table will now look like this:

Delete All Records

It is possible to delete all rows in a table without deleting the table. This means that the table structure, attributes,
and indexes will be intact:

DELETE FROM table_name; or DELETE * FROM table_name;

Check this on Activities file:

Example 10.1

50
 Match the statements to compare computers and humans.

A computer never gets tired and can

1 d a. A human is not a machine.
work continuously.
A human performs mathematical
2 A computer is an electronic machine. b. operations slowly and can make
mistakes.
The storage capacity of a human is very
3 Computers need electricity to work. c.
high.
Computers perform arithmetic
Humans can work continuously for a
4 operations very fast and without d.
limited number of hours.
mistakes.

5 A computer cannot think. e. Humans can think.

Computers can be classified by their

6 f. Humans need food and water to work.
configurations.
Computers have limited storage
7 g. Each human being is different.
capacity.

TYPES OF COMPUTERS

Mainframe Computers
A mainframe computer is a big, powerful, and expensive computer. Many
people can use the power of a mainframe computer at the same time, using
either a Personal Computer (PC) or a Dumb Terminal. A PC performs a lot
of processing itself. A dumb terminal uses the mainframe computer to do all
the processing and just shows the results on a screen. Large organizations,
for example, banks and insurance companies, use mainframe computers.

IBM System z10 Mainframe Computer

52
Minicomputers
Like mainframe computers, minicomputers are multi-user computers. They
are very powerful and expensive. Mainframes and minicomputers are used for
very similar purposes. Middle-sized companies use minicomputers.
As microcomputers developed in 1970s and 1980s, minicomputers filled
the mid-range area between low powered single-user microcomputers and
high capacity multi-user mainframes. Since microcomputers have become
more powerful and the PC networks emerged in 1980s and 1990s, the
minicomputers role has been filled by microcomputers.

Supercomputers
A supercomputer is a mainframe computer that is incredibly powerful and has
a very large capacity for processing data. Supercomputers are often used
by the military services. They are also used for such research as weather
forecasting, in which a huge amount of data must be processed rapidly.
Cray-2 was the world’s fastest computer in the 1980s. It was used by
U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy for nuclear weapons research,
Data General minicomputer
by NASA’s Ames Research Center and by universities and corporations
worldwide for different purposes.
IBM Sequoia, IBM Roadrunner, IBM Blue Gene, and NEC Earth Simulator
are the world’s fastest computers.

NEC Earth Simulator Supercomputer

IBM Sequoia 2012 - The world’s fastest supercomputer

Microcomputers
Microcomputers are usually used only by one person at a time. An IBM
PC and Apple Macintosh are two kinds of microcomputers. There are
desktop, laptop, palmtop, tabletop, pocket, tablet, and netbook models of
microcomputers.
The Gartner information technology research and advisory company reported
that the one billion personal computers in the world in October 2008 double
Apple iPhone pocket PC
by 2014

53
 COMPUTERS IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Communication
The Internet has made big changes in communication. It is a worldwide
network of information resources and a powerful communication tool. Today,
people can send e-mails, voice messages, and video clips to each other in
seconds. They can also have typed conversations (chat), voice chat, and
video conferencing with other Internet users all over the world.
The most used Internet communication tools are Electronic mail (web-based
e-mail programs such as Hotmail, Yahoo mail, or Google mail, client-based
mail such as Outlook Express), Internet forums, newsgroups, and real-time
There are nearly half a billion communication such as Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo messenger.
Windows Live users in the world.
Education
A scientific investigation has shown that education will be quite different in
the near future with CBET (computer-based education and training). The
research shows that CBET contributes to education in the following ways:

zzImprove the quality of education.

zzPersonalize education.
zzDistance learning opportunities.
zzHelp students to learn faster.
zzHelp students to study in groups easily.
zzHelp students to obtain information faster, more easily, and more cheaply.
zzSupport lifelong learning.
A digital library contains thousands
of books. zzUnlimited source of information.
zzMake administration tasks easier in schools (e.g.,preparing a timetable for
a school in just a few minutes).
zzHelp parents track their children’s grades using the Internet.

Computer-based learning requires instructional software. Instructional software

is commonly used as follows::
zzTutorials present information and guide the learner.
zzHypermedia programs allow learners to choose their own paths through
the materials.
zzDrills help users to practice for fluency and retention.
zzSimulations allow users to operate freely and safely within a constrained
environment.
zzGames can be used to practice information in a competitive manner, may
E-learning (online training) is an be used as a discovery environment, or may be used to integrate learning
alternative to traditional classroom across a number of subject areas.
training.

54
zzGraphics tools can be used to support drawing in art or graphing in math.
Calculations tools support science education.
zzTests are used to assess what has been learned.
zzWeb-based learning can be combined with other methodologies. It is most
often used with hypermedia methodology.

Astronomy and Space Technology

Astronomy and space technology need complex and precise calculations.
Without computers, it would have been impossible for humans to go into
space; to put satellites in orbit; and to study and follow planets, stars, comets,
and meteors.
Mistakes made by programmers or errors in computer systems have caused
big losses in space work. For example, some years ago, space scientists
lost the satellite Clementine in space because of a mistake in a computer
program.

A satellite control center

Press and Publishing

The use of page layout software on a
computer (desktop publishing - DTP)
allows publishers to produce high
quality printable documents.
Preparing books, newsletters, and
magazines has become easier with
computers. Writers, designers, and
publishers can prepare and store
their work on computers.

Authoring a book in QuarkXPress

55
 Entertainment
Many people use computers to play games, listen to music, watch movies, or
share jokes with their friends. Multimedia computers are special computers
for listening to music and watching movies. There are also special game
computers such as, PlayStation, Dreamcast, and Xbox.

Engineering, Architecture, and Design

Engineers can prepare plans quickly and easily using CAD (computer-aided
design) programs. They can print their plans from a computer and share them
Playing a video game with other people.

Finance and Accounting

Finance and accounting need fast and accurate calculations. Computers help
companies to manage money and make good financial decisions.

Banking
Banks benefit from computer technology more than any other kind of
company. Banks can store account information and perform banking
operations using computers. Bank customers can use a computer to access
A 3-D house design their bank accounts from home. Automated teller machines (ATM) online
and mobile banking help banks to the number of human tasks and allow
customers to do their banking without going to the bank.

ATM banking

Employees work in front of computers in a bank .

POS (Point of Sale) machine

56
Biology and Medicine
Today, computers control almost all of the medical machines used in hospitals
and for research. These machines help discover and cure illnesses much
faster. For example, the Human Genome Project is an important research
project that is using computers to develop a map of the human genome. It is
a global, long-term research effort to identify the estimated 30000 genes in
human DNA.

Military Services
The military services use very powerful
computers to control missiles and satellites
and make decisions about military targets.
They also use computers to train airplane
pilots with special simulation programs. Monitoring a patient

A plane simulator

Find five people who use computers at work. Complete the table with the information you find.

Name & Surname Job Uses a computer for...

Keeping a list of students, with their grades, absences, and

Teacher of
John Smith comments. Preparing presentations, quizzes, and exams.
English
Showing visual materials in lessons.

MEASURING DATA (BITS AND BYTES)

Understanding Data
Data (the plural of datum) are anything in a form suitable for use with a Data are any sort of raw fact.
computer. Whatever a computer receives as an input is data. Data are raw Information is a usable form of
facts without any clear meaning. Computers process data and generate data, usually processed in some
information. way. It is data plus interpretation.
If the pieces of a puzzle are data,
All data stored and processed by computers are in the form of whole numbers. then the completed puzzle are
The purpose of the numbers becomes clear after they are interpreted and information.
displayed by software.

57
The apple.bmp File
Part of the data stored in the computer for the file apple.bmp

Decimal and Binary Number Systems

Since childhood, we have learned to do our computations using the numbers
0 - 9, the digits of the decimal number system. In fact, we are so accustomed
to working with decimal numbers that we hardly think about their use.
Considering the widespread use of this system, why should anyone bother
to study the binary number system? The answer is found in something that is
almost as widespread as decimal numbers: computers.
Every computer processor is made of millions of tiny switches that can be
turned off or on. Because these switches have only two states, it makes
sense for a computer to perform its computations with a number system that
has only two digits: the binary number system. These digits (0 and 1) are
called bits and correspond to the off and on positions of the switches in the
computer processor. With only these two digits, a computer can perform all
the arithmetic that we can with ten digits.
We measure computer information (data) in bits and bytes. Bit is short
for binary digit. It is the smallest unit of information that a computer can
understand. One bit represents a 1 or 0 digit in a binary numeral or a true or
false logical condition. A bit is represented physically by high or low voltage
in a circuit or a small magnetized spot on a disk.
Byte is short for binary term. A byte usually contains eight bits. It can
represent a single character, such as a letter, a digit, or a punctuation mark.
Because a byte represents only a small amount of information, we usually
measure amounts of computer memory and storage in
Representing a signal with binary
and decimal numbers zzkilobytes (one kilobyte is 1024 bytes),
zzmegabytes (one megabyte is 1048576 bytes), or
zzgigabytes (one gigabyte is 1073741824 bytes).

58
 In Bits
In Bytes In Bits
(Power Notation)
1 byte 23 bits 8 bits

1 kilobyte (KB) 210 bytes 1024 bytes

1 megabyte (MB) 220 bytes 1024 kilobytes

1 gigabyte (GB) 230 bytes 1024 megabytes

1 terabyte (TB) 240 bytes 1024 gigabytes

1 petabyte (PB) 250 bytes 1024 terabytes

1 exabyte (EB) 260 bytes 1024 petabytes

Converting a Decimal Number to Its Binary Equivalent

To convert a decimal number to its binary equivalent, repeatedly divide the
decimal number by 2, the base of the binary system. Division by 2 will either
give a remainder of 1 (dividing an odd number) or no remainder (dividing an
even number). Collecting the remainders from repeated divisions will give the
binary answer.
Consider the decimal number 178. The steps below show how to convert
this number to binary using repeated division. Reading remainders from right
to left, the final answer is 10110010. Remember that the first division gives
the least significant digit of the answer, and the final division gives the most
significant digit of the answer. Also, the result of the final division is always 0.

Converting a Binary Number to Its Decimal Equivalent

To find the decimal value of a binary number, simply calculate the value of
each binary digit and then sum these values. To convert the binary number
to decimal, calculate the position value for each binary digit and then sum
these values.
Consider the binary number 10110010. The following chart shows how to
calculate the position values and sum them up to get the decimal number.

59
 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Positions values
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

Binary digits 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0

Products 128 0 32 16 0 0 2 0

Decimal Number 128+0+32+16+0+0+2+0 = 178

Octal Numbers and Hexadecimal Numbers

While the binary number system is very important because of its connection
with computers, it is not the only number system of importance. Two other
number systems frequently seen are octal numbers and hexadecimal
numbers.
The octal number system is a base-8 number system and uses the digits 0 - 7
to represent numbers. The hexadecimal number system is a base-16 number
system and uses the digits 0 - 9 along with the letters a - f to represent
numbers. The table below shows a comparison of the first 16 numbers in the
binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal number systems.

Binary Octal Decimal Hexadecimal

0000 0 0 0
0001 1 1 1
0010 2 2 2
0011 3 3 3
0100 4 4 4
0101 5 5 5
0110 6 6 6
0111 7 7 7
You can use Windows Calculator
or some other calculator 1000 10 8 8
programs to convert the values 1001 11 9 9
between different number
1010 12 10 A
systems.
1011 13 11 B
1100 14 12 C
1101 15 13 D
1110 16 14 E
1111 17 15 F
Base 2 Base 8 Base 10 Base 16

60
 Introduction
The physical parts of a computer are called hardware. In this chapter, we will
examine the different types of hardware according to four groups: the system
unit, input devices, output devices, and storage devices.
The system unit contains the main components of the computer, such as
the mainboard, CPU, RAM, graphics card, hard disk, disk drives, and power
supply. It can also contain optional components such as a sound card or a
network card.
We use input devices to put data into the computer. The most common input
devices are the keyboard and the mouse. Other types of input device are a
scanner, joystick, light pen, touch screen, webcam, and digital camera.
Output devices are the components that display results. A monitor, printer,
A desktop PC system plotter, and speaker are all output devices.
Storage devices are used to store data permanently. A hard disk, floppy
disk, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, zip disk, flash memory, memory cards, and tape
cartridge are examples of storage devices.
Some hardware parts (such as the CPU, mainboard, RAM, power supply,
keyboard, graphics card, and hard disk) are necessary for computer to work.
Some parts , such as a modem and network card, are optional and simply
increase a computer’s functionality.

THE SYSTEM UNIT

All of the main components of a computer are grouped together in the
system unit. For instance, the system unit includes the computer system’s
motherboard (including the processor), expansion cards (video card, sound
card, network card, etc.), power supply, and items such as hard disks, and
CD-ROM drives, and so on.

Chassis (Case)
The chassis is the metal and plastic box that contains the system unit
(mainboard, power supply, cooling equipment, hard drives, memories, optical
drives, and any expansion cards). It protects the system from the outside world
and helps to keep the system unit components cool. The closed design and
good air flow inside the chassis are especially important for components such
as the CPU and hard drive, which can get very hot when they are working.

61
Cases can come in many different sizes or form factors. Currently, the most
popular form factor for desktop computers is ATX. The ATX (Advanced
Technology eXtended) form factor was created by Intel in 1995. It was the
first big change in computer case and motherboard design in many years.
There are some general and more specific classifications regarding all cases.
The first classification is according to one of four basic types: towers, mid-
towers, mini towers, and desktops. Tower chassis usually stand vertically,
whereas desktop chassis stand horizontally.
Most standalone servers come in large towers, which sit upright and are
generally very large to accommodate a large number of hard drives, cooling
equipment, and dual processors. Some high-end workstations and gaming
stations these days are enclosed by full towers. Mid-towers are like towers in
that they stand upright but are generally smaller in depth, length, and height.
The vast majority of computers these days are mid-towers or mini towers. A PC with a desktop case
The fourth class is the desktop. This is a computer that lies flat on the desk,
usually with the monitor on top of it.

A PC with a midi tower case

Inside a tower case

62
 Power Supply
The power supply is an electrical device that transforms the standard
electricity supply (115-120 volts AC (alternating current) in the United States or
220 volts AC in Europe) into the lower voltages (3.3 or 5 to 12 volts DC (direct
current) that computer systems require. Personal computer power supplies
are measured in watts. They usually range from about 50 watts to 500 watts.





 
 

Power supply of a PC 


  

 


  





  

 
 

  
     


Your PC’s power supply converts the 220 volt outlet alternating current to various direct current levels.

  Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)




A UPS is primarily used as a backup power source for the computer. It can

  

keep a computer running for a while so a user can save work and properly

 shut down the computer when the power goes out. It also protects the






computer against different power problems such as high voltage, low voltage,
 

 and frequency differences.
     

63
Proper use of a UPS A UPS with a digital display

What is the total power usage of your computer? Calculate sum of the power usage of each component.
Component Power Usage in Watt
Monitor
Motherboard
CPU
CPU fan
Case fans
Hard disk
RAMs
Video card
Sound card
Network card
CD/DVD drive
USB devices
Total Power

64
 Mainboard
The mainboard (also called the motherboard, or system board) is the biggest
board inside your system unit. All the main components of your computer
connect to the mainboard. The CPU, BIOS and chipset are normally situated
on your mainboard along with all the other electronic components.
The CPU executes computer programs, BIOS contains the first code that is
run by the PC when powered on, and the chipset is a set of specialized chips
(northbridge and southbridge) that control the flow of data throughout the
motherboard.
The storage devices, such as the hard disk and DVD drive, are attached to the
mainboard via data cables. The expansion cards, such as the video card and
RAM modules, are attached to the mainboard via the PCI and memory slots.
The video and sound cards can be integrated into the mainboard (onboard).
Mainboards are getting smaller as the components become more integrated.
The well-known motherboard manufacturers are AsusTek, Intel, Giga-Byte,
Micro-Star International, MSI, PC Chips, and Tyan Computer.

1 20-Pin ATX power

6 connector

4 5 2 DRAM memory slot

7
3 3 IDE connector (x2)
2
4 Northbridge (with heatsink)

1 5 AGP slot

6 Southbridge

7 PCI slot (x5)

8
8 CMOS backup
battery

11 9 Connectors for
integrated peripherals
(PS/2 keyboard and mouse,
10
9 serial port, parallel port,
USB (x6), ethernet, audio (x3))

10 CPU socket

11 CPU fan and heatsink

mounting points

A mainboard

65
The ROM-BIOS (Read Only Memory-Basic Input Output System)
zzThis chip is a special ROM microchip on your computer’s mainboard. It
ensures that the BIOS will always be available and will not be damaged by
disk failures. It also makes it possible for a computer to boot itself. Many
modern PCs have flash BIOS, which means that the BIOS have been recorded
on a flash memory chip, which can be updated if necessary. Because RAM
is faster than ROM, many computer manufacturers design systems so that
the BIOS is copied from ROM to RAM each time the computer is booted.

On PCs, the BIOS software performs the following tasks:

zzChecks the information stored in a tiny (64 bytes) amount of memory located
on the CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) chip. The CMOS
Setup provides detailed information particular to the system and can be
altered as the system changes. The BIOS uses this information to modify or
supplement its default programming as needed.
zzConducts a power-on self-test (POST) for all the different hardware
components (keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications)
to make sure everything is working properly.
zzDisplays system settings.
zzLoads the operating system from hard disk to RAM.
zzActivates other BIOS chips on different cards installed in the computer.

