Transcript Hardware and software presentation

Hardware & Software
What is a computer?
A computer is an electronic machine operating under
the control of instructions stored in its main memory
that can accept data and manipulate data according
to specific rules, produce results and store the results
for future use.
What is a computer?
Data is the raw input to a computer. The computer
manipulates the data to add value to it.
Manipulation can include: sorting, summarizing,
calculations, reproducing, categorizing, etc. … to
produce information for decision making.
It also includes the manipulation of images and
sound for record keeping, analysis and
entertainment.
What is a computer?
To understand how computers use data, it is first
important to understand the basic components of a
computer, how these components interact and how
they store and manipulate data.
What is a computer?
Group Task (groups of 3 or 4)
What is a computer?
A computer requires both hardware and software to
function.
Hardware
Physical, tangible parts of a computer
Keyboard, monitor, wires, chips
Software
Programs and data
A program is a series of instructions
What is hardware?
Hardware are all the components and things you can
physically touch.
The components that allow us to interact with the
computer are things such as:
Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
The components that allow a computer to work as a
computer are inside the box
What is hardware?
The two most important components are:
Main memory (RAM) – primary storage area for
programs and data that are in active use
Central processing unit – chip that executes program
commands
What is hardware?
The hard disk and external memory (USB, CD,
external HDD) are secondary memory.
Secondary memory devices provide long term
storage.
Information is moved between main memory and
secondary memory as needed.
What is hardware?
The keyboard is the standard method of input to the
computer and the monitor is the standard method of
output – both peripherals allow user interaction with
the computer.
What is hardware?
The CPU is also known as a microprocessor. It
continuously follows the ‘fetch-decode-execute’
cycle of processing instructions.
Fetch: Retrieves an instructions from main memory
Decode: Determine what the instruction is
Execute: Carries out the instruction
What is software?
the programs used to direct the operation of a
computer, as well as documentation giving
instructions on how to use them.
Dictionary.com
Two main categories of software:
System Software
Application Software
System Software
System software is software that controls the
operations of the computer and its devices.
The Operating System contains the instructions that
co-ordinate all the activities among computer
hardware devices
The Operating System is what allows us to use the
computer
System Software
Examples of Operating Systems:
Windows XP, Vista, 7
Mac OS X
Linux
What operating system is on the school computers?
What operating system do you use at home?
Application Software
Application software is any program that performs a
specific task for users.
This can be from a variety of tasks:
Productivity tools
Graphics and Multimedia
Home/ Personal/ Educational
Communications
Application Software
Productivity tools are software programs that assist
people in becoming more effective and efficient
while performing daily activities.
A software Suite is a collection of individual
applications sold as a single package
Microsoft Office
Adobe Creative Suite 3
Application Software
The software we will be using may be classed as a
productivity tool, or perhaps an educational tool
We will be using eclipse to code and run our java
applets
How to make it work?
The hardware gives us all the components required
to make a computer, the software allows us to
interact with the computer..but what is needed for it
all to work?
How to make it work?
A computer can only ‘think’ by using electrical impulses.
Electricity is only ever on or off. The main memory of the
computer stores and manipulates data as one’s and zero’s
which are actually just representative of the on or off
state of the electrical impulses.
To understand how a computer works we need to
understand how the one’s and zero’s are used to
represent information and how the computer manipulates
them.
The use of one’s and zero’s is called binary.