CHAPTER ONE: THE FOUNDATIONS OF COMPUTERS In the ancient times, in order for people to keep track of quantities of things,

the following methods were employed: o Counting of the fingers o Arrangement of stones in piles or rows o Making of scratches on the ground o Cutting of notches in sticks o Tying of knots in string As the need to calculate increased, people sought tools to help them. The oldest known mechanical aid for calculating is the abacuses. With abacuses are still used throughout Asia today and the Chinese used it to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Historians agreed that the abacus was invented around 500 B.C.and had its origins in ancients China, Egypt, and Greece. But the abacus was not unique to the continent of Asia; archaeological excavations have revealed an Aztec abacus in use around 900 or 1000 A.D.

Figure 1.1 The first computer The Analytical Engine (A Pre-Electronic Computer) The first mechanical computer was the analytical engine, conceived and partially constructed by Charles Babbage in London, England, between 1822 and 1871. It was designed to receive instructions from punched cards, make calculations with the aid of a memory bank, and print out solutions to math problems. Although Babbage lavished the equivalent of $6,000 of his own moneyand $17,000 of the British government's moneyon this extraordinarily advanced machine, the precise work needed to engineer its thousands of moving parts was beyond the ability of the technology of the day to carry out. It is doubtful whether Babbage's brilliant concept could have been realized using the available resources of his own century. But if it had been, it seems likely that the analytical engine could have performed the same functions as many early electronic computers. The First Electrically Driven Computer The first computer that was designed expressly for data processing purposes was patented on January 8, 1889, by Dr. Herman Hollerith of New York. The prototype model of this electrically operated tabulator was built for the U. S. Census Bureau and computed results in the 1890
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census. Using punched cards containing information submitted by respondents to the census questionnaire, the Hollerith machine made instant tabulations from electrical impulses actuated by each hole. It then printed out the processed data on tape. Dr. Hollerith left the Census Bureau in 1896 to establish the Tabulating Machine Company to manufacture and sell his equipment. The company eventually became IBM, and the 80-column punched card used by the company, shown in Figure 1.2, is still known as the Hollerith card.

Figure 1.2 A Typical 80-character punched card The Digital Electronic Computer The first modern digital computer, the ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer), was built on the Iowa State University campus in Ames, Iowa, between 1939 and 1942 by John Atanasoff, professor of physics and mathematics, and Clifford Berry, a graduate student. This machine included many features still in use today: binary arithmetic, parallel processing, regenerative memory, separate memory, and computer functions. When completed, it weighed 750 pounds and could store 3000 bits (0.4 KB) of data. The technology developed for the ABC machine was used to develop the first large-scale digital computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer/Calculator (ENIAC) by John W. Mauchly and John Presper Eckert at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania's. The ENIAC started as a classified military project that was destined to prepare firing and bombing of targets for the U.S. Army and Navy. When finally assembled in 1945, ENIAC has the following features: o It consisted of 30 separate units, plus power supply and forced-air cooling. o It weighed 30 tons and occupied about 1800 square feet of floor space o It used 19,000 light-bulb vacuum tubes that controlled the flow of electric current, 1500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors. This made it to required 200 kilowatts of electrical power to operate. o It was able to multiply four numbers in the then remarkable time of 9 milliseconds (9/1000 of a second).

Although programming ENIAC was a huge task requiring manual switches and cable connections, it became the workhorse for the solution of scientific problems from 1949 to 1952. ENIAC is considered the prototype for most of today's computers. Another device important to computer history is the Colossus I, an early digital computer built at a secret government research establishment at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, England, under the direction of Professor Max Newman. Colossus I was designed for a single purpose: cryptanalysisbreaking codes. Using punched paper tape input; it scanned and analysed 5000 characters per second. Colossus became operational in December 1943 and proved to be one of the most important technological aids to victory in World War II. It enabled the British to break the otherwise impenetrable German "Enigma" codes. The 1960s and 1970s marked the era of the mainframe computer. Using the technology of ABC, ENIAC, and Colossus, large computers and emerging companies came to dominate the industry.

1.1 THE EVOLUTION OF COMPUTERS Originally, the word computer wasnt referred to machine. It meant a person who did computing, or calculating, for a living. Computers have developed through four so-called generations, or stages, each one characterized by smaller size, more power, and less expense than its predecessor. First Generation (1944-1963) In the generation-purposes computers, most input and output media were punched cards and magnetic tape. Made memory was almost exclusive made up of hundreds of vacuum tubesalthough one computer used a magnetic drum for main memory. These computers were also somewhere unreliable because the vacuum tubes failed. They were slower than any microcomputer used today, produced a tremendous amount of heat, and were very large. They could run only one program at a time. ENIAC and UNIVAC I the UNIVersal Automatic Computer, which was used by the U.S. Bureau of the Census from 1951 to 1963 are example of first-generation computers. The UNIVAC was prided at $500,000 in 1950; today could purchase microcomputer chips with the same processing power for less then $100. Second Generation (1959-1963) By the early 1960s, transistors and some other solid-state devices that was much smaller than vacuum tubes were being used for much of the computer circuitry. (A transistor is an electric switch that alternately allows or does not allow electronic signals to pass.) Magnetic cores, which looked like very small metal washers strung together by wires that carried electricity, became the most widely used type of main memory. Removable magnetic disk packs stacks of disks connected by a common spindle (like a stack of records), were introduced as storage devices. Sec0nd-generation machines tended to be smaller, more reliable, and significantly faster than firstgeneration computers. Third Generation (1964-1970)
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In the third period, the integrated circuit (IC), which is a complete electronic circuit that packages transistors (signal bridges) and electronic components on a small silicon chip replaced traditional transistorised circuitry. Integrated circuits are cost-effective because individuals components dont need to be wired directly to the computers system board. The use of magnetic disks for secondary data storage became widespread, and computers began to support such capabilities as multiprogramming (processing several programs simultaneously) and timesharing (people using the same computer simultaneously). Minicomputers, priced around $18,000, were being widely used by the early 1970s and were taking some of the business away from the established mainframe market. Processing that formerly required the processing power of a mainframe could now be done on a minicomputer. Fourth Generation (1971-Now) Large-scale integrated (LSI) and very-large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits were developed that contained hundred to millions of transistors on a tiny chip. In 1971 Ted Hoff of Intel developed the microprocessor, which packaged an entire CPU, complete with memory, logic, and control circuits, on a single chip. The microprocessor and VLSI circuit technology caused radial changes in computers in their size, appearance, cost, availability, and capability and they started the process of miniaturization; the development of smaller and smaller computers. Also during this time, computers main capacity increased, and its cost decreased, which directly affected the types and usefulness of software that could be used. Software applications like word processing; electronic spreadsheets, database management programs, painting and drawing programs, desktop publishing, and so forth became commercially available giving more people reasons to use a computer. Fifth Generation These are computers which will be able to converse with people in a human-like manner and which will be able to mimic human senses, manual skills and intelligence. 1.2 HOW SOME PEOPLE SEE COMPUTERS o As an electronic device that works under the control of stored programs, automatically accepting, storing and processing data to produce information that is the result of that processing. o As a programmable electronic machine that can store, retrieve and process data for purposes limited only by the creativity of the humans who use it. o As an electronic device, operating under the control of instruction, stored in its own memory unit, which can accept and store data, perform arithmetic and logical operations on that data without human intervention and produce an output from the processing called information. o A computer may be defined as a device that works under the control of stored programs, automatically accepting, storing and processing data to produce information that is the result of that processing. 1.3 BASIC OPERATIONS OF THE COMPUTER
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Although the results of computer processing can indeed be marvellous, such as controlling flight path of the space shuttle and allowing users to perform thousands calculation at the touch of a button, computers are capable of performing a number of specific operations. These operations include: o Input operations, which allow data to be entered into the computer for processing. o Arithmetic operations, which involve performing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division calculations. o Logical operations, which allow the computer to compare data and determine if one value is less than, equal to, or greater than another value. o Output operations, which make information generated from the processing on the computer available for use. o Storage operations, which electronically stores data on an external device for future use. 1.4 SOME ADVANTAGES OF THE COMPUTER A computer has some characteristics that are similar to other machines, which are: o It runs on electricity o It contains a number of parts that work together o Its designed to perform certain tasks Below are some of the things that make computers to SPEED: Computers can calculate tens of millions of times faster than the human brain and in seconds solve problems that would take dozens of experts some years to complete. Computer speeds are measured in four ways: o Millisecond (thousandth of a second = 1 x 10-3 second) o Microsecond (millionth of a second = 1 x 10-6 second) o Nanosecond (billionth of a second = 1 x 10-9 second o Pico second (trillionth of a second = 1 x 10-12 second) ACCURACY: Even the fastest machine in the world would be of little use if it made mistakes that human had to check and correct. Fortunately, computers are accurate machines that can process large volumes of information according to complex and repetitive procedures. Remember that whenever your computer gives you the wrong result it implies the computer had a wrong data from you hence "GIGO" Garbage in Garbage Out. ECONOMY: Computers are economical. Businesses using computers operate more efficiently and effectively since they can reduce labour costs, improve customer service and provide management with fast, accurate information about customers, products and sales. When go some hospitals, you will see a room full of patients records and fetching takes time. With computers, records are stored on the diskettes that dont occupy any significant space on the table. RELIABILITY: Computers can always be counted on to perform. They operate consistently and accurately without fail for long periods of time. They have built-in, self-checking features that assist in their maintenance. Because it's accuracy, computers are reliable. Reliability in processing information can result in the saving of lives.
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1.5 THE IMPORTANCE COMPUTER LITERACY AND COMPUTER COMPETENCY Its increasingly difficult to find a professional field or area of work that does not require knowledge of computers. Because of their impact on their lives, it is essential that every educated person become familiar with computers and how they are used. They provide education, recreation, and employment. In fact, computers touch nearly every aspect of our environment. Mastering our environment now includes absorbing at least some knowledge of the machines that have such a growing influence on your life. Also computers are shaping the ways our economy functions hence we need to study computers in order to be contributing members of society. Literacy is the ability to read, write, having knowledge and understanding, which is essential for one to succeed in school, at work and in life in general. Competency refers to having a skill. Computer literacy is having an understanding of what a computer is and how it can be used as a resource. Knowing about computers involves understanding their usefulness as tools, being aware of its benefits and drawbacks. Computer competency is applying your skill with computers to meet your information needs and improve your productivity. It also implies ability for one to transfer basic skills to new systems and new software. 1.6 COMPUTER BASED INFORMATION SYSTEM The term computer describes a device made up of a combination of electronic and electromechanical (part electronic, part mechanical) components By itself, a computer has no intelligent and is referred to as hardware, which means simply the physical equipments, all of which constitute the six parts of a computer- based information system. 1. Hardware 2. Software 3. Data/Information 4. People 5. Procedures 6. Communication

Software is the term used to describe the instructions that tell hardware how to perform a task. Without software, the hardware is useless. The primary purpose of computer systems in most businesses today is to transform data into information that can be used by people to make decisions, sell products, and perform a variety of other activities. The primary purpose of computer systems in most enterprises nowadays is to transform data into information that can be used for decision-making, business transaction and so on. Data describes facts about something. Data, which can include text, numbers, images, and sound, is considered to be the raw material that is processed by the computer into information. Typically, data is stored electronically in a file. The common types of files are: o Document files, created by word processor to save documents such as memos, reports and letters. Examples of word processing software are Microsoft Word, Notepad, Rich Text and Word Prefect. o Worksheet files, created by electronic spreadsheets to analyse things such as budgets, balance sheets and sale forecasts. Examples of electronic spreadsheets software are Microsoft Excel, Quattro Pro and Lotus. o Database files, typically created by database management systems (DBMS) to contain highly structured and organized data. Examples of DBMSs are SQL Server, Dbase, Oracle, Sybase and FoxPro.
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o Presentation files, created by presentation graphics software to save audience handouts, speakers notes and electronic slides. Examples for presentation are PowerPoint and Corel Presentation. Information is summarized data or otherwise manipulated (processed) data. For example, the of employees raw data such as hours worked and wages rate is processed by a computer into the information paycheques and payroll. Paycheques. In ordinary usage, the words data and information are often used synonymously or interchangeably. This is because; one persons information may be another persons data. The information on paycheques and payroll may become data that goes into someones yearly financial projections or tax returns. Note that information is not the same as knowledge. Whereas information is data that has been organized and communicated, knowledge requires the application of reason. Therefore, knowledge is the result of the reasoned analysis of information a set of organized statements of facts or ideas, communicated in some systematic form. One might receive the information that sales increased last month in the Electronics department of a shop but that does not mean he/she necessarily have much knowledge about what makes sales go up. People constitute the most important component of the computer system. People operate the computer hardware, they create and use the computer software, and they face ethical issues and decisions regarding the use of information technology. They enter the data and use the information the system generates. They also follow certain procedures when using the hardware and software. Procedures are description of how things are done, steps for accomplishing the result. Procedures for computer systems appear in documentation manuals, also known as reference manuals and users guides, which contain instructions, rules, and guidelines to follow when using hardware and software. When one computer system is set up to share data and information electronically with another system, communication also called connectivity becomes a sixth system element. Communication among computer systems is done via phone lines, microwave transmission, or satellite. 1.7 DATA REPRESENTATION IN THE COMPUTER As we know already, computers manipulate data to produce information. In this section we shall find out how data are represented in the computer, which also means-how the computer understands data. Computer is an electronic device and for that matter uses electricity, which can be either on or off . This makes information to be handled in the computer by devices such as transistors, integrated circuits, semiconductors and cables, all of which can only indicate two states or conditions. Transistors are conducting or non-conducting; magnetic materials are either magnetized or non-magnetized in one direction or in the opposite direction; a pulse or voltage is present or absent. All data is represented within the computer by the presence or absence of these various signals. In a two state on/off arrangement, one state can represent a 1 digit whereas the other as 0 digit. Therefore, the basic number system used by the computer is the binary system (Bi-means two). This two-state situation allows computers to use the binary system to represent data and programs. In the binary system, each 0 and 1 is called a bit, which is the short form of binary digit or binary unit. Thus, in the computer the 0 can be represented the by the
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electrical current being off (or at low voltage) and programs that go into the computer are represented in terms of these numbers. Bits can be grouped in various combinations to represent characters of data-numbers, letters, punctuation marks, and so on. In computing, a group of 8 bits is called a byte, and each character is usually represented by 1 byte. For example, the letter H is a translation of the electronic signal 01001000, or off-on-off-off-on-off-off-off. When you press the key for H on the computer keyboard, the character is automatically converted into the series of electronic impulses that the computer recognizes. Binary Coding Schemes All the amazing things that computers do are based on binary numbers made up of 0s and 1s. Fortunately, we dont have to enter data into the computer using groups of 0s and 1s. Instead, we use natural-language characters such as those on the keyboard to input data. Then the computer system encodes the data by means of binary, or digital, coding schemes to represent letters, numbers, and special characters. There are many coding schemes. Two common ones are EBCDIC and ASCII. Both commonly use 8 bits to form each character, or byte, providing up to 2 8=256 combinations with which to form letters, numbers, and special characters, such as math symbols and Greek letters. One newer coding scheme uses 16 bits, enabling it to represent 216=65,536 unique characters. o EBCDIC, which stands for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchanged Code, is commonly used in IBM mainframes. EBCDIC is an 8-bit coding scheme, meaning that it can represent 256 (28) characters. o ASCII, which stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is the most widely used binary code with non-IBM mainframes and virtually all microcomputers. Whereas standard ASCII originally used 7 bits for each character, limiting its character set to 128 (27), the more common extended ASCII uses 8 bits generating 256(2 8) unique characters. o Unicode: Although ASCII can handle English and European languages well; it cannot handle all the characters of some other languages, such as Chinese and Japanese. Unicode, which was developed to deal with such languages, uses 2 bytes (16 bits) for each character, instead of 1 byte (8 bits). It therefore can handle 65, 536 character combinations rather than just 256. Although each Unicode character takes up twice as much memory space and disk space as each ASCII character, conversion to the Unicode standard seems likely. However, because most existing software applications and databases use like the 8-bit standard, the conversion will take time. Symbol ASCII-8 A B C 01000001 01000010 01000011 EBCDIC 1100000 1 1100001 0 1100001 1 Symb ol R S T ASCII-8 01010010 01010011 01010100
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EBCDI C 110110 01 111000 10 111000 11

Symb ol ; * +

ASCII-8 00111011 00101010 00101011

EBCDI C 010111 10 010111 00 010011 10

D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q

01000100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 01001001 00100101 0 01001011 01001100 01001101 01001110 01001111 01010000 01010001

1100010 0 1100010 1 1100011 0 1100011 1 1100100 0 1100100 1 1101000 1 1101001 0 1101001 1 1101010 0 1101010 1 1101011 0 1101011 1 1101100 0

U V W X Y Z ! # $ % & ( )

01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01011010 00100001 00100011 00100100 00100100 00100101 00100110 00101000 00101001

111001 00 111001 01 111001 10 111001 11 111010 00 111010 01 011111 11 011110 11 010110 11 010110 11 011011 00 010100 00 010011 01 010111 01

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

00110000 00110001 00110010 00110010 00110011 00110101 00110110 00110111 00111000 0011001

111100 00 111100 01 111100 10 111100 10 111100 11 111101 01 111101 10 111101 11 111110 00 111110 01

How many 0s and 1s will a computers main memory or a storage device such as a hard disk hold? The following terms are used to denote capacity: o Bit: In the binary system, the binary digit (bit) 0 or 1 is the smallest unit of measurement. o Byte: To represent letters, or special characters (such as ! or *), bits are combined into groups. A group of 8 bits is called a byte, and a byte represents one character, digit, or other value. The capacity of a computers memory or a diskette is expressed in numbers of bytes or generally in multiple of bytes. o Kilobyte: A kilobyte (K, KB) is about 1000 bytes. (Actually, its precisely 210=1024 bytes, but the figure is commonly rounded.) o Megabyte: A megabyte (M, MB) is about 1 million byte (i.e. 220=1,048,576 bytes). o Gigabyte: A gigabyte (G, GB) is about 1 billion bytes (i.e. 230=1,073,741,824 bytes). o Terabyte: A terabyte (T, TB) represents about 1 trillion bytes (i.e. 2 40=1,009,511,627,776 bytes). o Petabyte: A new measurement accommodates the huge storage capacities of modern databases a petabyte represents about 1 million gigabytes (i.e. 250=1,125,899,906,842,624).
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The Parity Bits Dust, electrical disturbance, weather conditions, and other factors can cause interference in a circuit or communication line that is transmitting a byte. Detections of error in data transmitted is accomplished by the use of parity bit, is an extra bit attached to the end of a byte for purposes of checking for accuracy. Parity works by adding an additional bit to a binary number and using it to indicate any changes in that number during transmission. Parity Schemes may be even parity or odd parity. Even parity works by counting the numbers of 1s in a binary number and, if that numbers is odd, adding an additional 1 to guarantee that the total number of 1s is even. On the other hand, if that number is even, a parity bit of 0 is added to make it even. For example, ASCII letter H (01001000) consists of two 1s. Thus, the ninth bit, the parity bit, would be 0 in order to make an even number of 1s. Likewise, with the letter 0 (01001111), which has five 1s, the ninth bit would be 1 to make an even number of 1s. The system software in computer automatically and continually checks the parity scheme for accuracy. Odd parity works in a similar manner but it guarantees that the total number of 1s is an odd n umber. Let us assume that your computer, which was transmitting a message that contains the word HERO, had a power fluctuation. The message would be re-transmitted based on the following: H E R O ASCII-8 bits (Parity bit) 01001000 0 01000101 1 01010010 1 01001111 1 Even Parity = 2 bits = 4 bits = 4 bits = 6 bits (Parity bit) 1 0 0 0 Odd Parity = 3bits = 3bits = 3 bits = 5bits The sum of Therefore no Error In Transmission 0 = 3bits 1 = 4bits The sum of bits

The sum of bits is even, which mean the byte is okay. bits is odd, which mean the byte is okay. Therefore no re-transmission re-transmission Error In Transmission H 01001001

