IT Fundamentals

Build the foundations.

The building blocks every other topic depends on: hardware, operating systems, servers, data and interfaces.

Hardware & ComputersOperating SystemsServers & StorageData & APIs

Concepts

5 diagrams in this area

Every concept opens with an interactive diagram.

A computer takes input, processes it with a CPU using memory, keeps results in storage and returns output.

An operating system sits between applications and hardware, sharing the machine safely between programs.

A server is a computer whose job is to answer requests from other computers, continuously.

A database stores structured data and answers queries reliably, even with many users writing at once.

An API is a documented contract that lets one piece of software ask another to do something.