CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SYSTEM

1. What is Computer?
Computer is an advanced electronic device that takes raw data as input from the
user and processes these data under the control of set of instructions (called
program) and gives the result (output) and saves output for the future use. It can
process both numerical and non-numerical (arithmetic and logical) calculations.
2. What are the functional components of a computer system?
These are the components are required for the basic functioning of a
computer system.
➢ Input
➢ Central Processing unit(CPU)
➢ Output
➢ Memory
Input:
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.
Central Processing Unit(CPU):
The main component to make a computer operate is the computer chip or
microprocessor. This is referred to as the Central Processing Unit (CPU).It
performs arithmetic and logic operations. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is
the device that interprets and executes instructions.
Output:
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 etc.
Memory Device:
A computer system needs memory to store the data and instructions for
processing. There are two types of memory
1. Main or Primary memory
2. Secondary memory/Storage device

3. Explain Evolution of Computer.

1) ABACUS(500 BC):It was a mechanical device capable of doing simple
arithmetic calculations only.

2) Pascaline(1642): Blaize Pascal invented a mechanical calculator known

as Pascal calculator or Pascaline to do addition and subtraction of two
numbers directly and multiplication and division through repeated
addition and subtraction.
3) Analytic Engine(1834):
Charles Babbage invented analytical engine, a mechanical computing
device for inputting, processing, storing and displaying the output,
which is considered to form the basis of modern computers.

4) Tabulating Machine(1890)
Herman Hollerith designed a tabulating machine for summarizing the
data stored on the punched card. It is considered to be the step towards
programming.

5) Turing Machine(1937)
The Turing machine concept was a general purpose programmable
machine that was capable of solving any problem by executing the
program stored on the punched cards.

6) EDVAC/ENIAC(1945)
John Von Neumann introduced the concept of stored program
computer which was capable of storing data as well as program
in the memory. The EDVAC and then the ENIAC computers were
developed based on this concept.

7) Transistor(1947)
Vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors developed at Bell Labs,
using semiconductor materials.

8) Integrated Circuit(1970)
An Integrated Circuit (IC) is a silicon chip which contains entire
electronic circuit on a very small area. The size of computer drastically
reduced because of ICs.
4. Von Neumann architecture

✓ It consists of a Central Processing Unit (CPU), 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.

✓ Moore’s Law predicted exponential growth in the number of transistors

that could be assembled in a single microchip.
✓ In 1980s, around 3 million components on a small-sized chip termed as
Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI). Further advancement in technology
(approx. 106components) on a single IC called Super Large-Scale
Integration (SLSI).

5. Who introduced the first personal computer?

In 1981, IBM introduced the first personal computer.
6. Who introduced the Macintosh Machine?
In 1981, Apple Introduced.

7. Advancement in the Computers from 1990s

-Introduction of GUI based OS by Microsoft
-The growth of WWW.
-introduction of laptops, personal computing was made portable to a great
extent.
- 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).

8. Memory
✓ The location where the computer stores data, instructions, and
programs are called the Memory.

9. 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.
A 4-bit word is called a Nibble.
10. Memory Types
Primary Memory:
✓ It is an essential component of a computer system.
✓ 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).
RAM ROM
RAM is volatile ROM is non volatile
Data will be wiped out as the The contents are not lost
power supply is turned off even when the power is
turned off.
It is used to store data It is permanent
temporarily. Storage.

11. Cache Memory - is the volatile computer memory which is very

nearest to the CPU, so also called CPU memory, and is between CPU and
RAM all the Recent Instructions are Stored into the Cache Memory. It
is the fastest memory that provides high-speed data access to a computer
microprocessor.

12.Secondary Memory:
The secondary memory is non-volatile and store the data or instructions
for future use. It has larger storage capacity than primary memory.
It is slower and cheaper than the main memory.
Examples of secondary memory devices include Hard Disk Drive (HDD), CD/
DVD, Memory Card, etc.
 12. Data Transfer between Memory and CPU:
Data are transferred between different components of a computer system using
physical wires called bus.
Bus is of three types— (i) Data bus to transfer data between different
components,
(ii) Address bus to transfer addresses between CPU and main memory.
(iii) Control bus to communicate control signals between different
components of a computer.
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.
13. 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.