The sum of bits is odd, which means the byte is not okay. is even, which means the byte is not okay

Parity works well for detecting single-bit errors (where one bit has changed its value during transmission). But if the transmission is extremely corrupted, two bits might be switched at the same time. If that were the case, the value for parity would still be valid; therefore, the no retransmission would be requested. Another method of error checking called checksumming is used in this case. Checksumming works as follows: when the sender is about to send a data, it runs a special algorithm against the binary data and computes what is known as a checksum. This checksum is then appended to data being transmitted. When the recipient receives the data, it decodes the entire data stream and runs a similar algorithm against the data portion. The recipient compares
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the value that it computed to the value contained in the received checksum. If the values are different, it rejects the data and asked it to be retransmitted. Most error checking done today uses checksumming. 1.8 COMPUTER APPLICATIONS Computers in Business The underlining factors in the usage of computers in business is that it can reduce costs, increase profits, improve the quality of the product produced, and increase the productivity of labour. Banking and Finance: The Federal Reserve's computerized Fedwire system moves money around the country (USA) in the last 80's at a rate of $100 million per second. Apart from basic administrative operations, banks also use computers for on-line savings, and automation of check processing by means of MICR and OCR devices. Automated Teller Machines (ATM): This is a special-purpose device use by banks for data communications with the bank's computer system. The ATM is activated by the insertion of an embossed plastic card containing identifying data on a magnetic strip. The machine then guides the customer through the transaction. The connection between the ATM and the bank's computer could be direct (if in the same building) or through a telephone link (in the case of remote). The frustration of waiting in line at a bank is a thing of the past with the advent of ATM. Funds transfer and acceptance can also be done with ATM. ATM at remote locations enable banks to expand the physical range of their services without the cost of expensive branch buildings. ATMs are found in shopping mails, supermarkets and other non-banking locations. Insurance: Insurance companies use computers for determining individual premiums, billing, investment analysis, policy approval, keeping track of policyholder's records and processing claims. Point-of-Sale (POS) Terminals: These are devices in retail establishments to record sales information in a form that can be directly input into a computer. Products sold in stores using POS terminals are marked with Universal Product Code (UPC), which is a 10-digit (American products) or a 12-digit (European products) codes. The code's first half digits identify the manufacturer; the second half digits identify the product. The store's salesperson runs the UPC over the optical scanner in the service counter. An optical scanning device reads the code to the computer. Upon receiving the code, the computer immediately matches it with product information such as price, and keeps track of how many items are sold. It instantly relays this information to the cash register where it is displayed visually and printed on the customer's receipt. POS terminals eliminate the tedious job of price-marking each item. They also eliminate checkout errors due to illegible or inaccurate price marks and to human error. Finally, these terminals create a perpetually accurate inventory allowing store managers to check the inventory of any product at anytime, thereby reducing the clerical costs of conducting manual inventories and producing managers with a more efficient method for reordering stock. Computers in Medicine Physician Training: Some medical schools have computer-generated graphics that allow medical students to practice different surgical techniques and strategies by repeatedly "operating" on a stimulated patient. Unexpected (but pre-programmed) complications can arise, and the healing
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process takes place in minutes. Other simulations help medical students practice diagnosis by asking questions in conversational English and receiving responses from a computer-stimulated patient. They can call up stored medical records concerning the case and consult with programmed `specialists." The results of a diagnosis are provided immediately, letting the student know if the treatment was successful. Medical Diagnosis: Medical databases are used to make diagnoses by relating sets of symptoms to specific diseases through the use of various inference techniques. For example, a program called CADUCEUS can cross-index 500 disease profiles with more than 3000 separate symptoms. Once provided with medical records and current complaints, this program can diagnose a patient's problem, recommend further tests, and suggest treatment. Review Questions Computers are secretly invading our homes. Explain this statement, citing specific examples to support it.

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2. CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTERS Computers can be classified by purpose, by size/capacity and by type. 2.1 By Purpose Depending on the flexibility of operations or ease of adaptability, computers are divided into special or general purpose. Special purpose computers or dedicated computers are most of the time designed to perform a task or restricted number of tasks. That is to say that computer may have been designed to solve a job or so. In this case a set of instructions that the computer follows to solve a problem may be built into the hardware. Many of these computers are used for military operations or a control device in industries that process steel or chemicals. They are also employed in manufacturing and designing in the form of Robotics. All automobiles have one or more computers to control such activities as fuel consumption. Many home appliances such as refrigerators, TVs, heaters and microwave ovens contain small computers to control the appliance. Most cameras have device that controls the shutter amount of light reaching the film. Other examples of functions perform by special purpose computers include: o Monitoring and controlling the operation of a nuclear power plant, oil refinery or steel plant. o Controlling a military weapon system. o Regulating city traffic control operations. o Directing operations of spacecraft, airplanes, tankers, ship submarines. o Managing manufacturing machinery. o Operating hospital procedures such as CT scanners o Navigational system of an atomic submarine General-purpose computers are designed to solve a wide range of problems. They can perform any task required simply by changing the application program stored in their main memory. This makes it possible to use such a computer for task such as banking, accounting, scientific analysis etc. for instance, a desktop computer and be used to play games, write letters, draw pictures, or solve mathematical problems. 2.2 By Capacity In the earliest stages of electronic computer development, capacity was sometimes measured in terms of physical size. Today physical size is not a good measure of capacity because late models of computers have achieved compactness as a result of development of integrated circuits. Because of the ability of computer scientists and engineers to fit more computer power into less and less space, modern desktop computers have as much power as or more than the room-size computers built several decades ago. Capacity is now therefore expressed in terms of the volume of work that the computer can handle, the speed of processing it and functional units of the CPU. Computers under capacity are classified as microcomputers, minicomputers, mainframe and supercomputers. Microcomputers are the smallest and cheapest systems. The part of a microcomputer that does the actual computing is the tiny silicon chip, the symbol of 'Hi-Tech'. The economy and small size
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of the microcomputer have made possible the spread of individual owned and operated personal computers. They have a memory access times are about 100 nanoseconds and handle 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit words. The original ones handle 4-bit words. Types of microcomputer include desktop, notebook, and personal digital assistants. Desktops sit on top or alongside a desk yet are too big and heavy to carry around. Notebook computers are portable, weigh between 4 and 10 pounds, and fit into most briefcases. Personal digital assistants (PDAs), which are also known as known as palmtop computers or handheld computers, combine pen input, writing recognition, personal organisational tools, and communications capabilities in a very small package. Examples are: o Apple Macintosh-Classic 2, Colour Classic, iMac o IBM - PS/2, PS/1, PS/Value point. Note PS/2=Personal system 2 o IBM compatible (i.e. IBM imitations which are computers that are not manufactured by IBM but can work with IBM oriented programs) such as Compaq, Dell, Gateway, Packard Bell, AT&T - Globalyst 2.2.2 Minicomputers Minicomputers make up the middle class of computer size and power. They are physically bigger the micros and handles 32-bit words .The original ones was 12-bit words. Memory access time is as fast as 75 nanoseconds. They are mostly special-purpose of small medium general purpose Computers. They also require a high-speed line printer and can support about 20 terminals. Examples are: o IBM System 36(S/36), Advance system 400 (AS/400). o DEC PDP - 8 and PDP 11 o Vax-11/780,Vax-11/750,Vax-11/782,Vax-11/730. Minicomputer systems are usually larger and more powerful than microcomputer systems and smaller and less powerful than mainframes. However, this is not always the case. There are micros more powerful than the smallest minis and large minis that are more powerful than smaller mainframes. 2.2.3 Mainframes The mainframe computer is used principally by large organizations such as Universities, large business, airlines, hospitals, government agencies and manufacturing companies and by computer service organizations such as service bureaus. These are large, powerful and expensive generalpurpose computers with a range of powerful input/output processing and storage facilities. It process 64-bit words . They have an Access time of 15 nanoseconds. They support 100 or more terminals and need a very high-speed printer. Examples are IBM 360 and, 370 (earliest), IBM 3084 and IBM 4381 (latest) , Burroughs B7900, Amdahl 5860, Cyber 170 model and 855 and NCR 8400. 2.2.4 Supercomputers The largest and most powerful of the mainframes, used primarily by government and by scientists are called supercomputers. They are used when organizations require extraordinary amounts of computing power like the weather service, airline reservations. In these organizations, vast amount of information must be processed in a short time to provide fast response to users. It can
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process great quantities of data extremely quickly and can do in several hours, the work that normally takes weeks on conventional large mainframes. Examples are Cyber 205, Cray X-MP Cray 2 and Cray 1 (this was for several years the fastest computer in the world). Cray X-MP is five to eight times faster than Cray 1. NOTE. o There is a large speed difference between mainframe and supercomputers. For example the Cray X-MP has two CPUs each more powerful than the Cray 1's single CPU. o Computer technology is a very dynamic activity. Someone said Yesterdays newest computer is tomorrows museum piece likewise Todays innovation will be obsolete next year. Even though changes are occurring very rapidly, the trends are going in five directions at the same time. These can summarize by the following statement: Computers are becoming smaller and less expensive, as well as more reliable, faster and capable of offering high storage capacity. o As smaller machines become more powerful and therefore able to do more, there is a steady trend to transfer computer processing from the large machine into smaller ones. For example, a mainframe may be replaced by a new minicomputer or microcomputer may replace a minicomputer. This is sometimes known as downsizing. The positive side of downsizing are the savings in costs and the greater availability of resources to end-users whilst its negative side are the loss of useful coherent controls and the possibility of unnecessary replication of efforts and resources. o Although the cost of a supercomputer is greater, it can often be more cost-effective than using several smaller mainframes. For example, a $ 5 million supercomputer may be more efficient than five mainframes costing $1 million each. The use of the computers (micros, minis, mainframes and supers) for tasks to which it best suited is sometimes called rightsizing. 2.3 By Type Basically there are three types of computers under this classification, and these are Analog, Digital and Hybrid. This classification is done using the manner in which the data are computed. 2.3.1 Analog Computers Analog computers are so named because they perform computations by setting up physical situations that are analogous to mathematical situations. Analog computers calculate by measuring the continuous vary in some physical quantity such as pressure, temperature and speed. Thus analog computers are essentially measuring devices like speedometer, thermometer, voltmeters etc. The thermometer for instance compares or draws an analog between the expansion of mercury in it and the surrounding temperature. The speedometer in a car for instance computes speed in miles per hour by measuring how fast the cars wheels are rotating. As the car goes faster, the movement of speedometer needle shows the computed speed. The oil-pressure gauge in the car is another example. Analog computers usually have pointers for reading values anytime. The output is often in the form of smooth graph form which information can be read. Many physical phenomena may be used to construct analog computers but since electrons are so mobile, analog computers perform mathematical operations with the aid of electronic circuits. Vannevar Bush, an American scientist built the first analog computer. Analog computers are used mainly for scientific and engineering purposes.
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2.3.2 Digital Computers As the name suggests, digital computers are basically counting devices. The digital computer solves problems by counting precisely, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing and comparing. It is the most common computer used in data processing environments. Since most business data are in discrete form, the digital computer is readily adaptable to business data processing applications. In analog computers, measurement is always involved; in digital computers numbers are used. Data in analog computers change smoothly; data in digital computers change in discrete steps. Analog computer results must be read off a scale. Results of digital computation are given by means of a representation for the digits of the number. There is a limit to the accuracy obtainable from an analog computer; however the accuracy obtainable from a digital computer is theoretically unlimited. The speedometers of some car models are digital. 2.3.3 Hybrid Computers Although computers are basically of analog and digital, there is a third type being market. This is known as hybrid computer. Hybrid computers combine analog and digital capabilities in the same computer system. This type of computer usually finds application in the industries. More about Microcomputers

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3. THE SYSTEM UNIT The box or cabinet or case that houses the microcomputers processing hardware and other component is called the system unit. The system unit includes the following: o Mother board o Power supply o Microprocessor o Memory o Secondary storage o Ports o Expansion slots and Expansion board o PC slots and cards o Bus lines The system unit does not include the keyboard, printer and the monitor (display unit). The system is often called the central processing unit, but this usage is inaccurate. The ordinary design of the system unit is placed horizontally on the table with the monitor sitting it. New design is the tower model, which is place vertically beneath the table. 3.1 Motherboard The motherboard is also called the main board, system board, and planar is the main circuit board in the system unit. Every component of the system unit connects directly to the system board. In fact, this board contains the processor, main memory, support circuitry, bus controller, connector, and so on. The motherboard defines the computer's limits of speed, memory, and expandability. The motherboard is made up of a chipset (known as the "glue logic"). The chipset are designed to work with the CPU. These chips are highly complex and coordinated ICs that help the CPU manage and control the computer's system. When replacing a CPU, you must make sure that it is compatible with the chip set and supported by the motherboard. If not, the computer won't work. A basic chip set consists of bus controller, memory controller, data buffer and address buffer, Peripheral controller. On a more modern motherboard, you will find chips to control things such as cache memory and high-speed buses. You will also find boards with fewer individual chips because the manufacturer has incorporated several functions into one chip. NOTE o When you order a new motherboard, make sure to first verify that it is compatible with the case and power supply to be used. o For all practical purposes, you cannot repair motherboards. They should be replaced if physically or electrically damaged. Your customer will get new technology, usually for a price lower than the cost of the repair. o You will need to keep up to date on the types of processors, memory design, CPUs, and expansion slots available so that the right product may be obtained. Motherboard components A modern motherboard has several components built-in, including the following: o Processor socket/slot o Chipset. Super I/O chip o ROM BIOS (Flash ROM)
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o SIMM/DIMM/RIMM sockets o ISA/PCI/AGP bus slots o CPU voltage regulator o Battery Form Factor The form factor refers to the physical dimensions and size of the motherboard, and dictates what types of case the board will fit into. There are several common form factors used for PC motherboards. Some are true standards meaning that all boards with that form factor are interchangeable, while others are not standardized enough to allow for true interchangeability. The more commonly known PC form factors include the following: Obsolete Form Factors o AT form factor, which is 12in wide o Full-size AT o The Baby AT (BAT) format reduced the dimensions of the motherboard to a typical 9in wide by 10in long, o The LPX format is a specialised variant of the Baby-AT and semi proprietary. The LPX format is a specialised variant of the Baby-AT used in low profile desktop systems and is a loose specification with a variety of proprietary implementations and therefore it is nonstandardized. Modern Form Factors o ATX. The dimensions of a standard ATX board are 12in wide by 9.6in long. This is used for standard desktop, mini-tower, and full-tower systems. It is the most common form factor today and most flexible design. ATX, Mini-ATX and Flex-ATX boards can be used in AT-style cases. o Mini-ATX. The mini-ATX variant is typically of the order 11.2in wide and 8.2in long. o Micro-ATX. This is used in lower cost desktop and mini-tower systems. The maximum size of the board is 9.6in square, and its designed to fit into either a standard ATX case or one of the new micro-tower desktop designs. o Flex-ATX. Flex-ATX defines a board that is only 9.0in wide and 7.5in long. This is used in least expensive small desktop and mini-tower systems. The Flex-ATX form factor is backwards compatible with both the ATX and micro-ATX specifications o ITX. This is a product of VIA Technologies and is smaller motherboard than the FlexATX, which is 8.5in wide and 7.5in long. The key innovation that allows the ITX to achieve such a compact form is the specially designed slim line power unit with built in fan. o NLX. This is a new low profile form factor designed by Intel to replace the non-standard LPX used in the previous low profile systems. It is easiest and quickest to service. The NLX format is typically of 8.8in wide by 13in long. This is used in corporate desktop or mini-tower systems. o WTX. This is used in high performance workstations and midrange server. It is 14in wide and 16in long. WTX is not a replacement for ATX; it is for a much more expensive and much high-end type systems than ATX.
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Proprietary Form Factors: Compaq, Packard Bell, Hewlett- Packard, notebook/portable systems etc. These motherboards do not allow for future upgrade, which limit future use and serviceability of the systems. 3.2 The Power supply The electricity available from the wall outlet is alternating current (AC), but a microcomputer runs on direct current (DC). The power supply is the device that converts power from AC (115120 volts in U.S.A or 220 volts) to lower voltages DC (typically 5-12 volts) to run the computer. The power supplies to PC are rated by wattage. The more devices attached to the computer, the greater the amount of watts the power supply should provide. The typical PC has a power supply rated at 150 or 220 watts. More powerful systems may require a power supply of 220 or 250 watts. Because electricity can generate a lot of heat, there is a fan inside the power supply keeps it and other component from becoming too hot. This fan is responsible for the noise when the Pc runs. The power supply is design to blows when too much power is supply into it. This is to ensure that the rest of the system is not damage. Because the AC outlet can be quite uneven, the computer system should be connected to a power protection device, which is in turn plugged into the wall outlet. The two principal types are surge protectors and UPS (uninterruptible power supply) units. 3.3 The Processor The CPU is the part of a computer in which arithmetic and logical operations are performed and instructions are decoded and executed. The CPU controls and directs the operations of the computer using both external and internal buses. In microcomputers, the central processing unit (CPU), also called processor is contained on a single chip called the microprocessor. Because of its importance it has been described as the heart, the brain or the engine of the computer. The processor contains the electronic circuits that actually cause processing to occur by interpreting and executing the instructions to the computer, and controlling the input, output and storage operation of the computer. The processor is contained within a cartridge that plugs in to the system board. The CPU consists of the Arithmetic and logic Unit (ALU) and the control unit. Intel is generally credited with creating the first microprocessor in 1971 with the introduction of a chip called 4004. All PC systems used either Intel processor or Intel-Compatible processors from manufacturers such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Cyrix. Arithmetic and Logic Unit This is usually called ALU. It is the portion of the CPU where arithmetical operations and logical operations are performed. Arithmetic operations are Additions, Subtractions, Multiplications and Divisions. The logical operations compare two or more items to enable the computer to make decisions on whether they are equal or not equal. The ALU performs its operations using binary numbers. Control Unit The control unit is the sub-component of the CPU that controls and coordinates the work and the efforts of the CPU itself and the other peripherals. Its tasks include controlling the input/output units, controlling the operations of the arithmetic/logic unit in the CPU and transferring data to and from the main computer memory as well as other functions associated with getting the job done. In actual fact it directs the step-by-step operation of the entire computer system.

