COMPUTER BASICS

Its All Geek to Me

The Information Processing Cycle

INPUTINPUT OUTPUTOUTPUT

AUXILIARYAUXILIARYSTORAGESTORAGE

PROCESSINGPROCESSING

MAIN MAIN MEMORYMEMORY

INPUT DEVICES (Hardware)

KeyboardMouseMicrophoneScannerTouch screensBar code scannerVoice recognitionAuxiliary Storage

Device

OUTPUT DEVICES (HARDWARE)

Useful information that leaves the systemOutput Hardware includes:

• Monitor: soft copy• Printers: hard copy• Projector• Voice and music - speakers

OUTPUTOUTPUT

ROMREAD ONLY MEMORY

RAM RAM RANDOM ANDOM ACCESS CCESS MEMORYEMORY

SmallInstructions are

installed permanently at the factory

Cannot be changedThese instructions

check the computer’s resources and looks for Operating System

Main MemoryTemporary—it is

erased when turned off.

It is where programs and data is stored while being processed

MEMORY PROCESSING HARDWARE

PROCESSING HARDWARE

Central Processing Unit: CPU

The Brains or Intelligence of the computer. Controls input and output interprets instructions executes instructions.

Silicon chip: integrated circuit board Pentium: name give to a particular chip

Hertz: the speed of the CPU Gigahertz: executes a billion instructions per second Megahertz: executes a million instructions per second

ProcessorsCome in Many Sizes

MainframeMainframe: large, powerful, serving many connected terminals. Super Computers

MinicomputerMinicomputer: mid-sized, serves more than one user at a time

MicrocomputeMicrocomputerr: PC, individual workstation

Laptop: Laptop: portable, small

HandheldHandheld: Palm Pilots

What is Data?Facts used by a computer

WordsNumbers

What two numbers are used in Binary Code?

0 and 1They are each called a BIT8 BITS make a BYTE1 BYTE makes a letter or numberKILOBYTE = 1,024 bytesMEGABYTE = 1,048,576 bytesGIGABYTE = 1,024 megabytesTERABYTE = 1,024 gigabytes

AUXILIARY STORAGE DEVICES

Network Drive (H: drive)Hard Disk Drive (C:drive)Floppy Disk Drive with 3 ½” Floppy Disk

(A:drive)Jump Drive/Thumb DriveI-Pod CD Read/Write DriveDVDZip Drive

AUXILIARYAUXILIARYSTORAGESTORAGE

SOFTWARE

Programs that Make the Computer WorkOperating System Software

Vista Windows XP: GUI (Graphical User Interface) Unix Linux

Application Software Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Front Page, Publisher WordPerfect Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver

What is the Boot Process?

The process of starting up a computer from a halted or powered-down condition. Commands in ROM memory are followed

The process of loading the Operating System software into Main Memory Windows 98 Windows XP Unix