Basic computer organisation

A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to accept data (input), process it
and generate result (output). A computer along with additional hardware and software together is
called a computer system.

A computer system primarily comprises a central processing unit (CPU), memory, input/output
devices and storage devices. All these components function together as a single unit to deliver
the desired output. A computer system comes in various forms and sizes. It can vary from a high-
end server to personal desktop, laptop, tablet computer, or a smart phone.

Central Processing Unit (CPU):

It is the electronic circuitry of a computer that carries out the actual processing and usually
referred as the brain of the computer. It is commonly called processor also. Physically, a CPU
can be placed on one or more microchips called integrated circuits (IC). The ICs comprise
semiconductor materials.

Input Devices The devices through which control signals are sent to a computer are termed as
input devices. These devices convert the input data into a digital form that is acceptable by the
computer system. Some examples of input devices include keyboard, mouse, scanner, touch
screen, etc.,

Data entered through input device is temporarily stored in the main memory (also called RAM)
of the computer system. For permanent storage and future use, the data as well as instructions are
stored permanently in additional storage locations called secondary memory.

Output Devices The device that receives data from a computer system for display, physical
production, etc., is called output device. It converts digital information into human
understandable form. For example, mo nitor projector, headphone, speaker, printer, etc.
Control Unit is the part of the computer’s central processing unit (CPU), which directs the
operation of the processor. It is the responsibility of the Control Unit to tell the computer’s
memory, arithmetic/logic unit and input and output devices how to respond to the instructions
that have been sent to the processor. It fetches internal instructions of the programs from the
main memory to the processor instruction register, and based on this register contents, the control
unit generates a control signal that supervises the execution of these instructions.

Functions of the Control Unit –

1. It coordinates the sequence of data movements into, out of, and between a processor’s many
sub-units.
2. It interprets instructions.
3. It controls data flow inside the processor.
4. It receives external instructions or commands to which it converts to sequence of control
signals.
5. It controls many execution units(i.e. ALU, data buffers and registers) contained within a
CPU.
6. It also handles multiple tasks, such as fetching, decoding, execution handling and storing
results.
An arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a digital circuit used to perform arithmetic and logic
operations. It represents the fundamental building block of the central processing unit (CPU) of
a computer. Modern CPUs contain very powerful and complex ALUs. In addition to ALUs,
modern CPUs contain a control unit (CU).
Most of the operations of a CPU are performed by one or more ALUs, which load data from
input registers. A register is a small amount of storage available as part of a CPU. The control
unit tells the ALU what operation to perform on that data, and the ALU stores the result in an
output register. The control unit moves the data between these registers, the ALU, and memory.
Computer Memory
A memory is just like a human brain. It is used to store data and instructions. Computer memory
is the storage space in the computer, where data is to be processed and instructions required for
processing are stored. The memory is divided into large number of small parts called cells.
Memory is primarily of three types −
 Cache Memory
 Primary Memory/Main Memory
 Secondary Memory
Primary Memory (Main Memory)
Primary memory holds only those data and instructions on which the computer is currently
working. It has a limited capacity and data is lost when power is switched off. It is generally
made up of semiconductor device. These memories are not as fast as registers. The data and
instruction required to be processed resides in the main memory. It is divided into two
subcategories RAM and ROM.
RAM (Random Access Memory) is the internal memory of the CPU for storing data, program,
and program result. It is a read/write memory which stores data until the machine is working.
As soon as the machine is switched off, data is erased.
ROM stands for Read Only Memory. The memory from which we can only read but cannot
write on it. This type of memory is non-volatile. The information is stored permanently in such
memories during manufacture. A ROM stores such instructions that are required to start a
computer. This operation is referred to as bootstrap. ROM chips are not only used in the
computer but also in other electronic items like washing machine and microwave oven.
Characteristics of Main Memory
 These are semiconductor memories.
 It is known as the main memory.
 Usually volatile memory.
 Data is lost in case power is switched off.
 It is the working memory of the computer.
 Faster than secondary memories.
 A computer cannot run without the primary memory.
Secondary Memory
This type of memory is also known as external memory or non-volatile. It is slower than the
main memory. These are used for storing data/information permanently. CPU directly does not
access these memories, instead they are accessed via input-output routines. The contents of
secondary memories are first transferred to the main memory, and then the CPU can access it.
Secondary Memory:
A. Hard Disk (Local Disk)
B. Optical Disks: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW
C. Pen Drive
D. Floppy Disks
F. Memory Cards
G. External Hard Disk
H. Blu Ray Disk
Characteristics of Secondary Memory
 These are magnetic and optical memories.
 It is known as the backup memory.
 It is a non-volatile memory.
 Data is permanently stored even if power is switched off.
 It is used for storage of data in a computer.
 Computer may run without the secondary memory.
 Slower than primary memories.

