Extended Learning Module A

Computer Hardware and

Software
 Presentation Overview
 A Quick Tour of Technology
 Categories of Computers by Size
 Software: Your Intellectual Interface
 Hardware: Your Physical Interface
 The Complete Computer At Work
 Introduction
 Information technology (IT) – computer-based tool that
people use to work with information and support the
information and information-processing needs of an
organization.

 Hardware – the physical devices that make up a

computer.

 Software – the set of instructions that your hardware

executes to carry out a specific task for you.
Introduction
 A Quick Tour of Technology
 Six categories of hardware

 Input device - a tool you use to capture

information and commands.
 Mouse, keyboard

 Output device - a tool you use to see, hear, or

otherwise accept the results of information-
processing requests.
 Monitor, printer
 A Quick Tour of Technology
 Storage device - a tool you use to store information
for use at a later time.
 Floppy disks

 Central processing unit (CPU) – the actual hardware

that interprets and executes software instructions and
coordinates how all the other hardware devices work
together.
 Intel Pentium 4 chip

 RAM, or random access memory, - temporary

storage.
 A Quick Tour of Technology
 Telecommunications device – tool you use
to send information to and receive it from
another person or location.
 Modem

3. Connecting device – includes such things as

parallel ports into which you connect a printer
and connector cords to connect your printer to
the parallel port.
 Video card
 A Quick Tour of Technology
 Software types include:
 Application software - solves specific
problems or perform specific tasks.
 System software - handles tasks specific to

technology management.
• Operating system software - controls application
software and manages hardware devices.
• Utility software - provides additional functionality
to the operating system.
Categories of Computers By
Size
Personal Digital Assistants, Notebook
Computers, and Desktop Computers
Categories of Computers By Size
Personal Digital Assistants, Notebook
Computers, and Desktop Computers
 Personal digital assistant (PDA) – a small hand-held
computer that helps you surf the Web and perform
simple tasks such as note taking, calendaring,
appointment scheduling, and maintaining an address
book.

 Notebook computer - a fully functional computer

designed to be carried around and run on battery power.

 Desktop computer - the most popular choice for

personal computing needs.
Categories of Computers By
Size
Minicomputers, Mainframe Computers,
and Supercomputers
Categories of Computers By Size
Minicomputers, Mainframe Computers, and
Supercomputers
 Minicomputer - designed to meet the computing needs
of several people simultaneously in a small to medium-
size business environment.

 Mainframe computer - designed to meet the computing

needs of hundreds of people in a large business
environment.

 Supercomputers - the fastest, most powerful, and most

expensive type of computer.
 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
Application Software
 Application software is used to meet
specific information-processing needs,
including such things as:
 Payroll

 Customer relationship management

 Project management

 Training

 Word processing and many others.

 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
Application Software
 Personal productivity Team Work
software - performs personal
tasks, including such things as
creating:
 Memos
Buying Personal
 Graphs
Productivity
 Slide presentations Software Suites
(p. 49)
 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
Application Software
 Word processing – helps you create papers,
letters, memos, and other basic documents.

 Spreadsheet – helps you work primarily with

numbers, including performing calculations and
creating graphs.

 Presentation – helps you create and edit

information that will appear in electronic slides.
 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
Application Software
 Desktop publishing – extends word processing
software by including design and formatting techniques
to enhance the layout and appearance of a document.

 Personal information management (PIM) – helps you

create and maintain to-do lists, appointments, calendars,
and points of contact.

 Personal finance – helps you maintain your checkbook,

prepare a budget, track investments, monitor your credit
card balances, and pay bills electronically.
 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
Application Software
 Web authoring – helps you design and develop Web
sites and pages that you publish on the Web.

 Graphics – helps you create and edit photos and art.

 Communications – helps you communicate with other

people.

 Database management system (DBMS) – helps you

specify the logical organization for a database and
access and use the information within a database.
 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
Application Software
 Vertical market software - unique to a
particular industry. Examples include:
 Patient-scheduling software
 Nursing allocation software

 Horizontal market software - general enough

to be suitable for use in a variety of industries.
Examples include:
 Inventory management software
 Payroll software
 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
System Software
 Operating system software - controls application
software and manages how hardware devices work
together.

