subject: PROGRAMMING IN C

Introduction to Computers – Computer Systems, Computing Environments

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DECK: Introduction to Computer Systems

Flash Card 1: What is Computer?

 A computer is an electronic machine that stores, retrieves and manipulates, or

processes data.
 It cannot think or reason; it can only carry out instructions given to it.
 Is a collection of entities(hardware, software and liveware) that are designed to
receive, process, manage and present information in a meaningful format.
 A set of instructions that directs its actions is called a program. Different programs
are used to solve different problems.
 Ability to accept, store, and execute various sets of instructions (or programs) makes
the computer the invaluable.

Fig: A Computer System

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Flash Card 2: Functionalities of a computer

 Any digital computer carries out five functions in gross terms:

o Input or inserting data and instructions.
o Processing
 o Output or retrieving data or information.
o Storing data or information/file management.
o Controlling of devices and functions.
 The computer reads a program and stores it in the memory. Thecomputer executes
program instructions to:
Input data from the disk, the keyboard, or other storage media,
process the data and
Output results to the display screen, disk or other media.

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Flash Card 3: Data processing cycle

 The instructions of a program generally direct the computer to perform three basic
functions over and over again; these functions are input, processing, and output.
 Collectively, these functions constitute the data processing cycle.
o Input: input devices are connected to feed the computer facts or data to
be processed.
o Processing: the control and storing of data, numerical comparisons, and
arithmetic operations are performed on the input data to produce the
desired results.
o Output: the computer feeds the processed data or information, to the
output devices.

Fig: Data Processing Cycle

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Flash Card 4: Generation of Computer

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Flash Card 5: Components of a Computer System

There are three major components of a computer system:

o Hardware: Hardware generally refers to the machines or physical equipment that

performs the basic functions of the data
o Software: Programs are referred as Software.
o Humanware: Humanware refers to the persons who design, program, and
operate a computer installation.
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Flash Card 6: Hardware

 Computer hardware is the collection of physical elements that constitutes a computer
system.
 Computer hardware refers to the physical parts or components of a computer such
as the monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer data storage, hard drive disk (HDD),
system unit (graphic cards, sound cards, memory, motherboard and chips), etc.
 These are computer system components that can be touched by the human hand.
 The most important piece of hardware is the microprocessor chip, which is commonly
known as the central processing unit (CPU).
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Flash Card 7: Software

 Software is a set of instructions, data or programs used to operate computers and

execute specific tasks. It actually tells to computer how to work?
 It is the opposite of hardware, which describes the physical aspects of a computer.
 Software is generally categorized as either system software or application
software.
System Software:
 System software consists of programs that facilitate the use of computer by a user.
 These programs are sometimes referred to as utility programs.
 They perform such standard tasks as
o organizing and maintaining data files,
o translating programs written in various languages to a language acceptable to
the computer,
o scheduling jobs through the computer, as well as aiding in other areas of
general operations.

Application Software:
 Application software consists of programs to perform specific user applications
 Application programs are either purchased or written by the computer users for
specific applications.

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Flash Card 8: Comparison between System software and Application Software
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Flash Card 9: Humanware

 Humanware refers to the persons who design, program, and operate a computer
installation.
 There are numerous categories of jobs, but the three principal positions required in a
large computer installation are
 system analyst,
 programmer, and
 computer operator.
 People in each of these areas generally perform special-purpose tasks under the
supervision of a director or manager.

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DECK: Computing Environments

Flash Card 10: Introduction to Computing Environment

 During problem solving a computer uses many devices, arranged in different ways
and which work together to solve that problem.
 An environment where various number of computer devices arranged in different
ways to solve different types of problems in different ways is known as Computing
Environment.
 In different computing environments computer devices are arranged in different ways
and they exchange information in between them to process and solve problem.
  One computing environment consists of many computers other computational
devices, software and networks that to support processing and sharing information
and solving task.
Types of Computing Environment:
 Personal Computing Environment
 Time sharing Environment
 Client Server Environment
 Distributed Environment

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Flash Card 11:
Personal Computing Environment
 In personal computing environment there is a stand-alone machine.
 All of the computer hardware components are tied together in our personal computer.
 A personal computer (PC) is a computer whose original sales price,size, and
capabilities make it useful for individuals, and intended to be operated directly by an
end user, with no intervening computer operator.
 Complete program resides on computer and executed there.
 Different stand-alone machines that constitute a personal computing environment are
laptops, mobiles, printers, computer systems, scanners etc. That we use at our
homes and offices.

Fig: Personal Computing Environment Devices

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Flash Card 12:

Time sharing Computing Environment

 In Time Sharing Computing Environment multiple users share system

simultaneously.
 All computing must be done by the central computer.
 Different users (different processes) are allotted different time slice and processor
switches rapidly among users according to it.
 Employees in large companies often work in the time-sharing environment, many
users are connected to one or more computers. These computers may be mini
computers and central mainframes.
 In this environment the output devices, auxiliary storage devices are shared by all the
users.
  For example, student listening to music while coding something in an IDE. Windows
95 and later versions, Unix, IOS, Linux operating systems are the examples of this
time-sharing computing environment.

Fig: Time Sharing Computing Environment

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Flash Card 13:

Client Server Computing Environment

 In Client Server computing, the computing function splits between a central computer
and user’s computers.
 The users are given personal computers or work stations so that some of the
computation responsibility can be moved from the central computer and assigned to
the workstations.
 In the client/server environment the user’s micro computers or work stations are
called the client.
 The central computer which may be a powerful microcomputer, minicomputer or
central mainframe system is known as server.
 In this computing environment client requests resource/service and server provides
that respective resource/service.
 A server can provide service to multiple clients at a time and here mainly
communication happens through computer network.

Fig: Client Server Computing Environment

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Flash Card 14:

Distributed Computing Environment

 In a distributed computing environment multiple nodes are connected together using
network but physically they are separated.
 A distributed computing environment provides a seamless integration of computing
functions between different servers and clients.
 This environment provides reliable, scalable and highly available network.
 A single task is performed by different functional units of different nodes of distributed
unit.
 Here different programs of an application run simultaneously on different nodes, and
communication happens in between different nodes of this system over network to
solve task.

Fig: Distributed Computing Environment

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