Computer Overview-Introduction [The Components of a Computer]

The Components of a Computer

A computer contains many electric, electronic, and mechanical components known as hardware. These components include:

Input devices

Output devices

System unit

Storage devices

Communications devices.

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Input Devices

• An input device is any hardware component that allows you to enter data and instructions into a computer.
• Five widely used input devices are the keyboard, mouse, microphone, scanner, and Webcam.
• A computer keyboard contains keys you press to enter data into the computer.
• A mouse is a small handheld device. With the mouse, you control movement of a small symbol on the screen, called the pointer, and you make selections from the screen.
• A microphone allows a user to speak into the computer.
• A scanner convert’s printed material (such as text and pictures) into a form the computer can use.
• A Web cam is a digital video camera that allows users to create movies or take pictures and store them on the computer instead of on tape or film.

 

Output Devices

• An output device is any hardware component that conveys information to one or more people.
• Three commonly used output devices are a printer, a monitor, and speakers (See Figure).
• A printer produces text and graphics on a physical medium such as paper.
• A monitor displays text, graphics, and videos on a screen. Speakers allow you to hear music, voice, and other audio (sounds).

System Unit

The system unit is a case that contains electronic components of the computer that are used to process data (Figure on the previous page). The circuitry of the system unit usually is part of or is connected to a circuit board called the motherboard.

Two main components on the motherboard are the processor and memory. The processor, also called the CPU (central processing unit), is the electronic component that interprets and carries out the basic instructions that operate the computer. Memory consists of electronic components that store instructions waiting to be executed and data needed by those instructions. Most memory keeps data and instructions temporarily, which means its contents are erased when the computer is shut off.

 

Storage Devices

Storage holds data, instructions, and information for future use. For example, computers can store hundreds or millions of customer names and addresses.

Storage holds these items permanently.

A computer keeps data, instructions, and information on storage media.

Examples of storage media are USB flash drives, hard disks, optical discs, and memory cards.

A storage device records (writes) and/or retrieves (reads) items to and from storage media.

Storage devices often function as a source of input because they transfer items from storage to memory.

A USB flash drive is a portable storage device that is small and lightweight enough to be transported on a keychain or in a pocket (Figure 1.2).

The average USB flash drive can hold about 4 billion characters.

A hard disk provides much greater storage capacity than a USB flash drive.

The average hard disk can hold more than 320 billion characters.

Hard disks are enclosed in an airtight, sealed case. Although some are portable, most are housed inside the system unit (Figure 1.3).

Portable hard disks are either external or removable.

An external hard disk is a separate, freestanding unit, whereas you insert and remove a removable hard disk from the computer or a device connected to the computer.

An optical disc is a flat, round, portable metal disc with a plastic coating.

CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs are three types of optical discs.

A CD can hold from 650 million to 1 billion characters.

Some DVDs can store two full-length movies or 17 billion characters (Figure 1.4).

Blu-ray Discs can store about 46 hours of standard video, or 100 billion characters.

Some mobile devices, such as digital cameras, use memory cards as the storage media.

You can use a card reader/writer (Figure 1.2) to transfer stored items, such as digital photos, from the memory card to a computer or printer.

 

Communications Devices

A communications device is a hardware component that enables a computer to send (transmit) and receive data, instructions, and information to and from one or more computers or mobile devices.

A widely used communications device is a modem (Figure 1.2).

Communications occur over cables, telephone lines, cellular radio networks, satellites, and other transmission media.

Some transmission media, such as satellites and cellular radio networks, are wireless, which means they have no physical lines or wires.

Next: Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Computers

Computer Overview-Introduction [ Input Process Output cycle (IPO) ]

Input Process Output cycle (IPO)

Computers process data (input) into information (output). Computers carry out processes using instructions, which are the steps that tell the computer how to perform a particular task. A collection of related instructions organized for a common purpose is referred to as software. A computer often holds data, information, and instructions in storage for future use. Some people refer to the series of input, process, output, and storage activities as the information processing cycle. Recently, communications also has become an essential element of the information processing cycle.

Read Next: The Components of a Computer

Computer Overview-Introduction 01

Introduction

Nowadays, computers are an integral part of our lives. They are used for the reservation of tickets for airplanes and railways, payment of telephone and electricity bills, deposit and withdrawal of money from banks, processing of business data, forecasting of weather conditions, diagnosis of diseases, searching for information on the Internet, etc. Computers are also used extensively in schools, universities, organizations, music industry, movie industry, scientific research, law firms, fashion industry, etc.