 Multitasking - allows you to work with more than one

piece of software at a time.

 Utility software - adds additional functionality to the

operating system.

 Anti-virus software - utility software that scans for and

often eliminates viruses in RAM and storage devices.
 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
System Software
Team Work
 Crash-proof
software – utility
software that saves
information if your
system crashes. Evaluating Utility
Software Suites
(p. 52)
 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
System Software

 Uninstaller software – utility software

that removes software from your hard
disk.

 Disk optimization software – utility

software that organizes information on
your hard disk.
 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
Personal Operating Systems
 Microsoft Windows 2000 Pro – for personal
computers connected to a network.

 Microsoft Windows 2000 Me – for home

computer users.

 Microsoft Windows XP Home – upgrade to

Windows 2000 Me.
 Software: Your Intellectual
Interface
Personal Operating Systems
 Microsoft Windows XP Pro – upgrade to
Windows 2000 Pro.

 Mac OS – for today’s Apple computers.

 Linux – open-source operating system for high-

end workstations and network servers.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
 Binary digit (bit) - the smallest unit of
information.
 Either a 1 (on) or 0 (off).

 ASCII (American Standard Code for

Information Interchange) - the coding system
that most personal computers use to represent,
process, and store information.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
 Byte - a group of
eight bits represents
one natural language
character.
 C – 01100011
 O – 01001111

 O – 01001111

 L – 01001100
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Input Devices
 Input device - a tool you use to capture
information and commands. Examples include:
 Keyboard – today’s most popular input technology.
 Trackball – an upside-down, stationary mouse in

which you move the ball instead of the device (mainly

for notebooks).
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Input Devices
 Point-of-sale (POS) -
for capturing information
at the point of a
transaction, typically in a
retail environment.
 Pointing stick - small
rubberlike pointing
device that causes the
pointer to move on the
screen as you apply
directional pressure
(popular on notebooks).
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Input Devices
 Microphone - for
capturing live sounds
such as a dog barking or
your voice (for automatic
speech recognition).
 Touchpad - another form
of a stationary mouse on
which you move your
finger to cause the pointer
on the screen to move
(popular also on
notebooks).
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Input Devices

 Mouse - today’s most popular “pointing”

input device.
 Bar code reader - captures information
that exists in the form of vertical bars
whose width and distance apart
determine a number.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Input Devices
 Touch screen - special
screen that lets you use
your finger to point at
and touch a particular
function you want to
perform.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Input Devices
 Optical mark
recognition (OMR) -
detects the presence
or absence of a mark
in a predetermined
place (popular for
multiple choice
exams).
 Scanner - captures
images, photos, and
artwork that already
exist on paper.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Output Devices
 Output device - a
tool you use to see,
hear, or otherwise
accept the results of
your information-
processing requests.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Output Devices
 CRTs – look like television sets.

 Flat-panel displays – thin,

lightweight monitors that take up
much less space than CRTs.

 Resolution of a screen – number

of pixels it has (given by row and
column.)

 Dot pitch – the distance between

the centers of a pair of like-
colored pixels.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Output Devices
 Resolution of a
printer - the number
of dots per inch (dpi)
it produces, which is
the same principle as
the resolution in
monitors.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Output Devices
 Inkjet printers – make images by On Your Own
forcing ink droplets through
nozzles.

 Laser printers – form images

using an electrostatic process. Finding a Printer to
Meet Your Needs
 Multifunction printers – scan, (p. 57)
copy, and fax, as well as print.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Characteristics of CPUs and RAM
 Central processing unit (CPU) - the actual
hardware that interprets and executes the
software instructions and coordinates how all the
other hardware devices work together.

 RAM, or random access memory, - temporary

storage that holds the information, the
application software, and the operating system
software.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Characteristics of CPUs and RAM
 CPU speeds

 CPU cycles determine how fast a CPU executes

software instructions.

 More cycles means faster processing (and more cost.)

