COMPUTER SYSTEM
Introduction to Computer System
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to accept data (input), process it and generate
result (output).
The block diagram of the computer system
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.
The CPU has two main components — Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) and Control Unit (CU).
ALU performs all the arithmetic and logic operations.
CU controls sequential instruction execution, computer’s memory, ALU and input or output devices.
CPU is also popularly known as microprocessor.
Input Devices
The devices through which data are sent to a computer are termed as input devices.
Ex: keyboard, mouse, joystick, light pen, scanner, mike, webcam etc.
Output Devices
The device through which processed data is received from a computer system for display, physical
production, etc., is called output device.
Ex: monitor, projector, headphone, speaker, printer, etc.
Evolution of Computer
1. Abacus(500BC): It was a mechanical device capable of doing simple arithmetic calculations only almost
3000 years ago..
2. Pascaline(1642): Blaize Pascal invented a mechanical calculator known as Pascal calculator or Pascaline
to do addition and subtraction of two numbers directly and multiplication and division through repeated
addition and subtraction.
3.Analytic Engine (1834): Charles Babbage invented analytical engine, a mechanical computing device for
inputting, processing, storing and displaying the output, which is considered to form the basis of modern
computers.
4. Tabulating machine(1890): Herman Hollerith designed a tabulating machine for summarising the data
stored on the punched card. It is considered to be the first step towards programming.
5.Turing Machine(1937): The Turing machine concept was a general purpose programmable machine that
was capable of solving any problem by executing the program stored on the punched cards.
6.EDVAC/ENIAC(1945): John Von Neumann introduced the concept of stored program computer which
was capable of storing data as well as program in the memory. The EDVAC and then the ENIAC computers
were developed based on this concept.
7.Transisitors(1947): Vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors developed at Bell Labs, using
semiconductor materials.
8.Integrated Circuit(1970): An Integrated Circuit (IC) is a silicon chip which contains entire electronic
circuit on a very small area. The size of computer drastically reduced
because of ICs.
Von Neumann Architecture:
Computer Memory
Units of memory: The binary digits 0 and 1, which are the basic units of memory, are called bits.
A 4-bit word is called a Nibble. Examples of nibble are 1001, 1010, 0010, etc. A two nibble word, i.e., 8-bit
word is called a byte, for example, 01000110, 01111100, 10000001, etc.
Types of Memory:
Computers have two types of memory — primary and secondary.
Primary memory is the memory where Program and data are loaded into it before processing.
The CPU interacts directly with primary memory.
It is of two types RAM and ROM
RAM (Random access memory): It is volatile memory( temporary) . as long as the power is supplied
to the computer, it retains the data in it.
ROM(Read Only Memory): ROM is non-volatile, which means its contents are not lost even when the
power is turned off.
Cache Memory: To speed up the operations of the CPU, a very high speed memory is placed between
the CPU and the primary memory known as cache. There are two types cache L1 and L2 cache
Secondary Memory: computer system needs auxiliary or secondary memory to permanently store the data
or instructions for future use.
The secondary memory is non-volatile and has larger storage capacity than primary memory.
It is not directly accessed by the processed.
Examples of secondary memory devices include Hard Disk Drive (HDD), CD/ DVD, Memory Card, etc.
PRIMARY MEMORY SECONDARY MEMORY
It is volatile memory It is non-volatile memory
It is faster and expensive compared to secondary It is slower and less expensive compared to primary
memory memory
It is directly accessed by the processor It is not directly accessed by the processor
It can store small amount of data It can store large amount of data
Ex: RAM, ROM, cache Ex: HDD,SDD,pendrive
Data Transfer between Memory and CPU
Data are transferred between different components of a computer system using physical wires called bus.
Bus is of three types:
(i) Data bus to transfer data between different components.
(ii) Address bus to transfer addresses between CPU and main memory.
(iii)Control bus to communicate control signals between different components of a computer.
Microprocessors: A processor (CPU) which is implemented on a single microchip is called
microprocessor.
Microprocessor is a small-sized electronic component inside a computer that carries out various tasks
involved in data processing as well as arithmetic and logical operations.
Microprocessor Specifications(features).
(A) Word Size
Word size is the maximum number of bits that a microprocessor can process at a time.
(B) Memory Size
Depending upon the word size, the size of RAM varies. Initially, RAM was very small (4MB) due to 4/8 bits
word size. As word size increased to 64 bits, it has become feasible to use RAM of size upto 16 Exabytes
(EB).
(C) Clock Speed
The clock speed means the speed(pulse) at which the computer can execute instructions. It is measured in
Gigahertz (GHz).
(D) Cores
Core is a basic computation unit of the CPU. CPU with two, four, and eight cores is called dual-core, quad-
core and octa-core processor, respectively.
Microcontrollers
The microcontroller is a small computing device which has a CPU, a fixed amount of RAM, ROM and other
peripherals all embedded on a single chip.
Data and Information
Data is raw facts, figures, pictures, songs, videos and statistics, etc.
Information is the processed data with definite meaning.
There are three types of data.
(A) Structured Data
Data which follows a strict record structure and is easy to comprehend is called structured data.
It is clear that such data is organized in row/column format and is easily understandable.
example: sales transactions, online railway ticket bookings, ATM transactions, etc.
(B) Unstructured Data
Data which are not organized in a pre-defined record format is called unstructured data.
Example: audio and video files, graphics, text documents, social media posts, satellite images, etc.
Structured data Unstructured data
Data stores in a fixed field within a record or a file Data does not store in traditional database
Easy to enter, store and analyze Difficult and expensive to analyse
Ex: Statement of marks Ex: Social media post, satellite images
(C) Semi-structured Data
Data which have no well-defined structure but maintains internal tags or markings to separate data
elements are called semi-structured data.
