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               May be you need not treat the computer like a patient,well, some times it contains a virus.. Oh!no!no! please wait,you need not pull up an injection or start scribbling a prescription. Just relax, Engineers will take care of it and its not your job. you might wonder how come Engineers will eliminate the virus, then what are we Doctors for if not for treating virus infections.

Well,computer is a machine it doesn't have life as precious as human beings nor it does think on its own, but it can be your best servant,secretary,accountant, postman, or even a slave etc etc...yes computer can be called as a slave as the only way we can speak to it is by giving commands to it for its works.command in computer vocabulary is the instruction given by the user operating on the computer to make the computer to do the job for the person. 

Then again, you have to give orders for each and every activity of its work in a very precise manner otherwise they will disobey you, even might write back most funny messages which will get on to your nerves and test your blood pressure. 

Please donot make any wild guesses that computer virus is a microscopic organism that is not visible to human eye and may be on any part of the computer and will spread to human beings if touched.no.sorry. 

Right now, just keep in mind that virus is a software program that is nothing but a set of instructions to make the computer get ill. one more thing you need not wear gloves to touch a computer with virus.It spreads only from computer to computer just like human virus only when the body fluids are exchanged the virus spreads same way only when the data gets transferred from computer to computer the virus infection starts. 

You may ask why should we know about computers ,well a life was saved because of the computer and its technology. A person traveling alone on a ship suddenly became very sick and had to undergo an operation, but alas, he was in the middle of the ocean and no one near in the vicinity but a computer and a modem through which he can communicate with the outside world. 

He used the computer to chat with the Doctor and the doctor gave him step by step instructions and the person himself performed the operation on him by himself and finally his life was saved. Miraculous it may sound but it happened and it was possible since the doctor was a computer literate and he know the usage of internet. 

Hope this one incident would have medically touched your heart and you would definitely bubble with enthusiasm to learn about computers just how you were when learning your first lesson about human anatomy in medical college. 

So before going into virus and internet you have to know about the basic components by which the computer is made up.After all you might have learnt about the human body parts and its basic functions before you learnt about how the brain transmits the signals through nervous system for the activities. 

Like only a doctor can perform open heart surgery only a hard ware engineer can open the computer body.so with out any necessity to open the computer you can learn about their parts. A computer just like our human body has a well defined physical structure and a brain from where the operations are executed.

MONITOR

Firstly the most striking and visible part of computer is its face which is called as monitor,we understand other person's communication by looking at his facial expression and listening to the words the person speaks. same way we understand computer only by looking its monitor which is nothing but the screen and is technically called as VDU( visual display unit). we apply make up to the face for better appearance, monitors for better display performance can also be tuned according to its resolution which is nothing but number of dots on the screen,the higher the resolution better the picture.The images formed on the screen is handled by video controller.The activity of reading the display memory and painting a new picture is done 50 times a second.The monitor comes with many control knobs to adjust the display for its brightness,contrast,vertical size and horizontal size etc and also an on/off switch. 

Human beings have different complexions that cannot be easily grouped as there are so many but computer monitors can be categorized into two main types.one is mono chrome monitor which can display black and white color only just like our B/W TV and other is color monitor which can display even 16 million shades of colors. 

Talking about monitors you know what happens when radiation strikes human eye continuosly,yes computer monitors transmit radiation that is harmful to eye,so its advisable to put anti glare cover over the montor.people who work with laser beams wear fiber glasses ,well that much precaution is not needed but its better to choose a monitor that has very low radiation. 

Now monitors come with mike which can listen to the sound and speakers which can give out sound from the computer,these kind of monitors are called as multimedia monitors and so the similarity between human face and monitor is almost reached.but monitor is made up of thick fiber glass unlike our soft skin face.

MICROPROCESSOR

Microprocessor or CPU(central processing unit) is the brain of the computer is a single integrated circuit (IC)and commonly called as chip (no wonder we named our magazine as CHIP) and the whole processing of the computer like arithmetic and logical calculations are done by it. The speed of the processor is measured in Mhz by a clock which is a small chip made of quartz which calculates the speed of the chip just like the thermometer measures the temperature of the body.The higher the number faster the speed,Now the microprocessor giant INTEL has come up with 500 Mhz and 750 Mhz and 1000 Mhz are in the making.

MEMORY

Our brain has numerous memory cells like wise computer has specific types of memory namely RAM,ROM and cache.The combination of all the three is called as primary storage which is used to store the data until the central processing unit gets ready for processing.computer uses binary system and its memory is organized internally as a collection of bytes. 0 and 1 called a bit, 8 bits are called as a byte. 1024 bytes are called as kilobyte(KB).1024 kilobytes are called as 1 megabyte(MB),1024 megabytes are called as 1 giga byte(GB). 

While you are doing the surgery you keep the instruments like knife,needles,scissors ready near you in a tray, same way RAM is used for keeping the programs and their data while the computer is working with them.RAM is called as random access memory. 

