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How Does A Computer Work

The computer has three primary jobs: information processing, information storage, and information movement and communication. It processes information by changing it from one form to another using instructions in machine language. It stores information in system memory (RAM) for short-term use and in longer-term storage like files. It moves information from place to place using input/output and networking to communicate with other devices and machines. Computers use binary digital information represented by ones and zeros for simplicity, expandability, clarity, and speed in making millions of decisions per second. Software programs and procedures perform tasks, while hardware refers to physical devices connected to the computer. Compilers translate high-level languages into machine language that computers can understand. When a key is

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92 views

How Does A Computer Work

The computer has three primary jobs: information processing, information storage, and information movement and communication. It processes information by changing it from one form to another using instructions in machine language. It stores information in system memory (RAM) for short-term use and in longer-term storage like files. It moves information from place to place using input/output and networking to communicate with other devices and machines. Computers use binary digital information represented by ones and zeros for simplicity, expandability, clarity, and speed in making millions of decisions per second. Software programs and procedures perform tasks, while hardware refers to physical devices connected to the computer. Compilers translate high-level languages into machine language that computers can understand. When a key is

Uploaded by

Lznh Emtiro
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How the PC Works

The Computer's Primary Jobs How the Computer Computes

The Computer's Primary Jobs

Information Processing (Computation)


information transformation changing information from one form to another. Instructions special form of information the computer processes These are the commands that programmers give the computer to tell it what to do. machine language The language that computers speak

The Computer's Primary Jobs

Information Storage
system memory or RAM holds information that you or the computer are working with right now. Instructions special form of information the computer processes This is the computer's "short term memory" Longer-term storage where information is stored permanently in the form of files

The Computer's Primary Jobs

Information Movement and Communication


The computer also controls the movement of information from place to place. It reads the information you type on the keyboard, moves it into memory and eventually displays it on the screen or stores it in a file. This movement is called input/output or I/O and is how the computer talks to you as well as devices that are connected to it.

Moving information between machines is also an important part of modern computing. The computer uses networking components, modems and cables to allow it to communicate with other machines. This is called, networking

How the Computer Computes

Digital and Analog Information


computer is a device that manipulates information, sometimes also called "data"
Analog information Information that is continuous, that is, any piece of information that can take on any of an infinite set of values

Digital information restricted to a finite set of values.


Computers use a form of digital information called binary information.

How the Computer Computes

Digital and Analog Information


Computers use binary information for several reasons:
Simplicity: It is the simplest, most compact and least ambiguous way to express information about something: for example, zero=off and one=on could be used to represent the status of a regular light bulb. Expandability: It is easy to build on and expand: you can use two binary values together to represent the status of two light bulbs. Clarity: Errors are reduced when a value can only be one or zero; the computer knows there are no values in between, which is useful when electrical signals become "dirty". If a 0.95 value shows up on your modem line, the computer knows it is probably really a 1, since 0.95 isn't a valid value. It will interpret the 0.95 as a 1, and no data will be lost as a result. Speed: Computers make millions of decisions a second, and these decisions are easier to make when the number of values is small.

How the Computer Computes

The Mathematics of Computing


Humans represent numbers using decimal notation: that is, each digit can have one of ten values, zero through nine. This is also called base 10 mathematics Binary information uses only ones and zeros of course, which would be base 2 mathematics. A shorthand for binary numbers is hexadecimal notation. These are numbers in base 16 mathematics. A set of eight bits, or two hexadecimal digits, is called a byte. Each character you read on this screen is represented by one byte (in most cases), as part of the ASCII character set.

How the Computer Computes

Hardware and Software


Software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, procedures, and documentation that perform some task on a computer system. Hardware is best described as a device that is physically connected to the computer or something that can be physically touched.

How the Computer Computes

Human Instructions and Computer Instructions


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How the Computer Computes

Computer Languages
The only languages that a computer understands is its own binary machine language.

Example simply to tell the computer to add the numbers 181 and 207 together, the command might be "01101001 00110100 10110101 11001111". A special program called a compiler is used to translate (or compile) the high-level language instructions into a form the computer can understand.

How the Computer Computes

Example: What Happens When You Press A Key


The keyboard sends an electrical signal, called a scan code, to the computer saying that a button was pressed. The keyboard controller interprets the scan code and determines that the letter pressed was an "M". It stores this "M" in a special memory location until the processor is ready to deal with it. The controller sends a signal to the processor, called an interrupt. An interrupt tells the processor that some part of the computer has information for it to process and wants its attention. In this case, the keyboard controller wants the processor to look at the key you just pressed. The processor is almost always doing many things, sharing its time among many tasks. As a result, most every event must wait its turn. The processor services interrupts based on their priority. When it is time to deal with the keypress, the processor routes it to the program for the operating system that you are using. Assuming you are using a multi-tasking operating system like Windows, the operating system software decides which window you pressed the key in and sends a message to that window telling it a key was pressed. The window decides what to do with the keypress. Since in this case it's your word processor window, and the key you pressed was an ordinary letter, the word processor will add that letter to its working area for the file you have open. The letter will take one byte of your computer's memory (RAM). Other keys could be handled differently (for example, if you pressed the key to tell the word processor to exit). The window will then call the operating system to display the letter on the screen. The operating system will display the letter on the screen by adding it to your video card's video memory. The next time the video card refreshes your monitor (re-displays what is in its video memory) the letter will appear on the screen. Most video cards refresh the monitor between 60 and 100 times per second.

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