Unit:-I Introduction to Computer

System:-
A system is collection of elements or components that works together to
achieve a goal.
Ex. Computer system, Human body system,Solar system
OR
A system is a collection of elements or components that are organized for a common
purpose.
Sub System and Super System : Each system is part of a large system. The business
firm is viewed as the system or total system when focus is on production,
distribution of goal and sources of profit and income.
Sub systems are the smaller systems within a system. Super system denotes
extremely large and complex system.

Types of System :

1)Physical or Abstract : Physical system is tangible entities that may be static or

dynamic in nature. Abstract system is conceptual or non-physical. The abstract is
conceptualization of physical situations.

2)Open and Closed : An open system continually interacts with its environment. It
receives input from the outside and delivers output to outside. A closed system is
isolated from environment influences.

3)Natural and Man Made System : System which is made by man is called man
made system. Systems which are in the environment made by nature are called
natural system.

4)Deterministic and Probabilistic : A Deterministic system is one in which the

occurrence of all events is perfectly predictable. If we get the description of the
system state at a particular time, the next state can be easily predicted. Probabilistic
system is one in which the occurrence of events cannot be perfectly predicted.
5) Information system may be defined as a set of devices, procedures and operating
system designed around user-base criteria to produce information and
communicating it to the user for planning control and performance.

COMPUTER SYSTEM

Is a collection of entities(hardware, software and user) that are designed to receive,

process, manage and present information in a meaningful format.

COMPONENTS OF COMPUTER SYSTEM

Computer hardware - Are physical parts/ intangible parts of a computer. eg Input

devices, output devices, central processing unit and storage devices

Computer software - also known as programs or applications. They are classified

into two classes namely - sytem software and application software

User - is the computer user. Also kwon as Operator of the Computer . The user
commands the computer system to execute an instructions. Introduction To
computer

Computer can works in three different stages :-

1. Input( Data):- Input is the raw data entered into a computer from the input
device. It is collection of letters, numbers and images etc.
2. Process:- process is the operation performed on data as per given instruction it is
totally internal process of the computer system.
3. Output and storage:-output is the processed data (information) given by
computer. After data processing output is also called as ‘Result’. We save these
result in the storage devices for the future use.

Computer :-
The word computer comes from Greek word “compute” “which means to
calculate”.
Definition:-
 The computer is an electronic device which accepts input, processes it and gives
desired output.

OR

Computer is programmable machine that can be store retrieve and process data.

OR

Computer is an electronic machine made up of various electronic devices (part) to

process data .

The Five Basic Operations of computer System

1)Inputting :- The process of entering data and instructions into the computer system.

2)Storing :- Saving data and instructions to make them readily available for initial or
additional processing whenever required.

3)Processing :-

Performing arithmetic operations(addition,subtraction,multiplication,division etc.) or

logical operations(equal to,less than,greather than etc)on data to convert them into useful
information.

4)Controlling :- Directing the manner and sequence in which all of the above operations
are performed.

5)Outputting:-The process of producing useful information or results for the user such
as a printed report or visual display.

Characteristics / Capabilities of computer:-

1) Speed: - This is the most important characteristics of the computer. The computer
is a very high speed electronic device. That can be work at a speed of milliseconds,
microseconds, and nanosecond. It is capable of processing millions of instructions
per second. The speed is measured in Mega Hertz (MHz) or Giga Hertz (GHz).

2) Accuracy: - The result produced by the computer is very accurate. It gives

accurate output for the correct input data. The output is totally depends on input of
the data, if input data is incorrect then resulting output will be incorrect.
 3) Versatility: - The computers are very versatile machine. Versatile means flexible.
Modern computer can perform different task one by one at simultaneously. It is a
most important feature of the computer. E.g. At one moment you are playing game
on computer, the next moment you can send an Email.

4) Diligence: - Diligence is the ability of the computer to perform repetitive tasks

with the same accuracy. A computer does not get tired; it will execute the task with
the same speed and same accuracy again & again.

5) Reliability: - A computers is a very reliable. The computer can perform very

complicated calculations with creating any problem and produce consistent result.

6) Power of Remembering (Storage): - A computer can store a large amount of data

which can be accessed very fast whenever it required. E.g. Characters, Numbers,
Images etc.

7) Communications: Today computer is mostly used to exchange messages or data

through computer networks all over the world.

Limitations of computer:-

1) No I.Q. : A computer is not an intelligent device. That is it has no thinking

capability. Hence it has to be given each and every instruction In order to perform
a task.

