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P1 - Explain the function of computer hardware components

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Understand the components of computer systems: 1. Internal system unit components: processors; motherboard; BIOS; power supply; fan and heat sink or cooling; hard drive configuration and controllers eg SATA, IDE, EIDE, master, slave; ports eg USB, parallel, serial; internal memory eg RAM, ROM, cache; specialized cards eg network, graphic cards 2. Peripherals: output devices eg monitor, printer, plotter; input devices eg camera, scanner; cabling eg coaxial, optical, twisted pair 3. Backing storage: types eg disks, pen drives, optical media, flash memory cards; portable and fixed drives; performance factors eg data transfer rate, capacity 4. Operating system software: operating system examples eg LINUX, Windows, DOS, MAC OS; command line and GUI operating systems; operating system functions and services eg machine and peripheral management, security, file management; device drivers; features eg ability to customize, support for connectivity of portable media, security, stability and reliability, ease of management, associated utilities, cost and support for the user. 5. Software utilities: security eg virus protection, firewalls; clean up tools eg for removal of cookies, internet history, defragmentation; drive formatting.

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COMPONENTS OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
There are five categories regarding to computer systems: Input, output, backing storage, OS software and
software utilities. Each category has an essential purpose to ensure the computer runs smoothly.




Arithmetic Logic
Unit Control Unit




Above is a diagram of how the input, process and output system works.

To ensure the computer understands what you are trying to process, you will need an input device. A
keyboard is an example of an input device, when you press a letter key, that letter will show on any
writable file. It will then go through the processing. The ALU is responsible for dealing with arithmetic and
logical operations; the input consists of an instruction word that contains an operation code and
sometimes a format code. The operation code tells the ALU what operation to perform and the operands
are used in the operation. The control unit is pretty much the CPU. It controls the rest of the components
of the computer, sends instructions to certain units and manages resources. The storage is
straightforward, ROM RAM and the cache stores data depending how they operate. Eventually, you’ll get
to the output process. That is when something comes out from the computer, such as sound from
speakers. That’s the control unit telling the speakers to make that sound.

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