Computer:

Computer is an electronic device which accepts data as input, performs processing on the
data, and gives the desired output. A computer may be analog or digital computer.

Speed, accuracy, diligence, storage capability and versatility are the main characteristics of
computer.

The computing devices have evolved from simple mechanical machines, like ABACUS,
Napiers bones, Slide Rule, Pascals Adding and Subtraction Machine, Leibnizs
Multiplication and Dividing Machine, Jacquard Punched Card System, Babbages Analytical
Engine and Holleriths Tabulating Machine, to the first electronic computer.

Charles Babbage is called the father of computer.

The evolution of computers to their present state is divided into five generations of
computers, based on the hardware and software they use, their physical appearance and their
computing characteristics.

First generation computers were vacuum tubes based machines. These were large in size,
expensive to operate and instructions were written in machine language. Their computation
time was in milliseconds.

Second generation computers were transistor based machines. They used the stored program
concept. Programs were written in assembly language. They were smaller in size, less
expensive and required less maintenance than the first generation computers. The
computation time was in microseconds.

Third generation computers were characterized by the use of IC. They consumed less power
and required low maintenance compared to their predecessors. High-level languages were
used for programming. The computation time was in nanoseconds. These computers were
produced commercially.

Fourth generation computers used microprocessors which were designed using the LSI and
VLSI technology. The computers became small, portable, reliable and cheap. The
computation time is in picoseconds. They became available both to the home user and for
commercial use.

Fifth generation computers are capable of learning and self organization. These computers
use SLSI chips and have large memory requirements. They use parallel processing and are
based on AI. The fifth generation computers are still being developed.

Computers are broadly classified as microcomputers, minicomputers, mainframe computers,

and supercomputers, based on their sizes and types.

Microcomputers are small, low-cost stand-alone machines. Microcomputers include desktop

computers, notebook computers or laptop, netbooks, tablet computer, handheld computer
and smart phones.

Minicomputers are high processing speed machines having more storage capacity than the
microcomputers. Minicomputers can support 4-200 users simultaneously.

Mainframe computers are multi-user, multi-programming and high performance computers.

They have very high speed, very large storage capacity and can handle large workloads.
Mainframe computers are generally used in centralized databases.

Supercomputers are the most expensive machines, having high processing speed capable of
performing trillions of calculations per second. The speed of a supercomputer is measured in
FLOPS. Supercomputers find applications in computing-intensive tasks.

Computer is an electronic device based on the input-process-output concept. Input/Output

Unit, CPU and Memory unit are the three main components of computer.

Input/Output Unit consists of the Input unit which accepts data from the user and the Output
unit that provides the processed data. CPU processes the input data, and, controls,
coordinates and supervises the operations of the computer. CPU consists of ALU, CU and
Registers. The memory unit stores programs, data and output, temporarily, during the
processing. Additionally, storage unit or secondary memory is used for the storing of
programs, data and output permanently.

Computers are used in various areas of our life. Education, entertainment, sports,
advertising, medicine, science and engineering, government, office and home are some of
the application areas of the computers.

Bit is the smallest unit that is used to represent data in a computer. Byte is a group of 8 bits.
One byte is the smallest unit of data that can be handled by the computer.

Memory is characterized on the basis of its capacity and access time. The computer
organizes its memory hierarchically so as to give the fastest speed and largest capacity of
memory.
Memory is fundamentally of two typesInternal memory and External memory.

Internal memory has limited storage capacity, provides temporary storage, has fast
access, the data and instructions stored in it are used by the CPU during execution, and is
more expensive than secondary memory. Registers, cache memory, and primary memory
constitute the internal memory. RAM and ROM are the two kinds of primary memory.

External memory or Secondary memory have very high storage capacity, are nonvolatile unless erased by user, have slow access, store the data and instructions that are not

currently being used by CPU, and are cheapest among all memory. Magnetic disk and optical
disk are storage devices.

