Week 3 Project

/

Hardware and Software for Digital Enterprise—Part 1

Let us discuss the basics of the computer hardware used for digital enterprises.

Hardware

Contemporary computer systems require six major components in four general categories:

Central Processing Unit (CPU): Manipulates symbols, letters, and numbers and controls the other devices in the computer systems.

Peripherals: Consists of input and output devices.

Primary and secondary storage: Stores data and program instructions temporarily before and after processing.

Communication devices: Enables the use of multimedia, which in turn combines two or more types of media into a computer-based application.

Let us now explore each component in detail:

CPU

The two components of the CPU are:

Arithmetic-Logic Unit (ALU): Performs the computer’s principal logic and arithmetic operations.

Control Unit: Controls and coordinates the other parts of the computer system such as input and output devices and storage.

Peripherals

The principal input devices are:

Keyboards

Pointing devices

Touch screens

Magnetic Ink and Optical Character Recognition (MICR), which are devices for check and bar code processing

Pen-based instruments

Digital scanners

Sensors

Audio input devices such as microphones and tape players

Radio Frequency Identi�cation Devices (RFID)

The principal output devices are:

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) terminals

Light Emitting Diode (LED) terminals

Printers

Audio output devices such as speakers and headphones

/