CERTIFICATE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

COMPUTER AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS LECTURE NOTES

Components of a computer system

A computer system is a set of integrated devices that input, output, process, and store data and
information. Computer systems are currently built around at least one digital processing device.
There are five main hardware components in a computer system: Input, Processing, Storage, and
Output and Communication devices.
Computer hardware - Are physical parts/ intangible parts of a computer. eg Input devices, output
devices, central processing unit, storage devices and Communication devices.
Computer software - also known as programs or applications. They are classified into two classes
namely - system software and application software
Computer hardware components
Hardware refers to the physical elements of a computer. A computer's hardware is comprised of many
different parts, but perhaps the most important of these is the motherboard. The motherboard is made up
of even more parts that power and control the computer. In contrast to software, hardware is a physical
entity. Hardware and software are interconnected, without software, the hardware of a computer would
have no function. However, without the creation of hardware to perform tasks directed by software via
the central processing unit, software would be useless.

Hardware Components of a computer system

✓ Input devices:
✓ Output devices
✓ Storage devices
✓ Processing devices
✓ Communication devices
An input device is essentially a piece of hardware that sends data to a computer. Most input devices either
interact with or control the computer in some way. The most common input devices are the mouse and
the keyboard, but there are many others

An output device is a piece of computer hardware that receives data from a computer and then translates
that data into another form. That form may be audio, visual, textual, or hard copy such as a printed
document.

Storage devices are the computer hardware used to remember/store data. Examples:

✓ Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

✓ Solid State Drive
✓ Random Access Memory (RAM)
✓ CD, DVD and Blu-Ray Discs
 ✓ DVD-RAM
✓ ROM
✓ USB Flash Memory

Computer processing devices play an important role in processing operations. They are all used
to process the data, using instructions from the program.
A communications device is any type of hardware capable of transmitting data, instructions, and
information between a sending device and a receiving device.
✓ Bluetooth devices.
✓ Infrared devices.
✓ Modem (over phone line)
✓ Network card (using Ethernet)
✓ Smartphone.
✓ Wi-Fi devices (using a Wi-Fi router)

External and Internal Computer Components

Internal hardware devices include motherboards, hard drives, and RAM. External hardware
devices include monitors, keyboards, mice, printers, and scanners. The internal hardware parts
of a computer are often referred to as components, while external hardware devices are usually
called peripherals.