You can configure the BIOS by entering the CMOS Setup. To enter the CMOS
Setup, you must press a certain key or combination of keys during the initial
startup sequence. Most systems use “Esc,” “Del,” “F1,” “F2,” “Ctrl-Esc,” or
“Ctrl-Alt-Esc” to enter setup. Once you enter the CMOS setup, you have the
following options:
zzSystem Time/Date: Set the system time and date.
zzBoot Sequence: Set the order of devices the BIOS will try to load the operating
system from.
zzPlug and Play: Set to “Yes” if your computer and operating system both
support it. This is a standard for auto-detecting connected devices.
zzMouse/Keyboard: Configure the keyboard and mouse by using “Enable
Num Lock,” “Enable the Keyboard,” “Auto-Detect Mouse” and so on.
zzDrive Configuration: Configure hard drives, CD-ROMs and floppy drives.
zzMemory: Direct the BIOS to shadow (copying the BIOS software to RAM)
to a specific memory address. Security: Set a password for accessing the
computer.
zzPower Management: Select whether to use power management, and set Different Types of BIOS Chips
the amount of time for standby and suspend.

66
 Phoenix – Award CMOS Setup screen

Any customized settings in the BIOS are retained when the PC is switched off
because a CMOS battery keeps the CMOS chip with the data powered up.
The CMOS battery is located on your computer’s motherboard.

CMOS Battery on the Mainboard

67
System Buses
A motherboard is the most critical part of a computer system. It consists of
three major components: the BIOS (basic input/output system) chip, the CPU
(central processing unit), and the system buses.
Every component in the computer must be able to communicate with the CPU
through the motherboard. This connection is done via a collection of copper
or gold tracings attached to the motherboard. These tiny wires are called
buses. Buses carry data and control messages between the components.
A motherboard has the following buses connected to it:
The Power Bus: Power for the system is distributed by the motherboard
via a power bus that is connected to the power supply. Some components
(especially disk drives) draw their power directly from the power supply
instead of through the power bus. Other components, like PCI cards and USB
devices, draw power directly from the power bus.

zzThe Front Side Bus: The front side bus is a special high speed bus. It is
designed especially to connect the CPU to components with which it must
communicate very frequently, such as, RAM and the system’s video card.
zzThe Back Side Bus: The back side bus is a special bus that allows
communication between the CPU and the layer-2 cache, which is a device
that offloads some specialized computing tasks to make the CPU operate
more quickly.
zzThe Peripheral Component Interface (PCI) Bus: The PCI bus is a slightly
slower bus that connects many optional cards to the motherboard. Examples
include sound cards, network cards, and custom manufactured external
peripheral cards. There is a newer PCI standard, called PCI Express, which
is designed to handle inter-card communication at multi-gigabit speeds.
zzThe Universal Serial Bus (USB): Many external peripherals are connected
to the system via the USB.
zzFirewire Bus: Firewire is a special bus designed to operate very efficiently
with cameras and other peripherals that require an extremely high speed,
wired interface.

Buses on the motherboard

68
  












  


  
    









 





Diagram of system buses

The Bus Arbitration (Chipset)

The bus arbitration chipset is an integrated circuit on the motherboard. It
controls how the mainboard buses are used. If two different devices try to use
the same bus at the same time, it can cause a problem. The bus arbitrator
prevents this problem. On a PC, the chipset consists of two basic parts: the
northbridge and the southbridge.
The northbridge connects directly to the processor via the front side bus
(FSB). A memory controller is located on the northbridge, giving the CPU
fast access to the memory. The northbridge also connects to the AGP or PCI
Express bus and to the memory itself.
The southbridge is slower than the northbridge, and information from the
CPU has to go through the northbridge before reaching the southbridge.
Other busses connect the southbridge to the PCI bus, the USB ports, and the
IDE or SATA hard disk connections.

69
 CPU



AGP RAM
Northbridge

Southbridge

PCI Legacy

USB BIOS

ISA IDE

The bus arbitration of mainboard

Expansion Slots
Expansion slots hold expansion cards (such
as a video card, sound card, or network card)
and connect them to the buses. Laptops
and other portable computers use special
expansion slots called PCMCIA slots, which
accept small expansion cards called PC
Cards. Common types of expansion slots
are AGP, AMR, CNR, EISA, ISA, PCI, and
VESA.
AGP (accelerated graphics port) is a high
speed connection used only by video cards,
so there can be only one in a computer.
It has direct access to system memory so
that the computer’s memory can be used in
An AGP slot
addition to the video card’s memory.

70
 The PCI (peripheral component interconnect) is developed by Intel Corporation.
PnP (plug and play) is a It has gained wide acceptance (even by Apple, in its PowerPC series). Intel
technology that lets operating created the PnP (Plug and Play) standard and incorporated it into the design
systems automatically detect for PCI. PCI originally operated at 33 MHz using a 32-bit-wide path. Currently,
and configure most of the PCI-X (PCI Express) provides for 64-bit transfers at a speed of 133 MHz for an
adaptors and peripherals internal
amazing 1-GBps (gigabyte per second) transfer rate. Most new motherboards
and external to the PC.
use PCI slots only.

Three types of PCI expansion slots

Bus Speed Bus Bandwidth

Bus Width (bits)
(MHz) (MB/sec.)
8-bit ISA 8 8.3 7.9
16-bit ISA 16 8.3 15.9
EISA 32 8.3 31.8
VLB 32 33 127.2
PCI 32 33 127.2
PCI 64 133 1 GBps
64-bit PCI 2.1 64 66 508.6
AGP 32 66 254.3
AGP (x2 mode) 32 66x2 508.6
AGP (x4 mode) 32 66x4 1,017.3
Bus specifications

71
ATA and ATAPI Interfaces
ATA (advanced technology attachment) is the real name for the mass storage
device (such as hard disks, solid-state drives, and CD-ROM drives) interface, SCSI (small computer system
frequently called IDE (integrated drive electronics)or EIDE (enhanced IDE). It interface) is a type of interface
uses 16-bit parallel interface for controlling computer drives. ATAPI (advanced used for components such
technology attachment packet interface) allows SCSI devices to be attached as hard drives, optical drives,
to the ATA interface. scanners, and tape drives. The
SCSI card fits into an internal
SATA (serial ATA) is a new standard for connecting hard drives into computer PCI slot. SCSI devices are then
systems. As its name implies, SATA is based on serial signaling technology, connected to this card.
unlike current IDE hard drives that use parallel signaling (PATA). The current
SATA standard provides significant benefits over ATA in terms of convenience,
power consumption, and most importantly, performance.

1 SATA Interface

1 2 ATA Interfaces

IDE and SATA connectors on the mainboard

IDE cable with one 40-pin connector in each end

72
 SATA cable

Peripheral Connectors
Many newer motherboards have multiple connectors attached to the side for
connecting peripheral or input/output devices. Examples of these ports are
shown below.

1 Mouse PS2 socket

2 Keyboard PS2 socket

1 7
3 Serial port

4 Parallel port

5 Audio ports

6 USB ports

7 RJ45 network sockets

2 3 4 5 6

Main connectors on the motherboard

zzSerial Ports allow connection of items such as modems to the computer.

Serial ports are commonly labeled COM1 or COM2. Serial ports are commonly
used in such applications as industrial automation systems, scientific analysis,
shop till systems and some consumer products. Network equipment often
uses a serial console for configuration. Serial ports are still used because
they are simple and cheap and their console functions (RS-232) are highly
standardized and widespread.

73
zzParallel Ports enables connection of items such as printers to the computer.
Parallel ports are commonly labeled LPT1 or LPT2. Before the advent of USB,
the parallel interface was adapted to access a number of peripheral devices
other than printers. The earliest devices to use parallel ports were dongles A dongle (hardlock) is a piece
of hardware that attaches to a
used as a hardware key form of software copy protection. Zip drives and
computer to make a piece of
scanners were early implementations, followed by external modems, sound secured software run.
cards, webcams, gamepads, joysticks, and external hard disk drives and CD-
ROM drives. Adapters were available to run SCSI devices via parallel. Other
devices such as EPROM programmers and hardware controllers could be
connected in parallel.

Parallel Port and USB dongles

zzThe PS/2 connector is used for connecting some keyboards and mice to a
PC compatible computer system. Its name comes from the IBM Personal
System/2 series of personal computers, with which it was introduced in 1987.
zzThe USB (universal serial bus) is a serial bus standard for connecting devices
to a host computer. USB was designed to allow many peripherals (printers,
scanners, cameras, network cards, mp3 players, and external hard disk
drives) to be connected using a single standardized interface socket and
to improve plug and play capabilities by allowing hot swapping. That is,
allowing devices to be connected and disconnected without rebooting the
computer or turning off the device.

Internal Speaker
An internal speaker is connected to the mainboard and allows the computer to
sound error or warning beeps while it is running. The PC speaker today deals
largely with low-level warning signals such as start-up errors.

The internal PC speaker

74
Find out your computer’s motherboard specifications and complete the table below. Run Windows
DirectX Diagnostic Tool (run dxdiag command from the command line) or download and use a third
party system diagnostic software, such as aida32, Cpu-z, or Meltdown System Diagnostic to obtain the
information you need about your system.

Component Description
Motherboard manufacturer
Motherboard model
Chipset
BIOS name and version
Front bus width and clock rate
Name of the CPU
Amount of L1 cache
Amount of L2 cache
Amount of physical memory
Number of physical memory modules
Amount of virtual memory (page file)
Type of graphic interface

Visit a computer seller’s web site or get a price list of computer components and compare the different
types of mainboards according to supported CPU, RAM, expansion slots, price, bus speed, and so on.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

A central processing unit (CPU) or processor is an electronic circuit that
can execute computer programs. The CPU is one of the most important
components inside your computer. It is like the brain of your computer,
because it performs all the computer calculations. CPU speed is measured
in gigahertz (GHz) and has an important effect on the overall speed of your
computer.
The main CPU manufacturers today are Intel, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices),
and VIA Technologies.

75
Inside a CPU
A CPU is a complete computation engine fabricated on a single chip. It consists
of a very small amount of very fast memory (cache) that is used both to queue
commands (program instructions) and to contain data to work on (registers).
The CPU contains an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) that processes commands
and performs operation on various registers and memory locations.

1 L2 cache

7
8 2 Control unit

1 3 Instruction unit
9
2 4 Registries
3 5 L1 cache (instructions)

4 6 Input - output management unit

5
7 ALV
6
8 FPU

9 L1 cache (data)

CPU block diagram

zzCPU Cache: A CPU cache is a smaller, faster memory that stores copies
of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations. When
the processor needs to read from or write to a location in main memory, it
first checks whether a copy of that data is in the cache. If so, the processor
immediately reads from or writes to the cache, a much faster that than reading
from or writing to main memory. Most modern desktop and server CPUs
have at least three independent caches: an instruction cache to speed up
executable instruction fetch, a data cache to speed up data fetch and store,
and a translation look aside buffer used to speed up virtual-to-physical
address translation for both executable instructions and data.
zzCU (Control Unit): The CU controls operations of other parts of the CPU,
such as determining the sequence of instruction to be executed and flow of
data among all parts of the computer, interpreting instructions, regulating
the timing of the processor, and sending and receiving control signals to
and from peripheral devices.
zzALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit): The ALU is a digital circuit that performs
arithmetic and logical operations. It is a fundamental building block of the
CPU of a computer, and even the simplest microprocessors contain one for
such purposes as maintaining timers. The modern CPUs have inside them
very powerful and very complex ALUs.

76
zzFloating-Point Unit (FPU): The FPU is a dedicated execution unit designed
for performing math functions on floating point numbers (any number other
than an integer, such as 12,34). In most modern general-purpose computer
architectures, one or more FPUs are integrated into the CPU. FPUs also
perform arithmetic operations between two values, but they do so for numbers
in floating point representation.
zzRegisters: A register is a local storage area within the processor whose
contents can be accessed more quickly than storage available elsewhere.
Processor registers are at the top of the memory hierarchy and provide the
fastest way for a CPU to access data. The number of these registers varies
among different CPUs. Widely used CPU registers are shown in the table
below.

Register Type Description

Instruction decoder interprets the instruction to be executed.
holds the address of next instruction to be
PC (programmer counter) executed.
IR (instruction register) holds the instruction being executed.
holds the processor bit about operation
Process status register performed by ALU.
stores intermediate and final results of
ACC (accumulator) calculation. It is the main working area of
ALU.
stores any temporary information during
General purpose register execution of instruction.
MAR (Memory Address
holds addresses of the data to be accessed.
Register)
MDR (Memory Data holds the data when they are transferred to
Register) and from the main memory.

32-Bit and 64-Bit Architectures

The CPU architecture is migrating from 32 bits to 64 bits. Roughly speaking,
a 32-bit CPU processes data in 32-bit chunks while a 64-bit CPU processes
data in 64-bit chunks. A 32-bit CPU can address 232 memory addresses
(about 4 GB of RAM) while 64-bit registers can address 264 addresses. Also,
32-bit CPUs must process 64-bit numbers in two steps, whereas 64-bit CPUs
require only one step. To take full advantage of a 64-bit CPU, the mainboard,
operating system, and application software should support 64-bit architecture.
64-bit processors provide full compatibility with 32-bit operating systems and
application software.

Single and Multi-Core Processors

A multi-core processor combines two or more independent cores into a single
package composed of a single IC (integrated circuit) packaged together. A
dual-core processor contains two cores, and a quad-core processor contains
four cores.

77
Cores in a multi-core device may share a single coherent cache at the highest
on-device cache level (e.g. L2 for the Intel Core 2) or may have separate Multitasking is the ability to
caches (e.g., current AMD dual-core processors). A dual-core processor execute two or more programs
with two cores at 2 GHz may perform very nearly as quickly as a single core simultaneously.
of 4 GHz if the software has been designed to take advantage of available
dual-core processors. If the software has not been designed for a dual-core
processor, there will not be any increased speed for this software, but the
processor will multi-task better because it can run two programs at once, one
on each core.
The most commercially significant multi-core processors are those used in
personal computers (primarily from Intel and AMD) and game consoles (e.g.,
the eight-core Cell processor in the PS3 and the three-core Xenon processor
in the Xbox 360).

Intel Xeon server CPU

Inside an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU

Intel Core i7 quad-core desktop
CPU
Intel Corporation
Intel is the world’s largest semiconductor company and the inventor of the x86
series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers.
Intel was founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation It is based
in California, USA.
Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network cards and ICs, flash memory,
graphic chips, and other devices related to communications and computing.
The Core 2 brand includes a range of Intel’s consumer 64-bit x86-64 single,
dual, and quad-core CPUs based on the Intel Core micro architecture. Intel
Core 2 processors with vPro technology (designed for businesses) include the
dual-core and quad-core branches.
Some of Intel’s latest CPU products are Intel Core i7, Intel Centrino 2 vPro,
Intel Core 2 vPro, Intel Atom, and Intel Xenon 7500.
Intel Atom Mobile CPU

78
 Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
AMD is an American semiconductor company based in California. Its main
products include microprocessors, motherboard chipsets, and graphic
processors for servers, workstations, and personal computers, and processor
technologies for handheld devices, digital television, automobiles, and game
consoles.
AMD is the second-largest global supplier of microprocessors based on
the x86 architecture after Intel Corporation and the third-largest supplier of
graphic processing units.
AMD Opteron 64-bit quad- Some of AMD’s latest CPU products are AMD Phenom, AMD Athlon, AMD
core server CPU Opteron, and AMD Turion.

AMD Phenom 64-bit qud-

core desktop CPU AMD Turion 64-bit Mobile CPU

VIA Technologies
VIA Technologies is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly
motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory.
VIA produces mobile CPUs. Some of VIA Technologies’ latest CPU products
Via Nano desktop CPU are VIA Nano L, VIA Nano U, VIA C7, VIA Eden Embedded, and VIA
CoreFusion.

Memory (RAM)
RAM (Random Access Memory) is temporary memory that the computer
uses to store applications and data that are in use, for example, the operating
system, and a word processor or database program. RAM is called “random
access” because any storage location can be accessed directly. When you
create data such as a letter or a picture, the computer stores the data in RAM
and then copies them to the hard disk when you save your work.
Via C7 mobile CPU

79
Memory Hierarchy
Many computer systems have a memory hierarchy consisting of CPU
registers, SRAM caches (level 1 caches), external caches (level 2
caches), DRAM, and virtual memory on a hard drive. This entire pool of
memory may be referred to as “RAM” by many developers. The overall goal
of using a memory hierarchy is to obtain the highest possible average access
performance while minimizing the total cost of the entire memory system.
Generally, the memory hierarchy follows the access time, with the fast CPU
registers at the top and the slow hard drive at the bottom.

Microprocessor

Fastest Level 1 Fast Level 2 Slow Slowest

CPU Memory Virtual
cache cache Memory


 


  

   
 











Multiple levels of memory

80
The amount of RAM used in modern computers is expressed in megabytes
(MB) and gigabytes (GB). Most new desktop and laptop computers should
have a minimum of 2GB of RAM. The more memory a computer has, the faster
the applications will run and the more stable the computer will be. When the
amount of RAM is not enough for an application, a part of the hard disk is used
as RAM. This part of the disk is called virtual memory.

Static RAM (SRAM)

Static RAM is a type of RAM that holds its data without external refresh for as
long as power is supplied to the circuit. SRAM can be contrasted to dynamic
RAM (DRAM), which must be refreshed many times per second to hold its
data contents. SRAMs are used for specific applications within the PC. SRAM
is faster than DRAM but much more expensive and occupies more space
than DRAM. Because cache memory needs to be very fast and not very large,
SRAMs are used for level 1 cache and level 2 cache memory.

L2 cache modules

81
Dynamic RAM (DRAM)
Dynamic RAM is a type of RAM that only holds its data only if it is continuously
A SIMM or single in-line
accessed by special logic called a refresh circuit. Many hundreds of times
memory module is a type of
each second, this circuitry reads the contents of each memory cell, whether
memory module containing
the memory cell is being used at that time by the computer or not. Due to the random access memory used
way in which the cells are constructed, the reading action itself refreshes the in computers from the early
contents of the memory. If it is not refreshed regularly, then the DRAM will lose 1980s to the late 1990s. A DIMM
its contents, even if it continues to have power supplied to it. This refreshing (dual in-line memory module) is
action is why the memory is called dynamic. a double SIMM. Like a SIMM,
All PCs use DRAM for their main system memory because they are much contains one or several random
cheaper and take up much less space, typically 1/4 the silicon area of SRAMs access memory (RAM) chips on
or less. a small circuit board with pins
that connect it to the computer
There are many different kinds of specific DRAM technologies and speeds motherboard. Standard SIMMs
available. These have evolved over many years of using DRAM for system have a 32-bit data path, whereas
memory. The main system memory types are SDRAM, DDR, and DRAM. standard DIMMs have a 64-bit
data path.

