Computer Applications in Management

CHAPTER TWO

COMPUTER ORGANIZATION

2.1 Computer System

System is an organized relationship among functioning units or components.

The purpose of computer system is to solve a problem by processing data into
information. There are many types of data, some of them are:

 Text data: consists of standard alphabets (A – Z, a – z), numbers (0 -9),

special characters (%, $, &, +, * - -).

 Graphic data: consists of stick pictures such as drawings, graphs,

photographs etc.

 Audio data: Include any music & voice.

 Video data: consists of motion pictures such as moving clip, pictures of

a conference etc.

As a system, a computer system has two components, i.e. hardware and

software.

 Hardware: is the physical part of a computer that you can see and touch
with our hand.

 Software: is the internal component of the computer that used to control,

integrating, and managing the hard ware components and to accomplish
specific tasks.

2.1.1 Computer Hardware:

Hardware: is the physical part of a computer that you can see and touch with
our hand. A hard ware composed of different units. These are: Input device,
Central Processing Unit (CPU), Output device and Storage unit.

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CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT

ALU Control Unit

INPUT OUTPUT
UNIT UNIT
Registers

ROM
Primary Memory

SECONDARY STORAGE DEVICE

1. Input Unit:

An input device can be defined as an electromechanical device that allows the

user to feed information (data) into the computer for analysis, storage, and to
give commands to the computer. Data and instruction are entered into the
computer’s main memory through an input device. Input device captures
information and translates it into a form that can be processed and used by
other parts of the computer. After processing the input data, the computer
provides the result with the help of output devices.

Input devices play a major role in the processing of any data via the computer
system because the output of the computer is always based on the given input.

The commonly used input devices are: Keyboard, Mouse, Scanner and Digital
camera

 Key board: is the most common data entry device, and has different
shapes and size. The keys on the keyboard are often classified as follows

 Functional key: assigned specific commands by the current

application. E.g. F1-help, F2-Setup.

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 Alphanumeric keys (typing keys): Letters and numbers.

 Punctuation keys: comma, period, semicolon, etc.

 Special keys: Caps Lock, Spacebar, Shift, and Enter etc.

 Control keys: these keys provide cursor and screen control. E.g.
Arrow keys, Home, Page down etc.

In detail the following are descriptions of the keyboard.

 Escape key - Generally used to abort some actions.
 Function keys - functions vary from program to program.
 Enter key - used to enter commands and to create blank lines in a
document.
 Backspace key - used to move the cursor backwards, deleting backward.
 Tab key - used to access tab stop.
 Caps lock key - works like the shift lock. - Key on a typewriter.
 Shift key - used to produce upper case letters and sometimes to invoke
commands
 Control key & Alt key - commonly used in combination with other keys to
enter commands e g. Control home.
 Insert key - used to enter characters.
 Arrow keys - used to move the cursor around the display screen.
 Delete keys - used to delete characters.
 Number locks keys - used to activate the numeric keypad.
 Print screen keys - used to print the contents of the screen.
 Mouse: is a small hand-held pointing device, which is rectangular-
shaped with a rubber ball embedded at its lower side and buttons on the
top. The rubber ball used to move the cursor and the button used to initiate
to do some action, and it has two buttons, the right button and left button.

 Right click - used to produce a ‘pop-up’ menu.

 Left click - carries out an action, such as starting an

application.

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Types of mouse

A. Mechanical - has a rubber or metal ball on its underside that can

roll in all directions.

 Mechanical sensors within the mouse detect the direction the

ball is rolling and move the screen pointer accordingly.

B. Opto-mechanical - same as mechanical mouse, but uses optical

sensors to detect motion of the ball.

C. Optical: it doesn’t have mechanical moving part and uses a laser to

detect the mouse’s movement.

 Scanner: is a device that used to convert hard copy in to soft copy form.

 Used to scan or read text and picture and converted

them to computer usable form.

 Save the scanned image as a graphic file in the

computer.

 Digital Camera: Stores images digitally rather than recording them on

a film. Once a picture has been taken, it can be downloaded to a
computer system and then manipulated with an image editing software.

2. Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The CPU or the microprocessor (or simply processor) is referred as the brain of
computer system. It controls all internal and external devices, and performs
arithmetic and logical operations. The processor operates only on binary data
that is composed of 1’s and 0’s corresponding to electrical switches ON or OFF.
It performs, supervises, and controls the arithmetic operations (Addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division) and logical functions (such as ‘is A greater
than B’?), primary storage, or main memory, provides the temporary locations
inside the computer where the data and instructions are stored while
processed. The functions of the processor can be summarizing as:
 Carrying out arithmetic and logical functions

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 Controlling the use of main storage (memory) to store

data and instructions.
 Controlling the sequence of operations

 Controlling all the parts of the computer system.

The CPU consists of three main subsystems. These are: Control unit,
Arithmetic and Logical unit and Registers.

These three sub systems work together to provide the operational capabilities
of the computer. As buses carry people from one place to another place, the
system bus carries information from one unit to another.

