WHAT IS A COMPUTER?

The term computer is used to describe a device made up of a combination of electronic and
electromechanical components. Computer has no intelligence by itself and is referred to as
hardware. A computer system is a combination of five elements:

Hardware

Software

People

Procedures

Data/information

The units that are visible in any computer are hardware. Thus, the input, storage, processing and
control devices are hardware.
When one computer system is set up to communicate with another computer system, connectively
becomes the sixth system element. In other words, the manner in which the various individual
systems are connected-for example, by phone lines, microwave transmission, or satellite - is an
element of the total computer system.

The software is not visible. It is the set of computer programs. procedures, and associated
documentation. Software is the term used to describe the transactions

that tell the hardware how to perform a task. Without software instructions, the hardware doesn't
know that what to do. People, however, are the most important component of the computer system:
they create the computer software instructions and respond to the procedures that those
instructions present.

The basic job of the computer is the processing of information. Computers accept information in the
form of instruction called a program and characters called data to perform mathematical and logical
operations, and then give the results. The data is raw material while information is organized,
processed, refined and useful for decision. Computer is used to convert data into information.
Computer is also used to store information in the digital form.

The modern world of high technology is possible mainly due to the development of the computer.
Computers have opened up a new era in manufacturing by means of automation and they have
enhanced modern communication systems.
Types of Modern Computers.

In the modern computer science types of computers differ depending on their assignment, size and
functional capabilities.

There are following types of computers according to their assignment.

General-purpose computers are intended for the decision of various tasks. These computers
characterized: are

1) a variety of forms of the processed data (numerical, character, etc) at the big range of their change
and split- hair accuracy of representation;

2) in internal memory high capacity;

3) developed system of the organization of input-output of the information providing connection of

various input-output devices.

Job orientated computers serve for the decision of narrower circle of the tasks connected as a rule,
with control by technological objects, registration, accumulation and handling of small data volumes,
performance of calculation by simple rules.

Specialized computers are applied to the decision of very narrow circle of tasks. These computers
control operation of input-output devices and external memory. Such devices are called as adapters
or controllers.

According to their size and functional capabilities there are four types of computers: the super
computer, big, small and the microcomputer.

Super computers are powerful multiprocessor computers with huge-speed performance A

considerable quantity of processors allows to solve tasks operauvely and

increases memory sizes that considerably accelerates incision process. They are often used for the
decision of the experimental tasks, for example, for carrying out of chess tournaments with the
person.

[The big computers are characterized by a multiple user mode (to 100 users simultaneously can solve
the tasks) The main direction is the decision of scientific and technical tasks, operation with great
volumes of the data, control of computer networks and their resources.

Small computers are used as controlling computers for control over technological processes. They are
also applied to calculations in multiple user systems, in systems of modeling of simple objects, in
artificial intelligence systems.

The organization of a microcomputer system is the same as that of a larger computer systern.
Microcomputers are also called personal computers of home computer. The most compact are called
laptops.

Personal computers are designed for use at homes, schools and offices. Personal computers were
made possible by two technical innovations in the field of microelectronics; the integrated circuit and
the microprocessor. That is why a microcomputer includes both a microprocessor unit and internal
memory.
THE HISTORY OF THE PC

In 1957, IBM made a computer called the 610 Auto- Point. They said that it was the 'first personal
computer'. But it was not a PC like the ones millions of people have in their homes today. It was large
and expensive. It was called a personal computer because it only needed one person to work it. The
first real PCs were not made until fifteen years later.

The first computers (like Colossus) did not have computer chips; they used glass tubes. That is why
they were so big. But in the 1960s, technicians found a way to make chips with thousands of very
small transistors on them. In 1971, Intel made a computer chip called the 4004. It had 2,250
transistors. Three years late, they made the 8800, a better and faster chip with 5,000 transistors. An
American inventor called Ed Roberts used the Intel 8800 chip to make one of the first PCs. He called
his PC the Altair 8800. (The name comes from the film Forbidden Planet). It cost less than 400
dollars, and Ed Roberts sold 2,000 in the first year. The personal computer was on its way.

In 1976, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs created the Apple Computer Company. In 1977, their second
computer, the Applell, appeared. IBM made their first PC in 1981.

Since Intel made the 4004 chip in 1971 with 2,250 transistors, computer chips have become much
faster. In fact, the computer technician Gordon Moore made this prediction in 1965. The number of
transistors on computer chips will double every eighteen months. This prediction is often called
'Moore's Law' and it seems to be true. The Intel Pentium 4 chip, made in the year 2000, has 42
million transistor.

Today's computer chips are so fast, modern PCs can do amazing things. They can put music onto CDs,
and vireos onto DVDs, and they can even understand spoken language. A modern PC is much faster
than the very large and expensive computers from the 1970s.
COMPUTER GAMES

In the early 1960s, the computer company DEC made a computer called a PDP-1. PDP-1s were large
and expensive (120,000 dollars), so only companies and universities bought them.

Steve Russell, a student at one of these universities wrote a piece of software for the PDP-1. It was a
game for two players and he called it Spacewar.

The two players controlled spaceships which fought against each other. Users of the PDP-1 liked the
game and other programmers made the software better.

In the later 1960s, a programmer called Donald Woods invented a game called Adventure. This was a
different kind of game from Spacewar because it did not have any pictures and it was for one player
only.

The computer told a story, the player took part in the story and gave the computer instructions, like
"Go south", or "Get the box".

