Elements of a Computer and

Communication System
A system is a group of related components and operations that interact to perform a
task.

1. People. There are two types of users:

 Professionals - An Information Technology (IT) professional who had formal

education in the technical aspect of using a computer and communication
system. Ex. Computer Programmer.
 End-users - is someone without much technical knowledge of IT who uses
computers for entertainment, education or work related task.

2. Procedure. These are descriptions of how things are done, steps for accomplishing a
result

3. Data/Information.

Data – consists of the raw facts and figures that are processed into information.
Information – summarized data or otherwise manipulated data.

Units of Measurement for Capacity

A computer system’s data/information storage capacity is represented by:

Kilobyte (KB) equivalent to approximately 1000 bytes.

Megabyte (MB) about 1 million bytes
Gigabyte (GB) about 1 billion bytes

4. Hardware

The Basic Operations of Computing

 Input operation – data is entered or otherwise captured electronically and is

converted to a form that can be processed by the computer.
 Processing operation – the data is manipulated to process or transform it into
information.
 Output operation – the information which has been processed from the data, is
produced in a form usable by people.
 Secondary Storage operation – data, information, and programs are stored in
computer - processable form

Hardware – consists of all the machinery and equipment in a computer system

Hardware devices are categorized according to which of the four computer operations it
performs.

Input Hardware - allow people to put data into the computer in a form that the computer
can use.

Processing and Memory Hardware. The CPU (the processor) – computing part of the
computer. It controls and manipulates data to produce information.

Memory (also known as main memory, RAM or primary storage) – is a working storage.
Memory is the computer’s “work space” where data and programs for immediate
processing are held.

Output Hardware – consists of devices that translate information processed by the

computer into a form that humans can understand.

Example:
Monitor
Printer
Speaker
Headphone

Secondary Storage Hardware – (external storage) – consists of devices that store data
and programs permanently.
Example:
Diskette
Hard Disk
Optical Disk

Four types of Computer Hardware

Input Hardware – e.g. keyboard, mouse, scanner, microphone

Processing and Memory Hardware – e.g. CPU, RAM
Output Hardware – e.g. monitor, printer, speaker, head phones
Secondary Storage Hardware – e.g. hard disk, diskette, optical disk or CD, flash drive

5. Software. Software or programs – consist of the step by step instructions that tell the
computer how to perform a task.

Two Major Types:

a. Application software – are defined as software that can perform useful work on
general purpose task.

Examples:
 Web browser, word processing software, spreadsheet software, database,
software, presentation graphics software. 1) Opera (Web Browser) 2) Microsoft
Word (Word Processing) 3) Microsoft Excel (Spreadsheet software) 5) MySQL
(Database Software) 6) Microsoft Powerpoint (Presentation Software) 7) iTunes
(Music / Sound Software) 8) VLC Media Player (Audio / Video Software) 9) World
of Warcraft (Game Software) 10) Adobe Photoshop (Graphics Software)

Application software run under System Software, and are made to do a specific
task

b. System Software packages have direct control and access to your computer
hardware, and memory locations. They perform I/O operations on various
memory locations, and control the hardware, to make the application software do
a task.

Operating systems, are the main examples for system software . Examples : 1)
Microsoft Windows 2) Linux 3) Unix 4) Mac OSX 5) DOS 6) BIOS Software 7) HD
Sector Boot Software 8) Device Driver Software i.e Graphics Driver etc 9) Linker
Software 10) Assembler and Compiler Software

6. Communication is defined as the electronic transfer of data from one place to

another.

1) sender
2) receiver
3) computer
4) transmission medium
5) signal converter - modem