Computer at its basics

Computer hardware is a very vast subject to discuss. To start with it is important to understand the basic processing cycle of a computer.

How computer works?

If you notice this diagram carefully you will notice that you is involved in two layers the blue and the green. This diagram explain the basic usage of computer commonly know as the IPO cycle or the Input Process Output Cycle. The user provides input to the computer through blue layer which consists of devices known as Input Devices. This input could be "2+3" here input says perform addition on 2 and 3. When this instruction is received by the brain of computer i.e. the CPU or Central Processing Unit, it evaluates the problem and generates the result. To pass this result back to the user the devices in green layer are used. These devices are known as Output devices. So the result 5 is either displayed on the screen or printed based on user's request respectively.

So now we are in the right position to define hardware. Hardware are the physical components of the computer which you can touch. Well nothing new in this definition. These hardware components are grouped into several categories. The broader ones you have already seen: Input devices like keyboard, mouse etc. Output devices like Monitor, printer etc. The third and the most complex part of computer hardware is CPU.

Central Processing Unit

Well we won't be digging much into CPU at this time. For now we should take CPU as a processing devices which processes the inputs and generates the output. In other words I evaluates the data given by the user to generate the desired results. This CPU consists of few other components like Memory, Processor etc. We'll be taking these topics individually.

Apart from the above mentioned devices we might also have other devices like microphone (mic), speaker, webcam, CD/DVD player etc. your job is to find which category they belong. Incase of any doubts post a comment. Thats'll for about the basics of hardware. See you later...

Memory Devices

Coming soon...

Processors

Coming soon...

What is Software?

When we start learning about computer, the first thing that we learn is "What is computer?". But here as you are already reading this blog using a computer so I expect that you know what a computer is... ;)

Well I also have a simple definition of computer - "Its an electronic device". When I say its an electronic device I don't want to point out that it runs on electricity but want to say that its NOT an ordinary electrical device like a fan or bulb. Computer runs on electronic chips called ICs like the one you can see on the right hand side. This ICs make computer a powerful device, with the power to take decision.

These ICs are used to design logics within computer. The logic could be as simple as addition of two numbers like 2+3=5 or any other complex logic. Here everything runs of electricity so information is sent and processed by turn these circuits ON and OFF.

Here comes the trick who turns these ICs ON and OFF. Is it the computer user or somebody else? The answer to this is Software. To make all this complicated circuits friendly to a general user software were introduced. These software are the logical entities which controls the computer. So we as a user interacts with software and software controls the hardware.

In the diagram you can notice new terms like System software, Application Software etc. please don't worry about them we'll be covering them shortly.

Now lets take our focus back to "What is software?"

Software is basically a collection of procedures or steps which needs to be followed to accomplish a task on computer. Yes this involves sending signals to the ICs, but all this is done internally. The software might involve different procedures for calculations, logical reasoning etc.

As a user we only need to learn how to use them. These software are really very user friendly like you are already experiencing. Aren't you using a software for reading this blog? let me guess is it Internet Explorer or Firefox or Opera or Safari.......the list goes on. In the world of computer you can find tons of software for doing the same thing. Many individuals or companies try to attract users by developing their own feature rich software.

So that's the abstract story of software. I'll be updating more on software in my next post... so keep visiting. Hope you enjoyed reading this. This is my first blog, your feedback would be highly valued. Thanks.

Types of Software

Hi, I hope you enjoyed reading my first post. Before we begin learning types of software lets have a look at software which we use everyday. When we use a remote control to operate a television, music system, air conditioner etc. who is listening the request sent by you to the gadget? Who understands and accordingly performs the desired action? The answer to this is Software. Software are embedded or stored inside these gadget to control them in a user friendly manner.

Software can be classified technically into several different types. But as a beginner we'll categorize software into two categories.

System Software

Till now what all I wrote about software was pointing to controling and managing the devices. These type of software which actually controls the computer or any other electronic gadget is a System Software.

Let us see an example of a system software: when you turn on your PC you need to wait for sometime and later you see a screen and then you start working. What exactly happens inside computer when you were waiting for it to start? During that time a system software named Operating System starts or load itself to make your machine ready to be used.

Operating System is a very complex system software which entirely controls your computer. This piece of software is active from the time you started your machine and till the time you turn it off. Every action perfomed by you using keyboard, mouse or any other device is actually sent to the Operating System. So even if you are moving a mouse, clicking it, playing a music or surfing everything you are doing using an operating system. Most common operating system used is Microsoft Windows, other famous operating system are Apple's Mac, LINUX, UNIX, Solaris etc.

But do we really need to learn system software to use a computer?

No, we don't have to struggle in learning system software. What we are more interested in is the second type of software called Application Software.

Application Software

Lets see where this category fits in the complete scenario between User, System Software and Computer.

Now you can see by the diagram that user really dont have to worry about system software. To perform any sort of task like writing a document, doing some calculation, watching movie, surfing or even playing game etc. what we actually need is an Application Software.

There are different application software for different purposes. Application software are innumerable many comes in for free and many are paid. Before using any application software
we need to follow some simple steps called Installation. Few example for an application software would be Notepad, Microsoft PowerPoint, Internet Explorer etc.

Installation

Installation is a small step by step process of let your operating system know that you are interested in using an application software. In this process the files of your application software are copied to their proper location on you machine and a small notification is given to the operating system because at the end every application software runs on an operating system.

Points to remember:

1. Every machine should have an operating system.
2. At one time there is only one operating system running on your machine.
3. On the contrary, there can be multiple application software running simultaneously.
4. For any application software to use you must install it first.
5. You can install different applications for same purpose like Internet Explorer and Firefox both are used for same purpose i.e. surfing but belongs to different company.