Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Introduction to computers





UNIT-1

Introduction to computers: A computer is an electronic device capable of manipulating numbers and symbols under the control of a set of instructions known as computer program.

They are different stages of computers (generation)
1.                  First Generation Computers
1.   Vacuum tubes were used which produce more heat

2.      Speed of computing was measured in milliseconds

3.      Limited storage capacity

4.      punched cards were used for I/O operation



2.          Second – Generation Computers

1.      Transistors and diodes were used.

2.      Speed of computing was measured in microseconds

3.      Consider about reduction of heat

4.      Remarkable improvement in reliability

5.      Storage capacity was increased

6.      Magnetic tapes were used instead of punching cards.



3.         Third Generation Computers

1.      Integrated Circuits were used.

2.      Speed is measured in nanoseconds

3.      Occupied less space.

4.      devices like visual display unit for I/O devices



4.         Fourth – Generation Computers

1.      Use of micro processor chip

2.      Speed was measured in nano and picoseconds

3.      Occupied less space

4.      Commonly available as personal computers

5.      Mini & micro Computers are developed from micro-processor



5.  Fifth – Generation Computers:

1.      Use of super large-scale integration (SLSI) chip in computer (super computers)

2.      Capable of performing millions of instructions per seconds (MIPS)

3.      Processing speed is high.

4.      Use of RICS (reduced instructions set computing) for processing

5.      Super computers are expensive.



Types of Computers



1.      Mainframe Computers

2.      Mini Computers

3.      Micro Computers

4.      Super Computers

Mainframe Computers work at a high speed, and have a high storage capacity

Mini Computers are medium and powerful Computers.

Micro Computer are the commonly used as general purpose Computer

Data Storage in a Computer

1.      4bits = 1 Nibble

2.      8bits = 1 byte

3.      1024 bytes = 1k or 1kb (kilobyte)

4.      1024KB = 1MB (mega byte)

5.      1024MB = 1GB (Gega byte)

6.      1024GB = 1TBC Terabytes


Organization of Computer:

1.      Arithmetic and Logical unit

2.      Memory unit

3.      Control unit

4.      Input unit

5.      Output unit



The Input and Output units are used to receive and display Inputs & Solutions

Common i/p & o/p devices : Keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) Consists of.

1.      ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit)

2.      CU (Control Unit)

3.      MU (Memory Unit)


1.      The Control Unit Controls all the activities of the Computer. It sends commands and control signals and finds the sequence of instruction to be executed.

2.      Memory Unit is the place where all input data and results are stored. Computer memory is also available in the form of Random Access Memory (RAM)

3.      ALU Consists of CKTs for arithmetic operations(+,-,*,/) and logical operations (<,>,>=,<=,==,!=)


Connected components of CPU are called peripherals

Input devices                                                                                                   Output devices




1.
Keyboard
1.
Printer
2.
Mouse
2.
Monitor
3.
Joystic
3.
Dot Matrix Printer


4. Laser printers

5.LCD







Storage Devices :

1.
Floppy disk
2.
Hard disk
3.
Compact disk

Computer Main Memory :

Primary memory            RAM (Random Access memory)

Secondary memory      ROM (Read only memory)

Hard disk

RAM : It is a temporary storage medium in a computer. The data to be processed by the computer are transferred from a storage devices or a keyboard to RAM results from a executed program are also stored in RAM. The data stored will be erased when the computer is off.

ROM (Read only Memory) : This is a non-volatile or data storage medium which stores start up programs (operating systems). This essentially stores the BIOS (Basic Input Operating System)

Note : Basically Computer System components communicate it binaries as (0‟s & 1‟s, 0 refers OFF state,1 refer ON state)

Languages of different Generation Computer.

1.      First – Generation Language : All the instructions are in the binary form and are referred to as machine level or low level language (LLL). It is very difficult to read the instructions written in binary

Eg : 00110101011101110001, 101100001010101

2.      Second – Generation Language: all the instruction are in the forms of mnemonics. The symbolic instruction language called as Assembly Language. All the symbolic instructions are converted into binaries with the help of translator called Assembles. ASCII (American Standard Code For Information Interchange) is commonly used for translation of source Program into object program



Source Program              Eg : ADD A, B, R,

More R,S

Assembler                         Translated by Assemble




Object Program
0101
10101010

0100
00001101




3.      Third – Generation Language : These are written in English with symbols and digits. Then are known as High level language (HLL). common high level languages are c,c++, COBOL, BASIC, FORTRAN, PASCAL, etc.



For execution the program is translation into binary form by compiler or interpreter. Source program


Compiler



Object Prog.



Linker



Executable Program
Run the program