Together Spacewar and Adventure started the two most important kinds of computer games: games
with speed and action, and games with stories and imagination.

But it was a few years before computer games became popular. In 1971, a student called Nolan
Bushnell tried to make money from the game Spacewar. People did not have PCs then, so he built a
machine for bars, shopping

centres and other places where people meet. To play the game, people had to put money in the
machine. A company bought Nolan Bushnell's idea for 500 dollars and made 1,500 machines. But
nobody wanted to play the game.

Nolan Bushnell decided that the space game was too difficult. He used his 500 dollars to start his
own company, Atari and invented a much easier game.

It was a tennis game called Pong and it was very easy to play. People loved it! In 1976, Bushnell sold
Atari for 28 million dollars. Computer games were here to stay.

Since the 1980s, computer games have changed a lot. Computers are much more powerful, so the
games are much faster and use amazing pictures.

How much better can games become? If you have seen Star Trek, The Next Generation on television,
perhaps you have seen the virtual reality room on the spaceship.

People can take part in amazing stories which look and feel the same as reality. This kind of game is
still in the future, but perhaps not very far in the future.
BIOS

In IBM PC Compatible computers, the basic input/ output system (BIOS), also known as the System
BIOS is a fact standard defining a firmware interface.

The BIOS software is built into the PC and is the first code run by a PC when powered on. The primary
function of the BIOS is to load and start an operating system.

When the PC starts up, the first job for the BIOS is to initialize and identify system devices such as the
video display card, keyboard and mouse, hard disk, CD/ DVD drive and other hardware. The BIOS
then locates software held on a peripheral device (designated as a 'boot device'), such as a hard disk
or a CD loads and executes that software, giving it control of the PC.

This process is known as booting or booting up, which is short for bootstrapping. BIOS software is
stored on a non-volatile ROM chip built into the system on the mother board.

The BIOS software is specifically designed to work with the particular type of system in question,
including having a knowledge of the workings of various devices that make up the complementary
chipset of the system.

In modern computer systems, the BIOS chip's contents can be rewritten allowing BIOS software to be
upgraded.

The BIOS provides a small library of basic input/ output functions used to operate and control the
peripherals such as the keyboard, text display functions and so forth, and these software library
functions are callable by external software.

In the IBM PC and AT, certain peripheral cards such as hard- drive controllers and video display
adapters carried their own BIOS extension ROM, which provided additional functionality.

Operating systems and executive software designed to supersede this basic firmware functionality
will provide replacement software interfaces to applications.
OPERATING SYSTEM.

An operating system (OS) is a program that runs a computer manages all the other programs in it.
DOS, (the Disk Operating System) Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Linux, Mac OS X and
IBM OS/400 are all examples of operating systems.

CAll operating systems perform the same basic tasks: control to the computer hardware, files and
folders management, applications management, built-in utility programs support.

When programs need some hardware resources, they address to the operating system(OS), which in
its turn. accesses the hardware through the BIOS or through the device drivers(OS "sit" between the
programs and the Basic Input Output). System(BIOS) and after that the BIOS controls the hardware.
The Windows 2000 NOS bypasses the system BIOS and controls the hardware directly.

To organize and manage files the operating system uses the file management system A file is a
collection of data that is given a single name and treated as a single unit. In fact all of the information
that a computer stores is in the form of a file. There are many types of files, including program files,
data files, and text files. The way an operating system organizes information into files is called the file
system. Most operating systems use a hierarchical file system, which organizes files into directories
under a tree structure. The beginning of the directory system is called the root directory. An
operating system creates a file structure on the computer hard drive where user data can be stored
and retrieved. When a file is saved, the operating system saves it, attaches a name to it, and
remembers where it put the file for future use.

When a user requests a program, the operating system locates the application and loads it into RAM
(Random-Access Memory, or main memory) of the computer.
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

A programming language is an artificial language designed to express computations that can be

performed by a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create
programs that control the behaviour of a machine, to express algorithms precisely, or as a mode of
human communication.

A programming language is a very concise language with strict rules in which a computer program
must be written. There are two kinds of programming languages:

1) low-level languages and high-level languages. Low-level languages (assembly language) are

similar to the binary codes that the computer uses itself. Both assembly language and machine code
are complex to use and are often designed for a particular processor and can't be easily transferred
to another. The advantage of low- level languages are their speed as they need little or no
translation.

High-level languages use English-like words what made programming very much easier. They are
BASIC, special syntax PASCAL, FORTRAN, C, C++, ADA, and COBAL. Each language has a unique set of
keywords and a special syntax for organizing program instructions. A vocabulary and a set of
grammatical rules for instructing a computer to perform specific tasks.

High-level programming languages complex than the languages are more the computer actually
understands, called machine languages. Each different type of CPU has its own unique machine
language.

Lying between machine languages and high-level languages are languages called assembly languages.
Assembly languages are similar to machine languages, but they are much easier to program in
because they allow a programmer to substitute names for numbers. Machine languages only consist
of numbers.

Lying above high-level languages are languages called fourth-generation languages (usually
abbreviated 4GL). 4GLs are far removed from machine languages and represent the class of
computer languages closest to human languages.

Regardless of what language you use, you need to convert your program into machine language so
that the computer can understand it. There are two ways to do this: 1) interpret the program, 2)
compile the program

An interpreter takes a single line of source code, translates it and carries out the instruction
immediately. This process is repeated line by line until the whole program is translated and run. A
compile translates the whole program before the program is run and turns it into a self- contained
program which can be run independently.