DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, OZORO

LECTURE NOTE FROM COMPUTER SCIENCE

ON

CSC 101: INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE

FOR FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE

CSC 101: Introduction to Computer Sscience
Before discussing the various topics that relate to the history of computers, and other related topics
in this lecture note, basic terms that relate to computer science have been described. Understanding
the terms associated to computer science, information technology and information and
communication technology in general develop your understanding of key concepts which have
been discussed in this course.
What is a Computer, Computer Science, Information Technology and Information and
Communication Technolog?
Computer
A computer is defined as an electronic device designed for storing and processing data, typically
in binary form.
Computer Science
There are several definitions for the term Computer Science most of them converge to the one
given here. Computer Science can be defined as the study of computers and computational
systems. Computer scientists deal mostly with software and software systems; this includes their
theory, design, development, and application.
Information Technology:
IT is defined as the study or use of systems (especially computers and telecommunications) for
storing, retrieving, and sending information. It refers to the uses of computers, networking,
software and other equipment to manage information. In the modern world information
technology is integral to the success of business and most companies are equipped with computers,
DBMS (Database Management Systems), servers (computers with high computing capacity) for
storing, processing, retrieving and protecting information of the company. It can also be seen as
the techniques used in Information System. An information system collects, processes, stores,
analyzes, and disseminates information for a specific purpose.
Communication is the backbone of IT. IT can be defined as the implementation of Information
Science where Information Science is a set of algorithms, principles and theories. Computer
System, Internet, Telecommunication systems are the information technology we use.
Information systems are scattered throughout organizations, often in several locations and
sometimes in two or more organizations. IT is implemented here to relay the information between
these locations. Not only the organization but also the individual today is dependant on IT for
career development and education. Education Institutions today provide distant education and
online examinations. GIS has emerged due to the development in IT. Scientists now are able to
acquire geographical information from the satellites.
Information and Communication Technology
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes
communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer
and network hardware and software, satellite systems, etc. and all the technical means for
processing and communicating information. The term encompasses both digital as well as pre-
digital technologies, including paper-based writing. However, it is most often used to describe
digital technologies including:
1. Components of data communication such as communication protocols, transmission
techniques, communications equipment, transmission medium. as well as
2. available techniques for data storage and information processing.
The term has been coined out due to the convergence of information technology (IT) and
telecommunication technology. In a nutshell ICT encompasses elements such as storage media to
record information (whether paper, pen, magnetic disk/ tape, optical disks - CD/DVD, flash
memory etc.); and also technology for broadcasting information - radio, television,; and any

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technology for communicating through voice and sound or images- microphone, camera,
loudspeaker, telephone to cellular phones and the Internet

Evolution of Information Processing

Information Processing evolved due to the growth of national and international organizations.
Today, information processing permeates all areas of our daily life. The overview of its history
can thus only be presented in a spotlight manner and should encourage readers to seek more
detailed literature. The Internet offers a further rich and easily accessible source of information.
Today computer1 is a synonym for information processing technology. Its development in no way
followed a straight path. In today’s computers different lines of development, which in the past
had nothing in common, are united. Our computers originated from calculating machines. These
machines originally functioned purely mechanically to link information in that the rules required
and their storage were realized through one and the same components. Very early on it proved to
be practical to separate these functions. While the linkage of information in the true calculator
remained linked to a material realization (hardware), this was not the case for the rules (software).
The term computer first appeared in the literature in 1646 from Sir Thomas Browne, who meant
the people who calculated the calendars to measure the passage of time. Up to the 1930s, the
meaning remained the same: persons with mathematical training who performed calculations in
construction offices and observatories on the basis of formulas were known in Great Britain and
the United States as “the computers.
Punch cards mark the beginning of the development of storage. Originally a control element for
weaving looms and for automated music, they were for a short time of dominant significance for
the storage of data and software in computer technology. They were soon replaced by magnetic
memory technology. This technology, originally used in the record industry, was also only used
for a limited time and was then replaced by other processes.
Another important development, which at the beginning had nothing to do with computer
technology, was news transfer. Starting with the optical semaphores via electrical telegraphs, a
worldwide telephone and news network was developed. This network was and is the prerequisite
for the World Wide Web (web, or WWW) out of which a global computer with fully new qualities
and totally new dimensions developed
A further development line was wireless news transmission. For a long time, the main area of use
was radio, television, and special applications. One of these special applications, namely radar
technology, led to the development and use of semiconductors. The integrated circuits emerging
from this technology are essential to every area of today’s information processing. Apart from this,
this development line melted into the previously mentioned news networks.
In contrast to the examples cited, the BUS (binary unit system) was developed for the transfer of
data in computers, meaning from a central computer (or CPU, central processor unit) to the
peripheral systems such as printers, memory, etc. Today it provides a basis for networks of
technical systems in manufacturing, vehicles, etc. The LBS (agricultural BUS system) is one
example. It conducts data transfer between very different groups of components and implements
in agriculture.
Information and Information Processing
Life without information processing is not possible. Every living organism has the ability to receive
information, process it, and react with a single goal: survival. Through language, humans
developed (between one and two million years ago) a unique possibility for communication, to
exchange information. With the development of agriculture [1] about 13 000 years ago came high
population density, with the consequent need for storage of supplies, trade, and crafts, and thus the
need to administrate these factors. The development of numbers and writing must be viewed
against this background because humans were for the first time in a position to store information
and communicate this over time and space.
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Writing and Numbers
The discovery of writing without a model was apparently so difficult that it was only successful a
few times in the history of mankind. It was certainly successful in about 3000 B.C. by the
Babylonians and 600 B.C. by the Zapotecs in Mexico, possibly in Egypt in 3000 B.C., and in
China around 1300 B.C. Naturally, the first efforts to write were based on numbers and
substantives (bookkeeping for trade and administration). For many thousands of years, humans
made aids for counting by notching pieces of wood and bones. These are the oldest forms of
counting and sign-writing. This form can still be found in many parts of the world today. Roman
numerals and old Chinese numbers are derived from this. Stones were also used for counting. For
this reason, the Latin word calculus (pebbles) is found in many languages such as Kalkül, calculus,
or calcul. A further, less common, form of counting and the storage of numbers is the knot tying
of a band. The great achievement of the Sumerians was to print signs in clay instead of pebbles or
notches. They used a wedge for one and a circle for ten, as well as an illustration of the product.
In this way inventory lists for trade and taxes were made. Through the replacement of illustrations
with substantives the first step in the development of writing was made. Our current base ten
systems, related to our ten fingers, is in no way self-evident. In other cultures, systems based on
twelve, twenty, and sixty were developed. Our current degree and time division are based on the
latter. Generally, every natural number is suited as the basis for a counting system. Of particular
significance was the development of positional notation and the use of the zero. Both are attributed
to the Babylonians. However, the positional notation was apparently developed independently in
several cultures. The “discovery” of the number zero is attributed to the Indians. Through this
achievement, the realm of natural numbers was increased. The space value and the number zero
made systematic writing and counting possible according to simple rules. With the blossoming of
science in Central Europe in the 12th century, this form of presentation and the Arabic numerals
expanded from Spain. However, it took almost 300 years for these figures to fully replace the
Roman numerals. This change caused a dramatic development in counting technologies, which
serves as the basis for our current information processing.
Concept of Information
Energy, matter, and information are the most important basic concepts in the natural sciences. In
the broadest sense, the reception of information and its processing through to the generation of a
reaction is “information processing.” The reception takes place through receptors (sense
organs/sensors) and as a rule, includes pre-processing. Information processing in a narrower sense
takes place via a special unit (brain/processor) and includes the linkages as well as the storage and
transmission of information. The result is either sent out or causes a reaction (motor/actor).
Although the concept of information is of central meaning (particularly for informatics, the science
of the systematic processing of information) it is hardly specified. There is no commonly valid
definition. Thus, the only possibility is to characterize information by its features. Information
• can be presented via speech, signals, signs, etc.;
• can be stored, linked, transmitted, etc.;
• requires no fixed carriers, knows no original, and can be copied any way;
• is without value (not to be confused with the value of its content);
• cannot age (although the content can certainly be outdated and the material carrying the
information can age);
• can be combined or manipulated anyway, and it is impossible to recognize this by the information
itself, meaning that manipulations or falsifications of information or portions thereof are also
information;
• serves to process information, meaning self-processing; and
• consists, as explained by Norbert Wiener, of syntax, semantic and pragmatic portions.
Signals are basic changes. A date is a signal presented by a sign. A message is a consequence of
signals including their spatial and time organization. The simplest signal is an exchange between
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two objects, with the unit of measure being one bit. The creation of information is often falsely
considered a sign of intelligence. In fact, intelligence is the reduction, the selection of information.
Early Aids in Information Processing
If one speaks of information processing technology, one associates it today with technical aids,
primarily computers. They are developed from calculation aids, which are in focus here (Figure 1
portrays this genealogy of information processing technology.) Humans began very early to create
aids to process, store, and transfer information. Writing, pebbles, and knots as methods to store
and transfer information have already been mentioned. The abacus and the counting table3 were
the first counting aids emerging from the stones or sand. The abacus has the advantage that its
principle is independent of the number system. It relies on the relative position of the counting
stones. It lost its significance in Europe with the change from the Roman to the Indo-Arabic
counting system in the 16th century but is still used as a systematic counting aid in many parts of
the world, such as Russia and China.
With the discovery of the logarithm in 1614 by John Napier, the basis for the development of the
slide rule was created. This tool was still being used until the emergence of the electronic calculator
in the middle of the last century. Henry Briggs published the first logarithm table seven years later.
Napier’s idea, to take the already existing Tabulae Pythagoria from the Hindus and the Arabs and
change it somewhat, cut it into strips, and transfer it to small sticks, was of high importance. With
these “Napier’s Bones” one could carry out all four types of basic calculation as well as squares
and roots. Instead of calculating by ordering the “Napier’s Bones” by hand, very soon refined
mechanisms were invented to mechanize this process, including sexagesimal systems for
astronomic calculations.

Scopes/ Application field of Information System

Telecommunication
Internet
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 GIS
Education
Security System
E-Governance
Medicine
Scientific Research

Introduction to Computer Education

Computer education is the dissemination of computer knowledge into the learners. Computer
has influenced virtually all areas of human endeavour. Education is being revolutionized by
computers.
Advantages of computer education
These include the following:
• It enhances use of visualisation tools
• It enhances use of simulation tools
• It enhances introduction of distributed multi-media environment.
• It enhances video conferencing tutorials.
It assists the implementation of resources sharing in electronic media of library holding and
teachers’ instruction
A computer is a programmable electronic machine. It takes raw facts as input, process these and
gives the final output which is the result of processing. It responds to a specific set of instructions
in a well-defined manner. It can execute a pre-recorded list of instructions (a program).

Classification of Computers
Computers are classified according to the storage capacity, speed and the purpose for which
they are developed. These can be classified into three types:
1. Analog Computes 2. Digital Computers 3. Hybrid Computers
1. Analog computers: They operate by measuring instead of counting. The name (derived
from greek word analog) denotes that the computer functions by establishing similarities
between the two quantities. They are powerful tools for solving differential
equations.

2. Digital Computers: These computers operate by counting. All quantities are expressed
as discrete digits or numbers. These are useful for evaluating arithmetic expressions and
manipulations of data.

3. Hybrid Computers: Computers which combine the features of analog and digital
computers are known as Hybrid computers.
A majority of the computers that are in use are digital. These computers were essentially
developed for computations. Later, the developments in the computers led to the use of digital
computers in variety of applications. Depending on the use of applications, the digital
computers are classified into 1) Special Purpose Computers and 2) General Purpose
Computers

1. Special Purpose Computers: These are developed with a specific purpose. Some of the
areas where these computers are being used are – soil testing, drip irrigation, medical
scanning, traffic signals, spacecraft, rocket technology etc.,

2. General Purpose Computers: These are developed to meet the requirements of several
areas such as simulation, solving mathematical equations, payroll and personnel database.

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 These computers are available in different sizes and capabilities and are further classified
(based on memory, speed, storage) as follows.
a) Super Computers b) Mainframe Computers c) Mini Computers d) Micro
Computers

a) Super Computers: These have extremely large storage capacities and computing
speeds which are atleast 10 times faster than other computers. These are used for
large scale numerical problems in scientific and engineering disciplines such as
electronics, weather forecasting etc. The first super computer was developed in
U.S.A. by CRAY computers. In India the indigenous super computer was
developed under the name Param.
b) Mainframe Computers: They also have large storage and high computing speed
(but relatively lower than the super computers). They are used in applications like
weather forecasting, space applications etc., they support a large number of
terminals for use by a variety of users simultaneously, but are expensive
c) Mini Computers: It is a medium sized computer with moderate cost, available
indigenously and used for large volume applications. It can serve multi-users
simultaneously
d) Micro Computers: A micro computer is the smallest general-purpose processing
system. Micro-computers are also referred as ―personal computers‖(PC). These
are self contained units and usually developed for use by one person at a time but
can be linked to very large systems. They are cheap, easy to use even at homes
and can be read for variety of applications from small to medium range. These
are available in three models:
a) Super Computers
They are the computers with the most processing power.
• The primary application of supercomputers has been in scientific and military work,
but their use is growing in business as their prices decreases.
• They are especially valuable for large simulation models of real-world phenomena,
where complex mathematical representations and calculations are required or for image
creation and processing.
• They are also used in weather prediction, design aircraft (Boeing 777), motion picture
like star-wars and Jurassic Park)
• They operate generally at 4 to 10 times faster than the next most powerful computer
class., the mainframe.

a) Mainframe Computers
• They are less powerful and generally less expensive than supercomputers.
• Large corporate use mainframe computers for centralized data processing maintaining
large databases.
• Application than run on a mainframe can be large and complex, allowing for data and
information to be shared throughout the organization.
• Examples: Airline Reservation System, Corporate Payroll, Student Information etc.
• A mainframe system may have anywhere from 50megabytes to several gigabytes of
primary storage.
• Secondary storage may use high capacity magnetic and optical storage media with
capacities in the gigabytes to terabyte range.

