Inside the Box: Input, Processing, Storage and Output
Every computer, from a phone to the controller in a washing machine, does the same four jobs: take data in, work on it, keep it, and send results out. Naming which part does which job explains what any device is.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Sort the parts of a named device into input, processing, storage and output
- Trace one piece of data through all four, for a task such as taking a photo and saving it
- Say why memory and storage are not the same job, using a case where the power is lost
1 · Read
Every computer does the same four jobs. It takes data in, works on it, keeps it, and sends results out. Your phone and the controller in a washing machine both do all four.
Follow one photo through a phone. The camera takes the picture in, the chip processes the pixels, memory holds them while you edit, storage keeps them after you close the app, and the screen sends the finished photo out to your eyes.
Memory and storage are not the same job. Memory is a workbench that forgets everything when the power dies. Storage is a cupboard that keeps your files until you delete them.
To sort any part, ask which job it does. A keyboard takes in, a chip processes, a drive keeps, and a speaker sends out. If power loss would erase it, you are looking at memory, not storage.
Input takes in, processing works on, storage keeps, and output sends out, while memory forgets without power.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.