TOPIC 3:

COMPUTER HARDWARE
 PRE-COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
➢ Counting on fingers and toes
➢ Stone or bead abacus
▪ Calculate comes from calculus, the Latin word
for small stone
➢ 1642: first mechanical adding machine
▪ Invented by Blaise Pascal— wheels moved
counters
▪ Modified in 1674 by Von Leibnitz
➢ Age of industrialization
▪ Mechanical loom used punch
cards. 2
 EARLY COMPUTING
➢ 19th Century
▪ Charles Babbage proposed the Analytical
Engine, which could calculate, store values
in memory, perform logical comparisons
▪ Never built due to of lack of electronics
➢ 1880s
▪ Hollerith’s punched cards used to record
census data using On/Off patterns
▪ The holes turned sensors On or Off when
run through tabulating machine
▪ This company became the foundation for
IBM 3
 ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS
➢ 1946 - First Generation Computer
▪ ENIAC
▪ Programmable
▪ 5000 calculations per second
▪ Used vacuum tubes
▪ Drawbacks were size and processing ability
➢ 1950s
▪ ENIAC replaced by UNIVAC 1, then IBM
704
▪ Calculations jumped to 100,000 per second 4
ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS

5
 WAVES OF COMPUTING
➢ Late 1950s - Second Generation
▪ Transistors replaced vacuum tubes
▪ 200,000 to 250,000 calculations per second
➢ Mid-1960s - Third Generation
▪ Integrated circuitry and miniaturization
➢ 1971 - Fourth Generation
▪ Further miniaturization, multiprogramming,
virtual storage
➢ 1980s - Fifth Generation
▪ Millions of calculations per second 6
 MICROCOMPUTERS
➢ 1975
▪ ALTAIR, programmed by flicking switches
➢ 1977
▪ Commodore & Radio Shack produce PCs
➢ 1979
▪ Apple computer, the fastest selling PC thus
far
➢ 1982
▪ IBM introduced the PC, which changed the
market 7
8
CATEGORIES OF COMPUTER
SYSTEMS

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MICROCOMPUTER SYSTEMS

Called a personal computer or PC

Computing power now exceeds that of the
mainframes of previous generations
Relatively inexpensive

Networked professional workstations

used by businesses
Hand-held, notebook, laptop, tablet,
portable, desktop, and floor-standing

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 MICROCOMPUTER USES

Workstations Network Servers

Supports heavy More powerful than

mathematical workstations
computer and
Coordinates
graphics display
telecommunications
demands
and resource sharing
CAD, investment,
Supports small
and portfolio analysis
networks and Internet
or intranet websites

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 MIDRANGE SYSTEMS
➢ High-end network servers that handle large-
scale processing of business applications
▪ Not as powerful as mainframes
▪ Less expensive to buy, operate, maintain
➢ Often used to manage
▪ Large Internet websites, intranets, extranets
▪ Integrated, enterprise-wide applications
▪ First became popular as minicomputers
➢ Used as front-end servers
▪ Assists mainframes with telecommunications
and networks 12
MIDRANGE SYSTEMS

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 MAINFRAME COMPUTER
SYSTEMS
➢ Large, fast, powerful computer systems
▪ Large primary storage capacity
▪ High transaction processing
▪ Handles complex computations
➢ Widely used as superservers for:
▪ Large client/server networks
▪ High-volume Internet websites
➢ Becoming a popular computing platform for:
▪ Data mining, warehousing, electronic
commerce applications 14
MAINFRAME COMPUTER
SYSTEMS

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 SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEMS
➢ Extremely powerful systems designed for…
▪ Scientific, engineering, and business
applications
▪ Massive numeric computations
➢ Markets include…
▪ Government research agencies
▪ Large universities
▪ Major corporations
➢ Uses parallel processing
▪ Billions to trillions of operations per second
(gigaflops and teraflops) 16
SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEMS

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THE NEXT WAVE OF COMPUTING

Harnessing the infinite amount of unused

computing power

Desktops and laptops within an organization

Distributed or grid computing

Parallel computing that relies on complete

computers connected to a network

Harnesses the unused CPU power in all connected

computers, even between organizations

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 COMPUTER SYSTEM CONCEPT

Input Control
System of
hardware devices
organized by
function
Processing Storage

