Computer Fundamentals

Er. Devendra K L Karna

Assistant Professor
Mid-western University
 Introduction
• Today’s world is an information-rich world and it has
become a necessity for everyone to know about
computers.
• A computer is an electronic data processing device,
which accepts and stores data input, processes the
data input, and generates the output in a required
format.
• Computer is an Electronic Device. It is use to calculate
and manipulate data. If we give any instruction to the
computer it gives us output(Result).
 Full form of Computer
• C- Commonly
• O- Operating
• M- Machine
• P- Particularly
• U- Used for
• T- Technical
• E- Education
• R- Research
 What is Computer?
• The word computer comes from the word
”compute”, which means “to calculate”.
• Thereby, A computer is an electronic device
that can perform Arithmetic operations as well
as logical operations at high speed.
• A computer is also called a data processor
because it can store, process and retrieve data
whenever desired.
 Father of Computer
• Charles Babbage, British Mathematics
professor regarded as the Father of Computers.
• He was born in England in 1792 as the son of a
rich banker.
• He began to design a "difference engine" in
1821
• It was very complicated machine for doing
calculations automatically.
• He began design of another machine "the
analytical machine", which could carry out
many different types of calculations
• His machine was too ahead of the time of
development.
• Lack of better technology Babbage could not
complete their work and passed away in 1871
before he had completed his work.
 Computer Generations
• Refers to the state of improvement in the development of
a product.
• In computer science, this term is used in the different
advancements of computer technology.
• With each new generation, the circuitry has gotten smaller
and more advanced than each previous generation.
• Each generation of computer is characterized by a major
technological development that fundamentally changed
the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly
smaller, cheaper, and more powerful, and more efficient
and reliable devices.
 Contd..
• First Generation (1945-1954)
• Second Generation (1955-1964)
• Third Generation (1965-1980)
• Fourth Generation (1981 – Present)
• Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond)
 First Generation
• vacuum tubes used for circuitry and magnetic drums for
memory.
• enormous in size taking up entire rooms.
• magnetic drum is a metal cylinder coated with magnetic iron-
oxide material on which data and programs can be stored.
• very expensive to operate, taking great deal of electricity and
produce excessive amount of heat.
• relies on machine language to perform operation.
• every CPU has its own machine language.
• example: ENIAC(Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer),
UNIVAC(Universal Automatic Computer), IBM 701, IBM 704, IBM
709
 Second Generation
• Vacuum tubes are replaced by transistors.
• Transistor amplifies a signal or opens or closes a circuit.
• transistor was superior to vacuum tube, allowing computers to
become smaller, faster, cheaper and more energy efficient.
• though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected
the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum
tube.
• moved to assembly language.
• early version of COBOL (Common Business oriented language) and
FOTRAN(Formula Translation) high level language is evolved.
• instructions are stored in memory, made up of magnetic core
technology.
• eg. IBM 1620, IBM 7090 etc
 Third Generation
• hallmark of this generation is integrated circuit (IC).
• transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips,
called semiconductors, which drastically increased the
speed and efficiency of computers.
• keyboards and monitors are evolved instead of punched
cards and printouts.
• run many different applications at one time with a central
program that monitored the memory.
• computers for the first time became accessible to a mass
audience.
• smaller and cheaper
 Fourth Generation
• microprocessor brought the fourth generation
of computers, as thousands of integrated
circuits were built onto a single silicon chip.
• microprocessors control the logic of almost all
digital devices.
• 32-bit and 64-bit microprocessors are available
today.
• high level programming language
• pentium II,III,IV etc.
 Fifth Generation
• based on artificial intelligence
• still in development
• some applications are used as pattern recognition,
voice recognition.
• artificial intelligence include:
– games playing
– expert system
– natural language
– robotics
• IBM super computer (Deep Blue)
 Functions of Computer
• If we look at it in a very broad sense, any digital
computer carries out the following five functions:
– Step 1 - Takes data as input.
– Step 2 - Stores the data/instructions in its memory
and uses them as required.
