Using of computer tech

Chapter I
Using of Computer
Technology
BY : WENDHI YUNIARTO
ARIF PERDANA

Contents
Computer History1
Parts of Computer2
Computer Terminology33
Computer Hardware44

The Parts Of Computer
A personal computer can take on many
guises. The most prevalent type of
computer available in schools is the IBM-
compatible model. Some schools opt for
the Macintosh platform which can be an
"all-in-one" unit or a modular unit. Modular
units usually consist of the following
separate components:

The Parts of Computer (cont)
The Computer
The Monitor
The Keyboard
The Mouse
The Floppy Diskette Drive
The CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/RW Drive
Peripherals

The Computer
Your "computer" is a collection of devices
that function as a unit. The most basic
collection includes a Computer CPU, a
Monitor, a Keyboard, and a Mouse. The
Computer CPU is normally a rectangular box
that sits on your desktop (called a "Desktop
Case") or next to your knee under the desk
(called a "Tower Case"). The computer's
CPU is actually a small electronic device
inside the case but the term is often used to
refer to the whole collection of electronics
inside the box.

The Monitor
The Computer Monitor is the computer
user's window into the workings of the
computer. It consists of a television
picture tube that had been modified to
accept the type of video signal created by
the computer's electronics. Conventional
televisions can be used as computer
monitors if a translation device is used to
connect them. The picture quality leaves
something to be desired.

The Keyboard
The Keyboard is the primary input device
used to communicate with the
computer. A computer keyboard closely
resembles a conventional typewriter
keyboard with the addition of numerous
keys that are used specifically for
computing functions.

The Mouse
Named for the resemblance of the wire
coming out of it and a mouse's tail, the
mouse was introduced to computing in the
early 1980's when Macintosh created its
graphical user interface (GUI). The mouse
is another input device used to point at
objects on the computer monitor and
select them. Using the mouse and
keyboard in combination allows the
computer user substantial latitude in how
to accomplish a wide variety of tasks.

The Floppy Disket Drive
Once the most advanced of storage devices,
floppy diskettes are normally used a
temporary storage containers or
transportation media for data. A standard
floppy diskette can hold 1.44 MB of computer
data. This amounts to a rather large number
of pages if translated to the paper standard
for textual information. Computer diskettes
are not as reliable or fast as the internal
storage drives on the computer. They are
also the primary vector of virus infection in
the computer world.

The Floppy Diskette Drive (cont)

The CD/DVD Rom Drive
 This modern miracle gained prominence in the late
1980's and has become the primary distribution
medium for software to consumers. The Compact
Disk-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) disk itself is a
collection of concentric circles containing millions of
pits and plateaus which correspond to on/off bits of
data. The disk is read with an optical laser similar to
the one used to scan your groceries at the
supermarket. Most disks of this kind are "Read Only"
meaning that the computer can retrieve information
from the disk, but cannot place information on it. New
developments have improved this technology to allow
writing and rewriting data to the disk. A different kind
of hardware mechanism is needed to employ this
innovation.

Computer Preipherals
Computer peripherals are any electronic
devices that can be hooked up to a computer
other than the standard input-output devices
(monitor, keyboard,mouse). Peripheral
devices include speakers, microphones,
printers, scanners, digital cameras, plotters,
and modems. Peripherals often require
special software packages called
"drivers". These drivers are usually included
with the peripheral at purchase time.

Computer Terminology
 CD-ROM: Another acronym. This one stands for Compact Disk-
Read Only Memory. CD-ROM disks are becoming the standard for
delivering programs from the software developer to the computer
user. CD-ROM's come in a variety of flavors based on the language
they are written in (PC, Mac, or Unix). PC's cannot read a Mac CD-
ROM, but Macs can read PC CD-ROMS.
 CPU: The brain of the computer. This is located on a circuit board
inside the desktop or tower computer case. This component has
terms associated with it such as "486", "Pentium" and
"Celeron". Most of the CPU's are manufactured by a company
called Intel. They are the Microsoft of the hardware world.
 Data: Computer food. Data can be numbers, letters, symbols,
mathematical expressions, mouse clicks, or button presses. The
CPU translates all this activity to series of zeroes and ones and
then performs magic.

Computer Terminology (cont)
Drivers: Drivers are software packages that
are needed to run certain peripheral
devices. Printers, monitors, scanners, and
network cards all require software drivers so
that the computer knows how to
communicate and control the device.
486: An older CPU that was constructed at
the beginning of the Windows 95
revolution. This CPU works great if you are
running MS-DOS or Windows 3.1. In
general, this is one of the things that should
be considered when purchasing a computer.

