Even though there are many different kinds of computers, most computers have the same basic parts. The heart, or brain, of every computer is the processor or chip. It is, indeed, the "brain" of the computer that turns all the "ones" and "zeroes" into information a regular human being can use. These chips are really just extremely fast counting machines, just like ENIAC (Chapter 1). Instead of taking up rooms of space and weighing many tons, today's chips are featherweight wafers about an inch (2.54 cm) square. Of course, processors continue to get faster and smaller every year.
Along with the chip, every computer needs memory to hold it's basic operating instructions and the information it is working on at the moment. As you read this page on your computer's monitor, the words and letters are being held in the computer's memory, along with the instructions from your web browser, and your basic system (Mac, LINUX, Windows, etc.). As applications become more powerful and add more features, they require more memory to run. Memory is often called RAM, and special kinds of memory are DRAM, SDRAM, VRAM, etc.
Finally, every computer needs some kind of digital storage, usually a hard disk inside the computer. When you turn your computer on, it copies its operating software from the hard disk to its memory. When you ask it to open your word processing application, it goes to its hard disk to load that information. Years ago when most information on computers was "text" or numbers, storage requirements were very small. These days many people want to store pictures, sounds, and movies on their computers. It takes a lot of ones and zeroes to make just a three-second sound, and many, many more to store something like a movie. Most home computers today have more storage on their hard disks than many small companies had just a few years ago.
Questions
application - program. A set of instructions to a computer that makes it act a certain way.
extremely - very
featherweight - very light, like a feather
memory - Like humans, computers need to "hold" information that they use. Inside every computer are special chips that can hold information that will be used again very soon in short terrm storage. Memory is that storage.
processor / chip - the main brain of a computer. It actually just counts ones and zeroes, but very, very quickly.
store / storage - One meaning of "store" is a shop. In this unit, "to store" means to keep or hold. Many people store things in their closets.
ton - 2000 pounds (2000 lbs.), or about 909 kg.
wafer - very thin sandwich of different materials; also a kind of cookie
Today computer hard drives are used to store documents, photos, sounds, and movies. Can you imagine other things that might someday be stored on hard drives?
If you could convert every piece of paper in your home to data on a hard drive, how much extra space would you have?
Try to imagine all the newspapers, books, and magazines that people read in digital format. How many trees could be saved each year?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of digital storage of information?
If you have a computer at home, tell your classmates what you store on your hard disk, and how having a computer has changed the way you store things.
A site for learning some computer basics: http://www.ora.com/reference/dictionary/
What the Encyclopedia Britnnica says about computers: http://search.britannica.com/search?miid=1133925&query=computer
A searchable dictionary of computer terms: http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/index.html
Two sites with some interesting design ideas: http://www.lunardesign.com/portfolio/client_archive/concept.html http://www.lunardesign.com/pressroom/pressrel/palm_m100.html
How much storage does the world need? There's A LOT of information out there! http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/how-much-info
And, naturally, the coolest computers: http://www.apple.com