Information Technology

Processing & distribution of data using computer hardware, telecommunications & digital
electronics

Computer
An electronic device operating under certain instructions stored in its own memory which can
accept input data, manipulate data & produce results and store it for future use

Internal/Primary memory
ROM
Read-only memory – permanent storage medium – CPU cannot rewrite – non-volatile – computer
uses stored information when boots up

RAM
Random access memory – temporary storage – volatile memory (memory lost as we shut down) –
processor can read and write from RAM faster than any other media, so adding more RAMs
increases processing speed

External/Secondary/Auxiliary memory
May be Magnetic (Floppy & Disk) and Optical (CDs, DVDs, CD-R, DVD-R)

System software
Which directly operates the computer hardware to perform basic functions needed by users and
other programs OR it also manages and monitors the different resources of the whole computer
system (Operating system, Drivers & Backup/Restore utility program)

Application software
Software use to achieve a certain goal/task
Commercial, Scientific, Financial etc.
CU
Reads instructions from main memory and decodes them and uses other components to execute
these instructions

ALU
To perform arithmetic operations on data