BLOCK DIAGRAM OF COMPUTER SYSTEM

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INTRODUCTION OF COMPUTER SYSTEM

 What is computer ?
 The computer is an electronic device used to store information
and process it. It is a word derived from a word' compute' which
means to calculate.
 Full form of computer is as follows
 C – Commonly

 O- Operated

 M-Machine

 P - Particularly

 U - Used

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 T-Technical

 E - Educational

 R - Research

 Characteristics of computer—Speed, accuracy,

diligence, storage capability, versatility
 History of computer—Calculating machines, Napier’s bones, slide
rule, Pascal's adding and subtraction machine, Leibniz's multiplication and
dividing machine, punch card system, Babbage's analytical engine,
Hollerith's punched card tabulating machine

 Generations of computer
 First generation (1940 to 1956): Using vacuum tubes
 Second generation (1956 to 1963): Using transistors
 Third generation (1964 to 1971): Using integrated circuits
 Fourth generation (1971 to present): Using
microprocessors
 Fifth generation (present and next): Using artificial
intelligence

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 Classification of computer—Microcomputers (desktop
computer or Personal Computer (PC), notebook computers or laptop,
netbook, tablet computer, handheld computer or Personal Digital
Assistant (PDA), smart phones), minicomputers, mainframe computers,
supercomputers

 The computer system—Hardware, software, data, users

 Components of computer hardware—Input/output unit,
central processing unit,storage unit

 Application of computers—Education, entertainment, sports,

advertising, medicine, science and engineering, government, home

DIGITAL AND ANALOG COMPUTERS

DIGITAL COMPUTER
A digital computer uses distinct values to represent the data internally.
All information are represented using the digits Os and 1s. The
computers that we use at our homes and offices are digital computers.

ANALOG COMPUTER
Analog computer is another kind of a computer that represents data as
variable across a continuous range of values. The earliest computers
were analog computers. Analog computers are used for measuring of
parameters that vary continuously in real time, such as temperature,

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pressure and voltage. Analog computers may be more flexible but
generally less precise than digital computers. Slide rule is an example of
an analog computer.
.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTER:-
Speed, accuracy, diligence, storage capability and versatility are some
of the key characteristics of a computer. A brief overview of these
characteristics are—
 Speed The computer can process data very fast, at the rate of
millions of instructions per second. Some calculations that would
have taken hours and days to complete otherwise, can be
completed in a few seconds using the computer. For example,
calculation and generation of salary slips of thousands of
employees of an organization, weather forecasting that requires
analysis of a large amount of data related to temperature,
pressure and humidity of various places, etc.
 Accuracy Computer provides a high degree of accuracy. For
example, the computer can accurately give the result of division
of any two numbers up to 10 decimal places.

 Diligence When used for a longer period of time, the computer

does not get tired or fatigued. It can perform long and complex
calculations with the same speed and accuracy from the start till
the end.

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  Storage Capability Large volumes of data and information can be
stored in the computer and also retrieved whenever required. A
limited amount of data can be stored ,temporarily, in the primary
memory. Secondary storage devices like floppy disk and compact
disk can store a large amount of data permanently.
 Versatility Computer is versatile in nature. It can perform
different types of tasks with the same ease. At one moment you
can use the computer to prepare a letter document and in the
next moment you may play music or print a document

 Software Technology Several new operating systems like the MS-

DOS and MS-Windows developed during this time. This
generation of computers supported Graphical User Interface
(GUI). GUI is a user-friendly interface that allows user to interact
with the computer via menus and icons. High-level programming
languages are used for the writing of programs.

Types of computer
Microcomputers
Microcomputers are small, low-cost and single-user digital computer.
They consist of CPU, input unit, output unit, storage unit and the
software. Although microcomputers are stand-alone machines, they
can be connected together to create a network of computers that can
serve more than one user. IBM PC based on Pentium microprocessor
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and Apple Macintosh are some examples of microcomputers.
Microcomputers include desktop computers, notebook computers or
laptop, tablet computer, handheld computer, smart phones and
netbook.

