A brief tour of a computer

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

• Overall control of the computer
• Performs desired computations

Main Memory (RAM)

• Fast, random access to running programs and the immediate data on which they operate. Not persistant.

Secondary storage

• Persistant storage for large amounts of data and (non-running) programs

I/O devices

• to interact with people (e.g., keyboard, mouse, screen, printer)
• or with various sensors or effectors