URDANETA CITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY
Owned and operated by the City Government of Urdaneta
AND ARCHITECTURE

MODULE 1
ELEMENTS OF COMPUTER SYSTEM

INTRODUCTION:

This module presents the fundamentals of information technology. It talks

about the basic concepts of information. You will be exploring the elements
involved in the operation of computer systems and learn to appreciate what it
can bring to this information age.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
After studying the module, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the concepts of information.

2. Identify the elements of computer system.
3. Categorize different types of applications software.

DIRECTIONS/MODULE ORGANIZER:
There are three lessons in the module. Read each lesson carefully then
answer the activities. For instructions about submission, you will be guided by
your instructor.

In case you encounter difficulty, do not hesitate to discuss this with your
instructor during the face-to-face meeting or through other means of
communication.

Bright future starts here

Module 1: Fundamentals of Information Technology
 URDANETA CITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY
Owned and operated by the City Government of Urdaneta
AND ARCHITECTURE

LESSON 2
ELEMENTS OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS

What is a computer?

A computer is a machine that stores, retrieves, and processes

information, or data. You can use a computer to type documents, send email,
and browse the internet. You can also use it to perform tasks such as
accounting, database management, presentations, games, and more.

Computers come in different shapes, forms, and sizes. Personal

computers are maybe the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear
about computer, like desktop or laptop computers. But aside from those, there
are also mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; supercomputers
which are sophisticated computers that do complex tasks such as predicting
theweather or artificial intelligence; and embedded systems like the ones
youfind on self-driving cars or those that control other mechanical devices.

Elements of Computer System

A computer system is a system that consists of hardware, software and

people that are constituted to collect, manipulate, store, and process data into
information.

A. Hardware

Hardware are the physical computer equipment used in computer

systems. They can be categorized as input device, central processing unit,
storage device, and output device.

An input device is a
hardware that is used toenter
data into a computer or a
similar processing device such
as a smartphone. Examples
are keyboard, mouse,
touchpad, joystick,
touchscreen, scanner,
microphone, and digital
camera.

Bright future starts here

Module 1: Fundamentals of Information Technology
 URDANETA CITY
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
AND ARCHITECTURE
Owned and operated by the City Government of Urdaneta

Storage device

Is any physical device where data are stored. Examples of storage devices
include hard disk, DVDs, CDs, magnetic tape, Flash drive/thumb drive/Flash
memory (USB memory sticks). This is where your files and data go to. There are
two types of storage devices: primary storage, which is the Random-Access
Memory or RAM, and the secondary storage such as flash drives, CDs, hard
disks, and SD cards. Primary storage is volatile, which means that it needs a
continuous supply of electricity to store data. When you turn off the computer
the data stored in the device is lost.

On the other hand, secondary devices are non-volatile, which does not need
the continuous supply of electricity so that when you turn off your computer,
the data or files will still be in the device.

An output device is the hardware that is used to output or reproduce data

that has been previously entered into a computer. For example, a printer is an
output device that will produce a page of information when the correct
commands are sent to it from a computer. Some examples include monitor,
printer, plotter, projector, speaker, headphones, light / LED.

Bright future starts here Module 1: Fundamentals of Information Technology

 URDANETA CITY
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
AND ARCHITECTURE
Owned and operated by the City Government of Urdaneta

A. Software

A computer needs to be told what to do, otherwise it is just a physical entity

doing nothing. It needs a software. Software are the programming instructions
that tell your computer what to do. Software enables you to use a computer
for things such as playing games, writing an essay, or listening to music. There
are two main types of software. They are system software and application
software. The system software controls the way the computer works and tells
it what to do. This software is vital to the operation of the computer. Without
it, the computer simply would not work. Examples include operating system,
utilities, user interface.

The other type of software is called application software. It is this type of

software that lets you do specific tasks such as creating documents,
communicating with people, playing games, and more. Some examples
include, word processors, e-spreadsheets, databases, games, web browser and
more. Unlike system software, the application software is not vital to the
operation of the computer. For example, a game is an application software that
even without it the computer will still work.

C. Peopleware

Peopleware can refer to anything that has to do with the role of using and
development of computer software and hardware systems. Some of these
roles are computer operators, system administrators, computer programmers,
and computer technician.

Computer operators are those who regularly use the computer. They use the
computers for specific tasks like creating documents and spreadsheets. They
are sometimes called the end users. Simply, these are anyone who use a

Bright future starts here Module 1: Fundamentals of Information Technology

 URDANETA CITY
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
AND ARCHITECTURE
Owned and operated by the City Government of Urdaneta

computer. If you are using your phone for something like watching a video, you
can call yourself a computer operator.

System administrator are those who manage computers in a corporate group

such as institutions, businesses, and organizations. They manage and
troubleshoot computers. They make sure that all computer systems are
operational and kept up to date. Let me give you an example that you can
relate to. If you have been in an internet café, or computer shop as others call
it, the ones who manages the computer shop does the role of a system
administrators.

Computer programmers are those who create software. They encode the
instructions that tell the computer what to do which is called computer
programming. Instructions used by the programmers are called programming
languages. Generally, the position requires a degree in computer science or
other computer courses.

Computer technicians are those who focus on the troubleshooting and fixing
of the hardware element of computer systems. Sometimes system
administrators can take the role of technicians. But unlike the system admin,
technicians tend to focus more on fixing hardware.

Hackers, they acquire knowledge and mastery in almost all of the roles above
and take advantage of it in using the computer for unconventional tasks. We
will learn more about these in our succeeding lessons.

The Computer Language

The foundation of the computer is the language that it uses to accept, process,
store and communicate data or information. This language is called the
machine language.

Machine language is in the form of bits (short for binary digits). In its basic form
computer data is represented by two digits which are 0 and 1. So how does it
process a simple “Hi”. We have looked in the previous lesson about the forms
of data. All forms of data are represented by bits (0 and 1) in the computer. Let
us look at an example. In your devices, the word “Hi” is represented by 01001000
01101001. You can look at the chart below and try to figure out how it became
1s and 0s. This chart is derived from the ASCII chart (American Standard Code
for Information Interchange).

Bright future starts here Module 1: Fundamentals of Information Technology

 URDANETA CITY
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
AND ARCHITECTURE
Owned and operated by the City Government of Urdaneta

How are these bits stored in the computer? Those bits can be represented by
a state. What we mean by state is anything that has opposite value such as,
black/white, north/south (magnet’s polarity), on/off, etc. So, a simple “Hi” in a
hard disk are represented as either north or south polarity since hard disks use
magnetic fields.

Images also use bits. Images are made up of pixels (short for picture elements).
Each pixel is a color of the image. A color is represented by bits. For example,
red is 11111111 00000000 00000000.

Bright future starts here Module 1: Fundamentals of Information Technology

 URDANETA CITY
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
AND ARCHITECTURE
Owned and operated by the City Government of Urdaneta

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2

1. Identify all the computers that you can find in your household.

2. Identify the input, output, and storage devices of these computers. You may
take a picture of the device and label the input, output, and storage devices.

3. Write your full name in machine language or binary. Refer to the chart in our
lesson.

Prepared by:

REYNANTE M. PASCUA, CpE

Faculty, College of Engineering and Architecture

Bright future starts here Module 1: Fundamentals of Information Technology