How ICT Works

FOCUS QUESTION >> 2 How does information and communication technology work?

TOPICS Expectations • ANATOMY OF A COMPUTER • COMPUTER HARDWARE By the end of this chapter, students will • COMPUTER SOFTWARE • demonstrate an understanding of the terminology associated • COMPUTER COMMUNICATION with information and communication technology • identify types of devices and tools used in information and communication technology WORD WALL • define key terms associated with information and BIOS communication technology bits bus • use current information and communication technology terms bytes appropriately cache • demonstrate an understanding of the computer workstation CDs (compact discs) environment client/server network command-driven interface • explain the basic functions of the components of a computer conductor wires and its peripheral devices CPU () • explain the purpose of an operating system data decode • identify common user interface elements and describe their functions desktop • compare stand-alone and networked computer environments directory • create and maintain a portfolio by selecting samples of their document work, including business communications, that illustrate their drive bays DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) skills and competencies in information and communication DVDs (Digital Versatile/ technology Video Discs) • analyze ethical issues related to information and communication execute technology expansion cards expansion slots • identify the skills and competencies needed to work effectively floppy disks in an information and communication technology environment

30 BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TODAY NEL WORD WALL (cont’d) Expectations (cont’d) folder • assess their personal competencies and skills in information and functions communication technology gamepads gigahertz (GHz) • demonstrate an understanding of legal, social, and ethical issues graphics card relating to information and communication technology graphic tablets • maintain a portfolio of exemplary work that illustrates their GUI (graphical user interface) skills in information and communication technology, including hard drive the ability to create effective business communications hardware hub icon information GET ON IT! input CHAPTER PROJECT interface LAN (local area network) CREATING SUMMARY BOOKLETS megahertz (MHz) memory During this chapter, you will learn a great deal of new information about menu bar ICT equipment and practices. For times when you need to take in a large menu-driven interface amount of new information, summarizing is a valuable skill to develop. With this in mind, your chapter project will be to work with a team modem of two or three classmates to create four summary booklets. The booklets motherboard mouse that you create will correspond with the four major topics of this chapter: network • Anatomy of a Computer • Computer Software NIC (network interface card) • Computer Hardware • Computer Communication nodes open source You and your team will make summary notes as you work through operating-system software each topic. Then, at the end of the chapter, you will use these summary output notes and work together to create illustrated booklets that cover the peer-to-peer network major ideas for each topic. You can use paper, cardboard, magazine peripheral devices cutouts, printed images, markers, and so on, and, if possible, a word- plagiarism processing or desktop-publishing software application. Your booklets platforms should be suitable for students who know very little about information pointing devices and communication technologies (ICTs). power supply printer processing program RAM (random access memory) Anatomy of a Computer ROM (read-only memory) Over the past 60 years, computers have evolved from mammoth scanners machines occupying an entire room to the modern devices that can fit screensaver on our lap or in the palm of our hand. In this chapter, you will look server at what makes these marvels of technology work. As advanced as software today’s computers are, they are still only capable of completing tasks sound card speakers assigned to them by users. They work by carrying out four functions : stand-alone input, storage, processing, and output. In order for a computer to perform these functions, it must have hardware and software.