Definition

• The term computer is derived from the word compute.
• The word compute means to calculate.
• A computer is an electronic machine that accepts data from the user, processes the data by performing calculations and operations on it, and generates the desired output results.
• Computer performs both simple and complex operations, with speed and accuracy.

 

Here we discusses the history and evolution of computer, the concept of input-process-output and the characteristics of computer. Also discusses the classification of digital computers based on their size and type, and the application of computer in different domain areas.

Next – Data and Information

Install Windows XP,7,VISTA In Just 10 minutes

As We all know that During Formatting a Computer After the File Copying is Completed then windows Require 39 Minutes Time…But What Extreme In It…. Yes We can Bypass this faking Time …. How TO DO IT??? So read On..
I have Included Snaps Shots That will help you.

[ INSTALLING WIN XP IN 10 MINUTES! ]
STEP 1 : After the Copy Part is Over … System is Rebooted as we all know In general Formatting Procedure…
Now After Reboot The Below Image Will Appear….

STEP 2: Now As This Image APPEARS You Have to Press "Shift + F10 " . This Will Open The command Prompt… Now type taskmgr in it. This will open the Task manager .

 

STEP 3 : After The task Manager Opens Goto Processes … And Find "Setup.exe" process and Right CLICK on It…. and set the Priority to Highest….

STEP 4: Now Just Watch the Set It will take around 9 minutes and 2 minutes for Tolerance(depends System to system)….

That’s the Overall Tutorial…Hope You all Have LIKED IT… You Can Use this method in Both Windows 7 And Vista

So When you Format your PC Next Time It will Really Save Your TIME i.e around 20 to 25 minutes….Enjoy

[UPDATED] ISP’s in India blocking torrent and other websites in India after Delhi High Court Ordered

472 websites, including Google Docs, Google Video and Google’s URL shortener goo.gl, have been blocked in India, as per order from the Delhi High Court ,by Justice V. Kameswar Rao of the Delhi High Court, after a complaint by the Sony owned media company which is broadcasting the FIFA World Cup live in India on its Sony Six channels.

However some users through BSNL are able to work around this block by changing the DNS address to OpenDNS or GoogleDNS

Blocking access to Google Docs is bonkers. It seems like the list of websites that were to be blocked was overlooked. It’s rather surprising that the ISPs have blocked Google Docs instead of Google Drive. As the latter, not the former could be used to store video files. Perhaps the old fellows are not aware that Google merged the Docs and its cloud service, and re-branded the whole as Google Drive a few months ago.

A few points sites that blocked:

1. Google Docs and Google Video: docs.google.com and googlevideo.com
2. URL shorteners: goo.gl and adf.ly.
3. File sharing sites: Multiupload.nl, uppit.com, crocko.com (earlier known as easyshare), solidfiles.com, bayfiles.net, tusfiles, bitshare.com, rapidshare.com, sendspace.com, mightyupload.com, uploaded.net, freakshare.com
4. Upload website: aggregator embedupload.com, ul.to,
5. File storage sites: Mega.co.nz, putlocker.com, filemonkey.in, uploadsat.com,
6. Telugu content download sites: telugump3.biz, telugustar.net, telugumasthi.wapka.me, telugustar.net, myteluguwap.net, teluguworld.asia
7. Services for emailing large fies: anysend.com
9. Hindi content site: foncity.in, 3gparena.in, among others.
10. Torrent sites: Including thepiratebay.org, thepiratebay.se, torrentz.is, torrentfunk.com, torrents.net, limetorrents.com, torrenthound.com

Update 1 :

Delhi High Court has given a order for blocking of over 450 sites based on the case filed by Multi Screen Media (Sony TV) in regards to illegal file hosting of videos and clips related to World Cup Football matches for which MSM have sole rights. Check out the actual court order here.

It is interesting to note that court order contains instructions to ISP for blocking sites like Docs.google.com, Google url shortner and 472 such sites. We checked quite a few sites that have been listed and while some are still accessible, some of them have already been blocked.

In our view this is absolutely ridiculous that Court can give such blanket instructions to block these sites. We fail to understand that how can anyone give order to block sites like Google Docs, which is legitimately used by millions for their daily work. While Google docs is still accessible, there are so many legitimate sites that are getting blocked due to this reason.

In all probability, we hope that unblock orders should come soon enough…

Update 2:

According to Medianama, who have got updated court order, the list has been culled from initial 472 sites to 219. The Google websites have been removed from the list but still there are number of torrent and file hosting sites still in the list.