IGCSE

Cambridge ICT
0417

Types and Components of Computer Systems

By: Mr. Salaheldin Edam

Diversity International School

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 ICT
Information and Communication Technology
Tx  Media ( Medium, Channel)  Rx

Text Wired wireless Text

Voice Voice

Video Video

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 Input  Processing Output

keyboard  Monitors
Mouse Speakers
Microphone  Printers
Camera
Central Processing
Scanners Unit (CPU)

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Chapter 1: Types and Components of Computer Systems
Computer: a device that follows a set of
instructions to carry out a series of arithmetical
and logical operations

There are two main parts of any computer

system: the hardware, and the
software.

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 Hardware
 Computer hardware consists of the physical parts of a
computer system, the parts you can touch. These include:
 The case
 Components inside the case, such as:
 central processing unit (or CPU)
 motherboard
 graphics card
 sound card
 network interface card (NIC)
 internal memory
 random-access memory (RAM)
 read-only memory (ROM) The case
 internal and external storage devices :
 hard disk drives
 solid state drives
 optical drives.
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 Cont. …
Input and output devices
keyboard
mouse
monitor
speakers
printer
camera

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1.1 Hardware and Software
Define hardware, giving examples

What is Hardware?
Hardware is the physical parts of the computer system – the parts that you can touch and
see.

A motherboard, a CPU, a keyboard and a monitor are all items of hardware.

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1.1 Hardware and Software
What is Hardware?

Hardware is the physical parts of the computer system – the parts that you can touch and
see.

A motherboard, a CPU, a keyboard and a monitor are all items of hardware.

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 Software
 System software: system software
provides the services that the computer
requires to operate.
 This may be classified as the operating
system and utility software
System software includes the following:
compilers
linkers
device drivers
operating system
utilities.
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 Cont. …
Applications software: programs
that carry out operations for specific
applications, such as word
processing, spreadsheets or
presentations.
Applications software cannot run on
its own without system software
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 Cont. …
 Operating system (OS): the operating system is
a collection of programs to control and manage all
of the software and hardware of the computer
system

Utility software (utilities): part of the

system software that can analyse, configure,
optimize and maintain a computer to keep it
working as well as possible

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1.1 Hardware and Software
Define software, giving examples

What is Software?

Software is a collection of instructions that can be ‘run’ on a computer. These instructions

tell the computer what to do.

Software is not a physical thing (but it can of course be stored on a physical medium such as
a CD-ROM), it is just a bunch of codes.

Examples of Operating Systems (system software) - Windows 8 or Mac OS X

Examples of Applications Software - Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop

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1.1 Hardware and Software
Define software, giving examples

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1.1 Hardware and Software
Software Drivers

Hardware drivers are a piece of software that enable

the hardware to be installed and run properly on a
computer

If the drivers are not installed the hardware will fail to

run

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1.1 Hardware and Software
The Difference Between Hardware and Software

Computer hardware is the physical components that make up the computer system.
Hardware is useless without software to run on it.

Software is instructions that tell computer hardware what to do. Software is useless unless
there is hardware to run it on.

For a computer system to be useful it has to consist of both hardware and software.
Imaging:

An iPhone without IOS

A PC without Windows
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1.1 Hardware and Software
Main Computer Components

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The CPU is the 'brain' of the computer. It is the device that carries out
software instructions.

Motherboard
A motherboard is a printed circuit board found in many modern
computer which holds many of the crucial components of the system.
 circuit board: a thin rigid board containing thin lines of
metals on the surface to create
Memory electric circuits

Any data or instructions that are to be processed by the CPU must

be placed into main memory.

Hard drive
A hard disk drive is a hardware device that's used to store
information like software and files.
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1.1 Hardware and Software
Main Computer Components

Graphics Card
A graphics card is a device that attaches to the motherboard to
enable the computer to process and display graphics.

CD/DVD Drive
An optical disc drive that reads and writes all common CD and
DVD formats.

Power Supply
The component that supplies power to a computer.

Sound Card
A sound card is a device that attaches to the motherboard to
enable the computer to input, process, and deliver sound
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 Analogue and digital data
The CPU or processor, which
processes all of the data and
instructions, contains billions of
transistors that are connected
together to form circuits.

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 Cont. …
 Transistors act as switches – like light switches.
 They are either on when they transmit
electricity, or they are off when they do not.
 There is no in-between where different
amounts of electricity are transmitted (as in a
dimmer switch, where there are an infinite
number of states between fully off and fully on).
 A system like this with separate states is
said to be digital.
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 Cont. …
 A system like the dimmer switch, where there is a
continuous range between two values, is said to
be analogue
 As there are only two states in the transistors
of the CPU, they are represented by the digits of
the binary number system, 1 (for on) and 0 (for
off).
 All of the data and program instructions
processed by a computer are streams of billions
of 1s and 0s.
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Analogue to digital conversion
 When we use computers, data has to be
converted between analogue and digital
forms
 This will
 be done by using Sampling
 The more samples taken per second, the
more accurately the sound will be
represented.
 Each sample has to be coded as a series of 1s and 0s and
the more that are used, the more detail can be recorded.
The digital recordings can then be edited and processed
by a computer
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 Cont. …
 The graphs in Figure 1.4 show the
continuous changes in the air pressure

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 Cont. …

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 Cont. …

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 Digital-to-analogue conversion

In order for the digital sound to be

listened to it must be converted back
into analogue signals so it can be output
through speakers or headphones.
 The technology used to do this is a
digital-to-analogue converter (DAC)

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 Cont. …
Sound cards all contain DACs to convert
the digital signal back into analogue ones.
DACs take a binary number of the
digital form of audio and turns it into an
analogue voltage or current that can
create a wave of audio that represents the
digital signal

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 Cont. …
Similarly, DACs are required when
computers are controlling devices
such as robots through the use of
actuators such as motors

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