Computer Programming Dilla University

Chapter I- Introduction to Computer Science and Its Application AY 2025

Definition of Computer Science and It’s Application
Computer is any electronic device that accepts, process, store and retrieve Hardware has four categories:
data for the user. That is, representation, storage, manipulation or processing 1. Processors (CPU)
and presentation of information. 2. Input devices
3. Output devices
What is Computer Science? 4. Storage devices
Computer science is the study of computers and computational systems. It is
a broad field which includes everything from the algorithms that make up I. CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU)
software to how software interacts with hardware to how well software is
developed and designed. It includes an entire range of subareas, like machine
learning, natural language processing, computing systems, networking, Secondary storage
operating systems, AI, and human factors.
Computer Scientists use various mathematical algorithms, coding Input Output
Devices Primary storage Devices
procedures, and their expert programming skills to study computer processes
and develop new software and systems.

The Computer System (Basic Computer Organization) Control Unit

The computer system refers to the computer itself and all the components Arithmetic Logic Unit
interconnected to it. Basically, the computer system is categorized into two
components.
1. Hardware – the physical architecture of the computer or the
physical devices that carry out the activities of capturing,
processing, storing and communicating to other computer. Indicate the flow of data & information
2. Software – the program or instructions that control the
system. Indicate the control exercised by control unit
At the center of computer hardware there is the CPU, sometimes called the
processor which executes program instructions and performs the computer
processing actions.
• It is part of computer hardware that executes program instructions.
• The CPU is like the human brain and it oversee and control all of the
activities of the computer.

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• The CPU manages and coordinates the entire computer including the
input and output units. Instructions are detailed description of the actions to be carried out during
• The CPU is the collection of electronic circuits made up of millions of input, processing, output, storage and transmission.
transistors placed into integrated circuits.
• Integrated circuits are also called chips or microchips 2. Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
• Each transistor is an electrical switch that can be in one of the two states:
“on” or “off”. • It is the other component of CPU which contains the electronic
• Small transistors allow more transistors to be packed in one single chip, circuitry that performs the two activities which is computing
thus eliminate the need for separate chips. capabilities such as Arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction,
division or multiplication) and Logical operations (comparison
CPU HAS TWO MAJOR COMPONENTS: between two elements either less than, greater than or equal to the
other).
1. Control Unit (CU) • Every CPU has built-in ability to execute a particular set of machine
• All computer activities are carried out to instructions the control instruction set or instruction set.
unit issue select and interprets program instructions and • Most CPU has 200 or more instruction (such as add, subtract,
supervises that they are executed. compare) in their instruction set.
• It has special purpose register and a decoder to perform these • As each processor has a unique instruction set machine language
activities. program written for one computer, it will generally not run on another
• Those special purpose register are instruction registers and the computer with a different CPU.
program control register which hold the current instruction and • CPU made by different manufacturer has different instructions set.
the address of next instructions to be executed, respectively. • When a new CPU is developed, it is ensured that its instruction set
• The decoder has the necessary circuitry to decode and interpret include all the instruction set of its predecessor CPU plus some new
the meaning of every instruction supported by the CPU. ones, thus manufacturing strategy is known as upward compatibility
• Each instruction is a companied by microcode – very basic and the new CPU is said to be upward comparable with its
directions, that tell the CPU how to do (execute) the instructions. predecessors.
• The control unit serves as the central nervous system, but it
doesn’t actually execute instruction or performs mathematical Registers
calculations. 1. Are high speed storage area used to temporarily hold small units of
• The control unit does not actually execute the instruction (just as program instructions and data immediately before, during and after
the brain does not do the walking or the talking) rather it instructs execution by the CPU.
or directs other processing elements to do so.