Organization of memory with respect to the CPU, is as followsregisters are placed

inside CPU, cache memory is placed inside CPU, primary memory is placed next in the
hierarchy, and secondary memory is the farthest from CPU.

Registers are very high-speed storage areas located inside the CPU. Registers are
manipulated directly by the control unit of the CPU during instruction execution.

Cache, the fast memory, is placed between the CPU and the RAM. The contents from
the RAM are stored in the cache.

RAM stores data and instructions during the operation of computer. RAM is a random
access volatile memory having limited size due to its high cost. RAM affects the speed and
power of the computer.

RAM memory chips are of two typesDRAM and SRAM. DRAM is used as main
memory as it is small and cheap. SRAM chip is used in cache memory due to its high speed.

ROM is a non-volatile primary memory which stores the data needed for the start up
of the computer. Instructions to initialize different devices attached to computer and the
bootstrap loader are stored in ROM. PROM, EPROM and EEPROM are some of the ROMs.

Flash memory is a kind of semiconductor-based non-volatile, rewritable computer

memory. It is used in digital camera, mobile phone, printer, laptop computer, and MP3
players.

Magnetic tapes are inexpensive, can store a large amount of data, are easy to
transport, are slow access device, and are suitable for back-up storage.

Magnetic disks are cheap storage device, can store a large amount of data, are easy to
carry, are suitable for frequently read/write data and are fast access device. Access time of
disk is the sum of seek time, latency time and time for data transfer.

Floppy disk is a flat, round, single disk enclosed in a jacket. It is portable, small,
inexpensive and slower to access than hard disk. It comes in two basic sizes5- inch and
3- inch.

Hard disk is a fixed disk and can store much more data than floppy disk. Hard disk is
the key secondary storage device of computer.

Zip disk have the speed and capacity of hard disk and portability of floppy disk.

Optical disk consists of a single spiral track that starts from the edge to the centre of
disk. It can store large amount of data in small space.

CD-ROM is an optical disk that can only be read and not written on. It has highstorage density and is a low-cost device compared to floppy disk and hard disk.

DVD-ROM is a high-density optical storage device which stores data on both sides of
the disk. It is used to store a full-length movie.

Recordable optical disks are CD-R, CD-RW and DVD-R.

Computer uses its memory from the time you switch on the computer till you switch it
off.

A user interacts with the computer via Input-Output (I/O) devices. The peripheral
devices are attached externally to the computer machine.

Input unit accepts input data from the user via input device, transforms the input data
in computer acceptable form and provides the transformed input data for processing.

Output unit accepts output data from computer via output device, transforms the
output information to human readable form and provides the transformed output to user.

Some devices are both input and output devices. Hard disk drive, floppy disk drive,
optical disk drives are examples of input-output devices.

Keyboard is used to enter text data. Standard keyboard contains 101 keys to 110 keys.

Mouse is a small hand-held pointing input device used to enter data by pointing to a
location on the computer monitor screen.

Trackball looks like an upside-down mouse and requires the ball to be rotated
manually with a finger.

Joystick is a stick with its base attached to a flexible rubber sheath inside a plastic
cover. It is used for playing video games.

Digitizing tablet has a flat bed tablet, and a pen with an electronic head which is
moved on the tablet. Digitizing tablet is used for computer aided design of buildings, maps,
etc.

Light pen contains a photocell in a small tube and is used to select objects directly on
the computer screen.

Touch screen is a clear glass panel that is placed over the view area of the computer
screen. The user uses the fingertip on the computer screen to select an option. It is used in
ATMs.

Audio input devices use a microphone to input a persons voice, a sound card to
translate analog audio signals from microphone into digital codes and speech recognition to
translate spoken words into text.

Video input is provided using video camera and digital camera. Computer vision is an
area of computer science that deals with images.

Scanner is used to input data directly into the computer from the source document
without copying and typing the data. A scanner can be a hand-held scanner or flat bed
scanner.

