INTRODUCTION A laptop, also called a notebook, is a personal computer for mobile use.

A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device (a touchpad, or a pointing stick) and speakers into a single unit. The laptop is powered by mains electricity via an AC adapter, and can be used away from an outlet using a rechargeable battery. Portable computers, originally monochrome CRT-based, developed into the modern laptops, and were originally considered to be a small niche market, mostly for specialized field applications such as the military, accountants and sales representatives. As portable computers became smaller, lighter, cheaper, more powerful and as screens became larger and of better quality, laptops became very widely used for all sorts of purposes. Portable computers first became commercially available in 1981 with the Osborne 1 system (Wilson 2006). This computer was about the size of a portable sewing machine, featured a tiny monitor, and could not be run on battery power. However, it revolutionized the business world, allowing business professionals to carry their computer data with them for the first time. But due to the unwieldy size of the Osborne I and its inability to run on battery power, the system never really took off in the commercial market, though it would remain a vanguard of technological advances to come.

METHODOLOGY All computer systems consist of similar hardware devices and software components. Here, there is an overview of standard computer hardware and software organization. Basically, hardware refers to the physical components that a computer is made of. A computer, as we generally think of it, is not an individual device. Like the instruments in a symphony orchestra, each device has its role. A typical computer system consists of these five major components; the central processing unit, main memory (random access memory or RAM), secondary storage devices, input devices and output devices. The main hardware for a computer is it central processing unit (CPU). The CPU also known as the heart of a computer works to fetch instructions, follow the instructions, and produce some results. Internally, the central processing unit coordinates all of the computers operations. It is responsible for determining where to get the next instruction and regulating the other major components of the computer with control signals. The arithmetic and logic unit, as its name suggests, is designed to perform mathematical operations. It is worth noting here that the only operations that the CPU can carry out are simple arithmetic operations, comparisons between the result of a calculation and other values, and the selection of the next instruction for processing. All the rest of the apparently limitless things a computer can do are built on this very primitive base by programming The main memory of the computer is also known as RAM, standing for Random Access Memory. It is constructed from integrated circuits and needs to have electrical power in order to maintain its information. When power is lost, the information is lost too! It can be directly accessed by the CPU. The access time to read or write any particular byte are independent of whereabouts in the memory that

byte is, and currently is approximately 50nanoseconds (a thousand millionth of a second). This is broadly comparable with the speed at which the CPU will need to access data. Main memory is expensive compared to external memory so it has limited capacity. The capacity available for a given price is increasing all the time. For example many home Personal Computers now have a capacity of 16 megabytes (million bytes), while 64 megabytes is commonplace on commercial workstations. The CPU will normally transfer data to and from the main memory in groups of two, four or eight bytes, even if the operation it is undertaking only requires a single byte. Secondary storage is a type of memory that can hold data for long periods of time-even when there is no power to the computer. Frequently used programs are stored in secondary memory and loaded into main memory as needed. Important information, such as word processing documents, payroll data, and inventory figures, is saved to secondary storage as well. The most common type of secondary storage device is the disk drive. A disk drive stores data by magnetically encoding it onto a circular disk. Most computers have a disk drive mounted inside their case. External disk drives can be used to create backup copies of important data or to move data to another computer. Input is any information the computer collects from the outside world. The device that collects the information and sends it to the computer is called an input device. Common input devices are keyboard, mouse, scanner, digital camera, and microphone. Disk drives, CD/DVD drives, and USB flash drives can also be considered input devices because programs and information are retrieves from them and loaded into the computers memory. Unlike the input, the output is any information the computer sends to the outside world. The information is sent to an output device, which formats and presents it. Common output devices are computer screens, printers, and speakers. Output sent to a computer screen is sometimes called soft copy, while output sent to a printer is called hard copy. For software either, it is a programs that run on a computer. There are two general categories of software: operating systems and application software. An operating system is a set of programs that manages the computers hardware devices and controls their processes. Operating systems can either fall into single tasking operating system or multitasking operating system. The application system software refers to programs that make the computer useful to the user. These programs solve specific problems or perform general operations that satisfy the needs of the user. Word processing, spreadsheet, and database programs are all examples of application software.