INTRODUCTION TO HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE COMPUTER MAINTANANCE
COMPUTER HARDWARE SYSTEM Primary System Components Peripheral Devices and connectors Major Hardware Components of a Computer System • Central Processing Unit • Auxiliary Storage • Input Devices • Output Devices Central Processing Unit • Arithmetic/Logic Unit (ALU): processes data arithmetically (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) or logically (greater than, less than, equal to) • Control Unit: works with the operating system to move data between auxiliary storage and main memory; and between main memory and the ALU • Main Memory: contains both program instructions and the data that is required. • A single machine can have multiple CPUs to share processing tasks (co-processors, multiprocessing), but each CPU can execute only a single task. Inside the System Unit • Main component: motherboard – Circuit board that “houses” integrated circuits (microscopic elements … wires, transis