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Coprocessors Modern computers may have a number of processors in addition to the main processor called coprocessors. Each of these coprocessors is dedicated to a special job thus speed up the operation of the computer. Two common examples are math and graphics coprocessor chips. A math coprocessor chip also known as floating-point or numeric coprocessor is designed to perform numeric calculation faster and better than the general-purpose microprocessor used in personal computers. A graphics coprocessor chip enhances the performance of programs with lots of graphics and helps create complex screen displays. Specialize chips significantly increase the speed of a computer system by offloading work from the main processor. Theses chips may be plugged directly into the motherboard; however, they are often included on cards such sound cards and graphics cards, used to expand a computers capabilities. Chip manufacturers are working on a PC on a chip, which is one chip that would combine all the different chip functions found in current PCs. Types of microprocessor One factor that affects the speed of processors is related to how it was constructed. The list below is types of microprocessor chip: CISC chips: The complex instruction set computer (CISC) is the most common type of microprocessor. This design was popularised by Intel and is the basis for their line of microprocessors. This processor can recognized and execute well over 100 different assemblylanguage instructions, enough to carry out most computations directly. The instruction is powerful, allowing for the complicated and flexible ways of calculating such as memory address. CISC requires many clock cycles to execute each instructions. Intels II and III are based on CISC chip. Other manufacturers of CISC are AMD and Cyrix RISC chip: With the reduced instruction set computer, the available instructions has been cut to a minimum. These processors were designed to focus on rapid and efficient processing of a relatively small set of simple instructions that comprises most of the instructions a computer decodes and executes. RISC optimises each of these instructions so that it can be can be carried out very rapidly, which is usually within a single clock cycle. Therefore, this chip executes simple instructions more quickly than CISC, which is up to 70 percent faster. The RISC chips are however, slower than CISC chips at executing complex instructions, which must be broken down into many machine instructions that RISC processors can perform. The design of RISC is simpler and less costly than CISC chips because they require fewer transistors. RISC chips works by shifting the computational burden from hardware to software. The machine language programs on RISC machines contain many more instructions that their CISC equivalent and can therefore take much more storage space. RICS processors are common in workstations. Some of the chip using RISC technology includes PowerPC chip (which was developed by Motorola, IBM and Apple), Digital Equipment Corporations (DEC) Alpha chip, Silicon Graphs MIP chip, SPARC from Sun Microsystems, Motorolas 88000 and Intels i860. RISC86 chip. This is a hybrid microprocessor technology which CISC instructions are translated into RISC instructions for processing. They are designed to support the 80x86 CISC architecture while providing the speed gain characteristic of RISC technology. RICS86 was developed by NexGen and is implemented in AMDs K6 microprocessor.
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MPP: Computer with the above named processors executes instructions one at a time, which is serially. However, a computer with more than one processor can execute more than one instruction at a time, which is called parallel processing. Although some powerful microcomputers and workstations are available with more than one main processor, the most powerful computers, such as supercomputers use massively parallel processing (MPP), which spreads calculation over hundreds or even thousands of standard, inexpensive microcomputers. A mainframe computer called option red for instance has 9072 processor. Performance of Microprocessor Microprocessors have evolved from the 4004 into today's high-speed Pentiums. Each new has brought higher performance and spawned new technology. The basic elements that are customarily used to gauge the performance and capability of a CPU design: Speed: The maximum number of clock cycles measured in megahertz. The higher the speed, the quicker a command will be executed. The clock rate suggests how many commands can be completed in two cycles (the minimum time required to execute a command). The process of adding two numbers together would take about four commands (eight clock cycles). A computer running at 450 MHz can do about 44 million simple calculations per second. Clock speed is determined by the CPU manufacturer and represents the fastest speed at which the CPU can be reliably operated. This clock called the system clock is switched on when the power to the computer is turned on. The system clock controls how fast all the operations take place. The Intel 8088 r, as used in the original IBM PC, had a clock speed of 4.77 MHz. Today's have clock speeds that run up to and, in some, exceed 1.0 GHz. The speeds of larger computers are sometimes measured in MIPS (million of instructions per second) and FLOPS (floating-point operations per second). However, these ratings are not commonly used anymore. The speed is the CPU's maximum speed. If you place too many clock cycles on a CPU, it can fail or overheat and stop working. The system crystal determines the speed at which a CPU operates. The system crystal is usually a quartz oscillator very similar to the one in a wristwatch. You can find the system crystal soldered to the motherboard. Look for a silver part, usually with a label that indicates the crystal speed. A computer has two clocks: one to set the speed and timing of the system and a second clock to keep time for date/time calculations. They are two entirely different devices. Two processors that run at the same clock rate can perform differently with one running faster than the other. This is because; the execution of instructions may differ. For example, the main reason why the 486 was considered fast relative to a 386 is that is executes twice as many instructions in the same number of cycles. The same thing is true for a Pentium; it executes about twice as many instructions in a given number of cycles as a 486. This means that given the same clock speed, a Pentium will be twice as fast as a 486, and consequently a 133MHz 486 class processor (such as the AMD 5x86-133) is not even as fast as a 75MHz Pentium. The Pentium II and III are about 50 percent faster than an equivalent Pentium at a given clock speed because they can execute about that many more instructions in the same number of cycles. Comparing relative processor performance, you can see that a 600MHz Pentium III is about equal to a (theoretical) 900MHz Pentium, which is about equal to a 1,800MHz 80486 processor. One has to be careful in comparing systems based on pure MHz alone, because many other factors affect system performance. Evaluating CPU performance can therefore be tricky. CPUs
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with different internal architectures do things differently and may be relatively faster at certain things and slower at others. To fairly compare different CPUs at different clock speeds, Intel has devised a specific series of benchmarks called the iCOMP (Intel Comparative Microprocessor Performance) index that can be run against processors to produce a relative gauge of performance. There are different versions of the iCOMP. The iCOMP indices are derived from several independent benchmarks and are a stable indication of relative processor performance. The benchmarks balance integer with floating point and multi media performance. iCOMP 3.0 for instance is a benchmark that incorporates an increasing use of 3D, multimedia, and Internet technology and software, as well as the increasing use of rich data streams and compute-intensive applications, including 3D, multimedia, and Internet technology. ICOMP 3.0 combines six benchmarks: WinTune 98 Advanced CPU Integer test, CPU mark 99, 3D WinBench 99-3D Lighting and Transformation Test, MultimediaMark 99, Jmark 2.0 Processor Test, and Winbench 99-FPU Winmark. Other performance rating (P-R) scales are Cyrix P-Ratings and AMD P-Ratings. Number of transistors: More switches, more computing power. Registers: These are special high-speed circuitry area that temporarily store data during processing and provide working areas for computation. It could be said that main memory, which is outside the processor, hold material that will be used a little bit later but the registers, which are contained in the processor, hold material that is to be processed immediately. The computer loads the program instructions and data from main memory into the register just before processing. The following is the some of the type of registers: o Instruction register, which holds the instruction being executed o Address register, which holds the address (locations) of data to be processed o Program register, which holds the status information o Accumulator, which holds the results of the ALUs logic operations The number and width of a register varies from one machine to another. The wider, the more bits the machine can handle at one timejust as with the width of the external bus. As width moved from 4 to 8 to 16 to 32 to 64 bits, PCs increased in performance. The larger the registers, the more complicated the commands that can be processed in one step likewise the more information it can handle at one time. External data bus: Information is transmitted throughout a computer in binary code through a bus. The external data bus (also known as the external bus or simply data bus) is the primary route for data in a PC. All data-handling components or optional data devices are connected to it; therefore, any information (code) placed on that bus is available to all devices connected to the computer. Early computers used eight conductors (an 8-bit data bus), which allowed for the transfer of 1 byte of information at a time. As computers evolved, the width of the external data bus was increased to 16, 32, and finally to the current width of 64 conductors. As data bus size increases, so does the amount and complexity of code (information) that can be transferred between all devices in the computer.
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Address bus: The content of RAM is changing all the time, as programs and the computer itself use portions of it to note, calculate, and hold results of actions. It is essential for the system to know what memory is assigned to which task and when that memory is free for a new use. To do so, the system has to have a way to address segments of memory and to quickly change the holdings in that position. The portion of the PC that does this is the address bus. Think of the address bus as a large, virtual table in which the columns are individual bits (like letters) and each row contains a string of bits (making up a word). The actual lengths of these words will vary depending on the number of bits the address bus can handle in a single pass. Each segment is given an address, just like the one that identifies a home or post office box. The system uses this address to send data to or retrieve data from memory. Like all the other buses in a PC, this one is a collection of conductors. It links the physical memory to the system and moves signals as memory is used. The number of conductors in the address bus determines the maximum amount of memory that can be used (memory that is addressable) by the CPU. Early data buses used eight conductors and, therefore, 256 (2 8) combinations of code where possible. The maximum number of patterns a system can generate determines how much RAM the data bus can address. The 8088 used 20 address conductors and could address up to 1,048,576 bytes of memory locations, or 220. Today's PCs can address a lot more than that, and, in many cases, the actual limiting factor is not the number of patterns, but the capacity of the motherboard to socket memory chips. In all cases, the total amount of memory is the factor of 2 X, where X = the number of connectors. The size of the address bus determines the maximum amount of memory that can be addressed by the CPU. Internal cache: The internal cache is high-speed memory built into the processor. This is a place to store frequently used data instead of sending it to slower devices (speed is relative in computers) such as RAM and hard disk drives. It is built into the processor and has a dramatic effect on speed. Starting from 80486DX4, processors have two on-chip caches, one for code and one for data, which are far quicker than the larger external secondary cache. Motherboard speed: Virtually all modern processor since the 486 DX2 run at some multiple of the motherboard speed. For example, a Pentium III 500 MHz runs at five and half times the motherboard speed of 100MHz. Generation of Intel Processors The processor 4004 was the forerunner of all of today's Intel offerings and, to date, all PC processors have been based on the original Intel designs. The first chip used in an IBM PC was Intel's 8088. This was not, at the time it was chosen, the best available CPU, in fact Intel's own 8086 was more powerful and had been released earlier. The 8088 processor was chosen for reasons of economics: its 8-bit data bus required less costly motherboards than the 16-bit 8086. Also, at the time that the original PC was designed, most of the interface chips available were intended for use in 8-bit designs. There have been several generations of processors and the table shown below some of the feature of the various generations of Intel processors. Type/Gener Year Data/Addr Level 1
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Memory bus

Maximum

Transistor

Internal

ation

ess bus width (bit) 1974 1978 1979 1982 1985 1988 1989 1989 1992 1994 1993 1997 1995 1997 1998 1999 1999 8/8 16/20 8/20 16/24 32/32 16/32 32/32 32/32 32/32 32/32 64/32 64/32 64/32 64/32 64/32 64/32 64/32

Cache (KB) None None None None None 8 8 8 8 8+8 8+8 16+16 8+8 16+16 16+16 16+16 16+16

speed (MHz)

Memory

clock speed (MHz)

8080/1st 8086/1st 8088/1st 80286/2nd 80386DX/3

2 5-10 4.77-8 6.0-20 16.0-33 16-33 25-50 25-50 25-40 25-40 60-66 66 66 66 66/100 100 266 1MB 1MB 16 MB 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB 64 GB 64 GB 64 GB 64 GB 64 GB

6,000 29,000 29,000 134,000 275,000 275,000 1.2 million 1.185 million 2.0 million 2.5 million 3.3 million 4.77-8.0 4.77-8 6.0-20 16.0-33 16-33 25-50 25-50 50-80 75-120 60-200 166-233 150-200 7.5 million 7.5-19 million 9.5 million 9.5 million 233-300 300-450 450MGHz -1.2GHz 500MHz1.67GHz

80386SX/3r
d

80486DX/4
th

80486SX/4t
h

80486DX2/ 4th 80486DX4/ 4th Pentium/5th Pentium MMX/5th Pentium Pro/6th Pentium II MMX/6th Pentium II Celeron /6th Pentium III/6th Pentium III Xeon/6th

24

Pentium 4/7th

2000

4/32

128+128

400

64 GB

1.4GHz2.2GHz

3.4 Memory The system memory is made up of cell locations each of which can hold the current programs and data that are in use. The memory accepts data from an input device during processing, exchange data with the CPU, supplies instructions to the CPU, and send the computed data to an output device. Because of the demands that are made by increasingly powerful software, system memory requirements have been accelerating at an alarming pace over the last few years. The result is that modern computers have significantly more memory than the first PCs of the early 1980s, and this has had an effect on development of the PC's architecture. Storing and retrieving data from a large block of memory is more time-consuming than from a small block. With a large amount of memory, the difference in time between a register access and a memory access is very great, and this has resulted in extra layers of "cache" in the storage hierarchy. Main memory is attached to the processor via its address and data buses. Each bus consists of a number of electrical circuits or bits. The width of the address bus dictates how many different memory locations can be accessed, and the width of the data buses determines how much information is stored at each location. Each transaction between the CPU and memory is called a bus cycle. Types of Memory Main memory: These are also known as the primary memory, primary storage, internal memory, memory or RAM (stands for Random Access Memory)-is working storage and works just like the blackboard. RAM chip holds temporary data and instructions currently being run or processed. The term "random" is applied because the CPU can access or place data to and from any addressable RAM on the system in approximately equal amounts of time, no matter what the specific data locations are. Data and programs can be stored in RAM from input devices or auxiliary storage devices. Data in the RAM can be displayed on the screen or printed on a printer. The RAM is however volatile because its content is wiped off whenever the computer's power is switched off. It is therefore advisable to save your work in RAM at a time interval since any unsaved work is irretrievably lost when the power goes off. Any software, program and data should be loaded into RAM before it can be used. RAM is the part of the main memory accessible to the user because the user can put the information he/she want in it, change information already in it or erase information in it. Flash RAM or flash memory, which is a special but expensive form of RAM chips, can retain data even if power is disrupted. The memory has three tasks: o It holds data for processing o It holds instructions (program) for processing the data o It holds data that has been processed (become useful information) and waiting to be sent to a peripheral device. Knowing the amount of RAM is important since some software may require more memory capacity than a particular microcomputer offers. Fortunately, additional RAM chips can often be added by plugging memory modules, which are circuit boards that contain memory chips, into a
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memory socket on the motherboard. Two types of memory modules are SIMMs (single in-line memory modules) and DIMMs (dual in-line memory modules). Whereas SIMMs can hold up to 9RAM chips, DIMMS can hold up to 18. SIMMs was generally used to expand RAM on older computers, such as those with 80386 and 80486 microprocessors. DIMMS, which are faster, used in Pentium II computers and most other Pentium computers. The most common RAM technologies used in the modern PC are: o SRAM (static random access memory) stores information as patterns of transistor ons and offs to represent binary digits. This type of memory is physically bulky and somewhat limited in its capacity. It can generally store only 256K bits per IC. The chips are more complex and are thus more expensive. However, they are faster and it has access times of 15 to 20 ns. SRAM is often used for cache memory. The original PC and XT, as well as some notebook computers, use SRAM chips for their memory. o DRAM (dynamic random access memory) stores information as charges in very small capacitors. DRAM is less complex and cheaper to manufacture. Because DRAM uses capacitors instead of switches, it needs to use a constant refresh signal to keep the information in memory and hence the dynamic. Because of the need to refresh DRAMs, it makes them to be less reliable SRAM. DRAM requires more power than SRAM for refresh signals, and therefore is mostly found in desktop computers. The DRAM technology allows several memory units, called cells to be packed with very high density. Therefore, these chips can hold very large amounts of information. The access time of DRAM is 80 ns or more. o EDO (extended data out) RAM increases performance about 10% by eliminating memory wait states. Its usually a bit more expensive than regular DRAM. o SDRAM (synchronized DRAM) is an enhanced memory that is replacing traditional DRAM. The memory access cycle is synchronized with the main processor clock, eliminating wait time between memory operations. ROM: This stands for Read Only Memory and is also known as firmware. The vendor of the computer generally installs the content of ROM during the process of manufacturing the motherboard or secondary components that need to retain code when the machine is turned off. Therefore, the data and programs in the ROM can only be read and used but cannot be altered hence contained permanent data or non-volatile information. ROM is used extensively to program operation of computers, as well as in devices like cameras, and controls for the fuel injectors in modern cars. Virtually all general-purpose computers use a larger amount of RAM and a smaller amount of ROM. On most PCs, the ROM normally contains the BIOS. Therefore some people refer to the ROM as ROMBIOS Other forms of ROM are o PROM: This stands for Programmable Read Only Memory. This is a blank chip on which the buyer, using special equipment, writes the program. Once the program is written, it cannot be erased. o EPROM: This means Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. The EPROM chip is like PROM chip except that the content can be erased and reprogrammed. Using special equipment, and new material can be written. Erasure is done with a special device that uses ultraviolet light. Some older computer such as the IBM PC or XT used this chip for their BIOS information. o EEPROM: This stands for Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. It
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can be reprogrammed using special electrical impulses. The advantage of EEPROM chips is that they need not be removed from the computer to be changed. It is very inconvenient to remove an IC every time it needs to have the software it contains upgraded. It is difficult and can be dangerous. Therefore, these various types of ROM are very useful. BIOS All motherboards include a small block of Read Only Memory (ROM), which is separate from the main system memory used for loading and running software. The ROM contains the PC's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). BIOS are really the link between hardware and software in a system. Most people know BIOS by another name-device drivers, or just drivers. The BIOS is a simple term that describes all the drivers in a system working together to act as an interface between the hardware and operating system software. Some of the BIOS is burned or flashed into a ROM chip that is non-volatile. This is a core part of the BIOS, but not all of it. The BIOS also includes ROM chip installed on adapter cards, as well as all the additional drivers loaded when your system boots up. The combination of the mother board BIOS, the adapter cards BIOS, and the device drivers loaded from disk contribute to the BIOS as a whole. The advantages of having the BIOS in ROM are: 1. The code and data in the ROM BIOS need not be reloaded each time the computer is started 2. They cannot be corrupted by wayward applications that write into the wrong part of memory. The BIOS in most PCs have four main functions: POST (power on self test): This is part the BIOS that runs as soon as the machine is powered on. It inspects the computer to determine what hardware is fitted and then conducts some simple tests to check that everything is functioning normally. The POST tests your computers processor, memory chipset, video adapter, disk controllers, disk drives, keyboard and other crucial components. BIOS setup: This is system configuration and setup program. It is usually a menu-driven program activated by pressing a special key during the POST, which allows you to configure the motherboard and chipset settings along with the date and time, passwords, disk drives and other bask system settings. You also can control the power-management settings and bootdrive sequence from the BIOS setup-some older systems (286 and 386) did not have the setup program in ROM and required that you boot from a special setup disk. Bootstrap loader: This is also called ROM BOOTSTRAP -a routine that reads the disk drives looking for a valid master boot sector. If found, then the master boot sector program loads the operating system boot sector, which then loads the operating system core files. Most PCs ship with the BIOS set to check for the presence of an operating system in the floppy disk drive first (A:), then on the primary hard disk drive. Any modern BIOS will allow the floppy drive to be moved down the list so as to reduce normal boot time by a few seconds. To accommodate PCs that ship with a bootable CD-ROM, some BIOS allow the CD-ROM drive to be assigned as the boot drive. BIOS itself: This refers to the collection of actual drivers used to act as a basic interface between the operating system and your hardware when the system is booted and running. When running DOS or windows in safe mode, you are running almost solely on ROM-based BIOS drivers because none are loaded from disk. Here we have ROMBIOS (which tells the
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CPU to transfer information from the keyboard to the screen and printer) and CHARACTER GENERATOR (which tells the CPU how to make each character out of dots). CMOS RAM Motherboards also include a separate block of memory made from very low power consumption CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) RAM chips, which is kept "alive" by a battery even when the PC's power is off. This chip gets its name from the way it is manufactured, not from the information it holds. Unlike other ROM chips, CMOS chips do not store programs; they store data that is used by the BIOS for the programs needed to talk to changeable hardware. The Real Time Clock (RTC), CMOS RAM and battery are usually all integrated into a single chip. The PC reads the time from the RTC when it boots up, after which the CPU keeps time which is why system clocks are sometimes out of sync. The CMOS chips can store about 64 KB of data. However, to store the data needed to boot a computer requires only a very small amount of memory: about 128 bytes. If the data stored on the CMOS is different from the hardware it keeps track of, the computer, or part of it, will probably not work. For example, if the hard disk drive information is incorrect, the computer can be booted from a floppy disk, but the hard disk drive might not be accessible. The technician or owner will have to reset the CMOS values before the computer can use the device if it is not properly defined in the CMOS registry. The information contained in a CMOS chip will depend on the manufacturer. Typically, CMOS contains at least the following information: Floppy disk and hard disk drive types, CPU RAM size Date and time, which is updated by a Real Time Serial and parallel port information Plug and Play information Power Saving settings BIOS chips are used to provide data to the CPU; this data tells the CPU how to operate specific devices. CMOS is a BIOS chip that can have its data updated. The CMOS setup program is used to make these changes. CACHE MEMORY: When it comes to access speed, processors are currently outstripping memory chips by an ever-increasing margin. This means that processors increasingly have to wait for data going in and out of main memory. One solution is to use "cache memory" between the main memory and the processor, and use clever electronics to ensure that the data the processor needs next is already in cache. Cache memory is a special high-speed SRAM memory area that the processor can access quickly. Essentially, cache memory is a bridge between the processor and RAM. A special look-ahead program transfers the data and instructions that were transferred from the secondary storage to RAM from RAM to the processor. This allows the processor to run faster because it doesnt have to take time to swap instructions in and out of RAM. Since cache memory is faster than main memory and is used to store the most frequently accessed information, cache memory will increase the performance of any system. Large, complex programs and fast processors benefit the most from access to cache memory. They are several types of cache memory available such as pipeline-burst cache. They are two types of cache memory: on-chip (internal) and off-chip (external). External cache is resides on fast chips located
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closer to the CPU than the RAM chips. There are two types of internal cache memory: Level 1 and Level 2. Internal cache or Level 1 cache, or primary cache is built into the processor chip and is found on Intel Pentium processor as well as on other manufacturers chips. This is used for temporary storage of instructions and data organised in blocks of 32 bytes. Primary cache is the fastest form of storage. Because it's built in to the chip with a zero wait-state (delay) interface to the processor's execution unit, it is limited in size. Level 1 cache is implemented using SRAM and until recently was traditionally 16KB in size but the Pentium 4 has a L1 of 64 KB. The control logic of the primary cache keeps the most frequently used data and code in the cache and updates external memory only when the CPU hands over control to other bus masters, or during direct memory access by peripherals such as floppy drive Level 1 cache. The External cache, Level 2 caches or secondary cache is offered by most PCs to bridge the processor/memory performance gap and therefore it is mounted directly on the motherboard, outside the CPU. The Level 2 cache uses the same control logic as Level 1 cache and is also implemented in SRAM. Level 2 cache typically comes in two sizes, 256KB or 512KB, and can be found, or soldered onto the motherboard, in a Card Edge Low Profile (CELP) socket or, more recently, on a COAST ("cache on a stick") module. The aim of the Level 2 cache is to supply stored information to the processor without any delay (wait-state). Write-Back vs. Write-Through Some caches immediately send all data directly to RAM, even if it means hitting a wait state. This is called write-through cache. Some caches store the data for a time and send it to RAM later. This is called write-back cache. Write-back caches are harder to implement but are much more powerful than write-through caches, because the CPU does not have to stop for the wait state of the RAM. However, write-through caches are less expensive. VIDEO MEMORY: The Video memory, which is also called video RAM, is used to store display images for the monitor. The amount of video memory determines how fast images appear and how many colours are available. This chip is particularly desirable if you are running programs that display a lot of graphics. VRAM chips are usually located on a special video adapter card inserted in an expansion slot on the system board. The more video memory an adapter has, the better the quality of image that it can display. Also, more VRAM allows the adapter to display a higher resolution of image. Windows RAM: Windows RAM (WRAM) is similar to VRAM, except that its much faster. This is a specialized memory for Windows accelerator cards. WRAM is capable to read from or write to memory simultaneously windows RAM (WRAM) and therefore, it is called dual-ported memory. This makes WRAM faster than VRAM, which can only be either read from or written to. Types of Memory Chip Packages Over the years, the way memory has been packaged and placed on the motherboard has changed several times such as: o Dual In-line Package (DIP) o Single inline pin package (SIPP)
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o Single inline memory modules (SIMM). While SIMM modules can have pin counts as high as 200, in PCs, 30- and 72-pin versions are the most common. o Dual Inline Memory Modules (DIMM) 3.5 Expansion Slots and Cards Computers are known for having different kinds of architectures. Machines that have closed architecture are manufactured in such a way that users cannot easily add new devices. Most microcomputers have open architecture. They allow users to expand their systems by providing slots on the system board. Users can insert optional devices known as expansion cards into these slots. Expansion cards are also called plug-in boards, controller cards, adapter cards, and interface cards. Expansion cards plug into slots inside the system unit. Ports on the cards allow cables to be connected from the expansion cards to devices outside the system unit. Among the kinds of expansion cards available are: Network adapter cards: Also called Network interface cards (NICs). They link a computer to the network cable system. They provide the physical connection between the computer's expansion bus and the network cabling. These cards used to connect a computer to one or more computers. This forms a communication network whereby users can share data, programs, and hardware. The network adapter card typically connects the system unit to a cable that connects to the other devices on the network. NICs are plug into a slot inside the system unit. Small computer system interface (SCSI) card: Most computers have only a limited number of expansion slots. A SCSI card uses only one slot and can connect as many as seven devices to the system unit. These cards are used to connect such devices as scanners, printers, hard disk drives, and CD-Rom drives to the system unit. TV tuner cards: It is possible to watch television and surf the Internet at the same time. Television boards contain a TV turner and video converter that changes the TV signal into one that can be displayed on your monitor. PC cards: To meet the size and constraints of portable computers, credit card-sized expansion boards have been developed. These cards can be easily inserted and replaced from the outside of a portable computer. They are called PC cards or Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) cards. These cards can be used for a variety of purposes, including increasing memory and connecting to other computers. A wide variety of other expansion boards exist. Some of the most widely used are Video adapter cards, CD-ROM cards and sound card. 3.6 Buses Lines A bus line, which is also known as data bus or simply bus- connects the parts of the CPU to each other. It also links the CPU to various other components on the system board. A bus is a data roadway along which bits or signals travel from one part of the computer to another.. The more the bus lines are, the faster traffic can go through likewise, the greater the capacity of a bus, the more powerful and faster the operation. A 64-bit bus has greater capacity than a 32-bit bus, for example. Many devices, such as expansion boards, will work with only one type of bus line. A system unit has more than one type of bus line. PCs have a processor bus design with three pathways: o The data bus sends data back and forth between the memory and the microprocessor divide into an external data bus and internal data bus.
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o The address bus identifies which memory location will come into play. o The control bus carries the control units signals. The three principals bus lines or architectures are: Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) was developed for the IBM Personal Computer. First it was an 8-bit-wide data path; then it was 16 bits wide. Although too slow for many of todays applications, the ISA bus is still widely used. Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) was originally developed to meet the video demands of graphical user interfaces. PCI is a high-speed 32-bit or 64-bit bus that is over 20 times faster than ISA buses. The PCI is expected to replace the ISA bus in the near future. PCI buses are widely used to connect the CPU, memory, and expansion boards. Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) is the newest bus and over twice as fast as the PCI bus. While the PCI bus is used for a variety of purposes, the AGP bus is dedicated to the acceleration of graphics performance. Widely used for graphics and 3-D animations, the AGP is replacing the PCI bus for the transfer of video data.

