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About Computers

1. What are they?

a. A computer is a complex device that automates repetitive tasks. It assists humans in their
everyday work. The computer systems are of desktop laptop systems as well as embedded
systems (the processor runs constantly a single control program which is kept in ROM read-
only-memory) such as cell phones, car airbags and other controls.
Fact: Only 0.2% of processor chips are used in the familiar desktop computer.
b. A computer is an assembly of hardware on which we run software (programs).
c. To use a computer we need an operating system.
d. To program a computer to do things we need to write software.
e. To increase the power of computers we have to put them in Network.
f. To increase even more the capability of networks we invented the www. The World Wide
Web (Internet) introduced a new programming paradigm which gave birth to new
programming languages, and a new way of writing Applications.

2. Computer Systems Components

a. Hardware (Processor, Main Memory, Secondary Memory, Input and Output Devices)

Input/Output shows how the data flows (i.e into our out of the computer)
Input Devices:

• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Microphone

Output devices

• Bar code reader

• Graphics tablet
• Game controllers

Both input and Output (I/O) devices

• Network interface (data flows from the computer to the network and from the network
into the computer)
• Speakers directly connected to device controller (audio card – which is plugged in the
motherboard).
• HD move data inside and outside of the main memory.

Bus – group of wires on the main circuit board that constitutes the pathway of the data flow
between components.
Controller –connects devices to the bus and coordinates the activities of devices with the bus.
Processor – the brain of the computer – squared shape electronic device which has inside a
silicon tinier square containing millions of tiny electrical parts (100 million transistors) – main
unit which does all the processing and coordination of all the devices. Also called CPU it can
have a Pentium or SPARC chip. (Ex. Adding 2 numbers operation is done here).

Memory – the CPU itself has a small amount of memory to perform a few instructions of a
program and the data they hold. Data and programs are kept into a memory external to the
processor. It is of 2 types: Main (closely connected to the processor, and volatile – data stored
here is lost when the computer is powered off) and Secondary (persistent even after the power
is turned off).
Main Memory is called RAM (random access memory) where the program is running and data is
stored temporarily until saved on the hard drive.
Main memory is enhanced by a special high-speed storage mechanism. This can be either a
reserved section of main memory or an independent high-speed storage device.

Two types of caching are commonly used in personal computers: memory caching and
disk caching.
A memory cache, sometimes called a cache store or RAM cache, is a portion of memory
made of high-speed static RAM (SRAM) instead of the slower and cheaper dynamic RAM
(DRAM) used for main memory. Memory caching is effective because most programs
access the same data or instructions over and over. By keeping as much of this
information as possible in SRAM, the computer avoids accessing the slower DRAM.

Some memory caches are built into the architecture of microprocessors. The Intel 80486
microprocessor, for example, contains an 8K memory cache, and the Pentium has a 16K
cache. Such internal caches are often called Level 1 (L1) caches. Most modern PCs also
come with external cache memory, called Level 2 (L2) caches. These caches sit between
the CPU and the DRAM. Like L1 caches, L2 caches are composed of SRAM but they are
much larger.

Disk caching works under the same principle as memory caching, but instead of using
high-speed SRAM, a disk cache uses conventional main memory. The most recently
accessed data from the disk (as well as adjacent sectors) is stored in a memory buffer.
When a program needs to access data from the disk, it first checks the disk cache to see
if the data is there. Disk caching can dramatically improve the performance of
applications, because accessing a byte of data in RAM can be thousands of times faster
than accessing a byte on a hard disk.

When data is found in the cache, it is called a cache hit, and the effectiveness of a cache
is judged by its hit rate. Many cache systems use a technique known as smart caching, in
which the system can recognize certain types of frequently used data. The strategies for
determining which information should be kept in the cache constitute some of the more
interesting problems in computer science.

Secondary Memory is the Hard Disk or Hard Drive (HD)

HD is used for long term storage of programs and data.

