2. How do computers work?
There are three factors involved in a computing
environment:
• Hardware
• Software
• “Peopleware”
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3. Hardware
These are all parts of the computer that can be
touched:
• mouse
• keyboard
• monitor
• CPU
• printer
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4. Software
These are programs that instructs the computer
on how to use the hardware. It can be
• BIOS
• Operating System (like Windows XP, Linux,
Mac OSX)
• Applications Programs (Microsoft Office,
AutoCAD, NBA 2K14)
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5. “Peopleware”
These are humans who either use the programs
or create the programs. The people who create
programs are called programmers.
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6. Without a program…
The computer is just a collection of metals,
plastics and glass parts.
It cannot run by itself.
The capabilities of a computer is dependent
upon the programmer.
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7. Human-to-human Communication
• Happens through the use of a common
language
• If two humans do not have a common
language they use an interpreter who
understand both languages
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8. Human-to-computer Communication
• Computers do not understand any human
language. It only knows two states: ON or OFF
or in numbers: 1 and 0.
• Computers only understand Binary Language
or Machine Language
• Programming languages are needed to help
humans communicate with computers
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9. Types of Programming Languages
• Machine Level Language (MLL)
• Assembly Level Language
• High Level Language
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10. Machine Level Language (MLL)
• Basic language of computers
• Only language understood by computers
• Consists of a sequence of 1s and 0s
• Also called object code or binary code
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11. Assembly Level Language
• Uses mnemonic or symbolic codes
• Cannot be understood by computers
• Requires a software called assembler to
translate code to machine language
Assembly Language
Program
ASSEMBLER
Machine Language
Program
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12. High Level Language
• Use general English words
• More user friendly than Assembly language
• Requires a COMPILER as translator
High Level Language
Program
COMPILER
Machine Language
Program
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13. Summary
• Computers work because of three components:
hardware, software and “peopleware”.
• Software tells the computer how to use
hardware.
• Softwares are written using programming
languages.
• Programming languages can be categorized as
either of these: Machine Level Language,
Assembly Level Language and High Level
Language.
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