CIT 210

COMPUTER HARDWARE

COURSE
GUIDE

CIT 210 COMPUTER HARDWARE

Course Team

ENGR. DR. FELIX ALE (Course Writer) - National Space

Research & Development Agency, Abuja, Nigeria

NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

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© 2022 by NOUN Press

National Open University of Nigeria
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Printed 2022

ISBN:

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form
or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.
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INTRODUCTION

NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

FACULTY OF SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
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Course Guide for CIT210

INTRODUCTION

CIT210 – Computer Hardware is a 3-credit unit course. The course is a

compulsory course in the first semester. It will take you 15 weeks to
complete the course. You are to spend 65 hours of study for a period of 13
weeks while the first week is for orientation and the last week is for end of
semester examination.

You will receive the course material which you can read online or download
and read off-line. The online course material is integrated in the Learning
Management System (LMS). All activities in this course will be held in the
LMS. All you need to know in this course is presented in the following sub-
headings.

Course Competencies

By the end of this course, you will gain competency to:

Understand, use and work with computer hardware devices

Course Objectives

The course objectives are to:

• Understand the standard computer system hardware architecture as

explained by John Von Neumman
• Be familiar with diver computer hardware devices, components,
interconnectivity, and services
• Understand the future trends of computer hardware advancement

• Comprehend the fundamental computer hardware categories which

include peripheral devices, processing units, and memory or storage
devices.
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Working through this Course

The course is broadly divided into Modules, and subsequently into Units.
The modules are derived from the course competencies and objectives. The
competencies will guide you through on the knowledge you would acquire
at the end of this course. So, as you work through the course, reflect on
the competencies to ensure mastery. The Units are components of the
Modules. Each Unit is discussed under the following headings, viz;
introduction, intended learning outcome(s), main content, self-assessment
exercise(s), conclusion, summary, and further readings. The Introduction
addresses the expectations from the Unit topic. The intended learning
outcome(s) is the benchmark that evaluates your achievement at the end
of the course. Therefore, review the intended learning outcome(s) before
going to the main content and at the end of the unit, revisit the intended
learning outcome(s) to check if you have achieved the learning outcomes.
Work through each Unit again if you have not understood the pre-
determined learning outcomes.

The main content is the body of knowledge in the Unit, which specifically
addresses the theoretical framework. Self-assessment exercises are
significant parts of the content which enable evaluation of the
understanding of the course competencies. The conclusion expresses the
final notes achieved, while the summary presents the brief overview of the
knowledge discussed in the Unit. The last section on further readings
provides sources of relevant literature, books, and journals.
The Modules and Units are hereby enumerated as follows:

Module 1: Introduction to Computer Systems

Unit 1: Fundamentals of Computer Systems
Unit 2: Computer Software
Module 2: Computer Hardware Architecture
Unit 1: Von Neumann Computer Architecture
Unit 2: Central Processing Unit
Unit 3: Computer Data Storage and Memory Devices
Module 3: Computer Peripheral Devices
Unit 1: Input Devices
Unit 2: Output Devices
Module 4: Computer Hardware Components
Unit 1: System board - Motherboard
Unit 2: Microchips Technology
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Module 5: Hardware Interconnectivity and Embedded Systems

Unit 1: Computer Networking
Unit 2: Multi-core Technology
Unit 3: Introduction to Embedded Systems
Module 6: Digital Systems
Unit 1: Introduction to Digital Systems
Unit 2: Cloud Computing

There are six modules and fourteen units in this course. Each unit represent
a week of study or combined.

Presentation Schedule
The weekly activities are presented in Table 1 while the required hours of
study and the activities are presented in Table 2. This will guide your study
time. You may spend more time in completing each module or unit.
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Table I: Weekly Activities

Week Activity
1 Orientation and course guide
2 Module 1 Unit 1
3 Module 1 Unit 2
4 Module 2 Unit 1
5 Module 2 Unit 2
6 Module 2 Unit 3
7 Module 3 Unit 1
8 Module 3 Unit 1
9 Module 4 Unit 1
10 Module 4 Unit 2
11 Module 5 Unit 1
12 Module 5 Unit 2
13 Module 5 Unit 3
14 Module 6 Units 1 and 2
15 Revision and Response to Questionnaire
16 Examination

The activities in Table I include facilitation hours (synchronous and

asynchronous), assignments, mini projects, and laboratory practical. How
do you know the hours to spend on each? A guide is presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Required Minimum Hours of Study

S/N Activity Hour per Hour per
Week Semester
1 Synchronous Facilitation (Video 1 13
Conferencing)
2 Asynchronous Facilitation (Read and 3 39
respond to posts including facilitator’s
comment, self-study)
3 Assignments, mini-project, laboratory 1 13
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practical and portfolios

Total 5 65

Assessment

Table 3 presents the mode you will be assessed.

Table 3: Assessment
S/N Method of Assessment Score (%)
3 Assignments 1-4 (best 3 will be chosen) 30
4 Final Examination 70
Total 100
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Assignments
There are two aspects to the assessment of the course. First are the
tutor marked assignments; second, is a written examination. In a case
where NOUN e-learning platform is applicable, take the assignment and
click on the submission button to submit. The assignment will be scored,
and you will receive a feedback.
In tackling the assignments, you are expected to apply information and
knowledge acquired during this course. The assignments must be
submitted to your tutor for formal assessment in accordance with the
deadlines stated in the Assignment File. The work you submit to your
tutor for assessment will count for 30% of your total course mark.
At the end of the course, you will need to sit for a final three-hour
examination. This will also count for 70% of your total course mark.

Examination

Finally, the examination will help to test the cognitive domain. The test
items will be mostly application, and evaluation test items that will lead to
creation of new knowledge/idea.

How to get the Most from the Course

To get the most in this course, you:

• Need a personal laptop or a desktop PC at home. The use of a

smart mobile phone is not sufficient to grant you the desirable
environment to work.
• Need regular, stable, and faster internet.
• Need to install the recommended software.

• Must work through the course step by step starting with the
programme orientation.

• Must not plagiarise or impersonate. These are serious offences that

could terminate your studentship. Plagiarism check will be used to
run most of your submissions.
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• Must do all the assessments following given instructions.

• Must create time daily to attend to your study.

Facilitation
There will be two forms of facilitation – synchronous and asynchronous.
The synchronous will be held through video conferencing according to
weekly schedule. During the synchronous facilitation:

• There will be one hour of online real time contact per week making
a total of 13 hours for thirteen weeks of study time.
• At the end of each video conferencing, the video will be
uploaded for view at your pace.
• You are to read the course material and do other assignments
as may be given before video conferencing time.
• The facilitator will concentrate on main themes.
• The facilitator will take you through the course guide in the
first lecture at the start date of facilitation

For the asynchronous facilitation, your facilitator will:

• Present the theme for the week.
• Direct and summarise forum discussions.
• Coordinate activities in the platform.
• Score and grade activities when need be.
• Support you to learn. In this regard personal mails may be sent.
• Send you videos and audio lectures, and podcasts if need be.

Read all the comments and notes of your facilitator especially on your
assignments, participate in forum discussions. This will give you
opportunity to socialize with others in the course and build your skill for
teamwork. You can raise any challenge encountered during your study. To
gain the maximum benefit from course facilitation, prepare a list of
questions before the synchronous session. You will learn a lot from
participating actively in the discussions.
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Learner Support

You will receive the following support:

• Technical Support: There will be contact number(s), email address

and chatbot on the Learning Management System where you can chat
or send message to get assistance and guidance any time during the
course.

• 24/7 communication: You can send personal mail to your facilitator

and the centre at any time of the day. You should receive answer to
you mails within 24 hours. There is also opportunity for personal or
group chats at any time of the day with those that are online.

• You will receive guidance and feedback on your assessments,

academic progress, and receive help to resolve challenges facing your
studies.
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COURSE INFORMATION

COURSE CODE CIT210

COURSE TITLE COMPUTER HARDWARE
COURSE UNIT 3
SEMESTER SECOND
COURSE DURATION 13 WEEKS
REQUIRED HOURS FOR STUDY 65
COURSE WRITER/DEVELOPER ENGR. DR. FELIX ALE
Deputy Director & HOD
Advanced Computations & Expert Systems Division
Department of Engineering and Space Systems
National Space Research & Development Agency,
Abuja, Nigeria

COURSE EDITOR
COURSE COORDINATOR

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CONTENTS

Contents
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 4
COURSE INFORMATION .................................................................................................................. 12
CONTENTS.......................................................................................................................................... 13
COURSE DETAILS ............................................................................................................................. 14
Module 1: Introduction to Computer Systems ............................................................................... 14
Unit 1: Fundamentals of Computer Systems................................................................................. 14
Unit 2: Computer Software ........................................................................................................... 24
Module 2: Computer Hardware Architecture ................................................................................. 28
Unit 1: Von Neumann Computer Architecture ......................................................................... 28
Unit 2: Central Processing Unit .................................................................................................... 34
Unit 3: Computer Data Storage and Memory Devices.............................................................. 38
Module 3: Computer Peripheral Devices ....................................................................................... 46
Unit 1: Input Devices ........................................................................................................................ 46
Unit 2: Output Devices ..................................................................................................................... 54
Module 4: Computer Hardware Components ................................................................................. 60
Unit 1: System board - Motherboard......................................................................................... 60
Unit 2: Microchips Technology .................................................................................................... 66
Module 5: Hardware Interconnectivity and Embedded Systems.................................................... 71
Unit 1: Computer Networking....................................................................................................... 71
Unit 2: Multi-core Technology ..................................................................................................... 78
Unit 3: Introduction to Embedded Systems .................................................................................. 83
Module 6: Digital Systems ............................................................................................................. 86
Unit 1: Introduction to Digital Systems ........................................................................................ 86
Unit 2: Cloud Computing .............................................................................................................. 91

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COURSE DETAILS

Module 1: Introduction to Computer Systems

Unit 1: Fundamentals of Computer Systems

CONTENTS
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Definition of a Computer
3.2 Descriptions of Computer Systems
3.3 Classifications and types of Computer Systems
3.4 Historical Generation Advancement of computer systems
3.5 Comparison between Hardware and Software

4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises
7.0 References and Further Reading

1.0 Introduction
Today, almost everyone uses computers directly or indirectly to solve diverse
problems ranging from word processing to internet-based applications. For
instance, your access to this course material is through the use of computers
and computer applications. This course is about the study computer hardware,
which is the physical part of the computer system. This module addresses the
introductory theories about computer systems. It also deals with
interconnectivity and relationship with the major modules of a standard
computer system. In this Unit, we shall discuss some fundamental concepts
relating to a computer system. The Unit also explains the computer device
and system configuration.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

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➢ Understand the concepts of computer systems
➢ Observe the interconnectivity of subsystems in a computer system

3.0 Main contents

3.1 Definition of a Computer

A computer can be described as an electronic device that can receive data,

process the data, and produce the result as the outcome. Conventionally, the
received data is known as input while the result of the processing is known as
output or information. A computer also has the capability of storing data
and/or information in its memory for future use. This relationship is illustrated
in Figure 1.

INPUT PROCESSING OUTPUT

(DATA) (INFORMATION)
(Computer)

Figure 1 Computer Device Data Flow Process

Basically, a computer is divided into two major parts, namely, hardware and
software. This configuration is like the division of human being into body and
spirit/soul. That is, the body is the hardware while the software is the spirit or soul.
While the hardware, the physical or most visible part is tangible, the software is
intangible. Normally, the software resides and operates within the hardware.
Essentially, hardware the physical part of the computer while the software is the
code that runs on the computer.
Computers are capable of processing numerical data in form of 0’s and 1’s or simply
in binary digital format. This digital format is the basis of the machine language
which differs from human-readable languages. They can solve repetitive
computational jobs with high level of accuracy and timeliness depending on the
software capability.

3.2 Description of a Computer System

A computer system involves a complete suite of hardware and software resources as
well as the users that operate the computer system. While a computer system does
the basic function of a computer device, different kinds of computer systems can
handle certain specific additional functionalities. This will be addressed later in this
Module.

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Ideally, a full-fledged computer system is made up of users, application software,
systems software, operating system and hardware as shown in Figure 2.

Users

Application
Software

Systems software

Operating system

Hardware

Figure 2 Architecture of a Computer System

In Figure 2, each of the computer system parts is known as a subsystem. In this case,
a subsystem is made up of more than one component. For instance, the users’
subsystem comprises expert users, programmers/developers, and end-users.
The main focus of this course is the hardware subsystem. It is the bedrock of other
subsystems.
3.3 Classifications and Types of computers
You must have been aware that many kinds and types of computers exist for different
applications and computational needs. Can you identify some of these? Essentially,
computers while maintaining their basic functionalities, can be categorized
according to their processing power, internal design, applicability, and physical size.
These categories are as follows:
➢ Personal computers
Personal computers, popularly shortened as PC, are common, cheaper,
versatile, small and portable in sizes. They are single-user computer based on
different kinds of microprocessors. Laptops are kinds of PCs that consume
less power due to their miniaturized integrated internal components. We shall
discuss about processors and their types later in this course.

