Professional Documents
Culture Documents
output.
Varieties of Screens
1. Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) - It uses a
technology
called raster scanning, a process of
sweeping
electron beams across the back of the
screen.
2. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) - A flat display
often seen on watches and calculators,
sometimes used in laptop computers.
3. Plasma - consists of ionized neon / gas
(plasma)
sealed between two glass plates. One
glass
plate encases a set of horizontal wires and
the
other a set of vertical wires. The images
produced by plasma display are
generally very
clear, detailed, and not subject to the
flicker
2. Impact Printer - uses some sort of keyboard or
physical monitor, or any peripheral devices.
contact with the paper to produce
an image, • Central Processing Unit (CPU) - it is the brains
physically striking paper, ribbon, and of
print the computer. Sometimes referred to simply as
hammer together. the
2.1 Daisy Wheel Printer processor or central processor, the CPU is
2.2 Dot Matrix Printer where
2.3 Cain Printer most calculations take place
2.4 Band Printer o Control Unit - supervises or monitors the
functions performed by the entire computer
• Voice Output - It is typically used when an system according to conditions set forth by
inquiry is the
followed by a short reply, such as a balance stored program.
or flight o Arithmetic/Logic Unit - the part of a
time. Many businesses have found another computer
creative that performs all arithmetic computations,
uses for voice output over the telephone. such
• Speaker - an output device producing sounds. as addition and multiplication, and all
• Speech Synthesizer - increase a message comparison
as operations. The ALU is one component of the
temporary output that computer users CPU.
hear. o Memory Unit - is somewhat like an electronic
• Microfilm or Microfiche - are reduced sized filing cabinet capable of holding data or
photographic reproductions of printed instructions.
information on
film cards. The cards can be read using • Motherboard - the main circuit board of a
microfiche microcomputer. The motherboard contains
readers and printed using microfiche printers. the
• Plotter - a device that draws pictures on paper connectors for attaching additional boards.
based Typically,
on commands from a computer. Plotters differ the motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS,
from memory,
mass storage interfaces, serial and parallel
printers in that they draw lines using a pen. As
ports,
a
expansion slots, and all the controllers required
result, they can produce continuous lines,
to
whereas
control standard peripheral devices, such as
printers can only simulate lines by printing a
the
closely
display screen, keyboard, and disk drive.
spaced series of dots. Multicolor plotters use
Collectively,
different-
all these chips that reside on the motherboard
colored pens to draw different colors.
are
known as the motherboard's chipset.
^ INPUT/OUTPUT DEVICES - a piece of hardware that is
used • Ports - an interface on a computer to which
for both providing information to the computer and you
receiving connect a device. Personal computers have
information various
types of ports. Internally, there are several
• Disk Drive - a computer hardware that holds ports for
and connecting disk drives, display screens, and
spins a magnetic or optical disk and reads keyboards. Externally, personal computers
and writes have ports
information on it. for connecting modems, printers, mice, and
• Hard Disk Drive - a rigid magnetic disk other
mounted peripheral devices. Examples: Universal Serial
permanently in a drive unit. Bus
• Optical Disc - a direct-access disk, which (USB), Parallel (PS2), Serial.
has
information recorded on it with a laser • Expansion Slots - a connector in a computer
beam that into
burns pits into its surface. which an expansion card can be plugged.
• Modem - the modem modulates the The
computer output connector supplies power to the card and
to an acceptable signal for transmission and connects it
then to the data bus, address bus and control
demodulates the signal back for computer signals of the
input. motherboard. Examples: ISA (International
Serial
Architecture), PCI (Peripheral Component
SYSTEM UNIT - the main part of a personal computer. Interface),
The AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port).
system unit includes the chassis, microprocessor,
main • Bus - a collection of wires through which data
memory, bus, and ports, but does not include the is
transmitted from one part of a computer to
another.
^ STORAGE DEVICES
^ APPLICATION SOFTWARE - is applied to a real-world This component is made up of the people responsible for
task, maintaining, operating, programming, and analyzing the
it can be used to solve a particular problem or to output
perform a generated by the computer system.
specific task.
> Computer Operator - works in the computer
1. Customized - typically created to perform a room and is
particular responsible for a number of different tasks.
task.
> Data Library- is usually located close to the
computer
room and usually staffed by a data librarian.
> Data Entry Personnel - are responsible for
entering large
volumes of data into the computer system.
> System Analysts - review current or proposed
applications within a company to determine if
the
applications should be implemented using a
computer.
> Computer Programmers - design, write, test and
implement specialized programs that process
data to
computer.
> Database Administrator - an important function
within the
information system department is the
management of data.