Information Technology Exam guide Unit 1: Fundamentals of Hardware and Software

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EXAM GUIDE:
UNIT 1: FUNDAMENTALS OF HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

GENERAL OBJECTIVES:

On completion of this Section, students should:

1. appreciate the fundamental hardware and software terminologies and concepts;

2. develop expertise in the operation and use of microcomputer-based systems

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

The students should be able to:

State the functions of the basic components of all computers and list examples where applicable;

Bistable devices, PROM, EPROM, RAM, ROM, byte, kilobyte bit, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, word, wordsize, address, location and address content.

State and compare the characteristics and uses of secondary storage devices and media;

Explain and use terms associated with backing storage devices and media;

Optical mark reader (OMR), character readers (OCR, MICR), mouse, joystick, light-pen, touch terminals, voice data entry (VDE), voice response unit, pads and tablets, point of sale (POS), bar code, keyboard, key-to disk, scanners.

Visual display unit (VDU); resolution, printers,
character, line, page, impact, non-impact, plotters,
voice, microfilm, permanent copy (hard copy), temporary copy (soft copy), speed, print quality, storage capacity, human readable, machine readable.

Describe how data are stored and manipulated within the computer.

Binary number, Binary addition, ASCII, discrete and continous data, parity, conversion of decimal to binary and binary to decimal. Representation of intergers(postive and negative); sign and magnitude; two's complement; characters, BCD representation.

Operating system functions, batch processing systems, on line systems, disk formatting, file management, data transfer, resource management.

Application programs, custom-written software, general purpose software; specialized software package, customization of general purpose software.

Command driven, menu driven, HELP facilities, pull- down and pop-up menus, icons. Hardware: touch screens, pivoted monitors, antiglare screen.

Directories, naming of files, labelling of diskettes, storage of files on diskettes, user back-up; user check point.

(i) create a directory/folder; (ii) produce a directory listing of files;
(iii) prepare a diskette to store data;
(iv) copy single files from one diskette to another;
(v) create a backup copy of a diskette;
(vi) delete unwanted files;

Point-to-point and broadcast transmission computer network, modem, bandwidth, simplex, duplex, half duplex protocol, local area network, wide area network, up-load, down-load, e-mail, bulletin board, data transfer mode, voice band.

Detect and rectify low level problems with the computer hardware.