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Today, many students, office workers and business people use personal
computer to carry out many tasks. Such tasks include word processing,
graphical designs, desktop publishing, accounting operations, spreadsheets,
video editing, teleconferencing among others.

It should be noted that the specifications of personal computers have evolved over
the years due to explosion in human population, advancement in software and
hardware components.

➢ Workstations
These computers are relatively more powerful than PCs in terms of
computational capability. They are also single-user based. Although, a
workstation is like a personal computer, however it has a higher specifications
and better quality. These high-end computers are often used to execute
complex and large computational jobs in lesser time, so they are usually more
costly than PCs. These types of computers are found in research laboratories,
research institutions, universities, Space, automotive, and manufacturing
industries.

Note that the specifications of workstation computers have also evolved over the
years due to software and tasks requirements.

➢ Minicomputers
Minicomputers are multi-users-based computers. They support a large array
of users concurrently and are usually able to handle larger complex or/and
large computational jobs. PCs and workstations are usually connected to
minicomputers in a network for the joint execution of tasks, processes, and
programs. Minicomputers are not portable, they belong to large organizations
such as the Nigerian National Space Research and Development Agency
(NASRDA), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN), national astronautics and space administration
(NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), among others. During your next
industrial training, you may wish to visit such organization to see such
computers.
It should be noted that the specifications of minicomputers computers have also
evolved over the years due to software and hardware advancement.

➢ Mainframe
Mainframe computers are larger, expensive and more powerful multi-user systems.
They simultaneously support thousands of users than minicomputers. They have
higher specifications in terms of processing speed and storage. They are quite huge
and expensive. Mainframe computers are mostly found in large corporations,
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enterprises and government organizations where many IT professionals and workers
use them simultaneously to solve grand challenge computational problems
They are designed to perform large numbers of calculations for governments and
large enterprises
It should be noted that the specifications of mainframe computers have also evolved
over the years. International Business Machine (IBM) is one of the earliest
manufacturers of computer systems. Figure 3 shows the System z9 computer which
was a line of mainframe manufactured by IBM in 2005.

Figure 3 IBM System z9

➢ Supercomputer
Although, these computers are similar to mainframe, they are extremely the
fastest and can be used to perform hundreds of millions of instructions per
second. They are designed to solve grand challenge problems that are often
data- and computationally intensive, such as DNA sequencing/human
genome, Space exploration, Mars mission, national population census,
national electoral system, national database systems, banking applications and
database, health informatics, etc. A typical supercomputer can solve up to ten
trillion individual calculations per second.
It is important to note that the specifications of supercomputers have also evolved
over the years. Usually, supercomputers are the most powerful computers that exist
at a time in human history. Today, China and USA are the leading manufacturers and
users of supercomputers in the world. This fact is available at the
https://www.top500.org/ website.

Till early 2021, Fugaku, the Chinese exascale systems was known to be the world's
fastest supercomputer on Top500. As at this press time, the Intel and Cray of the
Argonne National Laboratory is working hard on the design and development of

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Aurora as the fastest supercomputer to be commissioned in late 2022. The project is
under the sponsorship of the United States Department of Energy. Figure 4 show a
typical structure of a computer system.

Figure 4 Computer system

These categories of computers spread across the generational phases and

development of computer systems of all history.

3.4 Historical Generations Advancements of Computers

Computer history specifically dated back to 1833 when Charles Babbage, a
mathematician, invented the first runner of digital programmable and general-
purpose computers. Barely, a century later, Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer (ENIAC) was invented by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, this
computer was the first general-purpose electronic computer.
Obviously, the entire history of mainly computer hardware advancements were
distinctly partitioned into time-frame, periods, or generations according to a specific
range of advancements. The generations are as follows:

a) First Generation: 1940-1956

This generation showcased the use of vacuum tubes for logic circuitry through the
flow of electrical current. Magnetic drums were used for data transfer and storage.
During this period, machine language was developed for systematic programming.
ENIAC was among the systems developed during this period. The drawbacks of the

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systems include slower speed, excessive heat, and high cost. Figure 5 shows a typical
first generation computer.

Figure 5 First Generation Computers

b) Second Generation: 1957-1963

In this generation, transistors were used as the major switching devices thus making
computers smaller, faster and energy-efficient. The programming format was
assembly languages. Figure 6 shows a typical second generation computer.

Figure 6 Second Generation Computer

c) Third Generation 1964-1971

Integrated circuits (IC) were developed and used as the switching devices for the
flow of data. A single IC contains several numbers of transistors, capacitors, and
resistors in the entire circuitry. Thus, computers became smaller in size, faster in

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processing and generally efficient. High level programming languages were also
introduced during this period. Figure 7 shows a typical third generation computer.
Prominent computers in the third generation were PDP (Personal Data Processor),
IBM-168/360/370 series, Honeywell-6000 series

Figure 7 Third Generation computer

d) Fourth Generation Computers 1972-1990

The fourth-generation computers were based on the successful invention and
development of microprocessors as the central processing units (CPU). Personal and
portable computers were manufactured due to the production of miniatured
computing components. As a result, the Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits
technology was implemented in the design of the microprocessors and other kinds of
switching devices. Intel was the first company to design and develop
microprocessors. The details of microprocessor or CPU will be discussed later in this
course. Efficient high-level programming languages were also developed such as
Java, C++, C#, VB.NET among others. Figure 8 shows a typical example of the
fourth Generation Computer.

Figure 8 Fourth Generation Computers

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e) Fifth Generation Computers 1990 to date

The computers of this generation are designed based on superconductors, VLSI,

miniaturized components, multi-core technologies, and artificial intelligence. Future
computers will advance more on machine learning, expert systems, natural language
processing, neural networks, advanced parallel computation, robotics, and fuzzy logic
designs. Virtual reality, fault-tolerance, and artificial intelligence will dominate the
hardware and software designs of fifth-generation computers.
The robots are being manufactured as computing devices that can replace human beings
to work in difficult, dangerous, and boring environments with less human intervention.
Examples of these robots are satellites, Sophia, robocop, mars rover, among others. Find
out what these robots do and identify other kinds of robots. Figures 9 and 10 show
examples of the fifth generation computers.

Figure 9 Fifth generation computer - Laptop

Figure 10 Fifth generation computer - Robot

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3.5 Comparison between Hardware and Software

Table 1 in this section shows the comparison between hardware and software.

Table 1 The comparison of hardware to software

Hardware Software

Hardware is a tangible physical parts Software is a set of instruction or codes that

computer system control the functions of a computer

Hardware devices are manufactured Software are developed

Hardware cannot function without

software. software needs hardware to operate

As Hardware are physical electronic

devices, we can see and touch We can see and also use the software but can’t
hardware. actually touch them.

Von Neumman architecture for

computer framework This adopts software models

computer viruses do not affect

computer Computer viruses can corrupt codes

Yes, hardware can do not bare metals It can be downloaded, copy and transfer

If hardware is damaged, it can be When software is damaged, corrupt it can

replaced with a new one recovery from backup or the nendows

Examples include Keyboard, Mouse,

Monitor, Printer, CPU, Hard disk, Examples include Ms Word, Excel, Power
RAM, ROM etc. Point, Photoshop, MySQL etc.

4.0 Conclusion
A computer has been described as an electronic device that is capable of
receiving data, processing the data and generating the output result in a timely
manner. A computer system comprises software and hardware. Some basic

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categories of computers include supercomputers, mainframe, minicomputer,
desktop computers, and personal computers.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about some fundamental concepts of a computer
system.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

➢ What is a computer?
➢ Mention some tasks which computers can be used for
➢ Describe a computer system
➢ Advancements in computer hardware are the major causes of different
generations in computer history. Discuss.

7.0 References / Literature

Price, Derek de S. (1984). "A History of Calculating Machines". IEEE Micro. 4 (1): 22–52.
doi:10.1109/MM.1984.291305
Őren, Tuncer (2001). "Advances in Computer and Information Sciences: From Abacus to Holonic
Agents" (PDF). Turk J Elec Engin. 9 (1): 63–70.

https://www.top500.org/

Unit 2: Computer Software

Content

1.0 Introduction
Do you realize that computer hardware cannot work without software? You
have learned from the Unit 1 that software is the soul or intangible component of the
computer system. When you drive your motor car, you are able to control the
operations and direction of movement of the car. That is what a software does exactly
to the computer hardware. In this Unit 2, we shall study about the detailed
professional description of software and the types that are available to the users. It is
certain that you have used some of several kinds of software directly or indirectly
over the years. Relax well as we discuss this important subject matter in computer
systems.

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2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Understand the definition and relevance of computer software
➢ Know some types of computer software

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Descriptions of Computer Software

Software can simply be described as a set of codes or programs involving a
combination of well-defined instructions, scripts, procedures, documentations, and
data that can manipulate and execute predefined tasks on a computer system. These
tasks also include the control of functionalities of the computers or computing
devices in handling jobs according to the programming. The computing devices
include PCs, tablets, PDA, Automated teller machines, mobile phones, smart TVs,
and other microcontroller-based embedded systems or smart devices.
Basically, computer hardware devices cannot operate or function without software.
This inter-relationship between hardware and software is as shown in figure 2.0. You
need to also understand that a software suite comprises programs, also known as a
set of codes, design specifications, documentation, and users’ manuals.

3.2 Types of Computer Software

Since the inception of the computer age, there are have been several kinds of software
serving different purposes ranging from hardware control, users’ operations,
management of hardware to the entire system control. Most times, the users,
developers, manufacturers and programmers determine the availability of different
kinds of software that are used in the computer systems.
Generally, software can be classified into application software, system software
utility software, operating system and firmware. All these forms of software are
available in computer systems and software engineering environment so as to support
ICT facilities, computer users, programmers, developers among others. Figure 11
shows the classifications of software. Let us go through all these now.

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Software

Application Utility software Firm ware

Software

Systems software Operating system

Figure 11 Classifications of Computer Software

Operating system
An operating system software is a software that interfaces between system hardware,
application software and the users. It is analogous to a company secretary or
receptionist that interact between the guests and other workers or offices of the
organization. On arrival, the guests may be directed to appropriate employee or office
that can meet the needs of the guests. Thus, without the roles of operating systems
the computer hardware cannot be operated, controlled and manipulated by the users.
The effective communication between hardware and users is very important for both
parties.
Essentially, the operating systems enable the management of all the computer
resources. These resources include memory, files, processes, peripheral devices,
security features, processors, storage devices, networking functionalities, job
scheduling among others.
Operating systems (OS) can be broadly categorized as single-users and multi-users.
While a single-users OS allows one user at time, a multi-users OS allows more than
one user to operate a computer at a time. We also have single-tasking and multi-
tasking operating systems. Tasks are processes or jobs running by the computer
central processing unit. Now, you should be able differentiate between single-
tasking, and multi-tasking. A single-user OS may be either single-tasking e.g. (MS
Windows 95) or multi-tasking (e.g. MS Windows 7, 8, 9,10,11). MS here means
Microsoft, one of the prominent software developer companies in the world today.

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Examples of single-users operating systems are MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows
NT, Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, etc.
Examples of multi-users operating systems are Mainframes, IBM AS400, Linux &
Unix Distributed OS, etc.
Application software
An application (app) software is a computer program suite specifically designed and
developed to solve a certain problem, perform a job or execute an activity in various
human endeavours. Mostly, applications manipulate or work on data, text, numbers,
audio, graphics, and video with respect to the objectives of the operations.
Examples of application software are MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google
Chrome, Photoshop, MySQL etc.

Firmware
Firmware is a kind of software that enables the low-level control for a specific micro-
controller-based hardware device. Firmware software are mostly used for embedded
systems operations and control. Today, many electrical/electronic appliances such as
washing machines, air conditioning units among others have firmware running in
their computing systems.
4.0 Conclusion
It is important to note that a computer system or computing device is broadly
divided into hardware and software. While hardware refers to the physical
components or parts, the software is the soft part, non-tangible, or simply
codes and programs that drive the hardware. The computer hardware
machines cannot function without the software. Thus, the software helps to
achieve the functions a computer. Types of software include systems
software, operating systems, application software and utility software.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about software, types of software and software
applications.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

✓ Give some analogies of computer software
✓ What are the roles of computer software?
✓ State some examples of computer software
✓ Distinguish between firmware and operating systems

7.0 References and Further Reading

Stallings (2005). Operating Systems, Internals and Design Principles.

Pearson: Prentice Hall.

