INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING

COMPONENTS OF COMPUTERS AND COMPUTER SYSTEM

THE SECOND GENERATION COMPUTER (2G)
A computer is an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form,
according to the instructions given to it in a variable program. Generation in computer
terminology is a change in technology computer is/was been used.
The second generation was from 1959-1965. In this generation, transistors used were cheaper
and consumed less power, more compact in size, more reliable and faster than the first
generation machine made up of vacuum tubes. The second-generation computer was invented
at Bell Labs by Walter H. Brattain (1902-1987), John Bardeen (1908-1991) and William B.

Therefore, a computer, which uses discrete transistors instead of vacuum tubes is called
second-generation computer

Second-generation computer Transistor

Examples of second-generation computer;
IBM-1620
IBM-7094
CDC-3600
UNIVAC-1108
FEACTURES OF SECOND-GENERATION COMPUTER
 Transistors; small, low-power, low cost, more reliable than vacuum tubes
 Magnetic core memory
 High level language
 First operating system handled to one program at time
USES OF SECOND-GENERATION COMPUTER
1. Used for a wide variety of business and scientific job
2. Used for high level programming and assembly language
ADVANTAGES OF SECOND GENERATION COMPUTER

 Smaller in size as compared to the first generation computer

 Were more reliable
 Used less energy and were not heated as much as first-generation computer
 Better portability as compared to the first generation computer
DISADVANTAGES OF SECOND-GENERATION COMPUTER

o The cooling system was required

o Constant maintenance was required
o Only used for specific purpose
o Commercial production was difficult
o Costly and not versatile
THIRD-GENERATION COMPUTER (3G)
The period of the third generation was from 1965-1971. The computers of the third generation
used Integrated Circuit (ICs) in place of transistors.

A single IC has many transistors, resistors, and capacitors along with the associated circuitry.
Jack Kilby invented the IC. This development made computers small, reliable and effective

Third-generation computer Integrated Circuit(IC)

Resistor
Examples of third generation computer;
IBM 370 (International Business Management)
 PDP-11 (Personal Data Processor)
IBM system/360
Honeywell-6000
DEC series (Digital Effect Control)
ICL (International Computer Limited)
ADVANTAGES OF THIRD GENERATION COMPUTER
 Used less energy
 Used fan for head discharge to prevent heat
 Produced less heat as compared to 1st and 2nd generations of computers
 Better speed and could calculate data in nanoseconds
DISADVANTAGES OF THIRD GENERATION COMPUTER
1. Air conditioning is required
2. The highly sophisticated technology required for the manufacturing of IC chips
3. Get damaged if any kind of complicated or lengthy programs are run on this computer
4. It consist of less space and due to this only limited amount of files can be stored within
the computer system
5. IC chips are difficult to maintain
MAJOR COMPONENTS OF THE MOTHERBOARD

The motherboard is the backbone that ties the computer’s components together at one spot
and allows them to talk to each other.

 System clock
 CPU ( Central Processing Unit)
 Chipset
 RAM
 ROM BOIS
 CMOS ( Complementary Metal-Oxide Semi-Conductor)
 Power supply
 Ports
 System bus with expansion slot

Motherboad
INPUTS
The computer accepts data from outside for processing within. Most computers cannot accept
data in the natural human forms like voice and handwritten documents. Therefore, it is
necessary to present data to the computer in a form that the computer is familiar with. This is
usually done by using devices that are able to convert the human language into a computer
language such as input devices. Examples; keyboard, mouse, touch screen, barcode reader,
microphone etc.

