Learn Fundamentals of Computers

We believe today that we all know about computers. When someone considers a computer as old one after watching a white monitor, I have to think that do people know the fundamentals of computers? Majority of people, who use computers daily, does not know the fundamentals of computers. At least this is true for my city Jamnagar. I don't know about the world. This is the reason why I am going to discuss the fundamentals of computers.

Computers are much like our body.

Yes, we can compare computers with our body. We know that we have some materialistic elements in our body, which we can see and touch such as hands, legs, skin, blood, etc. If we want to behave like a living one, we must have some other elements which are untouchable such as sole, feelings, wisdom, etc. Like our body, which is made from materialistic and celestial elements, computers are also made form touchable and untouchable elements. In computers, touchable elements are called hardware and the elements that we can't touch are called software.

It is the hardware that creates the outlook of computers. Depending upon the hardware, the computer will look like a television set or like a mobile phone. It may look like a notebook or a like a room filled with many cables and electronic parts. Different types of hardware are used to build different types of computers. A complete computer system should have three kinds of hardware such as Input Devices, Processing Devices and Output Devices. These three types of hardware are the necessary parts of computers. We cannot recognize only input devices or output devices as a computer. Yes, the processing devices are the key parts of a computer system. Therefore, the unit of these devices can be recognized as a computer. Let us discuss these devices in detail.

• • Input Devices:

These devices are used to input data, information and commands to a computer system. A computer can work when it has proper data. A computer without input devices is like a human without tongue, eyes, nose, ears and skin. The computer is not a living human being. It needs commands to work with data. Without commands, the computer is like a car without a driver. Different types of input devices are used with computers such as keyboard, mouse, scanner, webcam, touch screen, bar code reader, etc. We will discuss these devices in detail later in this chapter.

• • Processing Devices:

Processing devices are the key parts of a computer system. It is like a brain of our body. Unit of processing Devices is called CPU (Central Processing Unit). This unit receives data from input devices. It keeps the data in its temporary memory and stores it if necessary. Then it processes data according to given commands. When the processed data are ready it gives us on output devices or stores it if necessary. A CPU is a unit of devices such as RAM, ROM, Processor, Storage Disks and Drives, Motherboard, SMPS, Cards etc. These devices are discussed later in this chapter.

• • Output Devices:

These devices help us to receive processed data from the CPU. Output Devices are monitor, printer and speaker. These devices are discussed later in this chapter.

From the above discussion, we learnt that a complete computer system has three kinds of hardware. Computer system receives data and commands from us by its input devices. It processes data according to given commands and gives us processed data (result) by its output devices.

Graphical presentation of the working process of computer system.