Computer Hardware - Hardware Introduction, Hardware Description

Hardware Introduction
Hardware Description

Hardware Introduction

Computer Hardware

Each human being need organs i.e. brain, ear, eye , legs , hands etc. to complete the routine work.

Similarly, each computer equipped with necessary devices or accessories called hardware to execute thegiven task given by User.

User

The operator who operate computer called User.

Task

Task in daily human life may be involved in various activities like read, write, think, draw the imaginations & ideas.

Similarly task in computer defined as editing, accounting, reservations, Designing, Processing, Counting, animation, presentation of data, drawing and of course to design your imaginations and put information in the form of graphics, pictures, video images.

Data

All information, which user feed in computer or which processed by Computer called Data.

For example

data may be in the form of numbers, alphabet, figures, files etc.

The lowest unit of information called Byte. One byte is just like one digit place to store one number or alphabets. One Kilo Byte=1000 Byte. 1 Mega Byte=1000,000 Byte. 1 Giga Byte = 1000,000,000,000 Bytes.

Salient features of computer System

Computer can calculate accurately & faster than human being. It can calculate millions of mathematical calculations just in a few second.

It can store tremendous data of files in a small diskette. You can store your all files just in a small device called diskette.

It can present the information in the table form, graphical form etc. in a very systematic manner.

It can provide complete security of information data, storing them in storing device. Computer can be locked to prevent access through password.

Password (just like secret code) can be series of number or character given by user.

You can recall all data whenever you need.

Most self-programmed & intelligent computer

After such distinctive feature Human -being is best computer in the World, since computer cannot think, it acts on rules & regulations pre-defined & pre programmed by human being.

Computer cannot act in its own way. Man can manipulate computer while computer cannot manipulate human being.

How Human being interact with Computer

As discussed above computer itself is a machine, which interacts with tools under rules & regulations pre-defined by human being.

Each task given to computer executed stepwise, systematically & strictly under certain rules & regulations, which cannot be neglected, otherwise computer won't execute the task.

How to interact with computer

To accommodate communication between man & computer - it is a systematic task.

Since the computer is machine, so we should first understand the 4 levels through which a task goes systematically before execution.

But to understand the execution of given task let us assume computer as VIP, who gives command to execute without obstacles.

Level1 (Hardware level)

Let's assume that the computer is a VIP (Very Important Person), living in a diplomatic area. Each VIP required highly professional expert to carry out orders of VIP to fulfill the order as efficient as possible.

These orders include: organizing meetings & appointments, personnel assistance, planning, providing security etc. The orders fulfilled by highly professional experts.

Similarly, computer does editing, printing, storage, documentation, which is fulfilled by accessories of computer called Hardware i.e. Printers, plotters, Floppy Disk Drive, Hard Disk Drive, CD drive etc about whom we will discuss later.

Level 2 (BIOS Level)

Each VIP as a human being in his life well illiterate to the basic rules & regulations of Humanity written in the Holy Book of Ramayana / Mahabharata, Bible, Kuran, which gives him peace of mind & reminds him continuously throughout life.

The whole life of Human Being is equipped with these basic moralities.

Similarly, in computer each task basically is followed by certain pre-defined & pre-programmed rules & regulations embedded in the BIOS and stored in ROM (Read Only Memory) chip of the Computer system.

BIOS (basic input/output system) are just like rulebook.

Level 3 (Operating System)

Each order of VIP can't be followed by a single action. But it needs series of actions to execute.

Which again need lot of resources to get desired result. How to manage these resources?

It is more difficult task in daily life, which is managed by adequate & specialised Manager. Manager manages all activities as well as existing resources against a single command of VIP.

In Computer similarly all commands as well as resources like memory, printer etc. are managed byOperating System.

It also form environment under which task has to execute to achieve the desired result.

Depending upon how many users can simultaneously use the computer, it can be termed as single user operating system like MS-DOS and multi-user OS like Windows 98.

Level 4 (Software)

To provide perfect security to the VIP, it is necessary to design a language understandable to VIP & his personnel secretary to communicate with each other.

Computer, as a machine communicate with hardware in a language called machine language.

To understand the machine language it is a very difficult task for user.

