CH 1 : Types and components of a computer system Flashcards
what is meant by hardware ?
they are the physical components of a computer system such as motherboards , memory , monitors , keyboards , soundcards etc.
what is meant by software ?
they are the programs for controlling the computer’s operations or for the processing of electronic data
what are the internal hardware devices ?
- motherboard
- RAM ( random access memory )
- ROM ( read-only memory)
- Graphics card
- Sound card
- internal Hard disk drive
what are some of external hardware devices ?
- monitors
- keyboards / mouses
- external storage devices
- speakers / headphones
- scanners
- printers
what does software consists of ?
- a set of instructions that tells the computer’s hardware what to do , software is written in a quite few different languages , without software the hardware is useless
what are the two main types of software ?
- Application software
- System software
what are applications software ?
- they are programs that carry out certain operations for a particular application
- note :
application software cannot run on its own it is dependent on system software
what does applications software include ?
- word processing
- spreadsheets
- database management software
- measuring software
- graphics manipulation software
- photo-editing software
- video editing software
- control software
- applets and apps
what are system software ?
- system software are programs that control the hardware directly by giving it a step by step instruction that tell the computer’s hardware what to do.
what does System software include ?
- operating systems
- device drivers
- compilers
- linkers
- utilites
what is an operating systems ?
- it is a software that controls the hardware and is used to run applications software.
what are compilers ?
compiler converts the whole program from the programming language to binary in one go .
Device driver ?
- driver software can control a printer/scanner
what are linkers ?
they are usually a part of the compiler , it takes care of linking between the code that the programmer wrote and other resources so that the computer can read the code.
what are utilties ?
- part of the system software that perform a specific task such as :
- creating / deleting files
- removing and checking for viruses
- burning CDs and DVDs ( saving data on them)
- formating a disk ready to use
what are the main components of a computer ?
- Input devices ( mouse , keyboard .etc)
- processing and internal memory
- output devices ( monitor , speakers . etc)
- backing / secondary storage ( hard disk , DVD- R / W drive . etc)
processing and internal memory includes the CPU , ROM , RAM and the internal hard disk.
what is the role of a CPU in the computer system ?
- it controls the step by step running of the computer system
- it performs all of the calculations and logical operations
- it deals with the storage of data and programs in memory
what are the roles / tasks of an operating system ?
- it provides security and prevents unauthorized access to the computer system
- it helps the user to interact with the computer via a user-interface
- it saves , deletes, finds and organizes files
- resolves error occurring
what are the properties of a ROM ?
- the programs and the instructions are stored permanently
- the computer can only read the contents of the ROM
- non-volatile meaning that when the power is turned off the data is retained
- used to store the BIOS program which is used to boot the computer up when power is turned on
what are the proporties of RAM ?
- data and program instructions are stored temporarily
- can read and write new contents
- volatile meaning data is lost when power is turned off
- stores application software details that are currently being used
what is meant by BIOS ?
- ( basic input / output system ) stored in ROM and it holds instructions to boot( start) the computer up when first switched on
what is meant by an operating system ?
- an operating system is a system that gives the computer step-by-step instruction on what to do
