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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Introduction to EIA's personal computers and software: Student text

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6821242

This course has been designed to introduce the new personal computer (PC) user to the terminology and concepts of the PC hardware and software available at the Energy Information Administration. This lecture course will be supplemented by hands-on sessions to demonstrate the PC software available at EIA, specifically in the areas of word processing, spreadsheet, and data base applications. To satisfy the diverse computing requirements of the offices and individuals of EIA, the agency uses two types of computers: the mainframe computer and the microcomputer, also called the personal computer. The mainframe is a very large and powerful computer designed to serve multiple users. Mainframe computers are able to provide storage for massive amounts of data and are able to perform multiple tasks or applications simultaneously. Users communicate with mainframes through the use of ''dumb'' terminals which have no computing capabilities of their own. Personal computers, on the other hand, are much smaller and less expensive computers that sit on their user's desk or lap. PCs are self-sufficient workstations with computing power of their own and are designed for use by one person. PCs are increasingly being linked together to share data and resources between multiple users. This type of configuration is called a local area network or LAN. The two basic requirements for any computer system are the computer hardware and software. This course will focus on the PC hardware--the physical elements of the computer only used at EIA. In addition, the course will describe the software--the instructions that enable the computer to perform various functions at EIA. You will soon learn how to use the different types of software but first a discussion of the computer hardware is necessary.

Research Organization:
USDOE Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC. Office of ADP Services
OSTI ID:
6821242
Report Number(s):
DOE/EIA-0518; ON: DE88017135
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English