FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER

HOW COMPUTERS WORK

WHAT MAKES A COMPUTER,

A COMPUTER?
COMPUTER
It is an electronic device that manipulates
information, or data. It has the ability to store,
retrieve, and process data.
THESE INVENTIONS HELP US WITH
MANUAL WORK
CAN A MACHINE HELP WITH
THINKING WORK?
 INPUT

THE 4 THINGS
STORAGE COMMON TO ALL
COMPUTERS
PROCESSING

OUTPUT
Hardware and Software
Concept: The physical devices that a computer is made of are referred to as the computer’s
hardware. The programs that run on a computer are referred to as software.

A program is a set of instructions for a computer to follow.

Hardware
The term hardware refers to all of the physical devices, or components, that a computer
is made of. A typical computer system consists of the following major components:
• The central processing unit (CPU)
• Main memory
• Secondary storage devices
• Input devices
• Output devices
Typical components of a computer system
INPUT
Input Devices
Input is any data the computer collects from people and from other devices. The

component that collects the data and sends it to the computer is called an input device.
TYPES OF INPUT
 STORAGE
&
PROCESSING
STORAGE
Main Memory
You can think of main memory as the computer’s work area. This is where the computer stores a

program while the program is running, as well as the data that the program is working with.

Main memory is commonly known as random-access memory, or RAM. It is called this because the

CPU is able to quickly access data stored at any random location in RAM.

RAM is usually a volatile type of memory that is used only for temporary storage while program is

running. When the computer is turned off, the contents of RAM are erased.
Inside your computer, RAM is stored in chips.
Secondary Storage Devices
Secondary storage is a non-volatile type of memory that can hold data for long periods of time,

even when there is no power to the computer. Programs are normally stored in secondary memory

and loaded into main memory as needed.

There are three main types of secondary storage in a computer system:

• solid state storage devices, such as USB memory sticks

• optical storage devices, such as CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs

• magnetic storage devices, such as hard disk drives

 PROCESSING

INPUT OUTPUT

STORAGE
The CPU
When a computer is performing the tasks that a program tells it to do, we say that the computer is

running or executing the program. The processor (also known as the central processing unit, or

CPU) is the “brain” of the computer and is the part of a computer that actually runs programs.
In the earliest computer, CPUs were huge devices made of electrical and mechanical components
such as vacuum tubes and switches.

The ENIAC, is considered to be the world’s first programmable electronic computer which was
primarily one big CPU, was 8 feet tall, 100 feet long, and weighed 30 tons.
Today, CPUs are small chips known as microprocessors. In addition to being much smaller than old
electromechanical CPUs in early computers, microprocessors are also much more powerful.
Software
Everything that a computer does, from the time you turn the power switch on until you shut the

system down, is under the control of software. There are two general categories of software:

system software and application software.

System Software
The programs that control and manage the basic operations of a computer are generally referred

to as system software. System software typically includes the following types of programs:

• Operating System

• Utility Programs

• Software Development Tools

Operating System
An operating system is the most fundamental set of programs on a computer.

• The operating system controls the internal operations of the computer’s hardware,

• Manages all of the devices connected to the computer

• Allows data to be saved to and retrieved from storage devices

• Allows other programs to run on the computer.

Example: Windows, Linux, Mac for desktops and laptops

Utility Programs
A utility program performs a specialized task that enhances the computer’s operation or

safeguards data. Example of utility programs are virus scanners, file compression programs,

and data backup programs.

Software Development Tools

Software development tools are the programs that programmers use to create, modify, and test

software. Assemblers, compilers and interpreters are examples of programs that fall into this

category.
Application Software
Programs that make a computer useful for everyday tasks are known application software. These

are the programs that people normally spend most of their time running on their computers.

Examples: Microsoft Word, Web browser (Google Chrome, Opera…), etc.

 TEXT OUTPUT GAMES
Aa

PHOTOS VR

ROBOTS
VIDEOS
How Computers Store Data
Concept: All data that is stored in a computer is converted to sequences of 0s and 1s.

A computer’s memory is divided into tiny storage locations known as bytes. One byte is
only enough memory to store a letter of the alphabet or a small number.

1 byte = 8 bits

Each byte is divided into eight smaller storage locations known as bits. The term bit
stands for binary digit.

Computer scientist think of a byte of memory: as a collection of switches that are each
flipped to either the on or off position.
When a piece of data is stored in a byte, the computer sets the eight bits to an on/off
pattern that represents the data.
Storing Numbers
A bit can be used in a very limited way to represent numbers. Depending on whether the bit is

turned on or off, it can represent one of two different values. In computer systems, a bit that is

turned off represents the number 0 and a bit that is turned on represents the number 1.
THE BINARY NUMBER
SYSTEM
DECIMAL SYSTEM
0 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9

BINARY
0 1
Example of a number that is written in binary: 10011101

The position of each digit in a binary number has a value assigned to it. Starting with the

rightmost digit and moving left, the position values are 20, 21, 22,23, and so forth.
To determine the value of a binary number you simply add up the position values of all the 1s.

In the binary number 10011101, the position values of the 1s are 1,4,8,16, and 128. And the

sum of all these position values is 157.

When all bits in a byte are set to 0 (turned off), then the value of the byte is 0. When all of the bits

in a byte are set to 1 (turned on), then the byte holds the largest value that can be stored in it.

The largest value that can be stored in a byte is 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128 = 255. This

limit exists because there are only eight bits in a byte.

What if you need to store a number larger than 255?

The answer is simple: use more than one byte. For example, suppose we put two bytes together. That

gives us 16 bits. The position values of those 16 bits would be 20,21,22,23, and so forth, up to 215.
The maximum value that can be stored in two bytes is 65,535. If you need to store a

number larger than this, then more bytes are necessary.

Storing Characters
Any piece of data that is stored in a computer’s memory must be stored as a binary number. That

includes characters, such as letters and punctuation marks. When a character is stored in memory, it

is first converted to a numeric code. The numeric code is then stored in memory as a binary number.
Historically, the most important of these coding schemes is ASCII, which stands for the

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII is a set of 128 numeric codes

that represent the English letters, various punctuation marks, and other characters.
Advanced Number Storage
Binary numbering system can be used to represent only integer numbers, beginning with 0. Negative

numbers and real numbers (such as 3.14159) cannot be represented using the simple binary

numbering technique.

Computers are able to store negative numbers and real numbers in memory, but to do so they use

encoding schemes along with the binary numbering system. Negative numbers are encoded using a

technique known as two’s complement, and real numbers are encoded in floating-point notation.

These techniques are used to convert negative numbers and real numbers to binary format.
Other Types of Data
Computers are often referred to as digital devices. The term digital can be used to describe anything

that uses binary numbers. Digital data is data that is stored in binary, and a digital device is any

device that works with binary data.

For example, consider the pictures that you take with your digital camera. These images are

composed of tiny dots of color known as pixels. (The term pixel stands for pixel element).
As shown in the figure above, each pixel in an image is converted to a numeric code

that represents the pixel’s color. The numeric code is stored in memory as a binary

number.
ALL THESE CAN BE REPRESENTED WITH NUMBERS
HOW COMPUTERS WORK
THANK YOU