Keyboard

KEYBOARD: An input device is used to key in alphanumeric symbols and issue commands into
the computer. There are various types of keyboards. They include standard wired keyboard,
wireless keyboards among others. Keyboard layouts also include QWERTY and DaVinci concept,
each of which suits different environment

Mouse
MOUSE: An input device used to direct the cursor on the monitor and control icons on the
monitor. The mouse comes in different varieties including as mechanical, optical, opto-
mechanical and wireless

Barcode reader
BARCODE READER: it is a hardware input device capable of reading a barcode and printing out
the details of a product or log information about that product into database
DISTINGUISH MANUAL AND AUTOMATIC INPUT DEVICES
Manual input devices are used by people to enter data by hand.eg Keyboard OR something
yourself, so you could make mistake manually whereas Automatic input devices are worked by
a computer so it wouldn’t make an error. Eg barcode reader
OUTPUT DEVICES

The result of processing is output. This out is the processed data or information. The computers
output are usually fed to an output device. This can be a printer in which the information is
automatically converted to a printed form called hard copy or it can simply be displayed on the
computer screen. Eg monitor, printer, projector, loudspeaker etc
Types of computer monitors

I. Cathode Ray Tube

II. Light-Emitting Diode(LED)
III. Liquid Crystal Display
CATHODE RAY TUBE
A cathode-ray tube is a device that uses a beam of electrons in order to produce an image on
the screen. Cathode-ray tubes, also known commonly as CRTs, widely used a number of
electrical devices such as computer screen and television sets

LIGHT EMITTING DIODE (LED)

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) monitor is a flat screen, flat-panel monitor or television
LIQUID CRSTAL DISPLAY
A flat panel screen that uses the liquid crystal display (LCD) technology and connect to a
computer to show clear images

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CRT, LED AND LCD

CATHODE RAY TUBE(CRTS) LIGHT EMITTING DIODE(LED) LIQUID CRYSTAL

It is a tube coated with
phosphorous in inner
surface. When electrons
produced by e-gun
encounter phosphorous wall.
Light is produced by virtue of
which we can see
it is generally used in TV
screen, monitors etc
They are bulky, heavy and
large
A semiconductor diode emits
incoherent narrow-spectrum
light when electrically based
in the forward direction of
the p-n junction. The effect is
a form of
electroluminescence.
It can be used as a regular
household light source
Is light, compact, and thinner
DISPLAY(LCD)
Is a thin flat display screen
made up of any number or
monochrome pixels arrayed
in front of a light source or
reflector
It is often used in electronic
Devices because it uses very
small amount of electric
power
Are thin, light and compact

STORAGE

When data is fed into a computer, there are special devices that are able to keep the data;
before, during and after it has been processed. Without storage, it may be impossible to
process data at all, since there will be no way of holding the data that is been processed and
the information that is achieved at the end of the information processing.
Types of storage
 Primary storage: is any storage or component that can store nonvolatile data in
computers. Eg RAM, ROM, and Cache memory
NB: Cash memory is use to speed up the process of storing and accessing data from the host
hard disk. It enables faster processing of reading/writing, commands and other inputs
processes between the hard disk, the memory and computing components
 Secondary storage: Is sometimes called auxiliary storage, is non-volatile and is used to
store data and program for later retrieval. E.g Hard disk , magnetic disk, DVD etc
MAGNETIC STORAGE

A magnetic storage is a storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses

different patterns of magnetization in magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-
volatile memory. The commonly used devices that use magnetic storage include magnetic tape,
floppy disk and hard disk drive (HDD)
HARD DISK DRIVE (HDD)

A rigid magnetic disc store data. It is located within a drive unit. Hard disk is a non-volatile
storage device that contains platters and magnetic disks rotating at high speed. They are best
described in sizes according to the amount of data each can hold in bytes. Some capacities are:
20 Megabyte (MB) = 20 Million characters
40 Gigabyte (GB) = 40 Billion characters
1 Terabyte (TB) = 1 Trillion characters

FEATURES OF HARD DISK DRIVE (HDD)

 Mass storage
 Available storage
 Data access performance
 Device form factor and connection
FLOPPY DISK

A floppy disk or floppy diskette is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a
magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a fabric that
moves dust particles from spinning disk

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HARD DISK DRIVE AND FLOPPY DISK

HARD DISK DRIVE (HDD) Floppy disk

Contains one or more meta plats coated with Contains a single flat piece of plastic coated
iron oxide iron oxide
Much expensive Less expensive than the hard disk
Its data speed is faster Data access speed is slower the hard disk
Data stored on the hard disk is safer Data stored is less safer
Storage capacity is high Storage capacity is low

POWERED BY: PROF. EDEM