THEORY
General purpose machines; universality principle; hardware and software; software classification (system, utility, applicative).
Main peripherals devices and their classifications (input/output, internal/external); structure, operation, typology and main parameters of some peripherals (*): hard disk, monitor, printers, optical disks, scanner; resolution: Pixel vs DPI (*); random, sequential and (*) semi-random access.
The byte and its multiples; memory features: costs, speed, capacity, volatility, technology (magnetic, optic, electronic) (*) ; ROM memory and embedded systems; bootstrap.
The hertz and its multiples; speed and clock frequency of a processor; improvement factors; evolution of technology: from tubes to silicon; Moore's law.
Structure and operation of Von Neumann machine; instruction set of a processor (outline); Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle; addition in assembly; the program counter and the instruction register.
Operating System, main functions; kernel and shell; time slice and multitasking management; scheduler (*); dispatcher (*).
User licenses, most common types: Copyright, Open Source, Freeware, Shareware.
Communication types: PTP, Broadcast, Multicast, synchronous and asynchronous; computer networks; LAN, MAN and WAN; network topology (Star, Bus, Ring) (*); Ethernet; Internet Bridges; Routers; TCP/IP protocol; IPv4 and IPv6 addresses; URL and its components; DNS; domain hierarchies, TLD; Client/Server scheme; Internet services; World Wide Web.
WORKSHOP
Basic operations of a spreadsheet: cell formatting; automatic generation of series; list management: ordering and filtering; absolute and relative references; IF, SUM, MEAN, and ROUND functions; nested functions; graph generation.
EXERCISES
Calculation of the improvement factor; equivalence between the Byte multiples; equivalence between the Hertz multiples.
ITALIAN VERSION
