18/04/2021
Some basic facts about computers.....
✓There are many different types of computers, including but not limited to personal computers, workstations, mainframe computers and supercomputers. Smartphones and tablets are also classified as a computer.
✓A personal computer is a computer that is used for personal use in the home.
A workstation is a computer used by businesses and educators for design, technical and scientific purposes.
✓A mainframe is a computer used by businesses for large data processing and other critical applications.
✓A supercomputer is a computer that can operate at a very high level and reaches performance levels that are vastly greater than general-purpose computers.
✓A computer is generally made up of a CPU, motherboard, memory (RAM) and storage. If a computer’s motherboard doesn’t have integrated graphics and sound it would also have a sound card and a graphics card.
✓A CPU is a central processing unit that executes instructions from a computer program.
✓A motherboard is what connects and allows all the parts of a computer to communicate with each other.
✓RAM is the random-access memory that allows temporary data to be read and written at the same time.
✓Storage, or the hard drive disk, is where all the long term data is stored for a computer.
A sound card is used by a computer to input and output audio signals.
✓A graphics card, also called a video card, is used by a computer to output video signals to an external device, like a computer monitor.
A computer monitor is used to display video received from a computer.
✓A computer keyboard is used to input numerical, alphabetical and special characters to a computer.
✓A computer mouse is used to move a pointer on a computer monitor and has buttons that can be used to execute functions on the computer.
✓There are many other devices, known as peripheral devices, that can be added to a computer, including but not limited to a printer, image scanner, web camera, microphone, headphone and speakers.
