Introduction to Computer System

Computer: A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to accept data

(input), process it and generate result (output).
Computer System:A computer along with additional hardware and software together is
called a computer system.
Block Diagram Of A Computer System

1) 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.
 Physically, a CPU can be placed on one or more microchips called integrated circuits (IC).
 The ICs comprise semiconductor materials.
 The CPU is given instructions and data through programs.
 The CPU then fetches the program and data from the memory and performs arithmetic and
logic operations as per the given instructions and stores the result back to memory.
 While processing, the CPU stores the data as well as instructions in its local memory called
registers.
 Other than the registers, the CPU has two main components
Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) and Control Unit (CU).
 ALU performs all the arithmetic and logic operations that need to be done as per the
instruction in a program.
 CU controls sequential instruction execution, interprets instructions and guides data flow
through the computer’s memory, ALU and input or output devices. CPU is also popularly
known as microprocessor.

2) 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.

3) 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, monitor, projector, headphone, speaker, printer, etc.
 A printer is the most commonly used device to get output in physical (hardcopy) form.
 Three types of commonly used printers are inkjet, laserjet and dot matrix.
 Now-a-days, there is a new type of printer called 3D-printer, which is used to build physical
replica of a digital 3D design.

Evolution of computer
➢ Abacus
 Approximately 4,000 years ago, the Chinese invented the Abacus.
 It was the first machine used for counting and calculating.
 It is made of a wooden frame, metal rods, and wooden beads Abacus was mainly used for
addition, subtraction and later for division and multiplication.
 Today, the abacus is still used widely in China and other Asian countries to count and
calculate, just as we use calculators.

➢ Napier’s bones
 In the early 17th century, John Napier, a Scottish mathematician, invented another calculating
tool.
 “Napier’s bones” was based upon manipulation of rods with printed digits.
 The rods were made of bone, ivory, wood or metal.
 The set consists of 10 rectangular blocks with multiples of a different digit on each of the
four sides.

➢ The slide Rule

 The slide Rule was invented by William Oughtred.
 It is based on the principle that actual distance from the starting point of the rule is directly
proportional to the logarithm of the numbers printed on the rule.
 The slide rule is emboided by the two sets of scales that are joined together, with a marginal
space between them.

➢ Adding Machine-Pascaline
 In 1642, at the age of 19, a French mathematician by the name of Biaise Pascal invented the
Pascaline.
 The Pascaline is known as the first mechanical and automatic calculator.
 The Pascaline was a wooden box that could only add and subtract by means of a series of
gears and wheels.
 It had a box with eight movable wheels called dials. When each wheel rotated one revolution,
it would then turn the neighbouring wheel.

➢ Leibniz Calculator
 Mathematician Gottfried Leibniz built a calculator in 1650 that could add, subtract, multiply
and divide the numbers.

➢ Jacquard loom
 In 1801, Joseph Mary Jacquard invented the Jacquard loom.
 A powered loom that used punched wooden cards to automatically weave incredibly detailed
patterns including pictures and text.
 This can be taken as the first “Read only Memory” device.

➢ Difference and Analytical Engine

 In the early 1820s, an English mathematician by the name Charles Babbage designed a
computing machine called the Difference Engine.
 This machine was to be used in the calculating and printing of simple math tables.
 In the 1830s, he designed a second computing machine called the Analytical Engine.
 This machine consisted five units, which became the basic principle for the development of
modern computer.
 Hence Charles Babbage is known as the "Father of Computers”.
 Lady Ada Lovelace in 1833 was a first computer programmer, who designed program for
Babbage’s Analytical Engine.
➢ 1890 AD – Hollerith Tabulating Machine
 In 1889, an American named Herman Hollerith invented a counting machine to count the
population of USA.
 This electronic machine is able to read the information on the punched cards and process it
electronically.
 Herman Hollerith was the founder of the company than became famous as IBM.

