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A. Hardware Fundamentals
1. Input Devices (keyboard), Output Devices (monitor) and the
CPU
The most common imput devices are the keyboard and the mouse
although many other input devices exist. For example, a computer may
monitor a hospital patient's heartbeart via contacts placed on the patients
chest. The contacts are an input device.
The most common output devices are the monitor and printer. These
enable the computer to present information in a format that humans can
understand.
2. Primary Memory/RAM
In order for a computer to store and move information it needs some place
to put it. Information that is currently being accessed (used) by the CPU is
stored in Primary Memory, also called Main Memory or RAM.
For example, if we are using a word processing program to write a letter
then the letter is stored in Primary Memory. In fact the word processing
program itself is stored in Primary Memory as well.
Primary Memory is necessary because the CPU can not access data
directly from disk. The data must first be copied from disk to Primary
Memory to make it accessible to the CPU.
a. Hard Drives
b. Diskettes
It is beyond the scope of this course to delve into much detail on many of
the other components that inhabit the system box of modern computers.
However, we would be remiss if we did not mention the power supply.
Internally, computers must use, relatively, low-voltage DC (Direct
Current) power. Usually 5 - 12 volts DC is what is required. The electric
receptacles that populate the walls of our offices and homes, however,
dispense 115 volt AC (Alternating Current) power. A computer power
supply accepts the 115 volt AC household current and converts it into 5 -
12 volt DC current for the computer's internal components.
There are many devices that do not come as standard equipment on most
equipment. One that may soon become standard is the network card. The
network card consists of computer circuits placed onto a circuit board.
The purpose of the network card is to enable a computer to communicate
with other computers on a network. Circuit boards like this plug into
special slots that are mounted on the computer's "mother board" or
"system board". The system board is the basic platform upon which all
the major internal electronic components are mounted. Special
cards/boards like network cards are plugged into slots on the system board
so that other components like the CPU or Primary Memory may have
access to them.
Probably the most important function of the operating system is the management
of files. Files are, arguably, the most important concept a competent computer
user needs to master. All information and all programs on a computer are stored
in files. We will discuss files more fully later in this module.
The two most prevalent operating systems are Microsoft Windows and Unix. In
the earlier days of computers every computer had its own operating system. It
soon became clear that this was not practical or desirable. Windows runs on
almost all models of PCs and on DEC Alpha computers. Unix runs on dozens of
different computers including PCs. In fact, Unix was designed, in part, to be
portable. In saying Unix is portable we mean that Unix will run on most
computers.
As with all operating systems Windows and Unix have their strong points and
weak points. For each there is an environment for which it is most suitable. We
will not settle the operating system controversy (i.e., which is better) in this
course but you should know that such a controversy exists.
3. Handling Diskettes
5. Computer Viruses
E. Introduction to the Command Language
Although both Windows and Unix (through XWindows) are able to present a
"graphical user interface" to the user both also have a more fundamental mode
of operation. MS-DOS, the core of the Windows operating system, has a special
set of english-like commands called the DOS command language. Unix has a
similar set of commands. Since we have better access to PCs than to Unix
computers here on campus we will focus on MS-DOS's command language rather
than Unix's.
To access the MS-DOS command language one must either "boot" (restart) the
computer in MS-DOS mode or run MS-DOS in "shell" mode (i.e., as if it were an
application running under Windows). Once in MS-DOS mode we will see a
system prompt. The system prompt lets us know that DOS is ready to accept
commands. Once in DOS mode we no longer have the Windows graphical user
interface so the mouse becomes non-functional unless we run a DOS program that
allows us to use the mouse. We will discuss in detail many of the DOS commands
during the course. I will only give a few here.
2. Opening a File
3. Different File Types
5. Saving a File
The most universal format for saving a file is ASCII text. This is
sometimes called DOS text. ASCII stands for American Standard Code for
Information Interchange. Homework files created in this class will be
either standard ASCII text files or HTML files (web pages). We will not
be using word processing files such as Microsoft WORD or Wordperfect
in this class.