NEL HOW ICT WORKS 31 WORD WALL (cont’d) Expectations (cont’d) folder • assess their personal competencies and skills in information and functions communication technology gamepads gigahertz (GHz) • demonstrate an understanding of legal, social, and ethical issues graphics card relating to information and communication technology graphic tablets • maintain a portfolio of exemplary work that illustrates their GUI (graphical user interface) skills in information and communication technology, including hard drive the ability to create effective business communications hardware hub icon information GET ON IT! input CHAPTER PROJECT interface LAN (local area network) CREATING SUMMARY BOOKLETS megahertz (MHz) memory During this chapter, you will learn a great deal of new information about menu bar ICT equipment and practices. For times when you need to take in a large menu-driven interface amount of new information, summarizing is a valuable skill to develop. microprocessor With this in mind, your chapter project will be to work with a team modem of two or three classmates to create four summary booklets. The booklets motherboard mouse that you create will correspond with the four major topics of this chapter: network • Anatomy of a Computer • Computer Software NIC (network interface card) • Computer Hardware • Computer Communication nodes open source You and your team will make summary notes as you work through operating-system software each topic. Then, at the end of the chapter, you will use these summary output notes and work together to create illustrated booklets that cover the peer-to-peer network major ideas for each topic. You can use paper, cardboard, magazine peripheral devices cutouts, printed images, markers, and so on, and, if possible, a word- plagiarism processing or desktop-publishing software application. Your booklets platforms should be suitable for students who know very little about information pointing devices and communication technologies (ICTs). power supply printer processing program RAM (random access memory) Anatomy of a Computer ROM (read-only memory) Over the past 60 years, computers have evolved from mammoth scanners machines occupying an entire room to the modern devices that can fit screensaver on our lap or in the palm of our hand. In this chapter, you will look server at what makes these marvels of technology work. As advanced as software today’s computers are, they are still only capable of completing tasks sound card speakers assigned to them by users. They work by carrying out four functions : stand-alone input, storage, processing, and output. In order for a computer to perform these functions, it must have hardware and software.

NEL HOW ICT WORKS 31 WORD WALL (cont’d) Functions of Computers storage INPUT storage devices The computer collects data or instructions from you. You can provide storage space switch the computer with input by taskbar • keying using a keyboard topology pointing and clicking a mouse or touchpad touchpad • trackball • pointing a stylus USB (Universal Serial Bus) • touching a screen flash drives wallpaper • speaking into a microphone WAN (wide area network) webcams You may think that data and information are the same things, windows but there is an important difference. Data is raw, unprocessed numbers, characters, or symbols. Information is data that has been processed so that it can be understood and used in decision making.

STORAGE The computer saves, or stores, data or instructions in its memory for use during processing.

PROCESSING Input The computer interprets and processes the data you input. It adds, multiplies, divides, finds, or manipulates data (numbers, text, or symbols) to complete a task you have given it. By the end of the 1990s, many desktop or home computers had more processing power than the computer used to put the first person on the moon in 1969. The Core 2 Duo processor, Storage released in July 2006, contains 291 million transistors. It exceeds speeds of 2 gigahertz (GHz) , is 40 percent more energy efficient, and demonstrates 40 percent better performance when compared to one of its predecessors, the .

OUTPUT Processing The computer displays or produces information from the data that it processed. The output might be something you see on the screen (such as an answer to a mathematical problem), something you hear (such as a ding when you have made an error), or something you command the printer to print.

Output

Figure 2.1 The four functions of computers

32 BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TODAY NEL LITERACY TOOLBOX

SUMMARIZING Help! How do I summarize? With some planning, it is writing in your own words. Using anyone else’s actually quite easy. You just have to make sure that you words is called plagiarism . It is unethical and keep track of several pieces of information as you go. illegal. It can get you into serious trouble.

1. Subheadings —These are the words that appear at There are many ways to summarize information. the beginning of a new section. They are bigger See Figure 2.2 and Figure 2.3 below. and bolder than the rest of the text, and they may As you work through this chapter, keep track of be a different colour. Subheadings tell you what main points in your notebook. This will help you do the section will be about. your summary notes. 2. Keywords or Phrases —These can usually be identified by the way that they are formatted. Keywords Ideas in My In this text, keywords and phrases appear in bold Subheadings or Phrases Own Words and italics. They appear this way because they are important terms for you to understand and remember.

3. Ideas in Your Own Words —This is where you will have to read, think about what you have read, and then record what you think the main ideas are in your own words. As you will discover later, in Figure 2.2 Some people find it helpful to create a Chapter 4, it is very important that you practise chart with each of the three headings above.

Main Idea Main Idea Main Idea Main Idea

Keyword Keyword Keyword Keyword

Subheading Subheading

Evolution of Computers

Figure 2.3 Others use concept maps or graphic organizers to summarize information visually.