Von Neumann architecture

 It consists of a Central Processing Unit (CPU) for processing arithmetic and logical
instructions, a memory to store data and programs, input and output devices and
communication channels to send or receive the output data.
 Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) is the first binary programmable
computer based on Von Neumann architecture.
 During the 1970s, Large Scale Integration (LSI) of electronic circuits allowed integration of
complete CPU on a single chip, called microprocessor.
 In 1980s, the processing power of computers increased exponentially by integrating around 3
million components on a small-sized chip termed as Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI).
 Further advancement in technology has made it feasible to fabricate high density of
transistors and other components (approx 106 components) on a single IC called Super
Large-Scale Integration (SLSI).
 IBM introduced its first personal computer (PC) for the home user in 1981 and Apple
introduced Macintosh machines in 1984.
 Introduction of Graphical User Interface (GUI) based operating systems by Microsoft and
others in place of computers with only command line interface, like UNIX or DOS.
 Around 1990s, the growth of World Wide Web (WWW) further accelerated mass usage of
computers.
 With the introduction of laptops, personal computing was made portable.
 This was followed by smartphones, tablets and other personal digital assistants.
 The next wave of computing devices includes the wearable gadgets, such as smart watch,
lenses, headbands, headphones, etc.
 Further, smart appliances are becoming a part of the Internet of Things (IoT), by leveraging
the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Computer Memory
 A computer system needs memory to store the data and instructions for processing.
 The secondary memory (also called storage device) is used to store data, instructions and
results permanently for future use.

Units of Memory
 A computer system uses binary numbers to store and process data.
 The binary digits 0 and 1, which are the basic units of memory, are called bits. Further, these
bits are grouped together to form words.
 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.
(A) Primary Memory
Primary memory is an essential component of a computer system. Program and data are
loaded into the primary memory before processing.
The CPU interacts directly with the primary memory to perform read or write operation.
It is of two types viz.
(i) Random Access Memory (RAM) and
(ii) Read Only Memory (ROM).

(i) Random Access Memory (RAM)

 RAM is volatile, i.e., as long as the power is supplied to the computer, it retains the
data in it. But as soon as the power supply is turned off, all the contents of RAM are
wiped out.
 It is used to store data temporarily while the computer is working.
 Whenever the computer is started or a software application is launched, the required
program and data are loaded into RAM for processing.
 RAM is usually referred to as main memory and it is faster than the secondary
memory or storage devices.

(ii) Read Only Memory (ROM)

 ROM is non-volatile, which means its contents are not lost even when the power is
turned off.
 It is used as a small but faster permanent storage for the contents which are rarely
changed.
 For example, the startup program (boot loader) that loads the operating system into
primary memory, is stored in ROM.

(B) Cache Memory

 RAM is faster than secondary storage, but not as fast as a computer processor.
  So, because of RAM, a CPU may have to slow down. 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.
 It stores the copies of the data from frequently accessed primary memory locations,
thus, reducing the average time required to access data from primary memory.
 When the CPU needs some data, it first examines the cache. In case the requirement is
met, it is read from the cache, otherwise the primary memory is accessed.
(C) Secondary Memory
 Primary memory has limited storage capacity and is either volatile (RAM) or read-
only (ROM). Thus, a 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 slower and cheaper than the main memory. But, it cannot be accessed directly by
the CPU. Contents of secondary storage need to be first brought into the main
memory for the CPU to access.
 Examples of secondary memory devices include Hard Disk Drive (HDD), CD/ DVD,
Memory Card, etc.
 Secondary storage devices like SSD which support very fast data transfer speed as
compared to earlier HDDs.
 Also, data transfer between computers have become easier and simple due to the
availability of small-sized and portable flash or pen drives.

Data Transfer Between Memory And CPU

 Data need to be transferred between the CPU and primary memory as well as between
the primary and secondary memory.
 Data are transferred between different components of a computer system using
physical wires called bus.
 For example, bus is used for data transfer between a USB port and hard disk or
between a hard disk and main memory.

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. The
address of the memory location that the CPU wants to read or write from is
specified in the address bus.
(iii) Control bus to communicate control signals between different components of a
computer.

 All these three buses collectively make the system bus.

 As the CPU interacts directly with main memory, any data entered from input
device or the data to be accessed from hard disk needs to be placed in the main
memory for further processing.
 The data is then transferred between CPU and main memory using bus.
 The CPU places on the address bus, the address of the main memory location
from which it wants to read data or to write data.
 While executing the instructions, the CPU specifies the read or write control
signal through the control bus.
 As the CPU may require to read data from main memory or write data to main
memory, a data bus is bidirectional.
 But the control bus and address bus are unidirectional.
 To write data into memory, the CPU places the data on the data bus, which is
then written to the specific address provided through the address bus.
 In case of read operation, the CPU specifies the address, and the data is placed
on the data bus by a dedicated hardware, called memory controller.
 The memory controller manages the flow of data into and out of the
computer's main memory.