 Hard Disk Drive (HDD): This is the internal magnetic storage device
housed inside the computer case. These come in a variety of sizes,
measured in how many bits of information they can contain. A bit of
information equals either zero (0) or one (1). To a computer, this is
equivalent to turning a light switch off (0) or on (1). Computers
operate on bits in groups of 8, called a byte. Every byte contains 8
bits. Bits and bytes can be stored magnetically on material that
resembles cassette or 8-track recording tape. The magnetic
material stores information as sequences of the digits "0" and "1"
(hence the name digital storage). Since it takes many bytes to store
such things as letters, words, and sentences, the amount of
information that a Hard Drive can store is measured in multiples of
1000-bytes, 1,000,000 bytes, or 1,000,000,000 bytes. Terms such
as kilobyte (1000 bytes or 1KB), megabyte (1,000,000 bytes or
1MB), and gigabyte (1,000,000,000 bytes or 1GB) have evolved to
represent these storage capacities. When you purchase a
computer, get as large a Hard Drive as you can afford. The
standard in 1998 was between 4GB and 8GB. The Hard Disk Drive
is often referred to as the "C:" drive.

 Floppy Diskette: The floppy diskette is a removable
storage device that is used by the Floppy Diskette
Drive (also known as the A: drive or FDD). This
storage device is capable of holding 1,440,000 bytes
(1.44MB) of data. The Floppy Diskette is inserted and
removed from a slotted opening on the front of the
computer case.
 Keyboard: The main tool to get information into the
computer and the most common way to tell the
computer what you want it to do. Most keyboards
have the same arrangement of keys as a typical
typewriter keyboard. Computer keyboards have
additional keys that perform computer-specific
functions. bps.

 Modem: A telecommunications peripheral device that
allows computer to communicate with one another via
conventional telephone lines. Modems are required
for home computers to access the Internet or to send
and receive facsimile transmissions (FAX). Modems
are rated by their speed in moving data from the
computer to the telephone line. This speed is
measured in bits per second (bps). Standard modern
modems are rated at 28,800 bps, 33,600 bps and
56,400 bps.
 Monitor: The "Television" screen that allows you to
see what the computer is doing. Many newcomers to
computing mistakenly think of the monitor as the
computer itself. Computers can operate without a
monitor, but computer users cannot.

Motherboard: The circuit board on which most of
the major electronic components are
situated. Most manufacturers integrate cable
attachment ports on the back-end of the
motherboard. They also include slots so that
owners can add their own cable attachment
ports. The slots are designed to accept
cards. These are normally found near the back of
the computer case.
Mouse: A common input device used to tell a
computer what it needs to do. With the invention
of the Macintosh and Windows operating systems,
computer users needed a device to point at
objects on the screen and select them.

 MS-DOS: An older operating system that powered personal
computers through their beginning years. Prior to the
development of the graphics-oriented Macintosh and
Windows operating systems, this system relied on typing
commands one line at a time to tell the computer what you
wanted it to do. This system is still in use in the Windows
family of software and still has many practical uses. Windows
3.1 relies on MS-DOS to operate. MS-DOS stands for
Microsoft-Disk Operating System.
 Network Card: A card that can be installed in one of the
motherboard slots to give the computer the ability to talk to
other computers with similar cards. A collection of similarly
equipped computers connected by specially designed cables
is known as a network. The mechanism (including languages
and protocols) used to communicate on a network are varied,
but the most common networking designs in use are Ethernet
and Token Ring.

 Operating System Software (OS): The instructions that allow the
computer to start working and permit it to run other programs. The
major OS software types include MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows
95, Windows NT, Macintosh, UNIX, and LINUX. The most popular
OS in use at present is Windows 95. Most computers come with
one of these pre-installed.
 Platform: The computer operating system and/or
architecture. Computers that are capable of running MS-DOS,
Windows 3.1 or Windows95/NT operating system software typically
have the Intel 486/Pentium CPU. Computers running the Macintosh
operating system software have a Motorola 68xxx/PowerPC
CPU. For the most part, these platforms are incompatible as they
have different rules and instructions for performing their tasks.
 Pentium - Pentium IV: Faster, larger CPU devices that are designed
to allow more computing instructions to occur per second. Most
computers manufactured in the past 6 to 7 years contain this
device.

Peripheral Device: Any device that is connected
to the computer in addition to the basic CPU-
Monitor-Keyboard-Mouse configuration. External
speakers, microphones, joysticks, printers, and
scanners are examples of peripherals.
Printer: A peripheral device that allows the
computer user to produce paper copies of the
information processed by the computer. Common
home printers spray ink on paper and are called
ink-jet printers. Office and school printers are
typically laser printers which work on the same
principle as a xerographic copy machine, using
electrostatic charges and toner cartridges to place
information on paper.