Data and programs on the hard disk are organized into files (section of the disk that has a
name).
Since the secondary memory is slow but can store large amounts of data and the RAM is fast,
the data needs to be prepared for loading in the RAM so the processor can quickly read and
write small sections of data in the Main Memory. When the execution is done, a large block is
written to disk. Often, while the processor is computing with one block of data in main memory,
the next block of data from disk is read into another section of main memory and made ready
for the processor. One of the jobs of an operating system is to manage main storage and disks
this way.
 Primary memory

• Fast
• Expensive
• Low capacity
• Works directly with the processor

Secondary memory

• Slow
• Cheap
• Large capacity
• Not connected directly to the processor

b. Software: Data and Programs written to make the computers do what we want.
Both programs and data are saved in computer memory in the same way. The electronics of
computer memory (both main memory and secondary memory make no distinction
between programs and data).
Computer systems use memory for either programs or data as needed.
Types of Programs
Applications – programs that people use to get their work done.
Systems programs keep the hardware and software running together smoothly – most
important system program is the OS. The Operating System is always present when a
computer is running. It coordinates the operation of the other hardware and software
components of the computer system. The OS is responsible to startup, run and manage the
resources that they need. When an application is running, the OS manages the details of the
hardware for it. If you type characters on the keyboard the OS determines which application
program they are intended for and does the work of getting them there.
The embedded systems don’t have a OS. Their programs run directly on the processor.
The modern OS’s come with User Interfaces to assist users to interact with the application
programs and the OS itself. (ex of OS: Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OS etc).

When a computer is first started, the hardware automatically loads and run the operating
system, a process called booting. The reason for this odd term is that the operating system is
itself involved in getting itself running—a process that is like someone "pulling themselves up
by their bootstraps". Once the operating system is running, it is used to start up application
programs.

Here is a (simplified) list of what happens when the user (you) starts up an application. Assume
that the operating system (OS) is already running.

1. The user asks to run an application (user clicks on an icon or makes a menu choice)
 2. The OS determines the name of the application.
3. The OS finds the files on the hard disk where the application and its data are stored.
4. The OS finds an unused section of main memory that is large enough for the application.
5. The OS makes a copy of the application and its data from the disk in that section of main
memory without changing the source of origin.
6. The OS sets up resources for the application.
7. Finally, the OS starts the application running.

As the application runs, the OS is there in the background managing resources, doing input and
output for the application, and keeping everything else running.

Networks

A computer network consists of two or more computers connected together for the purpose to
exchange data and programs. When a computer is a member of a network, the programs it runs
and the data it uses can be on the hard disk of some other computer on the network. In
business and industrial settings, most computers are on a network. The operating system that
runs on a networked computer must manage its share of the network (along with managing all
its other responsibilities). The operating system is able to find programs and data that are
stored on other network computers, and copy them into its own main memory.

In a local-area network only a few dozen computers are connected together, usually all located
within the same building. Each computer has a network address that the other computers use
to access it. Usually the computers share a printer. There may be an especially powerful
computer called a server whose hard disk holds application programs and data that the other
computers are expected to need.

Each computer in a network has a network interface card. This is an input/output device that
sends and receives data over cables. The network interface cards of computers on a network
are connected together with cables.

Wide-Area Networks

Large organizations need to connect many more computers than can be handled with a local
area network. A wide-area network can connect thousands of computers together over great
distances. The long distance connections are made by using optical fiber, telephone lines,
microwave radio, and satellite communications. Each computer in the network has a network
address (as with local-area networks) to uniquely identify it.

Wide-area networks use a variety of special hardware to manage the flow of data. When two
computers share data, this hardware makes it appear that the two computers are connected
together directly. In reality, there may be dozens of network devices between the two
computers.
All these devices use the same method for dealing with data. An agreement about how to
represent and transmit data over a network is called a protocol. Usually large networks use a
protocol called TCP/IP (for transmission control protocol / internet protocol).

Internet

The Internet consists of many networks that have been connected together to form one huge
worldwide network. Each computer must have a unique address, called an IP address, much like
a telephone or a regular mail address (including specific information for the area in which it is
located).

Here a typical IP address (32 bit binary number):

123.187.11.22

The Network equipment uses these addresses to route information over the network. The
above example shows the standard way of writing these bits using decimal digits.

This convention is however not very clear to humans. One of the features of the World Wide
Web is that it allows people to use computer names rather than numbers. Here is a typical
computer name:

myserver.bingo.net

This computer name corresponds to the above IP address. When you use it in a Web browser it
is converted into the 32 binary digits of the computer's IP address.

World Wide Web

Since both programs and data are saved in computer memory in the same way (both main and
secondary memory doesn’t make any difference between programs and data), the
communication systems transmit the data from one computer to another in much the same
format.

The internet represents a world-wide package delivery service with concern of moving the
packages from one system address to another, and not being interested in the content. It thus
provides the hardware and information transmission protocols for the WWW and it transmits
the data which is interpreted and rendered by the browser (program that reads web pages and
display them in a nice format).

The web pages are specified with a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and represented by
hyperlink (when clicked the web browser asks the OS of the local computer to get a particular
web page from another computer connected to the Internet.