3.7 Ports and Cables Ports are connecting sockets. Cables connect input and output devices to ports. A port is a connecting socket on the outside of the system unit. Some ports, like the mouse and keyboard ports, are for specific devices. Others, like those listed below, can be used for a variety of different devices. Serial ports are used for a wide variety of purposes. They are used to connect a mouse, keyboard, modem, and many other devices to the system unit. Serial ports send data one bit at a time and are very good for sending information over a long distance Parallel ports are used to connect external devices that need to send or receive a lot of data over a short distance. These ports typically send eight bits of data simultaneously across eight parallel wires. Parallel ports are mostly used to connect printers to the system unit. Accelerated graphics ports (AGPs) are used to connect monitors. They are able to support high-speed graphics and other video input. Universal serial bus (USB) ports are expected to gradually replace serial and parallel ports. They are faster, and one USB port can be used to connect about 127 devices such as mice, modem, keyboard, etc to the system unit. Fire Wire ports are the newest type. They are even faster than USB ports and are used to connect high-speed printers and even video cameras to the system unit. Cables are used to connect input and output devices to the system unit via the ports.

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4 INPUT/OUTPUT DEVICES Hardware is the term used to define all the physical components of the computer System. That is the part of the computer that can be seen or touched. Examples are the keyboard, the System Unit, and the printer. The input, output and backing storage units are referred to as peripheral devices or peripherals. Peripherals are attachments to the System Unit that form the computer. Peripherals that are not controlled by or in communication with the CPU are said to be off-line while those in controlled by or in communication with the CPU are called on-line. For example in the punched card data processing environment, the keypunch that transcribes data is an example of an off-line operation whilst the machine attached to the computer that reads these punched cards is an example of an on-line device. Most computers require input from a user and as the user starts typing data into the system, it is placed in the main memory of the computer and appears on the screen. All peripheral devices must be installed. In other words, the devices driver must be used to tell the computer what the kind of device that is attached to the system. A driver is a software program that links a peripheral device to the computers operating system. The driver contains the machine language necessary to activate the device and perform the necessary operations. Drivers may come on disk with the peripheral device. In the case of fundamental peripherals such as the keyboard, diskette drive, and some hard disks, the drivers are included in the computers BIOS chip. The manual accompanying the peripheral gives a direction on how to install the device.

4.1 INPUT DEVICES Input hardware consists of devices that translate data into a form that computer can process. The human-likeable le form must be changed to the computer-readable form, which consists of binary 0s and 1s, or off and on signals. Therefore the purpose of input devices is to convert humanreadable information into machine-readable form. Types of Input Hardware Keyboard: The set of typewriter-like keys that enables you to enter data into a computer. Computer keyboards are similar to electric-typewriter keyboards but contain additional keys. The main responsibility of the keyboard is to converts letters, numbers, and other characters into
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electrical signals that are machine-readable by the computers processor. A computer keyboard is an array of switches, each of which sends the PC a unique signal when pressed. The standard layout of letters, numbers, and punctuation is known as a QWERTY keyboard because the first six keys on the top row of letters spell QWERTY. The QWERTY keyboard was designed in the 1800s for mechanical typewriters and was actually designed to slow typists down to avoid jamming the keys. Another keyboard design, which has letters positioned for speed typing, is the Dvorak keyboard. t There are actually four different PC keyboards: 1. 83-key PC and XT keyboard 2. 84- key AT keyboard 3. 101-key enhanced keyboard 4. 104-key Windows keyboard The four differ somewhat in the placement of function keys, the Control key, the Return key Alt key, the Shift keys and the addition of keys.

Figure 3 : QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards The keyboards for the Apple Macintosh are called ADB keyboards because they connect to the Apple Desktop bus (ADB). The two main varieties of Macintosh keyboards are the standard keyboard and the extended keyboard, which has 15 additional special-function keys. When you press the Caps Lock key, a light on you keyboard shows you are typing ALL CAPITAL LETTERS until you press the Caps Lock key again. Enter key, sometimes called the Return key, is used to enter commands into the computer, in addition to beginning a new paragraph in a word processing system. Cursor-movement keys: The cursor, also called the insertion point, is the symbol on the display screen that shows where data may be entered next. The cursor-movement keys or arrow keys are used to move the cursor around the text on the screen. These keys move the cursor left, right, up, or down. The key labelled PgUp stands for Page up, and the key labeled PgDn stands for page down. These keys move the cursor the equivalent of one page or one screen at a time up (toward the beginning of the document) or down (toward the end of the document) Numeric keys: On a standard 101-key keyboard, a separate set of keys, 0 through 9, known as the numeric keypad, is laid out like the keys on a calculator. The numeric keypad has two purposes. Whenever the Num Lock key is off, the numeric keys may be used as arrow keys for cursor movement and for other purposes such as Pg Up, Pg Dn. When the Num Lock key is on, the keys may be used for manipulating numbers, as on a calculator. A light is illuminated on the keyboard when the Num Lock key is pressed once and goes off when the Num Lock key is
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pressed again. For space reasons, portable computers often lack a separate numeric keypad or the numeric keys may be superimposed on the typewriter letter keys and activated by the Num Lock key. Function keys: Function keys are labelled with an F and a number, such as F1 and F2. They are used for issuing commands not typing in characters. Desktop microcomputers usually have 12 function keys, portables often only 10. The purpose of each function key is defined by the software you are using. For example, in Word Perfect 9, pressing Ctrl+F7 will check the spelling in your document whereas the same feature will be activated in Microsoft Word 2000 by pressing F7. The documentation manual that comes with the software tells you how to use the function keys. As computers have become more widespread, so has the incidence of various hand and wrist injuries. Accordingly, keyboard manufacturers have been giving a lot of attention to ergonomics. Ergonomics is science of designing machines, tools, computers, and physical work areas so that people find them easy and healthful to use. Keyboard manufacturers, as a result of ergonomic studies, have developed ergonomically sound keyboards to help prevent or reduce injuries and for use by physically challenged individuals. One injury associated with prolonged usage the keyboard that is not ergonomically friendly is repetitive strain injury (RSI). RSI, also known as cumulative trauma disorder (CTD) is occupational illness (usually pain) caused by prolonged repetitive hand movements that can damage, inflame, or kill nerves in the hands, arms, shoulders or neck. RSI is increasingly noted among office workers and poses a genuine threat to PC users who work long hours at the keyboard. With some ergonomic keyboards such as Microsoft Natural Keyboard, some keys are angled away from the centre, while others put some keys in pits into which a naturally curved hand can fit. Pointing devices: These are also used to input into the computer. These devices control the position of the cursor or pointer on the screen. Examples of pointing devices include: Mice, trackballs, joysticks and touchpad, Light pens, Digitizing tablets, Pen-based systems. Mouse: This is a device that is rolled about on a desktop to direct a pointer on the computers display screen. When one moves the mouse on your desk, the pointer on the screen moves in the same direction. The mouse pointer is the symbol that indicates the position of the mouse on the display screen. The pointer will change from an arrow to a pointing-finger icon, depending on the task you are performing. Some newer mouse types are wireless (cordless)that is, they use battery-powered transmitters to send infrared signals to a battery-powered receiver hooked up to a serial port on the back of the computer. On the top side are one to four buttons. Your software determines the use of the second, third, and fourth buttons. First one is used for common functions, such as clicking and dragging. The following are the terminologies used for mouse operations: Point is to move the pointer to the desired spot on the screen. Click is to press and release a mouse button once without moving the mouse. Clicking is performing for selection and de-selection purposes. Double-click is to press and release a mouse twice without moving the mouse. It is a means of selecting and activating a program or program feature.
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Drag is to move the mouse while holding the button so that an image or icon can be relocated. Drop is to release the mouse button after dropping Right-click is to bring up (pop up) a set of options (also called menu) by pressing the right button. This menu that is pop up context sensitive selection

Trackball: Another form of pointing device, the trackball, is a variant on the mouse. A trackball is a movable ball, on top of a stationary device, that is rotated with the fingers or palm of the hand. In fact, the trackball looks like a mouse turned upside down. Instead of moving the mouse around on the desktop, you move the trackball with the tips of your fingers. Trackballs are especially suited to portable computers. Joystick: A joystick is a pointing device that consists of a vertical handle like a gearshift lever mounted on a base with one or two buttons. Joysticks are used principally in video games, in some computer-aided design systems, and in computerized robot systems. Touchpad: This lets you control the cursor/pointer with your finger. Touchpad are flat, rectangular devices that use a very weak electrical field to sense your touch. As you move your finger-tip, the cursor follows the movement. You click by tapping your finger on the pads surface or by pressing buttons on the top, or side of the pad. Many portable computers and desktop computers now include touchpads built into the keyboard. Light Pen: This is a light-sensitive pen-like device connected by a wire to the computer terminal. The user brings the pen to a desired point on the display screen and presses the pen button, which identifies that screen location to the computer. Light pens are used by engineers, graphic designers and illustrators. Digitizing Tablets: A digitizing tablet consists of a tablet connected by a wire to a stylus or puck. A styling is a pen-like device with which the user sketches an image. A puck is a copying device with which the user copies, or traces, an image. When used with drawing and painting software, a digitizing tablet and stylus allow you to do shading and many other effects similar to those artists achieve with pencil, pen, or charcoal. Alternatively, when you use a puck, you can trace a drawing laid on the tablet, and a digitized copy is stored in the computer. Digitizing tables are used primarily in graphic design, computer animation, and engineering Pen-Based Systems Pen-based computer systems use a pen-like stylus to enter handwriting and marks into a computer. There are four types of pen-based systems: Handwriting stored as scribbling: This recognizes and stores handwriting. The handwriting is stored as a scribble and is not converted to type text. Handwriting converted, with training, to typed text: Some pen based devices can recognize your handwriting and transform it into typed text. These systems require that the machine be trained to recognize your particular (or even peculiar) handwriting. Moreover, the writing must
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be neat printing. The advantage of converting writing to typed text is that after conversion the text can be retrieved and later edited or further manipulated. Handwriting converted, without training, to typed text: The most sophisticated-and still mostly elusive- application of pen-based computers converts script handwriting to typed text without training. Small handheld computers, called PDAs (personal digital assistants), use pen-based input. Larger PDAs include small keyboards. However, the small models, called palm computers, do not include a keyboard and rely on pen-based input. Popular palm computers include 3COMs PalmPilot and Palm III. SOURCE-DATA ENTRY Source-data input devices do not require keystrokes to input data to the computer. In other words, data is entered from as close to the source as possible; people do not need to act as typing intermediaries. One of the most common source-data entry devices is the scanner. Scanning Devices Scanners use laser beams and reflected light to translate hardcopy images of text, drawings, photos, and the like into digital form. The images can then be processed by a computer, displayed on a monitor, store on a storage device, or communicated to another computer. Scanning devices include: Bar-code readers, mark- and character-recognition devices, fax machine, and imaging systems. Bar-Code Readers: These are photo-electric scanners that read the bar codes (this is vertical zebra-striped marks) printed on most manufactured product containers. Supermarkets use a bar codes system called to represent both the manufacturer and the product. There are several different types of bar code in circulation such as the European article Number (EAN), which us used by European countries and Universal Product Code (UPC) used in USA. Bar-code readers translate the bar code symbols into digital code (ASCII or EBCDIC). The price of a particular item is set within the stores computer and appears on the salesclerks point-of-sale (POS) terminal and on your receipt. Records of sales are input to the stores computer and used for accounting, restocking store inventory, and weeding out products that dont sell well. Bar codes are also occasionally used on people. For example, when 1000 runners completed a 1996 relay race from Calistoga to Santa Cruz in northern California, they didnt have to wait four months to find out their times. Instead, they got the information at the finish line. Each runner wore a bar-code T-shirt, and handheld bar-code readers recorded runners times at each of the races thirty-six checkpoints. Mark-Recognition and Character-Recognition Devices: There are three kinds of scanning devices that translate certain types of marks and characters. They were formerly used only with mainframes but now found in connection with the more powerful microcomputer. They are usually referred to by their abbreviations MICR, OMR, and OCR. Magnetic-ink character recognition (MICR): With this, a scanner translates the magnetically charged numbers printed at the bottom of bank cheques (checks) and deposit slips. MICR characters are printed with magnetized ink, and read by MICR equipment, producing a digitized signal. This signal is used by a banks reader/sorter machine for transaction purposes.
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Optical mark recognition (OMR): Also called marking sensing. An OMR device senses the presence or absence of a mark such as pencil mark. It reads pencil marks and converts them into computer-usable form. Well-known examples are the OMR technology used to read and produce the scores of the objective/multiple-choice tests for WEAC, Scholastic Aptitude test (SAT), Graduate Record Examination (GRE), and so on. Optical character recognition (OCR): This reads special pre-printed character sets called OCR fonts, as well as typewriter and computer-printed characters, and converts them into machinereadable form. Examples that use OCR characters are utility bills and price tags on departmentstore merchandise. Some advanced OCR systems can recognize human hand-writing. Using OCR can be five times faster than retyping a document into the computer. The important function of OCR is that, once the text appears on-screen, a user can copy it to a word processing program, spell checks it, make corrections and additions, and save it. Fax Machines: Also called facsimile transmission machine. Facsimile means an exact copy This device scans an image on paper and sends it as electronic signals over telephone lines to a receiving fax machine, which re-creates the image of paper. It can also scan and send an image to a fax modem inside a remote computer; this fax can be displayed on the screen stored, or printed out by the computers printer. Scanners: Also called image scanner converts text, drawings, and photographs into digital form that can be stored in a computer system and then manipulated, stored, output or send via modem to another computer. Scanners are generally are flatbed, drum, or handheld. Flatbed and drum scanners are used for scanning high-quality colour graphics. Flatbed scanners can scan single sheets and book-bound pages. Drum scanners are fed one sheet at a time; they cannot handle book-bound pages. Flatbed scanners scan at high resolutions-up to 2400 dots per inch (dpi), compared to 200-600 dpi for drum scanners. Handheld scanners also called portable scanner is typically a handheld device that slides across the image, making direct contact. These scanners are generally used to scan in small images or parts of images. Their resolution is not very high. Scanners are commonly used in desktop publishing to scan graphic images that can then be placed in a page of text. Scanners are specified using parameters including: resolution, bit depth, and dynamic range Voice-Input Devices To the computer, speech recognition is extremely complicated due to: There are vast differences in human speech. There are different ways of saying exactly the same thing There are different languages, different dialects, pronunciations, and accents within the same language, different sounds, within each dialect The speech of the same person can sound differently on different days because they might have a cold or they might in different modes Natural languages such as English, for example, are context sensitive. Voice-input or speech-input devices convert a persons speech into a digital code. By far the most widely used voice-input device is the microphone. This device combined with a sound card and appropriate software, forms a voice-recognition systems. A voice-recognition system, using a microphone (or a telephone) as an input device, converts a persons speech into digital code by
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comparing the electrical patterns produced by the speakers voice with a set of pre-recorded patterns stored in the computer. The software part of most voice recognition systems must be trained or conditioned to the particular users voice to increase accuracy. This is done by matching the users spoken words via microphone to patterns previously stored in the computer. The program then adjusts to the users accent and intonation. More advanced software can recognize the same word spoken by different people. Other software can even translate from one language to another such as from English to French. Voice-recognition systems are finding many uses. Blind or paralyzed people can give verbal commands to their PCs rather than use the keyboard. Astronauts who need to use two hands to make repairs in space can activate display screens in their helmet visors with spoken commands. Voice-recognition technology clearly has several advantages over traditional keyboard and mouse input. It protects users against repetitive stress injuries; it simplifies computing for beginning users; and it improves data-entry speed and can improve accuracy, if used properly. Listen For Window s is mainly command-driven voice control, not for speaking text into a word processor. Two popular programs are naturallySpeaking from Dragon Systems, Inc (contains over 30,000) and ViaVoice from IBM. With such software, users talk in a natural manner, do text editing and formatting via voice command, as well as manage files. These programs come with huge vocabularies-that can be increased according to the users needs. Technical terminologies such as those used in the medical and financial industries-are also available. There are two types of voice recognition systems: 1. Discrete speech: With this system, the microcomputer takes the audio signal, converts it to a digital signal, and analyses it using a special program. The program recognizes individual words and stores them in a file, which can be retrieved, edited, and printed using any word processing program. 2. Continuous speech: This has the ability to recognize individual words and phrases in context. Therefore, they can accept dictation as well as spoken commands to operate many of todays applications. Examples of such software are naturallySpeaking and ViaVoice. Sound Input Devices Voce-recognition devices are only one kind of audio input device, which can translate music as well as other sounds. An audio input device records or plays analog sound and translates it for digital storage and processing. For the computer to process sound, a special digitiser board is needed to convert the analogue signals, which represent the sound, into digital signals (0s and 1s), which is the language of computers. This conversion is called an A-to-D converter. There are two ways in which audio is digitized: 1. Audio board: Analog sound inputted via a microphone goes though an audio board, or a sound card that converts analogue sound to digital sound and stores it for further processing and/or plays it back, providing output directly to speakers or an external amplifier. The three major sound standards are SoundBlaster, Ad Lib, and Windows. Some sound cards support all three standards. 2. MIDI board: MIDI, which stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface provides a standard for the interchange of musical information between musical instruments, synthesizers, and computers. MIDI, which is based on a set of computer instructions rather than sample sounds, is widely used for multimedia applications. Most high-end sound cards have certain MIDI capabilities including ports for connecting external MIDI devices. For example, MIDI equipped electronic keyboards, also called controllers and
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synthesizers can be plugged in to the MIDI interface (such as a guitar or clarinet) and the music being played can then be store, manipulated, and/or output. Sound input takes up lots of memory, for example, a 40kbytes/second of memory amounts to nearly 8 MB to store a 3-minute of pop song. Therefore, analog sound is converted to digital data via sound sampling (i.e. sound input). The sampling rate is the number of times per second analog sound is turned into a binary number by the computer. To digitize voice, the computer samples the sound waves 8000 times per second to attain AM-radio-quality output. Music is sample 44,000 times per second to attain CD quality output. Video and Photographic Input Most film and videotape is in analog form therefore, to be used by a computer, the signals that come from a VCR or a camcorder must be converted to digital form through a special video capture, or digitizing card installed in the computer. Types of video cards 1. Frame-grabber video card: This card can capture and digitize only a single framed at a time. 2. Full-motion video card: This can convert analog to digital signals at up to 30 frames per second (TV quality), giving the effect of a continuously flowing motion picture. In other words, full video is accomplished by taking multiple pictures in sequence. There are both analog and digital video cameras. Whereas analog video cameras convert light intensities into analog signals, digital video cameras convert it into discrete 0s and 1s. With the appropriate software, digital video can be transmitted (downloaded) directly to the computer. The main limitation in capturing full video is not input but storage. It takes a huge amount of storage space to store just 1 second of video. Video that has been digitalized and stored in the computer can be displayed at varying frame rates, depending on the speed of the computer. A digital camera captures images in electronic form for immediate viewing on a television or monitor. Digital camera uses a light-sensitive processor chip to capture photographic images in digital form on a memory card inserted in the camera. The memory card can then be inserted into an adapter on the computer and the contents can be copied onto the computers hard disk for editing, storing sending over the Internet, and printing out. The flash memory chips of digital camera can stores 16 to 64 or 128 colour shots depending on its resolution. This type of camera is connected via a serial port so that (using special software) photos can be downloaded to the computers hard drive. The memory-card process works faster than serial transmission. (Of course, photos can also be input to a computer via a scanner.) . Sensors A sensor is a type of input device that collects specific kinds of data directly from the environment and transmits it to a computer. Sensors exist all around us, often in invisible form. Sensors can be used for detecting all kinds of things: current, speed, movement, weight, pressure, temperature, humidity, wind, fog, gas, smoke, light, shapes, images, and so on. In aviation, sensors are used to detect ice build-ups on airplane wings or to alert pilots to sudden changes in wind direction. Sensors are also used by government regulators to monitor whether companies are complying with air-pollution standards.