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 • Typically, several hundreds or thousands or online computers can be linked to a
mainframe.
• Advance mainframe performs more than 1,000 MIPS and can handle up to one billion
transactions per day.

b) Mini Computers
• Also called midrange computers, are relatively small, inexpensive, and compact
computers that perform the same functions as mainframe computers but to a limited
extent.
• They are designed especially for accomplishing specific tasks such as process control,
scientific research, and engineering applications.
• IBM is the market leader in minicomputers with its AS/400 series of computers.
• Larger companies gain greater corporate flexibility by distributing data processing with
minicomputers in organizational units instead of centralization at one place.
• They form the network.

c) Workstations
• Computers vendors originally developed desktop engineering workstations or to
provide the high levels of performance demanded by engineers.
• They have based on RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) architecture and
provide both very high-speed calculations and high-resolution graphic displays.
• The distinction between workstations and personal computers is rapidly blurring.
• The latest PCs have the computing power of a recent workstation.

d) Micro Computers
These are also called PCs and are the smallest and least expensive category of general-
purpose computers. Micro-computer ranges from palmtops to Desktop computers.
Laptops/ Notebooks are very popular now a day. A microprocessor is the core part of
Microcomputersers which forms the CPU.
History of Computing Devices
The Digital Computers
A digital computer bases its whole operation on the ability to determine if a switch (sometimes
called a gate), is either open or closed. As this type of computer can only recognized two states,
its microcircuits are either on or off, while in the case of letters and numbers only O’s and 1’s are
used (e.g. the letter “a” would be represented to the PC as something similar to “00110101).
It would appear from the above that the digital computer performs a relatively simple task, So
what makes it so special? There are 2 things that makes a computer special, the first is the speed
at which a computer performs this simple task and the second is the amount (volume) of data the
computer handles at any one time.
A computer’s speed called “clock speed” is measured in millions of cycles per second (megahertz
or MHZ), which means that a computer with a clock speed of 66 MHz, for example an 80486DX
66MHz, is capable of executing 66 million operations each second.
As mentioned above, the amount of data computer handles during each cycle also makes it special.
A computer performs checks on groups of switches, increasing the number of operations it can
recognize in each cycle, which means a computer checking two switches at one time, can execute
one of four instructions at each cycle
Introduction to The History /Origin of Computing
The birth of computers, however, depended upon many other factors, such as the development of
certain technology from the early 1900s, the availability of huge sums of money, world war 2,

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changes in government, attitude, and development of basic computing theories. Essentially, there
are three kinds of calculating devices
➢ Manual
➢ Mechanical
➢ Automatic
19th Century Devices
1. Abacus
The Abacus device is the first manual calculating device invented by a Chinese group of
educationists and scientists.
It is made of a frame divided into two parts by a horizontal bar and vertical threads. Each thread
contains some beads.
It is used to do simple addition and subtraction by shifting the beads from one portion to another

Chinese Abacus–Suanpan

2. Napier bones
This is also a manually operated calculating device invented by John Napier of Merchiston,
Scotland in 1617.
Napier bones is a set of eleven rods with four sides each which was used as a multiplication tool.
These rods were made from bones. The rods had numbers marked that are placed side by side.
It is used in calculating products and quotients of large numbers. Its principle is based on lattice
multiplication – a technology that allows multiplication to be performed via addition
Kinds of Napier’s Rods or Bones:

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1. Index bone –
It is used to help or align the strips and also to identify rows that are there on the digit
strips.
2. Digital bone –
It is a More than one-digit bone that is of the same kind as it is needed to represent a
number that is more than one of the same digits.
3. Square root bone –
While taking a root requires the 3 simultaneous computations, and the 3 columns are
needed on the bone. These are called the square of the digit. It helps in making multiples of
a number very easily, also the multiplication, division, and the taking of a square root as
well.
Example –
The following is an example of how the Napier bones calculator works.
• The numbers 0-8 are written at the top of the eight columns in a square.
• The diagonal lines split each square in half.
• The numbers written from 2-9 are on the left side of the box.
• The numbers written at the top of each box is being multiplied by each number on the left.
• At last, the units of the answer are written at the bottom side of each box or square.

Napier Bones

3. Slide rule
This is a mechanical calculating device built in England in 1632 by the NASA engineers of
Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs which landed men on the moon.
The slide rule uses two logarithmic scales to allow rapid multiplication and division of numbers.
In general, mathematical calculations are performed by aligning a mark on the sliding central strip
with a mark on one of the fixed strips and then observing the relative positions of other marks on
the strips.
The slide rule is used primarily for multiplication and division and also for functions such as roots,
logarithms, and trigonometry, but is not normally used for addition or subtraction.

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 Components of A Slide Rule

The slide rule is actually made of three bars that are fixed together. The sliding center bar is
sandwiched by the outer bars which are fixed with respect to each other. The metal "window" is
inserted over the slide rule to act as a placeholder. A cursor is fixed in the center of the "window"
to allow for accurate readings.

The scales (A-D) are labeled on the left-hand side of the slide rule. The number of scales on a slide
rule varies depending on the number of mathematical functions the slide rule can perform.
Multiplication and division are performed using the C and D scales. Square and square roots are
performed with the A and B scales. The numbers are marked according to a logarithmic scale.
Therefore, the first number on the slide rule scale (also called the index) is 1 because the log of
zero is one.

Explanation of How It Works

Example - To multiply 3 by 2:

1. Move the sliding middle section with scale "C" so that the 1 on the scale matches the 3 on
the lower fixed section with scale "D".
2. Now read along the top scale to the 2 and see what it says on the bottom scale.
3. The bottom scale should read approximately 6 which is the answer.
4. We have just added a log of 3 distance on the bottom to a log of 2 distance on the top to
get a log of 6 distance on the bottom.

Calculating 3 x 2 on a Slide Rule

The slide rule also works for numbers larger than what is represented on the scale of the ruler. For
example, double digit numbers can be represented by mentally "moving" the decimal places.

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 Calculating 30 x 20 on a Slide Rule

To perform division, simply reverse the steps for multiplication:

1. Set the divisor on the C scale opposite the dividend on the D scale
2. Read the result of the D scale under the C scale index (where the scale reads 1)

To multiply multiple numbers:

1. Perform the multiplication method for the first two factors as previous described.
2. Then move the C index to the previous product to start the next multiplication. The
hairline or cursor was handy for keeping a pointer on the previous product while moving
the slide.

To find the square root of a number:

1. The A and B scales are the squares of the D and C scales, respectively. Example: To
determine the square root of 9, look on the A scale for 9.
2. Find the answer, 3, on the D scale below the A scale.

To find the square:

1. Reverse the square root process to find the square.

Calculating 91/2

IMPORTANT NOTE: There may be confusion about which side of the A scale to use. For
example, the square root of 4 is 2 and the square root of 400 is 20 - both calculations can be found
using the left side of the A scale. However, to find the square root of 40, it is necessary to use the
right side of the scale to get the correct answer of ~6.3. The simplest method to determine which
side of the A scale to use is to write the number in standard scientific notation form (ie n.nnn x
10^exp). If the power of ten was even (exp = even), use the left side to find the square/square root
(and the resulting exponent of ten was one half the original exponent). For odd powers of ten, shift
the decimal place of the number one place to the right and decreased the exponent of ten by one.
Then use the right side (and again used one half the exponent of ten for the resulting exponent).

Title
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Dominant Mathematics:

In 1614, John Napier discovered the logarithm (reference: HP Computer Museum webpage)

Title

Reference: The System Source Computer Museum: Mechanical Calculators.

(http://www.syssrc.com/museum/mechcalc/javaslide/srinst.html)

Notice that on this scale the distance between the divisions is decreasing. This is a characteristic
of a log scale. A logarithm relates one number to another number much like a mathematical
function. The log of a number, to the base 10, is defined by:

(1)

The "magic" of the slide rule is actually based on a mathematical logarithmic relation:

(2)

(3)

These relations made it possible to perform multiplication and division using addition and
subtraction. Before the slide rule, the product of two numbers were found by looking up their
respective logs and adding them together, then finding the number whose log is the sum, also
called the inverse log.

(4)

Equation (4) can be found by manipulating equation (2). It demonstrates that a square of a number
can be found by doubling its log and getting the inverse log of the answer. Therefore, scales A and
B were developed to perform the square and square root functions on the slide rule. The A scale is
just twice the D scale on the same printed on the same length of the slide rule as the D scale.

The slide rule made its first appearance in the late 17th century. The slide rule made it easier to
utilize the log relations by developing a number line on which the displacement of the numbers
were proportional to their logs. The slide rule eased the addition of the two logarithmic
displacements of the numbers, thus assisting with multiplication and division in calculations. More
functionality was later added such as the ability to compute exponential and trigonometric

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functions. Slide rules come in many different styles, including sliding bars and rotating cylinders
and circles.
Limiting Physics:The accuracy of the calculations made with a slide rule depends on the
accuracy with which the user can read the numbers off the scale. More divisions allow for more
decimal places which mean increased accuracy.
4. Pascal’s calculator
In 1642, Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, and scientist at age 19 invented the Pascaline, a
second mechanical calculating machine. Up until the present age when car dashboards went digital,
the odometer portion of a car‘s speedometer used the very same mechanism as the Pascaline to
increment the next wheel after each full revolution of the prior wheel.
Numbers were entered by dialing a series of numbered wheels in this machine. A sequence of
wheels transferred the movements to a dial, which showed the results
The calculator had spoked metal wheel dials, with the digit 0 through 9 displayed around the
circumference of each wheel. To input a digit the user placed a stylus in the corresponding space
between the spokes, and the dial until a metal stop at the bottom was reached, similar to the way a
rotary telephone dial is used.
The device performs addition and subtraction of up to 8 digits numbers. It can also perform division
by repeated subtraction and multiplication by repeated addition.

Carrying numbers in Pascaline’s Calculator consisted of three phases:

1. The display register must start with 4 and move to 9. The sautoir lifts and the active
wheel would touch what is receiving the carry.
2. The second phase begins after the registration starts at 9 and goes down to 0. The sautoir
is moving up and then, suddenly, the second carry pin will drop it. Its own weight causes the
sautoir to fall.
3. The third phase consists of a pin pushing against the receiving wheel, causing it to turn.
The upper rachet then correctly positions the whole receiving mechanism. During the final phase,

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the sautoir then added 1 to the receiving wheel. During this phase, the sautoir wasn’t touching
the wheel.

5. Leibnitz’s calculator
Baron Von Leibnitz, a German Philosopher and Mathematician, invented Leibnitz’s calculator
between 1646 to 1716, but did not complete it until 1694. This was the first two motion calculator
designed to multiply by repetitive addition, but faults prevented it from becoming popular. The
device’s ideas were good but the execution time was not. It was popularly known as “Step
Reckoner”.
The Leibnitz’s calculator incorporated a new mechanical feature, the stepped drum- a cylinder
baring teeth of different lengths which increase in equal amounts around the drum.
The mechanical device made of copper and steel. Carriage is performed with a stepped wheel;
which mechanism is still in use today. Wheels are placed at right angels which could be displaced
by a special stepping mechanism.
The device can used to multiply, divide, add, and subtract. It actually utilized the same techniques
for addition and subtraction as Pascal’s device but in addition, Leibnitz’s calculator can also
perform multiplication and division and the most amazing is that it could
extract square roots

Leibnitz’s calculator and Its Counting mechanism

Features of Leibniz Calculator:
i. It is faster in speed as compared to pascals calculator
ii. It is time-consuming and It works faster and speedy.
iii. It can do calculations very easily and in a faster way.
iv. It is a strong advocate of the binary system.
v. It is the true four-function calculator.

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Advantages of Leibniz Calculator:
i. It helps in preventing the machines from working reliably.
ii. It is the type of machine which is used for calculating the engine of a class of mechanical
calculators.
iii. Leibniz calculator is known for its strong advocate in the binary system.
iv. It is also known as the first true four-function calculator
v. It was the first successful mechanical calculator.
vi. It can do the calculations easily as it works faster and in a speedier way and it is time-
consuming as well.
Disadvantages of Leibniz Calculator:
i. It has its inability to carry or borrow numbers automatically
ii. Leibniz’s calculator was the only surviving version of the calculator which is on display at
a museum
iii. It is an inoperative or an object which is surviving from an earlier time.
6. Jacquard Loom
Jacquard Loom was one of the first machines that were run by a program in 1671
Jacquard Loom could weave more accurately and faster than any human and the information could
be spread easily by making more looms and more cards.
Joseph Jacquard died in 1834 but his work still lives till today and are still in use today for making
of fabrics for furniture. He also initiated the storage of information on punch cards which were
secured tightly alongside each other in a sequential manner (with absence of holes or presence of
holes.
This basic principle of one or the other of two states is the fundamental basis of binary coding
system being used in computing even today. It automatically produced textile designs as per the
program on the punch cards.

