Major Hardware Components of a Computer System

Central Processing Unit Auxiliary Storage Input Devices Output Devices

COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES

Central Processing Unit

Arithmetic/Logic Unit (ALU): processes data arithmetically (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) or logically (greater than, less than, equal to) Control Unit: works with the operating system to move data between auxiliary storage and main memory; and between main memory and the ALU Main Memory: contains both program instructions and the data that is required. A single machine can have multiple CPUs to share processing tasks (co-processors, (comultiprocessing), but each CPU can execute only a single task.

Inside the System Unit

Main component: motherboard
Circuit board that houses integrated circuits (microscopic elements wires, transistors, etc) required to make the digital pulse flow inside of the computer. Pulses flow from component to component via the bus Some microcomputers contain a special local bus (VESA or PCI) which increase data transfer rates to the display and/or storage devices

Motherboard (cont.)
Attachments to the motherboard include:
Main Memory: types of main memory include:
RAM - temporary (includes virtual memory storage). Include RAM cache ROM - permanent CMOS - semipermanent battery powered Memory chips attach with either a DIP (dual inline pin - old PCs) or as a SIMM (single inline memory module) board When add main memory, make sure add-on chips are compatible add-

Real time clock (current date and time) Microprocessor or CPU (central processing unit)
Control Unit: traffic cop portion of the CPU ALU: arithmetic logic unit processes all math and logical operations performed by the computer

Motherboard (cont.)
Expansion slots/add on boards - allow cards that attach various peripheral devices to the motherboard monitors, hard drive, internal fax/modem, network cards,etc PCMCIA slots: special slots developed for laptops to attach devices and add on RAM Expansion devices may provide an external port which you connect a cable to. Device ports will either be from an internal or external bay in the system unit. Serial Port: transmits data one bit at a time (modem) Parallel Port: transmits 8 bits simultaneously (printers, backup devices, etc.) SCSI Port: allows several devices to be chained together and connected through a single SCSI (small computer system interface) MIDI Port: musical instrument digital interface

Main Memory
Random Access Memory (RAM): allows data and instructions to be accessed randomly from any memory location (address). Primary storage.
Volatile - lost when power is turned off

Read Only Memory (ROM): usually contains programs that help the computer system operate:
can only be read: cannot be written to or altered by the user (usually) ROM is not volatile

Main Memory
Data and instructions are stored as BITS (binary digits). digits). Everything from our world is translated into a computer recognizable format called binary (zeros or ones)
The combination of binary digits represents our letters or numbers. One character represented is equal to a byte.

Memory capacity is measured in bytes. Todays most common measurement is megabytes

Kilo = 1,000 (KB) Thousand Mega = 1,000,000 (MB) Million Giga = 1,000,000,000 (GB) Billion

Bytes are composed using either the ASCII coding system (7 bits = character) or EBCDIC (8 bits = character)

Microprocessor Families
Intel (IBM) and Motorola (Macintosh 68000) two main manufacturers Microprocessors are families - upward increases in speed. Increase in bus capacity indicates a new generation

The Boot Process

When you turn your computer on, the following activities happen:
Power is sent to the internal fan and the motherboard The boot program stored inside of ROM activates The Power-On Self-Test (POST)runs and tests required Power- Selfsystem components The operating system/environment is loaded Configuration and customization routines are executed which set your computer environment

Input/Output Peripheral Devices

Bar-code Reader Bar Cartridge & cassette drives CD Rom Digital camera Digital tables & scanners Keyboard, mouse, pens MICR( MAGNETIC INK
CHARACTER RECOGNITION)

Printers
Page vs line or character printers Impact vs nonimpact

Plotter Robotics Speech synthesizer Microforms

Voice Touch screen

OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION (OCR)--BAR CODE

MICR
MICR, is a character recognition technology adopted mainly by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of cheques

Plotter
A plotter is a vector graphics printing device to print graphical plots, that connects to a computer.

Storage
Required because main memory is limited, expensive and volatile.
Sequential Access Storage Devices (SASD): data is stored in sequential order. Retrieval is also sequential. Storage media is magnetic tape. Supports batch processing environment Excellent form of backup Direct Access Storage Devices (DASD): data can be stored and retrieved randomly. Storage capacity is referred to as density. How tightly packed data is on the disk. DASD is required for transaction processing. Memory capacity is measured in bytes. Todays most common measurement is kilobytes, megabytes and gigabits.

