8 functions of the Operating system

a) User interface - the operating system allows user to communicate with the computer in loading programs,
accessing files and accomplishing tasks through command driven, menu driven or graphical user interface.
b) File management – file management programs in the OS control the creation, edition, deletion and
accessing of data and programs, i.e. keep a track of the physical location of files on secondary storage units.
c) Task management – it manages the accomplishment of computing tasks as required by the user. This
allows multi-tasking (computer carries out many tasks simultaneously like playing games and playing
music) and multi-programming (several programs will be running at the same time).
d) Resource management – it manages the hardware resources of a computer system including the Central
Processing Unit, memory, secondary storage, input and output devices.
e) Operating environment management - the OS contains operating environment packages that provide icon
display and supports the use of other input devices to allow running and output of several programs i.e.
creates a friendly and efficient operating environment for the user.
f) Error detection – the OS is responsible for detecting/identifying any hardware or software malfunctioning
and reporting to or notifying the user.
g) Preparation of a system log – the operating system compiles a report on the events that takes place in a
computer from the moment a user logs on to a computer, what he/she does up to the time the computer
is logged off.
h) Management of authorizations – the OS is responsible for the security leading to the execution of programs
by guaranteeing that the resources are used by the programs and users with the relevant authorization.

Discussing the computer generations

The Zeroth generation was a period of computers from 1642-1946. It was marked by the invention of mainly
the mechanical computers. Blause Pascal invented the first device called the Pascaline in 1642. In 1822,
Charles Babbage (father of computers) invented the “Difference engine” which as used to compute tables of
numbers for naval navigation. In 1834, Charles attempted to build a digital computer called Analytical Engine
which had all the parts of a modern computer. It had the memory unit (store), the computation unit (mill),
input unit (punched card reader) and the output unit (punched/printed output). Hermann Hollerith invented
the tabulating machine which was used in the 1880 US census for counting. In 1994, Howard A. Eiken invented
the first American general purpose electro-mechanical computer called Mark 1.
The First generation computers were from a period of 1946-1954. This era was marked by the use of vacuum
tubes or valves for their basic electronic component. Examples include the Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Calculator which was the first to use vacuum tubes (1946) and the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic
Calculator (1949), the first to use stored programs. These were very large in size and were not portable. First
generation computers consumed too much power and produced too much heat even when used for a short
duration. They produced too many errors in the operations and were unreliable. The computers broke down
frequently, therefore required regular maintenance and their components had to be assembled manually
hence time consuming to repair. However first generation computers were faster and efficient when being
compared to the zeroth generation computers, they became outdated in 1954 when the Philo Corporation
developed transistors which replaced vacuum tubes computers.
Second generation computers were from the period of 1954-1964 and these computers used transistors in
place of vacuum tubes. The transistors used were made from pieces of silicon hence were much more
compactible than all the previous generation computers, the computers were much smaller in size and
generated less heat. They were slightly faster and reliable in operations when compared to the previous
generation computers. However these ones had limited storage capacity and consumed more power in their
operations. Similarly to the first generation computers, these computers required regular maintenance and
their components had to be assembled manually, hence expensive and time consuming to repair. In 1964 an
integrated circuit was invented whereby a number of transistors were scaled up into a tiny package, also
called a chip which outdated the second generation.
Third generation computers (1964-1980) was marked by the use of Integrated Circuits (chips) which were
more compact as hundreds of transistors could be put on one circuit, which was small. These computers were
much smaller, generated even more less heat and required less power as compared to all the previous
generation computers. These computers required even less human intervention and were much faster and
reliable in operation. However they still had a small limited storage capacity and performance in general was
relatively slow and could not fulfill the requirements of the user and stored programs. Third generation
computers became outdated in 1978 by the invention of Large Scale Integrators and examples include IBM
360, developed in 1964, PDP-II developed in 1970 as the first mini-computer and the VAX developed in 1978
as the first super mini-computer.

