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What is a Computer?

A computer is an electronic device,

operating under the control of
instructions (software) stored in its own
memory unit, that can accept data
(input), manipulate data (process), and
produce information (output) from the
processing. Generally, the term is used
to describe a collection of devices that
function together as a system.

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

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

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What Does a Computer
Do?

Computers can perform four general

operations, which comprise the information
processing cycle.

 Input
 Process
 Output
 Storage

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

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

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

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Input Devices
Keyboard.
Mouse.

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Keyboard
The most commonly used input device is
the keyboard on which data is entered
by manually keying in or typing certain
keys. A keyboard typically has 101 or
105 keys.

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Mouse

Is a pointing device which is used to

control the movement of a mouse pointer
on the screen to make selections from
the screen. A mouse has one to five
buttons. The bottom of the mouse is flat
and contains a mechanism that detects
movement of the mouse.

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The Central Processing
Unit
The central processing unit (CPU)
contains electronic circuits that cause
processing to occur. The CPU interprets
instructions to the computer, performs
the logical and arithmetic processing
operations, and causes the input and
output operations to occur. It is
considered the “brain” of the computer.

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Memory

Memory also called Random Access

Memory or RAM (temporary memory) is
the main memory of the computer. It
consists of electronic components that
store data including numbers, letters of
the alphabet, graphics and sound. Any
information stored in RAM is lost when
the computer is turned off.

Read Only Memory or ROM is memory

that is etched on a chip that has start-up
directions for your computer. It is
permanent memory. 13
Amount of RAM in
Computers
The amount of memory in computers is
typically measured in kilobytes or
megabytes. One kilobyte (K or KB) equals
approximately 1,000 memory locations and
one megabyte (M or MB) equals
approximately one million locations A
memory location, or byte, usually stores one
character.
Therefore, a computer with 8 MB of memory
can store approximately 8 million
characters. One megabyte can hold
approximately 500 pages of text
information.
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1 byte = 8 bits

1 kilobyte (K / Kb) = 2^10 bytes = 1,024 bytes

1 megabyte (M / MB) = 2^20 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes

1 gigabyte (G / GB) = 2^30 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes

Output Devices

Output devices make the information

resulting from the processing available
for use. The two output devices more
commonly used are the printer and the
computer screen.

The printer produces a hard copy of

your output, and the computer screen
produces a soft copy of your output.

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Storage Devices

Auxiliary storage devices are used to

store data when they are not being used
in memory. The most common types of
auxiliary storage used on personal
computers are floppy disks, hard disks
and CD-ROM drives.

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Floppy Disks

A floppy disk is a portable, inexpensive

storage medium that consists of a thin,
circular, flexible plastic disk with a
magnetic coating enclosed in a square-
shaped plastic shell.

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Structure Of Floppy Disks
Initially Floppy disks were 8-inches wide, they
then shrank to 5.25 inches, and today the most
widely used folly disks are 3.5 inches wide and
can typically store 1.44 megabytes of data.
A folly disk is a magnetic disk, which means
that it used magnetic patterns to store data.
Data in floppy disks can be read from and
written to.
Formatting is the process of preparing a disk
for reading and writing.
A track is a narrow recording band that forms
a full circle on the surface of the disk.
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The disk’s storage locations are divided into
pie-shaped sections called sectors.
A sectors is capable of holding 512 bytes of
data.
A typical floppy stores data on both sides and
has 80 tracks on each side with 18 sectors per
track.

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Hard Disks
Another form of auxiliary storage is a hard
disk. A hard disk consists of one or more rigid
metal plates coated with a metal oxide
material that allows data to be magnetically
recorded on the surface of the platters.
The hard disk platters spin at a high rate of
speed, typically 5400 to 7200 revolutions per
minute (RPM).
Storage capacites of hard disks for personal
computers range from 10 GB to 120 GB (one
billion bytes are called a gigabyte).
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Compact Discs
A compact disk (CD), also called an optical
disc, is a flat round, portable storage medium
that is usually 4.75 inch in diameter.
A CD-ROM (read only memory), is a compact
disc that used the same laser technology as
audio CDs for recording music. In addition it
can contain other types of data such as text,
graphics, and video.
The capacity of a CD-ROM is 650 MB of data.

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Computer Software

Computer software is the key to

productive use of computers.
Software can be categorized into two
types:

 Operating system software

 Application software.

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Operating System
Software
Operating system software tells the
computer how to perform the functions
of loading, storing and executing an
application and how to transfer data.
Today, many computers use an
operating system that has a graphical
user interface (GUI) that provides visual
clues such as icon symbols to help the
user. Microsoft Windows
98,xp,vista,and windows 7 is widely
used graphical operating systems. DOS
(Disk Operating System) is an older but
still widely used operating system that is
text-based. 24
Application Software

Application Software consists of

programs that tell a computer how to
produce information. Some of the more
commonly used packages are:

 Word processing
 Electronic spreadsheet
 Database
 Presentation graphics

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 Word Processing

Word Processing software is used to create

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

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 Electronic Spreadsheets

Electronic spreadsheet software allows the

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

Allows the user to enter, retrieve, and update

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

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 Presentation Graphics

Presentation graphic software allows the user

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

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