Printer Considerations
Dot matrix - low price & inexpensive to operate. Lower quality. Impact - can print carbon forms. Color option. Slow. Ink jet - moderate price & better output. Color option. Nonimpact. Quieter. Laserjet - more expensive. Faster. High quality. Nonimpact.

Display Considerations
Screen size- diagonal measurement from corner to sizecorner. Popular sizes are 14, 15 and 17 Dot pitch - measure of image clarity. The smaller the dot pitch, the crisper the image or resolution. Video adapters/cards impact image resolution and display speed. Today, most monitors are Super VGA (1024 x 768). Laptop - liquid crystal display (LCD). Passive matrix vs active matrix screen (display method which impacts image quality). Active matrix is much better but more expensive and can have problems.

DASD
Floppy Disk: removable DASD. Most common density is 1.44Mb. Hard Disk: usually dont remove (but newer devices you can). Higher storage capacity than floppy disks. Faster access.
Winchester drive architecture is not removable. Can be drives that have removable disk platters. Optical disk: CD_ROM (read-only) Erasable optical (readdisk is also available. WORM - write once, read many. Flash memory: main memory on a card. Non volatile. PCMCIA card.

DASD cont.
All data stored on DASD media is stored in piepieshaped sectors that determines how much data is moved into and out of main memory at a time. Virtual storage: operating system uses hard disk drive as an extension of main memory. Cache memory: operating system assumes that most data used by an application is accessed over and over again. Cache is a special area in main memory where such data is put instead of paging it back and forth to DASD.

DASD cont
WORM: write-once, read many. (CD writeROM). Also have rewriteable CD ROM. Floptical Disk: optical storage capacities on floppy disk. DVD: Digital video disk Hierarchical Storage: use of many different types of DASD & SASD devices to achieve storage requirements.

Other considerations:
Desktop vs Laptop - expansion slots and capability
Pointing device. Track ball, touch pad, erase point. Power management & battery considerations (hot swap)

Multimedia devices - sound cards, speakers and MPC standards

Common File Types

Data Files: files of information created when people use various types of software Executable Files: Types of systems files that are used by the computer to perform certain tasks. With some executable files (.exe., .com, .bat) you can initiate the processing while with others the computer initiates the process (.dll, .sys, .drv, etc.) (.dll, .drv,

Anatomy of a Filename
Rules for creating valid filenames (appropriate characters, length of names, etc.) depends on the operating system being used. Components of a filename consist of:
File name from you Drive Designation

C:/foldername/filename.ext
Folder/subdirectory name File extension supplied by the program

File Storage
Logical Storage: Storage: How you perceive that data is stored on an auxiliary storage media File/disk directory No indication of fragmentation

Physical Storage How data actually resides on your auxiliary storage media File Allocation Table (FAT) Fragmentation is normal

Measurements of Computer Power

Clock speed: electronic pulses used to synchronize processing. Faster clock speeds result in more operations in a give amount of time. Measured in megahertz (MHz). Bus width: determines how much data can be transferred at any one time. 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit.
IBMs Microchannel (MCA) Architecture vs EISA (open architecture)

Word size: number of bits/bytes manipulated at once. Same as the bus width. Other determinants include main memory capacity, MIPs. This is not the same as throughput but it can affect throughput..

DATA REPRESENTATION IN THE COMPUTER SYSTEM

BIT THE ON-OFF STATES OF TRANSISTORS ARE USED TO ESTABLISH A BINARY 1 OR 0 FOR STORING ONE BINARY DIGIT BYTE A SUFFICIENT NUMBER OF BITS, USUALLY EIGHT, TO REPRESENT SPECIFIC CHARACTERS (LETTERS, NUMBERS AND SPECIAL SYMBOLS)

DATA REPRESENTATION IN THE COMPUTER SYSTEM

TWO COMMON CODING SCHEMES:  EXTENDED BINARY CODED DECIMAL INTERCHANGE CODE (EBCDIC)  AMERICAN STANDARD CODE FOR INFORMATION INTERCHANGE (ASCII)

MICROPROCESSOR
COMPUTER ON A CHIP I.E. INTEGRATION OF COMPUTERS MEMORY, LOGIC AND CONTROL ON A SINGLE CHIP

EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR CHIPS

WORD LENGTHTHE NUMBER OF BITS PROCESSED AT ONE TIME BY A COMPUTER CYCLE SPEEDMEASURED BY MEGAHERTZ I.E., MILLIONS OF CYCLES PER SECOND. THE COMPONENT THAT PROVIDES THE TIMING IS THE CLOCK LOCATED IN THE CONTROL UNIT. IT PROVIDES ONLY A STEADY BEAT. THE BEAT FREQUENCY OF THE CLOCK DETERMINES HOW MANY TIMES PER SECOND THE PROCESSOR PERFORMS OPERATIONS.