RAM slots with a DDR module

zzSDRAM (Synchronous DRAM): SDRAM is a 3.3 volt technology that uses

168-pin SDRAM DIMMs. SDRAM is able to scale to 133 MHz (PC133) officially
and up to 180MHz or higher unofficially.

An SDRAM module

82
 zzDDR (Double Data Rate SDRAM): DDR basically doubles the rate of data
Clock Speed is also called
clock rate, the speed at which transfer of standard SDRAM by transferring data on the up and down tick
a microprocessor executes of a clock cycle. DDR memory operating at 333 MHz actually operates at
instructions. Clock speed 166 MHz * 2 (PC333 / PC2700) or 133 MHz*2 (PC266 / PC2100). DDR is
is usually measured in MHz a 2.5 volt technology that uses 184 pins in its DIMMs. There are several
or GHz. The CPU requires a types of double data rate (DDR) RAM. DDR has been around since 2000.
fixed number of clock ticks The original is sometimes called DDR1. DDR2 was introduced in 2003. The
(clock cycles) to execute each primary improvement of DDR2 is the external data bus operating at twice
instruction. The faster the clock, the clock rate. It took a while for DDR2 to reach widespread use. DDR3
the more instructions the CPU began appearing in mid-2007. DDR3 SDRAM is an improvement over its
can execute per second. predecessor, DDR2 SDRAM. The primary benefit of DDR3 is the ability to
transfer data at twice the data rate of DDR2.

A DDR module

zzRambus DRAM (RDRAM): RDRAM is a serial memory technology that arrived

in three types, PC600, PC700, and PC800. PC800 RDRAM has twice the
maximum throughput of old PC100 SDRAM, but a higher latency. RDRAM
modules with multiple channels, such as those in Pentium 4 motherboards,
are currently the best in memory throughput, especially when paired with
PC1066 RDRAM memory.

An RDRAM module

83
Memory Latency
Task Manager shows you
Latency refers to the delays that occur when a computer tries to access data
the programs, processes,
in RAM. Such a delay occurs every time a CPU or another requestor reads or and services that are currently
writes something in memory. It is the time that elapses between the moments running on your computer. You
a memory controller tells the memory module to access a particular location can use Task Manager to monitor
and the moment the data from the given location is available on the module’s your computer’s performance
output pins. or to close a program that is
not responding. You can open
Task Manger by pressing
CTRL+SHIFT+ESC.

Open the Windows Task Manager program and check the

current memory usage of your system.

Windows Task Manager Performance tab

What causes each of the following two cases?

z Case 1: Your RAM is faster than your motherboard system bus.
z Case 2: Your RAM is slower than your motherboard system bus.

When you start your computer, it does a Visit a computer seller’s web site and read
RAM test and counts the amount of RAM about the current different RAM specifications,
your system has. Start your computer and including manufacturer, size, type, number of
check how much RAM you have in your PC. pins, speed of RAM, price, and so on.

84
 Expansion Cards
A device driver or software An expansion card (also known as an add-on card, internal card, or
driver is a program that controls interface adapter) is an electronic board added in a desktop computer to
a particular type of device that provide or expand features not offered by the motherboard. Expansion cards
is attached to your computer. need device drivers to function properly.
It allows the operating system
and related programs to interact
with the hardware device. Many
device drivers are built into the
operating system.

Installing an expansion card

Some Types of Expansion Cards

zzVideo cards
zzSound cards
zzNetwork cards
zzTV tuner cards
zzVideo processing cards
zzModems
zzHost adapters such as SCSI and RAID controllers
zzInterface adapter cards, including parallel port cards, serial port cards,
multi-I/O cards, USB port cards, and proprietary interface cards

85
Video Card (Graphics Accelerator Card, Display Adapter, Graphics
Card)
A video card is used to transfer data to your monitor so that they can be
displayed. Modern computers frequently process graphical functions. If you
are playing video games and creating 3D graphics and animations, your
video card is the most important component in your PC. Some video cards
offer added functions, such as video capture, TV tuner adapter, MPEG-2 and
MPEG-4 decoding, or even the ability to connect multiple monitors.
A video card in a modern PC can connect to the mainboard in one of several
different ways:

zzOn-board: The graphics chips and memory are part of the mainboard.
zzPCI/PCI Express: The graphics card plugs into the PCI bus.
zzAGP: The graphics card plugs into a special slot designed especially for
graphics devices.

An AGP video card with 256 MB DDR2 RAM

A PCI Express 64-bit video card with 256 MB hypermemory

86
 A video card consists of a printed circuit board on which the following
components are mounted:
Graphics rendering is the zzGraphics Processing Unit (GPU): A GPU is a dedicated graphics
process of generating an image microprocessor optimized for floating point calculations, which are
from a model by means of fundamental to 3D graphics rendering. The main attributes of the GPU are
computer programs. It is the final
the core clock rate, which typically ranges from 250 MHz to 850 MHz, and the
process of creating the actual
2D or 3D image or animation number of pipelines, which translate a 3D image characterized by vertices
from the prepared scene. 3D and lines into a 2D image formed by pixels.
rendering is the process of zzVideo BIOS: The video BIOS or firmware contains the basic program that
producing an image based governs the video card’s operations and provides the instructions that
on three-dimensional data allow the computer and software to interface with the card. It may contain
(viewpoint, geometry, lighting,
information on the memory timing, operating speeds, and voltages of the
and texture) stored within a
computer. graphics processor and RAM and other information.
zzVideo RAM: On-board video cards (integrated into the motherboard) usually
use the computer RAM (lower throughput). If it is not integrated, the video
A pipeline is a sequence of one card will have its own video memory, called Video RAM. The memory capacity
or more commands separated of most modern video cards ranges from 128 MB to 2.0 GB. Because video
by the pipeline control operator. memory needs to be accessed by the GPU and the display circuitry, it often
The standard output of all but uses special high speed or multi-port memory. The memory clock rate in
the last command is connected modern cards is generally between 400 MHz and 2.4 GHz.
to the standard input of the next
command.
Most graphics cards have two monitor connections: VGA and DVI. In addition
to VGA and DVI, some graphics cards may have output connectors for
S-video, ViVo, and FireWire.

zzVGA (CRT) Output: VGA (video graphics array) is an analog-based standard

adopted in the late 1980s designed for CRT displays.
zzDVI Output: DVI (Digital Visual Interface) is a video interface standard
designed to maximize the visual quality of digital display devices, such as
flat panel LCD computer displays and digital projectors.
zzS-Video (TV) Output: Separate video, a technology for transmitting video
signals over a cable by dividing the video information into two separate
Firmware is permanent signals: one for color and one for brightness.
instructions and data zzViVo Output: Video in/video out enables video cards to have bidirectional
programmed directly into the (input and output) video transfer. Usually, this output is used for analog
circuitry of read-only memory for video cameras.
controlling the operation of the
electronic devices. zzFireWire (IEEE-1394) Output: FireWire is a serial bus interface standard for
high-speed communications and real-time data transfer, frequently used for
digital audio and digital video. Most digital video cameras have an IEEE-1394
plug.

87
 1

1 S-Video output
2
2 VGA output

3 DVI output

A video card with S-Video, VGA, and DVI outputs A video card with ViVo and Dual-DVI outputs

As the processing power of video cards has increased, so has their demand
for electrical power. Power demands of GPUs have continued to rise, so the
video card may be the biggest power consumer in a computer. Nowadays,
video cards with high power consumption (75 or 150 Watt) connect directly OpenGL was developed by
to the power supply to supplement power. Cooling devices (heat sink, fan, Silicon Graphics in the early
water block) are incorporated to protect the video cards from overheating. 1990s. It is free, open, multi-
language, and multi-platform. It
is widely used in CAD, virtual
reality, scientific visualization,
information visualization, flight
simulation, and some games.

Application Programming
Interface (API) is a set of
routines, protocols, data
structures, and tools provided
by libraries for building software
applications

Microsoft DirectX is a collection

A video card cooling device of application programming
interfaces (APIs) for handling
tasks related to multimedia,
OpenGL and DirectX are APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for
especially game programming
high performance graphics. They handle tasks related to multimedia, game
and video, on Microsoft platforms
programming, CAD, virtual reality, simulations, and so on. OpenGL and (Windows Vista, Windows 7,
DirectX supported video cards give the advantages of using those graphics etc.).
libraries.

88
 Find out the specifications of your video card and complete the table below.

Card Name
Slot Type
Amount of Memory
Graphics Processor
Supported Monitor Resolution
Driver Version
Output Connectors

Sound Card (Audio Card)

Monaural (mono) sound A sound card facilitates the input and output of audio signals to and from a
reproduction is single-channel. computer under control of computer programs. Typical uses of sound cards
All the loudspeakers are fed include providing the audio component for multimedia applications such as
from a common signal channel. composing music, editing and displaying video or audio.
Mono sound has been replaced Most computers are equipped with sound cards, usually part of the
by stereo sound in most motherboard, with a stereo speaker output and a microphone input.
entertainment applications.
Stereophonic (stereo) sound Two important characteristics of sound cards are polyphony and sound
is the reproduction of sound channels. Polyphony is more than one distinct voice or sound playable
using two or more independent simultaneously and independently, and the number of simultaneous channels.
audio channels. Stereo systems
create a pleasant and natural
impression of sound heard from
various directions, as in natural
hearing.

An 8-channel sound card

89
The channels are intended as the number of distinct electrical audio outputs,
which may correspond to a speaker configuration such as 2.0 (stereo),
2.1 (stereo and sub woofer), and so on. Stereo sound was introduced in
computers the early 1990s, and quadraphonic sound (four channels in which
speakers are positioned at the four corners of the listening space) came in
the late 1990s. Quadraphonic was shortly followed by 5.1 channel audio. The
latest sound cards support up to 8 physical audio channels in the 7.1 speaker
setup.
Depending on the functions, the sound cards may have differing numbers of
connectors. The connectors on the sound cards are color coded. They also
have symbols depicting arrows, holes and sound waves that are associated
with each jack position. The meaning of each color is given in the chart:

Sound Card Connector Color Codes and Symbols

Color Connector
Lime
Line-out, front speakers, headphones
Green
Pink Analog microphone audio input.
Light Blue Stereo line in (for signal from a cassette tape recorder or similar sound source)
Orange Subwoofer (to reproduce very low bass frequencies) and center out
Black Rear surround speakers for 5.1 and 7.1 systems

Gray Middle Surround Speakers for 7.1 systems

Gold Midi / Game port (joystick)

A network is a group of
Network Interface Card (NIC) computers connected together
A network interface card (Ethernet card, network adapter) allows computers to in a way that allows information
communicate over a computer network through cables (or via radio waves). to be exchanged among the
Network interface cards are often used in offices to connect computers in the computers.
same room or building. To communicate over longer distances, a modem is
usually used. Most new computer systems have a network interface built into
Ethernet is the most widely-
the motherboard. installed local area network
Traditional Ethernet supports data transfers at the rate of 10 Megabits per (LAN) technology. Ethernet was
second (Mbps). Modern Ethernet adapters all support the 100 Mbps Fast originally developed by Xerox
Ethernet standard and Gigabit Ethernet support at 1 Gbps (1000 Mbps). from an earlier specification
called Alohanet and then
developed further by Xerox,
DEC, and Intel. Token Ring and
FDDI (fiber optic) are two other
widely-used LAN technologies.

90
54 Mbps wireless PCI adapter 10/100/1000 PCI network card

Both Bluetooth and infrared

technologies are used to
established temporary wireless Wireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without
communication. While Bluetooth the use of electrical conductors or “wires.” In wireless networking, (2.4 GHz
is very applicable for networking, Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) devices are used to meet a variety of needs. Perhaps
infrared is more appropriate for the most common use is to connect laptop users who travel from location
the direct connections. to location. Another common use is for mobile networks that connect via
Bluetooth is a wireless satellite. A wireless transmission method WLAN (wireless local area networks)
technology providing wireless is a logical choice for networking a LAN (local area network) segment that
personal area networks (WPANs) must frequently change locations.
for small devices. It is short- WLANs operate at different speeds, depending on which Wi-Fi standard they
range (10 meters) technology support. 802.11b WLANs offer a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 11 Mbps.
designed to connect technology 802.11a and 802.11g WLANs offer a theoretical bandwidth up to 54 Mbps.
devices, like computers,
keyboards and mice, mobile
phones and headsets, printers,
digital cameras, PDAs, and
other mobile devices. Bluetooth
devices generally communicate
at less than 1 Mbps.
Infrared technology allows
computing devices to
communicate via very short-
range (a few meters) wireless
signals. Infrared networks were
designed to support direct two-
computer connections only.
Infrared technology operates
with 115 Kbps, 1.15 Mbps, or
4 Mbps. Local area network (LAN) Wireless local area network (LAN)

91
Modem (Modulator/Demodulator)
A modem (from modulator-demodulator) is a device that allows your computer
to communicate with other computers over an ordinary phone line. When it
receives analog data through a connection, it has to convert them to digital
data to be usable by the computer. Likewise, it reverses the action when it has
to send data.
Modems can be internal or external. An internal modem plugs directly into a
slot on the mainboard. An external modem plugs into one of the computer
ports at the back of the system unit. Internal modems are cheaper and take up
less space. External modems are easier to troubleshoot and reset. 56K internal data/fax/voice PCI modem
The type of modem used depends on depends on the Internet connection
technology dial-up, ISDN, ADSL, cable, mobile, and so on. Modem speeds
are measured in bps, bits per second. A cable modem can be used to achieve
extremely fast access to the Internet, including the web.

Type Speed Rate

Dial-Up 56 Kbps
ISDN 64 Kbps
ADSL 1.5 Mbps to 9 Mbps
ADSL 2+ 24 Mbps
Dial-up, ISDN (integrated services digital network), and ADSL (asymmetric
digital subscriber line) modems use telephone lines to transfer data, whereas
cable modems use dedicated cable television lines. Mobile (cellular) modems
use mobile phone lines (wireless) and connect to the Internet wherever
a mobile phone can establish a connection to a GSM operator. Dial-up
technology is used to establish a temporary Internet connection.

An external ADSL modem/router

The connection between your computer and ISP’s (internet service provider)
computer

92
 Find out the Internet connection possibilities and installation cost and monthly fee for each type of
connection in your region. You can visit local Internet service providers (ISP) to gather adequate
information.

Number the statements in the correct order from 1 to 7 to describe how to send an e-mail.

When your message reaches your friend’s computer, the analog signals are changed back to
the digital signals that are now displayed on your friend’s computer.
Type a message to your friend who also has a computer with a modem.
This whole process is reversed as your friend types a message to you from his computer to
yours.
1 Attach a modem to your computer.
Your modem changes your message into analog signals that can travel through telephone
lines to your friend’s house.
Connect your computer to a telephone line.
Your friend enjoys reading your message.

TV Card

TV cards usually have two functions,

TV decoding and TV tuning. The TV
decoder transfers the picture that is on
the computer screen to a TV. Doing so
is useful for business presentations. The
TV tuner allows you to watch TV channels
on the monitor so that your monitor
becomes like a TV. Most TV tuners also
function as video capture cards, allowing
them to record television programs onto
a hard disk.

A PCI TV card and its remote control

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PC Card and ExpressCard
Both PC cards and expresscards are small, credit-card-sized boards that
extend a computer’s capability, for example, by providing more memory or
working like a modem. They are particularly useful for laptops and other
personal computers that do not have room for full-sized expansion cards.
They connect to the outside of a computer through a special socket, called
a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slot.
PC cards were originally designed for computer memory expansion, but the
existence of a usable general standard for notebook peripherals led to many Expresscard TV tuner
kinds of devices (for memory, communications, multimedia and security)
being made available in this form.

SCSI Card
SCSI (small computer system interface) is a type of interface used for
components, such as hard drives, optical drives, scanners, and tape drives.
It is a competing technology to standard IDE and SATA. While the less
expensive IDE and SATA technologies are built into motherboards, SCSI is
a technology that must be added by purchasing a SCSI controller. The SCSI
card fits into an internal slot. SCSI devices are then connected to this card.
SATA drivers have largely replaced SCSI in new systems, but SCSI is still in
use. SCSI is a fast and robust technology and has traditionally been used in
servers. In addition to speed, another great advantage SCSI has over IDE and
SATA is that many devices can be attached to a single SCSI port.

PCI-X SCSI card

Open up your system unit and list the expansion cards in your system. Do not forget to unplug your PC
before opening the case and be careful not to damage your PC.

Expansion Card Type Specifications

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Indicate whether each statement below is true or false.

Statement True False


1 All the cards in a computer are connected to the motherboard.

2 The CPU is like a computer’s brain.

3 There are several motherboards in a computer.

4 Motherboard, mainboard, and system board refer to the same device.

5 The CPU is situated on the mainboard.

6 The video card sends information to the monitor.

7 All modems are internal devices.

The power supply converts alternating current (AC) signal coming from your
8
wall outlet into a usable direct current (DC) signal.
IDE, ATA, SATA, and SCSI are interfaces for components such as hard
9
drives and optical drives.

10 PCI is a common slot for many types of expansion cards.

11 AGP is a common slot for many types of expansion cards.

12 You can use an expansion slot for many cards at the same time.

13 Modems are needed to communicate over greater distances.

14 A network card consumes more power than any other expansion card.

15 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and infrared are wireless technologies.

