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post office. When you walk into the post office, you see many post office
(P.O.) boxes, each with a number to differentiate one box from the other.
The P.O. box number is the address of the box, the contents of the box
mail represents the data. In the computer, the address bus uses ones and
zeros that represent the address or P.O. box of the computer component.
Each component sends or receives data only when its address is posted on the
address bus. When the computer component is addressed, the component will
look at the data bus and either reads the ones and zeros from the data bus or
writes ones and zeros to the data bus. Each component has a read/write
control bit which indicates if we are going to read or write data to the data
bus. The most complex computer works from this basic simple principle.
Lets examine the binary system. Recall that computers can only count from
zero to one using the binary number system. Using the decimal number
system or base ten, humans use the digits (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10).
When we learn at an early age to count to nine, and we run out of digits, we
add one to the 10s column and continue. In the binary base 2 system we
only have digits (0 and 1). When we get to one, we run out of digits and add
one to the next column and continue. It turns out that we can count in any
number base using this simple mathematical theory. We will look at two other
number systems, the first is called octal base 8 with digits (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
and hexadecimal sometimes called hex with digits
(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F). The hexadecimal number system is a little
different. Since we run out of numerical digits at nine, we have to borrow the
letters A, B, C, D, E, and F from the alphabet. Lets look at a combined
number table showing the relationship of these number bases in table 1-1.
We will count to fifteen in decimal (base 10) and show the equivalent in
binary, octal, and hexadecimal.
Binary
Octal
Decimal
Hexadecimal
(base 2)
0000
0001
0010
0011
0100
0101
0110
0111
1000
(base 8)
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
10
(base 10)
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
(base 16)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1001
1010
1011
1100
1101
1110
1111
Table 1-1
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
9
A
B
C
D
E
F
In table 1-1, we used four bits to count from 0 to 15. Notice that given four
bits, fifteen is as high as we can count. If we increase the number of bits to 8
we can count to 255. In the following example, we will use the Microsoft
calculator in figure 1-1 and check Bin for binary and enter eight ones
representing the highest number we can count to in base 2 using eight bits.
By checking the Dec radio box, we can see that the number 11111111 base
2 is 255 in base 10. By increasing the number of ones in binary to 16, we see
that the highest number increases dramatically to 65535. Try this with 32
bits and see what happens.
Figure 1-1
Quantity
Byte
Kilobyte
Megabyte
Gigabyte
Terabyte
Abbreviation
B
KB
MB
GB
TB
Description
8 bits
1 thousand bytes
1 million bytes
1 billion bytes
1 trillion bytes
1000
10002
10003
10004
CPU
Output Devices
Keyboard
Monitor
Microphone
Mouse
Printer
Flash Drive
Hard Drive
Main memory
The computer memory can be thought of as a scratchpad for the computer.
Main memory, or Random Access Memory (RAM), consists of many storage
locations containing instructions and data, each storage location holding a
single unit of information. As we learned, each storage location has a unique
address allowing the CPU to distinguish one memory location from another.
Main memory works much like the local post office, with each P.O. Box
numbered with a unique identifier so you can tell which one is yours. If we
look inside the P.O. Box, we see the information stored at that P.O. Box
location. In the case of a computer, the P.O. Box contains numeric
information in the form of ones and zeros. Later in the text, we will examine
different types of identifiers and methods use for storing data. We will revisit
this concept and see how Visual Basic actually stores information in memory.
Peripheral Devices
The computer communicates with the outside world through its peripheral
devices. The computer keyboard for example allows the user to enter
information into the computer which may in turn be processed and the results
sent to the printer for a hard copy. Peripheral devices can be divided into
three categories: input, output, and secondary storage devices.
Input devices.
Your Visual Basic programs and data entered into the computer system for
processing are referred to as input. The term data refers to facts that have
not yet been processed or organized into a useable form. When data is
processed, the result is then referred to as information.
Input devices such as those shown in figure 1-3 allow data to be entered into
the computer. Data is commonly entered into the computer from the
keyboard. Other input sources include the mouse, scanners, graphic tablets,
and network interfaces. A typical computer may have all of these input
devices for data acquisition and maybe more.