14. Microprocessor Specification:

Microprocessors are classified on the basis of different features which
include chip type, word size, memory size, clock speed, etc. These features
are briefly explained below:

✓ Word size : is the maximum number of bits that a microprocessor

can process at a time.

✓ 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.

✓ Clock Speed: The clock speed indicates the speed at which the
computer can execute instructions. Earlier, it was measured in Hertz
(Hz) and Kilohertz (kHz). it is now measured in Gigahertz (GHz), i.e.,
billions of pulses per second.

✓ Cores: Core is a basic computation unit of the CPU. CPU with two,
four, and eight cores is called dual-core, quad-core and octa-core
processor, respectively.

15. Microcontroller
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.
Ex. Fully Automatic washing machine.
The simple use of microcontroller has permitted repetitive execution
of tedious tasks automatically without any human intervention, thereby saving
precious time.

16. Data and Information:

Data can also be raw and unorganized facts that are processed to get
meaningful information.

17. Data and its types:

Data can be input to a computer in the text form consisting of English

alphabets A–Z, a–z, numerals 0–9, and special symbols like @, #, etc.
Eg.
1. an image is a collection of Red, Green, Blue (RGB) pixels,
2. a video is made up of frames,
and a fee receipt is made of numeric and non-numeric
characters.
Primarily, there are three types of data.
• Structured data
• Unstructured data
• Semi structured data

Structured data: Data with pre-specified tabular format may be stored in a data
file to access in the future. Structured data may be sorted in ascending or
descending order.
Ex. Sales transaction, online railway ticket booking, Attendance register etc.
 Unstructured Data: Data which 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

Semi Structured data: Data which have no well-defined structure but

maintains internal tags or markings to separate data elements are called
semi-structured data. Examples include email document, HTML page,
comma separated values (csv file), etc.

18. Data Capturing, Storage and Retrieval

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.

Data Storage: It is the process of storing the captured data for

processing later. Data keeps on increasing with time.
In large organizations, computers with larger and faster storage called data
servers are deployed to store vast amount of data.

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. Minimizing
data access time is crucial for faster data processing.

19. Data Deletion and Recovery:

✓ One of the biggest threats associated with digital data is its deletion.
The storage devices can malfunction or crash down resulting in the
deletion of data stored.
✓ 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.
Data Recovery:
✓ Data recovery is a process of retrieving deleted, corrupted and lost
data from secondary storage devices.
Steps to protect our data:
✓ Allow only authorize person to use your system
✓ Use password to protect your important or confidential data.
✓ Discard our old or damaged storage devices carefully by using
proper tools.

20. Hardware:
Hardware refers to the physical components of the computer system
which can be seen and touched. For example, RAM, keyboard, printer,
monitor, CPU, etc.

21. Software:
software is a set of instructions and data that makes hardware functional
to complete the desired task. Software acts as an interface between
human users and the hardware.
The software can be broadly classified into three categories (i) System
software, (ii) Programming tools and (iii) Application software.

22. 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.
23. Operating System:
An operating system is system software that acts as an interface between
the user and the computer hardware and manages all the resources of a
computer. Examples of operating systems are Microsoft Windows,
Ubuntu, Android, Apple iOS etc.

24. System Utilities

The software that performs maintenance and configuration of the
computer system is called System Utility. Examples include Antivirus
software, Disk Defragmentation Tool, System Restore Utility, Disk
Partitioning Utility etc.

25. Device Drivers:

The software that directly interacts with a particular hardware or
peripheral device is called the device driver. Each hardware has its unique
device driver without which the operating system cannot communicate
with the device. Examples include Realtek Audio Driver, NVidia Video
Driver etc.

26. Programming Tools

Tools that assist the users/developers in creating, editing, testing and
debugging related to the development of software are known as
Programming Tools. They support completion of tasks during the
development phase. It includes development tools, code editors
and translators. Examples include : Visual Studio Code, idle python
27. Classification of Programming Language:

Languages are majorly divided into two categories: Low Level Languages
and High-Level Languages.