Jacquard Loom
How a Jacquard Loom Works
First, a designer paints their pattern onto squared paper. A card maker then translates the pattern
row by row onto punch cards. For each square on the paper that has not been painted in, the card
maker punches a hole in the card. For each painted square, no hole is punched.
The cards, each with their own combination of punched holes corresponding to the part of the
pattern they represent, are then laced together, ready to be fed one by one through the Jacquard
mechanism fitted at the top of the loom.
When a card is pushed towards a matrix of pins in the Jacquard mechanism, the pins pass through
the punched holes, and hooks are activated to raise their warp threads. Where there are no holes
the pins press against the card, stopping the corresponding hooks from raising their threads.

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A shuttle then travels across the loom, carrying the weft thread under the warp threads that have
been raised and over those that have not. This repeating process causes the loom to produce the
patterned cloth that the punch cards have instructed it to create.
NW: A standard card was divided into 80 columns and 12 rows. Only one character could be
represented in the 80s columns, thus providing a maximum of 80 characters per card. Punching
one or two, three holes in any one column represented a character. Holes were punched into a
blank card by a punch machine whose keyboard resembled that of a typewriter.
A card reader provides the interface between the punched card and the computer. The reader is
designed to accept the code and to generate electronic pulses.
7. Babbage’s Difference Engine
Charles Babbage on 26th December1791- 18th October 1871, an English mathematician,
mechanical Engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer. He is widely
recognised as the father of the modern computer.
The Difference Engine was designed in 1822 that produced the first reliable life tables (statistics
of expectation of life) which were in use for the next 50 years. It was intended to be steam powered;
fully automatic, even to the printing of the resulting tables; and commanded by a fixed instruction
program. This was never finished.
The Difference Engine could solve polynomial equations using a numerical method called the
method of differences.

Babbage’s Difference Engine

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 HOW IT WORKS

the function x2 + 4 are shown in the second

column with the first four values calculated by
mental arithmetic or by hand (5, 8, 13, 20).
The next step is to calculate the first and second
differences. The first differences are shown in the
third column and are calculated by subtracting
successive values from the previous column as
shown by the solid arrows flowing from left to
right (8-5=3, 13-8=5 etc.). The second differences
are calculated by subtracting first difference pairs
and these are shown in the last column.
With these initial values calculated the rest of the
values of the function can be calculated by
reversing the process. The values we wish to
calculate are shown below the upper dotted line.
For this polynomial, the second difference is a
constant (2). To calculate the value of the function
for x=5 the constant difference (2) is added to the
first difference (7) to obtain the next first
difference (9) (red arrow), which can then be
Principle of The Difference Engines added to the last function value (blue arrow) to
Difference engines are so called because of yield F(5) = 29. This is the desired result, achieved
the mathematical principle on which they without performing multiplication.
are based, namely, the method of finite The process can then be repeated to yield the next
differences. In general, calculating the value first difference (11) which may be added to the last
of a polynomial can require any or all of function value to get F(6) = 40, etc. Using this
addition, subtraction, multiplication and method, any second-degree polynomial can be
division. computed this way and, more generally any
An advantage of the method of finite nth degree polynomial can be computed, using
differences is that it eliminates the need for only addition, starting with the nth difference.
multiplication and division, and allows the Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 has 'registers'
values of a polynomial to be calculated to hold one number from each of the columns in
using simple addition only. Adding two the table (for example 20, 7, 2). It would add the
numbers using gearwheels is easier to second difference to the first, then add that result
implement than multiplication or division to the function value to compute the next entry in
and so the method simplifies an otherwise the table. There were enough 'registers' for seven
complex mechanism. differences, allowing it to compute 31-digit values
If the first few values of a polynomial are for polynomials with terms up to x7.
known, the rest may be calculated using
simple repeated addition. The method is
illustrated in the diagram above for the
function F(x) = x2 + 4. The values of x are
shown in the first column incrementing by 1
each time8. (x = Babbage’s
1, 2, 3, 4 . . Analytical
.). The values of
Engine

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In 1834, Babbage founded an analytical engine that was as large as a house and powered by 6
steam engines, would be more general purpose in nature because it would be programmable.
Babbage saw that the pattern of holes could be used to represent an abstract idea such as a problem
statement or the raw data required for that problem’s solution. He also saw that there was no
requirement that the problem matter itself physically pass through the holes
Furthermore, Babbage realized that punched papers could be employed as a storage mechanism,
holding computed numbers for future reference. He called the two parts of his Analytical Engine
the Store and the Mill as both terms are used in the weaving industry the Store was where numbers
were and the Mill was where they were woven into new results. In modern computing, these same
parts are called the Memory unit and the Central Processing Unit (CPU)
Analytical Engine is mechanically worked by a series of gears and levers.
It was to be capable of carrying out any mathematical operation. Instructions would tell it what
operation to perform and in what order. It would have a memory with a capacity of -thousand 50-
digit numbers, it could use additional functions such as logarithm tables (of which it would have
in its own library) and subroutines, it would compare numbers and act upon its judgments thus,
proceeding along lines not specified in advance by the instructions. The Analytical engine was the
first general computational device, with the ability to solve different types of equations.

9. Lady Ada Lovelace

Augusta Ada Byron, lady Lovelace heard in November 1834, Babbage’s ideas for a new
calculating Engine the Analytical Engine. He thought; what if a calculating Engine could not only
predict but could act on that prediction? Ada was impressed by the universality of his ideas Hardly
anyone else was. When inspired Ada could be very focused and a mathematical taskmaster. Ada
suggested to Babbage writing a plan for how the Engine mighty calculate Bernoulli numbers. This
plan is now regarded as the first computer program. A software language developed by the U.S.
Department of Defence was named Ada in her honour in 1979

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10. Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine
Herman Hollerith’s punch cards and tabulating equipments are used in the U.S census. The
increasing population in the U.S, and the demands of recording the information made sorting of
the data a longer and longer process. He won the competition for the delivery of data processing
equipment to assist in the processing of the data from the 1890Census, and went on to assist in
census processing for many countries around the world.

He proposed to store information in the form of holes punch through a strip of paper. Holes
punched in a strip of paper were sensed by pins or pointers making contact through the holes to a
drum. The competition of an electrics circuit through a hole advanced a counter on a dial. The
Hollerith system stored data in the form of round holes in a 45-column card.

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It was used for sorting and analysing the US National census count by implementing the system
of punching holes onto cards.

How it works.
In its basic form, a tabulating machine would read one card at a time, print portions (fields) of the
card on fan-fold paper, possibly rearranged, and add one or more numbers punched on the card to
one or more counters, called accumulators. The machine operator would then place the card on a
press attached to the tabulating machine and close the cover. This transmitted electrical impulses
to the dial-like counters on the machine and the results were registered on the counter board. The
Census Bureau put Hollerith’s machine to work on the 1890 census. A pantograph used to create
punch cards.
11. Burroughs Machine
William Burroughs (1857-1898) built his first experimental model of an adding machine with
printed output in 1884. The high keyboard adding and recording machines were the only Burroughs
products designed by William Burroughs himself

The distinguishing features are the high-sloping keyboard, the beveled glass front, and the printing
mechanism out of sight at the rear of the machine. The glass front was a necessity, as the display
register is actually inside the casing. Many machines had glass sides as well, to display the internal
mechanism and the ornate cast-iron framework. The paper carriage takes rolls, sheets, or printed
forms, and has an end of pages indicator and bell. The carriage can be positioned manually to
adjustable stops.

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The machine performs addition only with no provision for subtraction either directly or by addition
of complements. There are two large keys on the left-hand side for totals and sub-totals, and three
smaller keys for non-adds, repeat, and error (or keyboard clear). The red buttons at the top of the
machine act as zero keys to clear the individual keyboard columns.

Burroughs Machine
20TH CENTURY COMPUTING DEVICES
Here are some of the 20th-century computing devices;
1. Harvard Mark 1
In 1937, Howard A. Aiken of Harvard University, using the techniques already developed for
punched card machinery, began work on the design of a fully automatic machine in collaboration
with International Business Machines Corporation (IBMC). His goal was to develop a machine
that could help him in the solution of difficult differential equations, the large calculations of which
would have been unreal manually. Seven years later in May 1944, the designs become a reality. In
August of the same year the now historically famous Harvard Mark 1 was donated to Harvard
University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where it was initially used for classified work for the US
Navy
The Mark 1 was originally controlled from pre-punched paper tape without provision for reversal,
so that automatic transfer of control instructions could not be programmed. Output was by card
punch and electric typewriter. Although the Mark 1 used IBM rotating counter wheels as key
components in addition to electromagnetic relays, the machine was classified as a relay computer.
It was slow, requiring 3 to 5 seconds for multiplication, but it was fully automatic and could
complete long computations without human intervention
Harvard Mark 1 handled 23 decimal numbers (words) and could perform all four arithmetic
operations; moreover, it had special built-in programs, or subroutines, to handle logarithms and
trigonometric functions.

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 Harvard Mark 1
2. ENIAC
ENIAC used a word of 10 decimal digits instead of binary ones like previous automated
calculators/computers. The innovation of very high-speed vacuum tube switching devices led to
the first all-electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC),
formally dedicated on 15 January 1946, only two years after the Mark1. ENIAC is generally
acknowledged to be the first successful high-speed electronic digital computer (EDC) and was the
first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer
ENIAC also was the first machine to use more than 2000 vacuum tubes, using nearly 18000
vacuum tubes. Storage of all those vacuum tubes and the machinery required to keep the cool took
up over 167 square meters (1800 square feet) of foor space. Nonetheless, it had punched card input
and output and arithmetically had 1 multiplier, 1 divider-square rooter, and 20 adders employing
decimal ring counters, which served as adders and also as quick-access (0.0002seconds) read-write
register storage.
In one hour, ENIAC could achieve calculations that would have taken Mark 1 one week to perform.
The addition of two numbers was achieved in 200 microseconds and multiplication in 2800
microseconds.

ENIAC
3. EDVAC
Mauchly and Eckert started working on it two years before ENIAC even went into operation. Their
idea was to have the program for the computer stored inside the computer. This would be possible
because EDVAC was going to have more internal memory than any other computing device to
date. Memory was to be provided through the use of mercury delay lines. The idea was that given
a tube of mercury, an electronic pulse could be bounced back and forth to be retrieved at will-
another two-state device for storing 0s and 1s. this on/off switch-ability for the memory was
required because EDVAC was to use binary rather than decimal numbers, thus simplifying the
construction of the arithmetic units.

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EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) was one of the earliest electronic
computers. Unlike its predecessor the ENIAC, it was binary rather than decimal and was a stored
program machine.
Physically, the computer comprised the following components:
➢ a magnetic tape reader-recorder
➢ a control unit with an oscilloscope
➢ a dispatcher unit to receive instructions from the control and memory and direct them to
other units
➢ a computational unit to perform arithmetic operations on a pair of numbers at a time and
send the result to memory after checking on a duplicate unit
➢ a timer
➢ a dual memory unit consisting of two sets of 64 mercury acoustic delay lines of eight
words capacity on each line
➢ three temporary tanks each holding a single word
The computer had almost 6000 vacuum tubes and 12000 diodes, and consumed 56kwof power. It
covered 490ft2(45.5m2) of foor space and weighed 17,300 Ib (7850 kg). The full complement of
operating personnel was thirty people for each eight-hour shift.
EDVAC’s addition time was 864microseconds and its multiplication time was2900 microseconds
(2.9 milliseconds).

4. UNIVAC 1
Blue Bell, Pennsylvania (CNN)- Fifty years ago- on June 14, 1951- the US Census Bureau
officially put into service what it calls the world’s first commercial computer known as UNIVAC
1. UNIVAC stands for Universal Automatic Computer. The first model was built by the Eckert-
Mauchly Computer Corp., which was purchased by Remington Rand shortly before the UNIVAC
went on sale. The UNIVAC 1 was the first computer to be widely used for commercial purposes-
46 machines were built for about $ 1 million each. Compared to other computers of the era, the
UNIVAC 1 machines were small- about the size of a one-car garage. Each unit was so bulky and
needed so much maintenance that some of the companies that bought them never moved them to
their own facility instead leaving them on-site at Remington Rand

The machine was 25 feet by 50 feet in length and contained 5600 tubes, 18000 crystal diodes, and
300 relays. It utilized serial circuitry, a 2.25 MHz bit rate, and an internal storage capacity of 1,000
words or 12000 characters. It utilized a mercury delay line, magnetic tape, and typewriter output.

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Power consumption was about 120Kva. Its reported processing speed was 0.525 milliseconds for
arithmetic functions, 2.15 milliseconds for multiplication and 3.9 milliseconds for division.
The UNIVAC 1 was also the first computer to come equipped with a magnetic tape unit and was
the first computer to use buffer memory.

The UNIVAC 1 was used for general-purpose computing with large amounts of input and output.
The UNIVAC 1 handled both numbers and alphabetic characters equally well. The UNIVAC 1
was unique in that it separated the complex problems of input and output from the actual
computation facility. Mercury delay lines were used to store the computer’s program. The program
circulated within the lines in the form of acoustical pulses that could be read from the line and
written into it.

Each UNIVAC 1 was equipped with ten magnetic tape drives and all were compatible, that is tapes
generated on one drive could be used on any drive. In addition, since input and output operations
on magnetic tapes were buffered, they could process independently of other central processing
tasks which greatly increased throughput. These two characteristics made Univac 1 uniquely suited
for large data processing tasks.

