Computer hardware is the physical part of a computer, including the digital circuitry, as distinguished from the computer software

that executes within the hardware. The hardware of a computer is infrequently changed, in comparison with software and data, which are "soft" in the sense that they are readily created, modified or erased on the computer. Firmware is a special type of software that rarely, if ever, needs to be changed and so is stored on hardware devices such as read-only memory (ROM) where it is not readily changed (and is therefore "firm" rather than just "soft").

A. Input Hardware/Unit
1. TEXT DEVICES
a peripheral modeled after the typewriter keyboard. Keyboards are designed for the input of text and characters, and also to control the operation of a computer. Physically, computer keyboards are an arrangement of rectangular or near-rectangular buttons, or "keys". Keyboards typically have characters engraved or printed on the keys; in most cases, each press of a key corresponds to a single written symbol. However, to produce some symbols requires pressing and holding several keys simultaneously, or in sequence; other keys do not produce any symbol, but instead affect the operation of the computer, or the keyboard itself.

2. Pointing Devices
MOUSE - is a handheld computer pointing device, designed to sit under one hand of the user and detect movement relative to its supporting surface. In addition, it usually features buttons and/or other devices, such as "wheels", which allow performing various system-dependent operations. TRACKBALL - pointing device consisting of a ball housed in a socket containing sensors to detect rotation of the ball about two axeslike an upsidedown mouse, but with the ball sticking out more. The user rolls the ball with their thumb, fingers, or the palm of their hand to move a cursor.

B. Processing Hardware Unit

The computer you are using to read this page uses a microprocessor to do its work. The microprocessor is the heart of any normal computer, whether it is a desktop machine, a server or a laptop. The microprocessor might be a Pentium, a K6, a PowerPC, a Sparc or any of the many other brands and types of microprocessors, but they all do approximately the same thing in approximately the same way.

B. Processing Hardware Unit (Cont.)

A microprocessor -- also known as a CPU or central processing unit -- is a complete computation engine that is fabricated on a single chip. The first microprocessor was the Intel 4004, introduced in 1971. The 4004 was not very powerful -- all it could do was add and subtract, and it could only do that 4 bits at a time. But it was amazing that everything was on one chip. Prior to the 4004, engineers built computers either from collections of chips or from discrete components (transistors wired one at a time). The 4004 powered one of the first portable electronic calculators.

B. Processing Hardware Unit (Cont.)

The first microprocessor to make it into a home computer was the Intel 8080, a complete 8-bit computer on one chip, introduced in 1974. The first microprocessor to make a real splash in the market was the Intel 8088, introduced in 1979 and incorporated into the IBM PC (which first appeared around 1982). If you are familiar with the PC market and its history, you know that the PC market moved from the 8088 to the 80286 to the 80386 to the 80486 to the Pentium to the Pentium II to the Pentium III to the Pentium 4. All of these microprocessors are made by Intel and all of them are improvements on the basic design of the 8088. The Pentium 4 can execute any piece of code that ran on the original 8088, but it does it about 5,000 times faster!

Output Hardware Unit

1. Monitor (also known as computer
screen, or computer video display) - is a device that can display signals generated by a computer as images on a screen. (From the Latin verb moneo: to warn, advise.) There are many types of monitors, but they generally conform to display standards. Once an essential component of computer terminals, computer displays have long since become standardised peripherals in their own right.

C. Output Hardware Unit (Cont.)

PRINTERS are devices that produce hard copy (permanent human-readable text and/or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies). Many printers are primarily used as computer peripherals, and are permanently attached to a computer which serves as a document source. - The world's first computer printer was a 19thcentury mechanically driven apparatus invented by Charles Babbage for his Difference Engine.

D. Storage Hardware Unit

Nearly every desktop computer and server in use today contains one or more hard-disk drives. Every mainframe and supercomputer is normally connected to hundreds of them. You can even find VCR-type devices and camcorders that use hard disks instead of tape. These billions of hard disks do one thing well -they store changing digital information in a relatively permanent form. They give computers the ability to remember things when the power goes out.

D. Storage Hardware Unit (Con.t)

Hard disks were invented in the 1950s. They started as large disks up to 20 inches in diameter holding just a few megabytes. They were originally called "fixed disks" or "Winchesters" (a code name used for a popular IBM product). They later became known as "hard disks" to distinguish them from "floppy disks." Hard disks have a hard platter that holds the magnetic medium, as opposed to the flexible plastic film found in tapes and floppies.

D. Storage Hardware Unit (Con.t)

At the simplest level, a hard disk is not that different from a cassette tape. Both hard disks and cassette tapes use the same magnetic recording techniques described in How Tape Recorders Work. Hard disks and cassette tapes also share the major benefits of magnetic storage -the magnetic medium can be easily erased and rewritten, and it will "remember" the magnetic flux patterns stored onto the medium for many years.