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2. As instruction are integrated and executed by the CPU, there is a
moment of integration between the various units of the computer Types of Execution of Instruction:
systems.
3. To handle this process properly and to facilitate the speed of At the machine level execution of instructions has two phases (the execution
information transfer, CPU uses special memory unit called registers. of an instruction by CPU, during program execution, normally involves the
4. Registers are used to hold information on temporary basis. following steps). Instruction phase (I-phase) and execution phase (E-phase)
5. It is part of the CPU (not part of the main memory) these two phases are further decomposed to four steps:
6. The length of a register equals the number of bits it can store. 1. Fetch instruction
7. Most CPU today have 32-bit or 64-bit registers. • The control unit takes the address of the next program instruction to
8. The size of the registers which is sometime called the word size or be executed from the program control register, and reads the
word length indicates the amount of data it stores. instruction from the corresponding memory address, into the
9. Other parameters being the same CPU with 32-bit processor can instruction register of the control unit.
process data twice as fast as one with 16-bit register. • The control unit then sends the operation part and the address part of
the instruction, into decoder and memory address register,
Types of Register: respectively.
1. Memory Address Register (MAR) – holds the address of the actual
memory location. 2. Decode instruction -
2. Memory Buffer Register (MBR) – holds the contents of the memory • The instruction is translated into individual commands so the central
word read form or written into memory. The contents of this register processor can understand what is to be done. Decoder interprets the
will later be transferred to instructions register as needed. instruction, and accordingly the control unit send signals into the
3. Program Control Register (PCR) – holds the address of the next appropriate unit.
instruction to be executed. • Relevant data is moved form memory to the Register storage.
4. Accumulate Register (AR) – holds the initial data ready for • These two steps in which instructions are obtained and translated are
operation, the intermediate results and the final results of processing called instruction cycle (I-cycle) and the time it takes to execute the
operations. It is used during the execution of most processing first two steps is referred to as I-time.
operations constructions.
5. Input/Output Register (I/O) – used to communicate with I/O
devices. All input information such as instruction and data are 3. Execute instruction
transferred to this register by input devices. • The ALU does what it is instructed to do by the control unit. This
could involve arithmetic operations or logical comparisons.

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4. Storage results II . INPUT DEVICES
• The results of the execution are stored in Registers or in the memory.
• As each instruction is executed, the address of the next instruction to Input devices accept user commands and send them to the computer for
be executed is automatically loaded into the program control register, processing. It converts from human readable in to computer can understand.
steps 1 to 4 are repeated. Typical input devices are Keyboards, Mouse, Scanners and Microphones,
o The last two steps that produce processing result are the Tracker Ball, Joystick, Light Pen, Digital Camera OMR (Optical Mark
execution cycle (E-cycle) and the time it takes to perform the Reader), Video Digitizer Barcode reader, etc.
last two steps is known as execution time (E-time).
o The four steps or the two cycles together are known as The most common input devices used by the computer are the keyboard and
machine cycle. the mouse. The keyboard allows the entry of textual information while the
o After a machine cycle is completed for one instruction it will mouse allows the selection of a point on the screen by moving a screen cursor
be repeated for the second instruction, etc…. to the point and pressing a mouse button.
▪ Some CPU can speed up processing by using
pipelining. Keyboard:- This is a flat board that contains a grid of buttons. Each button
▪ Pipelining is a process where the CPU gets one can be programmed to follow instructions. An overlay sheet is placed on the
instruction decodes another and executes the third at grid with an explanation for each button.
the same time.
Keyboards are designed for the input of text and characters and also to
Input/Output devices control the operation of a computer.

A computer system can be useful, only when it is able to communicate with Pressing a key on the keyboard generates a code that represents the character
its external environment (its user). Input/Output devices abbreviated as I/O associated with the key. The key press generated by the keyboard is
devices, provide the means of communication between the computer and converted to ASCII format then processed by the computer.
outer world.
The most popular keyboard used today is the101-keys called QWERTY
They are also known as peripheral devices. The speed of I/O devices is very keyboard
slow, because it depends on mechanical movement. I/O devices are the
devices that connect to your computer. The keys on the keyboard are often classified as follows.
• Typing Keys: these keys work just like a conventional typewriter.
These keys include English Alphabets A-Z, digits 0-9, the Enter
key, Space, the backspace key, the Shift key, the Caps Lock key,
etc.