95
 Follow the instructions to see what you have in your system unit. You will need a Phillips (cross)
screwdriver.
1. Switch off your computer and unplug the power cable from the computer.
2. Open the chassis.
3. Take out the IDE cable between the CD-ROM drive and the mainboard.
4. Unplug the power cable from the CD-ROM drive.
5. Take out the CD-ROM drive.
6. Repeat steps 3,4, and 5 for the hard disk.
7. Take out the other boards in the system unit.
8. Remove the RAM modules from the mainboard.
9. Remove the CPU from the mainboard.
10. Find the power supply.
11. Find the ROM-BIOS chip.
12. Find the battery.
13. Find the expansion slots.
14. Find the chipset (bus arbitrator).
15. Find the buses.
16. Find the internal speaker.
17. Find the parallel, serial, PS/2, and USB ports.
18. Reassemble your computer.
19. Check that your computer works properly.

INPUT DEVICES
Input devices are peripheral devices that enter data and instructions into the
computer. A mouse and a keyboard are the most used input devices. Other
common input devices are scanners, microphones, graphics tablets, digital
cameras, touch screens, and joysticks.

Keyboard
The keyboard is the most common way to enter information into a computer.
Today, standard keyboards have 104 or 105 keys. An electronic circuit inside
the keyboard transmits the code of a pressed key to the CPU.

96
 Most of the keys on a keyboard are used to enter numbers, letters, and
punctuation marks. There are also function keys (used for special functions
in applications), keys for working with text and documents (for example, the
Page Up and Page Down keys), and other keys used to make special key
combinations (Alt and Ctrl).
There are a number of different arrangements of alphabetic, numeric, and
punctuation symbols on keys. These different keyboard layouts exist mainly
because different people input text in different languages. QWERTY is the
most used modern-day keyboard layout on English-language computers. It
takes its name from the first six letters at the upper left of the keyboard.
Many modern keyboards have extra keys for accessing music, web, and
other frequently used programs and features, such as a mute button, volume
buttons, or a standby (sleep) button.

QWERTY English keyboard

A virtual keyboard The bluetooth multimedia keyboard and mouse

97
 How many keys does your keyboard have? Count them.

Function Keys: The function keys on a keyboard are labeled from F1 to F12.
The virtual keyboard (Projection
They are usually located at the top of the keyboard. Function keys are used
Keyboard) technologies allow
in application programs or by the operating system as a faster way to access
users to input characters into
certain features of the software. For example, pressing F1 when an application
a device without any physical
is running often displays a help screen. keyboard. Such keyboards
watch finger movements and
translate them into keystrokes
in the device. They are usually
integrated into mobile devices
such as PDAs and smart phones.

Enter Key: The Enter key (also called the Return key) is
used to signal the end of an entered command or line of
text, so that the computer can begin processing. In word
processing programs, pressing the Enter key starts a new
paragraph.

Ctrl Key: The Ctrl (control) key is used with other keys to
access special software functions faster. For example, in
some word processing applications, pressing Ctrl+C (Ctrl
with the C key) copies the selected text.

Spacebar: The spacebar is the longest key

on the bottom row of most keyboards. It
sends a space character to the computer.

Arrow Keys: Most keyboards have four keys that are

labeled with arrows pointing up, down, left, and right.
Pressing an arrow key usually moves the cursor or,
in some programs, extends a section of selected text.

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Page Up and Page Down Keys: The Page Up key is a
standard key (often labeled ‘PgUp’) on most keyboards. Its
function changes in different programs. In word processing
programs, pressing the Page Up key moves the cursor up
to the top of the previous page, or up a specific number of
lines. The Page Down key is a standard key (often labeled
‘PgDn’) on most computer keyboards like the Page Up
key.

Home and End Keys: The Home key controls the position
of the cursor. The Home key moves the cursor to a certain
position, usually the start of a line, the start of a screen, or
the start of a file, depending on the program. The End key
controls the position of the cursor in the opposite manner the
Home key.

Caps Lock Key: The Caps Lock key changes

the letter between capital letters (A, B, C, etc.) and
lower case letters (a, b, c, etc.). The Caps Lock key
does not change the input of numbers, punctuation
marks, or other symbols.

Shift Key: The Shift key gives the other keys an alternative
function. When combined with alphabetic keys, the Shift key
causes the system to output a single capital (or lower case)
letter. For example, pressing Shift with the A key makes
a capital ‘A’ instead of a lower case ‘a’. The Shift key can
also be combined with other keys to produce program
-dependent results. There are typically two shift keys, on the
left and right sides of the keyboard.

Backspace Key: Pressing the Backspace key moves the

cursor to the left, one character at a time, usually erasing
each character on the screen as it moves. To move
the cursor or insertion point backward without deleting
characters, use the arrow keys. The Backspace key
takes you to the previously visited page in many web
browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox etc.).
Escape Key: In many applications, pressing the Escape key
(labeled ESC or Esc) usually cancels or aborts the current
operation and moves you back to a previous menu or exits
the application. It is usually located at the upper left corner
of the keyboard.

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Insert: The Insert key (labeled Insert or Ins) can perform
different functions in different applications. In word
processing applications, pressing the Insert key toggles
between the overwrite mode (in which typed characters
delete the existing text) and insert mode (in which all the
characters you type are inserted at the cursor position).

Pause Key: Pressing the Pause key temporarily stops

the operation of a program or a command. The Pause
key is used, for example, to stop text moving up the
screen so that you can read a multi-screen listing or
document.

The clipboard is a section of

Print Screen Key: The only function of this key is to take RAM where your computer
a snapshot or picture of your computer screen and stores copied data. The data
copy it to the Clipboard. Once you have the image on can be a selection of text, an
the Clipboard, you can paste it in any graphics editing image, a file, or other type of
program. Alt + Print Screen takes a screenshot of the data. It is placed in the clipboard
currently selected window, not the entire screen like the whenever you use the “Copy”
normal screenshot function. The standard position of Print command (Ctrl+C). Data from
Screen key is the upper right corner of your keyboard. the clipboard can be pasted into
a document or program using
the “Paste” command (Ctrl+V).
Tab Key: The Tab (Tabulator) key is most commonly used
in word processing programs to insert tab characters
(long spaces) into a document; that is it, moves the
insertion point (cursor) to the next tab stop. Many
database and spreadsheet programs allow you to press
the Tab key to move around within a record or between
table cells.

Num Lock Key: This key switches the numeric keypad from
numeric mode to cursor control mode and vice versa. In
numeric mode, you can use the keypad like a calculator,
entering numbers and making calculations.

Numeric Keypad: The numeric keypad is a set of number and symbol keys,
usually on the right side of a keyboard. Numeric keypads make it easier to
enter large amounts of numeric data. When the Numeric Lock (Num Lock)
is on, the numeric keypad keys produce numbers on the screen. When the
Numeric Lock is off, the numeric keypad keys move the cursor and the focus
around the screen.

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 Scroll Lock Key: This key (often with an associated status light) is
on most modern keyboards. The behavior of the key depends on
the particular software in use. Many applications ignore the Scroll
Lock setting. In the original design, scroll lock was intended to
modify the behavior of the arrow keys. When the scroll lock
mode was on, the arrow keys would scroll the contents of a text
window instead of moving the cursor.

Draw a QWERTY English layout keyboard on a piece of paper. Take an article from an English source.
Count the number of times each letter occurs and write the numbers on the corresponding keyboard keys
in your picture. Do you think the keyboard is well designed?

Touch Screen
Touch Screen is a type of display screen that has a touch-sensitive transparent
panel covering the screen so that it can recognize the location of a touch on
its surface. Instead of using a pointing device such as a mouse or light pen,
you can touch the screen with your finger or a stylus to point directly to objects
on the screen.

Using a touch screen with finger Using a touch screen with stylus

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Although touch screens provide a natural interface for computer novices,
some users find it difficult to point accurately to small areas of the screen, and
it may tire to the arms after long use. Touch screens are especially useful for
portable hand devices (PDAs, portable media players, and mobile phones),
public information displays, and information kiosk systems.

Light Pen
A light pen is a form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a
computer’s monitor. It allows the user to point to displayed objects or draw
on the screen in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional Reading news on a tablet PC.
accuracy. The user brings the pen to the desired point on the screen and
presses the pen button to make contact.
Light pens work in two different ways: The monitor contains a light sensitive
detector that picks up light emitted from the pen and calculates its position on
the screen, or contrary to what it looks like, some pens do not shine light onto
the screen; rather, the screen beams into the pen. Screen pixels are constantly
being refreshed. When the user presses the button, the pen senses light, and
the pixel being illuminated at that instant identifies the screen location.

Graphics Tablet (Pen Tablet) Using a light pen

A tablet is an alternate type of input device that can be used in place of
a pointing device. It enables you to enter drawings and sketches into a
computer. The tablet consists of two parts, a flat surface for drawing and a
pen or stylus that is programmed to work with the tablet. The graphics tablet is
most suited for artists and those who want the natural feel of a pen-like object
to manipulate the cursor on their screen.
For digitizing tablets, each point on the tablet represents a point on the display
screen in a fixed manner. Tablets differ from mice, for which all movement is
relative to the current cursor position. The static nature of digitizing tablets
makes them particularly effective for tracing drawings. Most modern digitizing
tablets also support a mouse emulation mode in which the pen acts like a
mouse. A Graphics tablet and its stylus

Concept Tablet and Concept Keyboard

The concept tablet is a touch sensitive tablet similar to the graphics tablet that
has various pictures and symbols on the surface. A concept keyboard is a flat
board that contains a grid of buttons with pictures and symbols.
Tapping a picture or symbol causes a command to be input into the computer.
Appropriate software running on the computer makes sense of that specific
command.
Concept tablets and keyboards are widely used for special purpose computers
when fast input is needed. They are ideally suited for selecting from a limited
range of choices, such as taking orders in a fast food restaurant. A concept keyboard

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 Webcam
A webcam is essentially a small camera that is connected to a computer,
Motion detection simply
either directly or wirelessly, and gathers a series of images that are viewed
compares two successive
in real time on the computer screen or over a network, especially over the
incoming images from a webcam
or IPcam and counts the number Internet. Because it allows for cheap real-time communication from anywhere
of different pixels to determine in the world, webcam technology is widely used by all sorts of people for all
whether a change has occurred sorts of different reasons. Friends and relatives use webcams for video chat,
in the target view. and businesses use webcams for online video conferencing; in security and
gaming, webcams are used for motion detection.

Some types of webcams

Install a webcam on your computer

and play one of the motion games
(www.ovogames.com).

Scanner
ORC (optical character A scanner uses special light sensors to capture (or photograph) an image
recognition) is a technology printed on paper and translate the information into a form the computer can
that takes data from a paper
use. You can then use special text or graphics software to work with the
document and converts them
into editable digital text data. scanned image. Such software uses the TWAIN program to read in the image.
The document is first scanned; To edit text read by an optical scanner, you need an optical character
then OCR software searches the recognition (OCR) system to translate the image into ASCII characters. Most
document for letters, numbers, optical scanners sold today come with OCR packages. Very high resolution
and other characters. scanners are used for scanning for high-resolution printing, but lower
resolution scanners are adequate for capturing images for computer display.

103
 Type Features TWAIN (technology without an
Like a photocopy machine, a flatbed scanner moves interesting name) is a widely
Flatbed scanners used program that lets you scan
the light sensors over the image.
an image (using a scanner)
Photo scanners are used especially to digitize film directly into the application
Photo scanners
negatives or slides. (such as PhotoShop) where you
Sheetfed scanners are usually smaller than flatbed want to work with the image.
Sheetfed scanners scanners; A document or photo is fed into the scanner Without TWAIN, you would
rather than placed on top. have to close an application
that was open, open a special
Portable (handheld) Like barcode scanners, portable scanners are used to
application to receive the image,
scanners move the sensors over the image.
and then move the image to the
A drum scanner is a specialized scanner commonly application where you wanted to
used by the printing industry for very high quality work with it.
Drum scanners
scans; it uses a high-speed rotating glass drum to
scan images

A flatbed scanner A handheld A sheetfed scanner A drum scanner

scanner

Write a paragraph of text your handwriting. Then scan it as text with an OCR scanner. How well does
the scanner recognizes your handwriting? Using only capital letters in your handwriting may improve the
success of this task.

PC Microphone
A microphone converts sound waves into electrical signals that can be
understood by your computer’s sound card. The sound card converts the
electrical signals into digital data that your computer can process. You can
use a microphone for performing various tasks. For example, you can hold a
conference with your business partners over the Internet, you can chat with
your friends online, or you can record and store speech or music on your
computer.

104
 There are many different styles and brands to choose from. You can find
desktop microphones that are free standing, headset style microphones, or
in-ear microphones that sit behind the ears and head.

Different types of computer microphones

Do you know that other people hear your voice different from the way you do? When you speak, you are
the source of the sound. A lot of people seem to be surprised to hear their own voices from an external
source. Record your sound to your PC and listen to it. Is it different from what you expected?

Joystick
A joystick is a pointing device consisting of a stick-like object attached to a
base that can be pushed in four or more directions. It controls the movement
of a pointer or some other display symbols. A joystick is similar to a mouse,
except that, with a mouse, the cursor stops moving as soon as you stop
moving the mouse.
With a joystick, the pointer continues moving in the direction the joystick
is pointing. To stop the pointer, you must return the joystick to its upright
position. Most joysticks include one or more push-buttons. Joysticks are
largely used in computer games and for CAD/CAM systems.

A Joystick

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 Match each task with the most appropriate device.

Task Devices
Playing a flight simulation game. 1 2 Keyboard
Typing an article. 2 Mouse
Having a visual chat with your friend. 3 Touch screen
Converting a printed document to a digital document. 4 Graphics tablet
Making an online conversation. 5 Concept tablet
Using handwriting to enter text into your PC. 6 Webcam
Surfing on the Internet with a MIB (mobile internet device). 7 Scanner
Gathering costumers’ orders in a fast food restaurant. 8 Microphone
Formatting plain text in word processing software. 9 Joystick

Mouse
A mouse is the most common input device along with the keyboard. It is used
to point to things and select things on the screen. It functions by detecting
two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface.

zzYou use your mouse whenever you want to move your cursor or activate
something. Your mouse senses your motion and your clicks and sends
them to the computer so it can respond appropriately. The mouse’s motion
typically translates into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows for
fine control of a GUI (Graphical User Interface). The name mouse originated
at the Stanford Research Institute and derives from the resemblance of A mechanical mouse with Its
computer mice to natural mice. tracking ball

There are three basic types of mice:

zzMechanical Mouse: This type has a rubber or metal ball on its underside
that can roll in all directions. Mechanical sensors within the mouse detect
the direction the ball is rolling and move the screen pointer accordingly.
zzOptomechanical Mouse: This type is the same as a mechanical mouse,
but it uses optical sensors to detect motion of the ball.
zzOptical Mouse: This type uses a laser to detect the mouse’s movement.
Optical mice have no mechanical moving parts. They respond more quickly
and precisely than mechanical and optomechanical mice. An optical mouse

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 Five basic actions can be performed with your mouse:

zzClick: Press and release the left mouse button, without moving the mouse.
zzRight-Click: Press and release the right mouse button, without moving the
mouse.
zzDouble-Click: Press and release the left mouse button twice in rapid
succession without moving the mouse.
zzDrag and Drop: Press and do not release the left mouse button, then move
the mouse with the button still held down, and finally release the button.
zzScroll: Many mice have a scroll wheel between the left and right buttons.

Touchpad and trackpoint are

two alternative pointing devices
for mice that are usually found
on laptop computers.

Wireless optical mouse

Touchpad Trackpoint

Turn on your computer. Open the Windows Calculator program and calculate approximately how many
days you have lived until today. How many times did you click your mouse to complete this operation?

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OUTPUT DEVICES
Output devices are peripheral devices that output information that has been
held or generated within a computer.
Because most information from a computer is output in either a visual or
auditory format, the most common output devices are the monitor and
speakers. These two devices provide instant feedback to the user’s input,
such as displaying characters as they are typed or playing a song selected
from a playlist.
Beside the monitor and speakers, some other output devices are headphones,
printers, plotters, and projectors.

Monitor
A monitor or computer screen is a very common type of output device. A
monitor displays images that have been generated by the computer’s video
card. The monitor is attached to the video card by a cable.
There are two main types of monitor: flat panel monitors and cathode ray
tube (CRT) monitors. A flat panel monitor uses a liquid crystal display (LCD)
instead of a cathode ray tube to display data. LCD monitors occupy less
space, consume less energy, and are much lighter than CRT monitors. Many
monitor companies have already stopped producing CRT monitors.
A monitor connects to either a VGA (video graphics array) or DVI (digital visual
interface) port on a video card. Both devices should support the same type
of connection. A CRT monitor

VGA and DVI Connectors An LCD monitor

The display resolution refers to the number of distinct pixels in each dimension
that can be displayed. The display is indicated by a number combination,
such as 800 x 600. These numbers indicate that there are 800 dots horizontally
across the monitor and 600 lines of dots vertically, equaling 480,000 dots that
make up the image you see on the screen. Screen resolution affects the clarity
of the text and images on your screen. At higher resolutions, items appear
sharper. They also appear smaller, so more items fit on the screen.

108
 Refresh rate is the number of times per second a monitor redraws its screen
image. A 60 hertz (Hz) vertical refresh rate indicates the on-screen image is
redrawn 60 times per second. The higher the refresh rate, the sharper the
on-screen image.

Recently, besides the standard monitors (4:3 ratio), widescreen monitors

(16:10 or 16:9 ratio) have taken a significant part of the market. Widescreen
monitors are useful to watch movies, view two documents side by side, and
see the main panel and the tool panels at the same time while working with
graphics or photo editing programs such as Adobe PhotoShop. Besides such
advantages, the main drawback of widescreen monitors is that they lack the
vertical pixels to display web pages or the whole page of a document and so
on. In lower resolutions (i.e., 1366x768). The surface area of a standard screen
monitor is always bigger than the widescreen monitor of the same size.

