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Personal Computers
Introduction
Traditional computer terminals are being replaced today with powerful, multifunction personal computers. PCs offer all the advantages of terminals, but add personal and organizational productivity applications, such as word processing, spreadsheets, calendars, task lists, electronic mail, project management, legal research, presentation software, imaging, public access, etc. PCs replace proprietary systems with more effective tools at a lower cost and risk. The graphical user interface of the personal computer is easier to learn and use. Instead of typing lengthy commands or navigating complex menu structures, the user presses command keys and selects data from lists supplied on the screen. This new generation of tools can be tailored to the exact needs of modern court officials.
Description
There are five key components of a personal computer: processor, memory, storage devices, input and output devices, and networking equipment. The processor is the single chip in a personal computer that performs logic, computation, and decision-making operations. All other components exist to organize, store, and route data and instructions in support of these processor activities.
The processor works with only a limited number of instructions and a small amount of data at any one time. It must work very rapidly (processing millions of instructions per second) to serve as a cost-effective alternative to human effort, because a simple manual operation may require dozens or hundreds of instructions when performed by a computer.
The instructions and data are stored in the computer’s memory, where they are available as needed. Memory is the computer’s work area. Because it is relatively expensive and of insufficient capacity to store all the data and instructions needed, the personal computer uses storage devices--disk and tape--to hold information that will not fit in memory. While these storage devices ar...