NEL HOW ICT WORKS 33 GET ON IT! PROJECT UPDATE

This section is simple to summarize. There are four complete picture, you and your team members will functions of a computer, and you must be able to each take responsibility for a piece of the computer explain each of them. Have you recorded the main hardware puzzle. Then, you will meet as a team to idea of each function? Share your summary with your share what you have learned and to exchange summary team. Are your ideas the same? If not, it does not notes. This way, all team members will have notes on necessarily mean that you are wrong; it may just all parts of the Computer Hardware section. Depending mean that you see things differently. To find out on the subsection you choose, you may want to use more about how these four functions work, go to a chart, a labelled diagram, or a graphic organizer www.nelson.com/btt . to keep track of and show the main points and key vocabulary. How do you want to present the four functions of a computer? You may want to use a When you come together as a team, it is important that you are able to explain and demonstrate each • chart point. For example, if you take responsibility for • web or other graphic organizer learning what is inside the computer, it is important • flow chart that you show and tell about each part when it is your turn to share. Your team members can do the Think ahead. There is a lot of information to digest same for their subsections. When you have finished, in the next section on computer hardware. Since you each member of your team should have the complete are working with others, you might want to divide the picture of this section on computer hardware. workload. That is what teamwork is all about. Preview the section and determine who will cover which area before you get started. Each team member will be responsible for reading, understanding, and summarizing the main points in one of the following subsections:

• What Is Hardware? – Inside the Computer – How CPUs Work • Computer Storage – Compressing Your Files • Peripheral Devices

Each team member must become an expert on his or her subsection. This is called jigsaw learning. Just as puzzle pieces Figure 2.4 Working in teams is an effective way to learn large amounts are put together to form a of information.

34 BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TODAY NEL Computer Hardware What Is Hardware? Hardware is any part of a computer you can touch. There are two categories of hardware: • internal —the components of the computer system contained inside the computer case • external or peripheral devices —those components that are attached to the computer through cables or wireless technology We will start by looking inside the computer.

Drive bays RAM CPU (microprocessor) Hard drive ROM chips Internal cache Power supply

External cache

Bus Motherboard

Expansion slots

Figure 2.5 Inside a computer

First of all, the computer needs a power supply . Electricity is brought into the computer via a power cord. Once inside the computer, electricity travels through metal tracks on the motherboard , which is the main circuit board of the computer. All components inside the computer are attached to the motherboard, as are external devices.

NEL HOW ICT WORKS 35 Electricity quickly makes its way to the CPU (central processing QUICK BYTE unit) , which is attached to the motherboard. Transistors then control the flow of electricity. The CPU, also called the microprocessor , BITS AND BYTES is the main computer chip that manages information flow in the Just how much room does it computer, as well as processing instructions and data. There are take to store information? It all some instructions and data that the CPU needs to access frequently boils down to bits and bytes . and quickly; these are often housed in a storage area called a cache . Bit is the short form for bi nary The internal cache is the memory that is inside the CPU and is the digit . A bit is the smallest unit first place the CPU looks to find recently used data or instructions. of data a computer can use. Because it is the first place that the CPU looks, the internal cache A single bit can hold only one is sometimes called the L1 or level 1 cache. of two values: 0 or 1. More The secondary cache is memory that used to be outside of the complex information can be CPU but is now right on the chip. The external cache is also used for stored by combining several high-speed storage of recently used information. It is sometimes called bits. Byte is the unit of memory the L2 or level 2 cache because it is the second place the CPU looks needed to store one character to find recently used data or instructions. such as a letter, number, or Expansion slots are sockets in the motherboard. Expansion cards punctuation mark. It takes can be added to these slots for additional devices, such as a sound 8 bits to make up 1 byte. card or a modem . Beside the expansion slots, you will find the bus . It is a set of The amount of memory your conductor wires that transport data between the components of the computer has is referred to in computer through an electronic path. Think of the bus as a highway • kilobytes (KB) or 1000 for bits of information to travel between components inside the bytes.* One kilobyte is computer case. The bus width is the number of bits of information capable of storing 1000 the bus can transport at one time. You can think of the bus width as characters. the width of a highway. If you have a wider highway or one with • megabytes (MB) or about more lanes, more traffic can pass without a jam and you get to your 1 million (1 000 000) destination faster. The same is true of a bus. The wider the bus or the bytes. RAM is usually more bits the bus can carry, the faster information will travel from measured in megabytes. component to component on the motherboard. • gigabytes (GB) or about Drive bays are spaces in the computer case where disk drives are 1 billion (1 000 000 000) housed. A computer can have several disk drives located here, including bytes. Hard drives the hard drive , as well as those for CDs (compact discs) , DVDs are usually measured in (Digital Versatile/Video Discs) , and, increasingly less commonly, gigabytes. 3.5" floppy disks . USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash drives, also known • terabytes (TB) or about as memory sticks or memory keys, plug into USB ports. The hard drive is 1 trillion (1 000 000 000 000) the storage space of the computer, storing both software and data files. bytes. Hard drives will soon Memory chips are also attached to the motherboard. One type be measured in terabytes. of memory is ROM (read-only memory) . It is also called the system *1 KB is actually 1024 bytes. BIOS , where information, including instructions for start-up, is stored However, people usually refer to K in its approximate value of 1000. at the time of manufacture. There will be one or more ROM chips. Just as a kilo metre is 1000 metres, RAM (random access memory) is also called user memory. RAM a kilo byte has come to be accepted is temporary memory that stores information for the length of time as containing 1000 bytes. a computer is left on or a program is left running. The data you see on your monitor while using your computer is stored in RAM.