To simplify this task, machine language is designed in a very simplified manner, which contain typical English word called application software language or just computer software language.

In Brief:

VIP gives command in code language to his Manager, which, in the given infrastructure is fulfilled by the expert peoples.

Computer similarly gives command to fulfill the given task, which managed by OS through software and finally fulfilled by Hardware of computer under rules and regulations pre-programmed in the BIOS stored in ROM.

Hardware Description

Hardware Level

Basic computer building blocks consist of:

1. CPU Box.

2. Monitor.

3. Keyboard.

4. Printer.

5. Mouse

6. Modem.

7.Other special Devices.

To understand the functioning of computer imagine it as a human being.

Every human being required

Oxygen to exist.

Holy book to behave like human being.

Arms, legs to execute the task.

Brain to think and store.

Other organs like eye to see, ear to hear.

Plain paper to write down result of task.

Every computer requires

Power supply to activate the computer.

Processor (CPU) to execute.

ROM to store instructions understood to computer & the basic rules of interaction with computer.

Memory (RAM) to store the result during execution of task.

Monitor to see the desired results of task.

Printer to get the hard copy of given task.

Modem to communicate with another computer.

To understand the functionality of computer accessories, we should clear the concept of input & output device.

Input devices

Data entered into computer through devices called input devices. The most commonly used input device is keyboard.

Device like mouse do not require typing for inputting information.

Keyboard & Mouse.

Once the human being wants to write he needs hand.

In a computer system this task is executed by keyboard. Mouse is a device used to point or select an option from monitor.

Output device

The devices, which provide information on readable/visible form called output device.

Monitor & printer are most commonly used output device.

Printers.

The output of computer on paper (hard copy) achieved by printer. Printer is output device.

It is just like electronic typewriter. Three printers are commonly used.

A. Dot-Matrix Printer.

B. Inkjet Printer.

C. Laser Printer.

Basic differences between these printers.

Dot matrix printer	Inkjet printer	Laser printer
Speed 249 char per sec.	5 page per min.	10 or more pages per min.
Make noises during the printing.	No Noise.	No Noise.
Inexpensive.	Expensive less than laser printer. Expensive than inkjet printer.	Expensive than inkjet printer.

To get the hardcopy of the given task human being uses pencil to write.

In computer printer gives system the hard copy of task. The speed of printer measured in line per second or inches per second.

Modems.

Human being requires tongue to communicate with community.

To communicate with computer network, we need MODEM, a device to facilitate communication

between computers as well as send/receive electronic mail (E-mail).

Let's go through each block of computer one by one:

Power supply :Human being needs oxygen to exist

Computer as a machine needs power supply block to get power called SMPS (Simple Mode Power Supply). All computers utilise DC power of 5V to 12 V.

Believe it or not desktop computer needs very less power consumption not more than a fan.

SMPS makes computer activate Every SMPS embedded with fan to expose off the heat of SMPS in air. Now days there are ATX systems where computer may be switched off without switching off the power supply button.

But it doesn't mean that once you are not attending for long time & you switch off computer in Atx mode, computer won't get power.

You must switch off main power supply button otherwise it may cause accident.

Chassis is very crucial part of computer. Like human being needs skeleton to stand straight

Computer accessories kept inside a box or mainframe called chassis, which are very specialised depending upon user 's requirement.

For example if user need two floppy disk drive or two SMPS, the mainframe will be bigger in size compare to a normal chassis.

The basic difference between computer & human being.

Human being can think. Computer can not.

Sometimes human being becomes very sentimental to given situation, while computer do not have any sentiments.

But in computer system being a sensitive machine there is no place for sentiments.

Even computer can't think it has to execute using brain of his master (human being) & after execution of the task computer has to store the task in the external/permanent memory i.e. HDD & FDD.

Human being manipulates computer but the modern progress make human being slave of computer itself.

Mother Board

It is commonly known as main board. All crucial components including the CPU (main chip) are found on the motherboard.

The details of motherboard components are given below:

CPU stands for Central Processing Unit.

CPU's importance is similar to that of Brain in the human body just like our brain accepts inputs from the outside world through our sense organs in the form of Sight, Smell, touch, taste and processes them to arrive at a particular conclusion.