Program: A complex set of instructions that allow
the computer user to process data. Common
programs include word-processing, spreadsheets,
databases, drawing and painting, Internet tools,
and games. Programs are necessary for
computers to be useful to humans.
RAM: This acronym stands for Random Access
Memory. RAM is commonly called
memory". Memory is measured in megabytes
(MB) and usually comes in multiples of 2 or
4. The more RAM that a computer has, the better
it can carry out instructions. It is recommended
that a new computer have 32 MB, 64MB, or
128MB of RAM.

Hooking Up Computer
Computers are getting relatively easy to hook
up. The computer owner used to have to keep a
technical manual at his or her side to make sure
which wire connects to which port. Each of the
peripheral devices has a cable that needs to be
connected to the back of the computer. Most of
these cables have a special connector type that is
designed to fit one and only one type of port. You
may hear or read about "serial" ports, "parallel"
ports, 25-pin connectors, 9-pin connectors and
the like. Each of these descriptors refers to a
special wiring configuration. Each of the
connectors normally fits one and only one port on
the back of the computer.

Hooking Up Computer (Cont)
 Both the CPU housing and the monitor will have
conventional household power cords. These are the
3-prong variety and it is strongly recommended that
you plug the computer and monitor into a grounded
outlet instead of using the 2-prong converter (or just
cutting the grounding prong off). It is also
recommended that you purchase a high quality,
grounded, multi-outlet power strip that offers a good
measure of surge protection. During an electrical
storm, the best thing you can do for your computer is
to unplug it from the power source. Most insurance
claims on electrically damaged computer equipment
results from lightning damage that originated from the
telephone line connected to the modem. It is a wise
computer owner who not only "unplugs" his computer,
but disconnects the phone line, as well.

Hooking Up Computer (Cont)
Most new computers come with simple, easy
to follow instructions for connecting the
cables. If you ever plan to detach the cables
and move the computer to a new location, it
would be wise to get out a few bottles of
colored nail polish and paint some identifying
marks on the cables and above the ports so
that you can easily tell which wire belongs in
which socket. Many manufacturers are
beginning to color-code their connectors to
make setting up the computer easier.

Disk Drives
In the early days of computing, information storage
was done on magnetic tape, similar to VCR or
cassette tape. The disadvantage of using tape as
a storage device was that it could not be accessed
randomly. In other words, if information was
stored midway on the tape, the tape would have to
be forwarded or rewound to that position before
the information could be retrieved. The first Radio
Shack TRS-80's could have a cassette tape player
hooked to them and could then store
information. It was necessary for the user to write
down the tape recorder's counter position
whenever a new set of data was stored.

Disk Drives (cont)
This primitive means of storing and retrieving data
was soon replaced by the 5.25-inch floppy
disk. The wonderful thing about this disk was that
the computer itself kept track of where the
information was stored and could access
information from anywhere on the disk very
rapidly. The large floppy disk (named because of
its flexibility) was replaced by the 3.5-inch plastic
shielded diskette which proved to be more durable
and small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. The large
floppy disk could hold about 360 KB of information
while the diskette could hold up to 1.44 MB. New
diskette drive designs (called Superdrives) allow
as much as 120 MB of storage on a single disk!

Disk Drives (cont)
The workhorse of the modern PC is the hard disk
drive (HDD). A hard disk drive consists of a set of
stacked metal platters coated on both sides with a
magnetic recording material. The platters are read
by magnetic reading heads, each resembling the
tone-arm of a record player. The more platters
and reading heads built into the drive, the larger
the storage capacity. The HDD stores the
operating instructions needed by the computer to
start up and run properly. It is vital to keep the
HDD working properly in order for the computer to
remain healthy. The dreaded "Computer Crash"
normally occurs whenever the hard disk drive fails
to work. Maintaining the integrity of data on a
HDD has become an industry in itself.

Disk Drives (cont)
 Computers can have more than one HDD and more than one
diskette drive. The HDD is normally referred to as the "C:
Drive" while the diskette drive is commonly referred to as the
"A: Drive". A second diskette drive is usually designated as
the "B: Drive". Additional hard disk drives will be given
different drive labels, such as "F: Drive", "G: Drive", etc. On a
network, other storage devices can be "mapped" and used as
storage devices by the local computer. These drives will also
be assigned letters.
 Other drives attached to the computer (such as CD-ROM
Drives, Zip Drives, Jaz Drives and SCSI Drives) are assigned
additional drive letters so that the computer operator and the
computer can keep track of where the data will be coming
from or going to. The more complex the machine, the more
complex its maintenance.

Using of computer tech

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