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Gagne, Silberschatz Galvin (2012). Operating Systems Concepts. New York:
Wiley. p. 716. ISBN 978-1118063330.
https://www.webopedia.com/definitions/software/

Module 2: Computer Hardware Architecture

Unit 1: Von Neumann Computer Architecture

Content
1.0 Introduction
In the last Module, you learned about computers functions and the types of
computers. In this module, we shall study deeper the architectural design, layout,
nature, and structure of a computer system. In 1945, the well-known and most
acceptable standard architecture for all digital computer systems was designed and
published by John Von Neumann, a Hungarian mathematician who also doubled as
a physicist. This man was thus the architecture is tagged Von Neumann architecture.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Understand the marketecture of computer systems
➢ Peruse the detailed component of the computer system

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Von Neumann Computer Architecture

Von Neumann architecture described the digital-based computer hardware as a system
comprising the following major parts
➢ System Unit
➢ System board
➢ Central Processing unit
➢ Ports
➢ Input Devices
➢ Output Devices
➢ Memory

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➢ Secondary storage
➢ Communication devices

The functionality of these aforementioned parts is a similitude to the joint operation of

the human body. Our brain is the central processing unit, our legs and hands are the
input/output devices. Can you guess what the memory devices may refer to?

Figure 12 shows the pictorial description of the Von Neumann architecture that serves
as the basis for all digital computer systems.

Figure 12 Von Neumann Computer Architecture

In Figure 12, the central processing unit, popularly known as CPU for short,
comprises of the control unit, arithmetic/logic unit and processor registers. The
computer system operations are also controlled by the peripheral devices which are
basically known as the input and output devices.
We shall discuss the details of these component parts in the following modules

3.2 System Unit

The system unit houses all the internal components of a computer system. These internal
components include the system board, also known as the motherboard, the power supply

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unit, fixed hard drives, communication buses among others. Figures 12 and 14 show the
illustrations of computer system unit.

Label
1. Monitor
2. Motherboard
3. CPU
4. RAM
5. Expansion cards
6. Power supply
7. Optical disc drive
8. Hard disk drive
9. Keyboard
10. Mouse.

Figure 13 Personal computer hardware

Figure 14 System unit of a personal computer

The entire system unit of a personal computer is often located in a plastic or metallic
case or enclosure. Such personal computers are desktops, laptops, and palmtops. The
desktop PC case, which is usually designed to be placed on desks, can either be in the
tower or flat shape. Nowadays, there are compact, all-in-one desktop system units
having all the peripheral devices integrated together. Such all-in-one systems are
manufactured by Dell, HP, and Apple (iMac). Most high-performance computer servers
and workstations are available in bigger, rack and tower shapes.

Power supply unit

The computer power supply module which is located in the system unit case enables
the conversion from 100-240V alternating current to low-voltage direct current voltage
to power the internal components according to the requirement specifications. Some

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systems like laptops have the in-built batteries for power backup when utility power
supply fails.

System upgrade
The computer system upgrade often refers to improvement on the hardware and
software resource specifications so as to enhance the system capability and overall
performance. For instance, in terms of hardware, the RAM size, HDD/SSD capacity,
visual display unit, and CPU can be enhanced. In most cases the software and hardware
advancements must match. For instance, it is advisable that the 64-bit software should
run on the 64-bit processor, otherwise there may be a speed mismatch, error in
computation, or operation failure.

An expansion card, which is a printed circuit board, can be inserted plugged via its
socket into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard through the data bus according
to the required need of the computer system. Graphics, visual display unit, sound,
networks subsystems all have either in-built connections on the motherboard or
expansion cards.

3.3 Computer Communication Buses

The name bus is an analogy derived from vehicle buses to transport human beings
from one place to the other as shown in Figure 15. Computer bus lines, wire, or cables
are electrical data paths through which bits of information are transmitted between
the CPU and other components. They are communication cables and devices that
enable data transfer among the internal and external components or parts of a
computer system. Buses are also both hardware and software-based. Hardware buses
include wires, optical fibre, etc. while software-based buses include communication
protocols. The CPU word size, also known as the bus size refers to the number of
bits that can be transmitted at once. In general, this should be the same as. Figures
16 and 17 show some common types of communication buses within computer
systems.

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Figure 15 A vehicle bus for human transportation

Figure 16 A computer bus for data transfer

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Figure 17 Computer bus for data transfer between the motherboard and RAM

Historically, computer buses were initially made up of parallel electrical wires

involving several connections of hardware devices. Today, computer communication
buses also include parallel and serial physical arrangements that support the logical
functions. Computer buses are simply wired in a daisy or multidrop arrangement as
in universal serial bus or switch connections.

4.0 Conclusion
The Von Neumman computer architecture is the most acceptable standard of
computer systems parts and connections upon which computer digital systems are
based. The CPU, peripheral and storage devices are the main parts well revealed
by this standard architecture. The computer communication buses are essential for
data transfer among the computer hardware resources.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about computer hardware architecture. Lessons learned
include the Von Neumann architecture with respect to the interconnectivity of the
major parts of computers via different kinds of data buses.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

With the aid of a well-annotated diagram, explain the main components of the Von
Neumann computer architecture
Explain the concept of data communication buses

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7.0 References and Further Reading

Marilyn Wolf, in Computers as Components (Fourth Edition), 2017

https://www.computerscience.gcse.guru/topic/hardware
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/basics_of_computer_science/basics_of_computer_scie
nce_types.htm
Linda Null; Julia Lobur (2006). The essentials of computer organization and
architecture (2nd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. pp. 33, 179–181. ISBN 978-0-7637-
3769-6

Unit 2: Central Processing Unit

Content

1.0 Introduction
In this Unit, we shall explain the roles and functions of the main internal
component of the computer system, which is the Central Processing Unit (CPU). The
CPU is metaphorically referred to as the hearth-beat or brains of the computers. The
CPU carries out the execution of computer instructions or programs and the
manipulation of data. It also controls the functions of other parts of the computer so
as to enable the smooth running of the entire computer system. The CPU is also
known as the processor, microprocessor or central processor of the computer.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Comprehend the central processing unit of the computer systems
➢ Understand the roles and functions of system CPU
➢ Know some types of CPUs

3.0 Main Content

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3.1 Central Processing Unit

The central processing unit (CPU), also known as the processor is an electronic
chip of an integrated circuit that control the computer and also performs arithmetic
logical operations. The main function of the CPU in a computer system is to
receive, implement and execute all the instruction codes received from the
computer hardware and software. The CPU on the satellite onboard computer is
popularly known as the central terminal unit. The CPU on the graphic adapter of
an image processing computer system is known as the graphic processing unit.
All these variants have the same functions and architecture. Figure 18 shows the
computer CPU.

Figure 18 The computer CPU

The CPU comprises of the control unit (CU), arithmetic and logical unit (ALU),
processor registers, and the program counter. Figure 19 shows the block diagram
of the CPU and its internal components.

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Figure 19 Block diagram of the CPU and its internal components.

How the CPU works

The figure shows that the CPU receives data through input devices and stores it
in the memory. The control unit thereafter extracts the data from the memory
according to the instructions. Consequently, the ALU executes necessary
arithmetic and logical operations on the data manipulations. These operations
include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The result of the
computations is stored in memory and finally sent out as output via the output
devices. The control unit basically deciphers and carries out the pre-defined
instructions or programs.
The word size refers to the number of bits of data a CPU can process at once.
Today, due to advancement in hardware technology 64 bits is the standard word
size for CPU's used in personal computers, the older CPU used 32 bits. The overall
speed of a CPU in executing programs is proportional to its word size.
Different CPUs have different types of instructions, so software made for one type
of CPU will not run on other kinds.

The Intel Pentium and PowerPC are common examples of processors for IBM-
PCs and Macintoshes respectively.
Generally, the CPU is usually located at the center of the computer motherboard
as shown in Figure 20. The CPU is usually cooled by a heat sink and fan often
mounted on top of it. Most newer CPUs include an on-die Graphics Processing
Unit (GPU) and co-processor for graphic and mathematical processing
respectively.

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Figure 20 The CPU inside the computer motherboard

3.2 ALU
The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) component uses a combinational digital circuit to
perform bitwise operations and arithmetic calculations on integer binary numbers.
The ALU does not operate on other fixed- or floating-point numbers. It is a key
component structure of several kinds of computing circuits, including the CPU and
GPUs. The ALU operates on the operands and codes which are the inputs as the data
for the system. Subsequently, this generates the output of the executed operations
through the status input/output which provides information about the operations.
This is achieved by the in-build external status registers.

3.3 Micro-controller or system-on-chip

The microcontroller is a complete computer on one chip, simply known as system-
on-a-chip (SoC). It is a small chip with all the required electronic components,
CPU, RAM, storage, and other circuitry in a specific device. Examples of the
applications include a smartphone or portable computer, on a single slab of an
integrated circuit, car, microwave, thermostat among others. For instance, arduino
computer on a board has a microcontroller chip.

4.0 Conclusion
The CPU is an integral part of the computer hardware. It is conspicuously
located at the centre of the motherboard. The computer CPU enables the
control of the hardware resources and also carries out the arithmetic and
logical operations of the system. The micro-controller is simply the complete
computer on a small single slab of an electronic chip.

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5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learnt about the CPU and micro-controller.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

Describe the functionalities of the CPU
Identify the components of the CPU
Define a micro-controller

7.0 References and Further Reading

A.P.Godse; D.A.Godse (2009). "3". Digital Logic Design. Technical

Publications. pp. 9–3. ISBN 978-81-8431-738-1.

Hwang, Enoch (2006). Digital Logic and Microprocessor Design with VHDL.
Thomson. ISBN 0-534-46593-5

Thomas Willhalm; Roman Dementiev; Patrick Fay (December 18, 2014).

"Intel Performance Counter Monitor – A better way to measure CPU
utilization". software.intel.com. Retrieved February 17, 2015.

Liebowitz, Kusek, Spies, Matt, Christopher, Rynardt (2014). VMware

vSphere Performance: Designing CPU, Memory, Storage, and Networking
for Performance-Intensive Workloads. Wiley. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-118-00819-
5.

Regan, Gerard (2008). A Brief History of Computing. p. 66. ISBN 978-

1848000834. Retrieved 26 November 2014.

Unit 3: Computer Data Storage and Memory Devices

Content

1.0 Introduction

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In this Unit, we shall deal with computer data memory or storage devices. These are
significant media components of the computer system used for recording or retaining
all forms of digital data. Every computer system requires several different levels of
memory for storing system data, users’ data, programs, and instruction sets either
temporarily or permanently. The two keywords here are memory and storage, which
slightly refer to different things. While the memory devices store data for a short-
term for immediate access, the storage devices store data long-term for permanent
access. Long-term storage is also known as persistent storage duration. The data, in
this case, refers to documents, applications, programs, codes, and operating systems.
Computer memory can be classified into either primary and secondary or fixed and
removable devices.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Understand the computer memory organization and architecture
➢ Know some types of memory storage devices

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Primary Main Memory

The rimary memory chips which are directly accessible by the CPU, is the main
primary memory of the computer. The access speed of the main memory is faster
than any other kinds storage devices. Examples of primary memory devices are
Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM). Both of them are
made up of solid-state materials.
Figure 21 shows different types of memory and storage devices available in
computer systems. Let us discuss some of these storage devices in detail.

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Figure 21 Computer memory and storage devices

Random Access Memory

Random Access Memory (RAM), is a main memory or primary storage that has
capability of holding the loaded data, instructions, operating system and all running
application, processes and other programs only during execution, that is, when the
computer system is running and powered by electricity. RAM behaves like a
scratchpad memory or whiteboard. temporary, it is a working storage area of bytes
under the supervision of the CPU. RAM stores entire data temporarily. For instance,
if you type your CV on MS Word without saving it with a file name, it remains inside
the RAM while your computer keeps working. If the power is turned off in the
process, your data and program will be erased automatically. Then you will lose your
documents or data. This means RAM is not persistent, its contents are dependent on
power supply. Therefore, always save up your document while working and making
updates.
A good feature of RAM is about faster speed of access because its contents are being
actively manipulated by the CPU. It is able to access and retrieve the value of any

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particular byte in a few nanoseconds (1 nanosecond is 1 billionth of a second). RAM
is more than 1000x faster than the fastest secondary storage.
Usually, RAM is designed and manufacture with a few chips packaged together onto
an integrated circuit, a popular example of this is the dual inline memory module
(DIMM) that can be inserted into the motherboard socket as shown in Figure 22.

