Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology, The

Part 1: Computer Hardware (Chapters 1 through 4)

The four chapters in this first section will introduce you to computing's foundation—hardware. It's common for people who use computers to be intimidated by hardware. They assume that only engineers can hope to understand the exotic devices that lurk inside a computer's case. In fact, computing devices employ some fairly basic principles, and any interested person can easily understand them.

Once you're familiar with how the various parts of a computer work, you'll appreciate an additional point—there are a variety of ways to accomplish most of the tasks for which computers are used. Abetted by poorly informed sales staff, many people think that computers differ only in that some parts have a ...