Computer Hardware Basics

Computer Hardware
Introduction

Computer System
Components


Input




Processing




CPU

Output




Keyboard, Mouse, Camera, Touch Pad

Monitor, Printer

Storage


Floppy, Hard Drive, CD, DVD, Flash
Drive

Generations
Gen Hardware
.

Software

1st

Vacuum Tubes

machine
language

2nd

Transistors

Assembly
language

3rd

Integrated Chip
(IC)

Higher level
languages,

Application
Programs

4th

VLSI
(Very Large Scale ICs)

Object oriented
programming,
natural language
processing

The Binary System
Bits – Binary digits, or 0,1.
Bytes (8 bits) – ASCII, EBCDIC
One byte is the space needed to store
one character, like the letter “A”.

Kilobyte (KB) – 1000 (actually,

1024)
Megabyte (MB) – 1,000,000
Gigabyte (GB) – 1,000,000,000
Terabyte (TB) – 1,000,000,000,000

Connecting Input Devices



Analog to Digital Conversion
Ports (gateways to the
computer) – serial and parallel,
USB.


Use of interrupts to alert CPU

Processing – CPU
components
Control Unit

Clock cycle regulates all operations

Arithmetic-Logic Unit (ALU)
Add Gates – Half adder, full adder
AND/OR/NOT gates

Memory
RAM –

Static (faster, less compact)
Dynamic
ROM

Output
Conversion from Digital back to Analog
Video
Printers - Ink Jet, Laser
Sound
Controlling Devices (e.g. antilock brakes)

Storage








Hard Drive
 160 GB on upwards today
 As low as 256 KB less than 20 years ago!
CD-ROM
 600-700 MB
DVD-ROM
 4 GB - Red Laser, 27 GB- Blue Laser
Flash Drives
 From 256 MB up to 100+ GB

Related Fields of Study



Computer Science




Computer Engineering




Software development
Hardware design and development

Computer Information Systems


Management of technology in
organizations.