The personal computer has come a long way in a relatively short time, and much of the progress is due to the continuing advancements in operating systems. Over the past twenty years, the evolution in operating systems has made PCs easier to use and understand, more flexible, and more reliable. Today, in addition to the operating systems that consume hundreds of megabytes of disk space on personal computers, miniaturized operating systems fit onto tiny portable digital assistants (PDA´s) and even cellular telephones.

Many early computers ran under operating systems, such as CP/M, which are no longer used. As PCs came into common usage in homes and businesses, the vast majority of them ran DOS- a much maligned, command-line-based operating system that still is present to one extent or another in most versions of windows. Now, as in the past, many PCs run under some version of UNIX, which is one of the richest and most enduring operating systems.

Users have several choices when it comes to operating systems, although the choice is not always easy. The vast majority of new PCs are sold with some version of Windows installed, but many users (especially in business) are choosing to run UNIX or Linux.

Do a little research about the different operating systems and do a timeline with dates

The operating systems you have to look for are:

1. UNIX
   
2. DOS
   
3. THE MACINTOSH OPERATING SYSTEM
   
4. WINDOWS 3.X
   
5. OS/2 WARP
   
6. WINDOWS NT
   
7. WINDOWS 9X
   
8. LINUX
   
9. WINDOWS 2000
   
10. WINDOWS XP
    
11. WINDOWS.NET
    
12. EMBEDDED OPERATING SYSTEMS
    

(INCLUDE PICTURES OF THE OS's)

Instructions

• The team will realize a clay model of a PC hardware, where you shown the main components of the PC.
  
• Starting on Monday 17th, you can see 2 open computers in the classroom, so the team can check thoroughly all the inside components of them. So the team could begin planning how they are going to create their model.
  
• Starting on Monday 17th, the team must do a documental research about the topics mentioned on number 5.
  
• On August 21th, in class time, the team will send their documental research by the correspondent assignment on group button. This assignment will be able on august 19th.
  
• The model should include:
  
  • Motherboard with:
    
    • Clock
      
    • Processor
      
    • RAM and ROM memories
      
    • Busses
      
    • Hard Disk.
      
    • CD-DVD ROM
      
  • Ports (for network, printer, keyboard, mouse, screen, etc.)
    
• The team will have only 40 minutes to finish the model, so the team has to split the work to finish on time.
  
• At any time, the teacher can ask to anyone in the team about a specific part of a computer. The selected student should be able to answer what is it and what is for the element asked.
  
• Each team could only use their own material, so you should administrate your resources.
  
• It will be graded in this activity: the team organization, the cleanness and creativity of the team during the whole activity, and also if the model is handed over including all the requested elements and the documental research.
  
• The team who doesn´t bring the whole requested material, will have 0 (zero) in this activity.
  

Tables

Word Processors provide features that let you create tables in just a few steps. The size of a table is limited only by the amount of page space that canbe devoted to it, and tables can be formatted in dozens of ways. Tables typically are setup with a header row across the top to describe the contents of each column. Many tables also include a special first column that describes the contents of each row.

Tables also are useful for arranging images (such as clip art of photographs) on a page and for arranging images and text in interesting ways. In fact, many professional document designers use tables as quick and easy way to create customized page layouts, when standard text control tools do not provide enough flexibility.

Hyperlinks

A hyperlink is simply a part of the document that is linked to a URL, file or position in the same document. When text has a hyperlink assigned to it, you can click it and "jump" from your present location to the URL specified by the hyperlink. Hyperlinked text looks different, it is usually underlined, but it can be formatted in any number of ways.

An operating system (OS) is a software program, but it is different from word processing programs, spreadsheets, and all the other software programs on your computer. The OS is a software that controls the system's hardware, and which interacts with the user and application software. In short, the operating system is the computer's master control program. The OS provides you with the tools (commands) that enable you to interact with the PC. When you issue a command, the OS translates it into code that the machine can use. The OS ensures that the results of your actions are displayed on screen, printed, and so on. The operating system also acts as the primary controlling mechanism for the computer's hardware.

The operating system performs the following functions:

1. Provides the instructions to display the on-screen elements with which you interact. Collectively, these elements are known as the user interface.
   
2. Loads programs (such as word processing and spreadsheet programs) into the computer's memory so that you can use them.
   
3. Coordinates how programs work with the CPU, RAM, keyboard, mouse, printer, and other hardware, as well as with other software.
   
4. Manages the way information is stored on and retrieved from disks.
   

The functioning of the OS can be extended by adding utility software.

Bits and Bytes:

To a computer, everything is a number. Numbers are numbers; letters and punctuation marks are numbers; sounds and pictures are numbers. For example, consider this sentence: HERE ARE SOME WORDS. It may looks like a string of alphabetic character to you, but to a computer it looks like the string of ones and zeros.

Is like a Morse code.

When referring to computerized data, the value represented by a cero or one is called a bit. A bit is the smallest possible unit of data a computer can recognize or use. To represent anything meaningful (in other words, to convey information) the computer uses bits in groups.

A group of eight bits is called a byte

With 1 byte, the computer can represent one of 256 different symbols or characters, because the eight 1s and 0s in a byte can be combined in 256 different ways.

The byte is an extremely important unit, because there are enough different 8-bit combinations to represent all the characters on the keyboard, including all the letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers, punctuation marks, and other symbols. If you look back at the picture, you will notice that each of the characters (or letters) in the sentence Here are some words. Is represented by 1 byte(8 bits) of data.