Computer Hardware

• Hardware refers to the physical equipment used for the input,

processing, output, and storage activities of a computer system.
• It consists of the following:

• Central processing unit (CPU).

• Primary storage.
• Secondary storage.
• Input technologies.
• Output technologies.
Types of Computer Systems
Supercomputers
• Supercomputer is the fastest computing engines available at any given
time.
• The fastest supercomputer in mid-2009 had speeds exceeding one
petaflop (one petaflop is 1,000 trillion floating point operations per
second).
• Supercomputers typically run military and scientific applications
• Large bank also use supercomputers to calculate the risk and return
of various investment strategies and health care organization use
them to analyze giant databases of patient data to determine optimal
treatments for various diseases.
Mainframe Computers
• Mainframes are less powerful and generally less expensive than supercomputers.
• A mainframe system can have terabytes of primary storage. Secondary storage
may use high-capacity magnetic and optical storage media with capacities of
many terabytes.
• Typically, thousands of online computers can be linked to single mainframe
• Mainframes computers are used in airline reservation systems, corporate payroll
programs, Web site transaction processing systems, and student grade and
calculation reporting.
• Some large organizations that moved away from mainframes toward distributed
systems now are moving back toward mainframes because of their centralized
administration, high reliability, and increasing flexibility. This process called
recentralization
Midrange Computers
• Larger midrange computers, called minicomputers, are relatively
small, inexpensive, and compact computers that perform the same
functions as mainframe computers
• Minicomputers are a type of server, that is, a computer that supports
computer networks and enables users to share files, software,
peripheral devices
• Organizations with heavy transaction-processing requirements often
utilize multiple servers in server farms. As companies pack greater
numbers of servers in their server farms, they increasingly use pizza-
box-sized servers called rack servers that can be stacked in racks
Workstations

• Workstation is a powerful desktop computer to provide the high

levels of performance demanded by engineer.
• This type of computer has the capability to run computationally
intensive scientific, engineering, and financial applications.
• Workstations provide both very high-speed calculations and high-
resolution graphics displays.
• Today, the distinction between workstations and personal computers
is negligible.
 Microcomputers
• Microcomputers – also called micros, personal
computers, or PCs – are the smallest and least expensive
category of general-purpose computers.
• The major categories of microcomputers are:
• Desktop PCs
• Thin-Client Systems
• Laptop and Notebook Computers.
• Netbooks
• Ultra-mobile PCs (UMPC). -Ultra-mobile PCs (UMPC) are small,
mobile computers that run various mobile operating systems.
Computing Device
• Wearable computer (wearable devices) are designed to be worn and
used on the body. Industrial applications of wearable computers
include systems for factory automation, warehouse management, and
performance support, such as viewing technical manuals and
diagrams while building or repairing something.
• Embedded computers are placed inside other products to add
features and capabilities. For example, the average mid-sized
automobile has more than 3,000 embedded computers, called
controllers, which monitor every function from braking to engine
performance to set controls with memory
The Central Processing Unit
• The central processing unit (CPU) performs the actual computation or
“number crunching” inside any computer. The CPU is microprocessor made
up of millions of microscopic transistors embedded in a circuit on a silicon
wafer chip. Hence, microprocessors are commonly referred to as chips.
• The microprocessor has different parts, which perform different functions.
The control unit sequentially access program instructions, decodes them,
and controls the flow of data to and from ALU, the registers, the caches,
primary storage, secondary storage, and various output devices.
• The arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) performs the mathematic calculations and
makes logical comparisons. The registers are highspeed storage areas that
store very small amounts of data and instructions for short periods of time