You keep a table,lighting and instruments needed ready before the operation,the same way before the start of the computer, ROM contains permanently recorded instructions that are vital for starting up a computer. ROM does the basic control and supervisory operations of the computer called as ROM BIOS (Random Access Memory Basic Input Output Services) 

While you are performing the operation your hands will be holding some frequently used surgical tools,same way computer holds the very frequently needed information for the processor in cache. 

Apart from the tray and hands which hold the necessary instruments you may have many more instruments stored in the shelves of your operating theater or lab, same way computer has hard disks, magnetic tapes, floppy disks which store the data as external source for the processor.

HARD DISK

Hard disk is a rigid aluminum sealed unit and its capacities vary. A small hospital in a village will have a very small lab space with some mandatory instruments,but big hospitals in metro cities will have enormous lab space with all the modern equipments.same way the capacity of hard disks depend on the capacity of storage of data.They vary from 20 MB to 27 GB. 

In 1980's hard disks came with capacity of 20 MB now they come with 2 GB to 27GB.earlier even 20 MB hard disk was very costly and the people tried to store the data in a very economical way.In those days, 'year' in the date was mentioned with 2 digits to save the hard disk space and that has led to the major Y2K problem the whole world is facing now.say you are born in 1960 and your year of birth is stored in the computer as 60.In 1999 your age is 99-60 = 39, but in 2000 your age becomes according to computer calculation 00-60 = -60.so your age according to the computer will be -60.so right from a person's age to bank account interest, everything will produce a wrong value and this is called Y2K problem .

FLOPPY DISK

Next type of storage devices are floppy disks which helps in transferring data and also virus from computer to computer.They are made up of flexible mylar plastic and for data transfer they have be inserted inside the drive which holds them t connect it with the processor. There are 2 types of floppy disks one is of 3 1/2 inch and the other is 5 1/4 inch, the storage capacity being 1.44MB and 1.2 MB respectively.In all these devices data is stored in tracks.you can protect the floppy disk from anyone writing on to it or altering its contents using its small write protect tab.

BUS

The memory chips and the processor communicate using set of wires which serve as a common carrier for signals which is a communication channel and the entire setup is called as a Bus.They can pass signals between them back and forth just like our blood vessels pump up the blood to various parts of the body continuously.

MOTHER BOARD

Mother board is to computer what thorax and abdomen is for human body. yes,this is the main body of the computer which is an electronic board with embedded tiny chips and other components.All external devices such as printer,modem,digitizer and scanner are connected to the mother board.It's main components are normally microprocessor,memory,bus and ports.Ports are standard interfaces that are used to connect Input Output devices like mouse,printer and scanner to the computer.There are two types namely serial port and parallel port.Serial port sends data bit by bit after 8 bits are queued up, where as parallel port sends all the 8 bits of data simultaneously.

KEY BOARD

Keying in the data is the main mode for talking to the computer.Keyboard is the output device.When you press a key the scan code is transmitted and the computer translates that into action.Normally keyboards come up with 101 keys which includes 12 function keys located on the top edge.now a days key boards come up with 108 keys with one-touch window and one touch web keys. Key board is just like a type writer,but hard hitting the keys should be avoided as they are very soft unlike type writer keys. doctors have found out frequent users of the keyboard and the people who type very fast,develop nervous complexities with their fingers.Now key boards even come with palm rest top to keep the palm on the same altitude as the keyboard to minimize the difficulty in typing and hand strain.

MOUSE

Well this mouse doesn't spread plague or run fast ,instead it calmly rest on the little space allocated for it to rest,on the mouse pad.It is used to point and select some options on the screen.It has either two buttons or three buttons and each button's function can be configured according to our need using the mouse software that comes along with the mouse kit.We can move them by rolling them on the mouse pad and the cursor on the screen moves according to the rolling movement of the tiny ball at the bottom of the mouse.It is also used to draw pictures using paint soft wares. 

Other devices that are used like mouse are joystick which looks like a gear box and is mainly used for playing games normally people handle it very rough, and track ball which is physically just opposite to mouse as the ball is on top in track ball and you have to tap the ball using your finger for the movement of the cursor.One more instrument is a digitizer which is used for accuracy, they are made up of two parts a tablet and stylus. A tablet is a flat rectangular box that is the pointing area and the stylus is the pointing device.In lap top computers which are portable the pointing device is a small knob which is fixed in the middle of the key board between the keys. In some cases it is a track ball or mini handsensitive fiber glass on which if you move the finger and the cursor moves according to it.

PRINTER

It is an output device, connected through a parallel port.It is used to print whatever you see on the screen and whatever data contents that are in the storage devices.You can get the outputs like medical bills,reports etc. Now printers come up with 'print on anything' type.you can print the data or image on the OHP sheet or even on a cloth.There are three types printers namely dotmatrix,inkjet and laser. 

