BALOGUN JEREMIAH ADEMOLA

ASSISTANT LECTURER,
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS
MOUNTAIN TOP UNIVERSITY, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA
▪ Definition of Computer
▪ History and Overview of Computing and Computers
▪ Evolution of Ideas and Machines from Mechanical Computer to Multimedia Computer
▪ Introduction to computing system
▪ Basic elements of a computer system hardware
▪ Block diagram, data/instruction flow, control flow

▪ Software types, packages and applications

▪ Characteristics of computer
▪ Problem solving using flowcharts and algorithms
▪ Data representation in computer system
▪ Communications and networks
▪ World wide web, network access, network architectures, data communications. Safety and security

▪ File management in Windows and basic word processors, spreadsheets, presentation, graphics
and other applications
▪ Introduction to programming:
▪ Statements, symbolic names, arrays, expressions and control statements
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▪ The term computer dates back to the 1600s. However, until the
1950s, the term referred almost exclusively to a human who
performed computations.
▪ For human beings, the task of performing large amounts of computation
is one that is laborious, time consuming, and error prone.
▪ Thus, the human desire to mechanize arithmetic is an ancient one.

▪ One of the earliest devices developed for simplifying human

arithmetic was the abacus already in use in ancient Mesopotamia,
Asian, Indian, Persian, Greco-Roman, and Mezo-American societies
and still in use today in many parts of the world.

▪ Comprised of an organized collection of beads or stones moved

along rods or in grooves.
▪ an abacus is, like the modern computer, a ―digital arithmetic machine.
▪ in that its operations mimic the changes in digits that occur when humans do
basic arithmetic calculations.
▪ However, not all of these abacus systems used decimal – base-10 – numerals; 3
some of these societies used base-16, base-20, or base-60 numeral systems.
▪ The young French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
invented one of the first gear-based adding machines to help with
the enormous amount of calculations involved in the computing of
taxes.
▪ Operationally, the decimal version of the ―Pascaline‖ had much in
common with a genre of calculators that were commonly used by
grocery store shoppers in the U.S. and elsewhere during the 1950s
and 1960s.

▪ In 1822, English mathematician Charles Babbage (1792-1871)

unveiled the first phase of his envisioned ―Difference Engine‖
which also used ten-position gears to represent decimal digits.
▪ It was capable of performing more complex calculations than the
basic arithmetic of an adding machine like the Pascaline.
▪ However, the engineering of the Difference Engine became so
complicated that, for this and other reasons, Babbage abandoned
the project.
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▪ There are two main difficulties here, illustrating two key
concepts in computing.
▪ First, these devices were ―mechanical – i.e., they were devices
that required physically moving and interconnected parts.
▪ Such a device is almost certain to be slower, more prone to failure,
and more difficult to manufacture than a device that has no moving
parts.

▪ In contrast, ―electronica‖ devices such as vacuum tubes of the

sort used in early radios have, by definition, no moving parts.

▪ Thus, one of the earliest electronic digital computers, the

ENIAC was created.
▪ It represented each decimal digit not with a 10-state mechanical
device like a gear but, rather, with a column of 10 vacuum tubes.
▪ The tubes could electronically turn on and off to represent the 0-9
counting sequence of a decimal digit without requiring any
physical movement.
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▪ The ENIAC was engineered by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the
University of Pennsylvania from 1943 to 1946.
▪ The 30-ton ENIAC required 18,000 vacuum tubes, consuming enormous amounts of
electrical power for its day.
▪ This is largely because ENIAC required 10 vacuum tubes to represent each decimal digit.

▪ In contrast, the first electronic digital computer developed by John Atanasoff

and Clifford Berry at Iowa State University from 1937-1942, like all electronic
digital computers today, used a binary – i.e., Base-2 numeral system.
▪ Decimal digits are based on powers of 10, where every digit one moves to the left
represents another power of 10: ones (100), tens (101), hundreds (102), thousands (103), etc.
▪ Thus, the decimal number ―two hundred fifty-five‖ is written as ―255,‖ conceiving of it
arithmetically as the sum of 2 hundreds, 5 tens, and 5 ones.
▪ Thus, to store this number, ENIAC would only have to turn on 3 vacuum tubes, but there are
still a total of 30 vacuum tubes required just to represent all of the possibilities of these three
digits.
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▪ On the other hand, binary digits – also known as ―bits -- are based on powers of 2, where
every digit one moves to the left represents another power of 2:
▪ ones (20 ), twos (21 ), fours (22 ), eights (23 ), sixteens (24 ), etc.