The Fourth generation of computers is marked by the use of Large Scale Integration from 1978 up to date. It
was developed when it was found that thousands of integrated circuits could be integrated on a single chip.
These were developed to Very Large Scale Integration which is the technology in computers that led to the
development of popular “personal computers” also known as micro-computers. The computers are very
powerful having a very high storage capacity and can process much faster and efficiently with zero error in
their operations. They require less power for their operations and are portable for example laptops. Fourth
generation computers are user friendly and reliable. However these computers do not have intelligence of
their own and still require human interference in their operations.
 The Fifth generation of computers are the computers of the present and of the future, what the computers
will be expected to do in the future. The future computers are still under research and are expected to have
artificial intelligence of their own. This software would enable a user to instruct the computer what to do and
the users would no longer be require to give the computer every instruction on how to solve a problem. The
computers would have Ultra Large Scale Integration with millions of transistors on a single micro-chip which
would enable it to do parallel processing (use of two or more microprocessors to run tasks simultaneously).
These ones consume less power and have a huge storage capacity and they are way too portable for example
smart phones and tablets. These ones will be able to understand human language through an interface of
speech in natural language.
With an aid of a diagram explain:
A) Data communication
Data – refers to a piece of information formatted in a special way
Communication – is the exchange of information between two or more bodies and between two or more
machines/systems
Data communication therefore refers to the movement or transmission of encoded information from one
device to another by means of electrical transmission system which is either wireless or wired. For data
communication to occur, communicating devices must be part of a communication system made up of a
combination of software and hardware.

TRANSMISSION
SOURCE TRANSMITTER
MEDIUM

DESTINATION RECEIVER
 Source- the source generates the information or data to be transmitted to the destination. The message to be
transmitted can be in any form ,may be a text file, audio file, video file, numbers, pictures or a combination of
both. Information is put together in analog or digital form and broken into data packets with each data packet
containing the following
a) actual data being sent
b) header
c) information about the type of data
d) source of the data
e) destination of the data
f) how it should be reassembled when the message arrives at its destination

 Transmitter- this is the device used to convert the data as per the destination requirement i.e. a modem
coverts analog signal to digital signal.
 Transmission medium- this is the physical path which is followed by the data being transmitted to the receiver.
This includes copper wires, optical fibers and wireless communication channels. Transmission medium acts a
bridge between the sender and the receiver.
 Receiver- this receives the signals from the transmission medium and converts into a suitable form that suits
the destination device e.g. a modem accepts analog signal and converts it to digital bit stream understood by
the computer system.
 Destination – is simply a device for which the source device sends data to, it may be a computer or a mobile
phone.
Any 5 network topologies
A network topology is the arrangement of elements (such as data links or nodes) in a network. It is the physical
arrangements of terminals in a local area network
Star network topology

NODE 2

NODE 1
NODE 3

CONCETRATOR/HUB

CPU
NODE 4 NODE 4
NODE 4
This type of network involves all terminals connected through a single point, such as star coupler. At the
center is where the concentrator of the wiring hub is located and all other workstations are arranged around
the central point representing the points of a star. A hub is a component that serves a common termination
point for multiple nodes that can relay signals along the appropriate path. It is easy to add or remove nodes in
this type of topology and there is full utilization of resources like printers and scanners and sharing of the
processor. However it requires too much cabling since all the data passes through the main connection point
and if the hub breaks down all other workstations will not be functional.

Tree topology

This one is a multiple star topology on a bus, it integrates multiple star topologies together onto a bus. Only
the hub devices can connect directly with the tree bus and each hub acts a root of a tree of the networking
devices. This hybrid combination supports the future expandability of the computer network much better than
 the star network. This one supports several hardware and software venders but however is more difficult to
COMPUTER
configure than other topologies and if the back bone line breaks down, the entire segment goes down.

Mesh topology

COMPUTER
COMPUTER COMPUTER

COMPUTER

COMPUTER
COMPUTER
COMPUTER

This works on the concept of routes. In Mesh topology any message sent takes up the shortest and easiest route
to its destination. In this set up every device is connected to another evice and at one point a device can act as a
work station and then as a hub. Messages either travel in clockwise or anticlockwise direction, only in one
direction.
It has a router which finds the easiest route for information being sent and the internet employs this type of
mesh set up in transmission of messages.
Bus/linear topology
 DM DM
WORKSTATION COMPATIBLE COMPATIBLE

ETHERNET

MOD 1 MOD 2

A bus topology is a single cable local area network in which all computers all computers are connected to in series
to a single cable. It is often called a horizontal or multi-drop network point in which each node is connected to a
common line. In linear connection messages travel in both directions and do not go through individual nodes but
every node can hear the message as it passes through. When the messages reach the end of a bus, the last
terminal absorbs it to prevent it from bouncing back hence interfering with other messages already in line. The
data is sent in form of packets and each data packet contains a receiver identification code that is the address of
the destination and all computers on the network are aware of any messages coming to them.

Ring network topology

COMPUTER 3
 COMPUTER 2 COMPUTER 4

COMPUTER 1

This a network topology in form of a loop or circle with each node connected to the next and messages move in
one direction around the system. Each node has two neighboring nodes and data flow is unidirectional.
When a message arrives at a node, the node examines the address in the information, if it is the right one it
accepts it if it’s incorrect the node regenerates the signal and places back the message on the network for the
next node in system.
A message is forwarded in one direction until it reaches the destination with the intermediate nodes acting as the
relay, the destination node copies the messages and passes it to the next node in the ring and message keeps on
circulating like that until its back to the source.

