Technology has changed our lives and the lifestyle. Desktop computer in offices to wearable gadgets like smart watches and even the smart washing machine, we can see the role of microprocessor controlled devices. Irrespective of the size and power of the computing device some functionality such as input-process-output cycle are common in all the computer devices.
Here I will be discussing about the main components of a general computer system, the different type of the computers and impact of emerging technologies on our lives.
Computer systems are made up of hardware and software components.
Hardware components can be further divided into internal hardware and external hardware. This blog and the video lectures are as per the IGCSE ICT syllabus 2020.
Hardware
Hardware are physical components of a computer system. There are internal and external hardware components.
The following are internal hardware components of general computer system:
Mother board
RAM, ROM,
Sound Card
Video Card
Internal Storage Devices
Software
Softwares are set of programs or instructions. Softwares are of two kinds:
Application Softwares; which allow the user to perform certain tasks.
The examples of application softwares are word processor, spreadsheet, video, image editing software etc.
System Softwares; which allow the hardware devices to run properly and allow the user to communicate with the computer system. The examples of system softwares are compiler, linker, device drivers and utilities.
The Operating System
It is system software which performs various tasks like memory and process management, security and maintenance etc.
There are two kinds of user interfaces:
Command line Interface
Graphical User Interface
Here is an easy to remember comparison between the command line interface and the graphical user interface.
Types of Computers
There are various computer systems used for different purposes, like for individual use, fitness and monitoring, industrial use.
Desktop computer, laptops, Smartphone, smart watches are some commonly used types of computers.
Impact of Emerging technologies
Technology is developing everyday and making our lives simpler. These emerging technologies have various areas of applications such as entertainment, training and learning, army, security.
Watch the full video to know more about the impacts of the emerging technologies.