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4.1 OUTPUT DEVICES Data inputted and then processed by the computer remains in machine-readable form until output devices make it human-likeable form such as words, numbers, picture and sound. Therefore the purpose of output devices is to convert machine-readable information into human-likeable form. The two commonly used output devices are the monitor and the printer. The printed output is generally referred to as hardcopy because it is in relatively permanent form. Softcopy refers to temporary images, such as those displayed on a monitor. The information produced by computer processing may be reported in many forms such as Payroll generation Bills printing Printing in statistical or text form Displaying in statistical or text form Printing or displayed graphically Recording in microfilm Recording as a voice response Storing on disk or tape for future reporting. Printers A printer is an output device that prints characters, symbols, and perhaps graphics on paper. There are many types of printers and to buy a printer one needs to consider: quality of printing and speed of printing among others. Quality of Printing This is judged by comparing its output to that of a good typewriter on which characters are printed in a clear, solid form. Nonletter-quality Print: This is a print that is of a poorer quality than typewriter print. A nonletter- quality computer printer records a character as a series of dots. The greater the number of dots used to form the character, the better the print quality. Used for draft copies of letters or documents produced in the office or at home or for printed internal reports. Typeset quality print: This is a print that is better than letter-quality. It is produced by special electronic typesetting devices or laser printers. It is usually required for the printing of magazines, books, newsletters, advertisements, and special business reports. Letter -quality Print: This is a print that is about equal to clear, solid typed copy. It can be produced on daisy - wheel printer. It is required for business correspondence, report, payroll checks, customer invoices, and tax-returns. Speed of Printing The speed of a printer could be low-speed, high-speed and very high-speed. Character-printers are the slowest printers. The printing speed of character-printers could range from 15 to 300 Characters per second. Classification of Printers Printers are categorized according to whether the printer has contact or not with the medium on
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which the document is to be placed. Therefore, printers can be classified as: impact printers and non-impact printers. When the number of characters printed at a go is important, printer may further be subdivided into: line-printers or serial-printers, which prints a line at time (examples are Chain printer and Barrel printer) and character-printer, which print a character at a time printers (examples are Daisy-wheel Printer and Dot-matrix printer) Impact Printers: These printers use mechanisms resembling those of a typewriter: It forms characters or images by striking a mechanism such as a print hammer or wheel against an inked ribbon, leaving an image on paper. Dot-matrix printer: This was the dominant print technology in the home computing market in the days before the inkjet. This contains a print head of small pins that strike an inked ribbon, forming characters or images. Print quality is determined by the number of pins (the mechanisms that print the dots). Print heads are available with 9, 18, or 24 pins; the 24-pin head offers the best print quality (near letter-quality type). Dot-matrix printers permit a choice between output of draft quality, a coarser-looking 72 dots per inch vertically, which may be acceptable for drafts of papers and reports, and near-letterquality, a crisper-looking 144 dots per inch vertically, which is more suitable for a finished product to be shown to other people. Dot-matrix printers print about 50 to over 500 characters per second (cps) and can print some graphics, although the reproduction quality is poor. Colour ribbons are available for limited use of colour. Dot-matrix printers are noisy, inexpensive, and they can print through multipart forms, creating several copies of a page at the same time, which non-impact printers cannot do. They can also print to continuous forms, something laser and inkjet printers cannot do. Daisy-wheel printer: It has a pinwheel like print unit called daisy wheel and the characters are located at the end of it. It is usually slower than a dot -matrix printer, but the quality is better since it produces a letter-quality print. Band and Chain Printers: They is a high-speed printers usually used in the minicomputers and mainframes environment. They are called high-speed printer because they print a whole line of characters at once rather than a single character at a time. They print quality is good. Speeds of up to 3000 lines a minute may be possible with these machines. The band printer has a flexible rotating steel band that contains the characters used for the printing. The chain printer also has a rotating chain that contains the characters to be printed.

Non-impact Printers: These are used almost everywhere now. They are faster and quieter than impact printers because they have fewer moving parts. Non-impact printers form characters and images without direct physical contact between the printing mechanism and the paper. Two types of non-impact printers often used with microcomputers are laser printers and ink-jet printers. Laser printer: Like a dot-matrix printer, a laser printer creates images with dots. However, as in a photocopying machine, these images are created on a drum, treated with a magnetically charged ink-like toner (powder), and then transferred from drum to paper. There are good reasons why laser printers are popular. They produce sharp, crisp images of both text and graphics, providing resolutions from 300 dpi up to 1200 dpi, which is near-typeset quality (NTQ). They are quiet and fast. They can print 4-32 pages of text
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per minute for individual microcomputers, and more than 120 pages of text per minutes for mainframes (pages with graphics print more slowly). They can print in many fonts (type styles and sizes). The laser printers that print colours are more expensive than ones that can print only Black-and-white. Laser printers have built-in RAM chips to store documents output form the computer. If you are working in desktop publishing and printing complicated documents with colour and many graphics, you will need a printer with a lot of RAM (check the printer RAM requirements on your software package.) Laser printers also have their own ROM chips to store fonts and their own small dedicated processor. To be able to manage graphics and complex page design, a laser printer works with a page description language (PDL), which is a type of software that has become a standard for printing graphics on laser printers. A PDL is software that describes the shape and position of letters and graphics to the printer. Some examples of PDL are PostScript (from Adobe Systems, Inc) and Hewlett-Packard Graphic Language (HPGI). Ink-jet printer: Like laser and dot-matrix printers, ink-jet printers also form images with little dots. Ink-jet printers spray small, electrically charged droplets of ink from four nozzles through holes in a matrix at high speed onto paper. Ink-jet printers can print in colour and are quieter and much less expensive than a colour laser printer. However, they are slower (about 1-4pages of text- per minute) and print in a somewhat lower resolution (300-720 dpi) than laser printers. Some new, expensive ink-jet printers print up to 1200 or 1400 dpi. High-resolution output requires the use of special coated paper, which costs more than regular paper. And if you are printing colour graphics at high resolution on an ink-jet printer, it may take more for a single page to finish printing. Bubble-jet printers: These are a variation on ink-jet technology and uses miniature heating elements to force specially formulated inks through print heads with 128 tiny nozzles print fine images at high speeds. This technology is commonly used in portable printers. Solid ink printers: They are page printers that use solid wax ink sticks (which are crayon-like ink). They work by using heat to liquefy the wax ink sticks into reservoirs, and then spray the molten ink onto a transfer drum, from where it's cold-fused onto the paper in a single pass.. Solid ink printers are generally cheaper to purchase than a similarly specified colour laser. Output quality is good, with multi-level dots being supported by high-end models, but generally not as good as the best colour lasers for text and graphics, or the best inkjets for photographs. Resolution starts at a native 300dpi, rising to a maximum of around 850 by 450dpi. Colour print speed is typically 4ppm in standard mode, rising to 6ppm in a reduced resolution mode. They are well-suited for general business use and some specialist tasks such as delivering colour transparencies at high speed and large-format printing.

Plotters A plotter is a specialized output device designed to produce high-quality graphic in a variety of colours. Plotters are used for creating large hard copy items, such as maps, architectural
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drawings, and 3-D illustrations. Such items are usually too large to be printed on regular printers. The two principal kinds of plotters are ink-jet and electrostatic. 1. Ink-jet plotter: These are less expensive and slower than the electrostatic plotters. It uses ink-jets technology (just like that of an ink-jet printer) and the paper is output over a drum, enabling continuous output. 2. Electrostatic plotter: These plotters are designed so that the paper lies partially flat on a table-like surface. These plotters use toner in a manner similar to a photocopier. Monitors As mentioned earlier, softcopy output generally refers to the display on a monitor, the output device that many people use the most. Monitors run under the control of a graphics display adapter card plugged into an expansion slot on the system board. The adapter allows information to leave the computer and appear on the monitor. If you are working with graphics and video, such as in multimedia applications, this card will also have a graphics coprocessor, accelerator circuitry and video support.) The display adapter has its own RAM, called VRAM, or video RAM. VRAM controls the resolution of images displayed on the monitor, as well as the number of colours and the speed at which the images are displayed. In addition, the more video memory you have, the higher the resolution and the more colours you can display. A video display adapter with 1MB of VRAM can support 16.7 million colours. The size of a screen is measured diagonally from corner to corner in inches just like television screens. Microcomputers can have a screens size between 14 to 21 inches but 15in screens are common. Larger screens are often used by people in desktop publishing and multimedia production in order to view two facing pages of a book or magazine at the same time. Near the display screen are control knobs that, at on a television set, allow you to adjust brightness and contrast. Technologies for Monitors Cathode-Ray Tubes (CRTs) The cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube used as a display screen in a computer or video display terminal. CRTs screen display is made up of small picture elements (dots) Called pixels for short. A pixel is the smaller unit on the screen that can be turned on or off or made different shades. A stream of bits defining the image is sent from the computer to the CRTs electron gun, where electrons are activated according to the bit patterns. The front of the CRT screen is coated inside with phosphor. When a beam of electrons from the electron gun (deflected through a yoke) hits the phosphor, it lights up selected pixels to generate an image on the screen. CRTs provide bright, clear images, but they consume power and space and are relatively heavy. The larger the CRT screen, the deeper the unit. The average weight of a CRTs screen is around 25-pound (12kilogram).

Flat-Panel Displays These display screens are used by lightweight note books and pocket PCs. Compared to CRTs, flat-panel displays are much thinner, light-weight, and consume less power. They have been used for years in portable computers, and now they are available for desktop computers. Flat-panel
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displays for a desktop microcomputer costs 2-3 times as much as an equivalent monitor based on CRT technology. Also, flat-panel displayed images are not always as good as CRT images, and flat-panel images cannot be clearly viewed from an angle. Flat-panel displays consist of two plates of glass separated by a substance. Flat-panel displays may be characterized in terms of: 1. The substance between the plates of glass 2. The arrangement of the transistors in the screens. The substances between the plates are either liquid-crystal display (LCD) or electroluminescent (EL): LCD: This consists of a substance called liquid crystal, the molecules of which line up in a particular way. Under an applied voltage, the molecular alignment is disturbed, which changes the optical properties of the liquid crystal in the affected area. As a result, light usually back lighting behind the screen is blocked or allowed through to create an image. EL: This display contains a substance that glows when it is charged by an electric current. A pixel is formed on the screen when current is sent to the intersection of the appropriate row and column. The combined voltages from the row and column cause the screen to glow at that point. According to the location of transistors flat-panel screens are either active-matrix or dual-scan displays: Active-matrix display: Also called thin-film transistor (TFT) display, or TFT LCD. The LCD is made from a large array of liquid crystal cell with one cell per pixel. Each pixel on the screen is has TFT. Voltage applied selectively to these cells produces the viewable image. They are much brighter and sharper than dual-scan screens. They are viewable from wider angles than images produced by most dual-scan screens, which is difficult to view from any angle other than straight on. They are more complicated and thus more expensive. Dual-scan display: Also called passive-matrix display. The LCD is made from a large array of liquid crystal cells that are controlled by transistors outside of the display screen. One transistor controls a whole row or column of pixels. They have good contrast for monochrome (one-colour) screens but the resolution is weaker for colour screen. The advantage is that dual-scan displays are less expensive and use less power than activematrix displays. Screen Clarity The clarity of screen depends on three qualities: resolution, dot pitch and refresh rate. 1. Resolution: This is the fineness of detail attained by a monitor in producing an image. In other words, it is a measure of the clarity or sharpness of a display screen; the more pixels there are per square inch, the better the resolution. Also the higher a resolution, the clearer and shape r the screen. Resolution is expressed in terms of the formula columns of pixels rows of pixels. Thus, a screen with 640480 pixels has a total of 307,200 pixels. Standard screen resolutions are 640 480, 800 600, 1024 768. 1280 1024 and 1600 1200. While some display adapters may not be able to handle all these resolutions, other can. 2. Dot pitch: This is the amount of space between pixels; the closer the dots, the crisper the image. In fact, dot pitch is the size of the smallest dot a monitor can display. A .28 dot
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pitch means dots are 28/100ths of a millimetre apart. Generally, a dot pitch of less than . 31 will provide clear images. A displays dot pitch is an integral part the monitors design and so cannot be altered. Multimedia and desktop publishing users typically use .25 mm dot pitch monitors. 3. Refresh rate: Refresh rate is the number of times per second that the pixels are recharged so their glow remains bright. Refresh is necessary because the phosphors hold their glow for just a fraction of a second. The higher the refresh rate, the more solid the image looks on the screen that is, it doesnt flicker. The refresh rate should be at least 72 Hz (Hertz).

Colour Display screens can be either monochrome or colour. Monochrome: Monochrome display screen display only one colour on a background usually black on white, amber on black, or green on black. The number of shades of the one colour that the monitor can display is referred to as grey-scale. Monochrome screens are dying out. Colour: Colour display screens, also called RGB monitors (for red, green, blue), can display between 16 colours and 16.7 million colours, depending on their type. The number of colours is referred to as the colour depth, or bit depth.

