Professional Documents
Culture Documents
COMPUTER FUNDAMENTALS
INFORMATION consists of facts and items of knowledge. It can be anything that has meaning to
people.
Usually information is expressed in words and numbers. However, it can be expressed in other
forms, such as sounds, measurements or pictures.
Ex:
PROCESSING INFORMATION
Information processing is the organization, manipulation and distribution of information.
Sorting a list of names and address into alphabetical order.
Producing a letter with a word processor, saving it on floppy disc and then sending it by
electronic mail.
Transmitting a conversation over the phone system.
PROCESSING OF INFORMATION WITHOUT MACHINES
Ex:
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Memory
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) is all types of equipment and programs which are used in the
processing of information.
ex:
A computer.
A calculator.
A fax machine.
A telephone.
Presentation of information.
Handling information.
Searching data, sorting it into order and analyzing
Producing modules of real situations
Data communication.
Control and measurement
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HISTORY OF COMPUTERS
3000 BC the ABACUS a rudimentary first computing device developed
1642 Blaise Pascal built the first mechanical digital calculator Pascaline.
1822 Charles Babbage invented Difference Engine with a mechanical memory to store
results.
1840 Ada, the first programmer suggested binary Data storage rather than decimal.
1880 Dr.Herman Hollerith developed the punched card that would contain data coded in
form of punched holes.
1939 Dr. John Vincent Atanasoft produced the first prototype electronic computer.
1944 Aitken built Mark 1 the first automatic, sequence controlled calculator; used by military
to compute ballistic data.
1947 Mauchy and Eckert built ENIAC 2nd Electronic digital computer.
1949 Maurice, Eckert and Von Neumann built EDVAC the -1st stored program computer.
1960 Gene Amdahl designed IBM System/360 mainframe computer 1st general purpose
digital using Integrated circuits.
1963 Olsen with Digital Equipment Corporation produced PDP-1 1st Mini computer.
1977 Stephen Wonzniak and Steven Jobs built first Apple Microcomputer.
Internal
Communic
ation
BUS SYSTEM
Registers
Control
Unit
Input Interface
Output Interface
Input Devices
Output Devices
Keyboard
Mouse/Joystick
Light pen
Scanner
Infra-red ray
Video Camera
Microphone etc.
VDU(Monitor)
Printer
Speaker etc.
ALU
Control
Processo
r
Input
Main
Memor
y
Output
Storage
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INPUT DEVICES
Input devices are used to feed data and instructions to the computer system.
Input devices provide the interface between the outside world and the computer system for this
purpose. An input device is a peripheral which accepts data and sends it to the central processing
unit.
Ex. of input devices
The keyboard
Alight pen
An Electronic digital weighing scale interface d to a computer
A document reader
A mouse.
INPUT FROM KEY BOARD
The usual keys supplied are
The alphabet
The digits 0-9
Other text characters
Cursor and other control characters
Keys which change the function of other keys
Function keys.
DOCUMENT READERS
OMR, OCR and MICR
A document reader is a device which read data straight from a form.
Ex;
Optical Mark Recognition(OMR)
Optical Character Recognition(OCR)
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition(MICR)
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OMR is a system of reading lines or marks which have been made in exactly the right positions on a
card or document.
APPLICATIONS OF OMR
The documents to be read have empty boxes to take the marks. These have been preprinted on to
the documents together with information telling the user what to do. The person preparing the
data makes pencil or ink marks in the appropriate boxes.
The data to be input has to be simple because the user can only make marks and cannot write any
information.
There has to be large number of documents to justify designing and printing them.
Ex: marking multiple choice question papers.
OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION (OCR)
An optical character reader can recognize characters from their shape. As with OMR light is
reflected from the paper and form the ink. In OCR however the reader has to workout what the
characters are.
Scanners were originally design to scan pictures but they can also be used to read text.
MOUSE
A mouse is an input device designed to fit snugly under a hand while it is moved about over a table.
Moving the mouse produce s movements of a cursor or a pointer on the screen.
The mouse is also provided with one, two or three buttons. These are pressed to produce action
when the user has moved the cursor to the right place.
USES OF MOUSE:
To select options from a menu or from a set of icons.
To position the cursor when editing text or using a design packages.
To select an object in a drawing or a piece of text to be copied, moved or deleted.
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TEXT OUTPUT
Is simply alphanumeric characters that makeup our language. Text output appearance ranges from
type writer to typeset quality.
GRAPHIC OUTPUT
Includes line drawings, maps, presentations business graphics.
SOUND OUTPUT
Ranges from the message beeps produced by the computer system to the human voice to music and
other forms of sound.
