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BASIC
COMPUTER
CONCEPTS

Updated 8/27/04
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Hardware vs. Software

 Hardware
» The computer equipment
» Includes printers, monitors, disk drives, etc.
 Software
» Programs which tell the computer what to
do
» Examples - word processing, gradebook,
tutorials, games, etc.
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History of Computers

 Charles Babbage - father of computer

» 1800’s planned analytical engine
 ENIAC - developed at end of WW II
 1951 - 1963 1st and 2nd generation
» very large, used unreliable vacuum tubes
 1963 - present - 3rd and 4th generation
» smaller, faster - use transistors and
integrated circuits
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History - Microcomputers

 Apple
» First sold in late 1970’s
» Developed by Jobs and Wozniak
 IBM Personal Computers
» First sold in 1981
» Was quickly accepted by businesses
» IBM compatibles soon developed
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Computer - Social Impact

 Threat to privacy
 Reduce personal interactions
 Displace workers and change workplace
» Create two tiered society
 Computer failures cause great damage
 Artificial Intelligence
» Create a “new life form”
» Machines smarter than their creators
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Personal Computers (PC)

 Also called
Microcomputers
 Available in desktop
size, notebook size and
handheld
 Can be IBM, IBM
Compatible or Apple
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Minicomputers

 Size of filing cabinet

 Used by small and medium size
companies and institutions
 Operated by computer specialist
 Terminals allow many people to use
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Mainframes

 Very powerful
 Very fast
 Used by large corporations and
governmental agencies
 Operated by computer specialist
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Supercomputers

 Most powerful
 Fastest
 Most expensive
» Several million dollars each
 Used only by
» Governmental agencies
» Large international corporations
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Computer Operations

Input Processing Output

External Storage
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Input Devices - Keyboard

 Most commonly used input device

 Ergonomic - fit natural hand placement

 Special keys

» Enter, Function, Ctrl, Alt, Num Lock, Esc

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Input Devices - Mouse

 Controls cursor on
screen

 May be mechanical
or optical

 Most models have a

“wheel” for scrolling
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Input Devices - Other

 Pointers (replaces mouse on notepads)

» Track point, track ball, touch pad

 Scanner

 Digital camera

 Touch screen

 Voice
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Output Devices

 Monitor

 Printer

 Disk Drive
» Can also be input device

 Modem
» Can also be input device
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Monitors

 Made up of tiny
elements called
pixels
 Each row of pixels is
called a scan line
 Picture is displayed
by an electronic
beam lighting up
certain pixels
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Monitors - Resolution

 Resolution is how sharp and clear the

picture is

 How many scan lines on the screen

– 640 x 480 is low resolution
– 1600 x 1200 is high resolution
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Monitors - Dot Pitch

 Measures the distance between pixels

 Commonly seen on monitors advertised

» .49 (not very good)
» .28 (much better)
» .26 or lower (excellent)
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Monitors - Sizes

 Screen measured diagonally

» May also measure actual viewing area
 14” or 15” on bargain systems

 17” has become the standard

 19 and 21” available but are more
expensive.
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Monitors - LCD

 Liquid Crystal Display

 Similar to digital watch
 Used for notebook computers
» Should be an Active Matrix Screen
 Also used in flat screen monitors
» Much thinner than regular CRT monitor
» More expensive than regular CRT monitor
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Monitors - Video Card

 Processes info to send to monitor

 Amount of video memory may speed up
graphic intensive programs
» 32 megs –general purpose
» 128 or more megs – graphic intensive use

 AGP port can speed up graphics

 3D accelerator card improves graphics
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Monitor - Buying Hints

 17” or larger
 .28 dot pitch or better
 32 or more megs of memory on
video card
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Printers

 Laser

 Ink Jet

 Dot Matrix
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Printers - Laser

 Works similar to a copy machine

» Color printers available but more expensive

 Fast, quite, with excellent quality

 More expensive to buy and operate

 Some units scan, photocopy, and print

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Printers - Ink Jet

 Squirts small jet of ink onto paper to

form characters
 Replaced dot matrix
 Quiet
 Does good job on color
 Good quality and reliability
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Printers - Dot Matrix

 Strikes pins against ribbon to print

 Comes in 9 and 24 pin

 Once very popular

 Now replaced by ink jet and laser

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Printers - Speed

 Measured in pages per minute (PPM)

 Laser printers range from 20-45 ppm

» Color printing is slower

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Printers - Quality of Print

 One measure is dots per inch (DPI)

» 300 dpi for general purpose uses
» 600 dpi for higher quality
» 1200 dpi for photo quality
 May have different vertical and
horizontal resolution
» 600 x 300
 Other factors can affect quality
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Basic Processing Cycle

Central Internal
Data
Processing Memory
Bus
Unit
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How Information Is Stored

 Memory consist of switches which can

be either on or off - Off=0 On=1
 Each on/off switch is called a bit
 Eight bits make up a byte
 It takes one byte to store a character
» Character can be letter, space, punctuation,
etc.
» ASCII code used
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Other Memory Terms

 Byte is eight bits

 Kilobyte (KB) is approx. 1,000 bytes

 Megabyte (MB) is approx. 1million bytes

 Gigabyte (GB) is approx. 1 billion bytes

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Central Processing Unit

 Also called CPU, processor or

microprocessor

 Is the “brains” of the computer

 Performs all computer operations

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CPU - IBM COMPATIBLES

 Many made by company called Intel

 Also made by AMD

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Pentium class processors

 Needed to run most current software

 Intel – Celeron or Pentium IV
 AMD
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CPU - Clock Speed

 Number of “cycles” per second

computer can operate
 Measured in megahertz (MHz)
 One MHz = 1 million cycles per second
 One gigahertz(GHz)=1 billion cycles
 Current speeds 2-4 GHz
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CPU - Misc.

