Information Technology

Lecture 2
Computer Hardware & Software
Lecturer: Rizgar Ahmed
Email : rizgar.salih@univsul.edu.iq
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering
2020-2021

Content of Lecture 2:

1. Computer Hardware

2. Computer Software

3. How Does a Computer Work?

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1st Stage – Information Technology, Lecture 2: Computer Hardware & Software MSc. Rizgar A.
 1. Computer Hardware?
Computer hardware includes all the electrical, mechanical, and the electronic parts of a
computer. Any part that we can see or touch is the hardware.
Figure below sow the Computer hardware parts:
Internal
components

Peripheral
Input/output

1.1 Input

Input devices are the devices that allow data and instructions to enter a computer
Input device classified according t:
modality of input (e.g. mechanical motion, audio, visual, etc.)
discrete (e.g. key presses- keyboard) or
continuous (e.g. a mouse's position).

Keyboard Mouse Scanner Camera TouchPad

Bar Code Reader Optical Mark Reader Magnetic Card Reader Microphone Joysticks

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 1.2 Output

Output devices are the devices that allow information to be represented (that is, given out) to
the user.
Output device converts the electronically generated information into human-readable form.
Output: The product of the transformation of inputs by a process.

Monitor Printer Projector Speaker Plotter

1.3 Peripheral

Peripheral device: Any piece of equipment in a computer system that is not actually inside the
computer itself. This type is containing all devices that have ability of input and output together.
Printers, scanners and external disk drives that may be connected to the computer are also
sometimes called ‘peripheral
devices. The Modem/
Router Switches/Hub
Internet Adapter

1.4 Internal Components

All the main parts of computer are collected inside a box called
Computer Case. It’s different from one to another Like Desktop,
laptop or tablet PC

1.4.1 CPU

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the device that interprets and executes instructions.
The main unit inside the computer is the CPU. This unit is responsible for all events inside the
computer. It controls all internal and external devices, performs arithmetic and logic operations.

The CPU consists of one or more chips (another name for “integrated circuits”). Also known as
a processor. (More details in Lecture 4).

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 1.4.2 Memory

Memory is an area within a computer system that holds data waiting to be processed.
two types, Main and Second Memory.
Main memory is faster than second memory.
The most common type of memory that most users are
familiar with is ‘main memory’ or ‘RAM’ (Random Access RAM ROM
Memory/Read-Write Memory) or ROM (Read-only-memory). (More details in Lecture 3).

Second Memory Types:

Hard Disk Optical disk Flash Drive Floppy Disk Memory Chip
1.4.3 Power supply

A power supply unit (PSU) converts mains AC to low-voltage regulated DC power for the
internal components of a computer.

This is because of computer processor and devices are run on different low- level voltage.

Hard drives or PCI cards will run on the +5 V, CPUs on 3.3 or 3.45 V. Sound cards on 12 V.

1.4.4 Cooling Fun

A computer fan is any fan inside, or attached to, a computer case used for active cooling, and
may refer to fans that draw cooler air into the case from the outside,
As processors, graphics cards, RAM and other components need to be kept within a specified
temperature range to prevent overheating, instability, malfunction and damage leading to a
shortened component lifespan.

There are a fun for Power supply, and CPU Desktop CPU Laptop CPU cooling Fun
inside a Desktop case, and one for CPU & cooling Fan
graphic card inside a laptop

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 1.4.5 GPU/Graphic Card

Graphic card is an IC or internal board that creates a picture on a display..

There are many names for it such as display adapter, graphics card, video adapter, video
board, or video controller, and video card

There are two way of VGA: integrated graphics and expansion out graphics

Differences:

1.(dedicated. Expansion VGA is removable while integrated graphics is built on

motherboard. NVIDIA integrated
graphics
2. Integrated graphics use system memory while dedicated graphics use its own

3. Integrated graphic is 3cheaper

4. Integrated graphic generates much 4less heat than a dedicated video card

5. Integrated graphic uses drastically less power,

1.4.6 Network Card

A computer uses a network interface card (NIC) to become part of a network. The NIC contains
the electronic circuitry required to communicate using a wired connection (Ethernet) or a
wireless connection (WiFi). A network interface card is also known as a network interface
controller, network adapter, or Local Area Network (LAN) adapter. (More information Lecture
5)

Desktop Network Card USB-LAN USB-WiFi

1.4.7 CMOS & battery

The CMOS is a physical part of the motherboard: it is a memory chip that houses setting
configurations and is powered by the onboard battery.