 DATA BUS WIDTHDATA BUS IS LIKE A

MULTILANE HIGHWAY THROUGH WHICH DATA AND INSTRUCTIONS ARE CARRIED TO AND FROM CPU. DATA BUSES ARE USUALLY IDENTIFIED BY THE NUMBER OF BITS THEY CARRY AT ONE TIME.

PARALLEL PROCESSING :
USE OF MULTIPLE EXPENSIVE PROCESSORS SIMULTANEOUSLY TO EXECUTE A PROGRAM, WHICH SPEEDS UP THE PROCESSING TIME.

MASSIVELY PARALLEL PROCESSING : USE

OF THOUSANDS OF INEXPENSIVE PROCESSORS SIMULTANEOUSLY TO EXECUTE A PROGRAM.

DIFFERENT ARRANGEMENTS OF COMPUTER PROCESSING

1. DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING IS A FORM OF INFORMATION PROCESSING MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH CONNECTION OF SEVERAL COMPUTERS VIA A NETWORK IT IS A TYPE OF DECENTRALIZED PROCESSING WHERE PROCESSING IS DISTRIBUTED AMONG SEVERAL PERSONAL COMPUTERS, MINICOMPUTERS, AND MAINFRAMES LINKED TOGETHER.

 CENTRALIZED PROCESSING IS WHEN ONE CENTRAL COMPUTER, USUALLY A MAINFRAME, IS USED FOR ALL PROCESSING

CLIENT/SERVER COMPUTING
 PROCESSING IS DIVIDED BETWEEN A CLIENT AND A SERVER MACHINE WHERE EACH PERFORMS DIFFERENT TASKS DEPENDING ON ITS CAPABILITIES  CLIENT IS THE USER POINT-OF-ENTRY. USERS USE THE CLIENT FOR DATA ENTRY AND DATA RETRIEVAL

FUTURE TRENDS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 INFORMATION APPLIANCES

 SOCIAL INTERFACES

 COMPUTER SOFTWARE OR SOFTWARE PROGRAMS ARE INSTRUCTIONS THAT ENABLE THE COMPUTER HARDWARE TO PERFORM ONE OR SEVERAL ACTIONS

DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOFTWARE

APPLICATION SOFTWAREIS A SET OF COMPUTER PROGRAMS, WHICH PROVIDE FUNCTIONALITY TO THE USERS EX. RETAILER PAYROLL SYSTEM

 SYSTEM SOFTWARE IS USED AS AN

INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN COMPUTER HARDWARE AND APPLICATION PROGRAMS. IT MANAGES AND COORDINATES THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THE COMPUTER SYSTEM EX. MANAGING SECONDARY STORAGE DEVICES

DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF SYSTEM SOFTWARE

 OPERATING SYSTEM  TRANSLATORS  UTILITY PROGRAMS

APPLICATION SOFTWARE
 FIRST GENERATION LANGUAGES
MACHINE LANGUAGE

 SECOND GENERATION LANGUAGES

ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE

 THIRD GENERATION LANGUAGES

COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC

 FOURTH GENERATION LANGUAGES

LOTUS 1-2-3, SQL

POPULAR PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

 ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE SIMILAR TO MACHINE
LANGUAGE BUT USES MNEMONICS FOR NUMERIC CODE

 FORTRAN USED FOR SCIENTIFIC AND

MATHEMATICAL APPLICATIONS

 COBOL USED IN BUSINESS APPLICATIONS,

HANDLES ALPHANUMERIC DATA

 BASIC GENERAL PURPOSE PROGRAMMING, USED

WITH PERSONAL COMPUTERS

 PASCAL USED IN COMPUTER SCIENCE COURSES,

NOT EASY TO LEARN, WEAK AT FILE HANDLING AND INPUT/OUTPUT PROCESSING

 C AND C++ IS PORTABLE ACROSS DIFFERENT

MACHINES, USED PRIMARILY WITH PERSONAL COMPUTERS, HAS TIGHT CONTROL AND EFFICIENT USE OF COMPUTER RESOURCES

FOURTHFOURTH-GENERATION LANGUAGES
 QUERY LANGUAGESARE USED ON-LINE FOR
RETRIEVING DATA FROM DATABASES. NATURAL LANGUAGE, WHICH IS CLOSE TO HUMAN LANGUAGE IS USED IN MANY QUERY LANGUAGES TO MAKE THEM EASIER.

