C O M P U T E R B A S I C S

Its All Geek to Me

The Information Processing Cycle

INPUT OUTPUT

AUXILIARY

STORAGE

PROCESSING

MAIN

MEMORY

INPUT DEVICES (Hardware)

Keyboard

Mouse

Microphone

Scanner

Touch screens

Bar code scanner

Voice recognition

Auxiliary Storage Device

OUTPUT DEVICES (HARDWARE)

Useful information that leaves the system

Output Hardware includes:

Monitor: soft copy

Printers: hard copy

Projector

Voice and music - speakers

OUTPUT

ROM

READ ONLY MEMORY

RAM

RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY

Small

Instructions are installed permanently at the factory

Cannot be changed

These instructions check the computers resources and looks for Operating System

Main Memory

Temporaryit 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

Processors Come in Many Sizes

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

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

Microcomputer: PC, individual workstation

Laptop: portable, small, a.k.a. notebook

Handheld: cell phones, tablets

What is Data?

Facts used by a computer Words

Numbers

What two numbers are used in Binary Code?

0 and 1

They are each called a BIT

8 BITS make a BYTE

1 BYTE makes a letter or number

KILOBYTE = 1,024 bytes

MEGABYTE = 1,048,576 bytes

GIGABYTE = 1,024 megabytes

TERABYTE = 1,024 gigabytes

AUXILIARY STORAGE DEVICES

Network Drive (H: drive)

Hard Disk Drive (C:drive)

Floppy Disk Drive with 3 Floppy Disk (A:drive)

Jump Drive/Thumb Drive

I-Pod

CD Read/Write Drive

DVD

Zip Drive

AUXILIARY

STORAGE

SOFTWARE

Programs that Make the Computer Work

Operating 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