Dot matrix printers give the output like the conventional type writter.It's output is poor. A dot-matrix printer is a good choice for printing multiple copy carbon forms. The impact of the print head is sufficient to transfer the carbon to form's copies.Their print head contains a single row or several rows of line needles,The protruding needles press the ink ribbon and mark the paper with the letters as inkdots,they normally come in 9 pin and 24 pin versions.The printer's resolution relates to how closely the dots are printed next to one another 

Ink jet printers have made tremendous advances in recent years,they cost little more than dot matrix printer,and they have the advantage of producing near photo quality printout.inkjet printers use ink cartridges , the print head draws ink from the cartridge and sprays it through a serious of vertically aligned nozzles that produce fine drops of ink creating the characters.These printers can be categorized according to their color capabilities,mono printers with black ink cartridge print only in black color. Color printers which use three basic color inks like Red, Green and Blue are programmed to produce any shade of color by mixing the three basic colors. 

Laser printers have revolutionized the market by their photo realism and near typeset quality output also they are super fast compared to dot matrix and ink jet printers. In these types the computer sends a page of information to the printer and the printer stores that page in its memory,then the image is transferred to a cylindrical drum,the drum turns through the toner and the toner clings to the image on the drum. When the paper passes under the drum,the printer fuses the toner onto the page and the printer ejects the page with the image.

CD-ROM DRIVE

CD-ROM DRIVE is a multimedia component which is used to play audio-cd and video-cd, their speed is measured in 1X to 24X, according to the speed of the data transfer it does from the CD to the computer.A CD-ROM is a circular disc and is categorized in to audi-cd,video-cd and data-cd normally contains 650 MB storage space and they cannot be written on and it's read olny.You can play a movie using video-cd and you can listen to songs using audio-cd.Now interactive CD's on various health related topics have been released like the 'THE WISDOM WITH IN' by doctor Deepak Chopra which teaches the policies for Total well-being. 

Now multimedia kit comes with a mike,speakers,CD-ROM drive,software and remote control to activate the drive from a distance.you can do play,forward,rewind even skip to a particular spot on the CD. As the data stored cannot be erased,it is a very safe medium to keep your data,normally it guarantees 100 years for data reliability.you need a device called CD writer to write onto the CD.you can also replicate a CD and now the replication is done at a very low cost.Now DVD (Digital Video Disk)has come into play and they have storage capacity in the range of MBs.They are played using DVD players which are costly.VGA(Video Graphic Adaptor)cards are used for increasing the performance of the video output.for better results now MPEG(Moving Pictures Expert Group)cards are available through which you can view a movie Video CD with as much clear picture quality as you get on TV.

CABINET

All parts of the computer except monitor,keyboard and mouse are fitted in side a cabinet along with a power supply unit called as SMPS(switch mode power supply) which gets the power from our power board and feeds the power for the operation of the computer for it's safety as direct supply of power is dangerous for computer parts. All the parts inside the cabinet are inter connected using cable wires. 

Just like how our human body parts are connected by nerves to transmit the commands by brain,the computer parts are connected by cable wires with the mother board to get the command from the processor for the actions ,even if a single cable is cut the particular operation will be halted. 

Now Apple computers have come up with their latest model for it's iMac range of computers, they have designed in such a way that the cabinet is fitted inside the monitor which really gives a futuristic look.

MODEM

Gone are the days of waiting for the postman or writing letters and posting them as E-mail has come to stay. E-mail is nothing but electronic mail. Also ISD and STD telephone bills are replaced by Internet and E-mail almost up to ninety percent.Thanks to a small instrument and it's mode of sure and easy  communication - modem. The two types of modems are internal and external modem. Internal modem is just an electronic card which can be inserted  in a slot on the mother board and it doesn't need additional power supply, where as the external modem needs additional power supply and looks like a small box which is usually kept outside the cabinet.

Data is not sent through  the modem as digital data ( 0 and 1) but is modulated into a signal known as carrier signal.The name mo-dem is formed from mo-dulation and dem-odulation. Modem's speed is calculated in terms of bps which means bits  per second. The data travel along phone lines.Transmission through cable is yet to properly hit the Indian market.You can also send and receive fax using a PC through modem  by a fax software and for the general function of modem you need a communication software that comes along with modem.

Also there is remote control software , it helps you to link your computer with a remote computer by a normal telecommunication connection and then you can operate the remote computer as if it was the  computer in front of you, this is a remarkable facility as you can operate the computer at hospital through your computer at home.

Through an Internet Service Provider of your region you can connect your PC over to internet and enjoy e-mail,on-line chatting,create e-groups with other doctors and even give consultation to your patients by creating a web site for you and posting forms through which patients can submit their nature of complaints that will get accumulated on to your database for you to reply at your own convenience through e-mail.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

  Microprocessor        Hard Disk         Mouse        Floppy Disk        Modem       Monitor      Cabinet     Printer     CD-ROM      BUS