5. Desktop Personal Computers

Desktop Personal Computers (PCs) are small, relatively inexpensive computers that are designed
for individual users. Typically, these devices include a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other
peripherals. Desktop personal computers use a microprocessor technology that enables
manufacturers to place an entire central processing unit (CPU) on a single chip. Businesses use
desktop personal computers for word processing, accounting, graphic design, spreadsheet, and
database management applications. Desktop personal computers are available with a variety of
operating systems and processors. They provide random acess memory (RAM) with separate
internal and external caches and may even include flash memory, a type of RAM that can retain
information when the computer is powered off.
Selecting desktop personal computers requires an analysis of storage specifications
Input /output ports can be serial, parallel,infrared wireless or network. Universal serial bus (USB)
is the standard serial bus for low to medium speed peripheral devices. Network protocols include
Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Token Ring. Some desktop personal incorporate wireless fidelity (Wi-
Fi) or wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.
6. Laptop/Notebook Computers

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Laptop/ Notebook Computers are portable computers that usually features integral keyboards and
monitors. There are two basics types of devices (PC) and Macintosh® computers. Personal
Computers run Microsoft ® Window ® operating systems such as Microsoft Windows XP and
Microsoft Window7, 10,10 Pro,11. Macintosh Computers run versions of Mac OS®, the operating
system for Apple® Macintosh Computers. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation. Apple, Macintosh and MacOS are registered trade marks of Apple
Computers, Inc. Notebook and laptop computers that run UNIX® and LINUX are also available.
UNIX, a family of multi-user OS, is a registered trade mark of the Open Group. LINUX, an open
source implementation of UNIX, is a registered trademark of LINUS Torvlads.
Selecting desktop personal computers requires an analysis of storage specifications
7. Palmtop/ Hand-held Computers
Palmtop Computers are small, light weight computers that are designed to be operated while held
by hand, desk, tabletop. They contain a processor, memory, I/O ports, and expansion slots. They
also provide an operating system, user interface, and battery power. There are three basic types of
handheld and portable computers.
• Tablet PCS are notebook computers that feature a liquid crystal display on which users
can write with a special pen called a stylus. It digitizes handwriting and often include a
keyboard or mouse
• Personal Digital Assistants (PDA): are smaller than TPC, but also include a stylus or
keyboard. Typically PDAs function as acellular phone, fax sender, Web browser, and
personal organiser

RISC/ CISC

RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) processors are designed for speeding up the processing
power of the computer making the chip as simple as possible so that it uses less space and shorter
design cycle. It is possible to use the technique of pipelining using RISC processors which gives
immense processing power.
The advantages of RISC processors are as follows:
1. Speed: Due to the simplified instruction set RISC processors are 2 to 4 times faster.
2. Simpler hardware- Because of the simpler instruction set the RISC processor uses much
less chip space, as a result extra functions are also ploned in the same chip.
3. Shorter design cycle- Because of simple hardware and less instruction per task, the RISC
processor uses very short machine cycles.

CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) processors use microcode, build rich instruction sets
and build high-level instruction sets and these were the building blocks until the late 1980s and are
still in major use today.
Some characteristics are:
1. Complex instruction-decoding logic, driven by the need for a single instruction to support
multiple addressing modes.
2. A small number of general-purpose registers.
3. Several special purposes register.

Advantages of CISC:
1. Microprogramming is as easy as assembly language to implement, and much less expensive
than hardwiring a control unit.
2. The ease of micro-coding new instructions allowed the designers to make CISC machines
upwardly compatible, i.e. a new computer could run the same programs as earlier
computers.
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 3. As each instruction became more capable, fewer instructions could be used to implement a
given task.
4. Because micro-program instruction sets can be written to match the constructs of high-level
languages, the compiler does not have to be complicated.

The disadvantages of CISC:

1. The instruction set and chip hardware became more complex with each generation of
computers.
2. The instructions set were lengthy and took more time to execute, slowing down the overall
performance of the machine.
3. Many specialized instructions aren’t used frequently enough to justify their
existence.
PERSONAL COMPUTERS
Personal Computer: A personal computer has a Monitor (VDU), a keyboard, Disk Drive (s),
printer and CPU. The CPU of the PC has a motherboard with several chips mounted on a circuit
board. The major components of the circuit board are: Microprocessor, RAM and ROM chips
and other supporting circuits.
1. PC: Personal Computer
2. PC-XT: PC with Extended Technology
3. PC-AT: PC with Advanced Technology

Microprocessor: The Microprocessor chip is like the brain of a human being which contains
circuits and registers to perform arithmetic, logic and control functions. i.e it contains ALU &
CU. These chips will be able to retrieve data from the input output devices, store, manipulate
and process a byte of data at a time. There is an address bus which is built into these chips to
determine the storage locations (of RAM) of the data and the instructions of the program.
Over the years, different microprocessors were developed and the first in the series is
INTEL 8080. The other procesors are 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium I, II, III and Pentium
4. The Pentium 4 can execute any piece of code that ran on the original 8088, but it does it about
5000 times faster.
Clock Speed: The speed with which the instruction is executed or number of pulses per second
is called the clock speed. It is measured in terms of million pulses per second (MHZs).
The following table gives the differences among the different processors that intel has introduced
over the years:
S.No. Microprocessor Date Transistors Clock speed Data width
1 8080 1974 6000 2MHZ 8 bits
2 8088 1979 29,000 5 MHZ 16 bits
8-bit bus
3 80286 1982 134,000 6 MHZ 16 bits
4 80386 1985 275,000 16 MHZ 32 bits
5 80486 1989 1,200,000 25 MHZ 32 bits
6 Pentium I 1993 3,100,000 60 MHZ 32 bits
64-bit bus
7 Pentium II 1997 7,500,000 233 MHZ 32 bits
64-bit bus

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 8 Pentium III 1999 9,500,000 450 MHZ 32 bits
64-bit bus
9 Pentium 4 2000 42,000,000 1.5 GHZ 32 bits
64-bit bus
10 Pentium 4 2004 125,000,000 3.6 GHZ 32 bits
―Prescott‖ 64-bit bus

Peripherals: The input, output and secondary storage units like floppy drives, keyboard, mouse,
etc., are called peripherals.
Classification of PCs: PCs are mainly classified on the basis of primary memory (RAM),
Microprocessor, clock speed and peripherals. The classification is presented in the following table:
S.No. PC-Type RAM Microprocessor Clock speed Peripherals
1 PC 640 KB 8088/8086 8 MHZ Floppy Drives, key
board and printer
2 PC-XT 1 MB 8088/8086 18 MHZ Floppy Drives,
HardDisk Drive, Key
board and printer
3 PC-AT 1 MB to 80286 to 80486 25 MHZ and Floppy drives, Hard
32 MB above disk, Keyboard,
Mouse and Printer

Working with personal computers

Drives of the computer: A computer can have Floppy Disk Drive along with Hard Disk drives
in the system. These are referred as follows:
Floppy Disk Drive: A or B

Hard Disk: C

Booting of the Computer: Booting imply ―activating the computer for working. Thus, when
the computer is switched on, the operating system residing in the floppy or in the hard disk is
transferred into the primary memory. After this, the computer is ready to accept the commands
at user terminal. If OS is not existing either in floppy drive or in the hard disk drive, ― non-
system or disk error‖ is flashed on the screen. The booting of the computer is carried out with a
software which resides on ROM chip called BIOS (Basic Input Output System). Thus, when a
PC with system disk either in Hard-Disk Drive or Floppy Drive is switched ―on‖, the screen
finally displays one of the following symbols with a blinking cursor at its end:
a) A:\> This imply that the computer is booted through Floppy drive `A‘ and is ready to
accept DOS commands. The symbol ―\>‖ is referred as DOS prompt from where DOS
commands can be entered.
b) C:\> It imply that the PC is booted through the Hard-Disk Drive `C‘.

Booting is essential whenever the system is locked or switched-off. A PC can be booted

through two ways: a) Cold Booting b) Warm Booting.
a) Cold Booting: It is only switching OFF the system and after some time again switching ON.

b) Warm Booting: It is carried out by pressing the following three keys simultaneously: Ctrl
+ Alt + Del. It is preferable to cold booting as it safeguards the system from sudden power
fluctuations resulting out of switching ON and OFF the system.
******
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 Anatomy of Digital Computers
Functions and Components of a Computer:
To function properly, the computer needs both hardware and software. Hardware consists of the
mechanical and electronic devices, which we can see and touch. The different parts of the computer
are Processor (CPU), Input devices, Output devices, Storage devices and Memory devices. The
software consists of programs, the operating systems and the data that reside in the memory and
storage devices.

A computer does mainly the following four functions:

❖ Receive input – Accept information from outside through various input devices like the
keyboard, mouse, etc.
❖ Process information – Perform arithmetic or logical operations on the information.
❖ Produce output – Communicate information to the outside word through output devices
like monitor, printer, etc.
❖ Store information – Store the information in storage devices like hard disk, floppy disks,
etc.

Computer hardware falls into two categories: processing hardware, which consists of the central
processing unit (CPU), and the peripheral devices. The CPU, as its name implies, is where the data
processing is done. Peripheral devices allow people to interact with the CPU. Together, they make
it possible to use the computer for a variety of tasks.

Explain CPU and its different components: CU, ALU and MU.

How CPU and memory does works?

• An instruction is fetched from primary storage by the Control Unit

• The Control Unit decodes the instruction
• The ALU receives the data and the instruction and performs the calculation or
comparison
• The result is stored in primary storage which is sent to the proper output
device.

Elements of A Computer: Hardware

A typical computer system includes the following hardware components:

Central Processing Unit (CPU) of Microprocessor
The CPU is located on your computer’s main circuit board usually referred to as (Motherboard)
which is basically the brain of your PC. The CPU may either consist of a single chip of series of
chips that perform two main functions. The first of these functions is to perform arithmetic and
logical calculation, while the second function is to time and control the operations of the other
elements of your computer.
Storage Devices
Memory Units: Memory units are the storages areas in a computer. These are in the form of chips.
Usually we classify the computer‟s memory into two categories which are either internally (in
memory) or externally (on storage devices)
1.Internal Storage
There are two areas in a PC where instructions and data can be temporarily stored called memory.
The first type of memory is known either as RAM (Random Access Memory) or as DRAM

3
(Dynamic Random-Access Memory) while the second type is known as ROM (Read Only
Memory).
RAM
RAM comes in the form of silicon memory chips called SIMM’s which are mounted directly on
the computer’s main circuit board or in chips mounted on peripheral cards that plug into
computer’s main circuit boards. RAM chips consist of switches that are sensitive to changes in
electric current. RAM chips hold their stored information of data as long as the circuits receive a
constant current flow. The data is lost if the PC is switched off. RAM chips are upgradeable, that
is, can add more. This memory holds data as long as the electricity is supplied and therefore
referred to as volatile memory. There are two basic types of RAM:
(i) Dynamic RAM (DRAM) and (ii) Static RAM (SRAM).
Dynamic RAM needs to be refreshed thousands of times per second. Static RAM needs to be
refreshed less often, which makes it faster; but it is more expensive than dynamic RAM.

ROM
It is a non-volatile memory. The data is prerecorded in ROM. The program stored in ROM is
known as Firmware and is programmed by the manufacturer. Once data has been written onto a
ROM chip, it cannot be removed and can only be read. Most personal computers contain a small
amount of ROM that stores critical programs such as the program that boots the computer.
ROM chips are also made of silicon. However, all of the switches on these chips are already set.
The patterns on the ROM chips form commands, data, or programs that the computer needs to
function correctly.
2.External Storage
External storage devices, such as a hard disk, can physically reside within the computer’s casing.
However, the drives remain external to the main circuit board. Some of the external devices are
listed below. They can also be called Auxiliary Storage Units

Hard Disk:
• A Hard disk is internal hardware which stores and provides access to large amounts of
information.
• Hard disks have much greater data capacity and are much faster to use than floppy disks.
• Usually, it is a fixed disk, permanently sealed in the drive.
• Most new computers include an internal hard disk that contains several gigabytes or
terabytes of storage capacity.
• The head of hard disk that reads the data floats over the hard disk‟s surface, while the head
of the floppy disk touches the disk‟s surface while reading or writing data.
• Hard disk is a flat, circular, rigid plate with a magnetizable surface on one or both sides of
which data can be stored.
• Hard disks are rigid aluminum or glass disks about 3.5” in diameter in a personal computer,
and smaller in a laptop.
• Data is transferred magnetically by a read/write head.
• A hard disk is made of metallic disk coated with metallic oxide on both sides.
• To increase the storing capacity, several disks (platter) are packed together and mounted
on a common drive to form a disk pack.
• A hard disk can have more than 1000 tracks per surface and contain 17 sectors per track.

Optical Disk
• An emerging technology that many expect will have a profound impact on mass storage
strategies in the 1990s is the Optical Disk.
• With this technology becomes laser beams to wrote and read data at incredible densities.

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 • Thousand of times finer than the density of a typical magnetic disk.
• Data are placed onto optical disks with high-intensity laser beams that burn tiny holes into
the disk‟s surface.
• Optical disk systems have recently started to become widely used on microcomputer
systems.
• So, it is a storage medium from which data is read and to which it is written by lasers.
Store much more data in portable magnetic media.
• There are three basic types of optical disks.
• CD-ROM (compact disk read only memory)
• WORM (write once read many)
• ERASABLE
• These three are not compatible with one another.
• WORM (Write-one Read-many)
• With a WORD disk, you can write data, but only once and then you can read number of
times.
• ERASABLE Optical (rewritable & erasable)
• Can be read to, written to and erased just like magnetic disk.
• CD-R (Compact Disk Recordable)
• CD-RD (Compact Disk Rewritable)
• DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)
• Initial storage capacity of 4.7GB digital information on a single sided, single layer.
• Diameter & thickness is same as CD-ROM.