TYPES OF MICRO COMPUTER

 Desktop Computer or Personal Computer (PC) is the most
common type of microcomputer. It is a stand-alone machine that
can be placed on the desk. Externally, it consists of three units—
keyboard, monitor, and a system unit containing the CPU,
memory, hard disk drive, etc. It is not very expensive and is suited
to the needs of a single user at home, small business units, and
organizations. Apple, Microsoft, HP, Dell and Lenovo are some of
the PC manufacturers.
 Notebook Computers or Laptop resemble a notebook. They are
portable and have allthe features of a desktop computer. The
advantage of the laptop is that it is small in size (can be put inside
a briefcase), can be carried anywhere, has a battery backup and
has all the functionality of the desktop. Laptops can be placed on
the lap while working (hence the name). Laptops are costlier than
the desktop machines.
 Netbook These are smaller notebooks optimized for low weight
and low cost, and are designed for accessing web-based
applications. Starting with the earliest netbook in late 2007, they
have gained significant popularity now. Netbooks deliver the
performance needed to enjoy popular activities like streaming

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 videos or music, emailing, Websurfing or instant messaging. The
word netbook was created as a blend of Internet and notebook.

Minicomputers
Minicomputers are digital computers, generally used in multi-user
systems. They have high processing speed and high storage capacity
than the microcomputers. Minicomputerscan support 4–200 users
simultaneously. The users can access the minicomputer through their
PCs or terminal. They are used for real-time applications in industries,
research centers, etc. PDP 11, IBM (8000 series) are some of the widely
used minicomputers.

Mainframe Computers
Mainframe computers are multi-user, multi-programming and high
performance computers. They operate at a very high speed, have very
large storage capacity and can handle the workload of many users.
Mainframe computers are large and powerful systems generally used in
centralized databases. The user accesses the mainframe computer via a
terminal that may be a dumb terminal, an intelligent terminal or a PC. A
dumb terminal cannot store data or do processing of its own. It has the
input and output device only. An intelligent terminal has the input and
output device, can do processing, but, cannot store data of its own. The
dumb and the intelligent terminal use the processing power and the
storage facility of the mainframe computer. Mainframe computers are

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used in organizations like banks or companies, where many people
require frequent access to the same data. Some examples of
mainframes are CDC 6600 and IBM ES000 series.

Supercomputers
Supercomputers are the fastest and the most expensive machines.
They have high processing speed compared to other computers. The
speed of a supercomputer is generally measured in FLOPS (FLoating
point Operations Per Second). Some of the faster supercomputers can
perform trillions of calculations per second. Supercomputers are built
by interconnecting thousands of processors that can work in
parallel.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks,
such as, weather forecasting, climate research (global warming),
molecular research, biological research, nuclear research and
aircraft design. They are also used in major universities, military
agencies and scientific research
laboratories. Some examples of supercomputers are IBM Roadrunner,
IBM Blue gene and Intel ASCIred.PARAM is a series of supercomputer
assembled in India by C-DAC (Center for
Development of Advanced Computing), in Pune. PARAM Padma is the
latest machine in this series. The peak computing power of PARAM
Padma is 1 Tera FLOP (TFLOP).

HARDWARE
Hardware consists of the mechanical parts that make up the computer
as a machine. The hardware consists of physical devices of the

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computer. The devices are required for input, output, storage and
processing of the data. Keyboard, monitor, hard disk drive, floppy disk
drive,printer, processor and motherboard are some of the hardware
devices.

SOFTWARE
Software is a set of instructions that tells the computer about the tasks
to be performed and how these tasks are to be performed. Program is a
set of instructions, written in a language understood by the computer,
to perform a specific task. A set of programs and documents are
collectively called software. The hardware of the computer system
cannot perform any task on its own. The hardware needs to be
instructed about the task to be performed. Software instructs the
computer about the task to be performed. The hardware carries out
these tasks. Different software can be loaded on the same hardware to
perform different kinds of tasks.

OPERATING SYSTEM
 Types of OS—Single user and single task, single user and multitasking,
multiuser, multiprocessing, real time, embedded OS
 Functions of OS—Process management, memory management, file
management, device management, protection and security, user
interface

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 Process management o Process—Process states (new, ready,
running, waiting, terminated) o CPU scheduling—Scheduler, scheduling
algorithms (FCFS, SJF, RR) o Process synchronization—Concurrent
processes, race condition.
 Memory management and Memory allocation—Multiple partition
allocation, paging o Virtual memory—Demand paging
 File management—Files, directory structure
 Device management—Device drivers, I/O scheduling, buffering,
spooling
 Protection and security
 User interface—CLI, GUI
 Examples of operating systems—MS-DOS, Windows family of OS,
Linux

