COMPUTER

WHAT IS A COMPUTER ?
A COMPUTER IS AN ELECTRONIC
MACHINE WHICH CALCULATES EXTREMELY
FAST, FASTER THAN A CONVENTIONAL
CALCULATOR. A COMPUTER WORKS UNDER A
SET OF RULES WHICH IT IS DESIGNED. BEING A
MACHINE
IT
WIL
NOT
PERFORM
INDEPENDENTLY OR CREATIVELY.

A COMPUTER SYSTEM PERFORMS

TWO TYPES OF PROCESSING. THEY ARE:A) NUMERIC

B)

NON-NUMERIC

A)NUMERIC PROCESSING :NUMERIC

PROCESSING
INCLUDES
ADDITION,SUBSTRACTION, MULTIPLICATION
AND DIVISION

B) NON-NUMERIC PROCESSING:i) TEXT PROCESSING :- WHAT EVER YOU

TYPED IN IS A DATA ENTRY FOR TEXT
PROCESSING WHICH COMPUTER PERFORMS.

II)

LOGICAL PROCESSING:-

WE CAN
MAKE A COMPUTER PERFORM SOME TYPE
OF PROCESSING WHEN WE FEED DATA OR
INSTRUCTIONS
WHICH
FORCES
A
COMPUTER TO CHOOSE FROM TWO
ALTERNATIVES.
FOR EG : - YES OR NO (Y/N), TRUE OR FALSE

THE ACTIVITIES OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM

TO MAKE A COMPUTER WORKS, YOU HAVE
TO FEED TWO THINGS:A)
INSTRUCTIONS ON WHAT THE COMPUTER
SHOULD DO.
B)
DATA ON WHICH THE COMPUTER SHOULD
CARRY OUT YOUR ORDERS.

THE
THREE
PROCESSES
WHICH
COMPUTER WORKS THROUGH ARE:A) INPUT B) PROCESSING C) OUTPUT

THE PROCESS OF FEEDING DATA AND

INSTRUCTIONS IS CALLED INPUT.
Eg:- KEYBOARD,
MOUSE,
SCANNER, DIGITIZER

JOYSTICK,

WHEN A COMPUTER WORKS ON THE

DATA IS CALLED PROCESSING.
Eg:- CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT
GIVING
THE
RESULTS
PROCESSING IS CALLED OUTPUT.

AFTER

Eg:- MONITOR, PRINTER, PLOTTER, ETC.

INPUT

PROCESSING

OUTPUT

STORAGE

SOFT COPY/
VDU

HARD COPY/
PRN

DATA :IT
REPRESENTS
CHARACTERS,
WORDS, SENTENCES, WITH OR WITHOUT
RELATIONSHIP AMONG THEM.
FOR EG :- HE, LIVING, DELHI, 1200
MEANINGFUL DATA :- A SET OF DATA
ORGANISED TO FORM A MEANING
FOR EG:- HE IS LIVING AT DELHI
HAS RS.1200.

HARDWARE
ANY PHYSICAL COMPONENT OF A
COMPUTER
SYSTEM
IS
CALLED
HARDWARE.
HARD WARE IS THE ONE WHICH
WE CAN SEE AND FEEL.
Eg:- KEYBOARD,
MONITOR ETC

MOUSE,

CPU,

SOFTWARE :THE INSTRUCTIONS WE FEED INTO THE

COMPUTER TO PERFORM A SPECIFIC TASK IS
CALLED AS SOFTWARE.
SOFTWARE
CANNOT SEE.

IS

THE

EG:- DOS, WINDOWS

ONE

WHICH

WE

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF SOFTWARES :A)

SYSTEM SOFTWARE :-WHICH INCLUDES
THE
OPERATING
SYSTEM AND
UTILITY
PROGRAMS
OPERATING SYSTEM IS THE ONE WHICH
RUNS THE COMPUTER.
UTILITY PROGRAM IS THE ONE WHICH
HELPS US TO CARRY OUT SPECIAL TASKS SUCH
AS EDIT, COPY, PRINT ETC

B) APPLICATION SOFTWARE :APPLICATION SOFTWARE COVERS

GROUP OF PROGRAMS WHICH ARE
USED TO RUN SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS.
EG :- MICROSOFT WORD, EXCEL,
POWER POINT, ADOBE PHOTOSHOP.
ETC..

