Presented by David Harris
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• A COMPUTER IS AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE
• OPERATING UNDER SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN
• THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE CALLED SOFTWARE
• THE SOFTWARE IS STORED IN A HARD DRIVE
• THE SOFTWARE CAN ACCEPT DATA WHICH IS CALLED INPUT
• IT CAN MANIPULATE THE DATA, WHICH IS CALLED PROCESSING
• IT CAN PRODUCE INFORMATION CALLED OUTPUT FROM
PROCESSING
• GENERALLY A COMPUTER IS A TERM USED TO DESCRIBE A
COLLECTION OF DEVICES THAT FUNCTION TOGETHER AS A
SYSTEM
Devices that comprise a computer system
Monitor
(output)
Speaker
(output)
System Unit
Printer
(output)
Storage devices
(CD-RW, Floppy,
Hard disk, zip,…)
Scanner
(input)
Mouse
(input)
Keyboard
(input)
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• THE COMPUTER is THE SYSTEM WHICH IS COMPRISED OF MANY
PARTS
• THE TOWER WHICH HOLDS YOUR THE CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT
• IT IS THE HEART OF THE COMPUTER AND IS THE ENGINE THAT
DRIVES EVERY COMPONENT
• A HARD DRIVE THAT HOLDS YOUR DATA
• RAMDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM), THAT ALLOWS YOU TO MOVE
BETWEEN FUNCTIONS
• THE MONITOR ENABLES YOU TO VIEW THE DATA OR THE SCREEN
• THE MOUSE ALLOWS YOU TO MOVE TO YOUR DESIRED LOCATION
AND TAKE ACTION
• THE KEYBOARD THE LETS YOU ENTER DATA
• THE PRINTER THAT PRINTS YOUR DATA
• A SCANNER THAT CAN SCAN AND STORE DATA …. A SPEAKER FOR
YOU HEAR OR A CAMERA TO LOAD PICTURES TO THE COMPUTER
Devices that comprise a computer system
System Unit
The body of a Laptop
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ON A LAPTOP
• THE SYSTEM IS THE BODY OF THE UNIT
• THE SCREEN IS THE MONITOR
• THE KEYBOARD IS ABOVE THE BODY
• THE PAD IS THE MOUSE
• YOU CAN AD AN EXTERNAL MOUSE
Computers can perform four general
operations, which comprise the information
processing cycle.
 Input
 Process
 Output
 Storage
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COMPUTERS CAN PERFORM FOUR GENERAL OPERATIONS WHICH
COMPRISE THE INFORMATION PROCESSING CYCLE
•
THE INPUT, ALLOWS YOU TO ENTER DATA
•
THE COMUTER PROCESSES THE DATA BY YOUR COMMAND
•
OUTPUT LETS YOU SEND DATA TO OUT OF THE COMPUTER
•
YOU CAN SEND IT OR COPY IT TO A FLASH DRIVE, CD OR A DVD DISC
•
YOU CAN SEND IT AS EMAIL OR SEND IT TO A BACK-UP DEVICE
•
THE HARD DRIVE IS YOUR STORAGE WHICH HOLDS ALL YOUR
PROGRAMS AND DATA
Data and Information
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• ALL COMPUTER PROCESSING REQUIRES DATA
• DATA IS A COLLECTION OF RAW FACTS, FIGURES AND SYMBOLS
• SUCH AS NUMBERS, WORDS, IMAGES, VIDEO AND SOUND GIVEN
TO THE COMPUTER DURING THE INPUT PHASE
• COMPUTERS MANIPULATE THE DATA TO CREATE INFORMATION
• INFORMATION IS DATA THAT IS ORGANIZED, IMPORTANT AND
USEFUL
• DURING THE OUTPUT PHASE THE INFORMATION THAT IS CREATED
IS PUT INTO SOME FORM SUCH AS A PRINTED REPORT
Why Is A Computer So Powerful?
• It’s ability to perform the information
processing cycle with amazing speed
• Reliability (low failure rate)
• Accuracy
• Ability to store huge amounts of data and
information
• Ability to communicate with other computers
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How Does a Computer Know what to do?