 System bus is a collection of wires through which data is transmitted

from one unit to another in computer system (CPU, memory, and I/O
devices). It is further divided in to three logical units, namely the address
bus, data bus, and control bus.

 Data Bus: it transfers the actual data between the processor, memory,
and the I/O devices.

 Address Bus: It informs the CPU about the location of the data residing
in the memory.

 Control Bus: It is responsible for making CPU, memory, and I/O devices
work together as a functional system, carrying signals that report the
status (ready, not ready) of various units.

 Control Unit

The control unit can be thought of as the heart of the CPU. It controls the I/O
devices and transfer of data to and from the primary storage. It reads and
interprets instructions that retrieve from the main memory. It controls the flow
of instructions from memory to CPU or from ALU to registers. The control unit
repeats a set of four basic operations: fetching, decoding, executing, and
storing.

 Fetching: is the process of obtaining a program instruction or data item

from memory.

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 Decoding: is the process of translating the instruction in to commands

the computer can execute.
 Executing: is the process of carrying out the commands.

 Storing: is the process of writing the result to memory.

Generally, it performs all the control functions of the computer.

 It retrieves the instruction from memory.

 Translates those instructions into computer functions and sends signals to

other computer hardware units to carry out those functions.

 It is also responsible for determining the next instruction to be executed by

the computer.

 In general it serves as the computer traffic cope.

 Arithmetic Logical Unit

As the name suggests, the arithmetic logical unit carries out arithmetic and
logical operations on the data made available to it. For simple understanding,
the ALU can be divided in to arithmetic unit and logical unit.

Arithmetic Unit: contains the circuitry that is responsible for performing the
actual computing and carrying out the arithmetic calculations, such as
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It can perform these
operations at a very high speed.

Logical Unit: the importance of the logical unit is the ability it provides to the
CPU to make logical operations based on the instructions provided to it. Logical
unit uses statements such as AND, OR, and NOT. This is useful when you have
a set of instructions to execute only if certain conditions are true.

 Registers:

The registers are special purpose, high speed temporary memory unit. They
hold varies types of information such as data, instructions, addresses, and the
intermediate results of calculations. Essentially, they hold the information that
the CPU is currently working on. Registers can be thought of as CPU’s working
memory. As the size of the registers increase, the computer processing

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activities also increase. To execute an instruction, the control unit receives it

from the main memory and places in to the register.

 Registers are paths or conduits that connect the Arithmetic Logical

Unit to the main memory.

 When an instruction loaded from main memory, it is placed first in

the register to wait instructions from the control unit.

 Data are also stored in registers prior to execution in the ALU.

3. Output devices(Units):

Peripheral devices which used to convert machine readable information in to

human readable form. Display the processed data in hard copy form/soft copy
form. Hard copy is the physical form of output (paper form). But soft copy is
the electronic version of an output, which usually resides in computer memory
or on disk. Soft copy is not tangible (cannot be touched).

The most common used output devices are: Printers, Plotters,

Monitors, Projectors, and Speakers

 Printer: prints information and data from the computer on to paper.

Printers are divided in to impact printers and non impact printers.

 Plotters: is a pen based output device that is attached to a computer for

making vector graphics.

 It is used to draw high –resolution charts, graphs, maps, circuit

diagrams.

 They are mainly used for computer aided design (CAD) and
computer aided manufacturing (CAM) applications such as
printing out plans of houses or car parts.

 These are also used with programs like AUTO CAD (Computer
Assisted Drafting) to give graphic outputs.

 Monitor: is the most frequently used soft copy output device. It used to
display the processed data.

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 Projectors: are output devices, which are used to project information

from a computer on to a large screen. There are two types of projectors,
LCD( Liquid crystal display) and DLP(digital light processing)

 Speaker: is an output device, which is used to magnify sound

4. Storage device

Devices used to store data or program files. There are two types of storage
devices.
 Primary storage devices

 Secondary storage devices.

A. Primary storage devices: are used to store data that are processed
and executed immediately. An example of primary storage device is a
Memory. Memory is the electronic holding place for instructions and data
where the computer’s microprocessor can reach quickly. CPU requires
memory to handle the intermediately results and to store the final output.
The primary memory (storage device) also implemented by two types of
memory technologies. Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only
Memory (ROM).

 Random Access Memory (RAM):- directly

provides the required information to the processor. RAM can be defined
as a block of sequential memory locations, each of which has a unique
address determining the location and those locations contain a data
element. It stores programs and data that are in active use. It is
volatile in nature, which means the information stored in it remains as
long as the power is switched ON. As soon as the power is switched OFF,
the information contained in it vanishes (lost). In RAM we can write data
on it and read data from it. RAM also divides further into two.

o Dynamic Random Access Memory: It

holds the data in dynamic (keeping on refreshing) manner with
the help of a refresh circuitry.

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o Static Random Access Memory: Along with DRAM is essential

for a system to run optimally, because it is very fast as
compared to DRAM. It retains the data as long as power is
provided to the memory chips. It does not need to be ‘refreshed’
periodically.

Features of RAM

 We can write data on it and read data from it.

 It is volatile in nature, means the information stored in it lost, if a
power suddenly failure.

