McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Business Plug-In B3 Hardware and Software (on OLC)

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Business Plug-In B3Business Plug-In B3

Hardware and Software Hardware and Software (on OLC)(on OLC)

B3-2

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Describe the six major categories of hardware and provide an example of each.

2. Identify the different computer categories and explain their potential business uses.

3. Explain the difference between primary and secondary storage.

4. List the common input, output, storage, and communication devices.

5. Describe the eight categories of computers by size.

6. Define the relationship between operating system software and utility software.

B3-3

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

– Computer—An electronic device operating under the control of instructions stored in its own memory that can accept, manipulate, and store data

B3-4

HARDWARE

• Central Processing Unit (CPU)—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)

B3-5

HARDWARE

• 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

• Binary Digit (bit)—The smallest unit of information that a computer can process

• Byte—A group of eight bits representing one natural language character

B3-6

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

B3-7

PRIMARY STORAGE

• 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

• 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

B3-8

SECONDARY STORAGE

• Secondary Storage—Consists of equipment designed to store large volumes of data for long-term storage

– Megabyte (MB)—roughly 1 million bytes

– Gigabyte (GB)—roughly 1 billion bytes

– Terabyte (TB)—roughly 1 trillion bytes

B3-9

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

B3-10

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)

B3-11

INPUT DEVICES

• Input Device—Equipment used to capture information and commands

– Manual Input Device• Joystick• Keyboard• Microphone

– Automated Input Device• Bar code scanner• Digital camera• Magnetic ink character reader

B3-12

OUTPUT DEVICE

• Output Device—Equipment used to see, hear, or otherwise accept the results of information processing requests

– Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT)

– Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

– Laser printer

– Ink-jet printer

– Plotter

B3-13

COMMUNICATION DEVICE

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

B3-14

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

B3-15

SOFTWARE BASICS

• System Software—Controls how the various technology tools work together along with the application software

– Operating System Software• Linux

• Max OS X

• Microsoft Windows

• MS-DOS

• Unix

– Utility Software

– Application Software