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OPERATING SYSTEM is system software that controls
and coordinates the use of hardware among the different application
software and users. OS intermediates between the user of computer
and the computer hardware. The user gives a command and the OS
translates the command into a form that the machine can understand
and execute. OS has two main objectives—(1) to make the computer
system convenient and easy to use, for the user, and—(2) to use the
computer hardware in an efficient way, by handling the details of the
operations of the hardware.
 OS hides the working of the hardware from the user and makes it
convenient for the user to use the machine. The application program
used by the user requires the use of the hardware during processing.
Some examples are—display of application∙s user interface, loading a
program into memory, using I/O devices, allocating CPU to different
processes during execution, and store or load data from hard disk.
When using the machine, the user gives the command to perform the
required actions to the OS and the OS handles all the operational steps.
The user is not bothered about how these actions will be performed.
This is the job of OS. OS provides an interface to the application
programs to interact with the hardware. The user need not get into the
details of this interaction
.  At the other end, the different resources of computer hardware
have to be managed and controlled. This includes managing the
communication between different devices, controlling the sequence
and execution of processes, allocating space on hard disk, providing
error handling procedures etc. OS supervises and manages the
hardware ofthe computer. Some of the commonly used operating
systems are Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS), Windows 7,
Windows XP, Linux, UNIX, and Mac OS X Snow Leopard
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 TYPES OF OS
OS are classified into different types depending on their capability
of processing—(1) Single user, (2) Multiuser, (3) Multitasking, (4)
Multiprocessing, (5) Real time, and (6) Embedded
.  Single User and Single Task OS is for use by a single user for a
standalone single computer for performing a single task Operating
system for Personal Computers (PC) are singleuser OS. For example, if
the user is editing a document, then a document cannot be printed on
the printer simultaneously. Single user OS are simple operating system
designed to manage one task at a time. MS-DOS is an example ofsingle
user OS.

 Single User and Multitasking OS allows execution of more than one

task or process concurrently. For this, the processor time is divided
amongst different tasks. Thisdivision of time is also called time sharing.
The processor switches rapidly between processes.
For example, the user can listen to music on the computer while
writing an article using a word processor software. The user can switch
between the applications and also transfer data between them
Windows 95 and all later versions of Windows are examples of
multitasking OS.

 Real Time OS are designed to respond to an event within a

predetermined time. These operating systems are used to control
processes. Processing is done within a time constraint. OS monitors the

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events that affect the execution of process and respond accordingly.
They are used to respond to queries in areas like medical imaging
system, industrial control systems etc. LynxOS is an example of real
time OS.
 Embedded OS is embedded in a device in the ROM. They are specific
to a device and are less resource intensive. They are used in appliances
like microwaves, washing machines, traffic control systems etc.

User
Interface
Process Protection
Manage and
ment Security

Memory
OS Device
Manage Manage
ment ment
File
Manage
ment

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 Process Management—The process management activities handled
by the OS are—(1) control access to shared resources like file, memory,
I/O and CPU, (2) control execution of applications, (3)create,execute
and delete a process (system process or user process), (4) cancel or
resume a process (5) schedule a process, and (6)synchronization,
communication and deadlock handling for processes
 Memory Management—The activities of memory management
handled by OS are—(1) allocate memory, (2) free memory, (3) re-
allocate memory to a program when a used block is freed, and (4) keep
track of memory usage.
 File Management—The file management tasks include—(1) create
and delete both files and directories, (2) provide access to files, (3)
allocate space for files, (4) keep back-upof files, and (5) secure files.
 Device Management—The device management tasks handled by OS
are—(1) open, close and write device drivers, and (2) communicate,
control and monitor the device driver.
 Protection and Security—OS protects the resources of system. User
authentication, file attributes like read, write, encryption, and back-up
of data are used by OS to provide basic protection.
 User Interface or Command Interpreter—Operating system provides
an interface between the computer user and the computer hardware.
The user interface is a set of commands or a graphical user interface via
which the user interacts with the applications and the hardware.