Keyboard
Mouse
Graphic
Tablet
Network
Interface
Figure 1-3
Output devices
A typical home or office computer may have several output devices attached
to it. The output of processed data or information may be displayed on the
computer screen as a soft copy. Printing results on paper is referred to as a
hard copy. Information may also be sent over a network interface, a Braille
Machine for the vision impaired, or your system speakers. Figure 1-4 shows
some typical output devices you may find on a school computer system.
Monitor
Printer
Braille
Machine
Network
Interface
Speaker
Figure 1-4
CD Rom
Hard Disk
Flash Drive
Floppy Disk
Figure 1-5
Quick Review
As we have learned, computer storage is measured in bytes. At the time of
this publication, hard disk drives are available in multiple terabyte capacities.
This is an astounding achievement. Not long ago, a 500MB hard drive was
considered huge. Compare the small size of a 500MB hard drive to the 32GB
flash drive that I currently used to write this chapter. A floppy drive by
contrast holds 1.44MB of data so a 1 gigabyte flash drive would be the
equivalent to carrying over 700 floppy disks! Do the math. Hard disks, flash
drives, and floppy disks are all examples of read/write devices. This means
that we can re-write data to these devices. For example, in January, 2013, you
can purchase a 1TB USB3.0 external hardrive for $99.99, but 8 months later
its a 2TB external harddrive for $89.99!
A CD ROM (Read Only Memory) is a write once device where data and
information is burned to disk. There are also read/write CDWR drives as well
as DVD storage devices that have replaced the older CD ROM.
Super computers
Super computers are the largest and fastest. Today, supercomputers are
typically one-of-a-kind custom design systems. These high power systems are
generally used for the highest complexities of computational tasks. Generally
these systems are found in scientific work and operations such as weather
forecasting and cryptography.
Fun facts: Oak Ridge back on top with the #1 ranking with Titan, a Cray
XK7 system, on the Top500 list of the world's most powerful computers
(www.top500.org/). Last years winner was Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory supercomputer.
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Mainframe computers
Mainframe computers are not as powerful or expensive as supercomputers.
However, these very powerful computer systems operate at ultra high speeds
and can support many input and output devices themselves also designed to
operate very high speeds. Mainframe computers support typically 100 to 500
users at a time. In some ways, mainframes can be considered more powerful
than supercomputers for their ability to support more simultaneous programs
then a task dedicated supercomputer. Also, mainframes perform the majority
of financial, business and internet commerce transactions, and are optimized
for fast hard disk access and bandwidth. Supercomputers on the other hand
can execute a single program faster than a mainframe. The IBM 370 and IBM
3081 are examples of mainframe computers. I will also mention the IBM 360
system, my old college friend
Minicomputers
The minicomputer is a midrange multi-user system that operates in the
middle range of the computing power spectrum. The minicomputers power is
between the large mainframe computers and the smaller microcomputers or
personal computers. Historically speaking, the mini computers are less
expensive and smaller than mainframes and have less processing power. This
smaller class of large computers formed a distinct group with its own
hardware and operating systems, but in modern times (at least at the time if
this writing), this class of system is a midrange computer including systems
such as the SPARC, POWERPC and Itanium -based systems produced by Sun
Microsystems, and IBM.
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Microcomputers
The microcomputer is a computer usually based on a single microprocessor
chip as its central processing unit although this microprocessor may contain
multiple CPUs such as in the dual and quad core processors. These computers
occupy physically much smaller amounts of space. Microcomputers are where
we find the personal computers that we use at home, work, or at school. The
power of the new generation microcomputer is blurring the historical
classifications of computers and massive amount of computing power at your
finger tips. Typically used by a single user, microcomputers are the most
popular classification of computer and the demand continues to grow as new
innovation allows the personal computer work even harder for us. Present day
microcomputers are networked together allowing the sharing of software,
music, data, and hardware such as printers.
