1.

Alternating voltages are sometimes expressed using a mathematical function

V=Eₒsinωt
Define the terms
a) Amplitude

the maximum displacement or distance moved by a point on a vibrating body or wave

measured from its equilibrium position. It is equal to one-half the length of the vibration path.

b) Frequency

the number of waves that pass a fixed point in unit time; also, the number of cycles or
vibrations undergone during one unit of time by a body in periodic motion.

c) Angular frequency

angular frequency ω is a scalar measure of rotation rate. It refers to the angular

displacement per unit time or the rate of change of the phase of a sinusoidal waveform, or as
the rate of change of the argument of the sine function.

d) Time period

is the time taken for one complete cycle of vibration to pass a given point. As the frequency
of a wave increases, the time periodof the wave decreases. ... Frequency and time
periodare in a reciprocal relationship that can be expressed mathematically as: T = 1/f or as:
f = 1/T.

2. Sketch the shape of the above function for two complete cycles
3. Sketch the following
a) V1 = 3sin3pt
b) V2 = 5sin5pt
c) V3 = 5sin6pt
Draw all the three graphs on the same axis
4. What form of energy does a digital computer consume?

mechanical, sound, heat, light, and electric energy.

5. How does it convert this energy to solve mathematical problems or to draw pictures
on the screen?


Matter is composed of atoms (we can go smaller than this but this should be
enough for this question)
 Atoms have electrons and flow of these electrons is defined as electricity
 Now, to make use of these electrons, we create transistors which can
store/free electricity as needed. They are stored in units of 1 (5Volts) and 0
(0 Volts)
 An 8-bit number is then represented with 8 transistors. So 8-bit
representation of the number 3 will be : 0000 0011. How is that achieved in
hardware? Keep 8 transistors side-by-side (called registers and memory
units). Make the first 6 transistors hold 0V and the next 2 transistors hold
5V
 Now, an organization of such registers and memory makes a cpu+ram
  To make it easy to compute using the CPU, we developed machine code.
This language is what essentially runs on the CPU. What do I mean by
"run"? It means, keep flipping bits. If I want to perform 2+3, in machine, I
would store 2 in one register (register explained above) and 3 in another
register. Then I would take these values to an Adder unit which would do a
mathematical add (not the same as voltage addition) and give me the reply
in another register. This is what a sample machine code would look like:

80 02 F3
80 03 F4
88 F3 F4 F5

Obviously, no one understood anything with this. So we came up with an ingenuous

system to make it human readable. This is called assembly language. The following
piece of code represents the above mentioned numbers:

MOVI 2, REG A
MOVI 3, REG B
ADD REG A, REG B, REG C (add A and B and store in C)

where MOVI = 80
REG A = F3
REG B = F4
REG C = F5
ADD = 88

Voila, our first coding language :)

 Now, assembly is too hard for humans to remember and code properly in.
So they developed compilers that would convert a high level language like C
to assembly language (remember, this assembly language does the actual
flipping of bits)

So, a C representation of the above mentioned assembly would be:

{
int a = 2; b = 3;
c = a+b;
}

 Just like people could write poems with English and not with hand signs, we
realized that with an expressive language, people could write some better
programs. Then compile it to assembly. Then that would flip bits in
registers. Which in turn would affect transistors, which affect flow of
electrons
 With the above found expressiveness, we wrote operating systems to
maximize hardware usage, since it was seen that the CPU remained idle
while we fetched data from disk
  Everything from your keyboard input to mouse to desktop to windows to
sound is a program written in such expressive languages, running on top of
the OS
 On the OS, we developed a network stack called TCP/IP. This stack
provided a standardized methodology for computers to communicate with
each other
 Once that was working and we managed to hook computers to each other
using cables, we went on to create WWW and http. This allowed people
from different networks to communicate with each other. Note that http is a
protocol. Servers and Clients are programs that follow (at least) http in
addition to internal protocols.