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MEMORY UNIT The memory unit consists of cache memory and
primary memory. Primary memory or main memory of the computer is
used to store the data and instructions during execution of the
instructions. Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory
(ROM) are the primary memory. In addition to the main memory, there
is another kind of storage device known as the secondary memory.
Secondary memory is non-volatile and is used for permanent storage of
data and programs. A program or data that has to be executed is
brought into the RAM from the secondary memory.
Cache Memory
 The data and instructions that are required during the processing of
data are brought from the secondary storage devices and stored in the
RAM. For processing, it is required that the data and instructions are
accessed from the RAM and stored in the registers. The time taken to
move the data between RAM and CPU registers is large. This affects the
speed of processing of computer, and results in decreasing the
performance of CPU
 Cache memory is a very high speed memory placed in between RAM
and CPU. Cache memory increases the speed of processing
 Cache memory is a storage buffer that stores the data that is used
more often, temporarily, and makes them available to CPU at a fast
rate. During processing, CPU first checks cache for the required data. If
data is not found in cache, then it looks in the RAM for data.

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MEMORY REPRESENTATION The computer memory stores different
kinds of data like input data, output data, intermediate results, etc.,
and the instructions. Binary digit or bit is the basic unit of memory. A bit
is a single binary digit, i.e., 0 or 1. A bit is the smallest unit of
representation of data in a computer. However, the data is handled by
the computer as a combination of bits. A group of 8 bits form a byte.
One byte is the smallest unit of data that is handled by the computer.
One byte can store 28 , i.e., 256 different combinations of bits, and thus
can be used to represent 256 different symbols. In a byte, the different
combinations of bits fall in the range 00000000 to 11111111. A group of
bytes can be further combined to form a word. A word can be a group
of 2, 4 or 8 bytes.
1 bit = 0 or 1 1

Byte (B) = 8 bits

1 Kilobyte (KB) = 210 = 1024 bytes

1 Megabyte (MB) = 220 = 1024KB

1 Gigabyte (GB) = 230 = 1024 MB = 1024 *1024 KB

1 Terabyte (TB) = 240= 1024 GB = 1024 * 1024 *1024 KB

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 Internal Memory—The key features of internal memory are
—(1) limited storage capacity, (2) temporary storage, (3) fast access,
and (4) high cost. Registers, cache memory, and primary memory
constitute the internal memory. The primary memory is further of two
kinds—RAM and ROM. Registers are the fastest and the most expensive
among all the memory types. The registers are located inside the CPU,
and are directly accessible by the CPU. The speed of registers is
between 1—2 ns (nanosecond). The sum of the size of registers is about
200B. Cache memory is next in the hierarchy and is placed between the
CPU and the main memory. The speed of cache is between 2—10 ns.
The cache size varies between 32 KB to 4MB. Any program or data that
has to be executed must be brought into RAM from the secondary
memory. Primary memory is relatively slower than the cache memory.
The speed of RAM is around 60ns. The RAM size varies from 512KB to
3GB.

 Secondary Memory—The key features of secondary

memory storage devices are—(1) very high storage capacity, (2)
permanent storage (non-volatile), unless erased byuser, (3) relatively
slower access, (4) stores data and instructions that are not currently
being used by CPU but may be required later for processing, and (5)
cheapest among all memory. The storage devices consist of two parts—
drive and device. For example, magnetic tape drive and magnetic tape,
magnetic disk drive and disk, and, optical disk drive and disk. The speed
of magnetic disk is around 60ms. The capacity of a hard disk ranges
from 160 GB to 1,600 GB (1.6 Tera Bytes).

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Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) OMR is used to
detect marks on a paper. The marks are recognized by their darkness.
OMR uses an optical mark reader to read the marks. The OMR reader
scans the forms, detects the mark that is positioned correctly on the
paper and is darker than the surrounding paper, and passes this
information to the computer for processing by application software. For
this, it uses a beam of light that is reflected on the paper with marks, to
capture presence and absence of marks. The optical mark reader
detects the presence of mark by measuring the reflected light. The
pattern of marks is interpreted and stored in the computer. OMR is
widely used to read answers of objective type tests, where the student
marks an answer by darkening a particular circle using a pencil. OMR is
also used to read forms, questionnaires, order forms, etc.

Barcode Reader Barcodes are adjacent vertical lines of different

width that are machine readable. Goods available at supermarkets,
books, etc. use barcode for identification. Barcodes are read using
reflective light by barcode readers. This information is input to the
computer which interprets the code using the spacing and thickness of
bars. Hand-held barcode readers are generally used in departmental
stores to read the labels, and in libraries to read labels on books.

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THANK YOU

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