Intro Into Computers

1. Intro Into Computers

2. Basic Computer Terms • Anti-virus program • BIOS • Bus • CPU • Compact Disc • CD-R • R/W

3. CD-ROM • DVD • FDD • Firewall • FireWire • IDE

4. Hot-swappable • Hard drive • GB • Keyboard • Mb / MB • Monitor • Motherboard

5. Operating System • Parallel port • USB • Root • RAM • ROM

6. Rollback • Runtime error • RAID • SATA • Serial port • Virus • Video • Video adapter

7. Operating System • Operating System • An Operating System or OS is a software program that enables the computer hardware to communicate and operate with the computer software. Without a computer Operating System a computer and software programs would be useless.

8. RAM • Short for Random Access Memory, RAM also known as main memory or system memory is a term commonly used to describe the memory within a computer. Unlike ROM, RAM requires power; if power is lost all data is also lost.

9. ROM • Short for Read-Only Memory, ROM is a type of memory that is capable of holding data and being read from, however, not capable of being written too or having its data modified. Unlike RAM, ROM is capable of keeping its contents regardless if it has power or not.

10. BIOS • Short for Basic Input/Output System, BIOS is a chip located on all computer motherboards that contains instructions and setup for how your system should boot and how it operates.

11. Root Also known as an admin, administrator, and gatekeeper, root is a super user on a computer network. Generally a root is used to refer to the system administrator and is an individual who has complete access to a network.

12. Virus • Software program first written by Fred Cohen in 1983, and later coined in a 1984 research paper. A virus is a software program, script, or macro that has been designed to infect, destroy, modify, or cause other problems with a computer or software program. Viruses can help be prevented by installing an anti-virus protection program.

13. Worm • First developed by two researchers at Xerox PARC in 1978, a worm is a destructive software program containing code capable of gaining access to computers or networks and once within the computer or network causing that computer or network harm by deleting, modifying, distributing, or otherwise manipulating the data.

14. Runtime error • An error that takes place while a program is running.

15. Rollback • A term used to describe the process of returning a computer back to a state that it  was properly working. • A term used to describe the process of returning a hardware product or software program back to an earlier version after encountering issues with a later version.

16. Firewall • A software utility and/or hardware device that limits outside network access to a computer or local network by blocking or restricting ports. Firewalls are commonly a great step for helping prevent un-authorized access to a company or home network.

17. Anti-virus program • Also known as Anti-Virus Software (AVS or just AV), this type of software is designed to protect your computer and/or network against computer viruses. If and when a virus is detected, the computer will generally prompt you that a virus has been found, and ask what action should be done such as deleting the virus. 

18. Keyboard • One of the main input devices used by computers, a PC's keyboard looks very similar to the keyboards of electric typewriters, with some additional keys.

20. Monitor • . Video display screen and the hard shell that holds it. Also called video display terminal (VDT). In its most common usage, monitor refers only to devices that contain no electronic equipment other than what is essentially needed to display and adjust the characters of an image.

22. Mouse • An input device that allows an individual to control a mouse pointer in a graphical user interface (GUI). Utilizing a mouse a user has the ability to perform various functions such as opening a program or file and does not require the user to memorize a commands, like those used in a text-based environment such as MS-DOS. Below is a picture of a Microsoft IntelliMouse and an example of what a mouse may look like.

24. Video • Electronic signal of moving graphics, pictures and/or text used to combine a fluent source of images used for entertainment, education or other uses. When referring to a computer video commonly refers to the display used to visually see output from the computer. Video on a computer is generated by a video card and commonly displayed on a computer monitor.

25. Video adapter • Also known as a graphics card, video card, video board, or a video controller. A video adapter is an internal circuit board that allows a display device such as a monitor to display images from the computer.

26. CPU • Also known as a computer processor or microprocessor the CPU was first developed by Intel in 1974 and is short for Central Processing Unit. The computer CPU is responsible for handling all instructions and calculation it receives from other hardware components in the computer and software programs running on the computer. Below is a graphic example of what the Intel processor looked like. 

