What is a Computer?

By modern definition, a computer is an electronic, programmable device that can store,

retrieve and process data. Based on this definition, you can conclude that the abacus is not
really a true computer; neither is a paper and pencil, nor a simple pocket calculator. You
can use these things to compute, but they are not computers. If you look closely at the
definition again, you can see that a computer is made up of five basic elements:

Electronic - All computers are powered by electricity. They must run on electricity in one
form or another, which means that they are exclusively a product of the
Twentieth Century.
Programmable – A computer must be able to follow a set of instructions (called programs)
to operate.
Storage – A computer must be able to store information (like programs and data) to be
used at another time. This computer feature turns the machine into an
electronic filing cabinet.
Retrieve- On top if being able to store information, a computer must be able to retrieve the
information that it has stored. Storing is meaningless without the capability
to retrieve.
Process – Most importantly, a computer must be able to process information. In other
words, a computer must be able to manipulate and transform the information
it has stored.

Data and Information

To have a clearer understanding of what the modern computer is capable of, we

need to define at this stage what data (plural of datum) and information are. You will find
out as you go along this lesson that data and information are two important reasons why
the computer has become very useful to us.

Data consist of raw facts. Data can be a list of randomly arranged telephone
numbers; a list of randomly arranged names of students; or a set of key words jotted down
during a speech.

Information consists of processed data that are meaningful and useful.

Information can be a list of telephone numbers arranged according to location; a list of
students grouped into male and female; or a report prepared from keywords jotted down
from a speech.

The computer is essentially a data processing machine. It accepts data, processes

these data and generates information as output. The word “processing” implies that a
change takes place; that the raw facts are in some way restructured or manipulated to
produce information.

Four Basic Functions of the Computer

All computers perform four basic functions:

  Input – The procedure of feeding data into the computer is called input. A typical
way of feeding – or entering – a data into a computer is by typing on a keyboard.
 Process – This is the operation of manipulating and transforming data into
something useful. A program which is a set of written instructions is what tells the
computer how to manipulate and transform the data it was given into information.
 Output – This is the result of the processing function. Once data has been
processed into information, the computer then must produce and present that
information in a form that you can understand. Two common computer output types
are information displayed on a monitor screen, and information printed on paper.
 Storage – Computers can save data so that it can be used at another time. This is
one of the great advantages of computers.

Computer Advantages

The use of computers gives us very real advantages. The following list of advantages is
what makes a computer a better tool than others for specific tasks. For some applications,
these advantages make the use of computer a necessity.

 Speed – Nothing can match the speed of a computer. Once data has been stored
into a computer, the computer can process data into information much faster than
any human being using any other tool.
 Accuracy- If the computer has been given the correct instructions (program), the
information it will provide will be totally and consistently accurate. Humans, on the
other hand, even if they know exactly what to do, are subject to human error
regardless of what they are using.
 Repeatability – This is the computer’s ability of doing task repeatedly, quickly and
without complaint.
 Programmability – You can write your own programs that will make the machine
do exactly what you need it to do.

COMPONENTS OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM

Computer share the same basic components regardless of its classification. In this
discussion, we will focus our attention to personal computers (PCS). Even though we will
focus our discussion on PCs, the components that we will discuss are also applicable to
mainframes and minicomputers. Computer systems are made-up of three basic
components namely:

o Hardware
o Software
o Peopleware
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HARDWARE

Hardware refers to the tangible (things you can touch) components of a computer
system. Hardware components are further divided into three groups namely:
 1. Input Devices
2. Output Devices
3. System Unit
4. Media for Secondary Storage

Let us discuss them one by one.

INPUT DEVICES

What is Input and Input Devices?

Input consists of data and instructions. Input devices are hardware used to translate
what people understand into a form that computers can process. People understand
language, which is constructed of letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. However,
computers can understand only the binary machine language of 0’s and 1’s. Input devices
are essentially translators that translate numbers, letters and actions that people
understand into a form that computer can process.

Input devices perform the two most basic computing tasks: issuing commands and
entering data. Data Entry is defined as the process of entering data into the computer
memory and issuing commands that tell the processor how to work with the data.

a) Keyboards

The keyboard is the standard input device of most computers. Most keyboards use
an arrangement of keys such as QWERTY. It combines a typewriter keyboard with
the numeric keypad, used to enter numbers and arithmetic symbols.

b) Pointing Devices - accepts pointing gestures and converts them into machine-
readable input.

Mouse – controls the pointer that is displayed on the monitor. The mouse
pointer usually appears in the shape of an arrow. The mouse that we are
using in our laboratory is an optical mouse. It emits and senses light to
detect mouse movement.

Touch Surfaces or Touch Pads – controls the pointer by moving and tapping
your finger on the surface of a pad.

Pointing Stick – located in the middle of the keyboard, to control the pointer by
directing the stick with your finger.

Joystick – is the most popular input device for computer games. It allows for
sudden, rapid movements in all directions – a must in most computer
games.

Touch Screen – is a particular kind of monitor with a clear plastic outer layer.
Behind this layer are crisscrossed invisible beams of infrared light. This
arrangement enables someone to select actions or commands by touching
the screen with a finger.

Light Pen – is a light sensitive pen-like device used to draw, write, or issue
commands when it touches a specially designed screen.
 Stylus – is a pen-like device commonly used with tablet PCs and PDAs. A stylus
uses pressure to draw images on a screen. It interacts with the computer
through a software that translates handwritten notes into a form that the
system unit can process.

c) Scanning Devices – are input devices that convert scanned text and images into a
form that the system unit can process.

Optical Scanners – simply known as a “scanner”, accepts documents consisting

of text and/or images and converts them to machine readable form.
These devices do not recognize individual letters or images. Rather, they
recognize light, dark, and colored areas that make up individual letters or
images.

Bar Code Readers – is a device one is familiar with in the grocery stores. A bar
code reader scans the Universal Product Code (UPC) of a product. Each
code has a corresponding product description, latest price and inventory
level.
OUTPUT DEVICES

What is Output and Output Devices?

Output is processed data or information. It typically takes the form of texts, graphics,
photos, audio, and/or video.

 Text – are letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. Examples are:

newsletters, flyers, and reports.
 Graphics – are images and pictures displayed on a monitor or printed on paper.
 Audio – sounds within the human hearing range, converted digital signals from
the system unit into analog sounds audible to humans. Examples: music played
from speakers or voice output
 Video – moving images displayed on a monitor.

Output Devices on the other hand are any hardware used to provide or to create
output from the computer. They translate information that has been processed by the
system unit into a form that humans can understand.

The most common types of output devices are:

a) Monitors or Screens – present visual images of text and graphics. The output from
monitors is often referred to as soft copy.

 Cathode-ray tubes – use technology similar to a television. It has excellent

resolution and cost less but it is bulky and occupies considerable space on the
desktop.
 Flat-panel monitor – (or LCD or liquid crystal display) are thin, require less
power, and used with all types of computers.
 Gas plasma monitor – illuminates pixels with charged neon gas, thin, no
distortion, more expensive than flat-panel.
 Data projectors – specialty device for projecting computer output onto large
screens.
 E-books
 b) Printers – translate information processed by system unit into output printed on
paper. Output on this device is also referred as hard copy. Here are some examples
of printers:

 Ink-jet printers – spray ink at high speed onto the surface of paper, permits
printing to be done in a variety of colors
 Laser printer – uses a laser light beam to produce images with excellent letter
and graphics quality; more expensive than ink-jet printers
 Dot-matrix printers – form characters and images using a series of small pins
on a print head.
 Photo printers – printers designed to print photo-quality images from digital
cameras.

c) Audio Output Devices – translate audio information from the computer into sounds
that people can understand. The most widely used audio-output devices are
Speakers and Headphones.

d) Combination Input and Output Devices – combine input and output devices to
save space or purposely for very specialized applications.

 Facsimile transmission machine

 Multifunction devices
 Internet telephone lines

SYSTEM UNIT

The System Unit, is a container that houses most of the electronic components that make
up the computer system. But the “brain” of the computer system lies on the central
processing unit or processor contained on a single chip called the microprocessor.

The CPU is the part of the computer where all the processing takes place. The CPU has only
two fundamental sections: the Control Unit and Arithmetic Logic Unit. Computer
Memory also plays an integral part in the internal operation of a processor.

1. Control Unit (CU) – acts as the little supervisor of the computer. It tells the rest of
the computer system how to carry out a program’s instructions. It directs the
movement of electronic signals between memory- which temporarily holds data,
instructions, and processed information – and the arithmetic-logic unit. It also
directs these control signals between the CPU and input and output devices.

2. Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) - performs all arithmetic operations and logical
processes required to solve a computer problem. Arithmetic operations are the
fundamental math operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Logical operations consist of comparisons. That is, two pieces of data are compared
to see whether one is equal to (==), less than (<) , or greater than (>) the other.

How the Instruction Cycle Works:

For example, to process instruction 3 + 5, the 1) CU fetches or retrieves the instruction

3+5 from the memory. The 2) CU then decodes or translates the instruction to add 3
to 5 and pass it to the; 3) ALU for execution or performing the arithmetic operations.
4) The ALU then sends the result to the memory for storing.
 Since computer memory plays an important part in the internal operation of the
processor, it but essential to discuss the functions of the computer memory.

Computer Memory

The computer memory is the storage area of the hardware which contains the
program and data being worked with the computer. Computer Memory is the
general term used to describe where the computer holds the instruction before and after
they are processed. Its job is to store instruction and data in the computer. As
previously mentioned, memory is generally classified into two basic classifications:

Random- Access Memory – is the primary storage area of the computer. RAM is
the computer’s working memory and is directly controlled by the processor.
Together with the CU and the ALU, RAM is the third component of the processor.

RAM is called temporary or volatile storage everything in most types of RAM is lost
as soon as the computer is turned off or if there is a power failure or other disruption
of the electric current. It is often called main memory, main storage, internal storage
or primary storage. Unlike ROM-RAM is read/write memory. It provides the
processor with temporary storage for programs and data. All programs and data
must be transferred to RAM from an input device (such as keyboard) or from
secondary storage (such as disk) before programs can be executed or data can be
processed.

Read-only-memory. As its name implies, read-only memory (ROM) holds

instructions that can only be read, or retrieved by the computer but not changed or
written to. These permanent instructions include programs that are used to start the
computer.

MEDIA FOR SECONDARY STORAGE

An essential feature of the computer is the ability to save, or store, information. Secondary
storage devices provides permanent or nonvolatile storage. This means data and programs
can be retained after the computer has been shut off. Writing is the process of saving
information to secondary storage devices and reading is the process of accessing
information from secondary storage devices.

a) Floppy Disks – often called diskettes are removable storage media. This device
uses a thin flexible plastic disk.
b) Hard Disks – store files using tracks, sectors, and cylinders. Hard disks use rigid
metallic platters that are stacked one on top of another.
 Internal Hard Disk- is the standard storage device for PCs and typically
identified as the C drive. It typically has four platters enclosed in a protective
container. Storage capacity ranges from 40, 80, 120, 160 gigabytes.
 Hard Disk Cartridge – also known as a removable hard disk is easy to remove
and is used primarily to complement an internal hard disk. Because the
cartridges are easily removed, they are particularly useful to protect or
secure sensitive information.
  Hard Disk Pack– is the standard magnetic disks for mainframes. It is
removable, have several (typically 11) platters, with 20 recording surfaces
and extensive capacity.
c) Optical Disks – use laser technology to provide high capacity storage. In optical-
disk technology, a laser beam alters the surface of a plastic or metallic disk to
represent data. Unlike floppy and hard disk, which use magnetic charges to
represent 1s and 0s, optical disks use reflected light.
 Compact Disc (CD)- is an optical disk whose capacity is from 650 MB to 1 GB.
 Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) – or digital video disc is similar to the CD except
that more data can be packed into the same amount of space. Capacity
ranges from 17 GB to 17 GB.
 Data Play – is an optical write once format used for music and digital
photography. Capacity is typically 500 MB

d) Other Types of Secondary Storage

Flash Memory – are solid state storage devices also used in specialized input
devices to capture and transfer data to desktop computers. For example, images
captured from digital cameras that use flash memory are transferred to desktop
computers.

Key chain hard drives – have recently been introduced. These device is so
compact that it can be transported on a key ring or a necklace. Key chain hard
drives conveniently connect directly to a computer’s USB port to transfer files.

Magnetic Tapes – is a device that provides sequential access typically used for
backup.

Microfilm and Microfiche – are best known for archiving information in libraries,
large organizations and banks. Both store very small microscopic images of
documents.

SOFTWARE
Software is the component of the computer system which refers to the set of instructions
written in code – that computers can understand and execute. Another name of these set
of instructions is program.

Without software, a computer would be a useless collection of electronic circuitry. Since it is

literally inconceivable to think of all the possible ways a computer could be used, the
amount of software that could be written is similarly inconceivable and unlimited. In
general, there are three types of software:

A. System Software

Systems Software works with end users, application programs, and computer hardware
to handle many details relating to computer operations. For example, system software
controls where a word processing program is stored in memory, how commands are
converted so that the system unit can process them, where completed document or file
 is saved, and how the output is printed. System software consists of four types of
programs:

 Operating systems are programs that coordinate computer resources,

provide an interface between users and the computer, and run applications
 Utilities, also known as service programs, perform specific tasks related to
managing computer resources.
 Device drivers are specialized programs designed to allow particular input or
output devices to communicate with the rest of the computer system.
 Language translators convert the programming instructions written by
programmers into a language that computers understand and process.

B. Applications Software

Application software refers to programs which are written for the purpose of solving
specific data processing jobs.