The two common types of RAM are static RAM (SRAM) and dynamic RAM
(DRAM).
a) SRAM

This is a kind of RAM that uses flip-flops transistor or Mosfet (MOS) as

switching devices. Its access speed is fast but more expensive. Example
of SRAM is cache memory.

b) DRAM
Dynamic RAM uses capacitors as switching devices to store. The capacitors charges
when data is 1 and do not charge when the data is 0. Unlike SRAM, DRAM requires
refreshing circuits for the data refreshment so as to avoid current leakage. Usually, it
is slower but cheaper thank SRAM. Most computer main memory is made up of
DRAM due to higher access time.

Figure 22 Random Access Memory in a motherboard

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Read-Only Memory
The Read-Only Memory (ROM) chip is a type of primary memory that stores the
basic input/output system (BIOS) information that runs when the computer is booting
or starting. They are non-volatile memory that generally contains instructions for
booting the computer or loading the operating system. This information is in boot
and power management firmware. Modern motherboards apply Unified Extensible
Firmware Interface (UEFI) instead of BIOS.

The flash chips are non-volatile devices that do not require electricity. They are used
in computers, cell phones, digital cameras, etc.
The cache memory is special high-speed memory that temporarily stores instructions
and data that the CPU is using frequently, Thus speeding up the processing. The
Level 2 or external caches generally range in size from 64 Kilobytes to 2 Megabytes.

3.2 Secondary Storage Devices

A secondary storage device can be described as a persistent or non-volatile medium
that can save up data for a long time until it is overwritten, deleted, or corrupted.
These storage devices can either be fixed or removable. Examples of secondary
storage devices are Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and Solid State Drive (SSD). The
removable USB flash drive and optical compact disks can be used to copy or transfer
data between computers. The fixed drives are usually permanently connected to the
system unit of the computer. HDD and SSD are often connected to the motherboard
through communication cables. HDD is capable of using its read/write heads to store
digital data on a magnetic surface of a rigid plate. HDD physical size is usually 3½
and 2½ inches for desktops and laptops respectively.
These types of storage devices shall be discussed as follows;
Compact Disc, DVD, Blu-ray are examples of optical external storage devices while
USB Flash Drives are made up of solid-state materials. Flash drives as also known
as thumb drives or USB-key.

Difference between Hard drives and Solid State Drives

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a secondary storage device that implements an array
of integrated circuits to store data persistently. Hard disk drives are found in
virtually all older computers, due to their high capacity and low cost, but solid-
state drives are faster and more power-efficient but more expensive. Flash drives
are removable and external SSD. They consume less power, and they are usually
faster and cheaper than hard disk drives. Technologically, hard drives store bytes
of data as a magnetic pattern on a spinning metal disk in high pitch spinning
sound. The solid-state drives that store bytes on flash chips, do not have spinning
parts but use silicon chips and electrons.

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Today, high-performance computer clusters use disk array controllers for greater
reliability, security, and massive storage. Figure 23 shows Hard Disk Drive for
persistent storage.

Figure 23 Hard Disk Drive for persistent storage

Figure 24 and 25 shows USB flash drive or Optical disc which can be used to transfer
data between computers via the USB port. They are compatible with most hardware and
software specifications.

Figure 24 Removable Flash Drive for persistent storage

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Figure 24 Removable Flash Drive for persistent storage

Flash drive
Figure 25 shows the SD Card which provides storage in devices like cameras.
This looks similar to the USB flash drive.

Figure 25 SD memory flash

Other types of removable secondary storage devices are as follows

Compact disc (CD) is a circular thin platted glass and plastic polycarbonate material of
a standard size of 12 cm with a hole in the center of about 1.5 cm and 1.2 mm in
thickness. The CD has a storage capacity of 600 MB to 700 MB of data, this
technological product is much older, the new ones will be discussed shortly. CD uses
optical laser technology instead of magnetic technology to store its contents. Figure 26
shows bottom surface of a 12 cm compact disc.

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Figure 26 Bottom surface of a 12 cm compact disc

Types of Compact discs are:

a) Compact disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM): The contents of the CD-ROM
cannot be deleted by any means. Only the publisher is allowed to access the data
imprinted on this CD. It is mostly used to store or copy small size documents or
software applications.
b) CD-Recordable (CD-R): The contents can be stored once and read several times.
Just like CD-ROM, its contents cannot be deleted or overwritten.
c) CD-RW (CD-Rewritable): The contents of CD-RW can be erased or rewritten
several times.
d) Digital Video/Versatile Disc (DVD): This type has a higher storage capacity
ranging from 4.7GB to 17GB depending on whether it is a single or dual-layer
format. The storage capacity of a DVD with a one-sided layer is 4.7 GB, the
one-sided double layer is 8.5 GB, the double-sided layer is 9.4 GB, and the
double-sided double-layer is 17 GB.
e) DVD-ROM: The contents of this type of media cannot be written on or erased
by the user. It is mostly used for distributing proprietary software or other kinds
of applications.
f) DVD-R / DVD+R: These two different types of discs, DVD-R (DVD minus R)
and DVD+R (DVD plus R) are recordable once.
g) DVD-RW / DVD+RW: The contents can be re-written several times.
h) DVD-RAM: This is a rewritable disc that can alter its contents several times. It
functions like hard disks.

A Floppy disk is an old, portable, and removable platter storage device that was made
of magnetizable mylar plastic. The data is stored in concentric rings called tracks on
either side of the platter. The last kind of floppy disk was is a 3½ inches platter in a hard
plastic case that holds 1.44 Megabytes of information. A Zip disk, on the other hand,
could hold up to 250 Megabytes.

Magnetic tape, which was developed in Germany in 1928, is a medium for magnetic
wire data recording. It was made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip
of plastic film. Tape recorders and video tape recorders are used to record and playback
audio and video respectively. The tape drive stores computer data on magnetic tape.

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4.0 Conclusion
The storage or memory devices are integral parts of a computer system. The
devices can be categorized into primary and secondary which can be either
fixed or removable. RAM and ROM are primary memory while HDD and
SSD are types of secondary non-volatile storage devices. The removable
storage devices are USB drives, flash drives, and compact disc drives. The
required types and capacity of drives needed for a computer system is a
function of the well-configured system specification, cost, and the desired
performance.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about different kinds of memory and storage
devices. Quite some examples were also stated.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

Distinguish between persistent and non-persistent storage of data
Differentiate between Hard disk drive and solid-state drive
List some types of compact discs you know
Why is the manufacturing of floppy drives discontinued?

7.0 References and Further Reading

Liebowitz, Kusek, Spies, Matt, Christopher, Rynardt (2014). VMware vSphere
Performance: Designing CPU, Memory, Storage, and Networking for Performance-
Intensive Workloads. Wiley. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-118-00819-5.
https://www.computerscience.gcse.guru/theory/memory-and-storage

Module 3: Computer Peripheral Devices

Unit 1: Input Devices

Content

1.0 Introduction
In the previous modules of this course, you have learned about various
hardware parts of computer systems as shown in the John Von Neumman
architecture. Peripheral devices, which involve input and output devices are
significant parts of this standard architecture. The peripheral devices are

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connected externally to system unit of the computer through appropriate interface
and ports.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Understand the input devices and the functions in the computer system
➢ Identify various kinds of input devices

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Description of Input Devices

Input devices are parts of the computer system that enable the users to enter data
and the required control parameters into the computer. The input data is thereafter
converted and translated into a computer-readable format for subsequent
processing by the central processing unit.

Input devices can be categorized into pointing, scanning, wireless, and cable devices.
Pointing input devices are used to move a cursor on the screen, examples of these
include the mouse, trackball, and touchpad. The category of scanning input devices are
Optical Mark Recognition (OMR), scanners, Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
devices, bar code readers among others. These pointing input devices can sense and
read characters directly on papers, and other kinds of materials. Bar code readers are
often used to scan bar code items in the supermarkets and different kinds of industrial
products in the supply chain line.

Some of the input devices include the keyboard, mouse, touchpad, webcams,
microphones, joysticks, image scanners among several others. Figure 27 shows Computer
with Peripheral Devices.

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Figure 27 Computer with Peripheral Devices

3.2 Keyboard
The keyboard is the major and commonly used data entry device for different kinds
of computers. Like the old typewriter machines, the keyboard is used to enter data
into the computer by typing the necessary alphanumeric keys. There is a total of 104
numeric, alphabet, and function keys. The keyboard can be connected to the system
unit via cable or wirelessly using Bluetooth.

Essentially, the keyboard typing keys include the following classes

➢ Upper and lower case alphabet keys from A-Z and a-z respectively
➢ Numeric keys from 0 to 9
➢ Special 12 function keys for specific purposes
➢ control (Ctrl) keys
➢ cursor and screen control keys are Arrow keys, page up, page down
➢ Alternate (Alt), Escape (Esc), Home, End, Insert, Delete
➢ Enter, backspace, num-lock, caps lock, shift, space bar, tab, scroll lock, sleep,
print screen

Figures 28 and 30 show the illustration of computer keyboard.

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Figure 28 Description of computer keyboard

Figure 29 Computer keyboard

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3.3 Mouse
A mouse is an input pointing device that is rolled over a smooth surface to control
the cursor on the computer screen through its speed controlled sensor, operational
clickable buttons on the left, middle, and right parts. The functions of the buttons can
be customized to select and, open files or objects. Figures 30 and 31 show the wired
and wireless mouse.

Figure 30 Wireless Mouse

Figure 31 Mouse

3.4 Image scanners

The image scanner is an input device that optically scans printed materials, objects,
images, and documents and thereafter converts and store them in a digital format.
The scanned document be edited for further application. Figure 32 shows a scanner.

Figure 32 Scanner

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3.5 Track Ball
A trackball is a pointing device that holds a small ball held in its sensor-based socket.
The sensor detects the rotational movement of the ball about its two axes. The device
operates exactly like an upside-down mouse but uses space to rotate its ball. As the
trackball remains stationary and the user moves the ball in various directions, it
reflects activity on the screen as shown in Figure 33.

.
Figure 33 Track ball

3.6 Light Pen

Light pen is a light-sensitive input device that can be used to point and write or draw
directly on the visual display unit, monitor, and screen. Light pen to detect raster on
the screen as it passes on it with high precision. Light pen functions well like the
touchscreen devices as shown in figures 34 and 35.

Figure 35 Light pen Figure 34 Light pen on IPAD

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3.7 Headsets and Microphone

Headsets or microphones are a kind of computer voice input devices that are able to
record sounds by transmitting and converting human speech or voice into electrical
signals. This electrical signal is processed by the computer and the word is
recognized. Application areas include in customers’ service, religious programmes
and technical support centers, where the users can communicate with clients while
entering or typing into a computer. Figure 36 shows a typical computer microphone.

Figure 36 Computer microphone

3.8 Optical Character Reader

Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) uses a low frequency
light source to detect and convert drawn images, alphanumeric characters, and
printed text into machine-encoded text, pictures or scanned documents. The OCR,
which operates like a scanner, absorbs light by the dark areas and is reflected by the
light areas. Subsequently, it reflects and receives the light by the photocells as shown
in figure 37.

Figure 37 Barcode Reader

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3.9 Bar Code Reader

A barcode reader is an optical scanning device which is connected to a compute to
read printed barcodes and decode the hidden data. The barcode reader which
functions like a flatbed scanner, comprises of a light source, a lens and a light sensor
translating for optical impulses into electrical signals. Most barcode readers contain
decoder circuitry that can analyze the image data in the barcode via the sensor and
thereafter send the contents of the barcode to the scanner output port.
Figure 38 and 39 show a barcode reader reading data that is coded into white and
black lines.

Figure 38 Bar code reader

Figure 39 Bar code scanner

4.0 Conclusion
Several computer data input devices have been discussed. The input devices
are part of peripheral devices that help users to enter data into the computer
system via diverse kinds of port interfaces. Upon reception, data will be
processed by the CPU for further action. Some common input devices are
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keyboard, mouse, scanner, optical character reader, barcode reader among
others.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about some common data input devices.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

What do you understand by peripheral devices?
List five types of data input devices
Discuss any 4 kinds of data input devices
Distinguish between scanner and barcode reader

7.0 References and Further Reading

"Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball Mouse Review: Unconventional
Features". Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved on 22-01-
2022

Alapetite, A (2010). "Dynamic 2D-barcodes for multi-device web session

migration including mobile phones". Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 14
(1): 45–52. doi:10.1007/s00779-009-0228-5. S2CID 10202670

Unit 2: Output Devices

Content

1.0 Introduction

You have learned about input devices in Unit 1. In this Unit 2, you will learn more about
computer peripheral devices, essentially, the output devices. These are the devices that
are used to display, in human-readable form, the output of any task carried in the
computer.

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2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Identify some output devices often used to enter data into computers
➢ Differentiate between input and output devices

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Description of Output Devices

An output device is any peripheral hardware that is connected to a
computer either wired or wireless so as to display, project, or physically
reproduce the results of data processed by a computer. It converts
electronic information into a format, which can be understood by humans.
What differentiate an input from output device is that the input device
transfers data to the computer, whereas the output data receives data from the
computer. Input devices usage is mandatory to operate the computer, on the
other hand, output devices may be optional.

