Types of Computers Desktop / Laptop PC / Mac Client / Server

Types of Computers

• Desktop / Laptop

• PC / Mac

• Client / Server

Desktop v. Laptop

• Desktop– Keyboard– CPU– Disk drives– Monitor

• Laptop– Single portable unit with battery

Client / Server

• A server is a computer that is running software enabling it to serve specific requests from other computers, called clients.

Main Components

• CPU – Central Processing Unit

• Memory

• Motherboard

• Hard Drive

• Operating System

• Sound Card

• Graphics Card

ROM

• Read Only Memory

• “…computer memory on which data has been prerecorded. Once data has been written onto a ROM chip, it cannot be removed and can only be read.

-Webopedia

GUI

Graphical User Interface

Icon-based command system

Mouse

• “A device that controls the movement of the cursor or pointer on a display screen…”

-Tyson. How PCs work.

Input/Output Devices

• Monitor• Keyboard• Mouse• Storage Devices (floppy, CD, flash, DVD)• Ports (USB)• Speaker• Microphone• Camera

Hard disk

• “This is large-capacity permanent storage used to hold information such as programs and documents.”

-Tyson. How PCs Work.

Sound Card

• “This is used by the computer to record and play audio by converting analog sound into digital information and back again.”

-Tyson. How PCs work.

Scanner

• “A device that reads data and inputs it to the computer…”

-Wilson.

Ports

• Slots or spaces “on the outside of a computer to attach external devices such as printers, scanners, tape backup drives, removable CD-ROM or floppy-disk drives.”

-Wilson.

• Ethernet

• USB

• Serial

LAN

• Local Area Network– Network covering a small geographic area

Binary

• Computers think in binary code

• All data is represented in 0s and 1s. This means every character (textual or numeric) must be converted to binary code to be processed by a computer.

• Additional reading– http://theproblemsite.com/codes/binary.asp

ASCII

• American Standard Code for Information Interchange

• Additional reading for next week– http://webopedia.com/TERM/A/ASCII.html

Networking Basics

• A network is a group of 2 or more computer systems linked together– LAN– WAN

• http://webopedia.com/TERM/n/network.html

• Additional reading– http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=9

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Computers in Libraries

• Staff

• Public

Troubleshooting

• A single workstation produces an error message as soon as it is turned on, at the beginning of boot up. Could it be:– Workstation CPU– Workstation hard disk– Workstation monitor– Hub– Server

Troubleshooting

• A single workstation sounds like it is booting up, but the screen remains blank. Could it be:– Workstation CPU– Workstation disk storage– Workstation monitor– Hub– Server

The Internet

• Global computer network made up of smaller networks using common protocols

intranet

• Web site internal to an organization, limited to local access and contained within a firewall.

Bandwidth

• Width of the pipe. The amount of data that can be sent at once.

Firewall

Software that blocks access and protects a network or PC