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• Function Keys: these keys perform different tasks based on the Computer key boards differ in four important ways.
type of software being used. These keys are labeled as F1, F2, …,
a. Character- depends on the country in which the Key board is used.
and F12. E.g. in Japan symbolic.
• Numeric Keys: these keys let you enter numerical data more easily
when you are working on number intensive tasks. To use this b. Key arrangement.
section of the keyboard make sure that the Num lock key is on. • the arrangement of the keyboard's key may differ
• Navigation Keys: these are keys that are used to navigate through • The most common in English specking countries is the QWERTY
your document. The following are navigation keys. keyboard.
Page Up, Page Down, Home, End, ,,→,, etc. • The other type of key board layout is the Dvorak key board that uses
• Computer Keys: these are keys not found on typewriters. They an arrangement where by the most commonly used letters are placed
perform different tasks when used alone or in conjunction with in the most accessible places. The home keys are the five English
other keys. vowel letters A, O, E, U, I (for the left hand) & the five most often
Esc, Alt, Ctrl, Print Screen, Scroll lock, Pause, Insert, Delete used consonants (D, H, T, N, S) are the home keys for the right hand.

The following keys are very important: c. Special purpose keys

• The uses of the special function keys vary from program to program.
The SHIFT keys are used to type capital characters and special characters
labeled on the keys such as; ?, !, @, &, #, @, $, *, etc. d. Detachability – Most desktop computers have keyboards that can be
detached from the rest of the computer systems: while laptops have
Alt and Ctrl are modifier keys that are used in conjunction with other keys to built- in key board.
perform a function.
Mouse
The Print Screen key is used to print a paper copy of whatever is on the
screen when the key is pressed (if a printer is attached).
It is a small object that can be rolled along a rough flat surface. Its name
The Pause key temporarily suspends an activity. Pressing the pause key once
derived from its shape, which looks a bit a mouse; its connecting wire that
stops the activity, pressing any typing key (except Shift, Caps Lock) resumes
one can imagine to be the mouse’s tail.
the activity.
When a user rolls the mouse a cross a flat surface, such as on the top of the
The keyboard also has a status-indicator area. This area has three lights that
table on which the computer is placed, the graphics cursor moves on the
display the status (On or Off) of Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock.
screen of the video display terminal in the direction of the mouse’s
When one of these indicator lights is on, the corresponding mode is on.
movement.

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The graphics cursor, which is used to point and draw, is placed on the screen
as a variety of symbols, such as arrow, a wrist with a pointing finger, etc. Image Scanner is a device that analyzes an image (such as a photograph,
printed text, or handwriting) or converts it to a digital image or a device that
You can move the graphics cursor at a menu item or an icon by moving the can read text or pictures printed on paper and translate the information into a
mouse. Mouse can have as many as three buttons whose function depends on form the computer can use.
what program is running.
Text scanner change text into text while image scanner change text into
Mouse translates movements and button clicks into bits, which are sent into image.
the CPU.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) device
A cursor, a blinking line on the computer screen, indicates the point at which An image scanner has the following limitation for typed or handwritten.
data or information will be input. The following are some of the devices that 1. Input document has stored as an image instead of text because of
are commonly used to input data to the computer: stored as an image it requires high storage capacity
2. OCR, over come this limitation
Types of mouses; 3. It covert the bit map images of characters equivalent ASCII codes

