Computer Technology Training

PC computer hardware consists of a CPU (central processing unit), supporting chipset, RAM

Computer Hardware

memory, video, motherboard, and I/O (input and output devices).  The CPU’s and motherboards have made considerable improvements from the early days of 8 bit computing to the newer 64 bit devices and PCI express motherboards.  The supporting chipsets provide the CPU with access to the RAM memory, video card, and I/O devices.

The I/O devices along with the CPU use binary numbering systems to communicate and exchange all the data that is processed.  Binary numbers consist of just 1’s and 0’s and have become a powerful and reliable processing system.  Binary in the computer is like a light switch and is either on (1) or off (0).  With the advent of the semiconductor and transistor, electronic gates were developed that either allowed current to flow or stopped current.  This on or off state is easy to detect which makes computers a very reliable processing platform that includes self-error correcting features.

Binary is easy to translate to the English language, decimal number system, or any other language or numbering system.  This also provides a very reliable input and output communication and data exchange.  The Internet technology protocol TCP/IP was never expected to be able to handle such large amounts of world traffic, but using the binary number system is has been able to expand quickly to handle the growth and bandwidth needs.

A mouse, keyboards, monitors, printers, hard drives, flash drives, CDs, and DVDs all use the binary numbering system.  Storage devices store these ones and zeros are either magnetized spots of metal platters or as pits or bumps on CDs or DVDs.

Bits are a single character either a one or a zero.  A byte is 8 bits of data and a byte is a common form or group or data.  A byte can be a number from 0 to 255.  To convert binary to decimal you use a base 2 system where each additional bit doubles in value.  A single bit could have a value of 0 or one.  When you add a bit this doubles the value to 2.  The next bit would be 4 and so on until you reach the eighth bit, which would have a value of 128.  It will become necessary from time to time to be able to convert an 8 bit number to decimal so some exercises are needed to develop this skill.

Lab – Binary to Decimal Conversion

128 – 64 – 32 – 16 –  8 –  4 –  2 –  1

0      0      0      0     0     0     0     0   =  0

0      0      0      0     0     0     0     1   =  1

0      0      0      0     0     0     1     0   =  2

0      0      0      0     0     0     1     1   =  3

1.  Convert 8 binary 00000011 to decimal.                        2.  Convert decimal 2 to 8 bit binary.

The Computer Technology Training website has some additional information you might find useful.