There are different standards for monitors, and they support different colour depths. Video graphics array (VGA): This supports 16 to 256 colours, depending on resolution. At 320 200 pixels it will support 256 colours; at the sharper resolution of 640 480 pixels it will support 16 colours, which is called 4-bit colour. Super video graphics array (SVGA): This supports 256 colours at higher resolution than VGA. SVGA has two graphics modes: 800 600, pixels and 1024 768. SVGA is called 8-bit colour. Most new computer systems offer SVGA. Extended graphics array (XGA): Also referred to as high-resolution display; XGA, for extended graphics array; supports up to 17.7 million colours at a resolution of 1024 768 pixels. Depending on the video display adapter memory chip, XGA will support 256, 65, 536, or 16, 777, 216 colours. At its highest quality, XGA is called 24-bit colour, or true colour. Note: The more colours and the higher the refresh rate and the resolution, the harder the display adapter has to work, and the more expensive it is. And the higher the setting, the slower the adapter may operate. Also for a display to work, video display adapters and monitors must be compatible. Your computer' software and the video display adapter must also be compatible. Thus, if you are changing your monitor or your video display adapter, be sure the new one will still work with the old. Most monitors today can accommodate resolutions greater than SVGA, depending on the video card connected to them. Bit-Mapped Displays The computer uses bits (0s and 1s) to describe each pixels attributes its colour and position. On monochrome screens, one bit represents one pixel on the screen. For colour monitors, several bits represent one pixel. Bit-mapped display screens permit the computer to manipulate pixels on the screen individually, enabling the software to create a greater variety of images
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Audio Output Hardware Voice output and sound output are also considered to be softcopy output. Voice Output Voice output devices convert digital data into speech-like sounds. Theses devices are found all over the place. You hear such forms of voice output on telephones (please hang up and dial you call again). Two types of voice output technology exit: speech coding and speech synthesis. Speech coding uses actual human voices speaking words to provide a digital database of words that can be output as voice sounds. That is, words are codified and stored in digital form. Later they may be retrieved and translated into voices as needed. The drawback of this method is that the output is limited to whatever words were previously entered into the computer system. However, the voice output message does sound more convincingly like real human speech. Speech synthesis uses a set of 40 basic speech sounds (called phonemes) to electronically create any words. No human voices are used to make up a database of words; instead, the computer converts stored text into voices. Sound Output Sound output devices produce digitized sounds, ranging from deeps to music. All these sounds are nonverbal. PC owners can customize their machines to greet each new program with the sound of breaking glass or to moo like a cow every hour. There are two types of sound output technology for music: FM synthesis and virtual acoustics. FM synthesis: This synthesizer mimics different musical instruments by drawing on a library of stored sounds. Sounds are generated by combining wave forms of different shapes and frequencies. The drawback, however, is that even the best synthesized music doesnt sound truly life-like; electronic instruments cant capture all the nuances of real instruments. Virtual acoustics:, instead of storing a library of canned sounds, the device stores a software model of an actual instrument , such as a clarinet. Thus, a set of formulas in the software represent how tightly a musicians lips press against the clarinets mouthpiece reed. On a virtual-acoustics synthesizer, the musician can simulate blowing on the instrument either by breathing into a sensor or by pushing a pedal. This triggers a special microprocessor that simulates the airflow and resonances of an actual clarinet. In either case, the digital sound outputs go to a mixer, a device that balances and controls music and sounds. They can then flow through stereo speakers or be recorded. Microcomputers often come with a sound speaker, although these speakers often have a rather tinny quality. For good sound, you will need to connect external speakers.

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5 SECONDARY STORAGE DEVICES The secondary storage devices are used to store instructions, programs and data when they are not being used in the main memory of the computer. Auxiliary or backing store are alternative names for secondary storage because they support or back the main memory. Apart from keeping a copy of any important file, data and the like on the hard-disk, it is always advisable to keep reserve copy as backup storage on another secondary storage device. This will enable to have another copy in case the one you are using is deleted accidentally. The process of retrieving information from a storage device is referred to as reading. When information is read from a secondary storage, it is copied from the storage device to primary storage (RAM). The phrases loading an application or opening a file is used to describe retrieving information from a storage device. The process of copying information to a storage device is referred to as writing. The action of saving a file or installing a program involves writing to a storage device. In the context of computer storage, the mechanism that makes reading and writing possible is generally referred to as a drive. The following drives exist in most computers: Magnetic tape drives, diskette drives, hard disk drives and CD-ROM drives. 5.1 MAGNETIC TAPE Tapes provide sequential access, which is writing or reading data one after the other. To find particular information on tape, you may have to pass over all the information stored before the one you want and therefore it is time consuming. Although tape may be slow to access specific information, it is an effective way of making a backup or duplicate of your programs and data. Nowadays, magnetic tapes are used exclusively for back up and archiving of data. The forms of magnetic tape storage used are magnetic tape streamers, for used with microcomputers and magnetic tape reels, for used with minicomputers and mainframes. Magnetic Tape streamers: This is also called backup tape cartridge unit. A cartridge tape unit using -inch cassettes (QIC or Quarter-Inch Cartridge Standard) can store up to 20 GB. Another form called digital audio tape (DAT), which uses 2-inch by 3-inch cassette and can store 2 to 24 GB of information. DATs are used for very high-quality audio recording and data backup. More expensive digital linear tape (DLT) provides capacities from 10 to 70 GB. Magnetic Tape Reels: Magnetic tape reels are used with minicomputer and mainframe systems. They are -inch wide and -mile long and stores 1,600 to 64,000 characters to the inch. Such tapes are run on magnetic tape drives or magnetic tape units.

5.2 FLOPPY DISK Floppy disks, often called diskettes or disks are a portable or removable storage media. Floppy disk can also be called exchangeable disk. A floppy disk consists of disk enclosed within a protective jacket. The magnetic surface of the diskette, which is exposed through the window in the jacket, allows data to be stored. Modern floppy disk drives are double-sided drive since they have two read/write heads. To read and write to a disk properly, the heads must be in direct contact with this media very small particles of loose oxide, dust, smoke, fingerprints, or hair can cause problems with reading and writing the disk. The rigid jacket and protective shutter for the head access aperture on the 3 inches disks is excellent for preventing problems with media contamination. The normal speed of rotation of the spindle meter of a floppy disk drive is between 300 to 360 rpm .If one head of the disk drive uses the disk's top surface, while the other head uses the disk's button, so that the drive can use both sided of the disk simultaneously. This kind of
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drive is called a double-sided disk drive. The drive puts information onto the disk by first using track 0 of the main side (bottom),then track 0 of the flip side after which track 1 of the main side is used then track 1 of the flip side and so on. If the disk drive has just one read-write head only one side of the disk is usable. This kind of drive is called a single-sided disk drive. Data is stored as electromagnetic charges on a metal oxide film coating the Mylar plastic. Data and programs are represented by the presence or absence of these charges, using the ASCII or EBCDIC data representation codes. Diskettes are called floppy because the Mylar plastic inside the diskette covers is flexible, not rigid. They early floppy disks were 8 inch or 51/4 inch, and stored a relatively low volume of data. Nowadays, the most common size of diskette is the 1.44 MB 3 -inch disk. These disks are typically labeled 2HD, which means two-sided, high density. On a floppy disk, data is recorded on a disk in rings called tracks, which are closed concentric circles. Each track is divided into section known as sectors. Tracks and sectors are used to locate data stored on a floppy disk. The data on magnetic disks can be destroyed by external magnetic fields at room temperature. Some disks are manufactured without tracks and sectors in place. They must be adapted to the type of microcomputer and disk drive by a process called formatting or initializing. Both tracks and sectors of the disk are invisible. The longest retrieval time is governed by a single rotation of the disk such that the desired data is under neat the head. If a rotational speed of 360 revolutions per minute (rpm), which is typical, (6rev/sec) then 1/6 the second would be the worst time needed to find the data and the average time (called rotational latency) is half of 1/6th sec. The actual time would be a combination of the rotational latency, the seek time (moving the head to the data), the settling time (the head getting its act together) and the read/write time (the time taken for the data transfer to take place). Several other floppy disks known as floppy disk cartridges exist. The best known are Zip disk, SuperDisks, and HiFD disks. Zip disk have a 100 MB or 250 MB capacity, and are standard feature on many of todays system units. SuperDisk has a 120MB capacity. They are able to read and store data on todays 1.44 MB standard disk. This is one major advantage of SuperDisk over Zip disks. Superdisks are popular for use with notebook computers. HiFD disks have a capacity of 200 MB and like SuperDisk drives, they are able to use todays 1.44 MB standard disk.

5.3 HARD DISK While floppy disks use thin flexible plastic disks, hard disks use thicker, ridged metallic platters. A hard disk consists of oxide-coated metal platters in which data can be recorded magnetically, together with their read/write heads the positioning mechanism, and the spindle motor that are sealed inside a housing to ensure contaminants free operation. Most hard drives have at least two or three platters, and some have up to 11 or more platters. Data can be stored on each side of the platter therefore; a hard drive has one head per platter side. The platters are usually constructed of aluminium or glass and can't be bent or flex hence the term fixed disk drives. Another reason they are called fixed disk is because they are fixed inside the computer although they can be removed. Removable-platter hard disk drives are unpopular because of their non-standard nature, higher cost, and reliability problems. The read-write heads
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of multi-platter disk move in and out at the same time hence the read-write heads will be of the same track number in each surface of the multi-platter of the hard disk. This positioning of the read-write heads forms a cylinder. The inner tracks of a multi-platter disk form the inner cylinder likewise the outer tracks form the outer cylinder. Therefore if disk pack has six platters, each cylinder will consists of 10 tracks, because there are ten heads. Therefore, another method used to locate data stored on the computer is cylinder. The protective environment allows the head to fly to 10 to 25 millionths of an inch above the surface of a platter rotating at 3600 to 7200 rpm; therefore, much more data can be stored and accessed much more quickly than on a floppy disk. They are expensive, faster and more reliable and have greater storage capacity than the floppy disk. When the hard disk fails, the consequences usually are very serious. Since the read-write head rides on a cushion of air about 0.000001 inch thick and when they come into contact with obstacles such as smoke particle; fingerprint, dust, or human hair., they could cause what is known as a head crash Head crash is a hard disk failure in which a read/write head comes into contact with the surface of the platters, damaging the magnetic coating in which data is recorded. More damage occurs when the head picks up materials on the surface. A head crash can also be caused by mechanical failure or heavy shaking of the disk drive. If the crash occurs on a directory track, the whole disk may become unreadable instantly. Head crash means some or all of the data on the disk is destroyed. The track length on the outside of the disk is considerably longer than those on the inside, but there are the same numbers of sectors in a track. Therefore the packing density of data varied making the inner tracks to be packed much more densely than the outer tracks. This is wasteful of space on the outer edges, but it makes the system considerably simpler to operate because each sector regardless of its position on the disk is always under the head for the same length of time. This makes the data transfer rate to be constant regardless of the sectors position. As the disk rotates with constant speed, the data transfer rates at the outer edges would be much greater if this variable-packing density system were not to be used. On CD ROMs, the data packing density is the same and the rotational speed of the CD is varied. The concentric track arrangement used on hard disk and floppy disk enables any data that is stored on the disk to be directly accessed by knowing the address of the track (track number) and the address of the sector (sector number). If the arrangement has multiple surfaces, then a cylinder number, surface number and sector number arrangement is used instead as track number alone would not be enough to uniquely identify any specific data on a multi-platter system. There are three styles of hard disks: internal hard disk, hard disk cartridge, and hard disk pack. Internal Hard disk: This is also known as a fixed disk because it is located inside the system unit. It consists of one or more metallic platters sealed inside a container. The container includes the motor for rotating the disks. It also contains an access arm and read-write heads for writing data to and reading data from the disks. Internal hard disks have some advantages over floppy disks such data longevity, capacity and speed. Hard disk cartridge: They are easy to remove just like cassette from a VCR. The amount of storage available to a computer system is limited only by the number of cartridges. They are particularly useful to protect or secure sensitive information. Other uses include backing up the contents of the internal hard disk and providing additional hard disk capacity. Some well-known hard disk cartridges are Jazz from Iomega and SparQ from SyQuest.
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Hard disk packs: They are removable storage devices used to store massive amounts of information. Their capacity far exceeds the other types of hard disks. Hard disk packs consist of several platters aligned one above the other. There is space between the disks to allow the access arms to move in and out. Each access arm has two read-write heads with one head reading the disk surface above it while the other reads the disk surface below it. A disk pack with 11 disks provides 20 recording disk surfaces. This is because the top and bottom outside surfaces of the disk pack are not used. Hard disk packs are primarily used with minicomputers and mainframes. All the access arms move in and out together. However, only one of the read-write heads is activated at a given moment. Access time is the time between the computers request for data from secondary storage and the completion of the data transfer.

5.4 Forms of Hard Disk Drive Types The original personal computer design did not include hard disk drives. Hard disk drives were reserved for large mainframe computers and remained highly proprietary in design. Today, there are four types of hard drives, each with its own method of installation. ST506: The very first hard disk drives for personal computers used the ST-506/412 interface. It was developed by Seagate Technologies in 1980 and originally appeared with the 5-MB ST-506 drive. The ST-506 was priced at $3,000 and had a capacity of 5 MB. The ST-506/412 was the only hard drive available for the IBM computer and was the first to be supported by the ROM BIOS chip on the motherboard. The ST506 standard has now been replaced by IDE and SCSI. ESDI: The ESDI (Enhanced Small Device Interface) was introduced in 1983 by the Maxtor Corporation. This technology moved many of the controller functions directly onto the hard disk drive itself. This greatly improved data transfer speeds. Some ESDI controllers even offered enhanced command sets, which supported auto-sensing of the drive's geometry by the motherboard's ROM BIOS. The installation of ESDI drives was almost identical to the installation of ST-506 drives. The high cost of ESDI drives and advances in other drive technologies spelled their doom. Today they are obsolete. IDE/EIDE: The IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drive arrived on the scene in the early 1990s and incorporated the benefits of both its predecessors. IDE quickly became the standard for computers. It supports the ST-506 standard command set, and its limited controller functions build directly on the drive's logic board. This results in a much less expensive design. Most new motherboards have the IDE connections built in; thus, the chips are part of the board design. Western Digital and Compaq developed the 40-pin IDE ISA pinout specification. ANSI (the American National Standards Institute) standards committees accepted the standard as the Common Access Method (CAM) AT. The official name for these drives is now ATA/CAM (AT Attachment/Common Access Method). The terms IDE and ATA/CAM are interchangeable. Enhanced IDE (EIDE) adds a number of improvements to the standard IDE drives, including: 1. Increased data throughput. 2. Support of storage devices other than hard disk drives.
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3. Up to four IDE devices instead of just two. This actually allows the BIOS to support two controllers (each with two drives). 4. Support for hard disk drives larger than 528 MB. EIDE is the standard for most hard disks in today's personal computers. SCSI: The Small Computer System Interface or SCSI (pronounced scuzzy) has been around since the mid-1970s in one or more forms. It is the most robust of the hard disk drive interfaces, and is popular on network servers and high-performance workstations. Apple adopted SCSI as its expansion bus standard. The original SCSI standard allowed up to seven peripheral devices to be daisy-chained (connected in a series) to one common bus through a single host adapter connected to the computer bus. SCSI-2 upped that to 15, and some adapters allow multiple chains for even more devices. The SCSI bus functions as a communications pathway between the computer system bus and the SCSI device controller. That improves performance, because the card takes over the low-level commands and frees the system bus during operations that do not involve RAM. A SCSI adapter uses its own BIOS and firmware to talk to its devices, then uses a software interface layer and drivers to communicate with the operating system. There are two software interface layers: ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programming Interface) and CAM (Common Access Method). CAM is now obsolete, and ASPI comes with Windows and other operating systems. In most cases, you won't have to worry about loading the drivers unless you are updating them or installing a new card that does not have native drivers available to the operating system. SCSI usually costs more than other hard disk drive interfaces, but is the only one that allows both internal and external connections on the same adapter. It also allows you to attach more types of devices than any other interface. A single chain can include hard drives, CD-ROM and other optical drives, scanners, and tape drives.

5.5 HARD DISK PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS The performance of the hard disk is crucial to the overall performance of the computer system. Some of the ways to improve the performance of hard disks are: Disk caching: This improves hard disk performance by anticipating data needs. It requires a combination of hardware and software. This is a portion of a computers RAM set aside for temporarily holding information read from disk. A disk cache is used to hold information that either has recently been requested from disk or has previously been written to disk. If the required information remains in a disk cache, access time is considerably faster than if the program must wait for the disk drive mechanism to fetch the information from disk. The overall system performance is often increased by as much as 30 percent. Redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAIDS): This is a data storage method in which data is distributed across a group of disk drives that function as single storage unit. All the information stored on each of the disks is duplicated on other disks in the array. This redundancy ensures that no information will be lost if one of the disks fails. RAID is generally used on network servers where data accessibility is critical and fault tolerance is required. Because RAID grouped disks that are treated as a singly large-capacity hard disk, they can outperform single disks of comparable capacities.
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File compression and file decompression: File compression is used to reduce the size of a set of data, such as a file or a communication message, so that it can be stored in less space or transmitted with less band width. File compression programs typically can shrink files to a quarter of their original size. Some well-known file compression programs are WinZip, PKWare, and WinRAR and so on. Disk De fragmentation: This is the process of rewriting parts of a file to contiguous sectors on a hard disk to increase the speed of access and retrieval. When files are updated, the computer tends to save these updates on the largest continuous space on the hard disk, which is often on a different sector than the other parts of the file. When files are thus fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk each time the file is accessed to find all of the files parts, which slows down response time.

5.6 OPTICAL DISKS Todays optical disks can hold over 4.7 GB of data, which is the equivalent of over 1 million typewritten pages. Therefore, Optical disks have a great impact on storage today. In optical disk technology, a LASER (Light Amplification by the stimulated Emission of Radiation) beam alters the surface of a plastic disk to represent data. Data representation on optical disk is done by the use of reflected light. The 1s and 0s are represented by flat areas called lands and bumpy areas called pits on the disk surface. Optical disks come in many different sizes including 3, 4, 5, 8, 12 and 14 inches. The most common size is 4-inches. Data is stored on these disks in different ways or different formats: such as CD and DVD. Compact Disk: Also known as CD. Typically, CD drives can store 650 MB of data on one side. A CD consists of a single track spirals from the outside to the inside. A CD has about 600 tracks per linear inch of disk surface. A laser beam is needed to defect the presence or absence of pits which have been burned into this surface at the writing stage. There are three basic types of CDs: CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW: CD-ROM: This stands for compact disc-read only memory. Read-only means it cannot be written on or erased by the user. Therefore the user has access only to the data copied into it by the creator of the content. CD-ROMs are used to distribute large databases, references and large software application packages. Microsoft Windows 95 for example was supplied on a single CDROM or on 38 floppies. Installing software on a hard disk from a CD-ROM is much faster and easier than doing that from floppies. The user simply starts it up, enters any required information, and comes back later; it's no longer necessary to feed disk after disk into the computer. When they were introduced, CDs held large databases such as encyclopedias. Today, they are used for every possible type of data, from national phone directories and software libraries to collections of clip art, music, and games. CD-R: This stands for CD-Recordable and is also known as WORM meaning write once, read many times. It is the type of CD-ROM that allows users with CD recorders (CD-R drives) to write data, only once, onto a specially manufactured disk that can then be read by a standard CDROM drive. Once the data is recorded; it cant be written over (changed).
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CD-RW: This stands for compact disk re-write and also known as erasable optical disks. This format allows users to erase data so that the disk can be used over and over again. Therefore, unlike the disk surface of CD-R that of CD-RW is not permanently altered when data is recorded. Because they can be changed, CD-RWs are often used to create and edit multimedia presentations. The most common type of erasable and rewritable optical disk is probably the magneto-optical (MO) disk, which uses aspects of both magnetic disk and optical disk technologies. Super Disk uses a magnetic/optical technology. Most MO disk holds about 250 MB. CD-RW drives can also accept CD-R disks and CD-ROMs. DVD: According to the various industries sponsoring it, DVD isnt an abbreviation for anything. (The letters used to stand for digital video disc and later, when its diverse possibilities became obvious, for digital versatile disk.) DVD and DVD drives are very similar to CDs except that more data can be packed into the same amount of space. The DVD drives can store 4.7-17 G B, allowing great data storage, studio quality video images, and the ater-like surround sound. The home-entertainment version is called DVD whiles the computer version is called DVD-ROM disk. The data on a DVD are compressed over 30 fold, and the pits that represent the data are smaller than on a CD. Again while CD can record data only one side in one layer, DVD disks can put data on both sides with each side having one or two layers. 5.7 LIFE-SPAN OF STORAGE MEDIA Some storage media last longer than others. Tape will deteriorate within 5-15 years, depending on how its stored. Hard disk cartridges such as Zip and Jazz can last for about 10 years. The life span of CD-ROM disk is almost unlimited.

