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ES 114 Topic 1 Mid Year
ES 114 Topic 1 Mid Year
Week 1 (Topics)
Introduction to Computers
What is a Computer?
Computers are everywhere: at work, at school, and at home. In the workplace, employees use computers
to create correspondence such as e-mail messages, memos, and letters; manage calendars; calculate
payroll; track inventory; and generate invoices. At school, teachers use computers to assist with classroom
instruction. Students use computers to complete assignments and research. People also spend hours of
leisure time using a computer. They play games, communicate with friends and relatives online and using
e-mail, purchase goods online, converse in chat rooms, listen to music
or radio broadcasts, watch or create videos and movies, read books and magazines, share stories, research
genealogy, retouch photos, and plan vacations. At work, at school, and at home, computers are helping
people do their work faster, more accurately, and in some cases, in ways that previously would not have
been possible.
A computer is an electronic device, operating under the control of instructions stored in its own
memory, that can accept data (input), process the data according to specified rules (process), pro-
duce results (output), and store the results (storage). Generally, the term is used to describe a collection
of electric, electronic, and mechanical components known as hardware. While a collection of programs,
application, and even operating system is known as software.
Computers perform four basic operations — input, process, output, and storage. These operations
comprise the information processing cycle. Collectively, these operations process data into information
and store it for future use.
A computer derives its power from its capability to perform the information processing cycle with amazing
speed, reliability (low failure rate), and accuracy; its capacity to store huge amounts of data and
information; and its capability to communicate with other computers.
For a computer to perform operations, it must be given a detailed set of instructions that tells it exactly
what to do. These instructions are called a program, or software. Before processing for a specific activity
begins, the program corresponding to that activity is stored in the computer. Once the program is stored,
the computer can begin to execute the program’s first instruction. The computer executes one program
instruction after another until the activity is complete.
All computer processing requires data. Data is a collection of unprocessed items, which can include text
(letters and numbers), images (pictures), sound (audio), and video (graphics). Computers manipulate data
to create information. Information conveys meaning and is useful to people. During the output operation,
the information that has been created is put into some form, such as a printed report, or it can be stored on
the computer for future use. This can be done by using instruction called program.
People who use the computer directly or use the information it provides are called computer users, end
users, or sometimes, just users. Users and computer manufacturers can reduce the environmental impact
of computers through green computing. Green computing involves reducing the electricity consumed and
environmental waste generated when using a computer.
The Components of a Computer
The six primary components of a computer are input devices, the processor (control unit and
arithmetic/logic unit), memory, output devices, storage devices, and communications devices.
The processor, memory, and storage devices are housed in a box-like case called the system unit. A
peripheral is a device that connects to the system unit and is controlled by the processor in the computer.
Peripherals can include input devices and output devices, as well as some storage devices and
communications devices.
Figure 1 shows how the components of a computer interact to carry out a task. The following sections
describe the types of personal computers and mobile devices, as well as their primary components (input
devices, processor, memory, output devices, and communications devices).
Fig. 1
In Figure 1, most devices connected to the computer communicate with the processor
to carry out a task. When a user starts a program, for example, its instructions transfer from a storage
device to memory. Data needed by the program enters memory either from an input device or a storage
device. The processor interprets and executes instructions in memory and also performs calculations on
the data in memory. Resulting information is stored in memory, from which it can be sent to an output
device or a storage device for future access, as needed.
Input devices
These devices are the carrier of inputs (data that is converted into electrical signals received by the
computer system). There’s a lot of input devices that’s widely used.
6. Drawing tablet/graphics tablet – (also known as a digitizer, drawing tablet, drawing pad, digital
drawing tablet, pen tablet, or digital art board) is a computer input device that enables a user to
hand-draw images, animations and graphics, with a special pen-like stylus, similar to the way a person
draws images with a pencil and paper. These tablets may also be used to capture data or handwritten
signatures. It can also be used to trace an image from a piece of paper which is taped or otherwise
secured to the tablet surface. Capturing data in this way, by tracing or entering the corners of linear
poly-lines or shapes, is called digitizing.
7. Light pen – use as a control in performing multimedia presentation and
electronic reader
8. Stylus (or stylus pen) is a small pen-shaped instrument whose tip position on
a touchscreen can be detected by the screen. It is used to draw, or make
selections by tapping, on devices with touchscreens such as computers, mobile
devices(smartphones and personal digital assistants), game
consoles, and graphics tablets.
9. Touch pad - a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a
specialized surface that can translate the motion and position
of a user's fingers to a relative position on the operating system
that is made output to the screen. Touchpads are a common
feature of laptop computers as opposed to using a mouse on
a desktop, and are also used as a substitute for a mouse where
desk space is scarce. Because they vary in size, they can also
be found on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and some portable media players. Wireless touchpads
are also available as detached accessories.
10. Trackballs - a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a
rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding
ball. Users roll the ball to position the on-screen pointer, using
their thumb, fingers, or commonly the palm of the hand while using
the fingertips to press the mouse buttons.
11. Barcode Scanners or barcode reader is an optical scanner that can
read printed barcodes, decode the data contained in the barcode and
send the data to a computer. Like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a
light source, a lens and a light sensor translating for optical impulses
into electrical signals. Additionally, nearly all barcode readers contain decoder circuitry that can
analyze the barcode's image data provided by the sensor and sending the barcode's content to the
scanner's output port.
12. Webcam – i s avideo camera that feeds or streams an image or video in real time to or through
a computer to a computer network, such as the Internet. Webcams are typically small cameras that sit
on a desk, attach to a user's monitor, or are built into the hardware. Webcams can be used during a
video chat session involving two or more people, with conversations that include live audio and video.
13. Digicam (digital camera) is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras
produced today are digital and while there are still dedicated digital cameras, many more cameras are
now incorporated into mobile devices like smartphones, which can, among many other purposes, use
their cameras to initiate live video-telephony and directly edit and upload imagery to others.
14. Touch Screen is both an input and output device and normally layered on the top of an electronic
visual display of an information processing system.
Aside from input devices, the most important thing why computer processed data is to produced
information (output or converted signals sent from a computer system). This information is carried out
by output devices.
Types of HDD:
a. External HDD
b.Internal HDD
3. Zip Disk or zip drive a removable floppy disk storage system that was
introduced by Iomega in late 1994. Considered medium-to-high-capacity
at the time of its release, Zip disks were originally launched with
capacities of 100 MB, then 250 MB, and finally 750 MB.
10. Cartridge Tapes or A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and
writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically
used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a
favorable unit cost and a long archival stability.
A tape drive provides sequential access storage, unlike a hard disk drive,
which provides direct access storage. A disk drive can move to any position
on the disk in a few milliseconds, but a tape drive must physically wind tape
between reels to read any one particular piece of data. As a result, tape drives have very large
average access times. However, tape drives can stream data very quickly off a tape when the required
position has been reached. For example, as of 2010 Linear Tape-
Open (LTO) supported continuous data transfer rates of up to 140 MB/s, a
rate comparable to hard disk drives.
11. Reel Tapes - is the form of magnetic tape in which the recording medium
is held on a reel that is not permanently mounted in an enclosed cassette.
In use, the supply reel (feed reel) containing the tape is placed on a
spindle or hub; the end of the tape is manually pulled out of the reel,
threaded through mechanical guides and a tape head assembly, and attached by friction to the hub of
the second, initially empty take up reel. Reel-to-reel tape was used in earlytape drives for data storage
on mainframe computers and in video tape recorders (VTRs).