Units of Memory:
The smallest unit is bit, which mean either 0 or 1.
1 bit = 0 or 1
1 Byte = 8 bit
1 Nibble = 4 bit
1 Kilo Byte = 1024 Byte= 210 Byte
1 Mega Byte = 1024 KB= 210 KB
1 Gega Byte = 1024 MB= 210 MB
1 Tera Byte = 1024 GB= 210 GB
1 Peta Byte =1024 TB= 210 TB
Software
Software, simply are the computer programs. The instructions given to the computer in the form
of a program is called Software. Software is the set of programs, which are used for different
purposes. All the programs used in computer to perform specific task is called Software.
 Types of software
1. System software:
System Software is the type of software which is the interface between application software and
system.
a) Operating System Software
DOS, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Unix/Linux, MAC/OS X etc.

b) Utility Software
programs that add functionality to your computer or help your computer perform better. These
include antivirus, backup, disk repair, file management, security, and networking programs.
Windows Explorer (File/Folder Management), Compression Tool, Anti-Virus Utilities, Disk
Defragmentation, Disk Clean, BackUp, WinZip, WinRAR etc.,

c) Language Processors
Software program designed or used to perform tasks such as processing program code to
machine code
Compiler, Interpreter and Assembler

2. Application software:
Application Software is the type of software which runs as per user request. It runs on the
platform which is provided by system software.

a) Package Software/General Purpose software

Ms. Office 2003, Ms. Office 2007, Macromedia (Dreamweaver, Flash, Freehand), Adobe
(PageMaker, PhotoShop)

b) Tailored or Customized Software

School Management system, Inventory Management System, Payroll system, financial system
etc.
Operating system
Operating system is a platform between hardware and user which is responsible for the
management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of a computer. It
hosts the several applications that run on a computer and handles the operations of computer
hardware.
Functions of operating System:
• Processor Management • Memory Management
• File Management • Device Management
LANGUAGE PROCESSORS: Since a computer hardware is capable of understanding only
machine level instructions, So it is necessary to convert the HLL into Machine Level Language.
There are three Language processors:
A. Compiler: It is translator which coverts the HLL language into machine language in one go.
A Source program in High Level Language get converted into Object Program in Machine Level
Language.
B. Interpreter: It is a translator which converts the HLL language into machine language line
by line. It takes one statement of HLL and converts it into machine code which is immediately
executed. It eliminate the need of separate compilation/run. However, It is slow in processing as
compare to compiler.
C. Assembler: It translate the assembly language into machine code.
Registers: A register is a very small amount of very fast memory that is built into the CPU
(central processing unit) in order to speed up its operations by providing quick access to
commonly used values. All data must be represented in a register before it can be processed. For
example, if two numbers are to be multiplied, both numbers must be in registers, and the result
is also placed in a register.
Bus:
A collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another.
It connects all the internal computer components to the CPU and main memory. All buses
consist of two parts — an address bus and a data bus. The data bus transfers actual data whereas
the address bus transfers information about where the data should go. The control bus is used by
the CPU to direct and monitor the actions of the other functional areas of the computer.
Encoding Schemes
The mechanism of converting data into an equivalent cipher using specific code is called
encoding. Cipher means something converted to a coded form to hide/conceal it from others. It
is also called encryption (converted to cipher) and sent to the receiver who in turn can decrypt it
to get back the actual content.
1. American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
In the early 1960s, computers had no way of communicating with each other due to different
ways of representing keys of the keyboard. Hence, the need for a common standard was realized
to overcome this shortcoming. Thus, encoding scheme ASCII was developed for standardizing
the character representation. ASCII is still the most commonly used coding scheme. Initially
ASCII used 7 bits to represent characters. Recall that there are only 2 binary digits (0 or 1).
Therefore, total number of different characters on the English keyboard that can be encoded by
7-bit ASCII code is 27 = 128.
2. Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII)
In order to facilitate the use of Indian languages on computers, a common standard for coding
Indian scripts called ISCII was developed in India during mid 1980s. It is an 8-bit code
representation for Indian languages which means it can represent 28=256 characters. It retains all
128 ASCII codes and uses rest of the codes (128) for additional Indian language character set.
Additional codes have been assigned in the upper region (160–255) for the ‘aksharas’ of the
language.
3. UNICODE
There were many encoding schemes, for character sets of different languages. But they were not
able to communicate with each other, as each of them represented characters in their own ways.
Hence, text created using one encoding scheme was not recognized by another machine using
different encoding scheme. Therefore, a standard called UNICODE has been developed to
incorporate all the characters of every written language of the world. UNICODE provides a
unique number for every character, irrespective of device (server, desktop, mobile), operating
system (Linux, Windows, iOS) or software application (different browsers, text editors, etc.).
Commonly used UNICODE encodings are UTF-8, UTF-16 and UTF-32. It is a superset of
ASCII, and the values 0–128 have the same character as in ASCII.
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