▪ Thus, in binary, the number eighteen would be written in Base-2 as 10010, understood
arithmetically as the sum of 1 sixteen, 0 eights, 0 fours, 1 two, and 0 ones:

▪ Likewise, the number ―two-hundred fifty-five would be written in binary numerals as

11111111, conceived arithmetically as the sum of 1 one-hundred twenty eight, 1 sixty-four, 1
thirty-two, 1 sixteen, 1 eight, 1 four, 1 two, and 1 one :

▪ Why on earth would computer engineers choose to build a machine to do arithmetic using
such a cryptic, unfamiliar form of writing numbers as a binary, Base-Two numeral scheme? 7
▪ In any digital numeral system, each digit must be able to count up to one less than the base.
▪ Thus, in the case of the Base-10 system, counting sequence of each decimal digit runs from 0 up to 9,
and then back to 0.
▪ To represent a decimal digit, then, one must be able to account for all 10 possibilities in the counting
sequence, 0 through 9.
▪ So one must either use a device with ten possible states, like the ten-position gear used in the
Pascaline, or ten separate devices, like the ten separate vacuum tubes used for each digit in the
ENIAC.
▪ However, the binary numeral system is Base-2.
▪ Thus, given that its digits also need only to be able to count as high as one less than the base, this
means that the counting sequence of each binary digit runs from 0 only up to 1, and then back again to
0 already.
▪ In other words, whereas ten different numbers can appear in a decimal digit, 0 through 9, the only
number that will ever appear in a binary digit is a 0 or a 1.
▪ Thus, rather than having to account for the 10 possibilities of a decimal digit, one can represent a
binary digit with only a single device that has two possible states.
▪ For example, one could represent each binary digit with a simple on/off switch, where the ―on
position represents a 1 and the ―off” position represents a 0:

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▪ These computers were created between the years 1940 to
1956.
▪ The first generation of the computer used vacuum tubes
for the circuitry and the magnetic drums for the memory
and taking up the big rooms.
▪ It was very expensive to operate and uses a great amount
of electricity and produced a large amount of heat.
▪ It relied on the machine language, the lowest level
programming language which was understood by the
computers to perform the various functions and
operations.
▪ It can only solve one problem at a time and can’t do
multitasking work.
▪ The input was based on the punched cards and the paper
tape and the output was displayed on the printouts.
▪ ENIAC and UNIVAC are examples of the first generation
of the computer.
▪ The first commercial computer was UNIVAC which was
delivered to the business client.
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▪ These computers were created between the years 1956 to 1963
▪ Transistors were used in the second generation of the computer
and transistors replaced the vacuum tubes.
▪ The first transistor was invented in 1947 but didn’t find use in the
computer till 1950.
▪ Transistors are superior to the vacuum tube because computers
became smaller, cheaper and faster.
▪ However, transistors produced large amount of heat that subjected
the computer to damage.
▪ The input was based on the punched cards and paper tapes and
outputs were displayed on the printouts which were the same as
the first generation of computer.
▪ It moved to the symbolic or assembly language from the cryptic
binary machine language.
▪ This language allowed the programmers to specify the input or
instructions in words.
▪ High-level programming languages were also developed at the
same time.
▪ The first computer of the second generation was developed for the
atomic energy industry.
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▪ These computers were created between the years 1964 to 1971

▪ The integrated circuits were used in the third generation of the computer.

▪ Transistors were placed on the silicon chips known as semiconductors which

increases the speed and efficiency of the computer drastically.

▪ Users could use keyboards and monitors to interface with an OS (operating

system) instead of directly with punched cards and printouts.

▪ The computer could run many applications at one time (multi-tasking).

▪ Computers were smaller, cheaper and more reliable than its predecessors. 11
▪ These computers were created between the years 1971 to 2010
▪ Themicroprocessor brought in the fourth generation of
computers.
▪ Thousands of the integrated circuits (ICs) were built on the
single silicon chip.
▪ The first generation of computer occupied an entire room but
the fourth generation of computer could fit into the palm of the
hand.
▪ In 1971 Intel 4004 chips were developed which was located to
all the components of the computer.
▪ IBM introduced its first computer for home users in 1981.
▪ The fourth generation of the computer became more powerful
and could be linked together to form the networks which led to
internet development.
▪ In the fourth generation of computer, we saw the development of
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the GUIs, keyboard, mouse and other hand handled devices.
▪ These computers were created between the years 2010 till present.
▪ The fifth generation of the computer is based on artificial intelligence and is still in
development.
▪ Computer devices with artificial intelligence are still in development, but some of
these technologies are beginning to emerge and be used such as voice recognition.

