How Computer Work

Computer Basics:


We use the computer to carry out tasks. The tasks may be to calculate, to prepare ma letter or a report, to find information on the internet, to draw a picture, a chart or graph or simply to entertain us by playing music, playing a movie clip or by playing games with us. In doing these tasks, the computer interacts with us.

We tell the computer what to do by typing on the computer keyboard, or by pointing with the mouse. The computer responds by running an appropriate software program and follows it up with messages or pictures on its monitor screen with or without sound from its speakers. Therefore, to accomplish a task using a computer, you need a combination of computer hardware, special programs called software, and input from yourself.

Hardware consists of devices, like the central processing unit (CPU), the monitor, keyboard, printer, mouse and speakers. Inside your computer there are more bits of hardware, including the motherboard, where you would find the main processing chips that make up the central processing unit (CPU). The hardware processes the commands it receives it receives from the software, and performs tasks or calculations.

How They Work Together:


1. The monitor, through which the computer converses with you.
2. The Read Only Memory (ROM) chip that loads the boot-up program when you start the computer.
3. The Hard Disk Drive (HDD) from which the computer loads the application program or stored data.
4. The Central Processing Unit (CPU) which is the brain of your computer.
5. The Keyboard through which you talk to the computer.
6. The Mouse which is another device to send inputs to the CPU.

First, you provide input when you turn on the computer. Then the system software tells the Central Processing Unit (CPU) to start up certain programs and to turn on some hardware devices so that they are ready for more input from you. This whole process is called booting up.


The next step happens when you chose a program you want to use. You click on the icon or enter a command to start the program. Let us use the example of an Internet browser. Once the browser program such as the Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator has started, it is ready for your instructions. You either enter an address called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), or click on an address you have saved directly

If you want to print the Web page you see, you can click on the printer icon. Again, you have provided input to tell the computer what to do. The browser software will check to check to see whether you have a printer attached to your computer, and whether it is turned on. It may remind you to turn on the printer, and then send the information about the web page from your computer over the cable to the printer, where it is printed.

The Hardware Parts:

What we will describe here is a typical desktop personal computer complete with the ability to connect you to the Internet through your telephone line and play music video for you entertainment. Virtually all personal computer (or PCs) available in the market will fall in this category, with some additions or omissions. Most PCs have a Central Processing Unit or CPU as their brain, a monitor as their output device and a keyboard plus a mouse as their input device. In addition, the computer will have permanent memory known as Read Only Memory or ROM on fixed or hard disk drives and temporary memory as silicon chips called Random Access Memory or RAM. The permanent memory includes your computer’s software programs as well as data that you wish to certain for future use.

The permanent memory is not lost when you switch off your computer is running. Everything in the computer’s temporary memory is lost when you shut your computer down. These hardware items from the bare essentials of the physical parts of a working PCs In your PCs there many additional hardware items called peripherals such as a CD-ROM drive or a printer.