Output

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COMPUTER SYSTEM CONCEPT

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 COMPUTER PROCESSING
SPEEDS
➢ Early computers
▪ Milliseconds (thousandths of a second)
▪ Microseconds (millionths of a second)
➢ Current computers
▪ Nanoseconds (billionth of a second)
▪ Picoseconds (trillionth of a second)
➢ Program instruction processing speeds
▪ Megahertz (millions of cycles per second)
▪ Gigahertz (billions of cycles per second)
▪ Commonly called “clock speed” 21
 PERIPHERALS
Generic name for all input, output,
Peripheral
and secondary storage devices

Parts of the computer system (not

the CPU)

All online devices

Separate from the CPU, but

Online Devices electronically connected to (and
controlled by) it

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PERIPHERALS ADVICE

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 INPUT TECHNOLOGIES
➢ Common input devices
▪ Keyboard
▪ Graphical User
Interface (GUI)
▪ Electronic mouse
and trackball
▪ Pointing stick
▪ Touchpad
▪ Touchscreen

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 SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEMS
➢ Speech may be the future of data entry
▪ Easiest, most natural means of human
communication
➢ Recognizing speech patterns
▪ Discrete, requires pauses between each
word
▪ Continuous speech recognition software
(CSR) recognizes continuous,
conversationally paced speech

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 OPTICAL SCANNING

➢ Devices read text or graphics and convert

them into digital computer input
▪ Enables direct entry of data from source
documents
➢ Document management library system
▪ Scans documents, then organizes and stores
them for easy reference or retrieval 26
 OPTICAL SCANNING
Scanners

Larger, more expensive

Compact desktop models
flatbed scanners are
are popular for low
faster, offer high-resolution
cost and ease of use
color scanning

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

Used to read merchandise

Software that reads
tags, sort mail, score tests,
characters and codes
read bar codes

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OTHER INPUT TECHNOLOGIES

Magnetic Stripe

Smart Cards

Digital Cameras

Magnetic Ink Character

Recognition (MICR)

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 OUTPUT TECHNOLOGIES
Voice Response Increasingly found along with
video displays in business
applications

Video Displays Cathode-ray tube (CRT)

Liquid crystal display (LCD)

Plasma displays
(TVs, flat-panel monitors)

Printed Output Inkjet , laser, 3D

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 COMPUTER STORAGE
FUNDAMENTALS
Uses two-state On (1) or Off (2)
(binary) data
representation Data processed & stored in computer
systems through On/Off signals

Smallest element of data

Bit
Either zero or one

Group of eight bits, which operate

as a single unit
Byte
Represents one character or number

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REPRESENTING CHARACTERS IN
BYTES

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USING BINARY CODE TO
CALCULATE

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CONVERTING DECIMAL NUMBER TO
BINARY NUMBER

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 STORAGE CAPACITY
MEASUREMENT

Kilobyte (KB) One thousand bytes

Megabyte (MB) One million bytes

Gigabyte (GB) One billion bytes

Terabyte (TB) One trillion bytes

Petabyte (PB) One quadrillion bytes

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 SEMICONDUCTOR MEMORY

➢ Microelectronic semiconductor memory chips

are used for primary storage
▪ Advantages: small size, fast, shock and
temperature resistance
▪ Disadvantages: volatility; must have
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uninterrupted electric power or loses memory
 TYPES OF SEMICONDUCTOR
MEMORY
Random Access Read-Only Memory
Memory (RAM) (ROM)

1. Most widely used 1. Permanent storage

primary storage 2. Can be read, but not
medium overwritten
2. Volatile memory 3. Frequently used
3. Read/write memory programs burnt into
chips during
manufacturing
4. Called firmware

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 MAGNETIC DISKS

Hard Disk Drives & Floppy Disks (diskettes)

➢ Used for secondary storage

▪ Fast access and high capacity
▪ Reasonable cost
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 MAGNETIC TAPE

➢ Secondary storage
▪ Tape reels, cassettes, and cartridges
▪ Used in robotic, automated drive assemblies
▪ Archival and backup storage
▪ Lower-cost storage solution
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 RADIO FREQUENCY
IDENTIFICATION (RFID)
➢ One of the newest, fastest growing storage
technologies
▪ System for tagging and identifying mobile
objects
▪ Used with store merchandise, postal
packages, casino chips, pets
▪ Special reader allows objects to be tracked
as they move from place to place
▪ Chips half the size of a grain of sand
➢ Passive chips derive power from reader
signal; active chips are self-powered 39
RFID

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 RFID VERSUS BAR CODING

Scans from greater distance

RFID Can store data

More information can be tracked

Invisible nature of the system

Privacy
Concerns Capacity to transmit fairly sophisticated
messages

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