Block Diagram of Computer :

A computer can process data, pictures, sound and graphics. They can solve highly complicated problems quickly and accurately. Input Unit: Computers need to receive data and instruction in order to solve any problem. Therefore we need to input the data and instructions into the computers. The input unit consists of one or more input devices. Keyboard is the one of the most commonly used input device. Other commonly used input devices are the mouse, floppy disk drive, magnetic tape, etc. All the input devices perform the following functions. Accept the data and instructions from the outside world. Convert it to a form that the computer can understand. Supply the converted data to the computer system for further processing. Storage Unit: The storage unit of the computer holds data and instructions that are entered through the input unit, before they are processed. It preserves the intermediate and final results before these are sent to the output devices. It also saves the data for the later use. The various storage devices of a computer system are divided into two categories. 1. Primary Storage: Stores and provides very fast. This memory is generally used to hold the program being currently executed in the computer, the data being received from the input unit, the intermediate and final results of the program. The primary memory is temporary in nature. The data is lost, when the computer is switched off. In order to store the data permanently, the data has to be transferred to the secondary memory. The cost of the primary storage is more compared to the secondary storage. Therefore most computers have limited primary storage capacity. 2. Secondary Storage: Secondary storage is used like an archive. It stores several programs, documents, data bases etc. The programs that you run on the computer are first transferred to the primary memory before it is actually run. Whenever the results are saved, again they get

stored in the secondary memory. The secondary memory is slower and cheaper than the primary memory. Some of the commonly used secondary memory devices are Hard disk, CD, etc., Memory Size: All digital computers use the binary system, i.e. 0s and 1s. Each character or a number is represented by an 8 bit code. The set of 8 bits is called a byte. A character occupies 1 byte space. A numeric occupies 2 byte space. Byte is the space occupied in the memory. The size of the primary storage is specified in KB (Kilobytes) or MB (Megabyte). One KB is equal to 1024 bytes and one MB is equal to 1000KB. The size of the primary storage in a typical PC usually starts at 16MB. PCs having 32 MB, 48MB, 128 MB, 256MB memory are quite common. Output Unit: The output unit of a computer provides the information and results of a computation to outside world. Printers, Visual Display Unit (VDU) are the commonly used output devices. Other commonly used output devices are floppy disk drive, hard disk drive, and magnetic tape drive. Arithmetic Logical Unit: All calculations are performed in the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) of the computer. It also does comparison and takes decision. The ALU can perform basic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc and does logic operations viz, >, <, =, etc. Whenever calculations are required, the control unit transfers the data from storage unit to ALU once the computations are done, the results are transferred to the storage unit by the control unit and then it is send to the output unit for displaying results. Control Unit: It controls all other units in the computer. The control unit instructs the input unit, where to store the data after receiving it from the user. It controls the flow of data and instructions from the storage unit to ALU. It also controls the flow of results from the ALU to the storage unit. The control unit is generally referred as the central nervous system of the computer that control and synchronizes its working. Central Processing Unit: The control unit and ALU of the computer are together known as the Central Processing Unit (CPU). The CPU is like brain performs the following functions: It performs all calculations. It takes all decisions. It controls all units of the computer. A PC may have CPU-IC such as Intel 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486, Celeron, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium IV, Dual Core, and AMD etc. Main Frame Computers: They are most expensive of all the computers, are very big in size and offer maximum computing power. A large number of peripherals can be attached to them. They are generally used in large

networks and the mainframe works as central computer or node. All other smaller terminals are connected to central computer or server through satellite link. A typical example is the air line reservation system. The main frame computer is placed at the head office, where all the information about all flights is stored and small computers are placed at various branches and are attached to the central data bank so that up to date information of all flights is always available. The structural configuration of mainframe consists of Data communication equipment. Interface equipment. Primary storage. Secondary storage. Central processors with multiprogramming facilities.