36 BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TODAY NEL Once the computer is turned off or your program crashes, any information in RAM is lost unless you saved it to another location QUICK BYTE (e.g., hard drive, USB flash drive). CPU SPEED HOW CPUs WORK CPU speed is measured Think of the CPU as the brain of the computer. Without it, the in megahertz (MHz) or, computer would not function. How does this vital piece of hardware increasingly, gigahertz (GHz). work? Every time you input data into your computer, the CPU One hertz is equal to one processes those instructions using four tasks. cycle per second. Therefore, 1. Fetch —The CPU fetches, or gathers, the code for an instruction. a megahertz is 1 million Then, it places the code in the temporary memory where the cycles per second, and a instructions are stored, known as the instruction cache. gigahertz is 1 billion cycles per second. Typically, the 2. Decode —The CPU decodes, or interprets, the instruction in an higher this number, the faster area of the CPU chip called the decode cache. It determines the CPU processes information. which functions are to be performed. However, most consumers 3. Execute —The CPU processes, or executes, the instructions do not realize that CPU speed and sends the results to their proper destinations. is only one factor that 4. Store —The CPU sends the results of the instructions to the contributes to a processor’s proper memory location to be retained, or stored, for further performance. As manufacturers instructions. have tried to increase the speed of the CPU, additional megahertz have used more power and created problems with heat. Because of that, modern processors are engineered to be more efficient. They do more work per cycle than previous generations of processors. This is why a lower CPU speed does not always mean a less powerful machine. For more information about the Megahertz Myth , go to www.nelson.com/btt .

Figure 2.6 Intel is a major manufacturer of computer chips, including the Pentium and Core 2 Duo processors. This is a photograph of the Duo processor released in July 2006. It is unique because it is used in both Apple and PC computers.

NEL HOW ICT WORKS 37 REVIEW IT! AND DO IT!

1. What is input?

2. What is output?

3. What is processing?

4. What is hardware?

5. Using Figure 2.5, create a web that shows how the components inside a computer connect to one another. Begin your web with the motherboard in the centre.

6. How are the tasks a CPU performs like those of the human brain?

Figure 2.7 A CPU performs tasks similar to those performed by your brain.

Computer Storage How many times have you studied for a test from notes you took in class, or flipped through a textbook looking for a specific piece of information? Your notebook and textbook are examples of information storage devices . A storage device is any device into which information can be entered and held for retrieval at a later time. When using computers, storage devices allow you to save your work, as well as software, games, and other information. Some storage devices are part of the computer itself. Others are peripheral, or external. The type of storage device you use depends on two things: 1. the type of information you are storing 2. how much information you are storing When selecting a storage device, you must think about how much space you need and how easily or quickly you need access to the information. The most common storage devices are summarized in Figure 2.8.

38 BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TODAY NEL