2)Dependency: The capability of a computer is depends on its use. If put to good

use, it can be very beneficial. However it causes lot of damage, if it use incorrect

3)No decision making power : Computer cannot make any decisions nor can it render
any help to solve a problem at its own

4)No Feeling:- Computers have no feelings.

Concept of Hardware and Software:-

Any unit or device of computer system is divided into two types such as hardware
and software.
 Hardware:-
The physical components of the computer such as electronic device is called as
hardware. So hardware is actually machine you can see and touch.

E.g. Monitor, Mouse, Keyboards and CPU etc.

SOFTWARE :-
software is a set of program . Program are the instruction that tells to the computer
how to processes on data to convert into usable form.

There are two types of software :-

1) System software.
2)Application software.

1)system software :-
It is set of program i.e. used to operate and maintain the computer system

A)Operating System:- It is set of program it acts as an interface between user and

hardware
Ex. DOS, UNIX, LINUX, WINDOWS

B)Utility System:- It is a program which assist to maintaining and improving

efficiency of computer system.
Ex. Fire wall , Quick Heal, Net protector etc.

C)Language Translators (compiler or interpreter):- High level lang. translate into

machine level lang. it also check the lang. syntax

2)Application Software :- It is set of program which perform a specific task

required for the user .Programs are developed for satisfying the requirements of the
user
Ex. MS-Word ,MS-Excel, Power Point, Calculator

Some commonly known application software are as follows.

1) Word Processing Software:-

word processing software enables us to make use of computer for creating,
editing, formatting ,storing , retrieving and printing the document.

2) Data Base Software:- The data base software is a collection of related data
stored and treated as unit for information retrieval purpose. A data base
 software is a set of programs that enable us to create the database for to add ,to
delete ,update and insert the record.

3) Educational software:- education software allows a computer to be used as

teaching and learning tool.
4)Entertainment software:- the entertainment software allows a computer to used
as entertainment tools.

History of computer:-
1) The abacus a simple counting device in 4 th century introduced by Babylonia.
2) In 1642 the French mathematician & philosopher Blaise Pascal developed a
calculating device called “adding machine ”or “pascaline calculator”.
3) Later in year 1671 Baron Gottfried & Leibniz of Germany introduced the first
calculator for Multiplication .
4) Harmon Hollerith came up with the concept of Punched cards as input media.
5) Charles Babbage a 19th century professor at Cambridge university is considered
the father of modern digital computer .
6) Babbage designed a “Difference Engine” which was intended to be completely
automatic.
7) It was capable for performing the basic arithmetic operations .

Evolution of Computer:-
I) Mark-I Computer (1944)
Also known as (Automatic sequence controlled calculator)
1) This was the first fully automatic calculating machine by Howard A Aiken
of Harvard University.
2) It was electromechanical device since both mechanical and electronic
components were used in its design.
3) It was very complex in design & huge in size.
4) It was used over 3000 electrical actuated switches to control its
operations.
5) It was approximately 50 feet long & 8 feet high.
6) It was capable of performing five basic operations.
7) It took approximately 0.3 Second to add two numbers and 4.5 sec for
multiplication of two numbers.
8) Hence , machine was very slow as compared to today’s computer.

II)ENIAC (1946)
It stands for (Electronic Numerical Integrator and computer)
1) It was constructed at the Moore school of Engineering .
2) Under the leadership of J. Prosper Eckert & John Mauchaly the team
produced a machine that computed at speed 1000 times faster than
Mark-I computer.
3) ENIAC was developed because of military need .
4) It took up the wall space in a 20 x 40 square feet room and used 18000
vacuum tubes.
5) The addition of two numbers was achieved in 200 microsecond ,
multiplication in 2000 microsec.

III)EDVAC(1946-1952)
(Electronic Discrete variable Automatic Computer)
1) A major drawback of ENIAC was that its programs were wired on
boards , which made it difficult to change the programs.
2) This problem was later overcome by the “Stored program” concept by
Dr. John Von Newman.
 3) The basic idea of behind this concept is that a sequence of instruction ,
as well as data can be stored in memory of the comp. For automatically
directing the flow of operations.
4) EDVAC was designed on stored program concept.

IV)EDSAC (1947-49)
(Electronic Delay storage Automatic Computer )
1) Almost simultaneously with EDVAC of USA
2) In this machine addition operation took in 100 microsec. &
Multiplication in 1000 microsec.
3) This machine was developed by a group of scientist , headed by prof.
Maurice Wilikis , at Cambridge Uni. Mathematical laboratory.
4) The machine executed its first program in May-1949.

