14/12/2021

Chapter 2

Computer
Hardware & Software

Shakhawan Hares Wady, Ph.D.

2021- 2022

Introduction
 Hardware
 Any machinery (most of which use digital circuits) that assists in the
input, processing, storage, and output activities of an information system.
 Is component which we can see and touch. It is a physical component is
known as HARDWARE. E.g.: Monitor, Mouse etc.
 When making hardware decisions, businesses must consider how the
hardware can support:
 Objectives of the information system
 Goals of the organization

1
 14/12/2021

Hardware Component Design

 All hardware more or less based on the same basic design, the
Von Neumann Architecture!
 Central processing unit (CPU)
 Input devices
 Output devices
 Communications devices
 Primary storage devices (Memory)
 Secondary storage devices (Hard)

Hardware Component Design

BUS

CPU

Data Information

RAM

2
 14/12/2021

Central Processing Unit

 Processor (CPU): is the main component of a computer. It executes

user’s instructions and processes calculations.

 Without the CPU, the devices cannot work together and so the computer
cannot function.
 A CPU consists of two basic units: control unit and arithmetic/logic unit
 The brains of the CPU is the processor.
 CPUs actually operate at two frequencies.
1. The internal frequency is the clock rate inside the CPU
2. The external frequency is the speed of the processor bus.

Central Processing Unit

 CPU is often etched on a chip and is usually called a microprocessor.

Intel Pentium
III

PowerPC Chip Pentium Chip

AMD
Intel Pentium Athlon XP
4 Chip Fan

3
 14/12/2021

The CPU and RAM Communications

The RAM
The CPU
contains data and
processes data.
programs.

 The data bus transports the processed data to the RAM so it can be
stored, displayed, or output.

Memory Characteristics and Functions

 Main memory
 Located physically close to the CPU, but not on the CPU chip itself
 Rapidly provides data and instructions to the CPU
 There are two kinds of Memory:
Random Access Memory (RAM) Read Only Memory(ROM)

4
 14/12/2021

Computer Memory hierarchy

Storage Capacity

5
 14/12/2021

Types of Memory

Figure : Basic Types of Memory Chips

Types of Memory
 Random Access Memory (RAM)

 A form of memory in which instructions or data can be temporarily

stored.
 There are various types of RAM (DRAM, SRAM, VRAM).
 Virtual Memory (An extension of RAM on the hard drive).
 RAM is volatile, meaning that information written to RAM will disappear
when the computer is turned off.

6
 14/12/2021

Types of Memory
 Read Only Memory (ROM)

 Read-Only Memory can be read but not changed.

 Types of nonvolatile memory
• ROM (read-only memory)
• PROM (programmable read-only memory)
• EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory)

PROM EPROM

Types of Memory
 Cache memory: high-speed memory that a processor can access
more rapidly than main memory
 Processors can access this type of high-speed memory faster
than
main memory.
 Located on or near the CPU chip, cache memory works with main
memory.

7
 14/12/2021

Secondary Storage
 A data storage device is a device for recording (storing) information
(data).
 Floppy Disks
 3.5-inch disks store 1.44M of data
 Hard Disks
 Can store anywhere between 10G – 1TB+ of data
 CD’s—Compact Discs
 CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW
 A typical CD holds about 700 MB of data
 DVD’s
 Available as DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW
 Can hold 4.7 GB of data
 Zip Drives—high capacity floppy disk drive;
 USB Flash Drive
 Storage capacity between 32 MB – 16+ GB

Secondary Storage

Hard Disk Floppy Disk

USB Flash Drive

Zip Drives

8
 14/12/2021

Surface organization of a Disk

CD-ROM speeds

Input Devices
 Hardware components that allow you to enter data, programs,
commands and user responses to a computer
 Personal computer input devices
• Keyboard, Mouse, Microphone, and etc.…
 Speech-recognition technology
 Digital cameras
 Terminals
 Scanning devices
 Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR)
 Magnetic stripe card
 Point-of-sale (POS) devices
 Automated teller machine (ATM) devices
 Pen input devices
 Touch-sensitive screens
 Bar-code scanners
 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

9
 14/12/2021

Output devices
 An output device is any piece of computer hardware equipment used to
communicate the results of data processing carried out by an information
processing system (such as a computer) to the outside world.
 The output devices are:

 Monitor
 Speaker
 Headphone
 Printer
 Plotter
 Projector

Headphone

Application Software
 Helps users solve particular problems.
 In most cases, be located in on the computer’s hard disk.
 Can be stored on CDs, DVDs, and even USB flash drives.

20

10
 14/12/2021

Systems Software
 Controls the operations of computer hardware.
 Supports the application programs’ problem-solving capabilities
 Types of systems software:
 Operating systems
 Utility programs
 Middleware

System Software

Operating System Utility Programs Middleware

21

Current Operating Systems

 Microsoft PC operating systems:

 Windows XP
 Windows Vista
 Windows 7
 Windows 10
 Apple Computer Operating Systems:
 Wintel
 Snow Leopard (OS X v10.6)
 Linux:
 Red Hat Linux
 Caldera OpenLinux

 Google Chrome OS:

22

11
 14/12/2021

Utility Programs

 Programs used to combine and sort sets of data, keep track of computer
jobs being run, compress files of data before they are stored or transmitted
over a network, check for viruses, and perform other important tasks.
 Common types of utilities:
 Hardware utilities
 Security utilities
 File-compression utilities
 Spam-filtering utilities
 Network and Internet utilities
 Server and mainframe utilities

23

Application Software
 Application software are computer programs that allow users to perform
specific tasks.

 Application programs:
 Interact with systems software
 Help you perform common tasks, such as:
• Creating and formatting text documents
• Performing calculations
• Managing information

24

12
 14/12/2021

Application Software
 Application software is a computer program used to carry out a specific
task .Examples are word processing software and Internet browsers.

 Word processing
 Spreadsheet analysis
 Database applications
 Presentation graphics program
 Personal information managers
 Software suites and integrated software packages

25

Mobile Application Software

 Operating systems designed for smartphones include:
– OS X iPhone, Android, and WebOS
 Tens of thousands of applications have been:
– Developed by third parties for the iPhone
 Palm WebOS:
– Has only recently released its software development kit

26

13
 14/12/2021

Programming Languages
 Program
 A set of algorithms written using a programming language (source
code)
 By which humans can communicate instructions to be executed by a
computer
 Program code:
 Set of instructions that signal the CPU to perform circuit-switching
operations
 Syntax
 Set of rules associated with a programming language

27

Summary
 Hardware: machinery that assists in the input, processing, storage,
and output activities of an information system
 Hardware components: central processing unit (CPU), input and
output devices, communications devices, primary storage devices,
and secondary storage devices
 Random access memory (RAM): temporary and volatile
 ROM (read-only memory): nonvolatile
 Multiprocessing: simultaneous execution of two or more instructions at
the same time
 Sequential access: records must be retrieved in order
 Direct access: records can be retrieved in any order
 Examples of secondary storage devices: magnetic tapes and disks,
DVDs, memory cards, etc.
 Computer Software

14