1. Mechanical:- has a rubber or metal ball that could rotate in any Digital Camera is an electronic device used to capture(take pictures) and
direction and came as part of the hardware package store photographs electronically in a digital format that can be read by a
computer, instead of using photographic film like conventional cameras, or
Mechanical sensor within the mouse detects the direction the ball is rolling recording images in an analog format to magnetic tape like many video
and moves the screen pointer accordingly cameras.You can then transfer the images directly from your camera on to
your computer.
2. Optical mouse uses a light-emitting diode and photodiodes to detect
movement relative to the underlying surface, rather than moving some Microphone - A microphone is a device to input sound information and can
of its parts as in mechanical mouse. Optical mice have no rolling be used with a voice recognition system which processes the information
parts. i.e. used to record sound. The sound is then saved as a sound file on the
3. Opto-mechanical: the same as mechanical mouse, but uses optical computer.
sensors to detect motion of the ball.
Video Digitizer - this takes an image from a video camera or television and
Scanner: A scanner is a device that captures images from photographic converts it so that it can be used by, and stored on, a computer. Video
prints, posters, magazine pages and similar sources for computer editing and sequences captured using video digitizers are often used in multimedia
display. Scanners are of two type, text &image scanner. presentations.

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Common output formats are printed-paper saved disk file, sound, video and
Barcode Reader - Barcodes are different groups of vertical bars that can be on-screen documents. They are all of those things that let your computer 'talk'
read by a barcode reader. Barcodes are printed on nearly every product that back to you and present information.
you can buy. Shops use barcodes because they enable the shops to maintain
their stock control system. The barcode contains the product details such as The most common output device is a monitor which is usually a Cathode
product name, size, manufacturer, country of origin. The price is looked up Ray Tube device which can display text and graphics. If hard-copy output is
from the shop's database. When the bar code is scanned, the shop's stock is required then some form of printer is used.
automatically reduced by one
Monitors or Visual Display Units (VDUs): it displays information in soft
MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Reader) - magnetic ink characters are the copy.
strange looking numbers that appear at the bottom of cheques. Banks use
MICR to read the numbers from the bottom of cheques to obtain data such as It translates bits sent to it into shapes and colors you can see on the screen.
name, branch, account numbers and bank sort codes.
Visual Display Units (VDU) or monitors are used to visually interface with
OMR (Optical Mark Reader) - this read marks made by pencil on a printed the computer and are similar in appearance to a television. It takes more
form into the computer. OMR systems are suited to reading pre-printed forms power.
and check-boxes such as National Lottery number selection sheets and
multiple-choice exam papers Visual Display Units display images and text which are made up of small
blocks of colored light called pixels. The resolution of the screen improves as
III. OUTPUT DEVICES the number of pixels is increased. Most monitors have a 4:3 width to height
ratio.
Output devices accept results or data generated by the computer and present
this information to the user in a variety of different means (both audio and These are the most common monitor's device
visual). It displays in human readable form in soft copy or hard copy.
Desktop monitors which are also known as Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
1. Soft copy output:- it is electronic copy &Temporary in nature.
2. Hard copy output:- paper based & permanent in nature. Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) or flat panel which are also known as Thin
Film Transistors (TFT), used in portable computer like laptop
Typical output devices are printers, monitors and speakers, LCD projector.

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the printer ribbon imprints ink dots on the paper which form human-
readable characters. The standard of print obtained is poor
Characteristics of CRT monitors
Dot-matrix printers vary in print resolution and overall quality with either 9
1. Size 14, 17, 21…inch, cost depend on size of the monitor. or 24-pin print heads. The more pins per inch, the higher the print resolution.
2. Resolution: - it depends on the number of bit, number of pixels Most dot-matrix printers have a maximum resolution around 240 dpi (dots
(dpi). Pixel =picture element. per inch).The speed is usually 30 - 550 characters per second (cps) i.e. fast
3. Refresh rate: measured by hertz, from 60 to 75 hertz. printing speed.
4. Color: monochrome (white &black) and color: - Red, Green, Dot matrix printers are character printer, which print one character at a time.
Blue (RGB). They form character& all kinds of image as a pattern of dots