Magnetic Tape:
• Magnetic tape is a plastic tape with a magnetic surface for storing data as a series of
magnetic spots.
• Magnetic tape has been one of the most prominent secondary storage alternatives.
• Magnetic tape is the most commonly used sequential access secondary storage medium.
• It is available in the form of cassettes, real & cartridges.
• Among these three, Reels are the most popular storage secondary media.
• Magnetic tape is a plastic ribbon coated on one side with iron oxide that can be magnetized

Floppy Disk:
Floppy disk is a soft magnetic disk. Floppy disks are being replaced by pen drives now a days.
Foppy disks are slower to access than hard disks and have very less storage capacity.

a. Input Devices
How does a Keyboard Works

Layout

Computer keyboards are an input device. They put the information a person types into a
program on the computer. Most keyboards have 80 to 110 keys. The numbers and letters
on the keyboard are displayed keycaps--these are the buttons that are pressed when a person
types. The layout of the numbers and letters are the same on every keyboard and they are
referred to as the QWERTY.

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Key matrix

• The inside of the keyboard is like a mini-computer and consists of a processor and circuits.
• These transfer the information to the processor inside of the computer. Inside of the
keyboard's processor resides the key matrix.
• The key matrix is a grid of circuits. These circuits are individually placed under each key.
When a key is pushed, it pushes the switch on the circuit board underneath the key causing
an electrical current to pass through the circuit and into the processor.
• When the current passes through, the switch vibrates, signaling the processor to read it.
• Depending upon the working principle, there are two main types of keys, namely,
capacitive and hard-contact

Capacitive Key

On the underside of a capacitive key, a metal plunger is fixed which helps in activating the
circuit flow. When a capacitive key is pressed, the metal plunger applies a gentle pressure
to the circuit board. The pressure is identified by the computer and the circuit flow is
initiated, resulting in the transfer of information from the circuit to the currently installed
software.

Hard Contact Key

A hard contact key is attached with a metallic plate that helps in connecting the circuit board.
When the hard contact key is pressed, it pushes a metallic plate, which in turn touches the
metallic portion of the circuit plate. This overall process of completing a circuit results in
a circuit flow, allowing the transfer of the message to the central processing unit (CPU),
which is further transmitted to the software.

Working principles of mouse

The mouse is a pointing device which helps us to operate the computer. Unlike the complicated
hardwares such as Mother board, RAM, Hard disk, Processor of the computer, the mouse is
designed with a simple circuit to process. Now a days, we get varieties of mouse with different
technologies in the market. In recent days, the optical mouse had overcome the old ball mouse,
because of its 'easy to use' function.

▪ The main components of the optical mouse are:

➢ Inbuilt optical sensor
➢ High speed camera which can take 1000 pictures at a time
➢ LED

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 ▪ These optical mouses do have an inbuilt optical sensor. The optical sensor reads the
movements of the optical mouse (moved by the user) with the help of the light rays which
comes out from the bottom.
▪ When the user moves the optical mouse, the LED (Light Emitting Diode) present inside
the mouse emits the light according the minute movements.
▪ These movements are sent to the camera as light rays.
▪ The camera captures the difference in light rays as images. When the camera captures the
images, each and every picture and compared to one another with the digital technology.
▪ With the comparison, the speed of the mouse and the direction of the movement of the
mouse are rapidly calculated. According to the calculation, the pointer moves on the screen.

Working principles of scanner

▪ The basic principle of a scanner is to analyze an image and process it in some way.
▪ Image and text capture (optical character recognition or OCR) allow to save information to
a file on user computer.
▪ user can then alter or enhance the image, print it out or use it on their Web page.

Types of Scanners:

1. Flatbed Scanners
2. Hand Held Scanners

How a Flatbed Scanner Works

• A light source underneath the picture or document illuminates the image. Spaces white or
blank reflect lighter than do inked and coloured areas.
• A motor moves the scan head underneath the page. when the scan head is moving it
captures light that was reflected from individual areas of the page about 1/90,000 of an
inch

• Light from this page is bounced through an intricate system of mirrors that must
continually pivot to keep the light beams aligned with a lens.

• A lens focuses the beams of light into light sensitive diodes that translate the amount of
light into an electric current. The amount of the current depends on the amount of light
reflected, the greater the amount of light reflected the greater the current.

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 • The analog to digital (A-D) converter stores each analog reading of voltage as a digital
pixel representing either a black or white area. Scanners that are more sophisticated can
translate the voltage into shades of gray. In a color scanner, the scan head makes 3 passes
under the image and the light on each pass is directed through a red, green or blue filter
before it strikes the original image.

• The digital information is sent to the pc where it is translated into a format that a graphics
program can read.

How A Hand-Held Scanner Works

• On the majority of handheld scanners when you press the scan button a light-emitting diode
(sometimes called a LED) illuminates the image below the scanner. An inverted, angled
mirror that sits right above the scanner's window reflects the image onto a lens in the back
of the scanner.

• The lens focuses a single line of the image onto a CCD (known as a charge coupled device),
which is a component designed to detect subtle changes of voltage. As the light shines onto
sever rows of light detectors located on the CCD, each registers the amount of light as a
voltage level that equals to black, white or gray.

• Special analog chips receive light voltage generated by the CCD for gamma correction.
This process enhances the black tones into an image that is that the eye will have been able
to recognize the shades of the image easier.

• The line of the image now is moved to the analog-digital converter. In a gray scale scanner,
the converter assigns 8 bits to each pixel, or 256 shades of gray.

• As the disk turns, a light-shines through the slits and is detected by a photo-microsensor
on the other side of the disk. When light strikes the sensor, it throws a switch that sends a
signal to the A-D converter. This signal tells the converter to send the line of bit generated
to the computer. Then the converter clears itself of the old data.

• The computer then moves to the next line.

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Working principles of Track Ball

• Trackball mice don't have a sensor at the bottom to take a picture of the desk -- indeed, they
don't move across the desk at all, but they do use the same principle.

• Instead of taking pictures of the desk to detect movement as a mouse does, a trackball will
be taking continual pictures of the ball itself, which usually has many tiny dots on the
surface and when these dots move, the small processor inside responds by moving user
cursor accordingly.

• In track ball spherical ball is mounted in a base with only a portion projecting above the
surface.

• The ball is free to rotate in any direction. Two valuators either potentiometers or shaft
encoders mounted in the base sense the rotation of the ball and provides results proportional
to its relative position.

• In addition to feedback from the normal tracking symbol users obtain tactile feedback from
the rotation rate momentum of the ball.

• Trackball are frequently equipped with buttons in order they can be substituted for a mouse
and are more ergonomically acceptable than mouse.
 Working principles of Graphic Tablets

▪ Graphic tablet also referred to as a digitizing tablet, graphics pad, or drawing tablet, a tablet
is an alternate type of input device that can be used in place of, or in conjunction with, a
mouse, trackball, or other pointing device.

▪ The tablet consists of two parts, a flat surface for drawing, and a pen, stylus, or puck that
is programmed to work with the tablet.

▪ The tablet cores to be film coated make continual orbital motions within the closed rotating
drum under the action of a streamlined guide plate.

▪ During the motion, coating medium automatically sprays according to the technological
process and rational technological parameters, at the same time hot air is supplied under a
negative pressure.

▪ The hot air penetrates through the tablet core layers and is discharged from the bottom of
the layers, so that the coating medium sprayed on the surface will dry rapidly and evenly,
thus forming a solid and smooth surface film.

Most tablets these days have a USB interface which is ideal since most computers in use
today support USB.
➢ Bluetooth is another option for connecting a graphics tablet to user computer
without the use of wires. Bluetooth is a wireless protocol frequently used for
connecting electronics devices.

➢ Currently, Wacom is the only manufacturer of producing a Bluetooth-capable

tablet, the Graphire Bluetooth, which can connect to user computer without wires.

b. Output Devices
An output device is any piece of computer hardware equipment used to communicate the results
of data processing carried out by an information processing system to the outside world. Outputs
are the signals or data sent by the system to the outside. Examples of output devices:

• Speakers
• Headphones
• Plotters
• Printer

Plotters

A plotter is a graphics printer that uses a pen or pencil to draw images. Plotters use continuous
lines to create images. Plotters are connected to computers and are used to produce complex
images and text. However, plotters are much slower than printers because of the mechanical
motion necessary to draw detailed graphics using continuous lines. Architects and product
designers use plotters for technical drawings and computer-aided design purposes since plotters
have the ability to create large images on oversized sheets of paper.
How Plotters Work

The first step in using a plotter is to enter the appropriate coordinates for where user wants the
image to appear on the paper. Once the schematics for the image are complete, the computer
downloads the coordinates to the plotter, which interprets the code and calculates the most efficient
path for the pen and paper.
Early plotters contained two separate pens, one that moved vertically and one that moved
horizontally. These plotters were limited in terms of the complexity of the images they could
produce as well as the speed at which they could operate. Modern plotters use a sliding roller,
which moves the paper against a stationary pen. A plotter pen is usually a hollow fiber rod with a
sharpened end.
The ink supply runs through the center of the rod and dispenses through the sharpened tip. The
paper moves horizontally and vertically against the pen until the drawing is complete.

Printer

A printer is a peripheral which produces a text and/or graphics of documents stored in electronic
form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily
used as local peripherals and are attached by a printer cable or in most new printers, a USB cable
to a computer which serves as a document source. Some printers, commonly known as network
printers, have built-in network interfaces, typically wireless and/or Ethernet based, and can serve
as a hard copy device for any user on the network. Individual printers are often designed to support
both local and network connected users at the same time.

Types of printers

1. Impact type
2. Non-impact type

Impact Type

To create text or image by physically make the print head to press the ink ribbon and cause the ink
deposition on the paper in desired form is called impact type. Normally it is quite louder in nature
when compared to other types of printers. The well-known example for impact type is Dot Matrix
and Daisy wheel. Some of the latest impact based in the market is Line printer (high speed impact
printer), IBM electromagnetic table printing machine.

Non-Impact Type

This produce text or images on paper without striking the paper physically are called as nonimpact
type. These are not louder when compared to other types of printers. The well-known example of
this type is Thermal printer, lasers and inkjets
Dot matrix printer

How do dot matrix printers work?

 ➢ A dot matrix printer print head contains clusters of pins. The printer can push the pins out
to form pattern in rapid sequence.
➢ The pins pressed an inked ribbon against the paper creating an image.
➢ Lower resolution printer has 9 pins, higher resolution has 24 pins.
➢ Speed is measured in character per second (CPS). some dot matrix printer print 500cps.

Inkjet printer

How do inkjet matrix printers work?

Inkjet printer sprays tiny droplets of ink onto the paper. Inkjet printer does not physically touch
the paper.

A print head scans the page in horizontal stripes, using the printer's motor assembly to move it
from left to right and back again, while the paper is rolled up in vertical steps, again by the printer.
A strip (or row) of the image is printed, then the paper moves on, ready for the next strip. To speed
things up, the print head doesn‟t print just a single row of pixels in each pass, but a vertical row
of pixels at a time.

Inkjet printers‟ print head takes about half a second to print the strip across a page.

Inkjet printer offers speed of 2-4 pages per minute (ppm).

Inkjet printers are inexpensive and low operating cost.

Laser printer
How does laser printer work?

Laser printer is a non-impact high-resolution printer which uses a rotating disk to reflect laser
beams to form an electrostatic image on a selenium imaging drum. The developer drum transfers
toner from the toner bin to the charged areas of the imaging drum, which then transfers it onto the
paper into which it is fused by heat. Toner is dry ink powder, generally a plastic heatsensitive
polymer.
Laser printers using chemical photo reproduction techniques can produce resolutions of up to 2400
DPI.

The photoconductive drum is given a positive or negative charge by the charge Corona wire.

• When the drum starts to revolve, a laser beam is shone on it. This laser beam consists of light
photons. The laser assembly shines the laser beam on a mirror which is then reflected off the
mirror. As a result, the drum that is made up of photoconductive material is discharged.

• The areas of the drum that are touched by the laser develop charge that is opposite to the charge
of the drum.

• The laser etches figures and characters on the surface of the photoconductive drum. The figures
or characters are actually a pattern of electric charges. In this case let us assume that the drum
is positively charges. Therefore, the laser etched areas will be negatively charged.

• Thereafter, a fine ink powder called toner is sprinkled on the paper. This powder has to be
positively charged.

• As the drum rolls, the toner adheres to the laser-etched area of the drum. It is repelled from the
positively charged area of the drum. Thus, the laser pattern is etched on the drum with the
toner.

• After this, the drum rolls over the paper. The paper passes along a belt under the drum.

• The paper is given a negative e charge. This negative charge must be stronger than the charge
of the laser-etched electric image. This will aid the toner to leave the negative area on the drum
for the negatively charged paper.

• The paper is discharged as it moves out. This will prevent the paper from getting attached to
the positively charged drum. The paper moves at the same speed as the drum.

• The paper is passed through a fuse. As the paper passes through a fuser, the toner melts due to
hear. The tone is thus fixed on the paper.

• The fuser rolls out the paper to the output tray. The printing process of a laser printer is thus
complete.

Projector

How do dot projector work?

A projector is a device that uses light and lenses to take an image and project a magnified image
onto a larger screen or wall. Projectors can magnify still or moving images depending on how they
are built. The image must be shone through a sealed tube or frame when passing through the lenses
to maintain focus.