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6. SOFTWARE A computer program is a series of logical and sequential steps of instructions that the computer follows to solve a given problem. A program therefore specifies what operations are to be performed and the sequence in which they are to be performed. When directing the operations to be performed, a program must be stored in the main memory unit of the computer. Computer programs are commonly referred to as computer software. Without software or a program, computer hardware cannot function, software therefore make the hardware intelligent. Software is created by software programmers, who code instructions using special programming languages, such as C++. With the appearance of the microcomputer in the late 1970s, computer hardware and software became accessible to more people because they became more affordable, easier to use, and flexible enough to handle very specific job-related tasks. Because of this accessibility, a large pool of applications software has been created to satisfy almost any users requirements. There are two major kinds of system software and application software. System software: These are programs that start up the computer and function as the principal coordinator of all hardware components and applications software programs. Without system software loaded into RAM of your computer, your hardware and applications software are useless. In other words, system software works behind the scenes and it under lines application software. Applications software: The user interacts with application software. Some people describe the application software as end-user software. Application software consists of computer programs designed to satisfy a users needs. The task or problem may require, for example, word processing, computations for payroll processing, reaction of animation and so no applications software communicates to system software all file management and resource request (use of peripherals). Components of System Software System software deals with the physical complexities of computer hardware by telling the computer how to interpret data and instructions; how to communicate with peripheral equipment like printers, keyboards, and disk drives; how to manage files; and how to use the hardware in general. Also, if allows the user to interact with the computer. System software consists of four kinds of programs: operating systems, utilities, device drivers and language translators. Operating Systems These are program that operate your microcomputer.
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The Operating system is the most

important system software component, consists of master programs, called the supervisor, that

manage the basic operations of the computer. The Operating system allows you to concentrate on your own tasks or applications rather than on the complexities of managing the computer. Interpreting the commands you give, the Operating system runs programs and allows you to interact with the programs while they are running. The same part of Operating system is automatically loaded into RAM soon after you turn on, or boot, the computer. The parts of the Operating system that always remain in memory while the computer is on are called resident. Less frequently used parts of the Operating system are copied from disk when needed and are called non-resident or transient. The Operating system includes BIOS, which manages the essential peripherals such as the keyboard, monitor, disk drives and ports. Every Operating system performs three functions: managing resources, providing a user interface, and running applications. Resources: These programs coordinate all the computers resource including keyboard, mouse, printer, monitor, storage devices, and memory. User interface: This enables user to interact with applications software and hardware. Almost all Operating system today provide a windows-like graphical user interface (GUI) in which icons are used to represent features. Applications: These programs load and run applications. Most Operating system have the ability to run more than one applications at a time. Thus is what is called multi-tasking. The most common Operating system for microcomputers is Windows, Mac Operating system and UNIX. UTILITES: These are generally used to supports, enhance, or expand existing programs in a computer system. All kinds of things can happen to the computer system such as internal hard disk crash, virus invasion, freezing up slow down of operations and so on. These events can make computing frustrating but with utilities you can weather the storm. Many operating systems have built-in utility programs whiles others such as Norton system works and McAfee Office are available separately. Examples of utility programs are: Backup: This enables users to make backup or duplicate copy of information on your hard disk. Backup help you to have access to your data in case the original ones are lost or damaged. Examples are Norton Backup, Microsoft Backup and Colorad scheduler
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Trouble shooting: These recognize and correct problems. Examples are Norton Disk Doctor and Norton Window Doctor. Anti-virus: These guard the computer system against viruses or other damaging programs that can invade your computer system. Some anti-virus programs destroy the virus on the spot whiles other notify you of possible viral behaviour. New viruses are constantly being developed. Therefore you need the type of anti-virus software that can detect unknown viruses and that also offers frequent free updates. Examples are Norton Antivirus, McAfees virus scan, Dr. Solomons Anti-virus. Toolkits, Webscan, Panda Anti-virus, KV3000 and PCcillin.

Data recovery: These are used to restore data that has been physically damaged or corrupted. Data can be damaged by viruses bad sector, hardware failure, and power fluctuations that occur while data is being written or recorded.

File compression: These reduce the size of files so they require less storage space and can be sent more efficiently over the internet or put on diskettes. Examples Win Zip and Win RAR. Uninstall: These allow you to safely and completely remove unneeded programs and related files from your hard disk Disk Defragmentation: These locate and eliminate unnecessary fragments, rearranges files and unused disk space to optimize operation. Example Windows Disk Defragmenter.

LANGUAGE TRANSLATORS These are software that translates program written by a programmer in a language such as C++ into machine language, which the computer can understand. All system software and applications software must be turned into machine language for execution by the computer. APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE Basically, there are four categories of applications software: 1. Productivity software consists of programs found in most offices on PCs and on larger computer systems. Most of the common applications software packages used today are productivity tools. Examples are word processing, spreadsheets, personal finance, presentation graphics, Database managers, Groupware, Desktop publishing accessories, Browser and so on. 2. Business and Specialty software, which is often called for a specific business or industry. Whatever your occupation, you will probably find it also has specialty software tool available to it. Examples are desktop publishing, project management, CAD/CAM, Drawing, painting, multimedia authoring and so on. 3. Entertainment software consists of action and adventure games that can be played at home, in an entertainment arcade.
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4. Education and reference software is used to educate. There are CD-ROMs with encyclopaedias, hone books, mailing lists, maps, and reproductions of famous art. General Features of Software There are some common features that can be found among all software. List below are some of the most important. Window: This is simply a rectangular area that contain a document, program, or message. Windows are used to display information and request input. More than one window can be opened and displayed on the monitor at one time. Menu:: This is a list of command options, or choices. A menu bar is a row of menu options displayed across the top or the bottom of the screen. A pull-down is a list of command options, or choices, that is pulled down out of the menu bar. Some menus pop up form the menu bar and so are called pop up menus Toolbars: These are typically found immediately below the menu bar. They contain buttons and menus that provide quick access to commonly used commands. The two common toolbar that are found on most applications software are formatting and standard toolbars. Toolbars can often be customized and moved around on the monitor. Help: For most application packages, one of the commands on the menu bar is Help. When selected, the help options appear, include the help screen may include table of content, a search feature to locate reference information about specific commands, and access to special learning features such as tutorials and step-by-step instructions. Buttons: These are used to represent popular features and functions. Most applications use toolbars to group related buttons. Clipboard: This is an area where copies of item marked for copy or cut are kept before they are pasted. With clipboard, you can copy an item from one document and then paste it into another document or application. WORD PROCESSING SOFTWARE Word processing software allows you to use computers to create text-based documents such as reports, letters, and memos. Word processors are one of the most flexible and widely used software tools. Word processing programs also offer a number of features for dressing up documents with variable margins, type size, and styles. The user can do all these manipulations on the monitor in wysiwyg fashion, before printing out hardcopy. WYSIWYG stands for. What you see is what you get,, meaning that the screen displays documents exactly as they will look when printed. The most widely used word processing programs for PCs are Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect and Lotus word program whiles for Mac we have Word and WordPerfect. Some of the features that can be found in word processing packages are: Word wrap: A word processor automatically moves the insertion point to the next line once the current line is full. As you type, the words wrap around to the next line. Spelling checker; grammar checker, thesaurus: Spelling can be checked by running a spelling checker program. In correctly spelled words are identified and alternative spellings suggested. A grammar checker will identify poor wording,
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excessively long sentences, and incorrectly grammar. Thesaurus gives synonym and sometimes antonym of a word. Spacing: This lets you can choose whether you want the lines to be single-spaced or double-spaced. Columns: This will enable to either create a text of one column, two columns (like many magazines) or several columns (like newspapers).

SPREADSHEET SOFTWARE Traditionally, spreadsheet was simply a grid of rows and columns, printed on a special green paper, which was used by accountants and others to produced financial projections and reports. Electronic spreadsheet programs organize, manipulate, and graph numeric information. A spreadsheet document is called a worksheet. Once used almost exclusively by accountants. Spreadsheets are now widely used by people in nearly every profession. Teachers record students grades, students record their grades and grade point averages. Marketing professionals evaluate sales trends. The three most widely used spreadsheet programs are Microsoft Excel. Corel Quattro Pro, and Lotus 1-2-3. Some of the features that can be found in word processing packages are: Columns and rows: Column headings appears across the top (A is the first column, B the second and so on). Row headings appears down the left side (1 is the first row, 2 the second and so on). Cell information: The place where a row and a column intersect is called a cell and its position is called a cell address. For example A1 is the cell address where column A and row 1 intersect. A cell pointer indicates where data is to be entered. The cell pointer can be moved around like the insertion point in a word processing program. Both the width of a column and the height of a row can be altered. Values: A number, date, or formula entered in a cell is called a value. The values are the actual numbers used in the worksheet. A value can be displayed to show decimal places, dollar or percent (%). The number of decimal positions (if any) can be altered. Label: These are headings or titles for columns. They are used to identify information in a worksheet. Labels and values can be displayed or formatted in different ways. For example a label can be centred in the cell or positioned to the left (default) or right. Formulas: These are instructions for calculations. For example, a formula might be +A1+B1+C1 (for lotus 1-2-3) or = A1+B1+C1 (for Excel), meaning to add the contents of cells A1, B1, and C1. It is always better to use cell addresses instead of the actual contents in formulas. This is because it will enable you: 1. To copy the formula to cells where it is applicable 2. To change the content of a cell or cells (when needed in a formula without necessary changing the operands in the formula. Function: These are built-in or formulas that perform common but at time complex calculations automatically. For example, the function @ SUM (B1:B11) adds all the values in the range of cells from B1 to b11. if you change one or more numbers in your spreadsheet, all related formulas will recalculate automatically. This is what is known as recalculation. With recalculation, the hours of mind-numbering work required to manually rework paper spreadsheets has become a thing of the past. The
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recalculation feature has opened up whole possibilities for decision making. You can create a plan, put in formulas and numbers, and then ask yourself, what would happen if we change that detail? and immediately see the effect on the bottom line. This is called what-if function or what-if analysis. For example: if youre to buy a property on hire purchase, you can make decision total price ($20,000 or $25,000), down payment ($2000 or $3000), interest rate (7% or 8%), or number of months to pay (36 or 48). You can keep changing the what if possibilities until you arrive at a monthly payment figure that youre comfortable with. Dynamic linking: This allows data in one spreadsheet (say SA) to be linked to others (say SB) so that whenever data in SB are changed, it is automatically updated in SA.

ANALYTICAL GRAPHICS SOFTWARE This is also called Business graphics. Values presented in the worksheet are sometimes difficult to comprehend. With analytical graphics, sales figures, economics trends, and the like are easier to comprehend and analyze. Presentation Graphics is research shows that people learn better when information presented visually. These are used to combine a variety of visual object to create attractive, visually interesting presentations. This uses graphics and data from other software tools to communicate or make a presentation to others, such as clients or supervisors sanitations may make use of some analytical graphics bar, line, and pie charts but most often include bulleted lists. Examples of well-known presentation software packages are Microsoft PowerPoint, Corel presentations, Lotus. Freelance Graphics, Aldus Persuasion, and SPC Harvard Graphics Presentation software packages are also used in multimedia training and lectures. Some of the features that can be found in word processing packages are: Layout files: Most of these programs provide presentation layout files that include sample text for many different types of presentations from selling a product to reporting on progress. Templates: Templates or model presentations are provided. These can help take the worry out of the design decisions. They include various bullet styles, background colours, patterns borders, title placement and other enhancement. Animations: These include special visual and sound effects. These effects include blinking text and transition between topics. You can insert audio and video clips that play automatically or when selected. DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS A database is a collection of related data. A DBMS or database manager is a program that sets up, or structures a database. It provides tools to enter, edit, and retrieve data from the database. There have been various types of DBMS such as Hierarchical, network, relational and objectoriented. Almost the DBMS, relational database is the most widely used database structure. Data is organized in related tables. Each table is made up of rows called records and columns called fields. Each record contains fields of information about some specific item. For example, in an address table, a record would contain fields of information such as a persons last name, first name, and box number and optionally street address. Three of the widely used database management systems are Access, Corel Paradox, and Lotus Approach. DBMS have the capability to quickly locate or find records in the database. Rearranging or sorting is also a
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common feature of DBMS. Built in maths formulas are used for data analysis. Most DBMS also include a programming language called structured Query Language (SQL). INTEGRATED SOFTWARE AND SOFTWARE SUITES These enable users to take data from one program and use it in another with ease. Integrated software packages combine the features of several applications programs such as word processing, spreadsheet, database, graphics, and communications into one software package. Usually integrated software packages are less powerful than the corresponding single purpose programs, such as word processing program or a spreadsheet. This may be fine to some users because single purpose programs may be more complicated than they need. System software such as Windows makes the advantages of sharing information in integrated program redundant, since the user can easily shift between application programs that are completely different, which was not so in DOS era. With the introduction of software suite, integrated programs are being replaced. Examples of such software packages are Lotus Works; Lotus 1-2-3, Apple Works, Microsoft Works, Perfect Works and Claris Work. Software suites or simply suites are applications such as spreadsheet, word processing. Graphics and communication that are bundled together and sold for a fraction of what the programs would cost if bought individually. The word Bundled means that components of a system are sold together for a single price. Unbundled means that a system has separate prices for each component. These packages require a lot of hard disk storage capacity. Examples of such software packages are Microsoft office, smart suite from Lotus, and Perfect office from Corel. GUIDELINES FOR PURCHASING APPLICATION SOFTWARE 1. Verify that the software performs the task desired by the user. In some cases, software which is supposed to perform particular functions either does not perform the functions or perform them in a manner unacceptable to the user. The best method to verify that the software performs satisfactorily os to execute the software prior to purchase. If the software does not produce the desired results or if the store or vendor will not allow the user to use the software, then it should not be purchased. 2. Verify that the software executes on the user's computer with the particular configuration owned or available to the user. The best way to verify this is to execute the software on a computer the same as the one available to the user. Such factors as the main memory requirements, the graphics capabilities and other factors as well must be evaluated when the software is purchased. 3. Ensure that the software document is adequate. Even the best software may be unusable if the documentation is not adequate to describe what the software does, how it does it, what the user must do to recover from error etc. It should also have a good on-line help facilities, which present-usage instructions right on the monitor. 4. Purchase the software from a reliable store, distributor or vendor so that when new version are designed you can easily buy the upgrade version. Thus will also enable other technical support to be given in the event that problem. 5. Consideration should be given to the degree of user-friendliness of the software. The commands should be straight forward, clear, simple and easy to remember; the display should be
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attractive, clear and its should operate quickly. 6. The software should be adaptable to a wide variety of user-related situations. 7. A consideration should be given to the cost of the package. Although this factor is often paramount in the mind of the user but the more numerous features that a software has, the more expensive it will be. Advantages of using an Application Software Package 1. It can quickly be installed hence can be used as soon as it is purchased. 2. They have a well-defined function because they have been examined and used by many people. 3. It is cheaper in comparison to customized, in-house software since they are mass-produced. 4. It is easily to be updated and revised. Vendors usually offer revised versions of the product to previous purchaser at a low cost. Files created by using older version are accessible by the up dated versions. 5. Because of the widespread usage of many application packages, the time and cost required for training of personnel are reduced greatly. Disadvantages 1. The purchaser does not have direct control over the package in the same way as would be the case if the software was produced in-house. 2. The package will have been produced to meet general needs and may therefore not be ideal for a particular customer.

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Programming Languages A programming language is program development tool that enalbes software to be developed or created. Categories of Programming Languages Machine Languages They may also be called low level languages. They are instructions written and coded in binary digits and in octal or hexadecimal notation. These instruction were operated on directly by the computer. It was the only type of language available during the early days of computing. However programming in machine language was difficult, burdensome and error-prone task. Assembler Languages Because of the problem associated with the machine language programming, symbolic programming commonly called assembler languages were developed. These languages use symbolic notations to represent machine language instructions. Symbolic programming languages are also calles low level languages because they are closely related to machine language and the internal architecture of the computer on which they are used. High level Languages They are the programming languages in which the program statements are not closely related to the internal characteristics, of the computer. Example of high level languages are FORTRAN, COBOL , PL/I, RPG, BASIC,Pascal, Ade, C ,C++,Visual Basic, Visual C , Logo and so on. . The advantages of high level languages are that 1. They are easier to learn, write, correct and revise than assembly or machine languages 2. High level language are machine-independent. Compilers and Interpreters Because programs that written in high level languages are not in the form understood by the computer, they need to be translated into machine readable form. This is achieved by compilers and interpreters. A compiler translates an entire high level language program. An interpreter however translates a high level language on a line-by-line basis. 4 INFORMATION PROCESSING Before discussing information processing,you need to understand the difference between the terns data and information. These terms are often used interchangeably even though they refer to very different things. 4.1 Data Data can include any facts, figures, letters, words or symbols that represent an idea, an object, a condition or situation. Data are raw or unorganised facts suitable for processing by a computer. Data are not useful or meaningful until they are combined with other data items or when a relationship to other data items is established .Data can be either numeric or non numerc ( text or word) . Drawings, addresses of friends and test scores,signals sent from or received by other
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items of technology are all examples of data in different applications. Data normally derieved their meaning in the context of an application .For example, in a monthly sales application, the value 31-06 ,is a data and identifies a day and month .Likewise in a payroll application data 123-4567890 could be a social security number.Data therefore is the raw facts from which information can be extracted. 4.2 Information Processing It is the manipulation of data into a more useful form. It could also be referred to as the recording and handling of data into a more useful and refined form to give information.Again, it can be defined as the totality of pperations performed by computer and involves evaluating, analyzing and processing of data to produce usable information. the operational steps required to converts data to information are known as the Information processing cycle. This cycle is divided into four steps. These are : 1. Gathering the data 2. Processing 3. Producing documents or reports 4. Using the Information Information Processing helps in decision making thereby helping in the development and advancement of mankind. 4.3 Information Information is the processed data. Information therefore is the result of processing data into a form that can be useful to the computer user. It is usually organized and understandable. 4.4 Data Versus Information Data is the raw material from which a fact can be extracted. The significant characteristic that separate data from information is its usefulness. Data then in itself has little or no value unless some fact of information can be extracted. No compilation of data regardless of how vast it is can be called information unless it has been organized in a meaningful way and is useful to someone. Information specifically consist of selected data organized to meet the requirement of the user. Data therefore becomes information where it achieves relevance. It is worth mentioning that information for someone may be data to another as it may need further refinement before it become meaningful. DATA ACCESS MATHODS Data access method or file organization refers to the way information is either read from or written to a storage device. There are various data access methods and the method used affects the speed of accessing the information and the type of application used. Sequential storage: This method is the simplest, most natural way to access data. And it involves the storage of data sequence manner, one after the other. Sequential storage is useful when information must be accessed in sequential order or the stored data can be used in one order. A familiar example of such a storage medium is the common audio or video tape. A collection of songs recorded on tape is heard in the same order every time the tape is played. To play the first, third, and the second recording, in that order, it is
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necessary to play the first, then fast forward past the second, play the third, then rewind the tape to the beginning of the second son and play it. There is no way to go from the first to the third piece without passing the second through the playing mechanism. Magnetic tape storage falls into this category. Direct access storage: This is also called random access storage and has the ability to access directly to the information needed even though data can be stored sequentially. This storage is useful when information must be accessed in any how, which is not following any particular pattern. Direct Access is however slows down when information must be accessed sequentially. With this method, it is not necessary to put successive records in contiguous storage locations; nor is it not necessary to read or fast-forward over many unwanted records when retrieving others. This method of data access is useful for Magnetic disk and Optical disk. On a disk drive, for instance, the read/write head is moved directly to the track on which the record is stored without pausing at other tracks. However, once the head is in place, there is a wait, during which the disk rotates until the desired record is under the head. Other records pass under the head during this waiting period. Indexed-sequential Access method (ISAM): stores data in sorted order. However, the file in which the data is stored contains an index that lists the data by key fields and identifies the physical locations on the disk. This method results in quick data access, either sequentially or randomly. Therefore ISAM is useful for magnetic or optical disk. The principal difference between random