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.
 A microprocessor is built over an integrated circuit comprising millions of
small components like resistors, transistors and diodes.
 Microprocessors are capable of processing millions of instructions per
millisecond.

Microprocessor Specifications
Microprocessors are classified on the basis of different features which include chip type,
word size, memory size, clock speed, etc.
A)Word Size
 Word size is the maximum number of bits that a microprocessor can process at a time.
 At present, the minimum word size is 16 bits and maximum word size is 64 bits.
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
 Computers have an internal clock that generates pulses (signals) at regular intervals of
time. Clock speed simply means the number of pulses generated per second by the
clock inside a computer.
 The clock speed indicates the speed at which the computer can execute instructions.
 Earlier, it was measured in Hertz (Hz) and Kilohertz (kHz).
 But with advancement in technology and chip density, it is now measured in
Gigahertz (GHz), i.e., billions of pulses per second.
D)Cores
 Core is a basic computation unit of the CPU.
 Earlier processors had only one computation unit, thereby capable of performing only
one task at a time.
 With the advent of multicore processor, it has become possible for the computer to
execute multiple tasks, thereby increasing the system’s performance.
 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 as compared to microprocessor that
has only a CPU on the chip.
 Keyboard, mouse, washing machine, digital camera, pendrive, remote controller,
microwave are few examples of microcontrollers.
 As these are designed for specific tasks only, hence their size as well as cost is
reduced.
 Because of the very small size of the microcontroller, it is embedded in another
device or system to perform a specific functionality.
 For example, the microcontroller in a fully automatic washing machine is used to
control the washing cycle without any human intervention.
 The cycle starts with the filling of water, after which the clothes are soaked and
washed; thereafter the water is drained and the clothes are spin dry.
 The simple use of microcontroller has permitted repetitive execution of tedious tasks
automatically without any human intervention, thereby saving precious time.

Data And Information

 A computer is primarily for processing data.
 For example, pictures, songs, videos, documents, etc.
 Data can also be raw and unorganised facts that are processed to get meaningful
information.

Data and Its Types

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.
 Following table shows structured data related to monthly attendance of
students maintained by the school.

 It is clear that such data is organised in row/column format and is easily

understandable.
 Structured data may be sorted in ascending or descending order.
 Examples of structured data include sales transactions, online railway
ticket bookings, ATM transactions, etc.
(B) Unstructured Data
 Data that are not organized in a pre-defined record format is called
unstructured data.
 Examples include audio and video files, graphics, text documents, social
media posts, satellite images, etc.
 The following figure shows a report card with monthly attendance record
details sent to parents.
 Such data are unstructured as they consist of textual contents as well as
graphics, which do not follow a specific format.

(C) Semi-structured Data

 Data with no well-defined structure but maintain internal tags or markings
to separate data elements are called semi-structured data.
 Examples include email documents, HTML pages, comma-separated
values (csv file), etc.
 The following figure shows an example of semi-structured data containing
student’s month-wise attendance details.

 In this example, there is no specific format for each attendance record.

 Here, each data value is preceded by a tag (Name, Month, Class,
Attendance) to interpret the data value while processing.
 Data Capturing, Storage and Retrieval
 To process data, we need to first input or capture the data.
 This is followed by its storage in a file or a database so that it can be used
in the future.

(A) Data Capturing

 It involves the process of gathering data from different sources in the
digital form.
 This capturing may vary from simple instruments like keyboard,
barcode readers used at shopping outlets, comments or posts over
social media, remote sensors on an earth-orbiting satellite, etc.

(B) Data Storage

 It is the process of storing the captured data for processing later.
 Data is being produced at a very high rate, and therefore data storage
has become a challenging task.
 However, the decrease in the cost of digital storage devices has helped
in simplifying this task.
 Data keeps on increasing with time.
 Hence, the storage devices also require to be upgraded periodically.
 In large organisations, computers with larger and faster storage called
data servers are deployed to store vast amount of data.
 Such dedicated computers help in processing data efficiently.
 However, the cost (both hardware and software) of setting up a data
server as well as its maintenance is high, especially for small
organisations and startups.