• The video projector contains LCD panel. At the centre of projector is a halogen bulb
which is surrounded by panel.
 • The panel produce light. As the halogen bulb heat up the crystal melt and allow lighter to
pass through. Hence the intensity of halogen bulb brings about the difference in tones.
• Higher the temperature of bulb lighters the tone.
• Images travel to the tube present inside the projector from DVD player or satellite box.
• These images are turned bound on a screen that is coated with phosphorus. Every fragment
of light hitting the screen is termed as pixel.
• On heating the screen, the pixel breaks down into its colour components i.e. red, green and
blue.
• The heat produces by halogen, bulb is controlled by voltage that flow into LCD video
projector.

Advantages of projector

1. Produce sharper images.

2. They have an edge in light efficiency.
3. They generate largest possible image size.
4. Low cost.
5. Space saving.

Disadvantages of projector

1. Image quality may not be as good as projected.

2. Dark room often required.
3. Maintenance required.
4. The pixel on the chip can burn out. When one pixel burn out the whole chip will have to
replace.

Unit 2: Computer Software and Software Development

Software

• Software is a collection of set of programs, which are used to execute all kinds of specific
instruction. It consists of a number of machine instructions, array in a specific order to perform a
particular task. Software is used to describe all the programs and its associated documents which
run on a computer. So, a computer needs both software and hardware for its proper functioning.
• Software means computer instructions or data. Anything that can be stored electronically
is software.
• Firmware are software (programs or data) that has been permanently written onto read only
memory (ROM)
.
• All software falls into two general types or categories: System Software and Application
Software. System software consists of low-level programs that interact with the computer at very
basic level. This includes operating systems, compilers, and utilities for managing resources. On
the other hand, application software includes database programs, word processors, and
spreadsheets.

Examples of System software are as follows:

a) Operating Systems

Operating systems are the most important programs that run on a computer. Every general-purpose
computer must have an operating system to run other programs. Operating systems perform basic
tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping
tracks of files and directories on the disk and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and
printers. Most commonly used operating systems include Microsoft Windows, DOS, Xenix, Mac
OS, OS/2, UNIX, MVS, etc.

b) Language Translators
A language translator translates high-level languages to the language of the computer. A language
translator could be any of the following:
(i) Interpreter
An interpreter is a program which translates the source program into machine language statement
by statement. It translates a statement and executes before taking on the next statement.
(ii) Compiler
This is a program that translates the source program into machine code or language. It accepts
the source program as input and produces the object program which is the translated version of
the sources program as output before executing the program.

Source codes Compiler Object codes

(iii) Assembler
This is a program that translates programs written in assembly languages into machine code.

Low-level codes Assembly Object codes

(iv) Emulators
Emulators are special programs that permits the object program generated on one computer to be
executed on an entirely different computer.

Differences Between Compilers and Interpreters

Compiler is a program that translates source code into object code. The compiler takes the entire
piece of source code, collects and recognizes the instructions. In contrast, the interpreter analyzes
and executes each line of source code in succession, without looking at the entire program. The
advantage of interpreters is that they can execute a program immediately but compilers require
some time before an executable program emerges. However, programs produced by compilers run
much faster than the same programs executed by an interpreter.
.
c) Device Drivers

Device drivers are the software to run the particular peripheral devices like printers, wireless
mouse, modems, and Ethernet cards etc. Most of the peripheral devices attached with the CPU
needs device drivers to carry out the functions. Mostly we get device drivers at the time of buying
these devices. For example, we get the printer driver when we buy the printer. Device driver lets
the CPU know the type of hardware and the type of instruction for a particular device attached
with it.
Application Software
As you learned earlier, computer software contains instructions that are processed and executed
by a PC. Application software is the software that actually addresses user’s specific needs. In the
business world of today, you will find four major application categories.

Examples of Application Software are as follows:

a) Word Processors

A word processor is a program that makes us possible to perform word processing functions. We
can create, edit, and print documents using word processors. We have many features that help us
to prepare a fine document. Some of the important features of word processors are: editing, spelling
checking, page setup, paragraph alignments, merging documents, typing in columns etc.
MS-Word is the word's most popular word-processor. Although every word processor provides
almost the same features, MS-Word is most flexible to work with. It is used to write documents or
letter. A file in Ms-Word is called a document. When a file is saved, MS-Word attaches the
extension .doc to the file.

b) Spreadsheets

A spreadsheet is a table of values arranged in rows and columns. Each value can have a predefined
relationship to the other values. If one value is changed, others values need to be changed as well.
Spreadsheet applications are computer programs that let you create and manipulate spreadsheets
electronically. In a spreadsheet application, each value sits in a cell. We can define what type of
data is in each cell and how different cells depend on one another. The relationships between cells
are called formulas, and the names of the cells are called labels. Once we have defined the cells
and the formulas for linking them together, we can enter the data. We can then modify selected
values to see how all the other values change accordingly. What-if analysis makes the complex
decision-making a very easy process. MS-Excel is one of the most popular spreadsheet
applications.

c) Multimedia applications

Multimedia applications make us possible to run audio and video files. This application recognizes
the digital signals and provides necessary signal to output devices and movie signals to the monitor
and audio to the audio devices. Along with the video data we also get the text information about
the file we are running. In windows operating system Windows Media Player is a good option to
play the multimedia files.

d) Presentation Graphics

Presentation Graphics enable users to create highly stylized images for slide shows and reports.
The software includes functions for creating various types of charts and graphs and for inserting
text in variety of fonts. Most systems enable us to import data from a spreadsheet application to
create the charts and graphs. Presentation graphics is often called business graphics. Some of the
popular presentation graphics software are Microsoft PowerPoint, Lotus Freelance Graphics,
Harvard Presentation Graphics, etc.

Utility Software
Utility is a program that performs a very specific task, usually related to managing system
resources. Antivirus software, Disk Partition tools are the examples of utility software.

Operating System

OS is an important system software package found in every computer system. It is a set of

programs that controls and supervises a computer system’s hardware and it provides services to
computer users. It permits the computer to supervise its own operations by automatically calling
in application programs and managing data needed to produce the output desired by users. OS is
an interface between the user and the computer. OS perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input
from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on
the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers. OS, as a resource
manager keeps track of who is using which resource, to grant resource requests, to account for
usage and to mediate conflicting requests from different programs and users.

Functions of an Operating System:

Job Management: OS manages the jobs waiting to be processed. It recognizes the jobs, identifies
their priorities, determines whether the appropriate main memory and secondary storage capability
they require is available, and schedules and finally runs each job at the appropriate moment.

Batch Processing: Data are accumulated and processed in groups. The printing tasks in the printer
are also done in groups. Most of the tasks of OS are grouped and performed one by one.

On-line Processing: In on-line processing, data are processed instantaneously. Most on-line
operating systems have multi-user and multitasking capabilities. Now a day we can access the data
from the remote sites using on-line processing.

Data Management: OS manages the storage and retrieval of data. As the system software handles
many of the details associated with this process, such details are not a primary concern for users
or programmers writing application programs.

Virtual Storage: Using this method the capacity of main memory increases without actually
increasing its size. This is done by breaking a job into sequences of instructions, called pages or
segments, and keeping only a few of these in main memory at a time; the remaining are kept on
secondary storage devices. Thus, relatively large jobs can be processed by a CPU.

Input/ Output Management: OS manages the input to and output from a computer system. This
applies to the flow of data among computers, terminals, and other devices such as printers.
Application programs used the operating system extensively to handle input and output devices as
needed.

Function of operating system can be further listed as follows:

• user interface implementation share hardware implementation Allows users to share
data.
• Prevent users from interfering with one another.
• Scheduling resources among users. Facilitate input/output
 • Facilitate parallel operations
• Organize data for secure and rapid access.
• Handle network communications

Classification of Operating System:

Multi-user: These systems allow two or more users to run programs at the same time. Some OS
permit hundreds or even thousands of concurrent users. The operating systems of mainframes and
minicomputer are multi-user systems. Examples are MVS, UNIX, etc. Another term for multi-user
is time-sharing.

Multiprocessing: It refers to a computer system’s ability to support more than one process
(program) at the same time. This system allows the simultaneous execution of programs on a
computer that has several CPUs. Mainframe, Supercomputers have more than one CPU.

Multitasking: This system allows a single CPU to execute what appears to be more than one
program at the same time when, in fact, only one program is being executed. In multitasking, only
one CPU is involved, but it switches from one program to another so quickly that it gives the
appearance of executing all of the programs at the same time.

Multithreading: Multithreading allows different parts of a single program to run concurrently.

Multithreading is the ability of an OS to execute different parts of a program, called threads,
simultaneously.

Real-time: These operating systems are system that responds to input immediately. It allows a
computer to control or monitor tasks performed by other machines and people by responding to
the input data in the required amount of time.

Programming Languages

Programming Language is a set of rules that provides a way of instructing the computer to perform
certain operations. Programming languages are said to be lower or higher, depending on whether
they are closer to the language the computer itself uses or to the language that people uses.
We can study the programming languages under five levels (or generations) of language:
1. Machine Languages / First generation Languages
2. Assembly languages / 2nd Generation Languages
3. Procedural Languages/ Third-generation Languages 4. Problem-oriented Languages /
Fourth generation Languages
5. Natural Languages / Fifth Generation Languages.

The characteristics & trends of these five languages are summarized in the following table:
First Second Third Fourth Fifth Generation
Generation Generation Generation Generation

Trend : Towards Conversational natural programming language

 User-written Packaged Operating Database Natural
programs Programs Systems Management Languages
Systems
Machine Symbolic High-Level Fourth Natural
Software Language Language Languages Generation Languages
Trends Languages
Multipurpose
Microcomputer graphicinterfaced
Packages packages.

Trend: Towards easy to use multi-purposed application packages

Computer programming languages are developed with the primary objectives without the need to
know in detail the internal structure of the computer.

Machine Language

A program written using the binary codes specified for a processor's operations and absolute binary
addresses is known as machine language of the computer. The programs written in Machine
languages are machine dependent. Programming using Machine Language is very tedious and time
consuming. The programmer must keep track of a tremendous amount of detail and one must
understand the technical operations of the computer. Programming in machine code has one
advantage over programming at other language levels - its execution is very fast and efficient
because the computer can accept the machine code as it is.

Assembly Language

Assembly languages are also known as symbolic languages as they use abbreviations or mnemonic
code which replace the 0s and 1s of machine language. An assembly language has a one-to-one
correspondence with the machine language of a computer and is thus machine dependent.
Assembly languages are more standardized and easier to use than machine languages.
Though more standardized than machine languages, assembly languages are still machine
dependent.

High Level Languages

High level languages are the programming languages that use predefined common English words
and clauses to write a program. They assisted programmers by reducing further the number of
computer operations details they has to specify, so that they could concentrate more on the logic
needed to solve the problem. We can classify the high level languages into three levels:
Procedural-oriented or third generation
• Problem-oriented or fourth generation
• Natural or fifth generation

Procedural oriented Languages

General-purpose programming languages are called procedural languages or third generation

languages. They are the languages such as Pascal, BASIC, COBOL, and FORTAN, C which are
designed to express the logic, the procedure, of a problem. Because of their flexibility, procedural
languages are able to solve a variety of problems. More focus is given to module while
programming in Procedural-oriented languages.

Problem-oriented Languages

Fourth-generation languages are also known as problem-oriented languages. These are the
languages designed to solve specific problems or develop specific applications by enabling one to
describe what he wants rather than step-by-step procedures for getting there. Thus the problem
should be considered most rather than procedures so as to get the solution to the particular problem.
Visual Basic and PERL are Problem-oriented languages. These languages may be categorized into
several kinds of application development tools:
• Personal computer application software
• Query languages and report generators
• Decision support system and financial planning languages
• Application generators

Natural Languages

Natural languages are very near to the human conversational language. Natural languages are still
in the development stages. These languages will be used most in the areas of artificial intelligence
and expert systems. Natural languages have two characteristics:
• They are designed to make the connections that humans have with computers more natural –
more humanlike.
• They are designed to allow the computer to become "smarter" – to actually simulate the
learning process by remembering and improving upon earlier information. Two popular
natural languages are LISP and PROLOG.

General Software Features and Trends

Introduction

Nowadays, software projects are becoming more and more complex – in size, sophistication, and
technologies used. Most software products are used by huge number of people, not only that, these
software support different national languages and come in different sizes and shapes – desktop,
standard, professional, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages and so on. Almost all
application software products (like word processors, ERP packages) support more than on
hardware and/or software platform. For example, we have web browsers for the PC and Mac; we
have database management systems that run on MVS, UNIX, Windows NT, and Linux and so on.
The competition and the advancements in technology are driving software vendors to include
additional functionality and new features to their products– just to stay in business.
The Information Technology is revolutionizing the way we live and work. The digital technology
has given mankind the ability to treat information with mathematical precision, to transmit it at
very high accuracy and to manipulate it at will.

Features: The following are the trends that play a vital role in the development of software
products:

Ease of use
The software systems are applications are becoming more and more easy to use. Software
developers and system analysts are concerned for ensuring that the software they develop are
user-friendly than their competitor‟s products. The user interfaces are more intuitive, the error
messages are more descriptive, there is context sensitive help, and there are wizards and
templates to help the user when one encounters a problem.
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Today‟s software applications and products provide users with intuitive, graphical and easyto-
use interfaces. Now the users do not have to remember the cryptic system commands or
shortcut keys that were a must in the character-based era. Now almost any tasks can be
accomplished by a mouse click. For example, in a DOS environment, to copy a file one needs
to know the command for copying files, its exact syntax and so on, whereas in the Windows
environment, you just have to drag the files you want to copy from the source to destination.