Conventionally, the output devices can be grouped into data, print, visual, and
sound hardware. Thus, various kinds of output hardware include visual
display unit (monitor or screen), printer, plotter, headphones, computer
speakers, projector, GPS, sound card, video card, braille reader, speech
generating machine, among others.

3.2 Visual Display Unit

The visual display unit (VDU) popularly known as a monitor or display screen, is the
main and well-known output device that displays output contents as picture elements
(pixel) on the computer screen. These output contents include text, video, images, etc.
The VDU looks much like a TV screen and they share similar resolution parameters.

The resolution of the monitor is determined by the number of pixels. Basically, the
monitor resolution, smoothness or picture clarity, increases with more pixels. The
two types of monitor screens are cathode ray tube monitors (CRT) and flat-panel
screen monitors.
Cathode Ray Tube monitors, which were manufactured using old CRT technology,
applied phosphorescent dots to generate pixels that form displayed images. CRT
monitor screens, which were the same as the old TV CRT technology, were usually
large and consumed more power. Figures 40 and 41 show LCD and CRT visual
display units respectively.
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Figure 40 LCD visual display unit

Figure 41 CRT visual display unit

Flat Panel Screen Monitors

Flat-panel screen monitors, which implement a thin panel design instead of CRT
technology, are much lighter, thinner, and portable. They use liquid crystals or
plasma technology to generate output as light passes through liquid crystals to form
the required pixels.
The three types of Flat Panel screen monitors are Liquid Crystal Devices (LCD)
monitors or Non-emissive displays, Light Emitting Diode (LED) monitors or
Emissive displays, and Plasma monitors. Let us explain these three types of monitor
screens.
a) Liquid Crystal Devices (LCD) monitors or Non-emissive displays
This type of flat panel display implements the light-modulating properties of
liquid crystals. This technology is also replicated in LCD televisions, aircraft
cockpit displays, ship cocktail screen, etc. An LCD monitor is more energy-
efficient, and users’ friendly. It is safer to dispose than the CRT monitors.

b) Light Emitting Diode (LED) monitors or Emissive displays

Although the technologies of LCD and LED are similar. The LED technology
of LED is more advanced than the LCD monitor. The LED monitors are
lighter, thinner, and less expensive. These monitors are more reliable as they
have a more broad dimming range in terms of backlighting.

c) Plasma monitors
The picture elements in the plasma screen monitors are illuminated by a tiny
bit of charged gas or plasma which is similar to a tiny neon light. These
monitors are thinner, brighter, and better in performance than the Cathode ray
tube, and liquid crystal display monitors.

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3.3 Printing Devices

The printing devices are specialized computerized machines that can print
information permanently on materials of different forms. They are usually
stand-alone systems that can be connected to computers via cable, wirelessly,
or cloud. Examples of printing devices include printers, plotters, 3D printers
among others. This section discusses on some printing devices.

3.3.1 Printers

A printer is the most second common type of output device that permanently
transfers the processed data from the computer into a printed format and thereby
produces text or images hardcopy output on paper. Today, different kinds of
printers can print texts, photos and graphics objects in coloured, monochrome, and
black and white. Printers used in homes and offices have high dots per inch (DPI),
which generates high-quality images.

The printers are classified into Impact, and Non-Impact printers.

a) Impact printer
This is old type of printer noisily prints characters by striking on the ribbon, and
thereby imprint on the paper.
The impact printers can either be character or line printers.
i. Character printers
These types of printers are capable of printing text, and a single character at a
time in the average speed is up to 300 lines per minute. The different types of
character printers include chain, band, dot matrix, and daisy wheel printers. The
commonly used printers are dot matrix and daisy wheel.

ii. Line Printers

Line printers can print and display output texts line by line. The two types of line
printers are drum printers and chain printers. Basically, the drum printer has high
speed and can print up to 300 to 2000 lines per minute.
b) Non-Impact printer
The non-impact printers can print without striking the ribbon. These include laser
printers and inkjet printers.
i. Laser Printers
Laser printers which use a photoelectric drum, powdered ink, and laser light to
produce dots to form the characters for printing. When a print command is given, a
laser beam draws the document on a selenium-coated drum using an electrical
charge, giving a clean copy of the image on the paper. They have fewer smearing

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problems than an inkjet printer since ink is not used. A laser printer uses the same
technology and procedures like a copying machine. Figures 42 and 43 show LaserJet
printers.

ii. Inkjet Printers

This printer generates output by spraying droplets of ink onto the paper through a
small nozzle. Inkjet printers are the most widely used type of printer. There are
expensive and inexpensive models available in the market. It was the most common
type of printer in the olden days due to limited available technology. The printers are
less expensive.

Figure 42 LaserJet Printer

Figure 43 Coloured Epson Printer

3.4 Graph Plotter

A plotter output device, which is similar to a printer, but usually bigger in size, can
be used to draw large high quality, images, pictures and vector graphics.
A plotter is used to generate and draw hardcopy on papers large drawings,
architectural blueprints, engineering drawings, graphic cards, cadastral maps,
satellite imageries among others. Figure 44 shows a graph plotter.

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Figure 44 Graph Plotter

3.5 Computer Speakers

Computer speakers are one of the most common output hardware used with a
computer. The speakers receive audio as input from the computer via a sound card.
The internal amplifiers of the speaker can be used to control or vary the volume or
the amplitude of the sound. Connection of external speakers can be used to enhance
the volume and other in-built parameters of the sounds. Figure 45 shows computer
speakers.

Figure 45 Computer speakers

4.0 Conclusion
Computer output hardware are quite important in showing and revealing the
results of processing by the CPU. Some common output devices are visual display
units, printers and output accessories. A printer is a peripheral output device which
produces a hardcopy of graphics or text from a computer usually on papers. While
most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded

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use for printers. Different types of printers include 3D printers, inkjet printers,
laser printers, and thermal printers.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learnt about some common computer output devices. Their
usage enables the users to view and appreciate the results of processing.
6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises
Differentiate between CRT and flat panel screen monitors
Mention the three types of Flat Panel screen monitors

7.0 References and Further Reading

Morley, Deborah (April 2007). Understanding Computers: Today & Tomorrow,
Comprehensive 2007 Update Edition. Cengage Learning. p. 164. ISBN
9781305172425.
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/basics_of_computer_science/basics_of_computer_s
cience_types.htm
https://www.classmate4u.com/output-devices-of-computer/

Module 4: Computer Hardware Components

Unit 1: System board - Motherboard

Content

1.0 Introduction

In this Unit, you will learn about the system motherboard. The motherboard is the main
circuit board firmly fixed inside a computer system unit to which all other internal
electronic components and interfaces are connected via its ports. Among these are CPU,
RAM slots, controllers, system chipset, ROMs, communication cables.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

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By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:
➢ Understand details about computer hardware components
➢ Get familiar with the design of computer motherboards

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Description of Motherboard

The motherboard is a major large integrated circuit component in the system unit. It
is rectangular in shape and contains chipsets, switching devices, onboard ports,
sockets, slots, ROM chips, and interfaces for interconnecting CPU, hard drives and
optical drives, CMOS, data buses, cooling fan, power supply unit, and secondary
storage devices. Different kinds of communication and power cables are used for
appropriate connections. Expand cards and other peripheral card slots also provide
connections to video, speakers, and sound interfaces. The cooling fans and heat sink
prevent excessive heat radiation and thereby maintain the specified operating
condition inside and outside the system unit.
Some popular manufacturers of the motherboard include Intel, ASUS, AOpen,
ABIT, Biostar, Gigabyte, MSI. Figures 46 and 47 show computer motherboard.

Figure 46 Computer motherboard

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The chipset is one of the most important components in the motherboard.
Older motherboards were designed with a lot of different chips scattered all
the motherboard. There are chips for different things like chips for bus
controller, memory controllers, keyboard controllers, etc. Thus, diver chips
control different functions on the motherboard. A chipset is a smaller set of
chips that has replaced a larger amount of chips so as to control data flow
between the CPU, the peripherals, bus slots, memory, and other parts of
computer.

Furthermore, the advancement in technology enable the chips manufacturers

to reduce the number of chips and rather centralizes somewhere to execute
same job and localize them to chipset. Buses connect the CPU to various
internal components and to expand cards for graphics and sound. The CMOS
battery attached to the motherboard provides the memory power backup for
system clock, date, time and other system setup parameters in the BIOS chip.
The CMOS battery is mostly CR2032.

It is important that video cards, hard disks, sound cards, power supply
modules, and system unit cases are compatible and interoperable with the
motherboard in order for the entire computer system to function properly as
required.

Figure 47 Motherboard components layout

The computer system clock is an electrical pulse generator that sends out a pulse
of electricity at regular intervals. The electronic components of the computer
require these electric pulses in order to execute tasks. The more pulses sent out
by the system clock in a cycle, the faster the CPU works. The first personal
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computers had clock speeds of 8 million pulses per second (8 MHz), but
nowadays, the PCs have clock speeds greater than 3.2 billion pulses per second
(3.2 GHz).

3.2 Computer Communication Ports

A computer port is a connecting interface point or socket between two electronic
devices. These devices can either be both computers or a peripheral device and a
computer. This connection point enables the use of various functionalities, such as the
transmission of data, power, audio, and video. Plugging a printer into your computer,
electrical charging of your phone, and storing or transferring data via a USB device are
all instances of using computer ports.
Furthermore, computer ports grant easy power connection, charging of electronic
accessories, Ethernet connections, external storage of documents or projects, projection
of audio or visual media, and cable connection to peripheral devices, such as printers or
scanners.
The use of computer ports is very essential in our homes, offices, or in the public due
to the proliferation of different kinds of computers, peripheral devices, and applications
that require the exchange of data and information. Ports and sockets are often located
outside the system unit through the motherboard or interface board for the convenience
of connecting or disconnecting communication cables.
The following figures will enable you to identify different types of computer ports so
as to make use of them appropriately. This will help to improve your performance in
your academic or career when dealing with hardware and software interfacing. Figures
48 – 51 show different kinds of computer communication ports.

Figure 48 Computer ports

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Figure 49 Computer Ports on the System Unit

Figure 50 Additional Computer ports

Figure 51 Generic Computer Ports

Although, some ports technologies are relatively old, many of such old ports are still
found on legacy computing equipment. Therefore, it is important for you to get
familiar will all form of ports and sockets so as to be able to operate many kinds of
computing hardware devices. Other ports such as Universal Serial Board (USB) on
the motherboard provide connection to monitor, printer, mouse, keyboard, speaker,

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and network cables. The USB ports enable compatible devices to be connected in
plug-in/plug-out scheme.

Types of Computer ports

Fundamentally, hardware ports are available in different types based on the signal
transfer modes. Some common ports are:
Serial port, parallel port, PS/2 port, universal serial (USB) port, Video Graphic
Adapter (VGA) port, Modem port, game port, ethernet port, Digital Video Interface
(DVI) port, etc.

While serial ports transmit one bit of data at a time, the parallel ports transmit 8 bits of
data at a time. The technology of universal serial bus (USB) ports is newer and the port
is much faster than serial or parallel port. USB ports allow multiple devices to be
connected to the same port.

4.0 Conclusion
You have learned about some computer hardware components in this Module.
These include the system motherboard or main board, and communication
ports. It is important for you get familiar with a large array of existing
communication ports, their functionalities, and components
interconnectivities. This will really enhance your studies and career in
computing. Although, some ports are old, they still exist in some legacy
systems and customized devices, which are readily available in
manufacturing, satellite, and communication industries.

5.0 Summary
In this unit you have learned about computer communication ports. There are
quite number of them. The literature provided will enhance further study on this.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

Describe the usefulness of the computer system
Explain the function of computer communication ports
List some computer ports

7.0 References and Further Reading

Jan Axelson, USB Complete: The Developer's Guide, Fifth Edition, Lakeview
Research LLC, 2015, ISBN 1931448280, pages 1-7

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Hachman, Mark (2022). "The new USB4 spec promises a lot: Thunderbolt 3
support, 40Gbps bandwidth, and less confusion". PCWorld. Retrieved 26
January 2022.