(C) Data Retrieval

 It involves fetching data from the storage devices, for its processing as
per the user requirement.
 As databases grow, the challenges involved in search and retrieval of
the data in acceptable time, also increase.
 Minimising data access time is crucial for faster data processing.

Data Deletion and Recovery

 The storage devices can malfunction or crash down resulting in the deletion of data
stored. Users can accidentally erase data from storage devices, or a hacker or malware
can delete the digital data intentionally.
 Deleting digitally stored data means changing the details of data at bit level, which
can be very time consuming.
 Therefore, when any data is simply deleted, its address entry is marked as free, and
that much space is shown as empty to the user, without actually deleting the data.
 In case data gets deleted accidentally or corrupted, there arises a need to recover the
data. Recovery of the data is possible only if the contents or memory space marked as
deleted have not been overwritten by some other data.
  Data recovery is a process of retrieving deleted, corrupted and lost data from
secondary storage devices.
 There are usually two security concerns associated with data.
 One is its deletion by some unauthorised person or software. These concerns can be
avoided by limiting access to the computer system and using passwords for user
accounts and files, wherever possible. There is also an option of encrypting files to
protect them from unwanted modification.
 The other concern is related to unwanted recovery of data by unauthorised user or
software. Many a times, we discard our old, broken or malfunctioning storage devices
without taking care to delete data. We assume that the contents of deleted files are
permanently removed. However, if these storage devices fall into the hands of
mischief-mongers, they can easily recover data from such devices; this poses a threat
to data confidentiality.
Software:
 A set of instructions is referred to as software.
 It is that component of a computer system, which we cannot touch or view physically.
 Some examples of software include operating systems like 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.
 A document or image stored on the hard disk or pen drive is referred to as a soft copy.
 Once printed, the document or an image is called a hard copy.
Need of Software:
 A software knows how to make different hardware components of a computer work
and communicate with each other as well as with the end-user.
 We cannot instruct the hardware of a computer directly.
 Software acts as an interface between human users and the hardware.
 Depending on the mode of interaction with hardware and functions to be performed,
the software can be broadly classified into three categories viz.
(i) System software
(ii) Programming tools and
(iii) Application software.

System software:
 The software that provides the basic functionality to operate a computer by
interacting directly with its constituent hardware is termed as system software.
 A system software knows how to operate and use different hardware components of
a computer.
 It provides services directly to the end user, or to some other software.
 Examples of system software include operating systems, system utilities, device
drivers, etc.

Operating System:
  As the name implies, the operating system is a system software that operates the
computer.
 An operating system is the most basic system software, without which other software
cannot work.
 The operating system manages other application programs and provides access and
security to the users of the system.
 Some of the popular operating systems are Windows, Linux, Macintosh, Ubuntu,
Fedora, Android, iOS, etc.

System Utilities:
 Software used for maintenance and configuration of the computer system is called
system utility.
 Some system utilities are shipped with the operating system for example disk
defragmentation tool, formatting utility, system restore utility, etc.
 Another set of utilities are those which are not shipped with the operating system but
are required to improve the performance of the system, for example, anti-virus
software, disk cleaner tool, disk compression software, etc.

Device Drivers:
 As the name signifies, the purpose of a device driver is to ensure proper functioning
of a particular device.
 The device driver acts as an interface between the device and the operating system.
 It provides required services by hiding the details of operations performed at the
hardware level of the device.
 Just like a language translator, a device driver acts as a mediator between the
operating system and the attached device.

Programming Tools:
 In order to get some work done by the computer, we need to give instructions which
are applied on the input data to get the desired outcome.
 Computer languages are developed for writing these instructions.
 There is a continuous need for conversion from high level to machine level language,
for which translators are needed.
(A) Classification of Programming Languages:
Two major categories of computer programming languages are low-level languages
and high-level languages.
 Low-level languages are machine-dependent languages and include machine
language and assembly language.
 Machine language uses 1s and 0s to write instructions which are directly
understood and executed by the computer.
 But writing a code in machine language is difficult as one has to remember all
operation codes and machine addresses.
 Also finding errors in the code written in machine language is difficult.
 To simplify the writing of code, assembly language was developed that
allowed usage of English-like words and symbols instead of 1s and 0s.
 But one major drawback of writing code in this language is that the code is
computer specific, i.e., the code written for one type of CPU cannot be used
for another type of CPU.