 Performance also affected by speed of

data bus
» 400-800 MHz on most current systems
 Cache can increase speed
» Stores data you will likely need next in an
area that has faster access
» Both memory cache and disk cache used
» Should be 512 K or better
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CPU - Buying Hints

 Minimum of Pentium IV or AMD Athlon

 Minimum of 2 GHz clock speed

 Minimum of 512K of cache

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Internal Memory - RAM

 RAM - Random Access Memory

» CPU can access any location as quickly as any
other
 Can not only read current info but also write
new info
 Very important in determining capabilities of
the computer system
 Computer should have at least 256 megs -
512 preferred (can add to later)
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Internal Memory - ROM

 ROM - Read Only Memory

» Can read info Stored in ROM
» Can not write new info into ROM

 Used for “internal workings” of computer

 Buyer is not very concerned with ROM
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External Memory
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Floppy Drives

 Comes in 5 1/4” and 3 1/2”

» All systems now only have 3 1/2”

 HD - High density - comes on all current

systems
» 3 1/2” - 1.44 megs
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Hard Drives

 Builtinto machine
 Made up of stack of platters
 Can store much more than floppy
drives
» 40 gigabytes should be minimum
 Can access info much faster than
floppy drive
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CD ROM

 Same as music CDs

 Are read only
 Can store over 650 megs
 All programs now only sold on CD
 Make multimedia possible
 Come in different speeds - 20x, - 50x
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DVD-ROM

 Digital Video Disk

 Can store up to 17 GB

 Can store full-length movies

 Can also read CD-ROM disk

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CD-RW & DVD-RW DRIVES

 Allows you to write to disk

 Useful for
» Data backup
» Storage of large files
» Recording music and other multimedia files
 DVD-RW
» Allows you to write to both CD and DVD disk
» Still somewhat expensive
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Storage Devices - Other

 USB drive
» Very popular – 64-512 MB
 Tape drive
» Similar to cassette tape
» Used for backup

 Zip drive
» 100 MB to 2 GB capacity
» Everyday use and backup
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Drives - Buying Advice

 40 gigabyte hard drive

 One 3 1/2” high density floppy drive

 CD-RW drive

 DVD not yet essential but useful

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Expansion Slots

 Allows you to add capabilities

 Example of cards you can add

» Network card
» Modem
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Ports
 Connects computer to another
device
 Parallel port
» Used primarily by printers
 Serial ports
» Modem, mouse, etc.
 SCSI - chain devices
 USB –may be needed for
» Digital Cameras
» Mp3 players
» Other devices
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Networks

 Connects computers
 LAN - Local Area
 WAN - Wide Area
 Wireless
 Allows sharing of
programs, files,
printers, etc.
 Server is “main”
computer
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Modems - General

 Allows 2
computers to
communicate over
phone lines
 Can be internal or
external
 Can also have fax
capabilities
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Modems

 Bits per second(bps) indicates speed

» Old modems - 9,600, 14,400, 28,800, 33,600
» 56,000 (56K) has becoming standard

 Ways of connecting to the Internet

» Dial-up modem – used in most homes
» Cable modem – uses TV cable lines
» DSL – modified phone line
» T1 line – used by schools, businesses, etc.
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Hardware Requirements

 2 GHz Pentium IV Class Processor

 256 megabytes of RAM
 17”, .28 dot pitch monitor with 32 meg card
 40 gigabyte hard drive
 CD-RW
 56k modem
 Ink jet or laser printer
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Bundles

 Many systems come with software included

 Productivity
» Microsoft Works
» Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite, etc
» Quicken, Money, or other financial software
 Reference
» Microsoft Encarta or Compton’s encyclopedia
 Games
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Warranty

 Toll-free 24 hr 7 day support (800 #)

 1 year warranty on parts and labor

 Optional extended warranty

 30 day return policy

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Buying Hints - Web Sites

 On-line computer stores

» C-Net Hardware – reviews and prices from

many vendors
» Dell - http://www.dell.com/
» Gateway - http://www.gateway.com/
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Programs

 Set of instructions to the computer

 Programming languages
» Machine language
» Assembly language
» Procedural languages
– Basic, Fortran, Cobol
» Object oriented languages
– Visual Basic, C++, C#, Java
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Systems Software

 Run fundamental operations

» Loading and running programs
» Saving and retrieving data
» Communicating with printers, modems, etc.

 Examples of systems software

» DOS
» Windows 3.1, 95, 98, Me, 2000, and XP
» Unix
» Linux
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Applications Software

 Helps you to accomplish a certain task

 Examples
» Word processing - memos, reports, etc.
» Spreadsheets - budgets, etc.
» Database - search, sort, select data
» Educational - simulations, practice
» Graphics - charts, diagrams
» Desktop publishing - pamphlets, etc.
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Software - Legal Issues

 Commercial software
» Can only make backup copies for yourself
» Can only use on one machine at a time
– Site license - use on more that one machine

 Shareware
» Can use - make copies and give to anyone
» Should pay if you continue to use
 Freeware – can copy and use indefinitely
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Software Viruses

 Illegal code added to a program

 May spread to many computers
» Copy files from one computer to another
» Download files by modem
» E-mail attachments
 Virus may be relatively harmless
» Writes “You’ve been stoned” on screen
 Virus may also be very damaging
» Erases everything on hard drive
 Virus may activate on a certain date
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Virus Protection

 Be careful where you copy files from

 Do not open e-mail attachments unless
you are sure that it is safe
 Use virus protection program

» Detects and removes illegal code

» Should be updated often
BASIC COMPUTER
CONCEPTS
End of Slide Show