Introduction to Computers

This is an introductory text for a basic computer literacy course. It was written because we found that most of the available texts were extremely expensive (up to and over $150.) We felt that this was, not only excessive, but also counterproductive. Very few students would be likely to buy this kind of text at that price.We have tried to include all of the material necessary for an introductory computer literacy course, but, in order to keep a low price for our students, we have attempted to include ONLY what would be necessary for such a course. Contents include: 1.Introduction-History of computer development, different classes of computers, networks and communication, information processing cycle2.Computer Components -CPU, memory, secondary storage, input, output and communications devices, 3.Computer Software-System software (operating systems, utility programs), application programs, ethical issues related to software4.The System Unit -Motherboard, CPU, Types of Memory, Secondary Storage, Data representation, connecters and ports5.Input -Keyboards, scanners, pointing devices (mouse, trackball, touchscreen, ...), 6.Output-Monitors, projectors, wearables, printers, fonts, audio output7.Storage-Hard disk drives, optical storage, obsolete media, cloud storage8.Networks and Internet-Internet development, Internet services (WWW, e-mail, FTP, ... ), e-commerce, Internet architecture (HTML, TCP/IP, routers, servers, ... ), social issues, security.