Common tasks of CMOS are activating the keyboard, loading the system drives and setting the
system clock, the system clock resets when the CMOS loses power.

CMOS batteries power code that runs before the operating system is
loaded in a computer

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 1.4.8 Mother Board

Motherboard (Main board, system board, baseboard, planar board or logic board) is the main
printed circuit board (PCB) found in computers and other expandable systems. It holds and
allows communication between many of the crucial electronic components of a system such as
all internal components. Input/output devices and power supply.

A motherboard contains significant sub-systems such as the chipset, Northbridge and

southbright components.

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 2. Computer Software
The functioning of the computer is not dependent on hardware alone. So, what else is required?
It requires a set of instructions that tells the computer what is to be done with the input data.
In computer terminology, this set of instructions is called a program and one or more programs
are termed as software.

Software is the computerized instructions that operate a computer, manipulate the data and
execute particular functions or tasks. Software is used for different purposes. All the programs
used in computer to perform specific task is called Software.

Computer Software is divided into two parts:

System Software and Application Software

2.1 System Software

The computer user can type a name and other details through the keyboard. But how does this
go to the system unit? This activity is done by a set of instructions called the Operating Systems.
The Operating System manages the various 1/0 devices of the computer and enables the user to
interact with the machine.

The most important program that runs on a computer is the operating system. Every general-
purpose computer must have an operating system in order to run other programs. Examples of
Operating System Software: DOS, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Unix/Linux, MAC/OS X etc.

An operating system responsible to control functions such as:

✓ The coordination of the hardware and applications software
✓ Allocating storage facilities
✓ controlling the input and output devices
✓ Managing time sharing between applications and networked computers.

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 2.2 Application Software

Application software includes programs that user’s access to carry out specific work, for
example, software which enables creation and storage of documents are termed as application
software. Application software is available in Package Software, Custom Software, Utility
Software and Compilers.

An example of Package software such as Ms. Office 2003, Ms. Office 2007, Macromedia
(Dreamweaver, Flash, Freehand), Adobe (PageMaker, PhotoShop), Database Management
(Oracle, SQL server,..)
An example of Custom Software: SAGE (Accounting), Galileo/Worldspan (Travel) etc.
An example of Utility software: Windows Explorer (File/Folder Management), Windows Media
Player, Anti-Virus Utilities, Disk Defragmentation, Disk Clean, BackUp, WinZip, WinRAR etc…
COMPILERS : Microsoft Visual Studio , Andriod Studio,

2.3 Computer Languages & Scripting :

The computer understands only machine language i.e. 0’s and 1’s. How computer understands
the English characters? There has to be software which translates the user language into
machine language. The software which does this translation is known as the support software.
Examples of support software are compilers and interpreters. .

For software (the instructions) to perform various functions, it must be programmed. That is,
the instructions need to be written in a programming language
that the computer can understand. Without a program, a
computer is useless.

Programming language is dived into two Levels:

1. Low level language: is dividing into two levels: Machine

language and Assembly language.

a) Machine language: The language the computer actually ®

language contains only 0 and 1

b) Assembly Language : programmer can understand commands then need assembler to

convert into Machine language

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 2. High Level Language: The user friendly language ...more natural language than assembly
language. Complier is needed to convert high level to machine language.

Example of High Level Language: COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language),

FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation), BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic
Instruction Code), C, C++, Java, C# etc. are the examples of High Level
Language.
(More information in part 2: C++ Programming)

Simple demonstration of translating high level language to low level language

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 The interaction between users and hardware

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