E. Other Input Devices

GAMING
Joystick often used to control games, and usually have one or more push-buttons whose state can also be read by the computer. Most I/O interface cards for PCs have a joystick (game control) port. Gamepad - A gamepad, also called joypad or control pad, is a type of game controller held with both hands where the thumbs are used to provide input. Gamepads generally feature a set of action buttons handled with the right thumb and a direction controller handled with the left. The direction controller has traditionally been a four-way digital cross (D-pad), but most modern controllers additionally (or as a substitute) feature an analog stick. Game Controller - an input device used to control a video game

E. Other Input Devices (Cont.)

IMAGE/VIDEO:
Scanners - device that analyzes a physical image (such as a photograph, printed text, or handwriting) or an object (such as an ornament) and converts it to a digital image.

Webcam - is a real-time camera whose images can be accessed using the World Wide Web, instant messaging, or a PC video calling application.

AUDIO: Microphone - an acoustic to electric transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, tape recorders, hearing aids, motion picture production, live and recorded audio engineering, in radio and television broadcasting and in computers for recording voice, VoIP and numerous other computer applications.

E. Other Output Devices

Speakers - are external speakers and are usually
equipped with a male-end phono plug for computer sound cards; however, there are some that have female RCA (phono) plug ports, and some people link computer sound cards to nearby stereo systems. There are also USB speakers which gain their power from the 5 volts of a USB port. Computer speakers are usually a simplified stereo system without a radio or other media sources built in.

Headsets - are a pair of transducers that receive an

electrical signal from a media player or receiver and use speakers placed in close proximity to the ears (hence the name earphone) to convert the signal into audible sound waves.

F. History of Microprocessing Chips

The introduction of the microprocessor in the 1970s significantly affected the design and implementation of CPUs. Since the introduction of the first microprocessor (the Intel 4004) in 1970 and the first widely used microprocessor (the Intel 8080) in 1974, this class of CPUs has almost completely overtaken all other central processing unit implementation methods. Mainframe and minicomputer manufacturers of the time launched proprietary IC development programs to upgrade their older computer architectures, and eventually produced instruction set compatible microprocessors that were backwardcompatible with their older hardware and software. Combined with the advent and eventual vast success of the now ubiquitous personal computer, the term "CPU" is now applied almost exclusively to microprocessors.

F. History of Microprocessing Chips (Cont.)

Previous generations of CPUs were implemented as discrete components and numerous small integrated circuits (ICs) on one or more circuit boards. Microprocessors, on the other hand, are CPUs manufactured on a very small number of ICs; usually just one. The overall smaller CPU size as a result of being implemented on a single die means faster switching time because of physical factors like decreased gate parasitic capacitance. This has allowed synchronous microprocessors to have clock rates ranging from tens of megahertz to several gigahertz. Additionally, as the ability to construct exceedingly small transistors on an IC has increased, the complexity and number of transistors in a single CPU has increased dramatically. This widely observed trend is described by Moore's law, which has proven to be a fairly accurate predictor of the growth of CPU (and other IC) complexity to date.

F. History of Microprocessing Chips (Cont.)

While the complexity, size, construction, and general form of CPUs have changed drastically over the past sixty years, it is notable that the basic design and function has not changed much at all. Almost all common CPUs today can be very accurately described as Von Neumann stored-program machines.

F. History of Microprocessing Chips (Cont.)

As the aforementioned Moore's law continues to hold true, concerns have arisen about the limits of integrated circuit transistor technology. Extreme miniaturization of electronic gates is causing the effects of phenomena like electromigration and subthreshold leakage to become much more significant. These newer concerns are among the many factors causing researchers to investigate new methods of computing such as the quantum computer, as well as to expand the usage of parallelism and other methods that extend the usefulness of the classical Von Neumann model.

G. Secondary Storage Technology

Floppy disk - a data storage device that is
composed of a ring of thin, flexible (i.e. "floppy") magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD, the latter initialism not to be confused with "fixed disk drive", which is an old IBM term for a hard disk drive.

G. Secondary Storage Technology (cont.)

CD-R - works by replacing the aluminum layer in a normal CD with an organic dye compound. This compound is normally reflective, but when the laser focuses on a spot and heats it to a certain temperature, it "burns" the dye, causing it to darken. When you want to retrieve the data you wrote to the CD-R, the laser moves back over the disc and thinks that each burnt spot is a bump. The problem with this approach is that you can only write data to a CD-R once. After the dye has been burned in a spot, it cannot be changed back.

G. Secondary Storage Technology (cont.)

Flash memory - is a type of solid-state technology, which basically means that there are no moving parts. Inside the chip is a grid of columns and rows, with a two-transistor cell at each intersecting point on the grid.

H. Block Diagram of a Typical Computer System

The von Neumann (CISC) architecture employs a single bus. CISC stands for Complex Instruction Set Computer. A singlebus system is illustrated. The Harvard (RISC) architecture utilizes two busses - a separate data bus and an address bus. RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computer.
Relationships are shown between the CPU, DRAM, local bus, and the peripherals, which connect to the motherboard. The ISA bus, SCSI Bus, PCI bus and USB Bus are shown. Some typical PC parameters are given, along with a Graphics Resolution chart.