Welcome!Computer 101WithLaura Crichton

Laura Crichton Associate of Applied Science

Baker College Computer Programming

Computer Enthusiast!!

Agenda for Today: Computers

What are they? Hardware Common types of computers—which is

right for you?

Operating Systems (OS) Programming Languages

The computer Not a magic box Not the internet Made of hardware (not magic)

Hardware?

Hardware! Case PSU Motherboard

CPU RAM

Expansion cards Graphics Card Modem/Ethernet

Fans/cooling

Storage Devices Hard Drives USB CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Floppies (long gone)

Input & Output Input

What devices do we use to tell the computer what we want it to do?

Output How does it give us information?

Input & Output Devices Input Devices

(Peripherals) Keyboard Mouse/Touchpad Touchscreen Joystick Microphone Image Scanner Webcam

Output devices Monitor

Display/screen Printer Headphones Speakers Plotter

Communication The way that the hardware

communicates and processes information is through various programming languages

Desktop Systems Monitor Case Keyboard, Mouse

Extras Speaker, printers, joysticks

Desktop Considerations Advantages Easily upgradable

components make it the best investment

More USB ports

Disadvantages Big Not very portable Can be noisy Can use a lot of

power

Laptops vs Netbooks Laptop = Notebook

Larger screen size More powerful hardware

Netbook Smaller screen size Smaller keyboard Slower processor Limited USB ports

Laptop & Netbooks - Considerations Advantages Portable Allow for internet

access anywhere there is a Wifi Connection

Disadvantages Only a few components

are upgradable RAM Hard drive

Expensive to fix Prone to being dropped Might not have DVD

player Might not have a

numeric keypad

Nettop = MiniPC or MicroPC Advantages Low power

consumption Very quiet Price ($200-400)

(not including monitor)

Great for email Basic interneting

Disadvantages Limited processing

power

Tablets Generally operated by touch/finger

gestures 5”-10” size Generally Android operating system

Ipad runs Mac (iOS7) Windows tablet

Tablet Considerations Advantages Total portability—

under a pound Very small—fit in

any bag Loads of free apps

Disadvantages Nearly impossible to

upgrade hardware = disposable

Surface subject to scratches

Small amount of storage

There are a lot of poor quality, cheap tablets out there

CPU CPU – Central Processing Unit

AMD vs Intel

Number of Processors/Cores Parallel processing

Intel i5 has 4 cores 3.6GHz ($180-$220) AMD Phenom has 6 cores, 4.1GHz ($139) Intel Xeon, 6 core, 2.6GHz ($649) (specialized for servers) Intel Xeon has 12 cores (not released yet)

Measured in Hertz – speed Now measuring in GHz (Gigahertz) Many sites will show benchmarks, which measures performance. http://www.tomshardware.com/t/cpus/

RAM – Random Access Memory Largely dictates how fast programs will

load & how many programs can be running at the same time before things become very slow.

Measured in Gigabytes (GB) - Capacity Also measured in speed (MHz) 2x4GB DDR3 1600 ($85)

Storage Hard drive

Capacity Measured in Gigabytes (GB)

1TB is ~ 1000 GB 3TB Western Digital ($135)

There are many Operating Systems What operating systems do you know

of? What versions are you familiar with?

Operating systems Windows 3.0 (1990) Windows NT, Win

95, 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8 Mac – now on version 10, called OS X Android – Used mainly on phones &

tablets Linux distributions – Open source

Ubuntu, Mint, Knoppix, Chromium, Tin Hat

Why is an operating system important Provides a GUI (Graphical User

Interface) for how you interact with your device.

Finding a balance

Cost Value CPU (speed, type) RAM (speed, amount (GB)) Hard Drive (space, GB or

TB) Software & OS Battery (Laptops/netbooks) Extended Warranty? Refurbished?

Often include manufacturers warranty

Complex:Assembly language:

0x32c4 <main+204>: addil 0,dp 0x32c8 <main+208>: ldw 0x22c(sr0,r1),r26 0x32cc <main+212>: ldil 0x3000,r31 0x32d0 <main+216>: ble 0x3f8(sr4,r31) 0x32d4 <main+220>: ldo 0(r31),rp 0x32d8 <main+224>: addil -0x800,dp 0x32dc <main+228>: ldo 0x588(r1),r26 0x32e0 <main+232>: ldil 0x3000,r31

Easier:Code written in C:

printf("hello, world");

6 levels of abstraction Level 0 – All data travels in 1’s and 0’s—gate on

or off, open or closed. Level 1 – Control – Microcode or Hardwired Level 2 – Machine language Level 3 – System software – Operating system Level 4 - Assembly language Level 5 – C++, Java, Fortran Level 6 – Executable programs, where we

interact with the programs with our devices in our native language.

File Structures Dos/Linux/Mac –all must use file structures to

store and access the data.

File extensions—common: zip, exe, mp3, mp4, avi, dll