COMPUTERS
1.1. BASIC FUNCTION OF
The basic function of computer can be extracted from the definition of the computer. AAcomputer
science definition would be as follows: acomputer is aprogrammable symbol-processing m
machine
that accepts input symbols, processes it according to a sequence of instructions called acomputer
symbols.
program, and produces the resulting output
comnputer:
From above definition we can say there are five basic function of the
1. Input: The Input is a process of entering data and instructions into a computer svster
2. Save:Saving data and instructions to make them available for processing when ther
required.
3. Execution: Performing arithmetic operationsor logical operations on data.
4. Output :Output is a process to produce the result or information.
5. Control:Controlling is the process of operationin apredefine sequence.
Save
Input
Execution
Output
Control
Fig. 1.1. Functions of Computer
The input symbols as well as the output symbols can represent numbers, characters, pictures,
sound,or other kinds of data such as chess pieces. The most striking property of the computer 1s
that it is programmable, making ita truly general purpose machine. The user can change the
program
end
or the input data according to specific requirements. Depending on the software run, the
user sees a different machine; the computer user's view thus depends on the program being
run on the computer at any given instant.
S m a lC
l oncept
Computer has five basic functions:
() Input, (i) Output, (iüi) Save, (iw) Execute, (u) Control.
1.2. COMPONENT OF COMPUTERS
All computer designs are based on the concept of Jhon von Neumann and at the most basic level,
acomputer is a device consisting of two basic components:
DOItWare 3
CPU
Money Input
Control unit Operating Machine
system
Output language
ALU
Assembly High level
language laguage
(a) Hardware
Fig. 1.2. (b) Software
Components of Computer (Hardware,
S m a l l
C o n c e p t
Software)
Computer consists two basic componentes.
() Hardware, (i) Software
1.2.1. Hardware
The physical components of the computer
system are known as hardware. The computer
system requires only a few of the physical hardware
computer system. The four major hardware blocks components that constitute a general-purpose
of a general purpose computer system are its
memory unit (MU), arithmetic and logic unit (ALU), inputloutput
(CU), where CUand ALU both combined form is CPUas unit (10U), and control unit
shown in figure1.2. Input/output (/O)
devices enter and produce (output) data
into and out of the memory unit. In Modem
Microphone Mouse
some systems, IO devices send and
receive data into and from the ALU
rather than the MU. Programs reside
Web cam
in the memory unit. The ALU Keyboard
processes the data taken from the Input-Output
memory unit (or the ALU) and stores Unit
the processed data back in the memory Scanner
unit (or the ALU). The control unit Printer
coordinates the activities of the other
three units. It retrieves instructions Console Monitor
from programs resident in the MU, Speaker
decodes these instructions, and directs
the ALUto perform corresponding Fig. 1.3. Input-Output device
processing steps. It also oversees I/O operations.
Some
well known input-output devices are shown inthe figure 1.3, where keyboard mouse
are the basic input device and monitor., printers are the basic output devices.
1.2.2. Software
The hardware components of a computer system are electronic devices in which the basic
unit of information is either a Oor a l, corresponding to two states of an electronic signal. For
nstance, in one of the popular hardware technologies a 0 is represented by 0V while a 1 is
represented by 5V. Programs and data must therefore be expressed using this binary alphabet
consisting of 0 and 1. Programs written using only these binary digits are machine language
programs. At this level of programming, operations such as ADD and SUBTRACT are each
represented by aunique pattern of Os and l8, and the computer hardware is designed to interpret
these sequences. Programming at this level is tedious since the programmer has to work with
sequences of Os and 1s and needs to have very detailed knowledge of the computer structure.
Small
Concept
Hardware is a term used for physical components of Computer System.
The tedium of machine language programming is partially alleviated by using symbols such
as ADD and SUBrather than patterns of Os and 1s for these operations. Programming at
the
symbolic level is called assembly language programming.
An assembly language programmer also is required to have a detailed knowledge of the machine
structure, because the operations permitted in the assembly language are primitive and the
instruction format and capabilities depend on the hardware organization of the machine. An
assembler program is used to translate assembly language programs into machine language.
Use of high-level programming languages such as FORTRAN, COB0L, C, and JAVA further
reduces the requirement of an intimate knowledge of the machine
is needed to translate a high-level language program into theorganization. Acompiler program
machine language. A separate
compiler is needed for each high level language used in programming the computer
that the assembler and the compiler are also programs written in one of system. Note
those languages and can
translate an assembly or high-level language program, respectively, into the machine
language.
S m a l l C o n c e p t
Software is an interface between human and computer for operation.
Figure 1.4 shows the sequence of operations that occurs once a
program is developed. A
program written in either the assembly language or a high-level language is called
a source
program.An assembly language source program is translated by the assembler into the machine
language program. This machine language program is the object code. A compiler
converts a
high-level language source into object code. The object code ordinarily resides on an intermediate
device such as a magnetic disk or tape. Aloader program loads the object code
device into the memory unit. The data required by the program will be from the intermediate
either available in the
memory orsupplied by an input device during the execution of the program.
Theeffect of program execution is the production of processed data or results.
A desktop computer typically comes with pre-nstalled software. This software can be
Source program Source program
Assembly High-level
language language
program program
Assembler Complier
Machine language Object program
program
Loader
Machine language Load module
program in memory
Execution
Input
data
Results
Output
execution
translation and its
Program software to in
Fig. 1.4. application
software
enables the resources. Sy
external
ms and