Printers 2. Daisy-wheel Printers

If you have ever seen or worked with a manual typewriter before, then you
You can print out information that is in the computer onto paper (hard copy). understand the technological concept behind daisy-wheel printers. These
There are different kinds of printers which vary in their speed and print printers have print heads composed of metallic or plastic wheels cut into
quality. The two main types of printer are impact and non-impact. petals. Each petal has the form of a letter (in capital and lower-case), number,
or punctuation mark on it. When the petal is struck against the printer ribbon,
Impact Printers use a print head containing a number of metal pins which the resulting shape forces ink onto the paper. Daisy-wheel printers are loud
strike an inked ribbon placed between the print head and the paper. and slow. They cannot print graphics, and cannot change fonts unless the
print wheel is physically replaced.
Some print heads have only 9 pins to make the dots to build up a character;
some have 24 pins which produce a better resolution. 3. Drum or Line Printers
Impact printers are the oldest print technologies still in active production. Another type of impact printer somewhat similar to the daisy-wheel is the
Impact printers are most functional in specialized environments where low- line printer. However, instead of a print wheel, line printers have a
cost printing is essential. The three most common forms of impact printers mechanism that allows multiple characters to be simultaneously printed on
are dot-matrix, daisy-wheel, and line printers. the same line. Dram printers are line printers, which print one line at a time
Line printers are much faster than dot-matrix or daisy-wheel printers;
1. Dot-matrix printers are not so common today. This is the cheapest and however, they tend to be quite loud, have limited multi-font capability, and
noisiest of the printer family, and are used when carbon copies or often produce lower print quality than more recent printing technologies.
duplicates need to be made, such as for wage slips. Also, they are useful
in dirty environments such as a garage because they are much sturdier
than the other two types of printer. The impact of the print head against

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Non-impact printers are much quieter than impact printers as their printing • LCD projectors: - use for presentation. present on white board or
heads do not strike the paper. white close
Several different technologies have been used to provide a variety of printers.

The main types of non-impact printer are:

1. Laser jet Printers use a laser beam and dry powdered ink to produce a
fine dot matrix pattern. This method of printing can generate about 4 pages of IV. STORAGE DEVICES
A4 paper per minute. Laser printers produce a very high quality output, are The storage unit is a part of the computer system which is employed to store
very quiet and very fast. Laser color printers are quite expensive to buy. the information and instructions to be processed.
Laser jet printer is a page printer which print one page at a time Two types of Storage:
1. Primary Storage
2. Ink-jet printers offer black and white or color printing with reduced 2. Secondary Storage
levels of quality and speed. Color ink jet printers are cheaper to buy than 1. Primary Storage
color laser printers. Inkjet printers use color cartridges which combine
magenta, yellow and cyan inks to create color tones. A black cartridge is also Primary storage (memory) holds the immediate instructions that are to be
used for crisp monochrome output. Inkjet are character printers, which form performed by the CPU. It is therefore very important that the primary storage
characters& all kinds of images by sparing small drops of ink on to the paper. can be accessed quickly so that the CPU is not waiting for the next set of
This method of printing can generate up to 200 cps and allows for good instructions.
quality, cheap color printing.
RAM
Plotters
RAM (Random Access memory) is a temporary storage device for the
A plotter can be used to produce high quality, accurate, A3 size or bigger current data and instructions that are required by the current program
drawings. They are usually used for Computer Aided Design (CAD) and being processed by the CPU and for storing the results. Therefore, RAM
Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM) applications such as printing out plans can both be written to and read from. It is called Random Access because
for houses or car parts. Plotters are ideal out put devices for architects, the time taken to access data within the RAM does not depend upon the
engineers, city planers, others who need to routinely generate high precision, location at which the data is stored. A typical RAM has an access time of
hard copy, graphic out put for widely varying sizes. 70 nsec that means that 14 million words of data can be accessed from the
Other devices RAM in one second. However, RAM is volatile, which means that any
data stored in it is lost when the computer is turned off or when there is a
• Speakers:- convert text information in to spoken sentience power failure. RAM comes in varying sizes, measured in megabytes
(MB). The more RAM you have, the faster your applications will run.

