Good day everyone!
Alright! today I want to teach us what "Computer Systems" is all about. First of all let's start by defining what a computer system is, then we will proceed by explaining the major components of a computer system. So let's go...
What is a Computer System?
The word System has several commonly used meanings. There are, for example, the telephone systems, the digestive systems, and grading systems. For our own purposes, a computer system is a group of devices, commonly called "hardware" that together with sets of instructions, called "programs" or "software", perform information processing functions.
The main purpose of all computer systems is to process data quickly and efficiently so that information obtained is timely, meaningful, and accurate. In order to achieve this, data is sent in as input, processed by the computer system and the information obtained after is known as output.
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Input/Process/Output Cycle
A computer is a machine that is used to process data. A formal definition is given below:
A computer is any machine or device which under the control of a stored program, can accept data in prescribed form (input), process the data and supply the results as information in a specified format (output).
When a computer is used, data must be presented to it in a prescribed form, this is called data input format. The form in which data is supplies to the computer program is also used to determine the format in which the results are to be supplied; this is called Output.
The picture below describes computing very simply. A computer is used to solve a problem. The problem is put into the computer as input the computer does the processing and if all goes well the solution comes out as output; otherwise, we get error messages as output.
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Computer Hardware
Hardware is the word used to describe the electro-mechanical components of a computer system. This is the computer equipment itself. It consists of all the bits and pieces of the computer. The basic parts of a computer's hardware consist of input devices, arithmetic and logic unit, control unit, memory, output devices and external storage devices.
1) Input devices
Input devices are equipment used to get instructions into the computer. The two most common input devices are the keyboard and the mouse.
1i)The Keyboard: The keyboard reseembles QWERTY typewriter keyboard, but usually has several additional keys which are used to control and edit the display. The key contains:
alphabetical keys in the original layout known as the QWERTY layout along with;
numerical keys both above the alphabet and in a separate optional group;
special character keys;
control keys, for example, shift key, return key, cursor control on a VDU e.t.c;
function keys, processing function used by a program.
1ii) The Mouse: This is a simple device that moves a pointer around the computer screen and enables simple commands to be sent to the computer screen. It normally works in conjunction with a keyboard and is dependent on software been used.
Conclusion
Alright! This is end of Computer Systems Series 1, we will continue from series two tomorrow. So please don't miss any series as it will be very impactful. Hope you learnt something new today in my first series? If yes, please make sure you drop a comment in the comment section below! Thanks for reading through! I will see you in the next series. source
