Information processing cycle

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Information processing cycle

Information processing cycle is the procedure through which information is obtained. This procedure is carried out by the computer and its user. The procedure includes input, processing, storage and output.

Input

This is the stage where the computer is fed with data from its user by the use of input devices.Keyboard , mouse, scanner and digital camera are some of the most common input devices used during this stage of the cycle.

Processing

 After the unorganized facts(data) are been sent(input) into the computer’s system, the computer processes and organize them to make them meaningful. The organizing of data to make them meaningful is called processing and the well organized data become the information. This stage of the information processing cycle is carried out by the Central Processing Unit(CPU) of the computer. The processor is of two components; The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) which takes care of the arithmetic and logical processes whiles the control unit (CU) takes care of the input and output processes with instructions from the memory. 

Output

This is the step where the computer brings out information in the form of text(which is displayed by the monitor or printed out using the printer) or sound(by the speaker).

Storage

At this stage, the organized data(information) is kept for future use. It can be stored on the inbuilt/internal hard drive, external hard drive, pen drive, compact disk or micro SD card.

NB:

 sometimes the last two stages(i.e Output and Storage) are interchanged. This is because they occur simultaneously in some cases. For example, when you are typing with an updated word processing application(e.g MS Word), your document is been saved temporarily so that when your computer goes off suddenly you can retrieve your document.

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