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not damage the disks. Data is transferred to or from the disk using read/write
SRAM (static RAM) and DRAM (dynamic RAM) heads close to the surface of each disk (top and bottom) that detect magnetic
variations on the disk surfaces as they rotate.
The operating system uses letters to identify the different types of secondary
Using slots attached to the motherboard it is possible to increase the amount
storage installed in the computer. The HDD is allocated the letter C and is
of RAM available to your computer system.
known as the root drive. It is possible to separate the HDD to include virtual
drives D, E etc according to the user wishes.
ROM
• HDD’s come with varying storage capacities, measured in gigabytes
ROM (Read Only Memory) can only be read from. One use of ROM is to
(GB).
store the start up instructions for the computer when it is turned on.
Whenever a computer is turned on it needs to follow a programmed sequence
Compact Disk Drive
of events such as checking that all the hardware is working and then loading
the files of the operating system into RAM (the operating system is stored on
Compact disk (CD) drives allow data to be read from compact disks. A CD is
the hard disk drive). This process is known as booting the system.
usually about 12 inches in diameter and data is transferred to or from a CD
• PROM-Programmable Read Only Memory
by using a laser. A typical CD has a storage capacity of 650 MB. There are 3
• EPROM-Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
types of compact disk
• EEPROM- Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
❖ CD-ROM - Compact Disk – Read Only Memory. They are mainly
used by manufacturers to distribute their software. Therefore,
2. Secondary Storage Microsoft Windows (operating system) and Office (applications) are
supplied to the user on CD-Rom with the programs then being
Secondary storage devices are a permanent storage area for your data. They installed onto the HDD of the computer.
allow a large amount of data to be stored, although the time taken to access it
is longer than that taken to access primary storage (although the time ❖ CD-R – Compact Disk Recordable. Allows the computer user to
difference is not usually noticeable) write data to a CD. Each area of the CD can only be written to once
and once data is written to the CD it cannot be removed. The CD can
Hard Disk Drive be written to as many times as the user likes until the CD is full.
Most computers have one hard disk drive (HDD) installed within the systems ❖ CD-RW – Compact Disk – Re-Writeable. Allows the user to perform
case. They are used to store the operating system, applications (Word, Excel, multiple read/write operations on the same CD until it is full. Data
Turbo C etc) and files written by the user. The HDD is usually a stack of can be later removed from the CD-RW and other data placed on it.
rigid magnetic disks contained within a sealed unit so that dust and dirt will

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Digital Versatile Disk Drive What is Software?

Digital video disk (DVD) drives look similar to a CD except that they can • A sequence of instructions, written language, which can be
store from 4.7 – 17 GB of data. A standard DVD can store over 2 hours of understood by a computer.
high quality video and CD quality audio. • A term refers to the set of computer programs procedures, and
associated documents, which describe the programs, and how they are
Miniature Mobile Storage Media - Handheld devices use to augment to be used.
internal storage.
Relationship between Software and Hardware:
CompactFlash 40 MB Cartridge
Digital cameras, notebook • Both hardware & software are necessary for a computer to do useful
computers job. Both are complementary to each other.
• The same hardware can be loaded with different software to make a
computer system perform different types of jobs.
Memory Stick 2 to 256 MB Memory Card • Except for upgrades, hardware is normally a one-time expense,
Digital cameras, handheld whereas software is a continuing expense.
computers, notebook
computers, printers, cellular
telephones
Major types of software:

Microdrive 1. Application software - allows end users to accomplish one or more

1 GB Memory Card
Digital cameras, handheld specific (non-computer related) tasks. Typical applications include
computers, music players, industrial automation, business software, educational software, medical
video cameras software, databases, and computer games. Businesses are probably the
biggest users of application software, but almost every field of human
activity now uses some form of application software.
SmartMedia 2 to 128 MB Memory Card
Digital cameras, handheld
computers, photo printers,
cellular telephones