16X9 widescreen and 4X3 square monitors

You may use multiple monitors if your graphics card has the ability to
run them. Multiple monitors provide a high resolution working area at half
price of a single widescreen monitor. When a second monitor is attached to
your system, you can display the computer desktop across both monitors
(spanning) or duplicate what is seen on the first monitor to the second one
(cloning). Spanning is used mostly by designers and visual programmers,
whereas cloning is used especially by people who are giving presentations to
the audience. The physical space between two screens is a disadvantage with
multiple monitors. That empty space is a distraction for many users. Another
drawback to multiple monitors is that some DVD movies and games may not
run properly on the second monitor.

109
Multiple monitors with spanning mode

Multiple monitors with cloning mode

The world’s first computer printer
was a 19th century mechanically
Printer driven apparatus invented
A printer is an output device that prints text and computer-generated images by Charles Babbage for his
onto paper or onto another physical medium, such as a transparent film. Difference Engine.
Printers can print in monochrome or color mode. There are many types of
printers on the market to meet users’ demands. Depending on the printing
technologies, printers are divided into three main categories: impact, ink-jet,
and laser printers.
Ink-jets (bubble-jets) printers: Ink-jet printers use tiny jets to spray ink onto
the paper. An ink-jet printer places extremely small droplets of ink onto paper
to create an image. Ink-jet printers are capable of producing high quality print
that almost matches the quality of a laser printer. They are ideal for people
who want to print small numbers of high quality copies, where speed is not
important, for example, in a home or small office.

An Ink-Jet Printer

110
 Laser Printers
Laser printers produce high print quality at high speed. They are called laser
printers because they use a laser beam to produce an image on a drum.
The light of the laser alters the electrical charge on the drum wherever it
hits. The drum is then rolled through a reservoir of toner, which is picked up
by the charged portions of the drum. Finally, the toner is transferred to the
paper through a combination of heat and pressure. This is also the way copy
machines work.

1
1 Paper exit
A laser printer
6 2 Toner hopper

2
3 Fuser

4 Paper tray

3 5 Photoreceptor
orum assembly

6 Laser unit

4 5

Inside a laser printer

Impact (dot-matrix) Printers

Dot matrix printers push a row of pins through an ink ribbon onto the paper.
The print quality increases with the number of pins. Most modern dot matrix
A dot-matrix printer printers have 24 pins. Dot matrix printers are used for cheaper, low quality
printing, for example, printing stock information in a factory.
Ethernet is the most widely Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals and are attached by a
installed local area network printer cable or a USB cable to a computer that serves as a document source.
technology. It provides high- Some printers, commonly known as network printers, can serve as a device
speed bandwidth connectivity for any user on the network. Network printers have built-in network interfaces,
over local area networks. typically Ethernet or wireless. A local printer can be shared with other
computers in a network environment.
Wireless communication is
the transfer of information over
a distance without the use of
electrical conductors or wires.

111
Connecting a local printer to a computer Connecting a network printer to a network

Plotter
A plotter is an output device similar to a printer, but for larger images. Plotters Vector graphics are graphics
use either pens or electrostatic charges and special chemicals to print an described by a set of
image. Plotters are restricted to line art (vector graphics), rather than raster mathematical instructions
graphics as with other printers. Pen plotters draw on paper or transparent instead of being a series of
film with one or more colored pens. Electrostatic plotters draw a pattern of discrete bits. They are typically
electrostatically charged dots on the paper and then apply chemicals to keep line art illustrations. Graphics
the pattern in place. programs such as Adobe
Plotters are used primarily in technical drawing and CAD applications. They Illustrator and Corel Draw create
vector-based graphics.
have the advantage of working on very large paper sizes while maintaining
high resolution. Another use has been found by replacing the pen with a
cutter, and in this form, plotters can be found in many garment and sign shops
to cut the patterns.
Raster graphics are
digital images captured
photographically. A common
term for a raster image is a
bitmap because the image is
actually bits mapped to a display
grid. MS Paint creates bitmap
graphics.

A CAD drawing plotter

112
 Speakers and Headphones
Speaker
A speaker is an output device that plays sound generated by the computer’s
sound card. The speaker is attached to the sound card by a cable. Most
computers also have an internal speaker that is attached to the mainboard
and that can play simple sounds.
There are many different types of speakers: Floor-standing (in-room),
bookshelf, in-wall, in-ceiling, and subwoofer. There are no certain criteria for
selecting a speaker for your system. You should choose a speaker based on
A pair of stereo speakers with USB its sound quality, and the sound quality is a personal preference.
power connection Speakers usually need an electrical power outlet to operate. Less powerful
speakers may be powered from a USB port.

Headphone
A headphone is a pair of speakers worn over or in the ears so only the wearer
can hear the sound. Headphones are useful for cancelling the noise in the
environment or listening to music or watching movies with mobile devices and
avoiding disturbing other people nearby, especially in public places. Wireless
headphones allow users to play games and to listen music without any cables.
A headphone with an integrated microphone is usually called a headset.
A headset

Put a check () to show whether each device is an input device or an output device.
Device Input Output
Keyboard 
Monitor
Printer
Mouse
Scanner
Joystick
Microphone
Speaker
Floppy disk
Plotter
Touch screen
Modem

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DATA STORAGE DEVICES

Storage devices store digital data Network appliance storage server

A storage device is a hardware device designed to store and retrieve

information. There are two types of storage devices: temporary storage
devices and permanent storage devices.
RAM, CPU caches, and CPU registers are temporary storage devices. Those
storages are used by the CPU, operating system, or other software. They are
called temporary because information is lost after the power is switched off.
Because temporary storage devices are connected directly to the computer’s
CPU, they are considered primary computer storage devices or internal
storage devices.
Permanent storage devices hold information until it is deleted or overwritten.
They do not lose data even when they are turned off. Hence, they are ideal
back-up and data storage devices. Because they are not directly attached to
the computer’s CPU, they are called secondary storage devices or external
storage devices. It takes a longer time for the CPU to access secondary
storage devices than primary storage devices. The term data storage device
usually refers to a secondary computer device. Depending on the technology,
secondary storage devices can be divided into three categories: magnetic,
optical, and flash storage.
The building blocks of digital images are bits, which can either be 0 or 1.
Magnetic storage devices such as hard disks distinguish a one from a zero
by changing the magnetic properties of the disk in that location. In an optical
medium, data are recorded by making marks in a pattern that can be read
back with the aid of a tiny beam of laser light precisely focused on a spinning
polymer disc.

114
 Classification of storage devices

Hard Disk Drive

A hard disk drive (HDD), commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk,
or fixed disk drive, is a device that stores digitally encoded data on rapidly
rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. Hard disks are the main large
data storage area inside your computer. Hard disks are used to store your
programs and data. They are much faster than most other types of storage
device and can also hold much more data.
A hard disk is made up of platters. Platters are rigid disks made of metal
or plastic. A platter is divided into sides (top and bottom), tracks (rings on
each surface), and sectors (sections of each ring). Sectors are the smallest
physical storage units on a disk. Usually, each sector holds 512 bytes of data.
A set of two to eight sectors grouped together is called a cluster.
A 3,5-inch hard disk

1 A Sector is one section of a

track. It is colored blue in the
diagram. It is the smallest
unit of storage on the platter.
1
2 Tracks are the concentric circles
on the platter. The circles are
smaller towards the center of the
2 platter and larger towards the
outer edge. The green ring is one
track.
3 Clusters are groups of sectors
used to allocate the data storage
area.
3

Logical structure of a magnetic disk

115
The computer reads information from the hard disk through a fixed sensor
called the disk head. The hard disk platters spin round underneath the disk
head so that the computer can read the data tracks. A hard disk drive has a
speed between 4500 and 10000 rpm (revolutions per minute), which means
that the platters spin round between 4500 and 10000 times every minute.
The boot sector is a special part of the disk that is used when the operating
system starts. It contains a short machine language program that loads the
operating system into RAM.
When a hard disk is manufactured, the platters are empty, so your computer
cannot read them. The process of creating the tracks and sectors on the
platters and preparing the disk for use is called formatting. There are two types
of formatting: low-level formatting and high-level formatting. The process of
low-level formatting a drive creates the tracks and sectors on the platter.
Low-level formatting writes the start and end points of each sector onto
the platters. This process prepares the drive to hold blocks of bytes. High-
level formatting writes special file storage structures (file system) onto the
sectors. This process prepares the drive to hold files. The file system is the
general name of the way of organizing files and the hierarchical arrangement
of directories on the hard disk. Different operating systems use different file
systems, such as FAT32, FAT64, NTFS, ext2, ext3, Reiser, and UFS.
There are two ways to measure the performance of a hard disk: Data rate and
seek time. The data rate is the number of bytes per second that the drive can
send to the CPU. The data rate is usually between 5 and 40 megabytes per
second. The seek time is the amount of time between when the CPU requests
a file and when the first byte of the file is sent to the CPU. The seek time is
usually between 10 and 20 milliseconds.
Mobile devices’ HDDs are physically smaller than those of their desktop and
enterprise counterparts. Desktop hard disks are 3.5 inches while portable hard A USB and network external storage
disks are 2.5 inches or even smaller. The mobile devices’ hard disks tend to box with 3.5-inch double hard disks
have relatively less capacity. A typical mobile HDD spins at 5,400 rpm, or
7,200 rpm.

Inside a 3.5-inch SATA hard disk A 2.5-inch USB hard disk

116
 Solid-State Drive (SSD)
A solid-state drive is a storage device that uses solid-state memory to
store data. In contrast with traditional hard drives, solid-state drives contain
no moving parts: no spinning platters, no moving heads. Data are split into
word-length pieces and stored in memory. They are then accessed almost
instantaneously using unique system-wide addresses. This behavior has
been used in computer RAM for many years, but for a long time it was too
expensive for using as a permanent storage solution. Solid-state technology
is used in portable storage devices (USB flash memory, portable hard disk
drives) and permanent storage devices (internal hard drives).
A USB flash drive is a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB
interface. USB flash drives are very popular because of their compactness.
A 1.8-inch SSD They actually act as portable hard drives. The storage capacities of USB flash
memories can be as large as 1 TB, and higher capacity USB flash memories
may emerge in near future.

USB flash drives

Solid-state drives may be preferred over traditional disk drives for a number
of reasons:
zzThe first advantage is the speed of operation. Because hard disk drives
need to be spinning for the head to read sectors of the platter, sometimes
you have to wait for spin up time. Once the disk is spinning, the head must
seek the correct place on the disk, and from there, the disk must spin just
enough so that the correct data are read. If data are spread over different
parts of the disk (fragmented), then this operation is repeated until all the
data have been read or written. It is often the case that reads from and writes
to the hard disk create a bottleneck in a system. Because the information on
solid-state drives can be accessed immediately (technically at the speed of
light), there is no latency experienced when data are transferred. Because
there is no relationship between spatial locality and retrieval speed, there is
no degradation of performance when data are fragmented.

117
zzThe second advantage is that breakdown is less likely. Because there are
no moving parts, less can go wrong mechanically and dropping the drive is
less likely to cause damage to the data.

The drawbacks of solid-state drives are the capacity and cost. Because of the
capacity and cost advantages of hard drives, they are still the market standard
for storage devices.

Floppy Diskette (FDD)

Floppy disks are also called diskettes. They are very slow compared to hard
disks or CD-ROMs and hold a smaller amount of data (1.44 megabytes).
Floppy disks are also quite fragile. Inside a SSD
Floppy diskettes are not used any more and modern computers do not come
with floppy disk drives.

Magnetic Tape
Computers can read and write data on special cartridges of magnetic tape. A
magnetic tape cartridge looks like a music cassette. Computer tape cartridges
can be read only by a special tape drive. Tape drives use sequential access;
thus, to access any particular piece of data, all preceding data must be read. A floppy diskette and floppy diskette
Tape cassettes are often used as a backup medium suitable for the average drive
PC user because tape cartridges are high capacity, inexpensive, and reliable
as storage media.

Various data cassettes in different sizes

118
 Zip Disk
A zip drive is a small, portable A Zip disk looks like a floppy disk, but it can hold a lot more data (100 MB,
disk storage capable of holding 250 MB, or 750 MB). Zip disks can only be read by a special drive called a
a moderate amount of computer Zip drive. Zip disks were introduced by Iomega in 1995 and were popularly
information (100 MB or 250 MB). used until 2000. However, the Zip disk was never popular enough to replace
It is used primarily for backing up the 3.5-inch floppy disk. Finally, USB flash drives became the common data
and archiving personal computer storage and transfer medium among the general public due to common
files. availability of USB ports built into personal computers.

CD ROM Disk
A CD ROM (compact disc-read-only memory) is a type of optical disk capable
of storing large amounts of data up to 1 GB, although the most common size
is 700 MB.
The CD ROM drive is used only to read the data from the CD disk. The data
using the CD ROM cannot be written to the disk. For this purpose, the CD RW
is necessary. CD RW is the rewritable drive that can perform both the functions
of reading the disk as well as writing to the disk. The writing data to the disk is
possible only with help of software called CD burner software. The process
A Zip disk and Zip drive of writing the data or any information to the CD is called burning. The writing
of the data is done all at a time. The data already written to the rewritable CD
can be erased with the help of this software. However, there is no software that
can partially erase the data.
All currently available CD burner software requires the data to be completely
erased and then burned over on the rewritable CD. However, the data can
be written in multi-sessions. Currently, CD ROMs are used to back up of the
important data or information of any kind.
The CD ROM currently has a capacity of about 700 MB. The extended
CD ROM has a capacity of 800 MB. The highest CD ROM speed currently
available is 52x. CD-Recordable drives are often sold with three different
CD ROM drive speed ratings, one for write-once operations, one for re-write operations, and
one for read-only operations. The speeds are typically listed in that order, i.e.,
a 12x/10x/32x.

CD ROM disks

119
DVD Disk
DVD, also known as Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc, is an
optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony,
Toshiba, and Time Warner in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage.
DVDs are of the same dimensions as compact discs (CDs) but are capable of
storing much more data (about 4.7 or 8.5 GB of data on one side, or 17 GB on
a disk with two sides). Newly available DVDs have a storage capacity of about
40 GB and even more. Because DVD-ROMs can store so much data, they are
often used to store movies and animation.
A box of blank DVDs
DVDs are available in different formats: DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD RAM, DVD
RW, and so on. The DVD-R/RW means that the disk is recordable once and
rewritable. DVD+R/RW means the same as DVD-R/RW. The “plus” and the
“dash” formats use different writing specifications. Most DVD readers and
players will play both kinds of discs, although older models can have trouble DVD Type Capacity (GB)
with the “plus” variants. DVD-ROM means that the disk is read-only memory.
DVD 9 8.5
DVD-RAM is a random access rewritable, which means that after write
checking, the integrity of the data is active. DVD 10 9.4
DVDs hold more data than CDs. DVD video format offers better picture and DVD 14 13.3
audio quality. Both CDs and DVDs are less expensive and more robust than DVD 18 17.1
hard disks. However, they are slower than hard disks and hold less data than
hard disks.

Different uses of DVDs

Blu-Ray Disk
The Blu-ray disk is a high density optical storage medium. The Blu-ray
format was developed to display high definition video (HD) and store large
amounts of data by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world’s
leading consumer electronics, personal computer, and media manufacturers
(including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer,
Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK, and Thomson).

120
 Blu-ray is the successor to DVD. The disc has the same physical dimensions
as standard DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Disc uses a “blue” (technically violet)
laser operating at a wavelength of 405 nm (nanometre) to read and write data.
Conventional DVDs and CDs use red and near infrared lasers at 650 nm
and 780 nm, respectively. The format offers more than five times the storage
capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc
and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. Recent development by Pioneer has pushed
the storage capacity to 500 GB on a single disc by using 20 layers.

A HD movie on a blu-ray disk

List the names of your computer components and their properties. Use check marks to show the types
of the components.

Component Name Properties Type

System Output
1
Input Storage

System Output
2
Input Storage

System Output
3
Input Storage

System Output
4
Input Storage

System Output
5
Input Storage

System Output
6
Input Storage

System Output
7
Input Storage

System Output
8
Input Storage

121
Put a check () to show whether Match the words to compare computers and humans.
items below are portable or fixed.
Computer Human
Device Portable Fixed
CPU 1 Eye
Hard disk 
Speaker 2 Ear
Floppy disk
RAM Camera 3 Brain

Zip disk Microphone 4 2 Mouth

CD-ROM Chassis 5 Clothes

List the properties of each device in your computer.

My Computer
Device Properties
Mainboard (type)

Ports (number and type)

CPU (type and speed)

RAM (size in megabytes) 256 MB
Sound card (type)

122
Take a price list from a computer sales company, imagine your dream computer and list the name and
the price of each device. What is the total cost of your dream computer?

Name Price
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

T E A M A I N M W U
K M H O O D C O P I
1. Brain of the computer.
S E A N T U I C K S 2. Temporary storage device
3. Output device that gives you a copy of your work.
I M R I S C S K E S
4. 1048 Kbytes of information. TRANSISTOR
D O D T N I C E Y E 5. Another name for motherboard.
6. Physical parts of the computer.
D O W O E B T Y B C
7. 8 bits of information.
R M A R Y A O M O O 8. The most used output device.
9. Input device for typing.
A O R T E R M A A R
10. The fastest permanent storage.
H R E R E T N I R P
M E G A B Y T E D D

123
 



 
 


 

 








1. The parts of computer that you can touch. 12. A __________ network uses radio signals and no
2. The _______________ Logic Unit (ALU) is the part wire.
of the CPU that performs all of the calculations. 13. ___________ ethernet allows speeds at 1000
3. _________ Core processor contains 2 cores in Mbps on a network.
one CPU. 14. The CPU is made from a silicon ____________ .
4. ____________ Printers work similar to photocopy 15. __________ state Drive is a type of hard drive.
machines. 16. __________ supply provides current needed by
5. The __________ unit is the part of the cpu that the computer.
controls the input and output devices. 17. ___________ reader can be used to read black
6. A _______________ can capture images and texts and white stripes on food packages.
from paper for computer editing and display. 18. It stores the data that tell the computer how to
7. __________ slots allow addition of new internal load the operating system when it is switched
cards to a PC. on or re-booted.
8. An Input device used to capture sound and 19. A ________________ allows the computer to
voices. communicate with other computers by using
9. An input device useful for playing games. telephone lines.
10. The CPU is often called the ___________ of a
computer.
11. The ______________ memory is the closest and
fastest memory for CPU.