Identify and explain 8 network connecting devices

Network hub - it is a networking device in a computer used to communicate with various network hosts and also for data
transferring in form of data packets. Data processing can be done from a host to a network hub and then can be transmitted
to all other connected ports. Similarly all the ports identify the data path which leads to inefficiences and wastage.
Because data is shared amongst different ports, a network hub is not secure and safe.Copying of data on all ports will make
the hub slower and this leads to the utilization of the network switch. Network
hubs are classified into two namely active and passive hub. Active hub- these hubs
have their own supply of power and are used to clean, increase and transmit the signals over a network. It works a wiring and
repeating center and active hubs play a role in extending distance between the nodes.
Passive hubs these are hubs that collect wiring from the power source and different nodes of active hubs. These transmit
signals over the network without improving and cleaning them, however there are not suitable for extending the distance
between the nodes.

Modem- it is network device used in our daily life. Computers give digital or binary data in the form of zeros and ones. The
full form of a modem is a modulator and a demodulator and these convert computer signals into a form that can be
transmitted down to telephone lines and converts signals from telephone lines into a form understandable by the
computer. This is so because computers
generate digital data whereas telephone lines generate analog data.
Network router- its a device used for routing or directing traffic from one network to the other. The two networks involved
can either be a private or public network. A network router is considered as a traffic police officer at a junction directing
dissimilar traffic networks to different directions.
Bridge - it unites or connects two or more network segments. It's main function is to store and forward frames among
various segments. A bridge used media access control hardware for transferring data. Bridges also connect two
physical local area networks to and a larger logical local area network.
In OSI, bridges work at the data link and physical dividers to separate larger from smaller networks and control data flow
between the two.
Repeater - the main function of a repeater is to reproduce the signal before it gets weaker or damaged.
However a repeater does not strengthen a signal ,it reproduces signal at it's actual strength.
A repeater is a two port device.
Gate-way - it performs at the session and transport layers in the Open System Interconnection.
It offers conversion between networking technologies like OSI and TCP/IP. Gateways are connected to two or more networks
with each network having it's own dormain service, routing algorithm, topology, protocol and adminstration policies.
They execute all functions of a router but with an additional conversion functionality between network known as protocol
converter.
Brouter - it is also called a bridging router and it's main function is to combine both functions of a router and a bridge. It
performs either at the network layer or the data link later.
 When it works as a router ,it directs packets across networks whereas as a bridges, it is used for filtering local area network
traffic.
Write notes on LAN, WAN AND MAN

Lan ( Local Area Network)

It is a high speed data network that covers a small geographical area usually same building or floor or a campus.

It typically connects with workstations, personal computers, printers, servers and other devices.

LAN allows shared access between devices and applications, file and software exchange between connected users and communication
via electronic-mail and it's medium of transmission is optical fibers, coaxial cables, twisted pair cables and wireless.
LAN is associated with bus, ring and star topology and uses token ring as it's ethernet.
WAN (Wide Area Network)
It is a geographically dispersed network that covers a wide area as compared to LAN.
It can also be defined as a multi-connection of local area networks over a larger distance through topologies such as telephone lines,
fibre optics, satellite and microwave transmission.
Dedicated trans-oceanic cabling or satellites can be used in this connection hence allowing international communication for example
students at Harare polytechnic can share information with students at University of Pretoria without paying enormous bills.
WAN uses communication circuits that are connected to routers and the router's main function is to store and forward data, hence
it's hosts being close to the router.
Sometimes wide area networks suffer from delays due to the swamping of data and information at the satellite and it's typical
speed of transferring data ranges from 20-2000 kilobits/second.

MAN ( Metropolitan Area Network)

It is a computer network that connects computers within a same metropolitan area which could be a single large city, multiple cities or towns.
MAN is larger than local area network but smaller that wide area network.

Metropolitan only implies that the size of the network is large and not the demographic of the area it's located in.

Metropolitan area network is made up of interconnected local area networks but because metropolitan is much smaller than wide area
network , it's more efficient since data doesn't travel over large distances.

Metropolitan Area Network use fiber optics cable to form connections between local area network or sometimes they use "dark fibers" and
these are formerly unused fiber optic cables that are able to carry traffic.

Difference between network type and network topology

A network type is more of the design for communication that makes sure that the specs for each device on the network function
properly whilst a network topology is the the arrangement of all network components both physically and logically.
Network topology requires two or more devices for it's function whilst a network type requires only the connecting device.

In network topology cabling is.involved for connection but in a network type devices can be connected wirelessly.