VIDEO OUTPUT
Photographs (still images) or moving images such as television and video taped material
Again we have 2 principle kind of output are:
Hard copy.
Soft copy.
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PRINTER
A printer is read only device, driven directly by a computer and provide permanent visual records
called hard copy. The basic criteria for evaluating printers include:
Quality of the printed output.
Speed at which printed pages are produced.
Sound level during printing.
Cost of printing media.
Conservation of paper.
This mechanism enable the print control up to the dot level on the paper, can be used to produce
both text and graphics. Fast but noisy wear out ribbons very quickly.
LASER PRINTER
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INK-JET PRINTERS
Ink jet printers transfers characters and images to the paper by spraying a fine jet of ink.
Offers nearly the quality of laser printing but not the speed. Low cost alternative for high quality
printing.
MONITOR
It is a specialized output device designed to produce high quality graphics in a variety of colors.
Those are especially useful for creating maps and architectural drawings, although they may also
produce less complicated charts and graphics.
TYPE OF
PLOTTERS
Pen plotter
Electrostatic plotter.
Thermal plotter.
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1
1
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A BYTE is a small group of bits treated as a unit. It is usually the number of bits needed to store
one character. Normally a byte consists of 8 bits.
WRITE Data means to move it or copy from the main store to backing store.
READ - Read data means to move it or copy from the backing store to main store.
STORES
DIFFER IN:
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Is Memory which can be read from but not written to. ROM is permanent data and programs on it
cannot be changed. It is not volatile. If ROM was volatile it would lose. Its data and it would not
be possible to write it back. There are four types of ROM.
PROM: Programmable Read Only Memory
EPROM Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
EEPROM: Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM)
Is memory which can be read from or written to. RAM is temporary. It contents can be changed. It
is usually volatile.
The application of RAM
1. As the working store of the computer- as the temporary store for the program which is
running and data it is using.
2. To store data being transferred to an from peripherals
3. To store the contents of the screen
BACKING STORE
A STORAGE MEDIUM is the material on which the data is stored.
Eg. Magnetic tape, Floppy disk, CD ROM
Storage DRIVE Is the piece of equipment which rotates the storage medium and access the data on
it.
Characteristics of backing store
1. Data is usually accessed using read/write heads. These transferred the data while the
medium rotates in the drive.
2. Access to backing store is slower than to main store.
3. They are not volatile. the data is stored on the medium until it is deleted.
MAGNETIC DISCS
A typical Magnetic Disc has two surfaces or sides. Each surface holds data in circular tracks. Each
track is divided into equal sections called sectors.
There are two types of Magnetic Disks
Floppy Disc: Is a light flexible magnetic disc.
Hard Disc: Is a rigid magnetic Disc
COMPACT DISC
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All types of compact disc can be read by a computer if you have the right player interfaces and
software.
A CD ROM is a compact disc normally of about 12cm in diameter. CD ROMs of other sizes
are also available. Ex. Electronic books which are 8 cm in diameter.
Data is written to the disc using a powerful laser beam to burn patterns in the surface. The
discs are exchangeable and easy to transport.
Access to data is faster than floppy discs but slower than hard discs.
MULTI-MEDIA means presentation on a computer of information combining animated and still
graphics, sound and text.
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DATA FILES
Facts about Files
The term File is used to describe any data or program stored on a backing store such as a disc or a
tape.
A data file is an organized collection of data. It usually consists of a number of separate parts
called records.
A Record is a subdivision of a file. It consists of a set of items of data which together can be
treated as a unit.
Storage of Files
Creating a file
Organizing data into a file means creating a file.
Saving a file
Copying all record from main store on to a backing store
Types of file
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Data Communications
Data communication is the process of sending data electronically from one computer or similar
device to another.
Linking one computer to another permits the power and resources of that computer to be tapped.
It also makes possible the updating and sharing of data at different locations.
Computers that are located in the same room or office building can communicate data through a
direct cable link.
Computers located far away use a special form of data communication telecommunication or
telegraph.
Local Area Network (LAN) - LANs are networks usually confined to a geographic area, such as a
single building or a college campus. LANs can be small, linking as few as three computers, but often
link hundreds of computers.
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) - MAN is basically a bigger version of a LAN and normally uses
similar technology. It might cover a group of near by corporate offices or a city and might be either
private or public.
Wide Area Network (WAN) - Often a network is located in multiple physical places. Wide area
networking combines multiple LANs that are geographically separate. This is accomplished by
connecting the different LANs using services such as dedicated leased phone lines, dial-up phone
lines (both synchronous and asynchronous), satellite links, and data packet carrier services.
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Ring Topology
Router
Router
Sub net
Subnet
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