124
 Test Questions
1. What is the name of the hardware c. BIOS d. L1 Cache Memory > L2
used to take current from the d. ISA Slots Cache Memory > RAM
electricity supply and convert Memory > Virtual Memory
it according to computer parts’ e. AGP Chipset
e. L1 Cache Memory > Virtual
need?
Memory > L2 Cache
a. Receive Memory > RAM Memory
b. Converter 5. Which of the following peripheral
c. PSU (Power Supply Unit) connection ports is the best
option for reaching the highest
d. UPS data transfer rate? 8. Which of the following is the full
e. Main board a. Parallel Port name for PC1066 RDRAM?

b. RS 232 a. Rambus Dynamic RAM at

1000 Mhz Speed
c. USB 1.1
2. The BIOS is actually a type of b. Rambus Double RAM at
d. USB 2.0
__________________ memory. 1066 Mhz Speed
e. USB 3.0
a. RAM c. Rambus Data RAM at 966
Mhz Speed
b. ROM
d. Rambus Dynamic RAM at
c. Virtual
6. Jonah wants to buy a computer 800 Mhz Speed
d. Static that has 8GB of RAM. To use that e. Rambus Dynamic RAM at
e. Temporary much RAM in his computer, how
1066 Mhz Speed
many bit CPU does he need?
a. 4 bit
3. ___________ bus is a high speed b. 8 bit
9. To install an internal sound card
bus generally used to describe c. 16 bit or TV card in your PC, you must
the data path between the CPU d. 32 bit have ______________________.
and memory.
e. 64 bit a. a free PCI expansion slot
a. Universal Serial Bus
(USB) b. a free AGP expansion
slot
b. Back Side Bus (BSB)
7. Which of the following is the c. a free RS232 port
c. Firewire
correct order of types of memory d. a free LPT port
d. Front Side (System) Bus according to speed?
(FSB) e. a free AMR slot
a. L1 Cache Memory > RAM
e. Power Bus Memory > L2 Cache
Memory > Virtual Memory
b. L2 Cache Memory > L1 10. A computer can only understand
binary codes such as 01110011.
4. PCI buses, USB ports, and Cache Memory >RAM
To connect to the Internet, you
IDE or SATA disc connections Memory > Virtual Memory
have to use analog telephone
connect to the _________________ c. RAM Memory > L1 Cache signals to connected to ISP.
on a motherboard. Memory > L2 Cache Which of the following devices
a. Southbridge Chipset Memory > Virtual Memory is used to convert the analog
signal into a digital signal?
b. Northbridge Chipset

125
 Test Questions
a. Network interface card (NIC) a. Click – right click d. Track >Platter > Cluster >
b. Modem (modulator/ b. Scroll Sector
demodulator) c. Drag and drop e. Platter > Track > Sector >
c. Sound card Cluster
d. Double click
d. Graphic card e. Fast typing
e. Wireless ethernet card
17. Which of the following is the
most common file system
14. You need to print 1500 pages of used in MS Windows Vista and
11. Ruya’s teacher gave her a black and white printout for one Windows 7 Operating System?
printed full page text and asked of your projects. Which type of
a. FAT 16
her to scan it and change some printer do you use to print them
of the text. Because she doesn’t quicker and cheaper? b. FAT 32
have the softcopy of the printed a. Desk jet printer c. NTFS
text, she would like to scan the
b. Plotter d. ext2
text and edit it on the computer.
To perform this task, what c. Mono laser printer e. ext3
operation must she perform d. Dot matrix printer
after the scanning process, to
create an editable text file? e. Color laser printer
18. You need to transfer several files
a. CAD (computer aided
of about 4 GB each from one
design) computer to another. What type
b. DTP (desktop publishing) 15. Which of the following is not a of optical device do you need to
type of magnetic storage device? perform this task? Suppose that
c. OCR (optical character
recognition) a. Hard disk drive (HDD) you have only one disk.

d. Word processing b. Blu ray disk a. CD-R

e. Vector drawing design c. Tape b. CDRW
d. Floppy disk c. DVD-R
e. Zip disk d. DVD RW
12. What two devices do you need e. DVD+R
to record your voice into the
computer?
16. Which of the following is the
a. Speaker - modem correct order for parts of a hard
b. Speaker - graphics card drive according to size of data
they can hold?
c. Microphone – sound card
a. Platter > Track > Cluster >
d. Microphone – TV card
Sector
e. Speaker - microphone
b. Cluster > Platter > Sector >
Track
c. Platter > Sector > Track >
13. Which of the following cannot be Cluster
performed with a mouse?

126
 UTILITY PROGRAMS

What are Utilities?

Utility software is a kind of system software designed to help analyze,
configure, optimize, and maintain the computer. Utility software can clean
your computer’s registry, recover lost or damaged data, generate free
space on its hard drive, repair and defragment its hard drive, optimize
system processes, and back up data. These applications address issues
that can potentially decrease your computer’s efficiency, including registry
and hard drive errors, unneeded files that clutter your disk space, security
vulnerabilities, and inefficient system settings.
Utility software should be contrasted with application software, which allows
users to do things like creating text documents, playing games, listening to
music, or surfing the web. Rather than providing these kinds of user-oriented
or output-oriented functions, utility software usually focuses on how the
computer infrastructure (including the computer hardware, operating system,
application software and data storage) operates. Because of this focus,
utilities are often rather technical and targeted at people with an advanced
level of computer knowledge.
Some popular utility programs are TuneUp Utilities, PC Tools, Total
Commander, Windows Commander, Acronics Disk Manager, Norton Ghost,
WinZip 12, WinRar, ACD See, and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Most major
operating systems come with several pre-installed utilities.
Some utility applications address specific problems. However, the best PC
utilities manage a wide range of issues. Following are the most crucial types
of utility applications.

Utility software

127
Disk Defragmenters
Fragmentation occurs when the operating system cannot or will not allocate
enough contiguous space to store a complete file as a unit, but instead, splits
the data into smaller chunks and store them in separate locations. The more
fragmented the data, the slower the operating system becomes. The disk
defragmenter can detect computer files whose contents are broken across
several locations on the hard disk and move the fragments to one location to
increase efficiency.

Disk Checkers
During their operations, different processes cause file system errors. Disk
checkers can scan the contents of a hard disk to find files or areas that are
corrupted in some way or were not correctly saved. Disk checkers eliminate
them and remap the file system for a more efficiently operating hard drive.

Disk Cleaners
After installing and uninstalling software packages, deleting the files, and
using web browsers over a period of months, unnecessary files occupy a large
space on your hard drive. Disk space consuming unnecessary files include
temporary files, trash, old backups, and web caches made by web browsers.
Disk cleaners can find and delete files that are unwanted or unnecessary
to computer operation. The purpose of such deletion may be to free up disk
space, to eliminate clutter, or to protect privacy.

Disk Space Analyzers

Disk space analyzers are used to visual disk space usage by getting the
size for each folder (including sub folders) and files in folders or the drive to
show the distribution of the used space. Most of these applications analyze
this information to generate a graphical chart showing disk usage distribution
according to folders or other user-defined criteria.

Disk Partitions
Disk partitioning is the act of dividing a hard disk drive into multiple logical
storage units referred, to as partitions, to treat one physical disk drive as if it
were multiple disks. Disk partition utilities can divide an individual drive into
multiple logical drives, each with its own file system that can be mounted
by the operating system and treated as an individual drive. A partition editor
software program can be used to create, resize, delete, and manipulate these
partitions on the hard disk.

Disk Compression Utilities

Disk compression utilities are used to free up disk space. They can
transparently compress and uncompress the contents of a disk, increasing
the capacity of the disk.

128
 System Monitors and Profilers
System monitors are used for analyzing the resources and performance of
a computer. System profilers give detailed information about the hardware
attached to the computer and software in use.

Antivirus Software
A virus is a program that infects computer files by copying itself into files as
they are loaded into memory. Viruses can spread very quickly through a whole
computer or through portable devices and Internet files that people copy from
one machine to another. Viruses often damage computers. For example,
some viruses can destroy a computer’s hard disk or take up memory space
that could be used by other programs.
Some well-known viruses were Dark Avenger, Crazy Boot, Cascade, One Half,
Yankee, Brain, Disk Killer, Nimda, Chernobil, ILoveYou, Win32, and Brontok.

Antivirus software programs

An antivirus program scans your computer’s memory and hard disks to

identify and destroy viruses. It also examines files for viruses as your computer
receives the files.
Some common antivirus programs are Norton AntiVirus, McAfee, Dr.Web,
Trend PC-Cillin, Kaspersky, Panda, Esset Nod32, AVG, Avira, and Symantec.

Registry Cleaners
Each time you add or remove software, you make changes to your computer’s
registry, which contains information and keys that tell the computer what to
do in certain situations. Over time, this registry grows bigger and bigger. With
all this registry clutter and wasted space, your computer’s performance will
most likely suffer.
Registry cleaners clean and optimize the Windows registry by removing old
registry keys that are no longer in use.

129
 CleanMyPc can clean up the registry and improve performance.
Network Utilities
Network utilities are used to monitor the computer’s network connectivity,
configure network settings, analyze data transfer, or log events.

Backup Utilities

To backup data means making copies of data thus may be

used to restore the original after a data loss event. Back up
utilities can make a copy of all information stored on a disk
and restore either the entire disk in case of a disk failure or
selected files in case of an accidental deletion.
Today, most of the laptop computers come with a backup
utility. In case of a system failure, you can restore to factory
settings.

Acronis True Image backup program

130
 File Managers
A file manager is a computer program that provides a user interface to
perform routine data management tasks. With the help of file managers, you
can easily create, move, copy, view, print, merge, generate, rename, search,
catalog, and delete files.

Total Commander file manager program

131
 Understanding Computer Networks
A computer network is a collection of computers, printers, and other devices
that are interconnected by communication channels. Computer networks
facilitate communications among users and allow users to share resources.
You can easily understand the computer networking with some analogies.
The towns in your country and the roads connecting them to each other
are a transportation network. Transportation networks facilitate transfer of
people and goods with cars, trucks, trains and planes. Computer networks
facilitate transfer of computer software; text, voice and video messages; and
multimedia and other types of files with data packets.
Transportation networks use motorways, railways, waterways, and airways
A computer network as the transportation environment; computer networks use copper cables,
fiber optic cables, and wireless technologies as the data communication
environment. There are traffic rules in transportation networks, and there are
network protocols in computer networks to manage the network activities.

Advantages of Networks
Computer networks, especially the Internet, have dramatically changed the life
style of the society in a very short period. It became possible to accomplish
many daily works with a couple of mouse clicks. Computer networks provide
sharing resources, security, communication, education, and project
A transportation network management advantages.
It is easier to share files, hardware, and software in a network environment.
Securing the entry points of a network is easier and cheaper than securing
each computer in an organization. E-mail and instant messenger systems let
people communicate very quickly and inexpensively. Working on a project as
a team is possible on network systems. A project team can work on the same
project and develop the different parts of the project simultaneously. With the
help of distance learning systems, people can continue their education or
certificate programs at home.

Drawbacks of Networks
Like anything else, computer networks have some drawbacks along with their
advantages. Computer networks require some installation and maintenance
cost. You need a network administrator and server manager to maintain
your network. Computer viruses and Trojan horses can spread very fast
in a network environment. A whole network can be useless in the case of a
crashing server. Although the Internet has made life easier in many ways,
some malicious people use it for identity theft and some other Internet
crimes.

133
Communication between Computers
The purpose of communication is to send a message from a source to
destination. Whenever a message is sent through a network, there is always
a source computer, a transmission medium (channel), a destination
computer, and protocols. The source computer sends the message; the
message travels along the medium; the destination computer receives the
message; protocols are the set of rules to pack the message on the source’s
side, transmit the packets along the medium, and unpack the message on the
destination’s side.

Downloading from an FTP site

Network Types
Different types of (private) networks are distinguished based on their size
(in terms of the number of machines) and their data transfer speed. Private
networks are networks that belong to a single organization. There are three
general categories of networks:

zzLAN (local area network)

zzMAN (metropolitan area network)
zzWAN (wide area network)

There are two other types of networks: PAN (personal area network) and CAN
(campus area networks). A PAN is organized around an individual person.
Personal area networks typically involve a mobile computer, a cell phone, or a
handheld computing device such as a PDA. Personal area networks use USB,
FireWire, and wireless and Bluetooth technologies to establish a connection
and transfer data. A CAN is made up of an interconnection of LANs within a
limited geographic area on a university campus or corporate campus. A personal area network

134
LAN (Local Area Network)
Usually, if the devices on a network are in a single location, such as a building
or a group of rooms, they are called a local area network (LAN). LANs
usually have all the devices on the network connected by a single type of
network cable or wireless connection.
LANs (local area networks) are divided into two types of network sub-
categories: peer-to-peer and client/server.

zzPeer-to-Peer Network (Workgroup): In a peer-to-peer network, everyone

stores their files on their own computer. Because all users no additional
software is needed, peer-to-peer networking is an inexpensive way to connect
computers in a small office or home. The disadvantages of a peer-to-peer
network are that they do not offer as much security as client/server networks
do, and it can be difficult to find files that are stored on many different
computers.

A peer-to-peer network

zzClient/Server Network (Domain): In a client/server network, everyone stores

files on a central computer called server. Client/server networks are more
secure, easier to administer, and much more powerful than peer-to-peer
networks. For that reason, they are used to connect computers in businesses.
The disadvantages of client/server networks are that they require special,
expensive software, such as Windows Server 2010 and UNIX, and they
are more complicated to install and configure than peer-to-peer networks.

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 A client-server network

MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)

A metropolitan area network (MAN) interconnects users with computer
resources in a geographic area or region larger than that covered by a local
area network (LAN) but smaller than the area covered by a wide area network
(WAN).

A metropolitan area network

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 In a MAN, the communications links and equipment are generally owned
by either a consortium of users or by a single network provider who sells
the service to the users. Similar to a LAN, a MAN often acts as a high speed
network to allow sharing of regional resources. MANs and WANs use the
same type of network technologies.

WAN (Wide Area Network)

If the devices are scattered widely, such as in different buildings or different
cities, they are usually set up into several LANs that are joined together into a
larger structure called a wide area network (WAN).

The largest WAN is the Internet.

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A WAN is composed of two or more LANs. Each LAN has its own network
cable connecting all the devices in that LAN. The LANs are joined together
by another connection method, often high-speed telephone lines or very fast
dedicated network cables called backbones.
WANs are often treated as a single entity for organizational purposes. For
example, the LILY Software Company might have branches in four different
cities, with a LAN in each city. All four LANs are joined together by high-speed
telephone lines. However, as far as the Internet and anyone outside the LILY
Software Company are concerned, the LILY Software WAN is a single entity.
Comparing LAN, MAN and WAN

Parameter LAN MAN WAN

Covers small Covers Larger than Covers large
Area covered
area LAN smaller than WAN area
Error rates Lowest Moderate Highest
Transmission
High speed Moderate speed Low speed
speed
Inexpensive Moderately expensive Most expensive
Equipment cost
equipment equipment equipment
Sizes of different network
Network Components types
For a computer to operate on a network, a range of different components
is required. Those components can be categorized into two main groups:
Network media and network devices. Copper cables, fiber optic cables,
and wireless are the media components. Each type of media uses its own
connectors. NIC, repeater, HUB, Switch, and Router are the most used
network devices.

Media
The term network media refers to the pathways along which data travel.
Network media is the actual path over which an electrical signal travels as it
moves from one component to another. It provides connections between the
network computers, peripherals, and devices in the network. There are four
types of media technologies used in computer networks: coaxial cabling,
twisted pair cabling, fiber optic cabling, and wireless. Coaxial and twisted
pair cables use copper wires to propagate electrical signal; fiber optic cables
carry a beam of light to transmit the data; in a wireless network, the information
is carried through the air or space by high-frequency radio waves.
You can build computer networks with many different media types. Each
media has advantages and disadvantages. What is an advantage for one
media (category 5 cost) might be a disadvantage for another (fiber optic cost).
Some of the advantages and disadvantages of the media are cable length,
cost, and ease of installation. Coaxial cable, optical fiber, and even free space
can carry network signals. The principal medium for LANs is called Category
5 unshielded twisted-pair cable (CAT 5 UTP).

