Hardware

Computer Hardware

• Computer Hardware

The computer hardware is like the computer brain that includes the keyboard, central processing monitor, sound card,speakers etc. its directed by the software to order an instruction. When hardwares were created they contained many toxic materials like: resistors, semiconductors, infrared detectors etc, today with all the technology advance the materials are not the same. For example: “The first computer mouse was invented in 1963 by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute. (He is also one of the inventors of hypertext.) The first mouse used two wheels positioned at a 90-degree angle to each other to keep track of the movement (see picture below). The ball mouse wasn’t invented until 1972, and the optical mouse was invented circa 1980, although it didn’t come to popular use until much later.” (solarwinds 2019)

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• Categories of computers

There are 5 types of computers; Supercomputers, Mainframe Computers, Minicomputers, Microcomputers, Mobile Computers,

As it sounds the Supercomputers are the ones who are big, they are expensive but they are capable of having power all the time (very powerful), and they have a really fast system. Due to their high value and high speed they are used in big places, such as laboratories, factories, etc. On the 70s-90s they had around a hundred processors, but you can actually find a supercomputer with thousands of processors (modern ones).

The Mainframe Computers are used by big organizations for critical applications. They are known for their large size, high levels, and their storage. They can handle very high volume input/output. They have an enormous capacity of saving memory.

The Minicomputers  or Mid-Range Computers (there size and speed are lower than the Supercomputers), are the ones who have a multiprocessing system. They are mainly used in business applications. The first Minicomputers was created in 1960s for the IMB.

Microcomputers was a term for personal computer. The central processing unit (CPU) had a microprocessor. Their mainly used was for individual work.In the early 1990s they were a pocket size (known as personas digital assistants – PDAs). They were distinguished by their low cost. They transformed to the cellphones (smartphones), and portable MP3 music player.

The Mobile Computers are small, portable and they have access to wireless internet. Since 2005 all the Mobile computers were available to connect to internet in any place were there was an WiFI connection. Any device that isn’t available to connect to internet in a wireless way, isn’t considered mobile computer.

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• Input and output devices

Input devices are those that can send information to others but cannot receive and example are keyboards that can send the information of what should be written but cannot receive.

Output devices are those cand receives information from other devices and generate output with data but it cannot send data to another and example are speakers you can send  the information from another device to play it on them.

And input/output device can receive data from users or another device.

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• Storage Devices

The Storage Devices are used to saved all the information. there are also known as main memory. There are two type of storage devices; the primary and the secondary. The primary (The computer´s data) and secondary (all the devices that can be removable, external or internal). 

In 1956 IBM introduced the first storage device , IBM 305 Ramac, which stands for “Random Access Memory Accounting System”. Then the Floppy Disks were introduced in 1971. In 2000 IBM launches the first USB “DiskOnKey” with 8 MB, then the average hard disk cost per gigabyte and the size also changed through time.

The Optical Storage devices used lasers and lights, such as discs, Blu-Ray, DVD. The  flash memory replaced magnetic and optical media, the USB was a device that change the whole world because of it’s easy use.

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• Units of measurement 

There are many units of measure which all serve different things:

A bit is a digit that represents the smallest increase in data or information on a computer, which can only contain one of two values on or off.

A kilobyte equals 1,024 , would normally be expected to be 1000 but they are not as computers they use binary mathematics.

Computers typically use megabytes and gigabytes 

Over time, new devices were invented to store more information as the first devices did not have as many functions.

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