Low Level Languages High Level Languages

Machine Dependent Language Machine Independent Language
Do not need language translator Need language translator
Execution is faster Execution is slower
It includes Binary languages (0’s & It includes c++, Java, python etc.
1’s) and Assembly level languages
(ADD,SUB,etc)

28. Language Translators:

✓ A compiler is a language translator that converts high level language
into low level language at once. It shows all errors together with line
number. Once all errors are corrected and object code is created,
compiler is no more required in memory.
✓ An Interpreter is a language translator that converts high level
language into low level language line by line, instead of converting
the entire code at once. It stops at the line where error is found and
requires rectification of same to move forward. It is always required
in memory.
✓ Assembly language code can be converted to machine code (Binary
Code) using translator called Assembler.

29. Programming Tools

Tools that assist the users/developers in creating, editing, testing and
debugging related to the development of software are known as
Programming Tools.
 They support completion of tasks during the development phase. It
includes development tools, code editors and translators.
Examples include : Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, Eclipse etc.

30. Application Software:

Those software which are designed to perform specific task for the end-
user are called application software.
There are again two broad categories of application software
▪ General purpose and
▪ customized application software.
31. General Purpose Software:
These are ready to use software for daily use purpose. The application
software developed for generic applications, to cater to a bigger audience in
general are called general purpose software. e.g. word processor,
spreadsheet, presentation, DBMS etc.

32. Customized application software:

These are custom or tailor-made application software, that are developed
to meet the requirements of a specific organization or an individual.
Eg. Payroll, HotelMgmt, HospitalMgmt, StockMgmt etc.

33. Proprietary or Free and Open Source Software:

✓ Those software provide their source code as well as the
software freely to the public, with an aim to develop and improve
further with each other’s help. Such software is known as Free and
Open Source Software (FOSS). Eg. Python,open office etc.
 ✓ software is freely available for use but source code may not be
available. Such software is 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 a proprietary
software. Examples of proprietary software include Microsoft
Windows, Tally, Quickheal, etc.
34. Operating System (OS):

An operating system is system software that acts as an interface between

the user and the computer hardware and manages all the resources of a
computer.
The main goal of an operating system is to provide a user-friendly
environment, to use the available resources in an optimal and efficient
manner and to provide services for building and running applications.

35. OS User Interface

Operating system acts as an interface between the user and the hardware.
There are types of interfaces to perform different tasks on the basis of
requirement.
✓ Command Line Interface It is the interface:
where the user interacts with the system through commands. All the
operations are carried out on the basis of commands entered by the user.
Eg. Creating, opening,deleting etc.

✓ Graphical Based User Interface:

It is the interface that allows users to interact with the system
through graphical icons, menu, taskbar etc.

✓ Gesture Based User Interface:

 It is the interface that uses physical gestures to operate the
computer system. It allows users to perform tasks without physically
touching the system.Eg. waving, tilting, eye motion and shaking. .

✓ Voice Based User Interface:

It is the interface that allows users to interact with a computer through
voice commands. Examples of Voice User Interfaces are Google Assistant,
Siri and Alexa.

✓ Touch Based User Interface:

Touch based user interface requires a physical touch through the input
device. Eg. Touch screen.

Functions of Operating System

Memory Management :
The operating system manages the memory resources of a computer
system. It keeps a record of used and available memory. It includes:
● Memory Allocation, Reallocation and Deallocation
● Memory Mapping
● Memory Swapping .

Device Management:
Operating system manages communication among all the devices, keeps
track of all the devices, allocates and deallocates devices. It includes:
● Device initialization
● Device Configuration
● Device Scheduling

Process Management:
It manages all the programs in execution (processes). It includes:
● Process Creation & Termination
● Process Scheduling
● Context Switching.

File Management:
The operating system manages all the file management tasks. It keeps
track of location, status, storage and operations of a file. It includes:
● File Creation and Deletion
● File Permissions and Security File Compression and Encryption
● File Sharing

Network Management:
It provides services to organize and maintain the network. It allows
computers in a network to communicate with each other. It includes:
● Network Configuration
● Network Connectivity
● Network Resource Management.

Security:
The operating system protects the system from all the threats,
unauthorized access and other vulnerabilities. It includes:
● Authentication
● Authorization
● Data Encryption
● Firewall Management

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