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 zzCoaxial cable consists of a single copper conductor in the center surrounded
by a plastic layer for insulation and a braided metal outer shield. Coaxial
cabling is used by cable television and computer networks. It has a large
frequency range that allows it to carry multiple signals, making it ideal for
carrying many cable television broadcasts. However, coaxial cable is more
expensive to install, and it uses a network topology that is prone to congestion.
The RG-58 coaxial cable is most often used for thin Ethernet when the
maximum length is about 185 meters and maximum speed is 10 Mbps.

zzUTP (unshielded twisted pair) is a popular type of cable that consists of two
Coaxial cable and connectors unshielded wires twisted around each other. Due to its low cost, UTP cabling
is used extensively for local area networks. Although UTP cabling does not
offer as high bandwidth or as good protection from interference as coaxial or
fiber optic cable, since it is cheaper and easier to work with. It is primary used
in LAN cabling. CAT 5 UTP cable supports Fast Ethernet speeds (up to 100
Mbps). CAT5 cable runs are limited to a maximum recommended run length
of 100 m. A newer specification for CAT 5 cable is CAT 5 enhanced (CAT 5e),
which supports networking at Gigabit Ethernet speeds (up to 1000 Mbps).

zzFiber Optic Cable: Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting

information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through
an optical fiber. Fiber-optic lines are strands of optically pure glass as thin
as a human hair that carries digital information over long distances. While
expensive, these cables are increasingly being used instead of traditional
copper cables because fiber offers more capacity (100 Mbps – 10 Gbps)
and longer propagation distance (2000 m – 3000 m) and is less susceptible
to electrical interference.
UTP cable and connectors

Fiber optic cables and connectors

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Network Devices
Computer networking devices are units that mediate data in a computer
network. Computer networking devices are also called network equipment
or communication devices. Some of these devices are NICs, repeaters,
bridges, switches, hubs, modems, routers, gateways, and hardware
firewalls. Units that are the last receiver or generate data are called hosts or
data terminal equipment. The top network device vendors are Cisco, ZyXEL,
LinkSys, D-Link, Baynet, RealTek, 3Com, Intel, Net Gear, and Nortel.

zzNIC: A NIC (network interface card), also called LAN card,

network card, network adapter, or Ethernet card, is a
printed circuit board that provides network communication
capabilities to and from a computer system. Its job is to
physically attach a computer to a network so that the
computer can participate in network communications. NICs
are inserted into the expansion slots inside the computer.
Different LAN cards support different speeds from 10/100 to
10/1000. A NIC ensures that only one computer sends data
at a time in the network to prevent collision. Into addition
media access control, NICs also detect and possibly correct
errors that may occur in the medium. Network interface card
zzRepeater: One of the disadvantages of the type of cable
primarily used (CAT5 UTP) is cable length. The maximum
length for UTP cable in a network is 100 meters. If a network
needs to be extended beyond that limit, a device must be
added to the network. This device is called a repeater. The
purpose of a repeater is to regenerate and retime network
signals to allow them to travel a longer distance on the media.
In practice, at most, four consecutive repeaters can be used
in a network. All the network devices perform repeater
functions along with their own tasks. Network repeaters
regenerate incoming electrical, wireless, or optical signals.
With physical media like Ethernet or Wi-Fi, data transmissions An 8-port hub
can only span a limited distance before the quality of the
signal degrades. Repeaters attempt to preserve signal integrity and extend
the distance over which data can safely travel.
In a packet-switched network,
zzHub: The purpose of a hub is to regenerate and retime network signals messages are divided into
to a large number of hosts (e.g. 4, 8, or even 24) using a process known packets before they are sent.
as concentration. You may notice that this definition is very similar to the Each packet is then transmitted
repeater’s definition; for that reason, a hub is also known as a multi-port individually and can even follow
repeater. The difference is the number of cables that connect to the device. different routes to its destination.
Two reasons for using hubs are to create a central connection point for the Once all the packets forming
wiring media and to increase the reliability of the network. The reliability of a message arrive at the
the network is increased by allowing any single cable to fail without disrupting destination, they are recompiled
the entire network. into the original message.

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 zzBridge: A bridge device filters data traffic at a network boundary. Bridges
reduce the amount of traffic on a LAN by dividing it into two segments.
Bridging is a forwarding technique used in packet-switched computer
networks.

Cable bridge

Wireless switch bridge

zzSwitch: A network switch is a small hardware device that joins multiple

computers together within one local area network (LAN). Ethernet
implementations of network switches are the most common. Mainstream
Ethernet network switches support either 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet or
Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000) standards. Typically, a switch is connected
Switch (8 port) physically via a network cable to a router and then, again via a network cable,
to the network interface cards in the network devices in the LAN. A switch
operates as a multi-port bridge.

zzRouter: When two or more networks must be connected, a router is usually

necessary. With suitable software, any PC can act as a router. Usually the
term router refers to a special machine that does not function as a general-
Switch (24 port) purpose computer.

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Router

Routers working scheme

Network Protocols
A network protocol defines rules and conventions for communication between
network devices. Protocols for computer networking all generally use packet
switching techniques to send and receive messages in the form of packets.
Network protocols like HTTP, TCP/IP, and SMTP provide a foundation that
much of the Internet is built on. Some of the most common network protocols
are the following:

zzIP (Internet Protocol): IP supports unique addressing for computers on a

network. Most networks use the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) standards
that feature IP addresses four bytes (32 bits) in length. The newer Internet
Protocol version 6 (IPv6) standard features addresses 16 bytes (128 bits)
in length.
zzTCP (Transmission Control Protocol): TCP is a set of rules (protocol)
used along with the IP to send data in the form of message units between
computers over the Internet. TCP enables two hosts to establish a connection
and exchange streams of data. TCP is a reliable connection-oriented
protocol that guarantees delivery of data and also guarantees that packets
will be delivered in the same order in which they were sent.

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 zzUDP (User Datagram Protocol): UDP is a communications protocol that
offers a limited amount of service when messages are exchanged between
computers in a network that uses the Internet Protocol (IP). UDP is a
connectionless protocol that provides very few error recovery services,
offering instead a direct way to send and receive packets over an IP network.
It is used primarily for broadcasting messages over a network.
zzFTP (FILE Transfer Protocol): FTP allows transfer of files between two
computers on the Internet. FTP is a simple network protocol based on IP.
It is a term used when referring to the process of copying files when using
FTP technology.
zzHTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol): HTTP is the set of rules for transferring
files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the
web. As soon as a web user opens a web browser, the user is indirectly
making use of HTTP.
zzDHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol): DHCP is a communications
protocol that lets network administrators centrally manage and automate the
assignment of IP addresses in an organization’s network. Each machine that
can connect to the network needs a unique IP address, which is assigned
when a network connection is created for a specific computer.

zzAppleTalk: AppleTalk is a
set of local area network
communication protocols
originally created for Apple
computers. An AppleTalk
network can support up to
32 devices, and data can be
exchanged at a speed of 230.4
kilobits per second (Kbps).
Devices can be as much as 300
meters apart.
zzSMTP (Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol): SMTP is a standard
network protocol for transmitting
messages to an e-mail server on
the Internet.

A simple intranet

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Intranet, Extranet, and Internet
Intranet
Intranet is the generic term for a collection of private computer networks within
an organization. An intranet uses network technologies as a tool to facilitate
communication between people or workgroups to improve the data sharing
capability and overall knowledge base of an organization’s employees.
Intranets utilize standard network hardware and software technologies like
Ethernet, Wi-Fi, TCP/IP, web browsers, and web servers. An organization’s
intranet typically includes Internet access but is firewalled so that its computers
cannot be reached directly from the outside.

What Can We Do with an Intranet?

zzLocal web publishing

zzCommunicating within the LAN
zzSharing documents video and sound files
zzSending local e-mail
zzIncreasing workforce productivity (gain time)
zzFacilitating business operations and
management

Intranet using area

Extranet
An extranet is a private network that uses Internet technology and the
public telecommunication system to securely share part of a business’s
information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers, or
other businesses. An extranet can be viewed as part of a company’s intranet
that is extended to users outside the company.
An extranet requires security and privacy. These can include firewall server
management, the issuance and use of digital certificates or similar means of
user authentication, encryption of messages, and the use of virtual private
networks (VPNs) that tunnel through the public network. Extranets can use
encryption and password protection to secure access to the site. For business-
to-business transactions, extranets enable secure electronic commerce.
An extranet provides the ability to create applications that associates and
customers can access, but that are not accessible to the general public. An
extranet can automate information sharing by providing access to specific
information and controlled access to internal databases.

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 The Internet
The Internet is a massive public web of computer connections. The Internet
connects personal computers, mainframes, cell phones, GPS units, music
players, soda pop machines, car alarms, and even dog collars. All of these
computer connections exist for the sake of free information sharing.
Almost all countries in the world are linked together into exchanges of data,
news, and opinions. Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled,
the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a
host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use
and which local services to make available to the global Internet community.
Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well. There are a
variety of ways to access the Internet. Most online services offer access to
some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access through a commercial
Internet Service Provider (ISP).

General Internet scheme

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Internet Connection Types
Data can be transmitted by
zzDial-Up Modem Connections: Dial-up is an analog connection because two types of signals; analog
data are sent over an analog, public telephone network. The modem converts and digital. An analog signal
received analog data to digital and vice versa. Because dial-up access uses represents a continuous electrical
normal telephone lines, the quality of the connection is not always good and signal in the form of a wave. A
data rates are limited. Typical dial-up connection speeds range from 2400 digital signal is discontinuous,
bps to 56 Kbps. This connection type is not suitable for multiple users. expressed as discrete bursts in
on/off electrical signal.

zzDSL (Digital Subscriber Line): DSL is also called an always-on connection

because it uses an existing two-wire copper telephone line connected to the
premises and will not tie up the phone line as a dial-up connection does.
There is no need to dial-in to an ISP because DSL is always on. The two main
categories of DSL for home subscribers are called ADSL (asymmetric digital A dial-up modem
subscriber line) and SDSL (symmetric digital subscriber line). ADSL is the
most commonly deployed types of DSL. ADSL supports data rates of from
1.5 to 9 Mbps when receiving data (known as the downstream rate) and from
16 to 640 Kbps when sending data (known as the upstream rate). SDSL is
called symmetric because it supports the same data rates for upstream and Bps (bits per second) is a
downstream traffic. SDSL supports data rates up to 3 Mbps. measurement unit of data
transmission speed of a
network or the Internet.

Both Internet and telephone can be used at the same time. An ADSL modem

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Other Internet connection types zzWi-Fi (Wireless Internet): Wireless networking, which is often just known as
include Leased Line, T1, T2, Wi-Fi, is a way of getting broadband Internet without wires. Wi-Fi allows you
ISDN, and Fiber Internet. to connect several computers at once, anywhere in the house, or if you have
a laptop, you can even use your computer in the garden. You do not need to
install extra phone lines or cables. It is also known as wireless networking
or ‘wireless fidelity’. Wi-Fi is widely installed in cafés, airports, and many
other public buildings. If you have seen people at your local coffee shop
surfing the Internet on a laptop computer, they are using a Wi-Fi network.

Wireless Internet connection

Wi-Fi
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Wi-Fi connections?

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The Internet, Intranets, and Extranets

Differences between the Internet, an Intranet, and an Extranet

Internet Intranet Extranet

Login Open Private Only with agreement

Clients Open Only for organization partners For members

Knowledge Public Company-specific Private sector, shared

WWW (World Wide Web)

The World Wide Web consists of an interconnected system of sites, servers, all
over the world. It is a huge collection of pages. All of them are interconnected
with each other. These pages can contain text, pictures, films, sound, and
much more information. Using the web is a bit like flipping through a huge
book that has been written by millions of authors. The World Wide Web is also
called WWW or the web.
Sometimes people use the words the Internet and World Wide Web
synonymously but they are different. The WWW is a component of the Internet
Intranet, extranet, and
that presents information in a graphical interface. Internet users can think of
internet
the WWW as the graphical version of the Internet.

Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is a techno culture term that was coined in 2004. The moniker was
born at an O’Reilly Media conference and indicates that the World Wide Web
has now evolved into a provider of online software services. The original
Web 1.0 of 1989 was just a massive collection of static electronic brochures.
However, since 2003, the Web has evolved into a provider of remote-access
software. In short, Web 2.0 is the interactive Web.

Some of Web 2.0 features are the following:

zzFast internet connection (DSL, fiber optics, cables).

zzWebsites based on advanced coding and languages such as XHTML, AJAX,
Ruby on Rails.
Web 2.0 (techno culture)
zzMany-to-many users (websites supplying the platform and users creating
content). RSS is used to publish
zzDynamic websites including comment features, file sharing, and multimedia. frequently updated works,
zzRSS (rich site summary) aggregation. such as blog entries and news
headlines.
zzLittle knowledge of HTML needed for users to be able to supply content.

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Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

Internet and WWW Tools

E-Mail
Electronic mail (e-mail) is a message sent electronically over the Internet.
You can use electronic e-mail to send messages to people all over the world.
Just like you need to know a person’s postal address if you want to send that
person a letter, you need to know a person’s e-mail address if you want to
send that person an e-mail message. E-mail is fast and economical because
e-mail usually arrives at its destination in a matter of seconds and many e-mail
accounts are completely free. There are two types of e-mail:
zzWeb based
zzClient based
Many people prefer to use web-based e-mail, such as Hotmail, Yahoo!
Mail, and Gmail, because they can use it anywhere on any computer that
has a connection to the Internet. Client-based e-mail means the user needs
a program on the computer to read the e-mail. Examples of e-mail clients
are Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, The Bat!, Eudora, and so on.
E-mail makes up a most Internet traffic today because everyone with Internet
access has an e-mail account.

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IRC Chat and Instant Messaging
zzIRC (Internet relay chat): IRC provides a way of communicating in real time
with people from all over the world. It consists of various separate networks
of IRC servers, machines that allow users to connect to IRC.
zzChat: A chat is a real time online conversation between many computer
users. All participants must be in front of their computers at the same time.

Popular chat tools

Web Ethics
How honest do you think people are while they are chatting or using the Web? Do some research
to find out.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

When you want to copy files between two computers that are on the same
local network, often you can simply share a drive or folder and copy the
files the same way you would copy files from one place to another on your
own PC. What if you want to copy files from one computer to another that is
halfway around the world? You would probably use your Internet connection.
However, for security reasons, it is very uncommon to share folders over the
Internet.

File transfers over the Internet use special

techniques, of which one of the oldest
and most widely-used is FTP. FTP, short
for file transfer protocol, can transfer
files between any computers that have an
Internet connection and also works between
computers using totally different operating
systems.
Transferring files from a client computer
to a server computer is called uploading
and transferring from a server to a client is
downloading. FTP working model

150
 FTP protocol supports the delivery of files to a client. Most of the web client
applications are able to support ftp protocol. There are also other ftp clients
that can be downloaded and installed on computers. Some examples of ftp
server applications include Microsoft Internet Information Services (ftp service)
and Apache FTP Server.
A username and password are sometimes required to logon to the FTP server.
Once a connection has been established to the FTP server via an FTP client
application, the user is able to browse the directories or folders to find the
required file in the server. Once the file is found, the user is able to download
the file to his or her computer. Some examples of FTP connection software
are CuteFTP, FileZilla, zFTPServer Suite, War FTP Daemon, and WS_FTP
Server.

The FileZilla interface

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Cloud Computing
Cloud computing consists of hardware, software and document resources
made available on the Internet as managed third-party services. These
services typically provide access to advanced software applications and high-
end networks of server computers.

Cloud computing working scheme

Internet Telephony
Internet telephony refers to the science or technology of integrating
telephone services into computer networks. In essence, Internet telephony
converts analog voice signals into digital signals, transmits them, and then
converts them back again. Voice over IP (VoIP) is a common Internet
telephony service.
With traditional telephone service, sometimes referred to as POTS (plain old
telephone service), voice signals use telephone lines-copper wires-and circuit
switches to communicate. Internet telephony uses computer networks to send
voice signals. All information is transferred across the Internet in data packets.
For example, if you send your friend an e-mail, the e-mail is broken up into
a series of data packets that each takes its own route to the destination mail
server. Once there, the packets reassemble themselves into the full e-mail
message.

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 Common VoIP connection methods

Video Conference

Making video calls is now quite easy and not

as expensive as it used to be. You only need to
invest in some inexpensive devices like a web
camera and headset before enjoying video
conferencing with friends, peers, colleagues, or
business partners.
Many applications and services are free. For
corporations and those requiring heavy-duty
and reliable video conferencing services or
completely native solutions, there are paid
services that are cheaper than traditional video
solutions. Some of the free video conferencing
tools are ooVoo, Skype, Yugma, Vbuzzer,
Ekiga, Tokbox, Eyejot, SightSpeed, and
iChat.
Video conference

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Telnet
Telnet is used for remotely controlling a server by using another computer.
The Telnet Server Application is normally installed on the server, and a Telnet
client application is installed on a computer that is used to access the server
remotely. A username and password are required to access the server from
the telnet client application.
The administrator can choose whether to turn on or turn off the telnet server
application at the server. The reason an administrator may want to turn off the
telnet server application is to prevent people from hacking into the server in
case a username and password have been stolen.

Windows telnet session

Discussion Boards and Newsgroups

Discussion boards (which are often called message boards) and newsgroups
both accomplish the same task. They each have general topics, and visitors
can post messages about those topics on them. Anyone who has access to a
newsgroup can read and reply to a message, which again, will be able to read
and replied to by anyone else with access.
Discussion boards are usually read through a web browser while newsgroups
are usually read through a special program called a (newsgroup) reader.

154
 Discussion group

A podcast is a type of digital Social Media

media consisting of an episodic Social media include the various online technology tools that enable people to
series of files (either audio or communicate easily via the Internet to share information and resources. Social
video) subscribed to and down- media can include text, audio, video, images, podcasts, and other multimedia
loaded through the web. communications.

Social media has shot to the forefront of people’s attention

because using it is fun. In social media, it is easy to share your
ideas, photos, videos, likes, and dislikes, with the world at large
and find out what others think of them. You can find friends and
business contacts and become part of a community many different
communities. Social media gives you what TV never could: a
chance to be engaged and to engage others.

155
 Social Media
What do you think the benefits and harms of social media are?

Networking Models and Standards

During the early years of computer networking, very few standards and
protocols existed between various manufacturers. However, as time went
on and computer technology continued to improve and become more
widespread, it became apparent that standards would be necessary to ensure
compatibility. OSI and TCP/IP are two reference models to describe the
network protocols and the purpose and functions of various network devices.

The OSI Model

An architectural model developed by the International Standards
Organization (ISO) is frequently used to describe the structure and function
of data communications protocols. This architectural model, which is called
the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model, provides a
common reference for discussing communications. The OSI model defines a
networking framework for implementing protocols in layers.
The OSI Reference Model contains seven layers that define the functions
of data communication protocols. Each layer of the OSI model represents
a function performed when data are transferred between cooperating
applications across an intervening network.

156
The MAC (Media Access Control)
and IP (Internet Protocol) are
the two addresses that identify
your computer in a network. An
IP is a logical address that
is usually assigned by the
network administrator or Internet
service provider. A MAC is a
physical permanent address
that is already embedded
on the network card during
manufacturing.

The OSI reference model

A layer does not define a single protocol—it defines a data communications

function that may be performed by any number of protocols. Therefore, each
layer may contain multiple protocols, each providing a service suitable to the
function of that layer. For example, a file transfer protocol and an electronic
mail protocol both provide user services, and both are part of the application
layer.