Let's walk the other way, from software to electrons now

 When you type Google in the browser and hit Enter key, an http request is
sent from your browser (the client) to Google (server)
 In your own computer, the browser is a program written in C/C++
 This gets compiled to assembly (actually browser is already compiled, you're
just giving input numbers to the compiled browser)
 The operating system (windows/linux etc) and device drivers are all already
compiled to assembly and are running on your machine
 When the browser assembly gets it's turn to run on the CPU, it runs the
assembly
 This assembly code does flipping of bits in registers and memory
 The registers and memory are composed of transistors
 Transistors control the flow of electrons and hence electricity.

I've overly simplified it. But this is what it is in essence. There are tons of other things
happening but mostly, it's different software programs interacting with each other
(remember the movie matrix?).

I am glad you asked this question. Computers are man-made miracles of the highest
order. No single person could have thought of all this. It has taken more than 50
years and millions of smart people to get to this point. Most computer programmers
and professionals I've talked to, have an incomplete picture of what a computer
actually is and (as you put it) how does electricity get converted to software.

Hope this helps.

Edit:

Judging by the popularity of this answer, it seems many people would use this as
reference somewhere. I would like to point out that I have dumbed it down to the
definition of trivia. I have not touched even 1% of the actual detail. Every bullet point
I mention has thousands of engineers working on it every day and the details are
mind-numbing.
The answer has some inaccuracies. For example, it is not true that 1 transistor
represents 1 bit. In fact, a group of 6 gates (making a D Flip-flop) that does it. There
are other flip-flops doing the same. However, I did not feel like going into details of
gates and logic circuits.

However, the overview is true. This is essentially how you would see a computer
system from the outside.

Also note that we have come much further away from this trivial description. I did
not even talk about caches, coherencies, consistencies in multiprocessor systems,
schedulers, microarchitectures, register files, bridges, GPU, how display works, how
does BIOS work, what is init?, what do you mean when you say something is a
"program"? etc.

Nor did I talk about state machines, ALUs, pipelines, power supply, how current is
measured, CLOCK, system ticks, HDLs, control logic, digital circuits like
mux/demux, decoders, cryptos etc.

6. Distinguish between a half wave rectifier and a full wave rectifier with circuit diagram.

7. Half Wave Rectifier

8. 1. Number of diodes required: 1

9. 2. Transformer requirement: Not essential

10. 3. Average value of current, Idc: Imax/pi

11. 4. Rms value of current, Irms: Imax/2

12. 5. Peak inverse voltage (PIV): Vmax

13. 6. Peak load current, Imax: Vmax/(Rload + Rf)

14. 7. Dc output voltage, Vdc: Idc x Rload

15. 8. Rectification efficiency (max): 40.6 %

16. 9. Ripple factor: 1.21

17. 10. Fundamental frequency of ripple: f

18. 11. Voltage regulation: good

19. 12. Transformer utilization factor: 0.286

20. 13. Form factor: 1.57

21. 14. Peak factor: 2

22. Full Wave Rectifier (center tap)

23. 1. Number of diodes required: 2

24. 2. Transformer requirement: Center tap

25. 3. Average value of current, Idc: 2Imax/pi

26. 4. Rms value of current, Irms: Imax/sqr root(2)

27. 5. Peak inverse voltage (PIV): 2Vmax

28. 6. Peak load current, Imax: Vmax/(Rload + Rf)

29. 7. Dc output voltage, Vdc: Idc x Rload

30. 8. Rectification efficiency (max): 81.2 %

31. 9. Ripple factor: 0.482

32. 10. Fundamental frequency of ripple: 2f

33. 11. Voltage regulation: better

34. 12. Transformer utilization factor: 0.692

35. 13. Form factor: 1.11

36. 14. Peak factor: sqr root(2)

37. Full Wave Rectifier (Bridge)

38. 1. Number of diodes required: 4

39. 2. Transformer requirement: Not essential

40. 3. Average value of current, Idc: 2Imax/pi

41. 4. Rms value of current, Irms: Imax/sqr root(2)

42. 5. Peak inverse voltage (PIV): Vmax

43. 6. Peak load current, Imax: Vmax/(Rload + 2Rf)