28. Motherboard • Also known as the mb, mainboard, mobo, or system board. The Motherboard is a printed circuit that is the foundation of a computers and allows the CPU, RAM, and all other computer hardware components to function with each other. Below is a graphic illustration of the ASUS P5AD2-E motherboard and some basic explanations of each of the major portions of the motherboard. 

30. Hard drive • Computers main storage media device, also called a hard disk drive, HD, or HDD. A hard drive consists of one or more hard disk inside of air sealed casing. Most hard drives are permanently stored in an internal drive bay at the front of the computer and are connected with one ATA / SCSI cable and power cable. Below is an illustration of the inside of a hard disk drive.

32. RAID • Short for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, RAID is an assortment of hard disk drives connected and setup in ways to help protect and/or speed up the performance of a computers disk storage. RAID is commonly used on servers and high performance computers

33. Mb / MB MB short for megabyte. A MB is a common measurement used with computer storage medium.

34. GB • Short for Gigabyte, GB is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes, however the IEC defines a GB equal to 109 or 1,000,000,000 bytes. Therefore a GB could be either of these values, many hard disk drive manufacturers and computer manufactures will define what they consider a Gigabyte to equal in the fine print.

35. FDD • A Floppy Disk Drive or FDD for short is a computer disk drive that enables a user to easily save data to removable diskettes.

37. CD-ROM • Short for Compact Disc Read Only Memory, CD-ROM drives are CD-Players inside computers that can have speeds in the range from 1x and beyond, and have the capability of playing audio CDs and computer data CDs. Below is a picture of the front and back of a standard CD-ROM drive.

39. Compact Disc • Abbreviated as CD, a compact disc is a flat round storage medium that is read by a laser in a CD-ROM drive. The standard CD is capable of holding 72 minutes of music or 650 MB of data. 80 minute CDs are also commonly used to store data and are capable of containing 700 MB of data.

40. CD-R • Also known as CD-WO (Write once) drive, a CD-R is a type of disc and drive that is capable of having information written once to the disc and then having that disc read many times after that.

41. R/W • Short for Read/Write, R/W is a drive and/or media that is capable of being read to or from as well as being written to or read from many times. This term is commonly used and found on CD-RW drives, drives capable of of recording and reading CD-RW discs.

42. DVD • Short for either Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc, the DVD or DVD-ROM is a type of disc drive that allows for large amounts of data on one disc the size of a standard Compact Disc. DVD drives were first sold in 1997 and today are widely used for storing and viewing movies and other data. To play a DVD on a computer a user must have a DVD drive as well as a DVD player, which is a software program designed to play and control a DVD disc

44. IDE • Short for Integrated Drive Electronics (IBM Disc Electronics), IDE is more commonly known as ATA and is a standard interface for IBM compatible hard drives. IDE is different from the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) and Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) because its controllers are on each drive, meaning the drive can connect directly to the motherboard or controller.

45. IDE and its updated successor, Enhanced IDE (EIDE), are the most common drive interfaces found in IBM compatible computers today. Below is a picture of the actual IDE connector and cable.

47. SATA • Short for SerialATA, SATA 1.0 was first released in August 2001 and is a replacement for the Parallel ATA interface used in IBM compatible computers. SerialATA is capable of delivering 1.5Gbps (150MBps) of performance to each drive within a disk array, offers backwards compatibility for existing ATA and ATAPI devices, and offers a thin small cable solution as seen in the below picture.

48. This cable helps make a much easier cable routing and offers better airflow in the computer when compared to the earlier ribbon cables used with ATA drives.

50. Serial port • A connection or interface on the computer used to connect a serial device to the computer. Serial ports are typically identified on IBM compatible computers as as COM (communications) ports. For example, a mouse might be connected to COM1 and a modem to COM2. With the introduction of USB and FireWire, Serial ports are not being used as frequently as they had been in the past.  1 bit at a time transfer rate.