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time management, resource management, documentation tools,
analytical, and collaborative. Word processors, spreadsheets, email
Some the most commonly known application software are: and blog clients, personal information system, and individual media
editors may aid in multiple information worker tasks.
1. Word-processing software- it enables us to make use of computer • Content access software is software used primarily to access content
system for creating, editing, viewing, formatting, storing, retrieving, without editing, but may include software that allows for content
and printing documents. editing. Such software addresses the needs of individuals and groups
2. Spread sheet software- it is a numerical data analysis tools which to consume digital entertainment and published digital content.
allows to create a kind of computerized ledger (Examples include Media Players, Web Browsers, Help browsers, and
3. Database software- it is a collection of related data stored and treated Games)
as a unit for information retrieval purpose. It is a set of one or more • Educational software is related to Media and Entertainment
programs, which enable us to create a database. Software, but has distinct requirements for delivering evaluations
4. Graphic software (tests) and tracking progress through material. It is also related to
5. Personal Assistance software collaboration software in that many Educational Software systems
6. Educational software include collaborative capabilities.
7. Entertainment software • Simulation software are computer software for simulation of physical
or abstract systems for either research, training or entertainment
There are many subtypes of application software: purposes.
• Media development software addresses the needs of individuals who
• Enterprise software addresses the needs of organization processes generate print and electronic media for others to consume, most often
and data flow, often in a large distributed environment. (Examples in a commercial or educational setting. This includes Graphic Art
include Financial, Customer Relationship Management, and Supply software, Desktop Publishing software, Multimedia Development
Chain Management). Note that Departmental Software is a sub-type software, HTML editors, Digital Animation editors, Digital Audio
of Enterprise Software with a focus on smaller organizations or and Video composition, and many others.
groups within a large organization. (Examples include Travel • Product engineering software is used in developing hardware and
Expense Management, and IT Helpdesk) software products. This includes computer aided design (CAD),
• Enterprise infrastructure software provides common capabilities computer aided engineering (CAE), computer language editing and
needed to support Enterprise Software systems. (Examples include compiling tools, Integrated Development Environments, and
Databases, Email servers, and Network and Security Management) Application Programmer Interfaces.
• Information worker software addresses the needs of individuals to
create and manage information, often for individual projects within a
department, in contrast to enterprise management. Examples include

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c. Generally, it is the operating system that loads the application
software themselves to the RAM. It helps to store and retrieve
2. System software - Is a set of one or more program, designed to control data from the storage media.
the operation and extend the processing capability of a computer system. d. The data might be processed by a given application software
1. Supports the development of other application program but the storing of it onto or the retrieving of it from the disc is
2. Support the execution of other application software. all carried out by the operating system.
3. Monitors the effective use of various hardware resources, such e. Operating system offers lots of services for the application
as CPU, memory, peripherals, etc. software and the user. From mobile phones and handheld
4. Communicates with and controls the operation of peripheral computers to the supercomputers almost all computers have an
devices, such as printer, disk, etc. operating system
f. Common contemporary operating systems include Microsoft
System software helps run the computer hardware and computer system. It Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris. Microsoft Windows
includes operating systems, device drivers, diagnostic tools, servers, is a widely used operating system in the microcomputer.
windowing systems, utilities, assemblers, compilers and interpreters, Linux is run on PC. Linux and UNIX are all free software. It is
also a multitasking as well as a multi-user operating system.
communications software, and more. The purpose of systems software is to
insulate the applications programmer as much as possible from the details of 2. Programming language software
the particular computer complex being used, especially memory and other
hardware features, and such as accessory devices as communications, Programming language software usually provides tools to assist a
printers, readers, displays, keyboards, etc. programmer in writing computer programs and software using different
programming languages in a more convenient way.
Types of System Software:
The tools include text editors, compilers, interpreters, linkers,
1. Operating system debuggers, and so on. An Integrated development environment (IDE) merges
a. Operating system is the most important component of the those tools into a software bundle, and a programmer may not need to type
computer’s software system that manages and coordinates the multiple commands for compiling, interpreter, debugging, tracing, and etc.,
overall operations of the computer. because the IDE usually has an advanced graphical user interface, or GUI.
b. Operating system acts as a host for application software. By
handling the details of the computer’s hardware operations, it Types of Programming language:
eases the burden of the application software.
➢ Machine language- There is the only language that the computer
understands. A machine language is a set of machine instructions

