Computers and computer systems

Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

  • understand what all the terms highlighted in bold in the text mean
  • understand the fundamental hardware components that make up a computer’s hardware and the role of each of these components
  • understand the difference between an operating system and an application program, and what each is used for in a computer
  • describe some examples of computers and state the effect that the use of computer technology has had on some common products
  • identify the principal components of a given computer system and draw a diagram after the style of Figures 6 and 12 to represent the data flows between them.