Kars, Vincent (May 2011). "USB". The Well-Tempered Computer. Retrieved

7 May 2018. All operating systems (Win, OSX, and Linux) support USB
Audio Class 1 natively. This means you don't need to install drivers, it is
plug&play.
https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs101/hardware-1.html

Unit 2: Microchips Technology

Content

1.0 Introduction

In this Unit, you will learn about microchips and their application areas. Microchips
are the main building structures of the digital systems and embedded computing
devices. Microchips are the brain and bedrock of components miniaturization that
enabled mobile or portable devices in our world today. All these digital systems and
embedded devices are being used in most home, office and industrial devices to
control integrated systems in the oil and gas, space, manufacturing industries, just to
mention a few. These enable us to work, travel, stay fit and entertain ourselves
conveniently. Remote controlled devices in our cars, phones, driverless cars, robots,
and other automated systems are now becoming more possible.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Understand the transistors and chips functionalities in the computer
hardware
➢ Know the relevance of transistors and chips in hardware design

3.0 Main Content

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3.1 Description of Microchips
A microchip is a set of electronic circuits with millions of miniatured
transistors mounted on a small flat piece of silicon slab. Microchips which
are also well known as chips or integrated circuits (IC), function basically
as switching devices that can turn current on or off. The pattern of tiny
switches is etched on the silicon wafer by adding and removing materials
to form a multilayered lattice work of interconnected shapes.

Formation of Microchips
Silicon, a semiconductor material, is an active part of the transistor is made of silicon.
Remember that a transistor being a solid state component, can change its electrical
state when pulsed, that is, in its normal state, the transistor may be conductive or
non-conductive, either impeding or allow current flow. Knowing fully that, when
voltage is applied to the gate, the transistor changes its state.
You will recall from the knowledge of chemistry, that silicon, being a semiconductor
can have its conductive properties increased by mixing it with materials like boron
or phosphorus. Thus, silicon can be used as a switching component to turn on and
off devices. This unique behaviour is preferred to metals whose main property is to
conduct electrical currents. Therefore, silicon becomes a useful and effective
material in the chip industry.
Very interestingly, silicon is made from sand, the second most abundant element
next to oxygen. Silicon wafers are produced from silica sand, which is made of
silicon dioxide. Wafers are slices of ingot, which is the melted sand which are cast
into the form of a large. Microchips, the products of these silicon wafers are therefore
available everywhere on several devices. The current advances in chips have
spawned new products and transformed industries worldwide. A chip size is usually
measured in nanometers, which is approximately one billionth of a meter, or a
millionth of a millimeter.
Types of Chips
Logic chips and Memory chips are the types of microchips available.
Logic chips are very essential in all electronic devices to process the required
information. Examples of logic chips are central processing units (CPU), graphical
processing units (GPU), and neural processing units (NPU). The CPUs which were
initially designed in the 1960s, are capable of handling all logical and mathematical
computations, the GPU was dedicated for visual display performance and the NPU
was designed for artificial intelligence works especially the deep and machine
learning applications.
Memory chips, that are designed to store information include Random Access
Memory RAM and Read-Only Memory. These types of memory storage devices
have discussed in an earlier Module of this course.

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Chips Computational Power
Constant improvements on chips technology have significant impact on advanced
memory capacity and computational power since 1960 till date. The computational
power, in terms of CPU clock speed and memory size have driven several innovative
technologies in the space, automotive, communication, and manufacturing sectors.
Space-based projects; Mars exploration, deep space exploration, satellites launched,
5G deployment, robotics, and artificial intelligence projects have been made possible
because of the advancements in chips technologies.

Chips Manufacturers
We need to talk about some players in the chips technology industry. The Integrated
device manufacturers (IDMs) such as Intel and Samsung both design and
manufacture chips. Foundries, on the other hand, are companies that manufacture
chips under contract for other companies. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company (TSMC), Global foundries and United Microelectronics Corporation
(UMC) are examples of this type of chipmaker. A third type of chipmaker is the
‘fabless Taiwan semiconductor company’ such as Qualcomm, Nvidia and Advanced
MicroDevices (AMD), who avoid the high costs of building and maintaining
production facilities by focusing only on chip design. These companies might farm
out their production to a foundry.
Taiwan, USA and China are among the leading countries in the manufacturing of
chips globally. Most of these countries have Semiconductor Manufacturing
Companies, Silicon Valley, and chips markets.
Figure 52 shows a silicon chip enclosed in a plastic package with electrical connection
pins. The plastic package encloses a fingernail sized silicon chip with several
transistors and other components etched on its surface.

Figure 52 silicon chip in a plastic package

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Modern computers use tiny electronic components which can be etched onto the surface of a silicon
chip.

3.2 Moore’s Law of Silicon Technology

In 1965, Gordon Earle Moore who was Intel co-founder, propounded a non-scientific law or theory
about the forecast rate that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit would double up about
every two years. Generally, the observed components in the dense integrated circuit include transistors,
resistors, diodes, or capacitors. The implication of this law is that transistors get twice smaller about
every two years. Conversely, the number of transistors doubles per chip due to advancement in chip
etching technology. Today, as microchips are becoming more denser, tens of billions of transistors are
available in a chip, thus making chips more computationally powerful and versatile. This
miniaturization engineering has led to manufacturing of mobile, onboard, embedded, and smart devices.
Examples of these include Internet-of-things, computerized machines, smart watches, high-
performance phones, android-based devices, cars with onboard computer, etc.
Although, Moore’s law, which was an observation, prediction or projection of an empirical relationship
based on long-time experience of production still remain valid, however its relevance has diminished
due to the novel methods of measuring overall processing power. The prediction has become a target
for miniaturization in the semiconductor industry and has had a widespread impact in many areas of
high technological advancement. This scaling has also significantly reduced the overall cost of memory
and logic chips with higher performance.

Future of Chips Technology

Obviously, Moore’s law validity cannot continue indefinitely. Technological and computational
innovations will not end when transistor shrinking is no longer possible. The evolution of the new
generation of chip designs now include advanced parallelism, 3D, and multi-core technologies. Some
of these concepts will be discussed in the subsequent modules of this course.
The future generation of chips design will be amazing. They will enable and orchestrate the incredible
big waves of innovations in areas of machine learning, robotics, automated transportation, smart cities,
advanced AI, and fast connectivity with 5G. Figures 53 – 55 show illustration of Moore’s law.

Figure 53 Moore's Law

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Figure 54 Moore's Law Explained

Figure 55 Moore's law on Microchips Technology

4.0 Conclusion
Microchips development has become the mainstream of technological advancement. Microscopic
transistors are etched on the silicon chips. The silicon chip is just like the size of a fingernail of silicon.
Chips, packaged in a plastic material, can contain billions of transistors. CPU chips, memory chips,
flash chips, and other memory chips for various applications are simply some examples of chips.

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The transistor, a semiconductor material, was invented in the 1950's to replace the vacuum tubes.
Transistors, the most common and basic electronic component, function like amplifying valve for the
flow of electrons. They serve as switching devices and can be used as building blocks for constructing
complex electronic components. Transistors are solid state devices which means they do not have any
moving parts. Since, its invention, the transistor has been made smaller continuously to allow many of
them to be etched onto a silicon chip.
Gordon Moore, one of Intel’s co-founders, observed that the number of transistors on a microchip was
increasing rapidly, and thereby exponentially increasing the computing power while also decreasing the
cost of the chips. He, therefore, proposed and formulated that the number of transistors on a silicon chip
will double up nearly every two years. Moore’s law has mainstreamed miniaturization of chips
manufacturing for advanced technologies and innovative applications.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about the development of microchips technology as the bedrock
of innovations and technological advancement.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

What do understand about microchips technology?
What are the application areas of microchips?
State Moore’s law. What is the impact of this law to our world today?

7.0 References and Further Reading

Bassett, Ross Knox (2002). To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise
of MOS Technology. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 53–4. ISBN 978-0-8018-6809-2.
Saxena, Arjun N. (2009). Invention of Integrated Circuits: Untold Important Facts. World
Scientific. p. 140. ISBN 9789812814456.
Dummer, G.W.A.; Robertson, J. Mackenzie (16 May 2014). American Microelectronics Data
Annual 1964–65. Elsevier. pp. 392–397, 405–406. ISBN 978-1-4831-8549-1.
Brock, David C., ed. (2006). Understanding Moore's law : four decades of innovation.
Philadelphia, Pa: Chemical Heritage Press. ISBN 978-0941901413.
http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~gusta/cs8w04/hardware.htm

Module 5: Hardware Interconnectivity and Embedded Systems

Unit 1: Computer Networking

Content

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1.0 Introduction

In this Unit, you will learn about computer networking. Computer networking can
be described as an interconnection of several computers and computing devices for
the purpose of sharing resources in an effective manner. It is worth noting that
computer networking is a critical part of computer hardware. Today, computer
networking is the bedrock of advanced computing technology in our modern world.
Access to the internet, intranet, social media, and the cloud is made possible by
computer networking. Therefore, it is very important for you to understand this topic
so as drive academic, job, and economic opportunities that are abound around you.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Understand the concepts of system networking
➢ Identify hardware devices relevant to computer networks

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Description of Computer Networking

A computer network can be described as a system in which multiple computers and
other types of computing hardware are interconnected so as to share data, information
and resources. In a network, files or documents can be created, saved and stored in a
computer such as server, and be accessed in another computer on the network
irrespective of the distance. Scanners, printers, plotters and some other peripheral
hardware can be shared over the computer network.
Computers on a network are called nodes or hosts. Multiple paths, wired or wireless,
must be carefully designed to enable sending and receiving data as required. Computer
networks include several network-enabled equipment to support communication over a
long range, some of these network devices include routers, switches, hubs, and bridges.
Figure 56 shows a typical computer networking structure.

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Figure 57 Computer networking structure

3.2 Networking Devices

Routers, modems and network cards are the main networking hardware that allow
computer systems to share data and other computing resources among themselves.
Let us briefly compare the roles of modem and network card. While a modem sends
information over a communication line, a network card sends information over a
network cable. Modems are usually slow and susceptible to problems such as phone
line static. Network cards can connect computers to a local area network (LAN) or
to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) through a cable modem or DSL for the purpose
of accessing the Internet access.
Network nodes, devices, hardware, components are computers and other computing
resources available in a network. Basically, the computer network includes the
following networking elements:

➢ More than one computer

➢ Network connectors
➢ Gateway devices – routers etc
➢ Transmission medium – wired or wireless
➢ Protocols, group policies and operational rules
➢ Network software

Network cables are the communication media used to connect the nodes on the
network. The most commonly used cable is ethernet cable, coaxial cable, etc.
examples of ethernet cables include category 5, CAT 6i with cable RJ-45 connectors
as shown in figure 57. Figures 58 and 59 show a router and ethernet card respectively.

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Figure 58 Network cables and connectors

Figure 59 Router

Figure 60 Internal network card

3.3 Types of computer networks

Major types of computer networks include local area network, metropolitan area
network, wide area network. Table 1 shows the details about various types of
computer networks.

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Table 1 Types of Computer Networks

Type of Network Explanation and features

PAN is a computer network used for data transmission amongst

Personal
devices like computers, telephones, tablets, iPAD and personal
Area Network (PAN)
digital assistants via Bluetooth, WI-FI, TCP/IP connections

LAN is a type of computer network that interconnects computers

Local within a local place or area. Such areas include residential
Area Network (LAN) buildings, school, laboratory, university campus, offices, NOUN
premises

Virtual Local This type of network involves two or more LANs that are
Area Network (VLAN) configured and integrated as a segment to share resources

WAN is a type of network that extends over a large geographical

region. WANs are often established with leased
telecommunication circuits.
Wide
Area Network (WAN) Corporate organization, business, education, government,
telecommunication firms use WAN to relay data to staff,
students, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various locations
across the globe. The Internet may be considered a WAN.

SAN is a network that provides access to a large integrated array

Storage
or block level data storage. 21st Century in Lekki, Lagos and
Area Network (SAN)
other multinational firms like HP, Dell Incorporation have SAN

WLAN is a wireless distribution method for two or more devices

that use high-frequency radio waves and often include an access
Wireless Local
point to the Internet. A WLAN allows users to move around the
Area Network (WLAN)
coverage area, often a home or small office, while maintaining
a network connection

The Internet is the worldwide interconnection of many types of

network that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP), web
browsers to connect computers and computing devices. It is
Internet
a network of networks that involves of both private and public
sectors as well as academia, business, and
government networks at local and international levels.

Extranet An extranet, private network organization, is a specialized

private network that allows access to specific authorized bodies,

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partners, vendors, suppliers, corporate organization. It is a subset
of the information accessible from an organization's intranet. An
extranet is a similitude to a DMZ in that it provides access to
needed services for authorized parties, without granting access to
an organization's entire network.

VPN extends a private network across a public network, and

enables users to send and receive data across shared or
Virtual public networks as if their computing devices were directly
Private Network (VPN) connected to the private network. Applications running across the
VPN may therefore benefit from the functionality, security, and
management of the private network.

P2P network is a distributed application architecture that

partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally
Peer-to-peer (P2P)
privileged, equipotent participants in the application, thereby
establishing a peer-to-peer network of nodes.

