This document provides an overview of basic computer hardware concepts. It discusses what computers are, the hardware and software components, and the input/output/processing/storage (IPOS) cycle. Specific hardware covered includes input devices like keyboards and mice, processing components like the CPU and RAM, and storage options like hard drives, flash drives, optical discs, and cloud storage. It also defines bits and bytes as the basic units of digital information storage.

1. S
Computer Concepts
Hardware Basics
CSC 102 Intro to Technology

2. Topics:
 What are computers?
 Hardware/Software
 Information Processing
Cycle (IPOS)
 Input/Output Devices
 Processing (CPU & RAM)
 Storage (Magnetic)
Hard Drives
 Storage (Solid State)
Flash Drives
 Cloud (Web) Storage
 Optical Drives (CD, DVD)
 Bits & Bytes

3. What are Computers?
 Computers are data
processing devices.

4. Hardware/Software
 Hardware refers to objects that you can
actually touch, like disks, disk drives,
display screens, keyboards, printers,
boards, and chips.
 Software are instructions or data. Anything
that can be stored electronically is software.
Applications are software.

5. Information Processing
Cycle (IPOS)
 Computers perform 4 basic functions:
1. Input
2. Processing
3. Output
4. Storage

6. Input Devices
 Input devices are hardware or that
include keyboards, mice, touch displays,
and microphones.
 Are also called
peripheral devices.

7. Output Devices
 Output devices are hardware that
provides information to the user such as
monitors, speakers, and printers.
 Also are considered
peripheral devices.

8. Processing
(The Brains of the Computer)
 CPU or Central Processing Unit is
responsible for controlling the computer
commands and operations.
 Intel is the most popular
manufacturer of CPU's.

9. Processing
(Short-term Memory)
 RAM (Random Access Memory) is an
electronic chip that provides temporary
storage. RAM helps speed up repeated
operations and provides more working
memory for software to run.
 RAM may be in 4GB, 8GB
or 16GB amounts in
today's computers.

10. Storage
Internal Storage
 Hard Disk Drives are internal storage
devices which are composed of metal
platters where information is
read/written magnetically.
 The Hard Drive will store data files as
well as the Operating System and
application and system software.

11. Storage
External Solid State Media/Flash Storage
 Solid State Media stores data
using electricity and retains
the data when the power
is turned off.
 USB Flash, Thumb
or Jump drives are examples of
solid state media drives – they
have no moving parts.

12. Cloud Storage
Web-based Storage
 Files are stored on a Web-server
and can be accessed anywhere
with an Internet connection.
 Examples Include:
Google Drive, DropBox,
SkyDrive, Amazon

13. Optical Storage
CD, DVD, Blu-Ray
 CDs store @700 MB of data
 DVDs store @4-9 GB+
 HD-DVD store 15GB+
 Blu-Ray store 25GB+
S Note: Blu-Ray & DVD can have single or
double layered capacity.

14. Bits & Bytes
Digital Data - smaller
 Bit (Binary Digit) = 1 or 0
 8 Bits = 1 Byte (1 character)
 1000 Bytes = Kilobyte KB
 1 Million Bytes
or 1000 KB = 1 Megabyte MB

15. Bits & Bytes
Digital Data - larger
 1 Billion Bytes
or 1000 MB = 1 Gigabyte GB
 1 Trillion Bytes
or 1000 GB = 1 Terabyte TB
 1000 TB – 1 Petabyte PB

16. So….
If you have 10 megabit per second
(mbps) download speed
 You can download (at most)
1.25 MB per second
 MegaBITS are 1/8 a MegaBYTE
 Bits are not Bytes