Some Important Terms Related to Computer
Data The word data has been derived from Latin word ‘datum’ (Means facts). It is a collection of facts and figures which are not in directly usable form. Processing The act of performing some actions to convert into useful form. Information It is processed data or final result which is in directly usable form and conveys some meaningful results. Instruction It is type of action to be taken on data. Basic Operations Input, Storing, Processing, Output, Control.
Components of a Computer
- Input Unit
It accepts data and instructions from the user. It converts the accepted instructions into the machine language. It gives converted instructions to CPU for processing. eg, Key board, Mouse, Light Pen, Joystick, Mag netic Ball, OCR (Op ti cal Char ac ter Reader), Floppy Disk Drive, Mag netic Disk Drive, Bar Code Reader, Smart Card Reader, Bio met ric Sen sor, Touch Screen, Punched Card Reader, Sty lus and Tab let, Puck or Mi cro phone, Dig i tal Cam era, Scanner, etc.
- Central Processing Unit (CPU)
All processing work of computer is performed by it. It is also termed as brain of computer. It controls all the parts of computer system. It is further classified into three components
- (i) Arithmetic Section :: All com plex arith me ticex pres sionsare per formed by re pet i tive com bi na tionof these op er a tions.
- (ii) Logic Section :: It performs all logic op er a tions like com par ing, se lect ing and merg ing of data.
It accepts processed data (results) from CPU. It converts results from machine language into some simple language. It displays results to user. eg, Vi sual Dis play Unit (VDU), Printer, Plot ter, Floppy Disk Drive, Mag netic Disk Drive, Speaker, Pen Drive, etc. Soft ware It is a set of in struc tions that di rects the com puter to pro cess in for ma tion. It can be clas si fied into three types
- (i) Sys tem Soft wareIt co or di natesthe op er a tion of the var i ous hard ware com po nentsof the com puter. eg, MS DOS, Win dows 95/98/2000/XP/Vista, Linux and UNIX.
- (ii) Ap pli ca tion Soft ware It is a set of pro gram de signed for spe cific uses or ap pli ca tions eg, MS Word, MS Ex cel etc.
- (iii) Util i ties Soft ware Util ity pro grams are those that are very of ten re quested by many ap pli ca tion pro grams. It is used to de bug the soft ware er rors, cor rect the data through the ed i tor, sort data, etc. eg, Pkzip, Anti Vi rus Software, etc.