Scenario 1 Click to watch a video on further explanation about SAN

Scenario 2 Click to watch illustration about the Internet

3.4 Network topology

Network Topology is the physical arrangement and layout of the computing shared
resources over the cabled or wireless networks.
The layout arrangement of the different devices in a network. Common examples
include: Bus, Star, Mesh, Ring, and Daisy chain. Figure 60 show different types of
computer network topology.

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Figure 61 Types of Network Topology

3.5 Features of Computer Networks

The criteria or design considerations for having effective and good computer
networks include accessibility, performance, security, and reliability. Performance is
a function of the throughput, that the time elapse between request for a resource and
its availability or response. The throughput involves the transit and response times.
The shorter the throughput of a network the better the performance of such network.
Basically, the network performance depends on the number of users, type of
transmission medium, capacity of the nodes as well as the network operating system
or software.

Network reliability and security are very essential too. Reliability is a function of
failure rate, ability to recover from failures, and general robustness of operations.
You can imagine when write computer-based test (CBT) may for job examination
interview or so, it may be disastrous for the network breakdown to affect your
computer or node allocated to you. For instance, the JAMB always ensures the CBT
centres have reliable computer networks. Network security is also important to
ensure that the network resources, data and hardware, are well protected from
unauthorized access. Banks always provide adequate security to protect their
customers’ funds over the network operations.

4.0 Conclusion
Computer networking involves interconnections of computer hardware and
software to share computing devices in a well-organized manner for optimizing
resources, saving cost, and attaining good quality results. Computer networking
has been very beneficial to us today. It has provided humanity with resounding

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socio-economic development, an improved education system among others.
Detailed description of computer networking, Types of computer networks,
networking topologies among others were discussed.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about computer networking.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

Explain computer networking
Discuss some advantages of computer networking
Explain computer network topology and mention some types
Discuss the impact of computer networking on our socio-political system
Identify different types of networks.

7.0 References and Further Reading

Gillies, James M.; Gillies, James; Gillies, James and Cailliau Robert; Cailliau, R. (2000). How the
Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web. Oxford University Pres. ISBN 978-0-19-286207-
5
Spurgeon, Charles E. (2000). Ethernet The Definitive Guide. O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN 1-56592-
660-9.
Gillies, James; Cailliau, Robert (2000). How the Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web.
Oxford University Press. p. 25. ISBN 0192862073.
C. Hempstead; W. Worthington (2005). Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Technology. Routledge. ISBN
9781135455514.
Cuenca, L. (1980). "A PUBLIC PACKET SWITCHING DATA COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK:
EIGHT YEARS OF OPERATING EXPERIENCE". Conference Record of ICC 80. IEEE. pp. 39.3.1–
39.3.5.

Unit 2: Multi-core Technology

Content

1.0 Introduction

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In the previous Module, you learned about microchips technology and its impact in
the modern technological achievement. In that Module, we also discussed Moore’s
law of rate of change on the number of transistors per silicon chip at the interval of
about two years from 1965 till date. In this Unit, you will learn about multi-core
technology as an improvement on the extent to which many more transistors can be
mounted on silicon wafer on multiple networked CPUs. Simply, multi-cores
assembly is about having a network of CPUs on one socket. A multi-core processor
is an integrated circuit (IC) to which two or more processors have been attached for
enhanced performance, reduced power consumption, and more efficient
simultaneous processing of multiple tasks.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Understand the concepts of multicore technology
➢ Know more about parallel computing

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Description of Multicore Technology

Multi-core technology can be described as the configuration, architecture and joint

operation of two or more logical CPUs on the same processor chip. These processors
are packaged into a single integrated circuit (IC) or a die. Multi-core can also refer
to multiple dies assembled or packaged to function together. Multi-core technology
which is available in desktops, mobile PCs, servers and workstations, enables the
system to execute multiple tasks simultaneously resulting to a greater overall system
performance for the benefit of the users.
For instance, a dual-core refers to a single chip or physical CPU that contain two
separate processors or execution cores mounted on the same socket or integrated
circuit so as to enhance access speed and general high capacity. The multi-core
processors also include quad cores, dual quad cores, etc. Dual quad cores refer to two
sockets having four CPUs each making the total of eight core processors.
Technically, a dual core processor is about twice in performance than a single core
processor. Multi-core systems ultimately minimize the power and heat.

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Since 2005 AMD, ARM, Broadcom, Intel, and VIA are among the chip processors
manufacturing companies that have implemented the multi-core utilization that can
make use of multithreaded applications. Technically, it is obvious that the number of
cores to be integrated in one chip would increase over time as their physical size and
energy consumption drops. This, however, renders Moore’s law ineffective with the
growing number of transistors. Multi-core technology is, therefore, an increasing
advancement as single core processors rapidly reached the physical limit speed and
miniaturization.
This technology is most commonly used in multicore processors, where two or more
processor chips or cores run concurrently as a single system. Multicore-based
processors are used in mobile devices, desktops, workstations and servers. Today,
multi-core processors, where two or more processor chips or cores run concurrently
as a single system, are commonly used across several fields and disciplines, such as
health informatics, diseases simulation, general-purpose, embedded, robotics,
network, digital signal processing, machine learning, and digital image processing.
Multicore-based processors are used in mobile devices, desktops, workstations and
servers.
Figure 61 shows a quad core processor, with four processors on a single integrated
circuit.

Figure 62 Multi-core processor - Quad core

Multi-threaded Software
Till date, most software and program codes are developed to function serially on one
CPU at a time. It is somehow complex to split or parallelize a program into smaller
modules for separate CPUs to execute different individual part without interfering
with each other. However, multi-core technology has provided more than one
processor for executing problems in parallel. Multithreaded software is a software
capable of splitting large or complex tasks or computational jobs into a set of separate

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workloads or subtasks that could be processed and executed concurrently on each of
the cores present. Many software operating system and applications development are
now becoming multithreaded. Thus, multi-core processors work at their full potential
can be used for such multi-threaded programs or software, thereby reducing
execution time. Data-intensive or computational-intensive jobs are common in
science and engineering fields, examples include human genome or DNA
sequencing, advanced virtual manufacturing, video editing, encoding, 3D gaming,
space exploration simulation and other types of grand challenge problems.
The parallelization of software programming to take advantage of multi-core
hardware is a significant innovation. It is a fact that advancement in hardware is
much ahead of software advancement.

3.2 Parallel Computing

The multi-core processor technology serves as the basis for parallel computing in
terms of hardware and software deployment. Parallel computing cluster servers and
parallel algorithms have capability to take advantage of multiple processors thereby
increasing the speed, efficiency and the general performance of computers. While
serial computing allows each process to run sequentially, the parallel computing
technique allows multiple processes to be executed at the same time.
Parallel computing enables computers to solve extremely large and complex
problems that would otherwise be impossible to process within a reasonable time
frame. Such a problem must have divisible parts or modules that can run
concurrently. Parallel computing enables all computer processes to run more
efficiently, thereby saving time and money. While large problems are data-intensive,
complex problems are more computationally-intensive. These kinds of problems are
common in science and engineering fields.
Performance evaluation of a multi-core processor is a function of the software
algorithms used and their implementation. In actual sense, the speedup is limited by
the fraction of the software that can run in parallel on the available multiple cores.

Category of Parallel Computing Architecture

The four categories of parallel computers are:
✓ Bit-level parallelism,
✓ Instruction-level parallelism,
✓ Data parallelism,
✓ Task parallelism.
Many computers possess only one CPU, but some computer have many CPUs.
Meanwhile, the single-CPU computers perform parallel processing a networking
environment with the aid of distributed processing software. Parallel computing is
the mainstream of high-performance computing.

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Parallel software are more complex to program than sequential software, because
concurrency introduces coding errors and bugs due to attendant race conditions and
dead locks. These potential coding bugs do pose challenges on getting the required
performance due to communication, intermittent results collation, and
synchronization demands. Interestingly enough, many parallel programming
languages have been developed to address these challenges.

4.0 Conclusion
Multicore architecture assembles multiple processor cores into a single physical
processor chip or integrated circuit die so as to implement multiprocessing capability
for high-performance computations. Parallel computing with multi-threaded
software to solve complex and/or large problems in business, science and
engineering will achieve high-performance computing that often showcases in cost
effectiveness, reduction of execution time and high quality results.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about multicore technology and its relevance to
technological achievement.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

Define multicore technology

Distinguish between cores and CPUs
Compare advancement between software and hardware technologies with
respect of parallel processing
Explain the relationship between Moore’s law and multicore technology

7.0 References and Further Reading

Rouse, Margaret (2007). "Definition: multi-core processor". TechTarget.
Archived from the original on August 5, 2010. Retrieved 29 January, 2022
https://www.computerscience.gcse.guru/theory/von-neumann-architecture
Duran, A (2011). "Ompss: a proposal for programming heterogeneous multi-core architectures".
Parallel Processing Letters. 21 (2): 173–193. doi:10.1142/S0129626411000151.

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Unit 3: Introduction to Embedded Systems

Content

1.0 Introduction

In Unit 2, you learned about the multi-core technology, parallel computing and multi-threaded
software attributes. All of these have direct applications in embedded systems design. In this
study, you will learn about embedded computing systems and their applications in our modern
world. Precisely, cameras, phones, thermostats, pilot cockpit, etc are few examples of
embedded computers comprising hardware and software.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Understand the concepts of embedded systems
➢ Know more about micro-controller-based systems

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Introduction to Embedded systems

An embedded hardware device is a specialized computer system that exists as an in-
built or integral part of a bigger equipment, machine or system, which can function
with less human interaction. Usually, an embedded system has a processor, software,
interface, input and output integrated components. The components are closely
assembled together to provide various functionalities to the user. Technically, an
embedded system is designed and implemented on a single microprocessor board
with the programs stored in ROM.
Today, almost all electrical/electronic appliances have embedded devices with
specialized digital interface. Examples of systems that use embedded computers are
watches, microwaves, ATM machines, smart classroom boards, VCRs, cars,
biomedical devices, satellites, pilot cockpits, televisions, and industrial robots. More
specifically, the controller embedded in an elevator controls the motor to move the
elevator to different floors, based on buttons that are pressed by the user. A decoder
is embedded in a satellite television set-top box to read a signal from the dish and
send input to the operate the TV. Usually, the embedded systems often operate within
the pre-defined time, also known as real-time computing. Figure 62 shows some
examples of embedded devices.

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Figure 63 Examples of embedded systems

3.2 Embedded Software

Embedded software is a specialized kind of portable software that is used to operate
in-built computers. Embedded software is a real-time software developed
specifically to control the designed functions of the in-built devices. The components
are usually limited in capacity. Some embedded systems include an application
software, operating system, but many are so customized in such a way that all the
entire logics are implemented as a single program.
There significant differences among embedded software, operating system, and
firmware. The embedded software is a set of dedicated codes to control the functions
a device. Firmware functions to complement the operations of the computer systems
and applications. The normal computer operating system is a full-fledged software
that control other resources in a computer.
Practically, device manufacturers design embedded software to execute the specific
and exact purpose of the instructions. On the other hand, the normal operating
systems can execute a wide range of optional instruction codes with much degree of
flexibility with respect to the users’ preferences.

3.3 On-board Computers

An on-board computer can be described as a computer or hybrid computing system
that is specifically configured and installed in mobile objects or vehicles such as
submarines, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft. The on-board computers are used to
process information that is transmitted to, or received from mobile or remote objects
through microwaves, radar, optical, and other types of radio-engineering so as to
monitor the functions, health status, data handling, communications, navigation

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guidance, and other activities of the objects. On-board computers are manufactured
and developed from miniaturized integrated circuits and other high-performance
embedded electronic computing devices
Application areas include satellite autonomous on-board computers (OBC), remote
terminal units, central terminal units (CTU), encryptors and decryptors. Most of
these on-board computing devices, which provide processing functionality, are
installed and in the avionics and on-board data handling subsystems of in-orbit
spacecraft. The on-board software, including the operating system and applications
run in the OBC under the control of the on-board processor, known as the CTU.

Obviously, you are familiar with the cars on-board computers. The on-board
computer continuously and autonomously informs drivers about the functions and
conditions of the car through voice, sound and display. Can you identify some of
these information and feedbacks as shown in Figure 63? Figure 64 shows the cockpit
on-board computer supporting the pilot to navigate and control the aircraft.

Figure 64 Car On-board Computers

Figure 65 Plane On-board Computer - Cockpit

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4.0 Conclusion
Embedded systems are specialized integrated in-built computers. Embedded systems
control many of the common devices in our homes, offices, institutions, companies,
and communities, such as card readers in hotel door locks or several things in a car.
They can control small things like an MP3 player or a digital camera, and large
systems like ships, traffic light systems, airplanes, satellites, or assembly lines in a
factory. On-board computers are usually installed on mobile and remote objects to
control and monitor their behaviours and functionalities.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about embedded system description, application
and examples.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

Define the characteristics of embedded systems
How useful are embedded systems in our modern world today?
Mention some appliances or equipment with embedded system devices.