44. 7. Dc output voltage, Vdc: Idc x Rload

45. 8. Rectification efficiency (max): 81.2 %

46. 9. Ripple factor: 0.482

47. 10. Fundamental frequency of ripple: 2f

48. 11. Voltage regulation: good

49. 12. Transformer utilization factor: 0.812

50. 13. Form factor: 1.11

51. 14. Peak factor: sqr root(2)

52. Draw the forward and reverse biased characteristics of pn junction diode.
53. With reference to the characteristics explain the working of the half wave and full
wave rectifier with diagrams.
54. Draw the simple circuit to study forward and reverse biased characteristics of a pn
junction diode.
55. Draw a graph showing the forward and reverse biased characteristics of a pn junction
diode. Explain the graph in words.
56. What kind of bonding is observed in a crystal of silicon or germanium? *covalent
57. Distinguish between elemental semiconductors and compound semiconductors.
58. Give examples for elemental semiconductors and compound semiconductors

59. Elemental Semiconductors are made from single element also known as
mixed element. Compound Semiconductors as the name say are made from
compound.

60. 2. Elemental Semiconductors are made up from IV group and VI group

elements. Compound Semiconductors are made from III and V group
elements or II and VI group elements.

61. 3. Elemental Semiconductors are called as indirect band gap semiconductor

in which electron-hole recombination takes place through traps. Compound
Semiconductors are called as direct band gap semiconductor in which
electron-hole recombination takes place directly.

62. 4. For Elemental semiconductors, Heat is produced in the recombination while

for Compound semiconductors, Photons are emitted during recombination.

63. 5. For Elemental semiconductors, Life time of charge carriers is more due to
indirect recombination. For Compound semiconductors, Life time of charge
carriers is less due to direct recombination.

64. 6. In elemental, current amplification is more as compared to compound

semiconductors.

65. 7. Elemental Semiconductors are used for making diodes, transistor, etc.
Compound Semiconductors are used for making LED, laser diodes, etc.

66. 8. Example of Elemental semiconductors are Ge, Si. Example of Compound

semiconductors are GaAs, GaP, CdS, MgO.

67. What is n-type silicon and p-type silicon?

68. Draw the energy level diagram of
 a) Metals
b) Semiconductors
c) Insulators
69. How is the energy level diagram of silicon altered by adding
a) N-type impurities
b) P-type impurities
70. Distinguish between intrinsic semiconductors and extrinsic semiconductors.
71. What is a pn junction diode?

A p-n junction diode is two-terminal or two-electrode semiconductor device, which allows

the electric current in only one direction while blocks the electric current in opposite or
reverse direction. ... The p-n junction, which is formed when the p-type and n-type
semiconductors are joined, is called as p-n junction diode.

72. Using a energy level diagram of pn junction diode distinguish between forward bias
and reverse bias.

73. What are the possible breakdown mechanisms in a reverse biased pn junction
diode?
74. The process by which a depletion region at the p-n junction is destroyed and
allows a large reverse current is called depletion region breakdown.
75. In reverse biased p-n junction, the negative terminal of the battery is
connected to the p-type semiconductor whereas the positive terminal of the
battery is connected to the n-type semiconductor .
76. If the reverse voltage applied on the diode is increased, the width of depletion
region increases. This depletion region blocks the majority carrier current.
However, it allows the minority carrier current. This minority carrier current
in the reverse biased p-n junction diode is called reverse current or reverse
saturation current.
77. The width of the depletion region increases with the increase in voltage only
up to a certain value or point. If the reverse voltage applied on the p-n
junction diode is increased beyond that value or point, the junction breaks
down and allows a large reverse current. At this point, a small increase in the
voltage will rapidly increase the electric current.
78. The voltage or point at which junction breakdown occurs is called breakdown
voltage. The breakdown voltage of a p-n junction diode is depends on
 the width of depletion region. The p-n junction diodes with wide depletion
region have high breakdown voltage whereas the p-n junction diodes with
narrow depletion region have low breakdown voltage.
79. The depletion region breakdown or junction breakdown occurs in two
different methods. Those two different methods are zener breakdown and
avalanche breakdown.