– Step 3 - Processes the data and converts it into useful
information.
– Step 4 - Generates the output.
– Step 5 - Controls all the above four steps Input
Process Output Computer
Computer System and Organization
• divided into two field: hardware and software.
• Hardware: mechanical or the physical parts of
computer like CPU, monitor, Keyboard etc.
• Software: is a program which makes the
computer work and function.
• The parts in human body can be compared with
computer hardware and soul of the human
body can be compared with computer
software.
 Computer Hardware
• hardwares are physical parts and they can be
touched and seen.
Block Diagram of Computer
 Input Devices
• electronic and electronic-mechanical equipment
through which data and instructions are entered into
a computer.
• several types of input devices such as keyboard,
joystick, mouse, game pad, scanner.
• keyboard is the most popular input device which has
a collection of keys and we enter data and
instruction from it.
• keyboard is also known as standard input device.
• Assignments: Different input devices
 Memory
• storage area needed to store data and
instructions.
• memory stores information in a group of
memory cells, also known as memory locations.
• each memory location has a unique address and
can be addressed independently.
• CPU accesses the contents of the desired
memory locations by referring to the address of
the address of the memory location.
 Primary Memory
• also known as main memory.
• stores data and programs while the program is being
executed.
• primary memory forms the working area of the program,
where the results generated are normally stored during the
time of run.
• after program execution, the same memory space is used to
accommodate another program with its set of data.
• RAM(Random Access Memory) is an example of primary
memory.
• more expensive than secondary memory
• little physical space, consume very low power
• volatile in nature.
 Secondary Memory
• stores data and programs for long period of
time.
• large, non-volatile and cheap storage for
programs and data.
• common example: hard drive, hard disk, floppy
disk
• computer games, songs, documents and other
programs kept in a computer are actually
stored in secondary memory devices.
 Units of Memory
• bit: It can store either 1 or 0
• nibble: 4 bit
• byte: 8 bit or 2 nibble ( it represents one
addressable storage location in memory.)
• KB (Kilo Bytes):1024 bytes
• MB (Mega Bytes): 1024 KB
• GB (Giga Bytes): 1024 MB
• TB (Tera Bytes):1024 GB
 Central Processing Unit
• brain of computer system
• computer does its primary work in a control center
that converts data input to information output, this
control center is called central processing unit
(CPU).
• CPU is a highly complex, extensive set of electronic
circuitry that executes stored program instructions.
• CPU is consists of two parts:
– control Unit (CU)
– arithmetic and logic unit (ALU)
 Control Unit
• CU contains circuitry that uses electrical signals
to direct the entire computer system to carry
out, or execute, stored program instructions.
• control unit does not execute program
instructions rather it directs other parts of the
system to do so.
• communicate with both ALU and memory.
• controls entire operation of a computer.
 Arithmetic and Logic Unit
• contains the electronic circuitry that executes all arithmetic
and logical operations.
• perform four types of arithmetic operations:
– addition, subtraction , multiplication, division
• performs logical operation i.e. comparison
• can compare numbers, letters, or special characters.
• logical operation can test for three conditions
– equal to condition
– less than condition
– greater than condition
• computer can take action based on the result of comparison.
 Output Devices
• devices from which we get our result, are
known as output devices.
• output devices display or print the output
results of the operation on the input data.
• two types of output
– soft copy (given by monitor)
– hard copy (given by printer)
• Assignments: different types of printers
 Computer Software
• software is a computer program which is a sequence
of instructions designed to direct a computer to
perform certain functions.
• enables a computer a computer to receive input,
store information, make decisions, manipulate, and
output data in the correct order and format.
• computer is a hardware devices that is operated by
software.
• a program consists of “instructions” that tell the
computer what to do, how to behave.
 System Software
• software which is most essential for computer operation
and directs the inter-operations of computer are called
system software.
• system software refers to the files and programs that make
up computer’s operating system.
• system files include libraries of functions, system services,
utility programs, drivers for hardware, system preferences
and other configuration files.