BASIC ELECTRONICS
POWER SUPPLY :-

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF

POWER SUPPLY
A) LINEAR

B)

SMPS

A) LINEAR
:THIS IS NOT ADVISABLE AS IT
GRADUALLY INCREASES AND EASY TO DAMAGE
THE SYSTEM.
B) SMPS (SWITCH MODE POWER SUPPLY) :- THIS IS
NORMALLY USED NOW A DAYS AS IT GIVES STEADY
SUPPLY TO THE SYSTEMS.

SWITCH MODE POWER SUPPLY

AFTER SWITCH ON, THE SMPS GETS 230V AND
IT GENERATES FIVE TYPES OF VOLTAGES. THEY
ARE:+5v, -5v, +12v, -12v AND PG SIGNAL OF +12v
PG SIGNAL IS THE HIGH ACTIVE SIGNAL WHICH
DEVELOPES
ONLY FOR A DURATION OF 0.01
SECONDS.
+5 AND 5v ARE USED BY THE PROCESSOR TO RUN
VARIOUS LOGICS
+12V, AND 12V USED FOR VARIOUS PERIPHERALS.

TYPES OF RAM AVAILABLE

:0
DRAM - DYNAMIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY
SRAM

- STATIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY

DIMM - DUAL INLANE MEMORY MODULE

SIMM - SINGLE INLANE MEMORY MODULE

ROM (READ ONLY MEMORY)

THIS IS A PERMANENT STORAGE. ROM
CONTAINS PROGRAMS LOADED INTO IT AND
CONTAIN STARTING INSTRUCTIONS FOR
COMPUTERS.
ONE
SUCH
INSTRUCTIONS
PERFORMS POST (POWER ON SELF TEST).
BIOS IS ONE TYPE OF ROM. IT CONTAINS
EPROM. EPROM (ERASABLE PROGRAMMABLE READ
ONLY MEMORY.
BIOS BASIC INPUT OUTPUT CONTROL SYSTEMS.

MINIMUM MEMORY REQUIRED FOR :

MONITOR

64 KB

OPERATING SYSTEM -

640KB

BIOS

126KB

DATA STORAGE DEVICES

HARD DISK
FLOPPY DISK
CD-ROM
TAPE DRIVE

COMMUNICATING WITH COMPUTER

COMPUTER IS AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE,
THUS IT CANNOT UNDERSTAND ANY SPEAKING
LANGUGE. IT CAN ONLY UNDERSTAND MACHINE
LANGUAGES. AND THIS LANGUAGE IS BASED ON
A PRINCIPLE OF ON, OFF i.e, CONCEPT OF TWO
STATES.
EACH
STATE
IS
REPRESENTED
SYMBOLICALLY EITHER BY ONE OR ZERO.
THE PRESENCE OF AN ELECTRONIC PULSE IS
ONE AND ABSENCE IS ZERO

BINARY LANGUAGE
THE ENTIRE COMPUTER VOCABULARY IS
BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF ZERO AND ONE
AND THIS IS KNOWN AS BINARY LANGUAGE.
BINARY LANGUAGE HAS
CHARACTERS, ZERO AND ONE.

ONLY

TWO

EACH CHARACTER IS KNOWN AS A BIT

(BINARY DIGIT)
EIGHT BITS FORM ONE BYTE

A BIT IS THE SMALLEST CHARACTER THAT A

COMPUTER RECOGNISES AND BYTE IS THE SMALLEST
STORAGE SPACE USED BY A COMPUTER TO STORE A
BIT.
ARRANGEMENT OF BITS INTO WORDS IS KNOWN AS
A BIT PATTERN

BIT PATTERN
THERE ARE TWO BIT PATTERNS IN A COMPUTER
A) ASCII (AMERICAN STANDARD CODE FOR INFORMATION
INTERCHANGE)
B) EBCDIC (EXTENDED
INTERCHANGE CODE).

BINARY

CODED

DECIMAL

LETTERS

EBCDIS

ASCII

11000001

01000001

11000010

01000010

11000011

01000011

11000100

01000100

11000101

01000101

11000110

01000110

11000111

01000111

..AND SO ON