Characteristics: These are large general purpose computers capable of handling all kinds of problems whether scientific or commercial. Can accept and transfer data from I/O devices at the rate of million bytes per second. Can accept all type of high level languages. Can support large number of terminals say up to 100 or more? They have flexibility to operate automatically. They have high on line secondary storage capacity and can support a number of peripheral devices like magnetic tape drives, hard disk drives, visual display units etc. They have high cache memory, to process applications faster than mini or micro computers. Mini Computers: These are the smaller versions of the mainframe. They offer same computing power as their bigger counterparts but a small/number of peripherals can be attached to the mini computer. It is comparatively cheaper in cost, small in size, very rugged and reliable. It does not require air conditioning and can be operated at room temperature. In business environment a mini system can be tailor made for job specification. Characteristics: They can accept and transfer data from I/O devices at the maximum speed of 4 million bytes per second. Can support up to a maximum of 20 terminals. They usually employ microprocessors in the CPU for data storage and data manipulation. They have faster processing speed. In most mini computers, data and instructions are stored in fixed word locations. They have main memory ranging from 256kb to 12 Mb and word length of 16/32 bits and are designed for 4 to 8 users in time sharing models. Mini Computers can be sub classified in to Mini minis

 Midi minis Maxi minis(super minis) Micro Computers (also termed as miniaturized mini computer): They can carry input, storage, arithmetic, logic, control and output functions. They use silicon made micro processor chips which are of a size of 5mm square and 0.1 mm thick, with layers of etched and printed circuits-containing all elements required to process binary encoded data. These systems use random access memory and read only memory as primary storage. They range from single board size to a system containing many circuit boards mounted in a cabinet. They are light enough to be moved easily and are designed to be used by one person at a time. A typical microcomputer has a keyboard for input and user diskettes and floppy disk drives to enter data and programs and to receive processed outputs. They use magnetic tape and floppy discs as secondary storage devices. A visual display unit and/or character printer is used to prepare output in a human readable form. All micro computers are byte addressable machines. They use micro processor chips viz. Features of Micro Computers: They use very little power, require little air conditioning and does not require special wiring, raised floors. They are stable and reliable. Personal Computers: They are the one of the latest type of micro computers. They are called so because they are designed for personal use of individuals or small business units, office automation units or professionals. Personal computers can be used for basic programming, fun and games, business and professional applications, tele communications; data base management, accounting, and word processing.

Bits, bytes and kilobytes

History
The term byte was coined by Dr. Werner Buchholz in July 1956, during the early design phase for the IBM Stretch computer.[3][4][5] Originally it was defined in instructions by a 4-bit field, allowing sixteen values and typical I/O equipment of the period used six-bit bytes. A fixed eight-bit byte size was later adopted and promulgated as a standard by the System/360. Early microprocessors, such as Intel 8008 (the direct predecessor of the 8080, and then 8086) could perform a small number of operations on four bits, such as the DAA (decimal adjust) instruction, and the half carry flag, that were used to implement decimal arithmetic routines. These four-bit quantities were called nibbles, in homage to the then-common 8-bit bytes.

Historical IETF documents cite varying examples of byte sizes. RFC 608 mentions byte sizes for FTP hosts (the FTP-BYTE-SIZE attribute in host tables for the ARPANET) to be 36 bits for PDP-10 computers and 32 bits for IBM 360 systems.[6]

Size
Architectures that did not have eight-bit bytes include the CDC 6000 series scientific mainframes that divided their 60-bit floating-point words into 10 six-bit bytes. These bytes conveniently held character data from punched Hollerith cards, typically the upper-case alphabet and decimal digits. CDC also often referred to 12-bit quantities as bytes, each holding two 6-bit display code characters, due to the 12-bit I/O architecture of the machine. The PDP-10 used assembly instructions LDB and DPB to load and deposit bytes of any width from 1 to 36-bitsthese operations survive today in Common Lisp. Bytes of six, seven, or nine bits were used on some computers, for example within the 36-bit word of the PDP-10. The UNIVAC 1100/2200 series computers (now Unisys) addressed in both 6-bit (Fieldata) and nine-bit (ASCII) modes within its 36-bit word. Telex machines used 5 bits to encode a character. Factors behind the ubiquity of the eight bit byte include the popularity of the IBM System/360 architecture, introduced in the 1960s, and the 8-bit microprocessors, introduced in the 1970s. The term octet unambiguously specifies an eight-bit byte (such as in protocol definitions, for example).

