malolo2012

Computer Hardware

Posted: September 22nd 2012

Tatap muka ke 4 kali ini, akan membahas tentang Hardware. Mungkin sebagian dari kalian akan berkata,”Apa’an, gak perlu kuliah jugak dari SD aku udah tau Hardware Komputer tu apa aja”, or maybe you’ll say,”It’s a piece of cake”, if you think so, well, maybe it’s your knowledge that’s the piece, but THIS is the whole cake, believe me, it’s not as easy as what you think it is.

Let’s start from the basic, the hardware components :

• CPU (central processing unit)/system unit : CPU is a microprocessor that executes instructions to perform processing tasks.
• Memory (primary and secondary storage) : Electronic components that store instructions, data, and results.
• Input devices : It is any hardware component used to enter data or instructions.
• Output devices : It is any hardware component that can convey information to user.

Now, we’ll get into whole new different level than “a piece of cake”, we’ll describe all of the components, one by one.

1. Central Processing Unit

Also called a processor. Carries out instructions that tell computer what to do. It consist of two main components on the motherboard. Motherboard is a main circuit board in system unit contains adapter cards, processor chips, and memory chips, it’s also called system board. Now, what is two main components on the motherboard? First is a thing that carries out instructions that tell computer what to do that we called Processor, and the second one is Memory, it’s temporary holding place for data and instructions. And that’s also something in the CPU called microprocessorthat executes instructions to perform processing tasks. The component parts of microprocessor are:

– Control Unit : It is the one that control the access of program and decode (interpret) instructions, and control flow of data throughout system. So we can call it “Busy” part.

– Arithmetic-Logic Unit : And here is the one that perform computations and perform comparisons on data.

– Registers : This the part where we “store” our data and instructions.

– Primary Storage (we’ll describe it later in the second part)

2. Memory  

Also known as main memory, it’s a electronic components that store instructions, data, and results. It consists of one or more chips on motherboard or other circuit board. It’s also consist of primary and secondary memory.

-Primary Storage is a High-capacity temporary storage area, it consist of three things, information you are working with, the application software you are using , and the operating system software. There are many types of Primary Storage, such as Register, Random Access Memory (RAM), Cache Memory, and Read-only Memory (ROM).

-Secondary memory : Nonvolatile Huge storage capacity of memory that can be erased electronically and reprogrammed.

And now, computers are commonly classified by their processing power, and they are:

1. Supercomputers
2. Mainframes
3. Midrange
4. Workstations
5. Microcomputers
6. Computing appliances

3. Input Devices 

Input device is any hardware component used to enter data or instructions. There two kind of input :

1. Data : It’s an unprocessed text, numbers, images, audio, and video.
2. Instructions : Which is consist of programs, commands, and user responses.

Input Devices divided by 2 kind of orientation, which are :

• Human-oriented : such as Keyboard, Mice / trackball, Touch screens, Stylus, Joystick, and Microphone.
• Automated such as ATMs, POSs, Optical, Scanners, Voice recognition, Sensors, and Cameras.

4. Output Devices

Output device is any hardware component that can convey information to user. Nowadays, there’s some kind of Strategic Hardware Issues, such as :

1. Productivity : Will employees’ personal productivity increase as microprocessor power and speed increases?
2. Changing Work Styles : Will new work styles will benefit employees and the firm as a whole?
3. New Products and Services : Is the organization ready and able to take advantage of the new products and services that hardware advances may make possible for the business?
4. Improved Communication : Is the organization ready to use multimedia for knowledge sharing?

In fact, that kind of issues not only exist in Indonesia 😮 .

And now, it’s now the time to say goodbye for now, thank you for reading, and join me again next week, see ya’ll.

---