 High-level languages are machine-independent and are simpler to write code into.
 Instructions use English-like sentences and each high-level language follows a
set of rules, similar to natural languages.
 However, these languages are not directly understood by the computer.
 Hence, translators are needed to translate high-level language codes into
machine language.
 Examples of high level language include C++, Java, Python, etc.

(B) Language Translators:

 A translator is needed to convert programs 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.
 The three types of translators used in computing systems are assembler,
compiler and interpreter.
 The translator used to convert the code written in assembly language to
machine language is called assembler.
 We also need translators to convert codes written in high level language
(source code) to machine understandable form (machine code) for execution
by the computer. Compiler converts the source code into machine code.
 An interpreter translates one line at a time instead of the whole program at
one go.
 The interpreter takes one line, converts it into executable code if the line is
syntactically correct, and then repeats these steps for all lines in the source
code.
 (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.
 The program development, there are software called Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) consisting of text editor, building tools and debugger.
 A program can be typed, compiled and debugged from the IDE directly.
 Debugger, as the name implies, is the software to detect and correct errors in
the source code.
Application Software:
 Application software that has been written to process a specific job.
 Application software is generally written in high-level languages.
 Application software is classified into two types:
o Application Specific
o General Purpose
 Application-specific software is created to execute an exact task.
 It has a limited task. For example accounting software for maintaining accounts.
 General-purpose software is not limited to only one function.
 For example: Microsoft office (MS-Word, MS-Excel), Tally, Oracle etc.

Proprietary or Free and Open Source Software:

 The developers of some application software provide their source code and the
software freely to the public, to develop and improve further with each other’s
help. Such software is known as Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS).
 For example, the source code of the operating system Ubuntu is freely
accessible for anyone with the required knowledge to improve or add new
functionality.
 More examples of FOSS include Python, Libreoffice, Openoffice, Mozilla
Firefox, etc.
 Sometimes, software are freely available for use but source code may not be
available. Such software are called freeware.
 Examples of freeware are Skype, Adobe Reader, etc.
 When the software to be used has to be purchased from the vendor who has the
copyright of the software, then it is proprietary software.
 Examples of proprietary software include Microsoft Windows, Tally,
Quickheal, etc.
 A software can be freeware or open source or proprietary software depending
upon the terms and conditions of the person or group who has developed and
released that software.
Operating System:
 An operating system is a set of programs that acts as an interface between the user and
the computer.
 The main system software is the operating systems, which starts up the computer and
control its operation.
 Some examples of operating system are: UNIX, LINUX, MS-DOS, and Microsoft
Windows such as Win 95, Win 98, Win 2000, Win XP, Win 7, Win 8, Android, Mac
OS, etc.

OS User Interface:
There are different types of user interfaces each of which provides a different functionality.
(A) Command-based Interface:
 The command-based interface requires a user to enter the commands to
perform different tasks like creating, opening, editing or deleting a file, etc.
 The primary input device used by the user for command based interface is the
keyboard.
 Examples of operating systems with command-based interface include MS-
DOS and Unix.

(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.
 The input devices used to interact with the GUI commonly include the mouse
and the keyboard.
 Examples of operating systems with GUI interfaces include Microsoft
Windows, Ubuntu, Fedora and Macintosh, among others.

(C) Touch-based Interface:

 Today smartphones, tablets and PCs allow users to interact with the system
simply using the touch input.
 Examples of popular operating systems with touch based interfaces are
Android and iOS.

(D) Voice-based Interface:

 Operating systems that provide voice-based control to Users.
 Examples: 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:
 A task in execution is known as a process.
 It is the responsibility of operating system to manage these processes and
get multiple tasks completed in minimum time.
 Hence process management concerns the management of multiple
processes, allocation of required resources, and exchange of information
among processes.

(B) Memory Management:

 Primary or main memory of a computer system is usually limited.
 The main task of memory management is to give (allocate) and take (free)
memory from running processes.
 Hence, memory management concerns with management of main
memory so that maximum memory is occupied or utilised by large
number of processes.

(C) File Management:

 Data and programs are stored as files in the secondary storage of a
computer system.
 File management involves the creation, updation, deletion and protection
of these files in the secondary memory.
 File management system manages secondary memory, while memory
management system handles the main memory of a computer system.

(D) Device Management:

 A computer system has many I/O devices and hardware connected to it.
 The operating system interacts with the device driver and the related
software for a particular device.