V)UNIVAC(1951)
(Universal Automatic Computer)
1) It was the first digital computer.
2) Many UNIVAC machines were produced , the first of which was
installed in the Census Bureau in 1951 and was used continuously for
10 years.
3) In 1952 , the IBM Corporation introduced the IBM701 , commercial
computer. Which could be used for business and scientific applications
had arrived.

Generations of Computer:-
 ENIAC,EDVAC,EDSAC,UNIVAC, IBM-701
 These machines & others of their time were built by using thousands of Vacuum
Tubes .Vacuum Tubes were used as Electronic Components

1)First Generation 1942-1955

Features:-
1)Thousands of Vacuum Tubes were used.
2) Electromagnetic relay memory for storage.
3)Punched Cards was used as secondary storage
4) Machine & Assembly languages used for writing instructions.
5) They were the fastest calculating devices of their time.
6) Too bulky in size , requiring large rooms for installations.
7) These Computers were difficult to program & use , they had limited commercial use.
Disadvantages of first Generation:-
1) These computers was Oversized.
2) Emitted Excessive heat
3) Air Conditioning required
4) Its was Unreliable
5) Constant maintenance
6) Commercial production difficult and Expensive
2) Second Generations 1955- 1964
Features:-
1) A new electronic switching device called Transistors.
2)Transistors were highly reliable as compared to tubes.
3) Transistors were much smaller than a tube.
4) transistors were less expensive to produce.
5) Less heat as compared to vacuum tubes.
6) More than 10 times faster than the first generation computers.
7) Smaller than first generation computers, requiring smaller space.
8) High Level programming languages like FORTRAN, COBOL,ALGOL,SNOBOL were used
for instruction.
9) The first generation comp were mainly used for scientific computations. However ,
in the second generation , an increasing usage of computers was in business and
industry for commercial data processing applications like payroll , inventory control,
marketing and production planning.
10) In sec. generation’s computers had faster & larger primary & secondary storage
capacity as compared
11) They were much easier to program & use than the first generation.
12) Batch operating system were developed in sec. generation.
Disadvantages of sec. Generation:-
1) Air Conditioning required
2) maintenance was less compared to first generation
3) commercial production was simple compared to first Generaton.
3)Third Generation (1964-1975)
Features :-
(Integrated circuits)Ics with SSI & MSI technologies were used as electronic components
2) They were much more powerful than the sec. genr. S comp.s . They were capable of
performing about 1 million instructions per minute.
3) Much smaller than sec. genr. Comp. requiring smaller space.
4) They Consumed much less power than sec genr. Comp.s.
5) They were more reliable & the maintenance cost was much lower as compared to
sec, genr. Comps.
6) They had faster & larger primary & secondary storage as compared to sec. genr.
Comp.s
7) They were totally general purpose machines suitable for both scientific & commercial.
8) PASCAL & BASIC languages were used for instruction & programming.
9) Time sharing operating system allowed interactive usage and simultaneous use of
these system by a large number of users.
10)Minicomputers were introduced in third generation.
4) Fourth Generation (1975-1989)
features:-
1)(Large scale integrated circuits & very large scale integrated technology were used as
electronic components ) LSI& VLSI
2) Microprocessors contains all the circuits needed to perform arithmetic logic & control
functions ,the core all activities of computer on a single chip. Hence , it became
possible to build a complete computer with microprocessor.
3) A PC were smaller and cheaper than all previous computers.
4) They consumed much less power than the 3rd gener. Comp.
5) They were more reliable & faster as compared to 3rd genr. comp.
6) They had faster & larger primary & secondary storage as compared to 3rd genr.
Comp.s
7) They were totally general purpose machines.
8) Use of standard high level languages allowed programs written for one computer to
be easily ported to
and executed on another machine.
9) Graphical User Interface (GUI) enabled new user to quickly learn how to use
computer.
10) PC based applications made the PCs a powerful tool for both office &home usages.
11) Operating systems like DOS , MS Window

5)Fifth Generation 1989-present

features:-
1) IC with ULSI (Ultra large scale Integrated) technologies are used for electronic
components.
2) Note book computers are much more smaller and handy than fourth genr.
Comps.
3) desktop PC & workstations are several time more powerful than PCs of fourth
genr. Comps.
4) they consumes much less power than their predecessors.
 5) they are more reliable , minimum hard ware failure than predecessors.
6) More user friendly interfaces with multimedia features make the system easier to
learn computer.