 REPORT GENERATORSENABLES THE END USER

TO PRODUCE A REPORT WITHOUT DETAILING ALL THE NECESSARY STEPS, SUCH AS FORMATTING ETC. GRAPHICS LANGUAGESOBTAIN DATA FROM DATABASES AND PRESENTS THEM IN GRAPHIC FORMAT. SOME LANGUAGES CAN PERFORM ARITHMETIC CALCULATIONS ON THE DATA.

 APPLICATION GENERATORSMAKE IT POSSIBLE

TO SPECIFY AN ENTIRE APPLICATION, CONSISTING OF SEVERAL PROGRAMS, WITHOUT MUCH DETAILED CODING. THE USER SPECIFIES WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AND THE APPLICATION GENERATOR PROVIDES THE APPROPRIATE PROGRAM CODE.

 VERY-HIGH-LEVEL PROGRAMMING

LANGUAGESGENERATE CODES WITH FEWER

INSTRUCTIONS THAN CONVENTIONAL LANGUAGES. SHORTENS THE PROGRAMMING TIME. USED AS A PRODUCTIVITY TOOL FOR PROGRAMMERS

 APPLICATION SOFTWARE PACKAGES

PREWRITTEN SOFTWARE WRITTEN FOR A SPECIFIC FUNCTION

PC SOFTWARE TOOLS
WORD PROCESSING SOFTWAREALLOWS
THE USER TO MANIPULATE TEXT RATHER THAN NUMBERS. ELIMINATES RETYPING THE DOCUMENT. SOME FEATURES ARE: SPELL CHECKS, GRAMMAR CHECKS, FORMATTING PROGRAM, AND MAILING LIST PROGRAM.

SPREADSHEETSTRANSFORM COMPUTER SCREEN

INTO A GRID OF COLUMNS AND ROWS. USERS CAN ENTER DATA INTO EACH GRID LOCATION CALLED CELL AND PERFORM MATHEMATICAL FUNCTIONS ON INDIVIDUAL CELLS. WHEN ONE VALUE CHANGES THE OTHER RELATED VALUES WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY RECALCULATED.

 DATA MANAGEMENT SOFTWAREARE USED

FOR CREATING AND MANIPULATING LISTS, CREATING FILES AND DATABASES, AND COMBINING INFORMATION FOR REPORTS.

 PRESENTATION GRAPHICS CREATE

PROFESSIONAL-QUALITY GRAPHICS PRESENTATIONS THAT CAN INCORPORATE CHARTS, ANIMATION, PHOTOS, AND SOUND.

 INTEGRATED SOFTWARE PACKAGES

COMBINE THE FUNCTIONS OF TWO OR MORE PC SOFTWARE PACKAGES, SUCH AS WORD PROCESSING AND SPREADSHEETS. THIS INTEGRATION PROVIDES EASY TRANSFER OF DATA BETWEEN THE SOFTWARE PACKAGES.

 SOFTWARE SUITESARE COLLECTIONS OF

SEVERAL SOFTWARE PACKAGES SOLD AS A UNIT.

 ELECTRONIC MAILUSED FOR SENDING OR

RECEIVING MESSAGES FROM DIFFERENT COMPUTERS. ARE CAPABLE OF SENDING MESSAGES TO DIFFERENT RECIPIENTS, FORWARD MESSAGES, ATTACH TEXT DOCUMENTS OR MULTIMEDIA TO MESSAGES.

 WEB BROWSERSEASY-TO-USE SOFTWARE TOOL

FOR ACCESSING THE WEB AND INTERNET.

GROUPWAREENABLES GROUPS OF USERS

WORKING TOGETHER ON PROJECTS TO SEE EACH OTHERS SCREENS, SHARE DATA, AND EXCHANGE IDEAS IN AN INTERACTIVE MODE. THESE CAPABILITIES INCREASE THE PRODUCTIVITY OF WORK GROUPS.

SOFTWARE USED FOR ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION

ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE: SET OF MODULES
USED TO INTEGRATE DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS IN THE ORGANIZATIONS. MIDDLEWARE: SOFTWARE THAT MAKES A CONNECTION OR BRIDGE BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION SOFTWARE: SOFTWARE THAT CONNECTS SEVERAL APPLICATIONS IN ORDER TO PROVIDE ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION