Computer –is an electronic and programmable device that manipulates data or information

. It has the ability to store, retrieve and process data.

Types of Computer
 Dekstop Computers - They can be small, medium, or large in style, and they usually
sit on a desk. Once you add a monitor, mouse, and keyboard, you have what is
typically known as a desktop computer.
 Laptop Computers -simply called laptop; also called a notebook computer or
sometimes a notebook, is a small personal computer designed for portability.
Because a laptop is smaller than a desktop, it’s more difficult to access its internal
components. This means you may not be able to upgrade them as easily as a
desktop.
 Server–is a computer that serves up information to other computers on a network.
Types of Servers include File Servers, Database Servers and few more.
 Workstation –high-end personal computer that is used for high end applications
such as graphic designs, video editing , CAD or other CPU and RAM intensive
programs. It typically has a top of a line, fast processor, multiple hard drives and a lot
of RAM memory.
 Tablet Computers- or tablets – are handheld computer that are even more portable
than laptops. Instead of keyboard or touchpad, tablets use a touch-sensitive screen
for typing and navigation.

Basic Parts of a Desktop Computer

 System Unit – is the core of a computer unit. It is also called as the tower, box,
cabinet, housing or base unit
 Motherboard – is the basis of the computer. It is the first component installed in the
system unit and holds all the circuitry that ties the functions of the computer
components together.
 Monitor –works with the video card, located inside the system unit, to display
images and text on the screen. Can show still or moving pictures.
 Keyboard – is mainly used for typing text into your computer. Like the keyboard on a
typewriter, it has keys for letters and numbers, but also has special keys:
 Mouse – is a small device used to point and select items on your computer screen.
Although mice come in many shapes, the typical mouse does look a bit like an actual
mouse. It's small, oblong, and connected to the system unit by a long wire that
resembles a tail. Some newer mice are wireless. (same with the keyboard). There are
also 3 variants namely : a. Ball Mouse, b. Optical Mouse, c. Laser Mouse.

System unit
(storage)
 Hard disk drive
o Your computer's hard disk drive stores information on a hard disk, a rigid
platter or stack of platters with a magnetic surface. Because hard disks can
hold massive amounts of information, they usually serve as your computer's
primary means of storage, holding almost all of your programs and files.
 CD and DVD drives
o Nearly all computers today come equipped with a CD or DVD drive, usually
located on the front of the system unit. CD drives use lasers to read (retrieve)
data from a CD
  Floppy disk drive
o Floppy disk drives store information on floppy disks, also called floppies or
diskettes. Compared to CDs and DVDs, floppy disks can store only a small
amount of data. They also retrieve information more slowly and are more
prone to damage. For these reasons, floppy disk drives are less popular than
they used to be, although some computers still include them.

2. PCI Slots
 PCI: Peripheral Component Interconnect
Slot for older expansion cards such as sound cards, network cards, connector cards. See
image below for a close-up view.
3. PCI Express x1 Slots
Slot for modern expansion cards such as sound cards, network cards (Wi-Fi,
Ethernet, Bluetooth), connector cards (USB, FireWire, eSATA) and certain low-end graphics
cards.
4. PCI Express x16 Slot
Slot for discrete graphic cards and high bandwidth devices such as top-end solid
state drives. See image below for a close-up view.
5. Northbridge
Also known as Memory Controller Hub (MCH).
Chipset that allows the CPU to communicate with the RAM and graphics card.Beginning
from Intel Sandy Bridge in 2011, this motherboard component is no longer present as it has
been integrated within the CPU itself.

6.Cpu socket
7.ATX 12V Power Connector
Connects to the 4-pin power cable of a power supply unit which supplies power to the CPU.

8. Front Panel USB

2.0 Connectors
Connects to USB 2.0 ports at the front or top of a computer case. See image above for a
close-up view.
9. Front Panel Connectors
Connects to the power switch, reset switch, power LED, hard drive LED and front audio
ports of a computer case. See image above for a close-up view.
10. IDE Connector
Connects to older hard drive disks and optical drives for data transfer. See image above for a
close-up view.
11. CMOS Battery
Supplies power to store BIOS settings and keep the real-time clock running. See image
above for a close-up view.
The CMOS battery found on most motherboards is the CR2032 lithium coin cell.
12. Southbridge
Also known as the Input/Output Controller Hub (ICH).
Chipset that allows the CPU to communicate with PCI slots, PCI-Express x 1 slots (expansion
cards), SATA connectors (hard drives, optical drives), USB ports (USB devices), Ethernet
ports and on-board audio.
13. SATA Connectors
Connects to modern hard disk drives, solid state drives and optical drives for data transfer.
See image above for a close-up view.
14. Fan Headers
Supplies power to the CPU heat sink fan and computer case fans. See image above for a
close-up view.
15. RAM Slots
Insert RAM here. To learn how to install RAM, click here for our guide to installing RAM.
16. ATX Power Connector
Con
nects to the 24-pin ATX power cable of a power supply unit which supplies power to the
motherboard.

17. SATA Connector

Connects to a mSATA solid state drive. In most cases, this SSD is used as cache to speed up
hard disk drives, but it's possible to re-purpose it as a regular hard drive.
18. Front Panel USB 3.0 Connector
Connects to USB 3.0 ports at the front or top of the computer case.
19. Power & Reset Button
Onboard button to turn on, turn off and reboot the computer.
This motherboard component is more common among high end boards.

Types of RAM (Random Access Memory)

IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics Interface) - A hard disk interface standard used for disk in
the rage of 40MB to 1.2 GB, requiring medium to fast data transfer rates. IDE cables consist
of either 40 individual wire or 80 individual wires.
1) 40 conductor IDE Ribbon cable (for CD ROM / DVD ROM) 2) 80 conductor IDE
Ribbon cable (for Hard Disk Drive or HDD) 3) Floppy Disk Ribbon Cable( notice a red
or blue, white stripe of wire)
The Serial ATA, or SATA, computer bus is a storage-interface for connecting host bus
adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives. The SATA host
adapter is integrated into almost all modern consumer laptop computers and desktop
motherboards.
Serial
 CREATING A BOOTABLE USB DRIVE

Operating System (OS)

An operating system (OS), in its most general sense, is software that allows a user to run
other applications on a computing device. While it is possible for a software application to
interface directly with hardware, the vast majority of applications are written for an OS,
which allows them to take advantage of common libraries and not worry about specific
hardware details.
The operating system manages a computer's hardware resources, including:
 Input devices such as a keyboard and mouse.
 Output devices such as display monitors, printers and scanners.
 Network devices such as modems, routers and network connections.
 Storage devices such as internal and external drives.
The OS consists of many components and features. Which features are defined as part of
the OS vary with each OS. However, the three most easily defined components are:
 Kernel: This provides basic-level control over all of the computer hardware devices.
Main roles include reading data from memory and writing data to memory,
processing execution orders, determining how data is received and sent by devices
such as the monitor, keyboard and mouse, and determining how to interpret data
received from networks.
 User Interface: This component allows interaction with the user, which may occur
through graphical icons and a desktop or through a command line.
Application Programming Interfaces: This component allows application developers to write
modular code.
Examples of Operating Systems
Laptops, tablets, and desktop computers all run operating systems that you've probably
heard of. Some examples include versions of Microsoft Windows (like Windows 10,
Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP), Apple's macOS (formerly OS X),
Chrome OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, and flavors of the open source operating system Linux.
Application Software
Application software uses the capacity of a computer directly for specific tasks and are used
to manipulate text, graphics and numbers.
APPLICATION SOFTWARE TYPES
 Word processing software
ex. MS Word, WordPad and Notepad
 Database software
ex. Oracle, MS Access etc
 Spreadsheet software
ex. Apple Numbers, Microsoft Excel
 Multimedia software
ex. Real Player, Media Player
 Presentation Software
ex. Microsoft Power Point, Keynotes
 Enterprise Software
ex. Customer relationship management system
 Information Worker SoftwarE
ex. Documentation tools, resource management tools
 Educational Software
ex. Dictionaries: Encarta, BritannicaMathematical: MATLABOthers: Google Earth,
NASA World Wind
 Content Access Software
ex. Accessing content through media players, web browsers

Device driver
In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular
type of device that is attached to a computer.[1] A driver provides a software interface to
hardware devices, enabling operating systems and other computer programs to access
hardware functions without needing to know precise details about the hardware being
used.
A driver communicates with the device through the computer bus or communications
subsystem to which the hardware connects. When a calling program invokes a routine in the
driver, the driver issues commands to the device. Once the device sends data back to the
driver, the driver may invoke routines in the original calling program. Drivers are hardware
dependent and operating-system-specific. They usually provide the interrupt handling
required for any necessary asynchronous time-dependent hardware interface.[
Because of the diversity of modern[update] hardware and operating systems, drivers operate
in many different environments.[7] Drivers may interface with:
 Printers
 Video adapters
 Network cards
 Sound cards
 Local buses of various sorts—in particular, for bus mastering on modern systems
 Low-bandwidth I/O buses of various sorts (for pointing devices such as mice,
keyboards, USB, etc.)
 Computer storage devices such as hard disk, CD-ROM, and floppy disk buses (ATA,
SATA, SCSI)
 Implementing support for different file systems
 Image scanners
 Digital cameras