sign in sign up
<<
Home , Cooperative multitasking, General protection fault, Windows 98, Windows ME

Information Technology: Introduction to Handout One

Computer Hardware 1. Components a. System board, Main board, Motherboard b. (CPU) c. RAM (Random Access Memory) SDRAM. DDR-RAM, RAMBUS d. Expansion cards i. ISA - Industry Standard Architecture ii. PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect iii. PCMCIA - Personal Memory Card International Association iv. AGP – Accelerated Graphics Port e. Sound f. Network Interface Card (NIC) g. Modem h. Graphics Card (AGP – accelerated graphics port) i. Disk drives (A:\ floppy diskette; B:\ obsolete 5.25” floppy diskette; C:\Internal Hard Disk; D:\CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, DVD-ROM/R/RW (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory)

2. Peripherals a. Monitor b. Printer c. Keyboard d. Mouse e. Joystick f. Scanner g. Web cam

Operating system – a collection of files and small programs that enables input and output. The transforms the computer into a productive entity for human use.

BIOS (Basic Input Output System) date, time, language,

DOS – Windows (Dual, parallel development for home and industry) Windows 3.1 Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups) Windows N. T. (Network Technology) Windows N. T. 4.0 Windows Me Windows XP Home Windows XP Professional

The Evolution of Windows Early 80's IBM introduced the Personal PC using the Intel 8088 and 's Disk Operating System (DOS). This was a scaled down computer aimed at business which allowed a single user to execute a single program. Many changes have been introduced over the last 20 years to bring us to where we are now. The following list explains the most significant of these: ƒ 1985 Windows 1.0 - Total failure ƒ 1987 Windows 2.0 - Graphical (GUI) based task switching environment: Windows at this point was mostly a menu system - icons and program manager was still a long way off. Task switching allows more than one program to be loaded into memory at the same time - as many as would fit into what you had or the max of 640K. Only 1 program can actually execute at a time but it allowed the user to quickly switch between the loaded programs. Developed for the 8088 processor, it ran 100% in .

1 1988 Windows 2.0 / /386 - upgrade for Intel 80386 processor users. ƒ introduced ƒ multitasking - allows more than 1 program to share the CPU ƒ cooperative - relies on applications to do the sharing

1990 Windows 3.0 ƒ Introduced the Program Manager - major user enhancement that caused Windows to gain acceptance in the marketplace ƒ Cooperative Multitasking - see explanation above 1992 Windows 3.1 ƒ Used - no longer restricted by the amount of RAM on a system, but also could not be run on 8088 ƒ GPF -

1992 Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (WFW) ƒ Released in response to market demand, WFW added network support to Windows 3.1. The workgroup concept will be explained later. ƒ Also, added some bug fixes to make Win3.1 more reliable. ƒ Windows 3.11 ƒ Not the same as WFW. Many people wanted the bug fixes offered by WFW but had no use for network therefore didn't want to pay for this. MS offered a free upgrade to Win3.1 users to accomodate.

1993 Windows NT 3.1 - Network Technology ƒ Preemptive Multitasking - OS does not require application support for processor sharing. The operating system controls which tasks has the CPU at all times. ƒ Multiple architecture support, Fully protected user mode, Fault tolerance, and many other new features ƒ Price Tag. Requires a fast CPU and lots of RAM (by 1993 standards) which is more than the average user is willing to buy.

1994 Windows NT 3.5 (code named Daytona) 1995 Windows 95 1995 Windows NT 3.5.1 1996 Windows NT 4.0 1998 Windows 98 1999 Windows 2000 2000 Windows Me (Millennium Edition) 2001 Windows XP (Ten/Professional)

Other operating Systems Mac OS ( Operating System) (Main operating system for the Internet) (developed by Linus Torvalds, free download, open source code) BeOS Lindows

2