Microcomputers- the most important category of computer systems for business people and consumers. Sometimes called a PC, its power exceeds that of the mainframes of previous compouter generations at a fraction of their cost.
MidRange comps- multiuser systems that can manage networks of PCs and terminals. Not as powerful as mainframe computers, they are less costly to buy, operate, and maintain than mainframe systems.
*they first became popular as minicomputers for scientific research.
Mainframe comps- large, fast, adn powerful computer systems. They can process hundreds of million instructions per second. They have large primary storage capacities.
SUPERCOMPUTER- category of powerful computer systems specifically designed for scientific, engineering,and business applications requiring extremely high speeds for massive numeric computations.
*for govs,large univs,and major corps
INPUT- keyboards, pens ,mouses, scanners
PROCESSING- the CPU is the main component of a comp system.
OUTPUT- printers, video display units, etc.
STORAGE-
a. primary storage- memory
b. secondary storage- magnetic disk and optical disk drives
CONTROL- its circuits interpret software instructions and transmit directions to the other components of the comp.system
MILLISECONDS = 1/1000
MICROSECONDS=1/1000000
NANOSECOND= 1000000000
PICOSECOND = 1000000000000
WORM = write once, read many
