Computer Hardware and Software Basics

• Computer systems consist of hardware and software

• Hardware includes physical components like the screen, keyboard, case, mouse, and cables

• Software is the set of instructions that activate the hardware, including operating systems (Windows, Linux, MacOS), office applications, programming languages (Pascal, Fortran, C), and graphics software (Photoshop, AutoCad)

• BIOS/OS mediates between hardware and software

• Basic computer hardware includes a screen, keyboard-mouse set, and the system unit (case)

• The screen displays information

• The system unit contains the microprocessor, motherboard, memory card, video card, hard drive, sound card, CD-DVD drives

• The system unit connects cards, cables, and sockets

• Additional cards like modems, Ethernet cards, or TV cards may also be present, either on the motherboard or plugged into it

Motherboard

• The motherboard is an electronic circuit that houses all the components of a computer and manages communication between them

• A motherboard supports a processor, RAM, sound card, video card, modem, ethernet card, TV card, and SCSI card slots, as well as keyboard, hard disk, floppy disk drive, serial and parallel port controllers, and chipsets

• Data transfer on the motherboard occurs through electronic pathways called "buses"

• Buses are divided into System Bus and I/O (input/output) Bus

• System Bus handles data flow between the processor and RAM

• I/O Buses manage communication between peripheral cards and the external world, as well as to the processor

• Slots on the motherboard that accommodate expansion cards are called slots

• Slots such as VESA, EISA, ISA (older motherboards), PCI, PCI Express, and AGP are used

• Modern motherboards use PCI slots and PCI-E video card sockets

• Key components on the motherboard include the microprocessor and integrated circuits that manage the system's data path, known as the northbridge and southbridge

Microprocessors

• Microprocessors, also known as the Central Processing Unit (CPU), are considered the "brain" of the computer

• Microprocessors are electronic components that process data according to a program

• Transistors form the core structure of a microprocessor, with hundreds of millions present in a single chip

• A microprocessor retrieves program instructions from memory, decodes them, executes them, and activates or deactivates system elements based on the instructions

• This process utilizes three main units and communication pathways called data paths, address paths, and control paths

• Microprocessors consist of three main units: Registers, Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU), and Control Unit

• The registers, arithmetic logic unit and control unit communicate with each other according to a program, processing data