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• INFORMATION IS INPUTED TO THE COMPUTER
• THE COMPUTER PROGRAM CORRESPONDING TO WHAT IS
ENTERED AND IS STORED IN MEMORY
• ONCE THE PROGRAM IS STORED IN MEMORY, THE COMPUTER
CAN START THE OPERATION BY EXECUTING THE PROGRAM
INSTRUCTIONS ONE AFTER THE OTHER
• A LOT HAPPENS SO FAST ITS HARD TO EXPLAIN
• A LOT HAPPENS SO FAST ITS HARD TO EXPLAIN, JUST BELIEVE
ME IT WORKS
The Primary Components of a Computer…
• Input devices
• Central Processing Unit (containing the control unit and
the arithmetic / logic unit)
• Memory
• Output devices
• Storage devices
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• THERE ARE MANY PARTS OF A COMPUTER
• INPUT DEVICES CAN BE A FLOPPY DISC, A CD OR DVD DISC, A
USB FLASH DRIVE, YOUR SCANNER, OR YOUR CAMERA
• ALL THESE CAN PUT DATA IN YOUR COMPUTER
• THE CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT IS LIKE THE ENGINE IN YOUR
CAR THAT MAKES IT MOVE OR WORK
• MEMORY, USUSLLY CALLED RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY, CALLED
RAM IS NOT STORAGE BUT ALLOWS THE COMPUTERS ABILITY TO
PERFORM VAROUS FUNCTION AT THE SAME TIME
• OUTPUT DEVICES ARE THOSE THAT PRODUCE DATA IN
DIFFERENT FORMS INCLUDING AUDIO, VISUAL AND HARD COPY
• STORAGE DEVICES CAN BE A FLOPPY DISC, A CD OR DVD DISC, A
USB FLASH DRIVE OR ANOTHER HARD DRIVE YOU MIGHT USE
FOR BACK-UP
The most commonly used input device is the
keyboard on which data is entered by
manually keying in or typing certain keys. A
keyboard typically has 101 or 105 keys.
Numeric Keys
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Is a pointing device which is used to control
the movement of a mouse pointer on the
screen to make selections from the screen. A
mouse has one to five buttons. The bottom of
the mouse is flat and contains a mechanism
that detects movement of the mouse.
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• THE CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU) CONTAINS ELECTRONIC
CIRCUITS THAT CAUSE PROCESSING TO OCCUR
• THE CPU INTERPRETS INSTRUCTIONS TO THE COMPUTER AND
PERFORMS THE LOGICAL AND ARITHMETIC PROCESSING
OPERATIONS
• THIS ALLOWS THE INPUT AND OUTPUT OPERATIONS TO BEGIN
• IT IS CONSIDERED THE “BRAIN” OF THE COMPUTER
• THE SMALLEST CPU AVAILABLE TODAY IS 1,000 TIMES MORE
POWERFUL THAN THE ONE THAT TOOK THE ASTRONOTS TO THE
MOON
RAM
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• THE AMOUNT OF MEMORY IN COMPUTERS IS TYPICALLY
MEASURED IN KILOBYTES OR MEGABYTES
• ONE KILOBYTE EQUALS APPROXIMATELY 1,000 MEMORY
LOCATIONS
• ONE MEGABYTE EQUALS APPROXIMATELY ONE MILLION
LOCATIONS
• A MEMORY LOCATION OR BYTE USUALLY STORES ONE
CHARACTER
• THEREFORE, A COMPUTER WITH 8 MB OF MEMORY CAN
STORE APPROXIMATELY 8 MILLION CHARACTERS.
• ONE MEGABYTE CAN HOLD APPROXIMATELY 500 PAGES
OF TEXT INFORMATION.
