End of the Chapter

This ends the general overview of computer systems. At this point, you should have an idea of what computer systems are all about. But you will likely be uncertain about quite a few things.

The following chapters will clarify some topics, and others will remain mystifying until later courses. For now, you may wish to review the following. Click on a subject that interests you to go to where it was discussed.

 

• hardware Hardware and software.
• hardware components Major hardware components of a computer system
• memory types Types of memory
• hard disk Characteristics of a hard disk.
• I/O devices I/O devices
• program types Two categories of programs
• operating system The operating system.
• starting a program How programs start running.
• network Computer networks

The next chapter will discuss analog and binary signals and why binary signals are important in computer systems.