Example: email document, HTML page, comma separated values (csv file), etc.
Data Capturing, Storage and Retrieval
(A) Data Capturing
It involves the process of gathering data from different sources in the digital form.
Ex: keyboard, barcode readers, comments or posts over social media, remote sensors on an earth
orbiting satellite.
(B) Data Storage
It is the process of storing the captured data for processing later.
(C) Data Retrieval
It involves fetching data from the storage devices, for its processing as per the user requirement.
Data Deletion and Recovery
Deletion means the storage devices can malfunction or crash down resulting in the deletion of data stored.
Data recovery is a process of retrieving deleted, corrupted and lost data from secondary storage devices.
Recovery of the data is possible only if the contents or memory space marked as deleted have not been
overwritten by some other data.
Software:
Software is set of instructions or programs that perform specific tasks.
EX: Ubuntu or Windows 7/10, word processing, tool like LibreOffice or Microsoft Word, video player like
VLC Player, photo editors like GIMP and LibreOffice draw.
Hardware refers to the physical components of the computer system which can be seen and touched.
Ex:RAM, keyboard, printer, monitor, CPU, etc.
Software is a set of instructions and data that makes hardware functional to complete the desired task.
The software can be broadly classified into three categories
(i) System software,
(ii) Programming tools
(iii) Application software.
System Software
The software that provides the basic functionality to operate a computer by interacting directly its hardware
is termed as system software.
Example: operating systems, system utilities, device drivers, etc.
(A) Operating System
the operating system is a system software that operates the computer.
Ex: widows 7, Windows XP, Linux.
(B) System Utilities
Software used for maintenance and configuration of the computer system is called system utility.
example: anti-virus software, disk cleaner tool, disk compression software, etc.
(C) Device Drivers
The purpose of a device driver is to ensure proper functioning of a particular device.
Ex: Printer driver software, Scanner driver software.
Programming Tools:
Programming languages are developed to write the instructions to get some desired outcome.
Two major categories of computer programming languages are
1. low-level languages
2. high-level languages.
1. Low level language are machine dependent languages , which include machine language and assembly
language. Machine language uses 1s and 0s to write instructions which are directly understood and executed
by the computer.
Assembly language uses English-like words and symbols instead of 1s and 0s.
2. High level languages are machine independent and are simpler to write code.
Ex: C++, Java, Python, etc.
(B) Language Translators:
As the computer can understand only machine language, a translator is needed to convert program written in
assembly or high level language to machine language.
The program code written in assembly or high-level language is called source code.
The source code is converted by a translator into the machine understandable form called object (machine)
code.
Languages translators are the system software which converts source code to machine code. The three types
of translators used in computing systems are
a. Assembler
b. Compiler
c. Interpreter.
The translator used to convert the code written in assembly language to machine language is called
assembler.
Compiler converts the source code into machine code at one go complete source code.
An interpreter translates one line at a time instead of the whole program at one go.
Compiler Interpreter
Compiler is at one go processing Interpreter is line by line
Needs more memory space for translation Needs less memory space for translation
Source code is not required for execution Source code is required for execution
Debugging is difficult and requires more time Debugging is easy and requires less time
(C) Program Development Tools
An editor is a software that allows us to create a text file where we type instructions and store the file as
the source code.
Integrated Development Environment (IDE) consisting of text editor, building tools and debugger.
Ex: phython IDLE, Netbeans,Eclipse,Atom,Lazarus.
Debugger is the software to detect and correct errors in the source code.
Application Software
Application software is software which is designed for different purposes depending upon user’s
requirements.
categories of application software —
1. General purpose
2. Customized application software.
(A) General Purpose Software
The application software developed for generic applications, to cater to a bigger audience in general are
called general purpose software.
Ex: Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, Mozilla web browser, iTunes, etc.,
(B) Customized Software
These are custom or tailor-made application software, that are developed to meet the requirements of a
specific organization or an individual.
Proprietary or Free and Open Source Software
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS): Some application software provide their source code as well as
the software freely to the public, Such software is known as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
Ex: Python, Libreoffice, Openoffice, Mozilla Firefox, etc.
Freeware: is the software which is freely available for use but source code may not be available.
EX: Skype, Adobe Reader, etc.
Proprietary software: is purchased from the vendor who has the copyright of the software.
Ex: Microsoft Windows, MS office Tally, Quickheal, etc.
Operating System(O.S)
An Operating System is a software that manages and handles the hardware and software resources of
a computer system.
Operating system provides an interface to the user through which the user can interact with the computer.
Operating System User Interface
(A) Command-based Interface
Command-based interface requires a user to enter the commands to perform different tasks.
(B) Graphical User Interface
Graphical User Interface (GUI) lets users run programs or give instructions to the computer in the form of
icons, menus and other visual options.
(C) Touch-based Interface
Today smartphones, tablets and PCs allow users to interact with the system simply using the touch input
using the touchscreen.
(D) Voice-based Interface
Using this interface users can use voice-based commands to make a computer work in the desired way who
cannot use keyboard, mouse etc.
Ex: OS which works with voice based include iOS (Siri), Android (Google Now or “OK Google”),
Microsoft Windows 10 (Cortana).
(E) Gesture-based Interface
Some smartphones based on Android and iOS as well as laptops let users interact with the devices using
gestures like waving, tilting, eye motion and shaking.
Functions of Operating System
(A) Process Management
process management concerns the management of multiple processes, allocation of required resources, and
exchange of information among processes.
(B) Memory Management
The main task of memory management is to give (allocate) and take (free) memory from running processes.
(C) File Management
File management involves the creation, updation, deletion and protection of these files in the secondary
memory.
(D) Device Management
A computer system has many I/O devices and hardware connected to it. Operating system manages these
heterogeneous devices that are interdependent.