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Chapter I- Introduction to Computer Science and Its Application AY 2025
which consists of zeros and ones. A machine instruction contains two
parts an operation code (op code) and an address. The OP code tells Ex:- Fortran, COBL, ALGOG 80, Basic, Scientific & engineering
the microprocessor system what operation it should perform, add, applications.
transfer, compare, or move data to output device, etc. The address ❖ Fortran - Formula in Business data processing application
identifies the location (memory, register) holding the required ❖ COBL -Common business Oriented Language
operands that is, the data to be operated upon. The address part may ❖ ALGOL 80 - (Algorithmic Oriented Language)
contain one, two or more addresses that is, there may be one (or ❖ BASIC - ( Beginners All-purpose symbolic Instruction code)
single address, two (double) address, and three (or triple) address simplest language developed for solving numerical problem
instructions. ❖ Pascal, L, Ada, and Modula-2 - Used in teaching programming
language.
➢ Low-level Languages - In machine language we have seen that the There are also other languages which are still simplest and easier then high-
OP code and the address are represented as a binary sequence but it is level languages which we called then fourth generation languages. These
difficult for the programmer to write a big program using binary languages are application oriented languages. Ex: Visual basic,
sequence and it is difficult to debug an error from such program so
instead of representing the OP code and the adders as a binary Translation and Execution
sequence we can represent them in mnemonics (terms). A low-level
language is a programming language which uses mnemonics to write The only language that the computer understands is the machine language.
in program Low-level languages are machine dependent. Therefore any program that is written in either low-level or high level
language must be translated to machine code so that the computer could
Ex: Assembly language process it.
A program written in high-level or low-level language is called source code
➢ High-level language - We have seen that writing a program in low- program and, the translated machine code is called the object code program.
level languages is easier and simple compare to machine languages. Programs that translate a program written in high level language and low-
But still low-level languages have their own draw bakes that is they level language to machine code program are called translators.
are machine dependent. So we need another type of languages which
are not machine dependent and more flexible there languages are The translators not only translate the instructions into machine code but also
called high-level languages third generation languages. it detects whether the program fulfills the syntax of the programming
language. A program passes through different stages before it carries out its
Advantages of high-level languages: function. First the program will be translate to object code (compilation
❖ Easier to learn and understand (Look like English) time), then it will be loaded to the memory and finally it will be executed
❖ Require less time to write and easier to debugged errors. (run time) or carries out its function.
❖ Can be used on different machines with little modifications.

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Language Translation and Utility Software
• Source code: high-level language instructions
• Compiler: translates high-level code into machine language
• Object code: translated instructions ready for computer
• For every modern language, there is a program that takes the source 3. Communication software – enables transfer of data and programs from
code and produces object code in machine language one computer system to another.
• There are three types of translators; assembler, interpreter, and
4. Utility program – which help users in system maintenance tasks and in
compiler.
performing tasks of routine nature.
a. Formatting hard disks
Compiler - A set of programs that translate the source code of higher-level b. Taking back-up of files stored or hard disk
software languages into machine language, or object code c. Sorting of the records stored in a file in a particular order.
• Translates source code once and produces a complete machine d. Common examples are Disc defragmenter, Disc checker, Disc
language program cleaner, etc.
• Advantages - fast
• Disadvantages - harder to write and debug
• Examples - Pascal, C, FORTRAN, and open script

Assembler - An assembler is a software tool for translating assembly

language into machine language

Interpreter - An interpreter translates source code instructions, one

instruction at a time, from a higher level language such as BASIC into
machine language
• The interpreter
• Translates a line of source code into one or more lines of object code
and then instructs the computer to perform those instructions until
another line has to be translated
• Advantages - fairly easy to write, and easy to debug
• Disadvantage - SLOW
• Examples - basic, lisp

Source Assembler Object

program Or compiler program
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