Lesson 2 Summary Computing Fundamentals Module — Computer Hardware

Lesson 2 Summary

Just about all computers perform the same general options: input, process, output, and storage.

Input, output, and processing devices grouped together represent a computer system.
The motherboard is the center of all processing.

The motherboard contains the CPU, memory, and basic controllers for the system.

The motherboard also contains peripheral ports and expansion slots.

The central processing unit is the brains of the computer.

The computer is given instructions through computer programs.

The CPU has two main sections—the arithmetic logic unit and the control unit.

All calculations and comparisons take place in the ALU.

The control unit coordinates the CPU activities.

The ASCII code is a standard code used to represent the alphabet, numbers, symbols, and punctuation marks.

A controller is used to control the transfer of data between the computer and peripheral devices.

The motherboard contains different types of memory.

Random access memory (RAM) is volatile and is used to store instructions, data, and information temporarily.

The machine cycle is made up of the instruction cycle and the execution cycle.

Read-only memory (ROM) is nonvolatile and is used to store permanent instructions needed for computer operations.

Input devices enable you to input data and commands into the computer. The most common input devices are the keyboard and mouse.

The mouse is a pointing device used to input data that has evolved from a mechanical device connected to the computer by a cable to more flexible devices such as a wireless mouse, a thumb mouse, or the mouse panel on a notebook computer.

Other types of input devices include joysticks, trackballs, graphic tablets, touch display screens, voice recognition devices, scanners, digital cameras, electronic sensors, and remote controls.

Output devices allow you to see and use the results of processing data. The most common output devices are the monitor and printer.

Monitors can be monochromatic or full color and are available in a range of sizes with different screen resolution.

Printers are used to produce a paper or hard copy of the processed result.

Printers are classified as either impact (dot matrix) or nonimpact (laser and inkjet).

Other types of output devices include plotters, projectors, robotic controls, and voice synthesizers.

To maintain a permanent copy of data, you must store it on some type of storage medium. These may include floppy diskettes, hard disk drives, CDs or DVDs, magnetic tape cartridges, network drives, virtual storage, and flash memory cards.