7.0 References and Further Reading

Michael Barr. "Embedded Systems Glossary". Neutrino Technical Library.
Retrieved 2007-04-21.
Michael Barr; Anthony J. Massa (2006). "Introduction". Programming embedded
systems: with C and GNU development tools. O'Reilly. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-596-
00983-0.

Module 6: Digital Systems

Unit 1: Introduction to Digital Systems

Content

1.0 Introduction

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In this Unit, you will learn about digital systems. A system could be described as a
set of related components that function as a whole to achieve a definite goal
comprising inputs, processors, and outputs in digital form.
They are found in a wide range of applications, including process control,
communication systems, digital instruments, and consumer products.
A computer manipulates information in digital, or more precisely, binary form. A
binary number has only two discrete values — zero or one. Each of these discrete
values is represented by the OFF and ON status of an electronic switch called a
transistor. All computers, therefore, only understand binary numbers. Any decimal
number (base 10, with ten digits from 0 to 9) can be represented by a binary number
(base 2, with digits 0 and 1).
The basic blocks of a computer are the central processing unit (CPU), the memory,
and the input/output (I/O). The CPU of the computer is basically the same as the
brain of a human. Computer memory is conceptually similar to human memory. A
question asked to a human is analogous to entering a program into the computer
using an input device such as the keyboard, and answering the question by the human
is similar in concept to outputting the result required by the program to a computer
output device such as the printer. The main difference is that human beings can think
independently, whereas computers can only answer questions that they are
programmed for.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Understand the concepts of digital systems
➢ Make use of different digital system

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Digital Systems

A digital system represents information by using digits with optional entries such as
in decimal (0 through 9), or binary (either 0 or 1). A digital clock display is in decimal
format. A binary digit also known as a bit, is used in computers, digital
communication such as the Internet. For example, a bit can represent 'Yes' or 'No';
'True' or 'False'; or ‘On’ or ‘Off’. For instance, a string of bits of ‘0’ and ‘1’ can be
used to represent data or information, such as image. This is useful in transmitting
satellite image from an observation satellite from orbit to the ground station using
affordable data rate within the limited visible time. Binary digit (Bit) has a value of
either 0 or 1, and 1 byte (a Character) comprises of 8 bits.

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ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is one of the most
common character encoding formats for text data in computers and on the internet. In
standard ASCII-encoded data, there are unique values for 128 alphabetic, numeric or
special additional characters and control codes. It is a code that assigns characters, such
as 'a', 'b', etc. unique 8-bit values. This enables data generated on one computer to be
understood by other computers.

Kilobyte: 1024 bytes (or 2^10 bytes).

Megabyte: 1024 * 1024 bytes (or 2^20 bytes), this is about one million bytes.

Gigabyte: 1024 * 1024 * 1024 bytes (or 2^30 bytes), this is about one billion bytes.

Terabyte: 1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 bytes (or 2^40 bytes), this is about one trillion
bytes.

3.2 Analog-to-Digital Converter

An Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) is an electronic device that converts an input
analog voltage or current to a discrete digital number, that is, from analog signals
into digital signals. The size of the number grows with increasing input voltage or
current. Some non-electronic or partly electronic devices, such as rotary encoders,
can also be identified as ADCs. A digital system is different than an analogue system,
which represents information in a continuous way.
Analog information is transmitted by modulating a continuous transmission signal
by amplifying a signal strength or varying its frequency to add or take away data.
Digital information describes any system based on discontinuous data or events.
Computers, which handle data in digital form, require analog-to-digital converters to
turn signals from analog to digital before it can be read. One example is a modem
which converts signals from digital to analog before transmitting those signals over
communication lines such as telephone lines that transmit only analog signals. The
signals are turned back into digital form or demodulated at the receiving end so that
the computer can process the data in its pre-designed digital format. Figure 65 shows
Analog-to-Digital Converter.

Figure 66 Analog-to-Digital Converter

Figure 66 shows computer system connection to MODEM.

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Figure 67 Computer system connection to MODEM

3.3 Digital-to-Analog Converter

The reverse operation of ADC is performed by a digital-to-analog converter (DAC).
Digital-to-analog converter is a device on a single chip for converting binary digital
code or data to analog signals such as current, voltage or electric charge.
Modems require a DAC to convert data to analog signals that can be carried by
communication cables. For instance, video adapters also require DACs, commonly
known as Random Access Memory DAC (RAMDAC), to convert digital data to
analog signals suitable for Visual Display Units processing. RAMDAC combines
DACs with small static random access memory useful for graphic controllers to
generate voltage amplitude, analog signal for colour display. Figure 67 shows
Digital-to-Analog Converter.

Figure 68 Digital-to-Analog Converter

4.0 Conclusion
Digital system is a field relevant to provide background understanding about the
number formats used by the computing systems and computation parameters. Data
values are usually converted into bit strings for easy computation. The analog-to-
digital and digital-to-analog converters enable necessary values conversion for easy
interoperability among diverse computing devices.

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5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog
converters. These hardware devices are useful for converting one signal to the other
for the purpose of compatibility in data processing.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

Define the functions of an analog-to-digital converter
Distinguish between DAC and ADC hardware devices

7.0 References and Further Reading

Schmidt, Christian (2020), Interleaving Concepts for Digital-to-Analog
Converters: Algorithms, Models, Simulations and Experiments. Wiesbaden:
Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
Kester, Walt (2005), The Data Conversion Handbook, ISBN 0-7506-7841-0
Phillip E. Allen, Douglas R. Holberg, CMOS Analog Circuit Design. ISBN 0-19-
511644-5.
A Anand Kumar, Fundamentals of Digital Circuits. ISBN 81-203-1745-9, ISBN
978-81-203-1745-1.

Allen, Phillip E.; Holberg, Douglas R., CMOS Analog Circuit Design, ISBN 0-19-
511644-5
Kester, Walt, ed. (2005), The Data Conversion Handbook, Elsevier: Newnes, ISBN
0-7506-7841-0
Johns, David; Martin, Ken, Analog Integrated Circuit Design, ISBN 0-471-14448-7
Norsworthy, Steven R.; Schreier, Richard; Temes, Gabor C. (1997), Delta-Sigma
Data Converters, IEEE Press, ISBN 0-7803-1045-4

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Unit 2: Cloud Computing

Content

1.0 Introduction

In earlier parts of this course, you have learned about computing hardware in several concepts. In this
Unit, you will learn about the cloud of computing resources and its hardware devices. Cloud computing
is a means of accessing, processing and saving computing hardware, software (data or programs)
through the Internet. Application of cloud computing gives the flexibility of working anywhere where
you can get an online connection. This is in contrast to how data and programs are normally accessed,
which is locally through your computer’s hard drive (or network). This means being committed to the
physical device or network where your work and programs are saved. Similar to how the cloud hide the
sky in the real world, the cloud in computing hides the computing infrastructure but are made available
to the users via the Internet.

2.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

➢ Understand the concepts of cloud computing
➢ Identify hardware resources available in the cloud
➢ How to make use of the cloud computing

3.0 Main Content

3.1 Description of Computing

Cloud computing can be described as a collection computing resources, basically software and hardware
infrastructures as well as services independently configured and deployed by an organization for use by
a large array of clients, mostly for commercial purpose. Cloud computing is a similitude to provision
of electricity by PHCN for consumers who pay for the service accordingly. Normally, the consumers
do not bother about how the electricity is generated, transmitted or distributed. Thus, cloud computing
involves information technology-based activities that are provided “as a service” which allow users to
access the available services and resources through the Internet.
In fact, the IEEE explained cloud computing as a concept where information is hosted on computer
servers accessible via the Internet to other devices, such as computers, laptops, handhelds, and sensors.
It includes hardware as a platform, software as a service (SaaS), such as Web 2.0, that depend on the
Internet to meet the computational needs of the users. It requires a well-configured high capacity
infrastructure that can handle large and complex data processing. The user can simply use storage,
computing power, or development environments, without having to worry how they work behind the
scenes.

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Examples of the cloud computing providers are Windows Azure, Google App Engine. For instance,
Google has made several office suite apps which are accessed from a web browser. Unlike other
software that does the same tasks, including Microsoft Office, the software and data are stored on
Google's servers, not on the machine in which they are used. Figure 68 shows a typical cloud computing
platform.

Figure 69 Cloud computing platform

Cloud computing is an on-demand service that has gained much support and interest
from corporate online datacenters and professionals respectively. The cloud enables the
datacenter to host online computing resources for the use remote clients. Such users can
pay and access software applications and services via the Internet instead of using their
hard drive and other local computing resources as desired. The cloud infrastructure
providers are responsible to maintain their cloud computing platforms.
Cloud computing networks involve large groups of high-performance computing
servers, WAN/LAN networks of systems, large bandwidth, faster Internet access, and
cloud service providers that usually take advantage of low-cost computing technology,
with specialized connections to deploy data-processing facilities. Virtualization and
hyperthreading technologies are often deployed to maximize online processing power.

Cloud computing is much profitable and beneficial to small and medium enterprises
(SME) who cannot afford all their required resources. In the SME sector there is often
a limited number of resources in terms of time and financial resources to acquire, deploy
and maintain the software, server and storage infrastructure. Thus, pay-as-you-browse
subscription business method is designed to let SMEs easily add or remove services and
resources as required.
3.2 Cloud Computing Infrastructure

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Basically, the cloud computing platforms comprise of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS),
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).

a) Software-as-a-Service
Software-as-a-Service (IaaS)refers to software that is available in the Cloud which the
users can access based on subscription through the Internet and web browsers. The
cloud computing provider manages the software update, licenses renewal, availability,
and security. The remote users do not bother about all these, thus making the entire
subscription cost more affordable than the cost of installing all the required software in
a local hard drive.
Examples of SaaS include Google Apps, MailChimp, Office Online, Dropbox, among
others.
Merits of SaaS include the following:
✓ Reduction in funds, time and stress expended in maintaining locally installed
software
✓ Readily available on any device provided Internet connection exists
✓ Access to any desired software

Drawbacks and challenges of SaaS include the following:

✓ Downtime due to planned maintenance schedules
✓ Cybersecurity threats – compromise of sensitive data over the Internet
✓ Bandwidth overhead, constraints about Internet accessibility especially in the
developing nations
✓ Inability to control the software, e.g. appearance, scheduled updates etc
✓ There Vendor Lock-In, this means users are tied to their vendors and to swap
vendors is usually difficult sometimes. Transfer of data may be complex.

b) Infrastructure-as-a-Service
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) are the resources made available as a cloud-based
service, these include storage, networking, processing and virtualization. Thus,
businesses can purchase resources on-demand. This is much preferred to buying and
owing several hardware resources. This provides a highly flexible and scalable solution
whereby specific hardware can be paid for based on the current needs of the business
or project. Examples of IaaS include Rackspace, Amazon Web Services (AWS),
Microsoft Azure, Cisco Metapod
c) Platform-as-a-Service
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) are hardware and software tools available over the
Internet. PaaS is used to provide a platform for software creation. Using PaaS allows
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developers to focus on coding their applications and not worry about the OS, storage or
hardware. It also allows many users to work on the same project together, and provide
tools to help test and deploy applications.

PaaS (Platform as a Service) is a model that provides, among other things, the operating
system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server as
computing platforms. Examples of PaaS include Apache Stratos, AWS Elastic
Beanstalk, Windows Azure, Heroku, Force.com, Google App Engine, etc.

4.0 Conclusion
Cloud computing refers to an Internet-based cloud of computational software,
infrastructure, platform, and services that is remotely located away from the users. The
cloud computing providers maintain and secure the resources while the users subscribe
on-demand. This system is more affordable for the users, since they do not have to
bother about the systems update, regular license subscription, ethical challenges, legal
issues, and cost acquiring virtually all the resources. However, the vendors must
conform with best practices, cybersecurity, regulatory, and standard frameworks.

5.0 Summary
In this Unit, you have learned about cloud computing, its designs,
configurations, opportunities, and challenges.

6.0 Self-Assessment Exercises

Define cloud computing
List some cloud computing hardware
Identify some cloud computing platforms

7.0 References and Further Reading

Ray, Partha Pratim (2018). "An Introduction to Dew Computing: Definition,

Concept and Implications - IEEE Journals & Magazine". IEEE Access. 6: 723–
737. doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2775042. S2CID 3324933.

Amjad Ali, Khalid Saifullah Syed, in Advances in Computers, 2013

https://www.computerscience.gcse.guru/theory/cloud-computing
Ted Simpson, Jason Novak, Hands on Virtual Computing, 2017, ISBN
1337515744, p. 451

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