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• OUTPUT DEVICES MAKE THE INFORMATION RESULTING FROM
THE PROCESSING AVAILABLE FOR USE
• THE TWO OUTPUT DEVICES MORE COMMONLY USED ARE THE
PRINTER AND THE COMPUTER SCREEN
• THE PRINTER PRODUCES A HARD COPY OF YOUR OUTPUT
• THE COMPUTER SCREEN PRODUCES A SOFT COPY OF YOUR
OUTPUT THAT CAN BE SAVED
• STORAGE DEVICES ARE USED TO STORE DATA
• THE MOST COMMON TYPES STORAGE USED ON PERSONAL
COMPUTERS ARE, HARD DRIVES, CD OR DVD ROM DRIVES
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Hard Disks
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A HARD DISK CONSISTS OF ONE OR MORE RIGID METAL
PLATES COATED WITH A METAL OXIDE MATERIAL
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THE PLATES ALLOWS DATA TO BE MAGNETICALLY RECORDED
ON THE SURFACE OF THE PLATTERS
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THE HARD DISK PLATTERS SPIN AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED,
TYPICALLY 5400 TO 7200 REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE (RPM)
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STORAGE CAPACITIES OF HARD DISKS FOR PERSONAL
COMPUTERS RANGE FROM 320 GIGABYTES TO 4 TERABYTES
CD AND DVD Discs
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• COMPACT DISK OR CD’D AND DVD’S, ALSO CALLED AN
OPTICAL DISC, ARE FLAT ROUND, PORTABLE STORAGE
MEDIUMS
• THE CAPACITY OF A CD-ROM IS 750 MB OF DATA
• A DIGITAL VIDEO DISC OR DVD DISK HOLDS 4.7
GIGABYTES AND WAS DEVELOPED TO HOLD MOVIES
• OTHER DVD’S COME WITH INCREASED STORAGE
CAPABILITY FOR BLUE RAY AND 3D MOVIES
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COMPUTER SOFTWARE IS THE KEY TO PRODUCTIVE
USE OF COMPUTERS
SOFTWARE CAN BE CATEGORIZED INTO TWO TYPES
OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE WHICH OPERATE THE
COMPUTER
• WINDOWS, MAC AND ANDROID
APPLICATION SOFTWARE WHICH DOES SPECIFIC
FUNCTIONS
• WORD PROCESSING, ACCOUNTINS, PHHOTO
EDITING, VIRUS PROTECTION AND MANY OTHERS
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OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE TELLS THE COMPUTER
HOW TO PERFORM VARIOUS FUNCTIONS
• LOADING, STORING AND EXECUTING AN APPLICATION
• HOW TO TRANSFER DATA
• MANY COMPUTERS USE AN OPERATING SYSTEM THAT
HAS A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE THAT PROVIDES
VISUAL CLUES SUCH AS ICON SYMBOLS TO HELP THE
USER
• WINDOWS XP IS AN OLDER BUT STILL WIDELY USED
OPERATING SYSTEM
• MICROSOFT WINDOWS 7 IS A WIDELY USED GRAPHICAL
OPERATING SYSTEM
• MICROSOFT WINDOWS 8.1 IS NOW THE PROGRAM
INSTALLED IN NEW COMPUTERS
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• APPLICATION SOFTWARE CONSISTS OF PROGRAMS THAT TELL
A COMPUTER HOW TO PRODUCE INFORMATION
• SOME OF THE MORE COMMONLY USED PACKAGES ARE:
• WORD PROCESSING - LIKE A TYPEWRITER YOU WRITE WITH IT
• EXCEL IS FOR CREATING ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEET IS FOR
ACCOUNTING PURPOSES OR TO CREATE A DATABASE IS FOR
KEEPING YOUR VARIOUS GROUPS, LIKE CLUB LISTS
• PRESENTATION GRAPHICS IS FOR MAKING PRESENTATIONS
LIKE THE ONE YOU ARE LOOKING AT
• OUTLOOK IS AN ADVANCED EMAIL PROGRAM
Word Processing
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• WORD PROCESSING SOFTWARE IS USED TO CREATE AND
PRINT DOCUMENTS
• A KEY ADVANTAGE OF WORD PROCESSING SOFTWARE IS
THAT USERS EASILY CAN MAKE CHANGES IN DOCUMENTS
• YOU WILL USE THIS FOR WRITING LETTERS
Electronic Spreadsheets
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ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEET SOFTWARE ALLOWS THE USER
TO ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY AN DIVIDE
• YOU CAN PERFORM USER-DEFINED CALCULATIONS ON
ROWS AND COLUMNS OF NUMBERS
• THESE NUMBERS CAN BE CHANGED AND THE
SPREADSHEET QUICKLY RECALCULATES THE NEW RESULTS
• LIMITED USE FOR MOST COMPUTER USERS
Database Software
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DATABASE SOFTWARE ALLOWS THE USER TO ENTER,
RETRIEVE, AND UPDATE DATA
• IT DOES IT IN AN ORGANIZED AND EFFICIENT MANNER,
WITH FLEXIBLE INQUIRY AND REPORTING CAPABILITIES
• THESE ARE USED BY COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
• LITTLE USE FOR AVERAGE COMPUTER USERS
Presentation Graphics
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PRESENTATION GRAPHIC SOFTWARE ALLOWS THE USER TO
CREATE DOCUMENTS CALLED SLIDES TO BE USED IN
MAKING THE PRESENTATIONS
• USING SPECIAL PROJECTION DEVICES, THE SLIDES
DISPLAY AS THEY APPEAR ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN.
• IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE PRESENTATIONS THIS IS THE
SOFTWARE TO USE
Hopefully you understand a little more
about computers and how they work
David Harris
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