Requirement of more powerful hardware

Because software vendors are incorporating more and more features into their products these
softwares need more and powerful machines to run. They need more main memory, more
secondary storage, and faster and powerful processors. It is also not very difficult to go for new
powerful computers as the price of computers are decreasing day by day.

Multi-platform capability
Today‟s software applications are not developed for just one platform. Most of the software
applications supports multiple platforms– both hardware and software platforms. There are
software applications that support hardware platforms ranging from mainframes to PCs and
different software platforms like MVS, Solaris, AIX, UNIX, Windows and so on. Database
like IBM‟s DB2 Universal is available for a variety of hardware and software platforms.
Another important feature of today‟s software application is that they support multiple
languages and multiple currencies. Many vendors are providing their application in many
languages like English, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese and so on.

Network Capabilities
Network computers are becoming popular as they can work with minimal memory, disk storage
and processor power. These computers are connected to a network especially the Internet. The
idea behind network computers is that many users who are connected to a network don‟t need
all the computer power they get from a typical personal computer.
Instead, they can rely on the power of the network servers. As the popularity of network
computers increase, the demand for software that can run these computers are increasing and
the software applications of today and tomorrow will have that capability.

Compatibility with other software

Now a day‟s most of the software products are compatible with each other. For example, we
can import HTML documents and other text documents into a Microsoft Word document. Also,
as newer versions of software are released, most vendors maintain backward compatibility i.e.
compatibility with earlier versions. These two features– backward compatibility and
compatibility with other products make it easier for the users, as they can choose the
application they want and still use the old files they created using other applications or using
older versions of the same application.

Object Linking and Embedding

We have mechanism to interact with other software systems. One of the methods to integrate
external tolls into an application is using the Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)
architecture to link or embed a component from another application running on the computer.
OLE is a compound document standard developed by Microsoft Corporation. It enables us to
create objects with one application and then link or embed them into a second application. This
embedding and linking of components enables applications to share components.
Groupwork capabilities
Technologies, which support collaboration, are in greater demand today than ever before.
Therefore, vendors are integrating collaborating technologies into their products. Distributed
workforces, information overload, and getting products to market as quickly as possible are
just a few of the motivational aspects pushing collaboration technology development.

Mail Enabling
The mail enabling of an application is the process through which email is gradually replacing
many of the single purpose applications now used on personal computers. In its simplest form,
a mail-enabled application is a Windows program that has a „Send‟ command in its „File‟
menu. For example, the Microsoft Word 2000 has a „Send To‟ menu item in the „File‟ menu
where we can choose to send the document to a mail recipient, fax recipient and son on.

Web Enabling
With the ever-increasing popularity of Internet and the amount of information that is available
on the net, most software application is now web-enabled. Web enabling helps the user in many
different ways. During installation, most of the applications will automatically connect the
Internet and to the vendor‟s web site and will register their products (earlier one had to fill in
a paper form and mail or fax it to the vendor).

Unit 3: Database Management System

3.1. Data Processing

Data vs Information:

Data refers to a collection of natural phenomena descriptors, including the results of experience,
observation or experiment, or a set of premises. This may consist of numbers, words, or images,
particularly as measurements or observations of a set of variables. Raw data are numbers,
characters, images or other outputs from devices to convert physical quantities into symbols, in a
very broad sense. Such data are typically further processed by a human or input into a computer,
stored and processed there, or transmitted (output) to another human or computer. Raw data is a
relative term; data processing commonly occurs by stages, and the "processed data" from one stage
may be considered the "raw data" of the next. After processing of data we get information.
Information is then useful for decision making. Information is nothing but refined data, data that
have been put into meaningful and useful context and communicated to a recipient who uses it to
make decisions.
File Processing

1. Sequential file processing: It stores and access records in sequence. Such processing can
be accomplished either by using tape storage or disk storage. To perform sequential file
processing, records are sorted before they are processed. Sequential file processing is used
in situations where data ca be processed in batches and where a substantial portion of the
master file is changed with processing of each batch. Payroll processing is a classic
example of sequential processing.

2. Direct-access file processing: There are many ways of organizing a file for direct-access.
First, the file must be stored on a direct-access device like a disk, so that the records need
not be processed in sequence. Second, some means must be developed for determining the
location of a particular record. Indexes are on common means.

Database Processing
A database is a self-describing collection of integrated records because it contains a part of itself,
a directory, or dictionary of its contents. The records are integrated because a database can contain
multiple files (usually called tables in databases processing), and records within those tables are
processed by their relationship to one another.

3.2. Database Management System

Introduction

A collection of programs that enables us to store, modify, and extract information from a database.
There are many different types of DBMSs, ranging from small systems that that run on personal
computers to huge systems that run on mainframes. The following are examples of database
applications:
• computerized library systems
• automated teller machines
• flight reservation systems
• computerized parts inventory systems
From a technical standpoint, DBMSs can differ widely. The terms relational, network, flat, and
hierarchical all refer to the way a DBMS organizes information internally. The internal
organization can affect how quickly and flexibly you can extract information.

Requests for information from a database are made in the form of a query, which is a stylized
question. For example, the query

SELECT ALL WHERE NAME = "SMITH" AND AGE > 35

requests all records in which the NAME field is SMITH and the AGE field is greater than 35.

The set of rules for constructing queries is known as a query language. Different DBMSs support
different query languages, although there is a semi-standardized query language called SQL
(structured query language). Sophisticated languages for managing database systems are called
fourth-generation languages, or 4GLs for short.

The information from a database can be presented in a variety of formats. Most DBMSs include a
report writer program that enables you to output data in the form of a report. Many DBMSs also
include a graphics component that enables you to output information in the form of graphs and
charts.

Quality of Information

• Accuracy: This means the data must be accurate. The data must be clear and accurately
reflects the meaning of data on which it is based. It conveys an accurate picture to the
recipient and may require a graphical presentation rather than a table full of numbers.

• Timeliness: The recipients must the get the data within the needed time frame. For example,
yesterday‟s newspaper today or stock quotes a day or two after are normally of little value.

• Relevancy: This means the information for a particular person must be useful. Information
relevant for one person may not be relevant for another.
Significance of DBMS

• Reduction in data redundancy: Redundancy can be controlled using DBMS. Thus, space
is efficiently used. The existing applications can share the data in the database. Reduces
problem of inconsistencies in stored information, e.g. different addresses in different
departments for the same customer

• Maintenance of data integrity and quality: Integrity means that the data in the database
is accurate. Centralized control of the data helps in permitting the administrator to define
integrity constraints to the data in the database.

• Data are self-documented or self-descriptive: Information on the meaning or

interpretation of the data can be stored in the database, e.g. names of items, metadata.

• Avoidance of inconsistencies: Reducing the redundancy also avoids the inconsistency of

data. Data must follow prescribed models, rules, standards

• Security restrictions: With complete authority over the operational data, the database
administrator can ensure that the only means of access to the database is through proper
channels. He can define authorization checks to be carried out whenever access to sensitive
data is attempted. Different checks can be established for each type of access (retrieve,
modify, delete, etc.), to each piece of information in the database.

Characteristics of Data in a database

• Shared: Date in a database is shared among different users and applications.

• Persistence: Data in a database exist permanently in the sense; the data can live beyond
the scope of the process that created it.

• Validity/Integrity/Correctness: Data should be correct with respect to the real world

entity that they represent.

• Security: Data should be protected from unauthorized access.

• Consistency: Whenever more than one data element in a database represents related
realworld values, the values should be consistent with respect to the relationship.

• Non-redundancy: No two data items in a database should represent the same real-world
entity.

• Independence: The three levels in the schema (internal, conceptual and external) should
be independent of each other so that the changes in the schema at one level should not affect
the other levels.

Database Management System and its services

• Transaction Processing: A transaction is a sequence of database operations that represent

a logical unit of work. It accesses a database and transforms it from one state to another. A
 transaction can update a record, delete one, modify a set of records, etc. When the DBMS
does a 'commit', the changes made by the transaction are made permanent. If you don't want
to make the changes permanent you can roll back the transaction and the database will
remain in its original state.

• Concurrency Management: It is the database management activity of coordinating the

actions of database manipulation process that operate concurrently, access shared data and
can potentially interface with each other. The goal of an idea concurrency management
mechanism is to allow concurrency while maintaining the consistency of the shared data.

• Recovery: The objective of recovery in a database is to ensure that the aborted or failed
transactions do not create any adverse effects on the database or other transactions.
Recovery mechanisms in a DBMS make sure that the data is returned to a consistent state
after a transaction fails or aborts. Recovery is very much related to concurrency in the sense
that, the more the concurrency, the more is the chance of an aborted transaction can affect
many other transactions.

• Security: It refers to the protection of data against unauthorized access. Security

mechanism of a DBMS makes sure that only authorized users are given access to the data
in the database. The level of access for each user and the operations that each user can
perform on the data will be monitored and controlled by the DBMS depending on the access
privileges of the user.

• Language Interface: The DBMS provides support languages used for the definition and
manipulation of the data in the database. The data structures are created using the data
definition language commands. The data manipulation is done using the data manipulation
commands. By providing language support for data definition and manipulation, the DBMS
create an environment where the users can do their jobs without worrying about the
physical implementation.

• Data catalog: Data catalog or Data Dictionary is a system of database that contains the
description of data in the database (metadata). It contains information about data,
relationships, constraints and the entire schema that organize these features into a unified
database. The data catalog can be queried to get information about the structure of the
database.

• Storage Management: The DBMS provides a mechanism for management of permanent

storage of the data. The internal schema defines how the data should be stored by the
storage management mechanism and the storage manager interfaces with the operating
system to access the physical storage.

Types of Database Management System

a) Hierarchical Model: Hierarchical Database model is one of the oldest database models.
The hierarchical model assumes that a tree structure is the most frequently occurring
relationship.
In this model data follow the hierarchical model. Rather than one record type (flat file), a
business has to deal with several types which are hierarchically related to each other, e.g.
company has several departments, each with attributes: name of director, number of staff,
address
Certain types of geographical data may fit the hierarchical model well, e.g. Census data
organized by state, within state by city, within city by census tract. The database keeps
 track of the different record types, their attributes, and the hierarchical relationships
between them. The attribute which assigns records to levels in the database structure are
called the key (e.g. is record a department, part or supplier?)

b) Network Model: The Network Model structures in a network connecting every node. The
network model was evolved to specifically handle non-hierarchical relationships. The
network model has greater flexibility than the hierarchical model for handling complex
spatial relationships.

c) Relational Model: In an RDBMS, a database is considered to be a collection of interrelated

data and programs. The data in a database has to be related. For example, in a College
Management System, which takes care of maintaining students' records, storing data such
as the salary details of the teachers would be inappropriate and considered unrelated. On
the other hand the marks details, fee details and other personal details of students would be
considered 'interrelated' data. The programs in a database perform the role of manipulating
this data. A database that is designed on the concept of 'relational' model is called a
'Relational Database Management System'.
A relational database is made up of set of relations or tables. These tables store user data
as well as system data. Each of these relations is made up of attributes (fields) and tuples
(records).
Structured Query Language (SQL) serves as a uniform interface for users providing a
collection of standard expressions for storing and retrieving data.

d) Object-oriented Model: Object-oriented model represents an entity as a class. A

class represents both object attributes as well as the behavior of the entity. The objects that
falls in the similar class have the similar behavior as mentioned in the class and each object
may have special attributes to distinguish itself from other object.

Database Design

Database Design Process:

Real World System

Database Database
Model Representation

• To develop a good design, one has to understand the meaning of information and the
intended use of the information's stored representation with the computer system. Once we
develop the understanding and have identified the use of information in the application, we
can determine how much and what kind of information we require.

• We could also determine in what format these information should be captured and
represented in the computer system or database. During this phase, it will become clear that
what data entities represent information redundancies and which entities are critical, which
are useful and which are not related to the application.

• It is important to collect and analyze the static and dynamic information available about the
real world application before starting the database design. For evolving a good database
design, it is important that one uses a model or a database design model.
Data Normalization

Normalization is the process of building database structures to store data. Normalization is a formal
process of developing data structures in a manner that eliminates redundancy and promotes
integrity. Data normalization is a corner stone of the relational theory.

Keys: A key uniquely identifies a row in a table. There are two types of keys: intelligent keys and
non-intelligent keys.

1. First Normal Form

2. Second normal Form
3. Third Normal Form.

Data Warehouse

To execute queries efficiently on diverse data, companies have built data warehouses. Data
warehouse gather data from multiple sources under a unified schema, at a single site. Thus, they
provide the user a single uniform interface to data.
A data warehouse is a large repository (or archive) of data which comes from operational sources
and has four properties:

(1) Non volatile (3) Subject oriented

(2) Time varying (4) Integrated.

Once gathered, the data are stored for a long time, permitting access to historical data, making
decision- support queries easier to write. Moreover, by accessing information for decision support
from a data warehouse, the decision maker ensures that online transaction processing systems are
not affected by the decision support workload.
Client

Data source 1
Clean Data Query and
Transform
Integrate
Warehouse analysis tools
Data source 2 Load

Client

Data source N

Fig: Typical architecture of a data warehouse

Properties of Data warehouse

• Subject-oriented: A data warehouse is organized around major subjects, such as customer,

supplier, product, and sales. Data warehouses typically provide a simple and concise view
around a particular subject issues by excluding data that are not useful in the decision support
system.
• Integrated: A data warehouse is usually constructed by integrating multiple heterogeneous
sources, such as relational databases, flat files, and on-line transaction records.

• Time-dependent: that is, containing information collected over time which implies there must
always be a connection between the information in the warehouse and the time when it was
entered.

