Monday, February 14, 2011

System Software and The System Unit

First system unit have five types,that are desktop System units,media center system units,notebook system units,tablet PC system units and the last is handled computer system unit.





Electronic Data and Instructions


•Data and instructions are represented electronically
•Two-state system or Binary System

–Off/on electrical states
–Characters represented by 0s (off) and 1s (on)
–Bits
–Bytes


Character Coding Schemes




•Three types of binary coding schemes
–ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Exchange
–EBCDIC - Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
–Unicode – handles languages with large numbers of characters


System Board


•Connects all components
•Allows communication between devices
•Main board or motherboard
•Circuit board electronic components
–Sockets
–Slots
–Bus lines


Microprocessor Chips

•Central Processing Unit (CPU)
•Two Basic Components
–Control unit
–Arithmetic-logic unit (ALU)


Microprocessor Chips


•Chip capacities are expressed in word sizes
•Two Recent Significant Developments
–64-bit processors


•Have become standard for most of
today’s desktop and laptop computers
–Multi-Core Chips


•Can provide two
separate and
independent CPUs

•Parallel processing


Specialty Processors
•Coprocessors
–Designed to improve specific computing operations
–Graphics coprocessors


•Smart cards
–Credit card sized with an embedded chip
–Used by many universities


•Specialty processors in cars
–As many as 70
–Used to control features


•RFID tags
–Information chips
Used for tracking purposes



Memory
•Holding area for data, instructions, and information
•Memory is contained on chips connected to the system board
•Types of memory chips
RAM
ROM








Expansion Slots and Cards
•Allow for new devices to
be added
–Open architecture
–Slots provide for expansion

•Expansion cards are
also called …
–Plug-in boards
–Controller cards
–Adapter cards
–Interface cards






Commonly Used Expansion Cards

•Graphics cards
•Sound cards
•Modem cards
•Network interface cards (NIC)
•PC cards and Express card
TV tuner cards


Plug and Play
•Set of specific hardware and software standards developed by Intel, Microsoft, and others


Bus Lines
•Connect parts of the CPU to each other
•Data roadway for traveling bits

–Measured as bus width
–More lanes, faster traffic

•Two basic categories
–System buses
Expansion buses

Expansion Buses

•Principal types
–PCI Express (PCIe)
–Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
–Universal serial bus (USB)
–FireWire buses
–Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA)





Ports
•Three Types

Standard Ports



Standard Ports
•Four common ports
–VGA
–USB ports
–FireWire ports
–Ethernet ports

Legacy Ports
•Serial ports
•Parallel ports
•Keyboard and mouse ports
•Game ports
•Infrared data association (IrDA)



Specialized Ports
•Three specialized ports
–Musical Instrument digital interface (MIDI)
–Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format (S/PDIF)
–High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)




Cables
•Used to connect exterior devices to the system unit via the ports
•One end of the cable is attached to the device and the other end has a connector that is attached to a matching connector on the port



System Software

It contains of four types of program

1.       Operating system
a.       Functioned as
                                                               i.      Manages computer resources
                                                             ii.      Provides user interface
                                                            iii.      Runs application
b.      Categories of operating system
                                                               i.      Embedded operating systems (handheld)
                                                             ii.      Network operating system (linked com)
                                                            iii.      Stand-alone operating systems (desktop)
c.       Operating systems commonly used
                                                               i.      Windows – most widely used
                                                             ii.      Mac OS     – powerful and easy to use
                                                            iii.      UNIX          – network; originally designed for Web
2        
             Utilities
a.       Most essential utilities
                                                               i.      Troubleshooting  or diagnostic programs
                                                             ii.      Antivirus programs
                                                            iii.      Uninstall programs
                                                           iv.      Backup programs
                                                             v.      File compression programs
b.      Windows utilities
                                                               i.      Backup and Restore
                                                             ii.      Disk Cleanup
                                                            iii.      Disk Defragmenter
3.       Device drivers
a.       Specialized programs that allow communication between a device and the computer
b.      Loaded into memory each time a computer is started
c.       When a new device is added, new device drivers must be installed
4.       Language translators

5.       Virus protection and internet security
a.       Internet Security Suite
                                                               i.      Runs a number of programs
                                                             ii.      Continually monitors your computer
b.      Virus Scan
                                                               i.      Controls the frequency of searches for viruses
                                                             ii.      Quarantines or deletes infected files
c.       Privacy Service
                                                               i.      Helps protect your privacy online
                                                             ii.      Block websites, cookies, and ads

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

~BASIC APPLICATION SOFTWARE AND SPECIALIZED APPLICATION SOFTWARE~





Before Chinese New Year holiday, two groups had present these topics.
The first one is Chapter 3:BASIC APPLICATION SOFTWARE by THE DESTINY group.
Next, Chapter 4: SPECIALIZED APPLICATION SOFTWARE by WECONNECTYOU group.




BASIC APPLICATION SOFTWARE
Application software is  end user software that is used  to accomplish a variety of tasks

Two categories :-
       -basic applications
       -specialized applications



Basic applications are also called general-purpose
Common types:-
    Word processors
    –Spreadsheets
    –Database management systems
    –Presentation graphics

Specialized application
Also known as special-purpose applications

Includes thousands of other programs more narrowly focused on specific disciplines
and occupations

Best known:-

Graphic programmer
Audio and video editors
Multimedia creation programs
Web authoring
Virtual reality programs

Common Feature:-
~ Graphical User Interface
~ Icons
~ Windows
~ Menus
~ Toolbars 

Toolbars 
e.g. standard toolbar and speech recognition


Microsoft Office 2007

 New interface:-
-Ribbons
-Contextual tabs
-Galleries



Word processor 
     Create a Flyer
     Creating a Report






Spreadsheets
       create Data


Data Based Management System (DBMS)










Presentation Graphics
Create a Presentation
Integrated Packages
software suites







SPECIALIZED APPLICATION SOFTWARE


~make it possible to perform advanced tasks at home
~examples:


     -Graphics Programs
    -Audio and Video Software
    -Multimedia Programs
    -Web Authoring Programs
    -Artificial Intelligence


1)Graphics
      ~Desktop Publishing
      ~Image Editors
      ~Illustration Programs
      ~Image Galleries
      ~Graphics Suites


a)Desktop Publishing
-allows you to create publications
-popular programs:
       ~Adobe InDesign
       ~Microsoft Publisher
       ~QuarkXpress






b)Image Editor
-creating and editing bitmap images
-popular programs:
       ~Paint.NET
       ~Adobe Photoshop
       ~Corel Paint Pro Shop












c)Illustration Programs
-used to create and edit vector images
-popular programs:
         ~Adobe Illustrator
         ~Inkscape
         ~CorelDRAW










d)Image Galleries
-used for a variety of applications
-two basic types:
        ~stock photographs
        ~clip art








e)Graphics Suite
-bundled graphic programs










2)Audio and Video
-video editing software
-audio editing software




3)Multimedia
-integration of variety of media into one presentation:
        ~video
        ~music
        ~voice
        ~graphics
        ~text




4)Multimedia Authoring Programs
-create multimedia presentations
-popular programs:
        ~Adobe Director
        ~Toolbook
-known as Web Page Editors or HTML Editors




5)Artificial Intelligence
          ~Virtual Reality




          ~Known-Based(expert) System
                -many used "fuzzy logic"




          ~Robotics


    After the presentation, we had done an online quiz on the previous chapter..=)