 Megahertz (MHz) - the number of millions of CPU cycles per
second.
 Gigahertz (GHz) - the number of billions of CPU cycles per
second.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Characteristics of CPUs and RAM
 CPU contains two primary parts including:
 Control unit - interprets software instructions
and literally tells the other hardware devices
what to do, based on the software
instructions.
 Arithmetic/logic unit (A/L unit) - performs all
arithmetic operations (for example, addition
and subtraction) and all logic operations (such
as sorting and comparing numbers).
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Characteristics of CPUs and RAM
 RAM capacity is expressed in bytes.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Storage Devices
 Storage device capacities are measured in
terms of bytes.
 Megabyte (MB or M or Meg) – is roughly 1
million bytes.
 Gigabyte (GB or Gig) - roughly 1 billion

characters.
 Terabyte (TB) - roughly 1 trillion bytes.
Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Storage Devices
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Storage Devices
 Floppy disk – great for portability of information and
ease of updating but holds only 1.44MB of information.

 High-capacity floppy disk – great for portability and

ease of updating and holds between 100MB and 250MB
of information.

 Hard disk – rests within your system box and offers both
ease of updating and great storage capacity.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Storage Devices
 CD-ROM – optical or laser disc that offers no updating
capabilities with about 800MB of storage capacity.

 CD-R (compact disc – recordable) – optical or laser

disc that offers one-time writing capability with about
800MB of storage capacity.

 CD-RW (compact disc – rewritable) – offers unlimited

writing and updating capabilities on the CD.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Common Storage Devices
 DVD-ROM – optical or laser disc that offers no updating
capabilities with upward of 17GB of storage capacity.

 DVD-R – optical or laser disc that offers one-time writing

capability with upward of 17GB of storage capacity.

 DVD-RW, or DVD-RAM, or DVD+RW – optical or laser

disc that offers unlimited writing and updating capabilities
on the DVD.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Telecommunications Devices
 Network - two or more computers connected so
that they can communicate with each other and
possibly share information, software, peripheral
devices, and/or processing power.

 Telephone modem - a device that connects

your computer to your phone line so that you
can access another computer or network.
Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Telecommunications Devices
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Telecommunications Devices
 Types of modems include:
 Telephone modem
 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modem

 Cable modem

 Satellite modem

 Module E covers these in more detail.

 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Telecommunications Devices
 Communication software includes:
 Connectivity software – enables you to use

your computer to “dial up” or connect to

another computer.
 Web browser software – enables you to surf

the Web.
 E-mail software – enables you to

electronically communicate with other people

by sending and receiving e-mail.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Connecting Devices
 Connecting devices enable your hardware to
communicate with each other. Types include:
 Buses
 Expansion Slots
 Expansion Cards
 Ports and Connectors

 System bus - consists of the electronic pathways

which move information between basic components on
the motherboard, including between your CPU and
RAM.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Connecting Devices
 Expansion bus - moves information from your
CPU and RAM to all of your other hardware
devices such as your microphone and printer.

 Expansion slot - a long skinny socket on the

motherboard into which you insert an expansion
card.

 Expansion card - a circuit board that you insert

into an expansion slot.
Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Connecting Devices
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Connecting Devices
 Different hardware devices require
different kinds of ports and connectors.

 Ports - the plug-ins found on the outside

of your system box (usually in the back)
into which you plug a connector.
Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Ports

Keyboard and mouse ports

USB port

Serial port

Parallel port
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Connecting Devices
 Popular connectors include:
 USB (universal serial bus) – becoming the
most popular means of connecting devices to
a computer.
 Serial connector – usually has 9 holes but
may have 25, which fit into the corresponding
number of pins in the port.
 Parallel connector – has 25 pins, which fit
into the corresponding holes in the port.
 Hardware: Your Physical
Interface
Connecting Devices
 IrDA (infrared data association) ports –are for
wireless devices that work in essentially the same
way as the remote control on your TV does.
The Complete Computer at
Work
 Summary
Student Learning Outcomes
1. Define information technology (IT) and its two
basic categories: hardware and software.
2. Describe categories of computers by size.
3. Compare the roles of personal productivity,
vertical market, and horizontal market
software.
4. Describe the roles of operating system and
utility software as components of system
software.
5. Define the purposes of the six major
categories of hardware.
 Summary
Assignments and Exercises

1. Customizing a computer purchase

2. Web-enabled cell phones and web
computers
3. Operating system software for PDAs
4. Types of monitors and their quality