OCR is a technique for the scanning of a printed page, translating it, and then using
the OCR software to recognize the image as ASCII text that is editable.

MICR is used in banks to process large volumes of cheques. It is used to recognize the
magnetic encoding numbers printed at the bottom of a cheque.

OMR uses an optical mark reader to detect marks on a paper. OMR is widely used to
read answers of objective type tests, questionnaires, etc.

Barcodes are adjacent vertical lines of different width that are machine readable.
Barcode reader reads the barcode. They are used to read labels in departmental stores and in
libraries.

Printer prints the output onto a paper. Plotter is used for drawing maps, blueprints of
ships, buildings, etc.

Impact printers are those in which the typeface strikes against the paper. Dot matrix
printers, daisy wheel printers and drum printers are examples of impact printers.

Non-Impact printers do not hit or impact a ribbon to print. Ink-jet printers and laser
printers are non-impact printers.

COM is a high-speed and low-cost process to record computer output directly from
the computer tape on a microfilm. It is used to store manuals and for archiving of records.

Monitor is attached to the computer on which the output is displayed. The clarity of
image on the computer screen depends on the resolution of screen, the dot pitch, and the
refresh rate.

Screen image projectors display information from the computer onto a large white

screen.

Audio output device like speakers, headset or headphone are used to output sound
from the computer system.

I/O ports connect the I/O devices to the computer. Serial and parallel ports, USB port
and Firewire are some of the commonly used I/O ports.

I/O system uses the I/O hardware (buses, ports, device controllers and I/O devices)
and the I/O software (device drivers) for its working. Face value of a digit is the digit located
at that place. The position value of digit is (baseposition). The number is the sum of (face value *
baseposition) of all the digits.

In computer science, decimal number system (base 10), binary number system (base
2), octal number system (base 8), and hexadecimal number system (base 16) concern us.

Decimal number system has 10 digits0 to 9, the maximum digit being 9.

Binary number system has two digits0 and 1.

Octal number system consists of eight digits0 to 7, the maximum digit being 7.

Hexadecimal number system has sixteen digits0 to 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, where (A is

for 10, B is for 11, C12, D13, E14, F15). The maximum digit is F, i.e., 15.

Conversion of octal or hexadecimal number to binary or vice-versa uses the shortcut

method. Three and four bits of a binary number correspond to an octal digit and hexadecimal
digit, respectively.

Binary arithmetic operations are the binary addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division operations performed on the binary numbers.

For any number in base r, there is rs complement and r1s complement. For
example, binary numbers can be represented in 1s complement and 2s complement.

Sign bit is the most significant bit. The sign bit is 1 and 0 for a positive number and
negative number, respectively.

Position of binary point in a binary number is represented using Fixed Point Number
Representation and Floating Point Number Representation.

In fixed point representation, the positive integer binary number is represented with
sign bit 0 and magnitude as positive binary number. The negative integer is represented in

signed magnitude representation, signed 1s complement representation and signed 2s

complement representation.

Addition of two signed binary numbers requires the positive number to be represented
as binary number and negative number to be represented in 2s complement form.

Floating point representation has two partsMantissa and Exponent. Mantissa is a

signed fixed point number and exponent shows the position of the binary point in the
mantissa.

Binary Coding schemes represent data in a binary form in the computer. ASCII,
EBCDIC, and Unicode are the most commonly used binary coding scheme.

EBCDIC is a 8-bit code with 256 different representations of characters. It is mainly

used in mainframe computers.

ASCII-8 is a 8-bit code and allows 256 characters to be represented. ASCII is widely
to represent data in computers, internally.

Unicode is a universal character encoding standard for the representation of text in

multi-lingual environments. UTF-8 is the most commonly used encoding.

Logic gate is the hardware electronic circuit that operates on input signals to produce
output signal. AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR and XNOR are some of the logic gates
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Reference
1. Fundamendals of computer pearson
2. Nios materials basics of computer