• the programs that are part of the system software include
assemblers, compilers, file management tools, system
utilities, and debuggers.
 Application Software
• the types of software which is used for user’s
specific application are called application
software.
• it consists of a number of programs designed to
perform specific user application.
• thus, application software is used to perform
specific tasks.
• Example: Microsoft package, Corel draw,
chrome, Photoshop etc.
 Computer Program and Programming
language
• computer program is a set of instructions that,
when executed, causes the computer to behave
in predetermined manner.
• without programs, computers are useless and
can do nothing.
• the languages which are used to instruct the
computer to do certain jobs are called
computer programming language.
• examples: C, C++, Pascal, COBOL etc.
 Types of programming Language
• programming language
– low-level
• machine level
• assembly level
– high-level
• low-level language is a programming language in
which each statement or instructions is directly
translated into a single machine code.
• it is machine dependent i.e. a particular low-level
language works only for a certain machine.
 Machine-level Language
• actually computer understands this language.
• the least possible level at which we can program a
computer is in its own native machine code,
consisting of strings of 1’s and 0’s and are stored as
binary numbers.
• Thus, machine language is a sequence of instructions
written in the form of binary numbers consisting of
1’s and 0’s to which computer responds directly.
• 10111001
• does not need any translation
 Assembly Language
• assembly language is a symbolic representation (called
mnemonics) of machine code.
• They are close to machine code but the computer cannot
understand them.
• The assembly-language program must be translated into
machine code by a separate program called an assembler.
• The assembler recognizes the character strings that make
up the symbolic names of the various machine operations,
and substitutes the required machine code for each
instruction.
• example: ADD,SUB,INR,DCR,CMP etc.
 High Level Language
• more user friendly, to some extent platform
independent.
• similar to natural language(like English) and so are
easy write and remember.
• they are easy to learn and work but while executing,
they have to be translated into assembly language
and then to machine language.
• So it is slow in execution but is efficient for
developing programs.
• Examples: C, C++, Java, VB etc.
 Compiler
• A high level source program must be translated first into a
form that machine can understand, which is done by a
software called compiler.
• The compiler takes the source code as input and produces
the machine language code (machine code) for the
machine on which it is executed as output.
• During the compilation, the compiler reads the source
programs statement-wise and check for the syntax errors.
• In case of any error, the compiler generates message about
error.
• Examples: C, C++, Java etc.
 Interpreter
• Like compiler, interpreter is also a translator which
translates high level language into a machine level
language.
• The difference between compiler and interpreter is their
working principle.
• The interpreter translates and executes the program line
by line.
• Each time the program is executed, every line is checked
for syntax error and the converted to the equivalent
machine code.
• Example: QBASIC,PHP,ASP etc.
 Difference
Compiler Interpreter
• Compiler scans the entire • Interpreter translates and
program before translating executes the program line
it into machine code. by line.
• Syntax errors are found only • Syntax errors can be
after the compilation of trapped after translation of
complete program. every line.
• It takes less execution time. • It takes more execution
time.
 Computer Network
• A network is two or more computers that are
connected so that data and resources can be
shared.
• Most computers are connected to some kind
of network.
• Connection can be through a copper wire,
fiber optics, microwaves, infrared or satellite.
Contd..
Categories of Network
 Local Area Network: LAN
• A Local Area Network (LAN) covers a small distance and a
small number of computers.
• A LAN often connects the machines in a single room or
building
• Data transferred in High speed which ranges from 100
Mbps to gigabit for system development and have a low
implementation cost.
• Upper limit: 10 km ; Lower limit: 1 km
• Twisted pair cable or Co-axial cable connects the plug in
cards to form a network.
 MAN
• The metropolitan area network (MAN) is designed to extend
over an entire city.
• It may be a single network such as cable television network
available in many cities.
• Range: Within 100 km (a city).
 WAN
• A Wide Area Network
(WAN) connects two or
more LANs, often over
long distance.
• A WAN often connects
different groups in
different countries.
• Range: Beyond 100 km.