▪ There are many applications which are used in this generation like voice
recognition which is being used today.
▪ The use of superconductors and parallel processing helps to make the AI a reality.
▪ Leaning to the future, computers will be radically transformed again by quantum
computation, molecular and nano technology.

▪ The goal or target of this generation is to develop the devices that respond to
natural languages.
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▪ The term hardware refers to all of the physical devices, or components, that a
computer is made of.
▪ A computer is not one single device, but a system of devices that all work together. Like the
different instruments in a symphony orchestra, each device in a computer plays its own part.

▪ If you have ever shopped for a computer, you’ve probably seen sales literature listing
components such as microprocessors, memory, disk drives, video displays, graphics
cards, and so on.

▪ A typical computer system consists of the following major components:

▪ The central processing unit (CPU)
▪ Main memory
▪ Secondary storage devices
▪ Input devices
▪ Output devices
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▪ When a computer is performing the tasks that a program tells it to do, we say that the
computer is running or executing the program.
▪ The central processing unit, or CPU, is the part of a computer that actually runs programs.
▪ The CPU is the most important component in a computer because without it, the computer
could not run software.

▪ In the earliest computers, CPUs were huge devices made of electrical and mechanical
components such as vacuum tubes and switches.
▪ The ENIAC, which is considered by many to be the world’s first programmable electronic
computer, was built in 1945 to calculate artillery ballistic tables for the U.S. Army. This
machine, which was primarily one big CPU, was 8 feet tall, 100 feet long, and weighed 30
tons.
▪ Today, CPUs are small chips known as microprocessors.
▪ In addition to being much smaller than the old electromechanical CPUs in early computers,
microprocessors are also much more powerful.
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▪ You can think of main memory as the computer’s work area.
▪ This is where the computer stores a program while the program is
running, as well as the data that the program is working with.
▪ For example, suppose you are using a word processing program to
write an essay for one of your classes.
▪ While you do this, both the word processing program and the
essay are stored in main memory.

▪ Main memory is commonly known as random-access memory,

or RAM.
▪ It is called this because the CPU is able to quickly access data
stored at any random location in RAM.
▪ RAM is usually a volatile type of memory that is used only for
temporary storage while a program is running.
▪ When the computer is turned off, the contents of RAM are erased.
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▪ Inside your computer, RAM is stored in chips.
▪ Secondary storage is a type of memory that can hold data for long periods of time,
even when there is no power to the computer.
▪ Programs are normally stored in secondary memory and loaded into main memory as
needed. Important data, such as word processing documents, payroll data, and inventory
records, is saved to secondary storage as well.
▪ The most common type of secondary storage device is the disk drive.
▪ A disk drive stores data by magnetically encoding it onto a circular disk.
▪ Most computers have a disk drive mounted inside their case.
▪ External disk drives, which connect to one of the computer’s communication ports, are also
available.
▪ External disk drives can be used to create backup copies of important data or to move data
to another computer.
▪ USB drives are small devices that plug into the computer’s USB (universal serial bus)
port, and appear to the system as a disk drive.
▪ These drives do not actually contain a disk.
▪ They store data in a special type of memory known as flash memory.
▪ USB drives, which are also known as memory sticks and flash drives, are inexpensive, reliable, and18
small enough to be carried in your pocket
▪ Input Devices
▪ Input is any data the computer collects from people and from other devices.
▪ The component that collects the data and sends it to the computer is called an input device.
▪ Common input devices are the keyboard, mouse, scanner, microphone, and digital camera.
▪ Disk drives and optical drives can also be considered input devices because programs and
data are retrieved from them and loaded into the computer’s memory.

▪ Output Devices
▪ Output is any data the computer produces for people or for other devices.
▪ It might be a sales report, a list of names, or a graphic image.
▪ The data is sent to an output device, which formats and presents it.
▪ Common output devices are video displays and printers. Disk drives and CD recorders can
also be considered output devices because the system sends data to them in order to be
saved.
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▪ Software
▪ If a computer is to function, software is not optional.
▪ Everything that a computer does, from the time you turn the power switch on until you shut
the system down, is under the control of software.
▪ There are two general categories of software: system software and application software.

▪ System Software
▪ An operating system is the most fundamental set of programs on a computer. The operating system
controls the internal operations of the computer’s hardware, manages all of the devices connected to
the computer, allows data to be saved to and retrieved from storage devices, and allows other
programs to run on the computer.
▪ Utility Programs performs a specialized task that enhances the computer’s operation or
safeguards data. Examples of utility programs are virus scanners, file compression
programs, and data backup programs.
▪ Software Development Tools are the programs that programmers use to create, modify, and
test software. Assemblers, compilers, and interpreters are examples of programs that fall into
this category.
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