The CPU in similar way, accepts input from various input devices like keyboard, mouse, modem and after processing these inputs shows the result either of the output devices like monitor, printer.

The speed of CPU in measured in Giga Hertz.

Memory is similar to the Human brain with the only difference that computer memory is of two types Read Only Memory (ROM),and Random Access Memory (RAM).

The Rom as discussed contains BIOS of the computer and is plugged on the motherboard.

ROM is an expensive memory. BIOS takes control the moment computer is switched on or reset. After computer is ON control is with OS.

RAM is used for storing the data and instructions to get the desired result on screen.

For example if you press "1" on keyboard, the digit 1 appears on the screen.

Human being got various muscles, nerves to transfer pain signal, voice signals, Optic (vision) signals etc. to brain.

Similarly the communication between CPU and memory chip is accomplished through a set of wires running between CPU, Devices & Memory inside motherboard, called buses.

If Human being wants to fly or see movie, of course he has to buy a ticket. In computer to facilitate the extra ability like listening music, communication with another computer etc .

In motherboard there are various PCI(Peripheral components Inteface) and ISA(Industrial Standard Architecture ) expansion slots to insert the adaptors of more devices to motherboard (example: adaptors of Modem, VGA(Video Graphic Adaptor) card, Sound card etc.).

This adaptor also called the daughter board.

Daughter board is an extra attachment to PC to get more facility to execute very specialized task.

For example,

if you want to listen music, you need audio player. If you want to see movie, you need a video player.

Similarly in PC, if you want to listen music or see movie you need daughter boards (sound card, vedio adaptor etc.), which create an extra facility on your PC to work as an audio or video player (CD player).

Daughter Board has extra features capable of executing specialized task.

In a normal Human life, memory is unlimited. But in computer memory is limited and it needs expansion depending upon the task.

This problem is solved in motherboard through Memory module sockets to increase memory of computer; one can insert more memory chips and increases he memory.

There are Floppy disk drive connectors and IDE device connectors to connect Hard Disk Drive, Floppy Disk Drive, Compact Disk Drive. Every motherboard can have 4 HDD & 2 FDD.

There are telephony connectors, audio connectors.

There are serial COM1, COM2 (COM stands for communication) and parallel port connectors.

The each element of computer is designed to operate in perfect synchronization.

To do this they need a timekeeper, called system clock. In motherboard, 3 V lithium battery to supply power backup to the system clock during system powered -off.

Monitor.

Human being can see by eyes, but in computer system we need a crucial part called monitor to display the task executed by computer.

Storage System

External storage devices:

The storage capacity of Personnel Computers is limited, it presents a limitation on the volume of data to be stored.

However , this is not only drawback. Once the Personnel Computer is switched off or in case of power failure, all data stored in internal storage (RAM) is lost.

This means every time, you want to work, you would have to input data required for processing.

To permanent store data, external storage media can be used with Personnel Computer also called as secondary storage device.

There are 3 type of devices used with modern Personnel Computer.

A. Floppy Disk

B. Hard Disk

C. Compact Disk

CPU does not perform task of writing and reading the data it is done by a electro -

mechanical device, where Floppy disk or Compact disk to be insert called Floppy Disk Drive or CD-Rom Drive respectively.

In case of hard disk it named as Hard disk drive. Since these devices perform writing as well as reading, so they called input-output devices.

Basic differences between these devices.

Flopy Disk	Compact Disk	Hard Disk
Floppy Disk is Suitable for moving data from one computer to another.	Compact Disk is also Suitable for moving data from one computer to another.	Hard Disk is not Suitable for moving data from one computer to another.
Not Reliable Can be damaged by heat, dust and accidental twist.	Reliable against dust heat etc.	Prone to damage, since it is within Personnel Computer.
Floppy disk: can store 1.44 MB data.	Compact Disk: Capacity of 660 MB.	Hard Disk: Capacity of 80GB or above.
Floppy disk: Contain Write Protection notch to prevent writing.	Compact disk: Required CD writer to record the information on it.	Hard Disk: Perform Read/Write operation.

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Computer Hardware - Hardware Introduction, Hardware Description

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