PC Fundamentals for Design Professionals

Jack H Warner, P.E.

Course Outline

The goal of this 1-hour online course is to provide a basic understanding of what's inside the Personal Computer that you use every day. Much of this knowledge will even apply to much larger computers. The content is geared for design professionals, but is understandable and beneficial to anyone. After completing this course, you should have a better understanding of your Personal Computer and how it works.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

• Have an understanding of the rapid evolution in computing that lead us to where we are today;
• Know the basic components that make up a computer;
• Understand the purpose of BIOS and the Operating System;
• Understand how the computer uses "bits" and "bytes", and how this influences the precision of calculations;
• Understand the basic differences between 8, 16, 32, and 64-bit processors; and
• Understand the basic strengths of computers.
  
  

Intended Audience

This course is intended for any design professional.

Benefit for Attendee

Attendee of this course will better understand computers.

Course Introduction

As a design professional in the 21st century, your PC (Personal Computer) has become one of your most valuable tools. This was not true just a decade or two ago; what an incredible change! You depend on your computer for calculations, drawings, presentations, and correspondence. But how much do you know about how it works? Some people can be content to treat it like a “black box”, not needing to know how it does what it does. But as a design professional that depends upon its operation and output for your success, wouldn’t you like to understand a bit about its inner workings and how it came such a long way in such a short time?

I thought so… so let’s get started!

Course Content

The course content is contained in the following PDF file:

PC Fundamentals for Design Professionals

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.

Course Summary

This course covered the history and evolution of the computer, and the basic components that make up a computer. The BIOS and operating system were explained, and bits and bytes were discussed. Also, the basic strengths and weaknesses of computers were compared.

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

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DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.

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