Topic 1

Topic 1

1. What is a computer system?

   • A collection of parts which work together to perform a common purpose.
   • Parts of a computer system
     • Input devices
       • Allows the user to enter data into their computer
     • Output devices
       • These are used so the user can see the result of the processed data.
     • Storage devices
       • Stored in binary in storage devices
     • A processor

2. Standards

   • Proprietary standards
     • Standards that are owned by a company
   • Industry standards
     • Standards that are agreed across the computing industry
   • De Facto standards
     • De facto standards are standards which just develop over time through common usage until they become the accepted way to make or do things.
   • Open standards
     • Open standards refer to standards which are publicly available; to an extent the software developed under them can be modified by the user.

3. Mean time to failure(MTTF)

   • The number of hours until a computer system fails.

4. Issues

   • Ethics
     • Ethic issues are things which people just consider wrong, but if you do them you won't get into any serious trouble.
   • Legal
     • Legal issues are issues which are very wrong and if you do them you will be in serious trouble.

5. Environmental issues

   • When computers failure they normally just get replaced
     • All of junk that is inside these old computers get sent off to countries whuch don't have laws against it.
       • So loads of toxic E-waste is then just left in dumps in Africa, so then loads of people get poisoned by this waste.