• Nonvolatile: Data once loaded in the data warehouse is not going to change in the future. This
means that a data warehouse will always be filled with historical data.

Data Mining

It is a process of semi automatically finding of useful information from large repositories which
was not previously found.
Simply stated, data mining refers to extracting or "mining" knowledge from large amounts of data.
A broad view of data mining functionality: Data mining is the process of discovering interesting
knowledge from large amounts of data stored either in databases, data warehouses, or other
information repositories.

Data mining involves an integrating of techniques from multiple disciplines such as database
technology, statistics, machine learning, high-performance computing, pattern recognition, neural
networks, data visualization, information retrieval, image and signal processing, and spatial data
analysis.
By performing data mining, interesting knowledge, regularities or high-level information can be
extracted from databases and viewed or browsed from different angles.
The discovered knowledge can be applied to decision making, process control, information
management, and query processing.
Therefore, data mining is considered one of the most important frontiers in database systems and
one of the most promising interdisciplinary developments in the information industry. Data mining
is a step in the Knowledge Discovery Process.
History of the Internet

The early Internet was proposed, designed and implemented by American research institutes,
universities, and telecommunication companies. Many believe the Internet today is the initial
prototype of what is often called the National Information Infrastructure. It is a widespread
information infrastructure with rich history that entails many aspects - technological,
organizational, and community. It has a tremendous impact upon society with its influence
transcending beyond the technical fields of computer and communications
Origin of the Internet
The history of the Internet started in the United States in the early 1960s. It begun with the
development of electronic computers in the 1950s. It started as a project of the United States
government’s Department of Defense, to create a non-centralized network. This project was called
ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), created by the Pentagon’s Advanced
Research Projects Agency established in 1969 to provide a secure and survivable communications
network for organizations engaged in defense-related research.

In order to make the network more global a new sophisticated and standard protocol was needed.
They developed IP (Internet Protocol) technology which defined how electronic messages were
packaged, addressed, and sent over the network. The standard protocol was invented in 1977 and
was called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). TCP/ IP allowed users to
link various branches of other complex networks directly to the ARPANET, which soon came to
be called the Internet.
Researchers and academics in other fields began to make use of the network, and eventually the
National Science Foundation (NSF), which had created a similar and parallel network, called
NSFNet, took over much of the TCP/IP technology from ARPANET and established a
distributed network of networks capable of handling far greater traffic. In 1985, NSF began a
program to establish Internet access across the United States. They created a backbone called
the NSFNET and opened their doors to all educational facilities, academic researchers,
government agencies, and international research organizations. By the 1990’s the Internet
experienced explosive growth. It is estimated that the number of computers connected to the
Internet was doubling every year.

Businesses rapidly realized that, by making effective use of the Internet they could tune their
operations and offer new and better services to their customers, so they started spending vast
amounts of money to develop and enhance the Internet. This generated violent competition among
the communications carriers and hardware and software suppliers to meet this demand. The result
is that bandwidth (i.e., the information carrying capacity of communications lines) on the Internet
has increased tremendously and costs have dropped. It is widely believed that the Internet has
played a significant role in the economic success.
Application or Purposes of the Internet

Since its emergence the Internet has become popular and it has been used for several purposes. It
has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before.
Through the help of the World Wide Web and websites, the internet has become very useful in
many ways for everyone. Today the Internet has brought a globe in a single room. Right from
news across the corner of the world, wealth of knowledge to shopping, purchasing the tickets of
your favorite movie-everything is at your fingertips.The following are some of the common uses
of the Internet:
• Communication such as Email, Skype, Viber, etc: By using the Internet people can
communicate in a fraction of seconds with a person who is sitting in the other part of
the world.
• Information or resource sharing: The Internet is known for being one of the most
important gateways for resource repositories which store or house different types of
data or information in different formats. The Internet and the World Wide Web has
made it easy for anyone to access these data or information. People can browse the
Internet in search of information related to healthcare advises, weather, etc. easily.
• Business medium: Over the years, the internet has proved itself that it is not just
another technological tool, it has become increasingly a business platform too. World
trade has seen a big boom with the help of the internet, as it has become easier for
buyers and sellers to communicate and also to advertise their business. It has become
a common practice for businesses to use online classified websites to buy or sell or
advertise their products or services. Classified websites save a lot of money and time
so this is chosen as medium by most of people to advertise their products.
• Social Networking: Today social networking websites have become an important
part of the online community. More and more people as well as companies are joining
social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for personal as well as business
purposes. It has now become a common reality for companies as well as individuals
to use social medias or networking websites to build their business brand or profile
 • Online Shopping: In today’s busy life most of us are interested to shop online. In
some parts of the world, nowadays almost anything can be purchased via the internet.
In countries like the United States most of consumers prefer to shop from home.
• Entertainment: via the Internet we can find all forms of entertainment from watching
films to playing games online. Almost anyone can find the right kind of entertainment
for themselves. When people browse the Internet, there are numerous things that can
be found. Music, hobbies, news and more can be found and shared over the Internet.
• E-Commerce: Ecommerce is the concept used for any type of commercial
maneuvering, or business deals that involves the transfer of information across the
globe via the Internet. It has become a phenomenon associated with any kind of online
shopping.
• Services: Many services are now provided on the internet such as online banking,
job seeking, purchasing itinerary tickets, and guidance services on array of topics in
the every aspect of life, and hotel reservations and bills paying. Many governments
in the developed world have transformed their services into electronic and as a result,
citizens interact with governments online.
• Job Search: Internet makes life easy for both employers and job seekers as there are
plenty of job sites which connects employers and job seekers.
• Networking: People are connecting with others via the Internet and build their
network.
Search Engines
Search engines are software tools that search documents for specified keywords and returns a
list of the documents where the keywords were found. A search engine is a general class of
programs; however, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Bing
and Yahoo search that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web. Search
engines are special sites on the Web that are designed to help people find information stored
on other sites. There are differences in the ways various search engines work, but they all
perform three basic tasks:
1. They search based on words

2. They keep an index of the words they find, along with where they find them.

3. They allow users to look for words or combinations of words found in that index.

Millions of people around the world use search engines almost on regular basis. The benefits of
search engines to both individuals and society is huge. They have made the web a very critical
resource repository of our time. They are the most popular and widely used tool to find information
online.
Trends in Internet Use
The Internet of Things
The term Internet of Things (IoT) has no single universal definition. The definitions below have
been picked just for their relative simplicity and clarity. The term Internet of Things generally
refers to scenarios where network connectivity and computing capability extends to objects,
sensors and everyday items not normally considered computers, allowing these devices to
generate, exchange and consume data with minimal human intervention.
It can also be defined as the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other
items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity—that enables
these objects to collect and exchange data. The Internet of Things allows objects to be sensed
and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more
direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, and resulting in improved
efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit.

When IoT is augmented with sensors and actuators, the technology becomes an instance of the
more general class of cyber-physical systems, which also encompasses technologies such as smart
grids, smart homes, intelligent transportation and smart cities. Each thing is uniquely identifiable
through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet
infrastructure. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion objects by 2020.

Other notes for reference

Computer System
Computer system is the combination of input unit, central processing unit, Storage unit and the
output unit. There are input devices such as keyboard and mouse. Monitor and printer are output
devices. When these peripherals or devices are connected with the computer to achieve a common
objective, which will make it a complete set, and referred as "Computer System".

Elements of Computer System

1. Input: Data and instructions are input from devices like keyboard, mouse etc. Other input
devices are card reader, bar code reader, OCR, scanner, microphone, web camera, touch
pad etc.

2. Processor: The processor is also known as CPU (Central Processing Unit). It consists of
main memory, control unit and arithmetic and logic unit. It performs operations on data
input and returns the result to the output devices. The control unit fetches instructions from
main storage, interprets them, and issues the necessary signals to the components. It
controls all the hardware operations. The ALU performs all the arithmetic and logic
operations. The main memory holds the program instructions for the program to be
executed, the input date to be processed and the intermediate results of any processing.
Ram is an example of Main memory.

3. Secondary Storage: This unit is the supplement to main memory. Some popular storage
devices are Hard Disk, Floppy Disk, Optical disks etc.

4. Output: Main memory gives the result to output devices. The output may be in the form
of display or in printed form. Monitor and printer are common output devices.

Microprocessor

The microprocessor is built onto a single piece of silicon, known as a wafer or chip. Its size is
about 0.5 cm square. It is the developed form of integrated circuits manufactured using
semiconductor technology. It serves as the CPU in our general computers. Microprocessors
evolved rapidly due to
➢ Miniaturation of transistors
➢ Decreasing distance between transistors on the chip (decreasing line width)
➢ Improved conductivity (flow) of electricity Improved instruction sets
programmed into the chip.
Functions of Processor (CPU)

The CPU is the heart of the entire computer system. It performs computations, executes
instructions and transfer information to all the parts of a computer. The functions of the processor
are listed below:

a) It controls the main memory for storing intermediate data and instructions.
b) It controls the sequence of operations.
c) It gives commands to all parts of the computer system and hence controls all the
components.
d) It carries out processing i.e. computations on data.

❖ Control Unit
➢ Access program instructions
➢ Decode (interpret) instructions
➢ Control flow of data throughout system
➢ Data flows through paths called buses
❖ Arithmetic-Logic Unit
➢ Perform computations on data
➢ Perform comparisons on data
❖ Registers
➢ High speed storage areas
➢ Hold data and instructions
❖ Primary Storage (Main Memory)
➢ Stores instructions from programs
➢ Stores data to be processed
 Unit 4: How To Work With A Computer: Switching On And Off The Pc
Switching on Your PC
In order that you may use a PC, the first task you must perform is to switch on (or boot)
the PC. To switch the PC on first ensure that the power cable, which is supplied with your
PC, is connected to the electrical mains supply to your computer.
The On/Off power switches fitted to modern desktop and mini tower computers, are
generally of the toggle switch type and are located on the front of the computer casing. A
small LCD is situated adjacent to the power switch. When the power switch has been
turned on, the LCD will light up and a cooling fan, located in the PSU will start, indicating
that the computer is receiving electricity from the mains supply.

On/off

Figure 1.1: Front view of computer casing

Monitors, generally receive power directly from the computer, with a power cable connecting the
PSU to the back of the Monitor. The monitor toggle power switch will be found either on the
front or on the side of the monitor. Once you have turned on the computer, if the monitor is already
switched on, a small indicator light near the monitor on/off switch will become illuminated. If the
light remains off, push the monitor power switch to turn it on.

Light
indicator

On/Off

Function adjustment button

Figure 1.2 Monitor Power Switch
Start up sequence
When turning on your PC, the following sequence of events will take place.
1. The PC will perform some standard systems checks covering areas such as:
• Motherboard
• Processor
• Memory and
• Disk Drives
2. The message “Starting Windows ‘98” will be displayed on your monitor, followed by the
Windows ‘98 logo.
3. After a few seconds, the Windows 98 desktop will be displayed.
One of the first checks the system will perform is to check the available base memory
your system has at its disposal. You will see a message similar to the following appear
on screen whilst this check is in progress.
007936 KB OK
WAIT…..

Figure 1.3 Memory Check

The removable disk indicator light will briefly glow as the disk drives are checked
before the hard disk is checked. Then the screen will display system information in
accordance with the components and setting that the system has located during its tests.
The screen will appear similar to the shown below.

Main Processor : 80486DX2 Base Memory Size : 640 KB

Numeric Processor : Present Ext. Memory Size : 7296KB
Floppy Drive A : 1.2 MB, 5 ¼” Hard Disk C: Type : 47
Floppy Drive B : 1.44 MB, 3½” Hard Disk D: Type : None
Display Type : VGA/PGA/EGA Serial Port(s) : 3F8, 2F8
AMIBIOS Date : 04/04/93 Parallel Port(s) : 378

128 KB CACHE MEMORY

5OMHZ DX2 CPU
Figure 1.4: System Information
It is at this point that the computer has completed the majority of its hardware checks. If there are
any errors found during these checks the system will indicate the fault either on screen or with a
series of beeps. Now the computer is ready to load an operating system. Window 98 is loaded
automatically. When complete, the Windows 98 desktop will be displayed.

Figure 1.5: The Window 98 desktop

Although the most current version of the Window operating systems is Windows Millennium,
the majority of copies of Windows currently in use, that is at the time of going to print, is
Windows 98. For this reason, we will look at the WINDOWS ’98 operating system on this
course. You will learn about Windows in more detail later.
3.2 Turning off Your PC
Before you turn off your computer, it is important that you shut down Windows 98 correctly. One
of the methods of shutting down Windows ‘98 is accomplished by holding down the <Alt> key
and pressing the <F4> function key at the same time.
A “Shut Down Windows” dialogue box will appear which contain a list of choices relevant to
closing Windows. The standard default dialogue box lists the following choices:
Figure 1.6: The Shut Down Windows dialog box
The options listed in Figure 1.6 above are in the form of “radio” buttons, which means only
one option can be selected at a time. Once you have selected the required option by using the
UP < - > arrow or the DOWN < ¯ > arrow on your keyboard, you will press (ENTER) key,
which will activate the selected command button. Windows ‘98 will now perform the relevant
routine.
Shut Down
This shuts down windows and displays the messages “It is now safe to turn off your computer”.
When this message appears on the screen you can safely switch off your computer.
Restart the Computer
This option reboots (restarts) your computer and loads Windows ‘98. This option is used when
system settings have been changed. In order for Windows to recognize the new settings, Windows
must reboot.
Restart the Computer in MS-DOS mode
Should you wish to run your PC in MS-DOS mode this option is used to restart your computer in
DOS mode.