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COMPUTER VIRUS One of the major threats to the computer industry today is computer virus. Definition Below are some of the definitions of a computer virus: 1. It is a non-biological, illicit program created by an individual to perform a specific task. 2. It is a computer program which has the ability to make copies of it. 3. It is a diabolic computer program developed usually with the intention of causing a host of problems on a computer for the user. 4. It is a program just like any others software but are designed to operate secretary, behind the scenes, so that their missions acn be accomplished. 5. It is a program that modifies other programs and possibly altered copy of it. Viruses load and ran without users requesting them to run; they hide inside normal programs (called host programs) and run when the host s are run. Viruses can be transferred from PC to PC via floppy disk or communication lines at networks.With the aid of these communications channels or carriers, viruses can spread between PCs from Desk to Desk or from Office to Office. Myths about virus many users mistakenly believe that computer virus contain some sort of electronic life form or employ artificial intelligence. Others believed viruses are capable of spreading from computer to computer without requiring physical contact between distributed systems. Again, others think that viruses can operate when the computer is turned off. There are several disorders that can affect the computer just as there are a number of illness but it is easier to protecct the computer from a virus than that it is to protect yourself from one. The effect that they have on the PC which they inhabit can vary accordingly. While there is no such thing as "nice" virus, many are quite harmless and are little more that irritating. Some viruses don't do anything but reproduce. To be an effective reproducer, a virus needs to stay undetected long enough to copy itself many times. This program is called a virus because it: 1. attaches itself to other programs. 2. reproduces itself. 3. difficult to detect since they are to be hidden. 4. sometimes can cause damage to the computer. A virus can be transferred from PC to PC via floppy disk or communication lines at networks.With the aid of these communications channels or carriers, viruses can spread between PCs from Desk to Desk or from Office to Office. Where Do They Come From? People create viruses for a number of reasons ... from idle curiosity (what is the power of virus?) to deliberate criminal intent (How can virus be terminated?) The effect that they have on the PC which they inhabit can vary accordingly. While there is no such thing as "nice" virus, many are quite harmless and are little more that irritating. Some viruses have no "payload" at all. That is they don't do anything but reproduce.
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The challenge for virus creators is finding subtle ways to disguise or hide their programs so that they can spread undetected playing tricks with the screen, deleting files or playing a tune calls attention to the virus and can lead to its destruction. To be an effective reproducer, a virus needs to stay undetected ling enough to copy itself many times. If a virus does not contain a payload or trick, it will have some kind of timer or delay period to give it time to spread before it reveals itself. The Anatomy Of A Virus At a technical level, a virus consists of four components: 1. The replication mechanism. This is the part of virus program which allows it to copy it self. Without this component, a program cannot replicate itself and so is not a virus. 2. The proetection mechanism. The protection mechanism is the part of the virus which conceals it from detection.This may involve encrypting the virus to hide from virus-detection software which scans for a particular pattern or sequence. Some encryption methods have been very sophisticated and can make each replication of a virus look different and more difficult to recognize.Some viruses use "stealth" techniques to interfere with the system so that when a disk is read, the information that would reveal the virus is modified to hide its presence. 3. The trigger. Viruses can use a number of different mechanisms to provide the delayed trigger which allows them to replicate before making their presence known. One common practice is to use the PC's clock to trigger the virus' operation. Examples of these are Jerusalem, which triggers on Friday 13th and Michelangelo, which triggers on March 6th (Michelangelo's birthday). Other methods include waiting until a particular program has been run more than a certain numbers of times or waiting for a specific sequence of commands. 4. The payload. This term is given to the part of the virus that is executed when the trigger is activated. This could be just a message to tell you that PC has been infected or it may be a lot more sinister like the deletion of files or corruption of your entire hard disk. The most damaging types of virus make lots of small changes to your data, over a period of time. If this action goes undetected, even your backup copies will be useless as they will contain errors caused by the virus. How Do Viruses Work A virus is a program which contains a series of instructions that can be executed by your PC's processor (CPU). It may be a normal program file ... or it may be instructions stored in the bootup sequence that exists on all diskettes and your PC's hard disk. When a set of instructions is executed, they are first copied to the PC's memory (RAM) so that it can be accessed directly by the processor. The information in the memory (as opposed to on the disk) of your PC is automatically erased whenever the power is switched off or the PC is reset. Boot Sector Viruses
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When a PC starts up, the processor has to obtain instructions about how to operate, including how to load up the operating system or DOS. These are automatically found on a hidden part of the hard or floppy disk called the boot sector. Th to spread are the same as if it has been hiding in the boot sector of a hard disk. Some boot sector viruses will immediately copy themselves to the hard disk so that they will executed everytime you start the PC. The floppy disk need not be a bootable diskette for it so be a virus carrier. Summary Viruses basically exist in three forms: As a files on a hard or floppy disk. In memory while the PC is switched on and working. Polymorphic Viruses So-called polymorphic viruses have the ability to change their characteristic pattern or shape by encryptions, so that each new copy looks different. However, these changes follow a set sequence and, by examining how the encryption is done, it is possible for scanning software to recognize thousands of different manifestations of the same virus. What Do Viruses Do? What a virus does when it is finally activated is up to its creator. In many cases the result is quite harmless such as a cryptic message on the screen or the PC playing a time. However, the message could be accompanied by some other action other action such as the deletion of files or corruption of your hard disk. More sinister viruses will cause damage without letting you know what is happening, so that the cumulative effects, once revealed, can be devastating, even if you have been making regular backups of your files. The severity of virus actions is classified into 6 levels from trivial through to unlimited. Trivial A trivial virus does nothing except replicate. It might not even let you know that it exists, and does not harm or damage the information on your disks. Once it has been located, using good anti-virus software, it is a relatively simple task to remove it. If you have to check and fix a number of floppy disks, this may take a little longer. Minor Minor damage is considered to be alternations to or deletion of one or more executable program files which the virus has infected. As these files were originally installed from the disk supplied by the software manufacturer (spreadsheets, graphic softwares etc), it is a relatively simple task to re-install them once the virus has been removed. Because these files do not normally change, it should also be possible to restore them from a recent backup disk. Moderate
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Moderate damage consists of wholesale destruction of all the files on your hard disk, usually by formatting it or overwriting part of it with garbage. Although many people would consider this to be a serious problem, the deletion of all the files on your hard disk should not be particularly damaging, provided you take regular backup copies of all your files. Regular backups should be taken regardless of the threat of viruses as files can be lost for the reasons as well. Major Major damage is inflicted by a virus which slowly corrupts your data over a period of time. For example by copying a particular message or pattern of bytes into your files at random. Although this corruption could find its way into your backup files, the instances where this has occurred will at least be visible, making it possible to locate the corrupt information and hopefully repair it. Severe Rather more sinister are those viruses which make subtle changes to your data without leaving any clues as to what has been changed. For example, a virus may randomly exchange small blocks of information in similar files. If left undetected for more than a few days, this type of damage could be impossible to repair, as often the original source information no longer exists by the time the problem is identified. Because the damage goes unnoticed for sometime, damaged files are backed up, so backups cannot be trusted either. Often it is not even possible to tell how long the damage has been going on or which files are damaged and which are not. Unlimited There is a particular type of virus which resides on networks and spends its time trying to find out the password to the most powerful users on the system such as the network supervisor. When it gets this information, it gives it to one more other users, in the hope that they may be tempted to use it for the wrong purposes. Once the authorized person has lost the use of the system password and account to another user, they have effectively lost control of the entire network. In the wrong hands, such power, with access to personnel and payroll records, would be potentially devastating to a company which relies on the use of PCs for its everyday operation. Virus Detection With the potential cost of a hostile virus attack being so high. There is a constant battle to keep one step ahead of the virus creators. One of the leading companies in this battle is S & S international. Founded by virus researcher Dr. Alan Solomon. Their ongoing research program has developed high sophisticated detection techniques based on experience with thousands of viruses collected from all over the world. The Anti-Virus Toolkit The Anti-Virus Toolkit combines this expertise in a cost-effective package which is simple to use and yet provides effective protection against know viruses. The Toolkit consists of four main modules for the detection and prevention of viruses. These are described in the following
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section ... FINDVIRUS The FINDVIRUS program is a scanner. It is a programmed to look for the patterns of bytes which specific viruses create when they infect a disk or file. It's database contains information about thousands of viruses and is updated on a regular basis to keep abreast of new viruses as they are discovered. If a match is found, FINDVIRUS will identify the virus and you can then use the virus encyclopedia to find out the procedure for removing it from the system. FINDVIRUS contains specially optimized high speed searching routine to enable it to look for thousand of different virus patterns across the entire hard disk in a matter of seconds. VIVERIFY VIVERIFY is a "fingerprinting" program. It detects any changes in the composition of program files and boot or partition sectors on hard and floppy disks. Generally speaking, program files remain exactly the same from the day they are installed. Any change to their contents should be regarded as suspicious, as it could signal a virus infection. The first thing that VIVERIFY does is to look at each program file and calculate a checksum which is specific to that particular file and its contents. Everytime VIVERIFY is run from then on, the checksum will be calculated again and the result compared with that obtained the first time round. If there is any difference between the two results, the program file has been altered and the user is altered as to the possibility of a virus. The suspect program can then be scanned to check it for known viruses and then appropriate action taken. VIRUSGUARD VIRUSGUARD is a memory-resident scanner. It intercepts system calls to enable it to check every program for known viruses before allowing it to be run or copied. This works in a similar way to FINDVIRUS, except that it checks files only as you use them. Being automatic and very fast, it does not affect the way you run your programs. CERTIFY CERTIFY is a memory resident checksum program. Like VIRUSGUARD if intercepts system calls to enable it to check every program for changes before allowing it to be run or copied. Memory Check All the Toolkit program incorporate Anti-Stealth-Methodology to combat sophisticated virus concealment techniques. Before installing or running, all Toolkit program scan the computer's memory for resident viruses which may be trying to deceive the system about what is on the disks. Integrity Check
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Toolkit programs also perform an integrity self-check to make sure that they have not themselves been infected. The Toolkit menu provides direct access to the complete set of tools via easily understood icons. To run FINDVIRUS, simply select the option from the scan menu. The basic menu allows you to select which drives are to be scanned. The advanced menu allows you to control exactly which parts of the disk are to be scanned for viruses. The FIND icon starts the scanning operation. FINDVIRUS keeps you informed of its progress as each directory is scanned. When the scan is complete, a detailed report explains the results and a summary provides the most important information at a glance. The fingerprint checker is run in a similar way. It provides a set of options to calculate and verify fingerprints for all program files or specific files of your choice. The third detection option scans your PC's memory for known virus patterns. Certify, the memory resident fingerprinting program can also be set up from the Toolkit menu. [For fully automatic operation, the memory - resident check sum program needs to be loaded in your AUTOEXEC. BAT file]. The various options are simple to configure using conventional windows selection methods. If a virus is detected, the Toolkit will identify it and in most cases, can repair the infected files. The repair menu lets you select the drive to work on before you proceed with the repair. There are also facilities for repairing and checking floppy disks. These allow you so repair boot sectors as well as conventional files. The Toolkit also includes a viewer for analyzing the content of any disk or diskette. This can be useful in assessing the damage done by a virus attack. Important information about every known virus such as its characteristics, size and payload is included in the on-line virus Encyclopedia. All this information is immediately available via a simple indexing system. The Toolkit also allows you to schedule regular virus checks to run automatically for additional safety. The scheduled times are clearly displayed for reference. A full set of facilities is provided for network users as well, with full centralized control and monitoring by the supervisor, if required.

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NETWORK Network is a collection of objects hence computer network is a interconnection of computers. It is a distributed system in which autonomous computers are interconnected. Computers connected to the network can communicate with each other. CLASSIFICATION OF NETWORK Communication network can be classified into 2 major categories according to the physical seperation of the communicational devices. Local Area Network (LAN). Such networks are concerned with the interconnection of items of computing equipment which are distributed over a localized area such as a university campus or a process plant. The network is usually covers a limited geographic area and is privately owned and administered. Wide Area Network (WAN). Such networks are concerned with the interconnection of items of computing equipment which are distributed over a wide geographic area. Here parts of the network could be found in different cities, towns or even continents. Motivation for Network 1. Resource sharing: If computers at a number of different sites are connected to each other then a user at one side may be able to use resources available at another. For example accessing files databases (file sharing), using programs on a different computer (program sharing) and also using printers remotely (device sharing). Hence the resources could be information, people, hardware and software. This is the primary motivation for computer networks. 2. High reliability: Duplicating files on different machines implies that if a hardware failure occurs in one of them, other copies can be used. 3. Cost effectiveness: In an environment where only microcomputers are used in a network their price per performance ratio is better than of mainframe. 4. System performance: System performance can be increased gradually and easily by network expansion (more computing equipment can be added to the system). 5. It provides a powerful communication medium for example if two or more people want to edit a report together but live for apart, by using a network when one makes a change to the document which is kept on-line the others can see the change immediately.

Some Applications of Computer Network 1. As a communication medium

a. Electronic mail: Users at terminals can compose and exchange messages. The messages consist of sending and receiving address. Users have a mailbox directory where in-coming mail is stored as a file. b. Electronic funds transfer: This allows money to be transferred between accounts. For example in a shop, point of scale (POS) system initial transfer from the customers account to the store account at the time sales is made. c. Computer conferencing: A computer conference allows each participant to see what others type or draw at their screen. Complex mechanism may be evoking to determine whose turn is it to speak. Some of the problems associated with Network Information Representation: Different computers represent integers in different ways. A community agreed integer representation or a versions are required if meaningful information is to be exchanged. Flow control: The rate of transferring data from the source should be the same as the rate of collecting at the destination else one will overwhelmed the other. Security and privacy: To ensure that only the intended receiver actually receives the data. Routing: The method of determining the specific route through the network. Direction of Data Transmission 1. Simplex channel allows data transmission in one direction only. 2. Half-duplex channel allows data transmission in both-direction but only happens in one direction at a time. 3. Full-duplex (Duplex) channel allows data transmission in both directions at the same time. Transmission capacity: This deals with the slowness or fastness of data transfer in a transmitting medium. It is measure in bits per second (bps). Transmission Media The transmission medium is the path between the transmitter and the receiver in a data transmission system. The type of transmission medium used determines the maximum rate at which data can be transmitted. 1. Twisted pair 2. Coaxial cable 3. Optical fiber and 4. Radio waves (microwaves) through free space e.g. Satellite. Network Topology/Configuration Network topology is the term used to describe the physical organisation of the network. In the context of networking, it means the way in which end points or computers in a network are interconnected. It is defined by the layout of the communication links and the switching element, and it determines the data paths that may be used between any pair of computers. If there is the need to communicate between two computers, we setup a direct link between
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them. Now if we have no computers then in order to link them so that each can communicate with its other directly, we need to have n(n -2)/2 links and each computer will have (n - 1) input/output parts. This cannot be achieved of n is very big. Also we can see the cost of cabling and hardware will grow with the square of n. This problem was solved with the introduction of a network with switching modes and the computers connected to these nodes. Nodes are specialized computer devices used to connect two or more transmission lines and their purpose is simply to remove data from source to destination. The topologies that was developed require one or no intermediate nodes and these are Star, Bus and Ring. Star Topology :Here several computers are connected to a centralise system which controls communications to and from the outlying computers. This centralized system could be a computer (often called host computer) or an intelligent device (often called hub). This topology is used when the host computer contains all of the data required to process the input from the outlying computers. While a star network can be relatively efficient and close control can be kept on the data processed on the network, its major disadvantage is that the entire network dependent upon the host computer and the associated hardware and software. If any of these elements fail, the entire network is disabled. When the host computer is fully engaged, the speed of the network reduces. Ring Topology :It consists of several computers that are connected directly to another. This type of topology is usually more reliable than a star network. Because there is no centralize computer, the failure of one computer does not disable the entire network. Messages are sent from one device to another arodund the ring. As the message moves around the ring, each computer electrically detects whether the message is for it. If it is, the computer processes the message else it is transmitted to the next computer. A disadvantage of the ring topology is that the failure of a single computer within the ring can render the entire network inoperable. Bus Topology :Here all computers in the network are connected to and share a single cable. Information is transmitted in either direction from one computer to another. Any message can be directed to a specific computer. An advantage of the bus topology is that devices can be attached or unattached from the network at any point without disturbing the rest of the network. If a computer in the network fails, it does not affect the other users.

The INTERNET The internet is basically a communication system for exchanging and distributing information through all computers scattered all over the world using the telephone system. Internet can also be describe as a huge information rich global network of networks that allow different computers located in any part of the globe to communicate directly. Again, the internet is a global network of networks using a set of rules defined by the IP/TCP suite. The use of IP allows seamless integration of these networks to the global Internet. The Transmission Control Protocol part handles the job of breaking information down into packets and reassembling it. The Internet Protocol part is the addressing system used to indicate where
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information is being sent. There are well over 5,000 networks that comprise the Internet, and the networks connect over three million computers and over 20 million users all over the world. The Internet is so popular because the technology has revolutionized the way we communicate and obtain information -never before ahave so many resources been available to so many people. Basic Internet facilities Internet not only provides world-wide connectivity but also tools and services to explore the network. It provides the following which can be categorised as the basic services on the Internet. They include: -e-mail - WWW - Telnet - News (USENET)

E-mail (Electronic mail) E-mail is the electronic equivalent of postal mail or "snail-mail", and is probably the most widely used facility on the Internet. It is much faster than conventional postal services: messages can reach transatlantic destinations in seconds. The mail is transferred between machines on the Internet, which acts as post boxes that store the mail, so that there is no need to leave your own computer switched on. Although e-mail programs vary, most allow you to save, print or reply to a message, and some allow you to attach word-processing documents, programs, videos or graphics. When you join a host system tying you to the Net (another word for the Internet), you are automatically given an e-mail address - that is, a computer code that tells everyone where to reach you. E-mail allows you to type a letter on your computer keyboard and send it along over the Net a the flick of a keystroke or the click of a mouse. Benefit: E-mail is faster more convenient and cheaper than surface or snail mail. E-mail can include far more than written word for can access, send and receive all sorts of data-including pictures and computer games and programs. An e-mail address has three basic components: the user name, an @ sign and the user's location or domain (according to a hierarchial structure). The following address suffixes can be found in e-mail addresses. - ac. - com. - edu. - gov. - mil - net - org academic institution (UK) commercial organisation. This is used by business all types educational facility (USA) government used by all government agencies, federal, state, local. military. used by U.S. Military, eg, army, navy, marine, air force. network resource other organizations. Used by organization which don't fit into above categories.
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LIST SERVERS A list server/mail server is a discussion group created to share ideas and knowledge on a subject. LISTSERV is the most common list server program. A message sent to a list is copied and then forwarded by e-mail to every person who subscribes to the list, thereby providing an excellent resource for distributing information to a group with a shared interest. Any subscriber can contribute actively to the list by posting messages, or can simply read the ones that others post when they arrive by e-mail. You join the list simply by sending an appropriately worded e-mail request to the list. The program automatically reads your e-mail message, extracts your address and adds you to the circulation list. NEWSGROUPS Newsgroups servers (for example USENET) provide access to thousands of topic-based discussion group to services that are opens to everyone. You will read the news using a program such as Trumpet New for Windows, New Watcher for Mac or UN for UNIX. Newsgroups are arranged in a hierarchial tree, beginning with broad categories, with the topic becoming more specific as you move along the branches. Newsreader software allows you to post an article to any group for others to read; the title is what others will see listed in their newreaders, so make it informative. You can also add a comment to messages that have already been posted. The main hierarchies of the USENET alt various topics: not carried by all sites.Here you will find discussion groups de voted to erotic topics, fringe religions, bizarre social groups etc. bionet research biology biz business comp The newgroup is devoted to computers and information science. You will find newgroups which cover the technical and non-technical aspects of every conceivable computer hardware and software product. misc This is miscellaneous newgroup that don't particularly fit into other major Usenet newsgroup tegories. Many employment and work-related groups are in this category. news This includes those newgroups which deal with all issues concerning the Usenet and its administration it does not include newgroups dealing with the type of news encountere on a radio or TV news program. rec This includes newsgroups about recreation and the arts. ments are covered here:sports, musemens, dancing, music etc. sci soc All manner of amuse

This includes newsgroups devoted to most of the sciences except computer science. This includes newsgroups about social issues and groups and cultural topics.

talk This includes newsgroups where debate or argumentative discussion takes place. Politics and related topic are dealth with here.
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The quality of information in newsgroups is very variable, they can be an invaluable way of trying to find an answer to a specific question. With Usenet, you can rub shoulders with experts in every conceivable field and get loads of free advice.

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