Unit symbol or abbreviation

Prefixes for bit and byte multiples Decimal Value 1000 1000
2

Binary Value 1024

2

SI k kilo

IEC

JEDEC

Ki kibi K Kilo Mi mebi M Mega

M mega 1024

10003 G giga 10004 T tera 10005 P peta 10006 E exa 10007 Z zetta 10008 Y yotta

10243 Gi gibi G Giga 10244 Ti tebi 10245 Pi pebi 10246 Ei exbi 10247 Zi zebi 10248 Yi yobi

IEEE 1541 and the Metric Interchange Format[7]specify B as the symbol for byte (e.g., MB means megabyte), while IEC 60027 seems silent on the subject. B is also the symbol of the bel, a unit of logarithmic power ratios, which is consistent with the convention in the International System of Units (SI) that symbols for units named after persons, in this case Alexander Graham Bell, are capitalized. Usage of a capital B for byte is not consistent with this convention. However, there is little danger of confusion because the bel is a rarely used unit and its common submultiple, the decibel (dB), is used almost exclusively for signal strength and sound pressure level measurements, while the decibyte (one tenth of a byte) is never used. The unit symbol KB is commonly used for kilobyte, but is often confused with the use of kb to mean kilobit. IEEE 1541 specifies b as the symbol for bit, however, the IEC 60027 and Metric-Interchange-Format specify bit (e.g., Mbit for megabit) for the symbol, achieving maximum disambiguation from byte.

The lowercase letter o for octet is a commonly used symbol in several non-English languages (e.g. French[8] and Romanian), and is also used with metric prefixes (for example, ko and Mo) Today the harmonized ISO/IEC 80000-13:2008 - Quantities and units -- Part 13: Information science and technology standard cancels and replaces subclauses 3.8 and 3.9 of IEC 60027-2:2005 (those related to Information theory and Prefixes for binary multiples). See Units of Information for detailed discussion on names for derived units.

Unit multiples
Percentage difference between decimal and binary interpretations of the unit prefixes grows with increasing storage size. See also: Binary prefix
There has been considerable confusion about the meanings of SI (or metric) prefixes used with the unit byte, especially concerning prefixes such as kilo (k or K) and mega (M) as shown in the chart Prefixes for bit and byte. Since computer memory is designed with binary logic, multiples are expressed in powers of 2, rather than 10. The software and computer industries often use binary estimates of the SI-prefixed quantities, while producers of computer storage devices prefer the SI values. This is the reason for specifying computer hard drive capacities of, say, 100 GB, when it contains 93 GiB of storage space. While the numerical difference between the decimal and binary interpretations is small for the prefixes kilo and mega, it grows to over 20% for prefix yotta, illustrated in the linear-log graph (at right) of difference versus storage size.

Common uses
The byte is also defined as a data type in certain programming languages. The C and C++ programming languages, for example, define byte as an "addressable unit of data large enough to hold any member of the basic character set of the execution environment" (clause 3.6 of the C standard). The C standard requires that the char integral data type is capable of holding at least 255 different values, and is represented by at least 8 bits (clause 5.2.4.2.1). Various implementations of C and C++ define a byte as 8, 9, 16, 32, or 36 bits[9][10]. The actual number of bits in a particular implementation is documented as CHAR_BIT as implemented in the
limits.h file. Java's primitive byte data type is always defined as consisting of 8 bits and being a signed data

type, holding values from 128 to 127. In data transmission systems, a contiguous sequence of binary bits in a serial data stream, such as in modem or satellite communications, which is the smallest meaningful unit of data. These bytes might include start bits, stop bits, or parity bits, and thus could vary from 7 to 12 bits to contain a single 7-bit ASCII code.