157
OSI divides telecommunication into seven layers, which are in two groups.
The upper four layers are used whenever a message passes from or to a user.
The lower three layers (up to the network layer) are used when any message
passes through the host computer. Messages intended for this computer pass
to the upper layers. Messages destined for some other host are not passed
up to the upper layers but are forwarded to another host. The seven layers
are the following:

zzLayer 7 (The application layer): This is the layer at which communication

partners are identified, quality of service is identified, user authentication and
privacy are considered, and any constraints on data syntax are identified.
(This layer is not the application itself, although some applications may
perform application layer functions.)
zzLayer 6 (The presentation layer): This is a layer, usually part of an operating
system, that converts incoming and outgoing data from one presentation
format to another (for example, from a text stream into a popup window with
the newly arrived text). It is sometimes called the syntax layer.
zzLayer 5 (The session layer): This layer sets up, coordinates, and terminates
conversations, exchanges, and dialogs between the applications at each
end. It deals with session and connection coordination.
zzLayer 4 (The transport layer): This layer manages the end-to-end control (for
example, determining whether all packets have arrived) and error-checking.
It ensures complete data transfer.
zzLayer 3 (The network layer): This layer handles the routing of the data
(sending them in the right direction to the right destination on outgoing
transmissions and receiving incoming transmissions at the packet level).
The network layer does routing and forwarding.
zzLayer 2 (The data-link layer): The data link layer provides an interface
with the network adapter and can also perform basic error checking. It
also maintains logical links for subnets, so that subnets can communicate
with other parts of the network without problem.
zzLayer 1 (The physical layer): The physical layer converts data into
streams of electric or analog pulses, commonly referred to as 1s and
0s. Data are broken down into simple electric pulses and rebuilt at the
receiving end.

TCP/IP Model
TCP/IP is responsible for a wide range of activity: It must interface with
hardware, route data to appropriate places, provide error control, and
much more. The TCP/IP model is divided into four layers: Network
access, Internet, Transport, and Application.

zzNetwork Access Layer: The network access layer interfaces with the
physical network. It formats data and addresses data for subnets, based
on physical hardware addresses. More importantly, it provides error
control for data delivered on the physical network. The TCP/IP model

158
zzInternet Layer: The Internet layer provides logical addressing. More
specifically, the Internet layer relates physical addresses from the network
access layer to logical addresses. This can be an IP address, for instance.
Doing so is vital for passing along information to subnets that are not on the
same network as other parts of the network. This layer also provides routing
that may reduce traffic and supports delivery across an internetwork. (An
internetwork is simply a greater network of LANs, perhaps a large company
or organization.)
zzTransport Layer: The transport layer provides flow control and error control,
and serves as an interface for network applications.
zzApplication Layer: The application layer is used for troubleshooting, file
transfer, Internet activities, and many other activities. This layer interacts with
many types of applications, such as a database manager, e-mail program,
or telnet.

Comparing OSI and TPC/IP models

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Network Topologies
In computer networking, topology refers to the layout of connected devices.
Think of a topology as a network’s virtual shape or structure. This shape does
not necessarily correspond to the actual physical layout of the devices on the
network. For example, the computers on a home LAN may be arranged in a
circle in a family room, but it would be highly unlikely to find a ring topology
there.
Network topologies are categorized into the following basic types: bus, ring,
star, tree, mesh. More complex networks can be built as hybrids of two or
more of the above basic topologies.

Bus Topology
Bus networks (not to be confused with the system
bus of a computer) use a common backbone to
connect all devices. The backbone (a single cable)
functions as a shared communication medium
that devices attach to or tap into with an interface
connector. A device wanting to communicate with
another device on the network sends a broadcast
message over the wire that all other devices see,
but only the intended recipient actually accepts
and processes the message.

Bus topology

Ethernet bus topologies are relatively easy to install and do not require much
cabling compared to the alternatives. 10Base-2 (ThinNet) and 10Base-5
(ThickNet) were both popular Ethernet cabling options many years ago for
bus topologies. However, bus networks work best with a limited number of
devices. If more than a few dozen computers are added to a network bus,
performance problems will likely result. In addition, if the backbone cable fails,
the entire network effectively becomes unusable.

Ring Topology
In a ring network, every device has exactly two neighbors for communication
purposes. All messages travel through a ring in the same direction (either
“clockwise” or “counterclockwise”). A failure in any cable or device breaks the
loop and can take down the entire network. To implement a ring network, one
typically uses FDDI, SONET, or Token Ring technology. Ring topologies are
found in some office buildings or on school campuses.

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 Ring topology

Star Topology
Many home, school, and office networks use the star topology. A star network
A star network can be expanded features a central connection point called a hub that may be a hub or switch.
to include additional hubs that Devices typically connect to the hub with unshielded twisted pair (UTP)
are connected to the main hub. Ethernet.
This topology is referred to as an
extended-star topology. Compared to the bus topology, a star network generally requires more cable,
but a failure in any star network cable will take down only one computer’s
network access and not the entire LAN. (If the hub fails, however, the entire
network also fails.)

Star topology

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Tree Topology
Tree topologies integrate multiple star topologies together into a bus. In its
simplest form, only hub devices connect directly to the tree bus. Each hub
functions as the root of a tree of devices. This bus/star hybrid approach
supports future expandability of the network much better than a bus (limited
in the number of devices due to the broadcast traffic it generates) or a star
(limited by the number of hub connection points) alone.

Tree topology

Mesh Topology
Mesh topologies involve the concept of routes. Unlike each of the previous
topologies, messages sent on a mesh network can take any of several possible
paths from source to destination. Some WANs, especially the Internet, employ
mesh routing. A mesh network in which every device connects to every other
is called a full mesh. Partial mesh networks also exist in which some devices
connect only indirectly to others.

Mesh topology

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 Logical Topologies
A network’s logical layout may differ from its physical layout. The logical
A collision occurs when two or topology defines the way data pass from one computer to another. Logical
more devices attempt to send a topologies are bound to the network protocols that direct how the data
signal along the same channel move across a network. The physical topology defines how the cables,
at the same time. Computer concentrators, and nodes are arranged. For example, an Ethernet must be a
networks require some sort of logical bus network; however, it can be physically configured as a bus or star.
mechanism to either prevent
A token ring is a logical ring, but it is physically configured as a star. FDDI, a
collisions altogether or to recover
logical ring, is physically configured either as a ring or a star.
from collisions when they do
occur.
Logical Token Ring Topology
A token ring network is a local area network (LAN) in which all computers are
connected in a ring or star topology and a bit- or token-passing scheme is
used to prevent collision of data between two computers that want to send
A token is a special message messages at the same time. The token ring protocol is the second most widely
that travels around a token-ring used protocol on local area networks after Ethernet.
network. As the token circulates, In a logical ring topology, the nodes are connected in circle. A token will be
computers attached to the
travelling around the ring. Any node that wants to transmit data will take the
network can capture it and start
token. Once the data have been transmitted, the token will be released to the
to send their messages.
network.

CSMA/CD Carrier Sense Multiple

Access/Collision Detection is a Token ring topology
set of rules determining how
network devices respond when
Logical Ethernet Bus Topology
two devices attempt to use a
There are several common instances of the bus architecture, including one in
data channel simultaneously
the motherboard of most computers and those in some versions of Ethernet
(collision).
networks.
Bus networks are the simplest way to connect multiple clients, but they may
A bus master decides who have problems when two clients want to transmit at the same time on the
gets the bus when more than same bus. Thus, systems that use bus network architectures normally have
one device requests the bus. some scheme of collision handling or collision avoidance for communication
This process is called the bus on the bus, quite often using Carrier Sense Multiple Access or the presence
arbitration. of a bus master that controls access to the shared bus resource.

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IP Addressing
Understanding IP Addressing
An IP address is a 32-bit address assigned to hosts using TCP/IP and is
written as 4 octets. A subnet mask is used to extract network information
from the IP address. Your LAN does not connect to the Internet or another
LAN with a router, so you are free to choose any IP address. Otherwise, you
have a limited IP address range depending on the IP address used to connect
to the Internet. However, there are certain addresses that are reserved only
for internal network use. These addresses are called private addresses. There
are three classes of IP addresses in the Internet: Class A, class B and class C.

zzClass A addresses use the first octet (the first 8 bits) to identify the network A broadcast address is an
portion of the address and the remaining three octets (24 bits) can be used address used to indicate that
for the host portion of the address. You can use 224 - 2 = 16,777,214 IP information being sent out should
addresses for your hosts. The first IP address is the address of the network, be delivered to every host on
and the last IP address is the broadcasting address. the network. These addresses
zzClass B addresses use the first two octets for the network portion of the are always the highest number
possible in a particular network.
address and the last two octets for the host portion of the address. You can
have 216 - 2 = 65,534 hosts in your network.
zzClass C addresses use the first three octets for the network portion of the
address and the last octet for the host portion of the address. You can address
28 - 2 = 254 hosts in your network.
Check the first octet of the IP address to identify its class. The first octet of
the class A IP address is in the range 0-126, the first octet of the class B IP
address is in the range 128-191, and the first octet of the class C IP address
is in the range 192-223.
Types of IP Addresses
zzUnicast IP Address: This type is used to transmit information to a specific
network device on the network.
zzBroadcast IP Address: This type allows information to be sent to all
the computers on a given subnet rather than a particular machine. Each The built-in IP addresses of
and every machine on the subnet receives the IP packets directed to the a Network Interface Card are
broadcast address. It is generally used for mass communication such as a 127.0.0.1 to 127.0.0.254. This
addresses are called the local
radio transmission to multiple listeners.
host and is used to describe the
zzMulticast IP Address: Multi-cast IP addresses are reserved and used only local computer address.
for specific groups of machines residing in a large domain. For example,
an IP packet destined for a multi-cast address will be sent only to machines
that are part of that multi-cast group.
zzPrivate IP Address: These are local addresses that cannot be routed over
the Internet. Two organizations can use the same private IP address. These
addresses are free for everyone.
zzPublic IP Address: This type is a unique IP address that IANA (Internet
Assigned Network Authority) assigns. Duplication of a public IP address is
impossible. Hence, these addresses must be purchased.

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 Versions of IP Addresses
zzInternet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4): Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is
the fourth version of the Internet Protocol (IP), and it is the first version of
the protocol to be widely deployed. Together with IPv6, it is at the core of
standards-based internetworking methods of the Internet. IPv4 is still by far
the most widely deployed Internet layer protocol. It uses 32-bit addressing
and allows for 4,294,967,296 unique addresses. Ipv4 has four different class
types: A, B, C, and D.

Class Address Range Use

Class A 1.0.0.1 to 126.255.255.254 Supports 16 million hosts on each of 127 networks.
Class B 128.1.0.1 to 191.255.255.254 Supports 65,000 hosts on each of 16,000 networks.
Class C 192.0.1.1 to 223.255.254.254 Supports 254 hosts on each of 2 million networks.
Class D 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255 Reserved for multicast groups.

Class E 240.0.0.0 to 254.255.255.254 Reserved for future use or research and development purposes.

zzInternet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6): When the IETF developed IPv4, the
global expansion of the Internet and the current Internet security issues
The Internet Engineering Task
were not anticipated. In IPv4’s original design, network security was only
Force (IETF) is the organization
that is responsible for defining given minor consideration. In the 1980s, when IPv4 was developing, the
the Internet Protocol standards. “Internet” was constructed by a set of cooperative organizations. As IPv4
was developed and the Internet explosion took place in the 1990s, Internet
threats became prolific. If the current environment of Internet threats could
have been predicted when IPv4 was being developed, the protocol would
have had more security measures incorporated into its design. IPv6 provides
several improvements over its predecessor. The following list summarizes
the characteristics of IPv6 and the improvements it can deliver:
zzLarger Address Space: Increased address size from 32 bits to 128 bits
zzStreamlined Protocol Header: Improves packet-forwarding efficiency
zzNetwork Layer Security: Encryption and authentication of
communications
zzMobility: Simpler handling of mobile or roaming nodes

Determine your computer’s IP address and subnet mask.

IP Adrress

Subnet Mask

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Network Management

zzNetwork management refers to

the broad subject of managing
computer networks. A wide variety
of software and hardware products
help network system administrators
manage a network. Network
management covers a wide range
of responsibilities, including the
following:
zzSecurity: Ensuring that the network
is protected from unauthorized users.
zzPerformance: Eliminating
bottlenecks in the network.
zzReliability: Making sure the network
is available to users and responding to
hardware and software malfunctions.

Network management tasks

Network Management Administrator

A network administrator is a professional in charge of the maintenance of the
computer hardware and software systems that make up a computer network.
Responsibilities include such activities as the deployment, configuration,
maintenance, and monitoring of active network equipment.
The network administrator is typically a mid to senior-level technical or network
staff member in an organization and is not typically involved with direct user
support. The network administrator will concentrate on the overall health
of the network, server deployment, security, ensuring network connectivity
throughout a company’s LAN/WAN infrastructure, and all other technical
considerations at the network level of an organization’s technical hierarchy.

Network Security
Network security is about protecting all the valuable assets that belong to
a company or personal users to maintain the intellectual property of the
company and ensure smooth operation.

Different Network Security Threats

zzViruses: These are the everyday threats that are small pieces of software
that attach themselves to a program or file, enabling them to spread from
one computer to another and leaving infections as they travel viruses can
also replicate themselves.

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 zzTrojan Horse Programs: These are destructive programs that claim to do
one thing but instead do damage when they are run. Although they do not
have the capability of replicating themselves, they can be as destructive
as any virus. One of the most treacherous Trojan horses is a program that
is supposed to rid a computer of the virus, but does the exact opposite:
introduces viruses into the computer.
zzData Interception: Data interception involves prying into or spying on
information and communication that is being shared on a secure network
or even altering the data packets that are being transmitted.
zzUnauthorized Access: This term could refer to a variety of high-level attacks,
the main aim of which is to gain access to information that a system is meant
to protect. They gain access to e-mail, corporate networks, and databases,
sometimes resulting in denial–of–service attacks that prevent access to part
or all of the computer system.

Hackers
What is a hacker? What do hackers do?

Blocking Threats with a Firewall

Like an actual firewall built to prevent

fire from spreading between adjoining
buildings, computer firewalls prevent the
spread of unauthorized communication
between an individual computer or
group of networked computers and
the Internet. One of the most effective
ways to protect a network is to create
a firewall on the Internet Connection
Sharing (ICS) host computer and to
make sure that computer is the only one
on the network with a direct connection
to the Internet.

Using a firewall to protect a network

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 Test Questions
1. Which of the following is not an 5. Which of the following is correct 8. Which of the following is the
advantage of a LAN? about protocol? most used physical topology
a. High speed transmission a. Protocol defines rules and type for LAN design?

b. Covers small area conventions for communica- a. Ethernet bus topology

tion between network devic- b. Star topology
c. Uses inexpensive equipment
es. c. Mesh topology
d. Easy connectivity
b. Protocol defines rules and d. Tree topology
e. Connecting wired or wireless conventions for communi-
cation between TCP/IP and e. Token ring topology
OSI reference models.
2. Which of the following is
not a factor that affects the c. Protocol is a small hardware 9. What is the built-in IP address of
performance of a network? device that joins multiple a Network interface card?
a. Number of users computers. a. 127.0.0.1
b. Hardware d. Protocols are units that b. 192.168.0.0
mediate data in a computer
c. Security c. 10.0.0.1
network.
d. Number of ports in the d. 172.22.0.1
e. Protocol defines rules and
switches e. 192.168.1.1
conventions for communica-
e. Type of topology tion between WAN and MAN.

3. Which of the following is not an 6. Which of the following protocols 10. Which of the following is the
OSI layer? is used to automate an IP to a most used connection type of
a. Applications layer client? the Internet?
b. Data link layer a. FTP a. Dial-up
c. Internet layer b. TCP/IP b. ADSL
d. Physical layer c. SMTP c. VDSL
e. Transport layer d. DHCP d. 3G
e. DNS e. Fiber Internet
4. Which OSI layers are the network
support layers? 7. What cannot be accomplished
a. Physical layer, data link with an intranet?
layer, network layer a. Sharing document, video,
b. Physical layer, session layer, and sound files.
presentation layer b. Local web publishing
c. Application layer, transport c. Publishing a web site in the
layer, network layer Internet.
d. Data link layer, network layer, d. Communication through the
application layer LAN.
e. Data link layer, network e. Local e-mail sending.
layer, presentation layer

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 Test Questions
11. What does WI-FI mean? b. 192.168.111.1111 d. CAN
a. Wired free Internet c. 192.168.1.0 e. PAN
b. Wireless free Internet d. 192.900.168.1
c. Wireless fidelity e. 192.192.260.1 20. What is the primary media used
d. Wireless friendly in LAN networks?
e. Wireless field 16. What does LAN stand for? a. Coaxial
a. Least area network b. UTP
12. Which of the following is used to b. Large area network c. Fiber optic
connect two or more networks? c. Local area network d. Space
a. Switch d. Length area network e. STP
b. Hub e. Large arrow network
c. Router 21. What is the topology of the
d. Bridge Internet?
17. What does FTP stand for?
e. CAT-5 cable a. Bus
a. File transfer protocol
b. Star
b. File transfer program
13. What is the unit of transmission c. Ring
c. File thread protocol
data in a network? d. Mesh
d. File thread program
a. Byte per second e. Tree
e. Fast transfer protocol
b. Bit per second
c. Bit per minute
d. File transfer protocol
e. Bandwidth 18. Which of the following is
a correct format of an e-mail
address?
14. Which of the following topologies a. contact.website.info
requires less cable? b. contactwebsite.info
a. Star c. contact@website.info
b. Mesh d. contact@website@info
c. Bus e. contact@website...
d. Ring
e. Extended star
19. In _______, the network covers
larger areas like cities and
countries.
15. Which of the following is a
correct format of a computer IP a. LAN
address? b. WAN
a. 192.168.1.1 c. MAN

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