Within this category we have desktop, laptop, tablet and notepad based computers.
Within the desktop world there multiple form factors which can make the desktop a
very compact and easy to configure pc. As the miniaturization process shrinks the
size of each individual transistor to the limits of Moores Law
(http://www.mooreslaw.org/), power consumption becomes a more important sales
approach.
The modern operating system has matured to a point where most operations
performed by the computer user can be accomplished in the familiar GUI
environment. Computer users tend to relate better to a graphic than a
command line instruction. For example, if we wish to remove a file, humans
can relate to a graphic of a waste basket as in the Windows recycle bin or the
Apple trash can better than the command REM (remove) or DEL (delete)
depending on the operating system you are using.
Information processing cycle
Tasks performed by a computer can be broken down into four basic categories: the
IPOS (Input, Process, Output, Storage) cycle.
Input -
Storage -
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Decimal Value
65
41
97
61
66
42
98
62
Hexadecimal
Binary Value
01000001
01100001
01000010
01100010
In binary, the first digit or least significant digit is position 0 and the last digit
or most significant digit is position 7. If we look at bit position 5 (Highlighted
in blue) that a zero indicates upper case and a one indicates lower case. This
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is just one example of how a language character set is encoded for maximum
efficiency.
1.6 Your Role as a Computer User.
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Commercial Software is software that has been copyrighted and developed for
profit of the company that produced it. The software you purchase at your
favorite computer store or through the internet fall into this classification.
Shareware
In the case of shareware, the author retains the copyright for the application,
but makes it available for anyone to use. Shareware applications are usually
presented as a try and buy application where you may try the application for a
trial period then purchase a full license if you like the produce. Shareware
allows software authors a chance to get people to try out their work and users
a chance to test it before paying for it. You may not copy shareware in whole
or in part and resell it as your own.
Public-domain Software
Public-domain software is available to anyone freely and without obligation.
You can copy and share this software and program code with anyone. Such
software ranges from games, word processing and spreadsheet applications to
language conversion applications.
Open Source Software
This oft misunderstood form of software requires that the source code be
freely available, in a form that can be understood and actually modified for
any organizations needs or benefits. Additionally, a company can sell a product
derived from another organizations open source software. However, there is a
free license may be required before the software can be installed and used.
Key Terms
Arithmetic/Logic Unit (ALU)
Byte
Central Processing Unit
Commercial Software
Computer
Computer Ethics
Control Unit
Data
Graphical user interface (GUI)
Hard copy
Hardware
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Information
Input
Main Memory
Mainframe
Microcomputer
Microprocessor
Minicomputer
Network
Operating System
Program
Programming language
Public-domain software
Secondary Storage
Secondary Storage Device
Shareware
Soft copy
Supercomputer
System Unit
User Interface
Review Questions
1. Into what three categories can all functions performed by a computer fall
into
2. Into which of the three categories of computer functions would each of the
following be placed?
a. Finding the square of a number
b. Storing a program so that it can be run at a later time.
c. Determining which of two letters comes first in the alphabet.
d. Calculating the Grade Point Average (GPA) of a student.
3. List the two parts of the central processing unit, and describe the purpose
of each.
4. What is the difference between data and information?
5. List several input and output devices.
6. What are the advantages of using secondary storage instead of main
memory? What is a disadvantage? Describe the type of secondary storage
used by your computer.
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Research Assignment:
1. Write a 3 page report comparing the Windows Vista, MAC OS, and Linux
operating systems. Include a comparison of features and software
applications.
2. Write a 3 page report comparing and contrasting the Visual Basic
programming language with another programming language such as C++,
Java, etc. Compare and contrast features and explain the advantages and
disadvantages of each.
3. Write a 3 page report on the topic of computer ethics and software
licensing.
4. Describe your own personal computer (Include the details of the CPU, RAM,
storage capacity, input and output devices). Please include sufficient details
(version of OS, type of CPU, processing speed, programs such as browsers,
media players, etc. Try searching on your particular module, or a top of the
line computer that you would like to purchase.)
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