© 2014 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part. APPENDIX A Hardware and Software Basics APPENDIX A Hardware and Software Basics

2 Overview  HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE BASICS Hardware Basics Computer Categories Software Basics

3 INTRODUCTION  Information technology (IT) - Any computer-based tool that people use to work with information and support the information and information-processing needs of an organization Hardware - Consists of the physical devices associated with a computer system Software - The set of instructions that the hardware executes to carry out specific tasks

4 HARDWARE BASICS  Computer - An electronic device operating under the control of instructions stored in its own memory that can accept, manipulate, and store data  Hardware components include: 1.Central processing unit (CPU) 2.Primary storage 3.Secondary storage 4.Input device 5.Output device 6.Communication device

5 HARDWARE BASICS

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9 Central Processing Unit  Central processing unit (CPU) (or microprocessor) - The actual hardware that interprets and executes the program (software) instructions and coordinates how all the other hardware devices work together  Control unit - Interprets software instructions and literally tells the other hardware devices what to do, based on the software instructions  Arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) - Performs all arithmetic operations (for example, addition and subtraction) and all logic operations (such as sorting and comparing numbers)

10 Central Processing Unit  The number of CPU cycles per second determines the speed of a CPU Megahertz (MHz) - The number of millions of CPU cycles per second Gigahertz (GHz) - The number of billions of CPU cycles per second

11 Central Processing Unit  CPU speed factors Clock speed Word length Bus width Chip line width  Binary digit (bit) - The smallest unit of information that a computer can process  Byte - A group of eight bits representing one natural language character

12 Advances in CPU Design  Complex instruction set computer (CISC) chip - Type of CPU that can recognize as many as 100 or more instructions, enough to carry out most computations directly  Reduced instruction set computer (RISC) chip - Limit the number of instructions the CPU can execute to increase processing speed  Virtualization - A protected memory space created by the CPU allowing the computer to create virtual machines

13 Primary Storage  Primary storage - The computer’s main memory, which consists of the random access memory (RAM), cache memory, and the read-only memory (ROM) that is directly accessible to the CPU

14 Random Access Memory (RAM)  Random access memory (RAM) - The computer’s primary working memory, in which program instructions and data are stored so that they can be accessed directly by the CPU via the processor’s high-speed external data bus Volatility Cache memory

15 Random Access Memory (RAM)

16 Read-Only Memory (ROM)  Read-only memory (ROM) - The portion of a computer’s primary storage that does not lose its contents when one switches off the power Flash memory Memory card Memory stick

17 Secondary Storage  Secondary storage - Consists of equipment designed to store large volumes of data for long-term storage Megabyte (MB or M or Meg) - Roughly 1 million bytes Gigabyte (GB) - Roughly 1 billion bytes Terabyte (TB) - Roughly 1 trillion bytes

18 Secondary Storage

19 Magnetic Medium  Magnetic medium - A secondary storage medium that uses magnetic techniques to store and retrieve data on disks or tapes coated with magnetically sensitive materials  Magnetic tape - An older secondary storage medium that uses a strip of thin plastic coated with a magnetically sensitive recording medium  Hard drive - A secondary storage medium that uses several rigid disks coated with a magnetically sensitive material and housed together with the recording heads in a hermetically sealed mechanism

20 Optical Medium  Optical medium types include: Compact disk-read-only memory (CD-ROM) Compact disk-read-write (CD-RW) drive Digital video disk (DVD) DVD-ROM drive Digital video disk-read/write (DVD-RW)

21 Input Devices  Input device - Equipment used to capture information and commands

22 Input Devices

23 Output Devices  Monitors

24 Output Devices  Printers

25 Communication Devices  Communication device - Equipment used to send information and receive it from one location to another Dial-up access Cable Digital subscriber line Wireless Satellite

26 COMPUTER CATEGORIES  For the past 20 years, federally funded supercomputing research has given birth to some of the computer industry’s most significant technology breakthroughs including: Clustering Parallel processing Mosaic browser

27 COMPUTER CATEGORIES  Computer categories include: Personal digital assistant (PDA) Laptop Tablet Desktop Workstation Minicomputer Mainframe computer Supercomputer

28 SOFTWARE BASICS  System software - Controls how the various technology tools work together along with the application software Operating system software Utility software Application software

29 Utility Software  Types of utility software Crash-proof Disk image Disk optimization Encrypt data File and data recovery Text protect Preventative security Spyware Uninstaller

30 Application Software  Types of application software Browser Communication Data management Desktop publishing Groupware Presentation graphics Programming Spreadsheet Word processing