Classification OR Types of Computer :-

There are different types of computer according to logic and according to size.
According to logic computer can be divided into :-
i)Analog computer
ii) digital computer
iii) hybrid computer

According to size computer can be divided into :-

A) Microcomputer :- i) Personal computer /desktop computer
ii) workstation computer
iii) notebook/laptop.
B) Mini Computer
C) Mainframe Computer
D) Super computer

According to logic computer can classified into :-

1) Analog Computer :- This is the computer that can be process the analog
quantities/data. It can performs the computations like multiplication, integration and
solving of differential equation etc. by manipulating continuous physical variables.
i.e. analog computer generally deal with physical variables such as voltage,
pressure ,temp and speed etc. the output is generally represented on plotter.

2) Digital Computer:- these are computer that can process discrete data or quantities
i.e. digital computer operates on digital data such as numbers.
The computation is done in finite number system with data in the form of binary
digit 0 and 1 each one is called as a bit. A group of each eight bit is called as byte.
The digital computer can give accurate and faster result. So the digital computer will
suitable for solving complex problem in engineering and technology. Hence the
digital computers have increasing use in the field of design, research and data
processing.

3) Hybrid computer:-A hybrid computer combines the desirable feature of analog and
digital computer. The hybrid computer is mostly used for the automatic operations of
complicated physical processes and machines. Now a day’s analog to digital and
digital to analog converters are used for transforming the data into suitable form for
either type of computations.
 According to the size computer can be classified as follows
1) Micro computer:-
These are most commonly used general purpose computer. The micro computer
is also known as personal computer. The microprocessor (single chip CPU) gave
birth to the much cheaper micro computer.
The micro computer also divided into i) personal computer ii) workstation
computer iii) notebook computer

I) Personal computer: - (desktop computer)

A personal computer is non portable, general purpose computer that fits on normal
office table and used by one person at a time i.e. it is single user oriented. A personal
computer can be defined as small, relatively expensive computer designed for an
individual user. Personal computer based on the micro processor technology that enable
manufactural to put on entire CPU on one single cheap. The system configuration varies
depending on their usage however the most commonly used configuration consist of
system unit such as monitor ,keyboard and mouse hard disk (secondary
storage),RAM(primary memory) , CD/DVD drive ,main circuit board (motherboard),
SMPS and special add on cards such networks interface cards(NIC) and ports for
connecting peripheral devices such printer ,scanner and pen-drive.

II) Workstation Computer

It is a powerful desktop computer designed to meet computing needs of
engineers , architects and other professional who need greater processing power ,larger
storage capacity better graphics display facility than what normal pc’s provide.
E.g. Workstation is used commonly for computer Aided design (CAD), difficult
scientific and engineering problem and multimedia application. Such as for creating
special Audio visual effect in movies/ television program. It is also single user oriented
computer.

III) Notebook Computer (Laptop):-

It is portable computer mainly meant for use by people (user) who need computing
resource whenever they go.
The notebook computer is uses an almost full size keyboard, a flat screen liquid crystal
display (LCD) and touch pad. It also has hard disk, CD/DVD drive, Ram, motherboard
and ports for connecting peripheral devices such as printer, pen drive etc. notebook
(laptop) con operate on batteries and hence they are very popular with travelers.

2 ) Minicomputer:-

The minicomputer is special purpose computer/ widely used in large manufacturing

organization for distributed data processing. Minicomputers are faster than micro
computer with access to more storage space and more I/O devices. Minicomputers are
also designed for single device.
The minicomputers are lower to mainframe computer in terms of speed and storage
capacity. They are also less expensive than mainframe computer. Some of feature of the
mainframe computer will not be available in minicomputer; hence their performance is
less than that of mainframe computer.

3)Mainframe Computer

Mainframe computer can also process data at very high speeds i.e. the execute
millions of instruction per second and they are also quite expensive. The mainframe
computers are used in several originations such as bank, railway, Airlines etc that need
online processing of large number of transaction and require computer system having
massive data storage and processing capability. The mainframe computer is very large in
size and is an expensive computer capable of supporting number of users simultaneously.
Mainframe executes many programs concurrently. It has high storage capacity and
parallel processing.

4)Supercomputer
Super computer are one of the fastest, powerful and expensive computer currently
available. They are used for processing difficult/complex scientific application that large
processing power. These computers can process billions of instruction per second. The
super computer can use multi processing and parallel processing technology to solve
complex problem. Super computer has very large storage capacity i.e. they are used for
processing for I/O intensive application such as stock analysis , research application,
defense and space application etc.