1. Mr C Johnston ICT Teacher www.computechedu.co.uk
BTEC IT
Back to Basics
Mr C Johnston
ICT Teacher

2. Session Objectives
Understand the difference between input, processing, storage and output devices,
Be able to describe the different features of key hardware, input and output devices so you can recommend them to others,
Know the different types of port on a modern PC and what they are typically used for,
Know the different types of cables used to assemble a PC.

3. How many different pieces of computer hardware do you know

4. Basic Requirements
INPUT
DEVICES
PROCESSING
OUTPUT
STORAGE

5. Hardware Requirements
Video To Show How A Computer Works
System Case
Power Supply
Mother Board
Processor
Storage Devices
Input Devices
Output Devices

6. Back to Basics
Computers operate in bits – electric pulses of either 1s or 0s,
How Binary Works Video
Computer storage are measured in bytes which are groups of 8 bytes,
As computer storage requirements so have the units:
KiloByte (KB) – Digital 1000 Bytes/Binary 1024 Bytes
MegaByte (MB) – Digital 1,000,000 Bytes/Binary 1,048,576 Bytes
GigaByte (GB) – Digital 1,000,000,000 Bytes/Binary 1,073,741,824 Bytes
Computer processor speeds are measured in Hz (cycles per second).

7. Types of Port
Serial (9 / 25 pin male) – mice + other serial peripherals - obsolete
Parallel (25 pin female) – used for old printers - obsolete
Games / MIDI Port (15 pin female) – Joy sticks / MIDI devices - obsolete
PS2 6pin mini DIN – mouse and keyboard
USB 1/1.1 (1.5/12 mbps) , USB 2 (480 mbps) USB 3 (4,000 mbps) – used to connect a range of different peripherals to a PC,
VGA – used to connect standard monitors to a computer
DVI (3.96 gbps) – High speed digital video link
IEEE 1394 FireWire (400mbps) – for high quality video capture
RJ-45 Socket (10/100/1000mbps) – used for network cable connection
RJ-11 Socket (56kbps) – used for telephone cable connection
HDMI (10.2 gbps) – high definition multimedia interface – transfers video and audio in a single cable in high definition
Mini Jack Sockets – used for input / output of audio
eSATA (upto 6gbps) – High speed connection for external SATA drives

8. Types of Cable
IDE Cable (40pin female) – used to connect HDD and Optical Drives to the motherboard
SATA Cable - used to connect modern internal hard disk drives and optical drives to the motherboard
Optical Drive Audio Cable – Connects drive to sound card so sound can be heard from it,
Serial cable– used to connect devices to serial port
Parallel cable – used to connect devices to parallel port
USB cable – used to connect devices to USB port – plug is always the same to connect into USB socket but different types fit into devices
FireWire Cable – used to connect devices to FireWire port
Ethernet Cable – used to connect computers to a network
HDMI Cable – used to connect HD video and audio equipment together