Sunday 26 August 2012

A Hardware Crash Course



 What is a computer ?

A computer is an electronic device that executes operations and stores data in its own memory. Computers execute processes by instructions given.

This is a short and simple crash course about computers. It would not make you an instant genius but it will 
let you understand the basics. The computers we have in front of us has four basic functions.

1) Input
2) Processing
3) Storage
4) Output.

Each computer from the most complex systems to the very basic are connected to these four functions.

Now lets break these down for you.

1) Input.

Can be defined as a device that can be used to insert data into a computer or other computational device.
 
The keyboard is a device that gets information to a computer. ( You have to type the thing.)

Another input device is the mouse. 

Here are a list of some input devices.

      1)  Cameras
       2) Video Capture Hardware
       3)  Barcode reader
       4) Digital camera
       5) Joystick
       6)  Keyboard
       7) Microphone
       8) MIDI keyboard
       9) Mouse (pointing device)
       10)  Scanner
       11) Webcam
       12) Microphone

2) Processing

We normally put information into the computer and took it out it that is called processing. This takes part in the processor. The basic processor is the Central Processing Unit or (CPU) for short. This is  the brain of your computer . The hardware that carries out the instructions of a certain program and executes it.

 3) Storage

Computer storage devices are devices that holds data . The hard drive is the main storage device. Other storage devices are like flash dives and Cd's . In older years we had the floppy disk but the storage in this device was very limited.

4) Output

An out device is any piece of computer hardware  equipment used to communicate the results of data processing  carried out by a computer which converts the electronically generated information into human-readable form.

  1. Monitor
  2. Printers (all types)
  3. Plotters
  4. Projector
  5. LCD Projection Panels
  6. Computer Output Microfilm (COM)
  7. Speaker(s)

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