 It stores data and instruction temporarily.

 Read Only Memory (ROM): This type of
primary memory can only be read, not written. In other words, CPU can
only read from any location in the ROM but cannot write.

Features of ROM

 The contents of ROM are not lost even in case of a sudden power
failure, making it non-volatile in nature.

 It is also random access in nature.

 It reads only, but cannot write.
 It contains permanent recorded instruction.
 Cache Memory: is a piece of very fast memory, made from high speed
static RAM that reduces the access time of the data. It is very expensive
and generally incorporated in the processor, where valuable data and
program segments are kept. This enables the processor to access data
quickly whenever it is needed. The cache facilitates the system to catch
up with the processors speed.

B. Secondary storage device: are devices used to store data file and program
files permanently.

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Secondary storage devices are designed as a backup to the main storage,

and they store data on a long-term basis.

Benefits of secondary storage devices are:

 Non-volatile - it does not lose its content even when

its power is turn of.

 Capacity – they can store large amount of data.

 Cost - it is less expensive than Primary storage

device.

 Portability – they can be easily ported from one

computer to another.

Example:

 Floppy disk- is a direct access secondary device that used to store

information. It is cheap, small in size, portable and compact. It read and
written by a floppy disk drive.

 Hard disk- a smooth metal plate coated on both sides with a thin film of
magnetic material. Permanently fixed within a system unit. It has high
storage capacity than floppy disk, and it is a random access storage
media.

 CD/DVD: these types of storage media are removable optical disks used
to store data. The first one (CD) is that in which the data once written
cannot be erased. It is stored permanently over it. While the second type
of the CD’s or the DVD’s are called as the rewritable; where in the data
that is once written can be erased completely and the same storage
device can be used again for storing the different data.

 Flash disk: is a secondary storage device used to read and write on it

like floppy disk. It has higher storage capacity, and more reliable than
floppy, but it is more expensive.

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The internal component of the computer that used to control, integrate, and
manage the hardware components and to accomplish specific tasks. There are
two components of software.

2.2. Computer Software:

The computer software is collection of set of instructions that instructs the

computer hardware. These set of instructions perform different functions; some
deals with handling the computer hardware and the others perform user
specific tasks such as managing a database. Therefore the computer software
is divided into two major categories depending upon the nature of work this
software does: -

1. System software
2. Application Software
The following figure shows the classification of the computer software: -

Utility
software

e.g.
Antivirus

2.2.1 System Software

The system software handles the computer hardware so that the user can
operate the computer with little knowledge about the computer hardware. For
example, the user is not concerned where the file is saved on the hard disk.

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This is the responsibility of the system software to check the hard disk and
space on the free space of the hard disk.

The system software is further divided as operating system software and

language software and Utility software.
i. Operating System software
An operating system is a program that acts as the link between you, the
computer’s software and hardware resources. It is the foundation software onto
which all other application programs are loaded. It is the master program of
your system that allows you, the user, to run application programs (Word
Processors, Spreadsheets, Gamed, etc.)
Without the operating system the application software would be unable to
function. Operating System software manages most of your computer’s
activities, including the allocation of computer resources, maintenance of files,
and running of application software. As a file manager the operating system is
used to name, save, retrieve and maintain program and data files you create
and use on your computer. As a resource manager, the operating system
controls the flow of information through your computer. Data accepted by the
keyboard, seen on the display, or sent to a printer are all under the control of
the operating system.
To list some of the general things that the operating system does in the
computer, we can come up with the following:
 Managing storage media
 Booting
 User Interface
 Managing computer resources
 Managing files
 Managing tasks.
ii. Programming Language software (Development SW)

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o Programming languages – are used to write programs. Pro-

gramming languages can generally be classified as low-level languages
and high-level languages.

a. Low Level Programming Languages

Under low-level language, we have machine languages and assembly
languages.
 Machine language is the natural language of the computer. A pro-
gram written in machine language is ready for immediate execution.
Machine language is very difficult to understand. A program written
in machine language takes the form of strings of zeros and ones.
Even the simplest program is complex and lengthy. Moreover, each
computer type has its own machine language and thus a program
written in machine language for one computer may not run in another
computer, i.e. machine language programs are not portable.
 Assembly language consists of English-like abbreviations. It is eas-
ier to understand than machine language. Programs written in as-
sembly language need to be translated into machine language before
they can be executed. The program that translates assembly lan-
guage programs to machine language is called an assembler.

b. High Level Programming Languages

High-level languages are English-like instructions. They are easier to learn
than low-level languages. Programs written in high-level language are called
source codes and they must be translated into machine language before they
can run on a computer. After the translation, the program in machine
language is called object code.
There are three types of translators; assembler, interpreter, and
compiler.
1. Compiler - A set of programs that translate the source code of higher-
level software languages into machine language, or object code

 Advantages - fast

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 Disadvantages - harder to write and debug

 Examples - Pascal, C, FORTRAN, and open script
2. Assembler - An assembler is a software tool for translating assembly
language into machine language
3. Interpreter - An interpreter translates source code instructions, one
instruction at a time, from a higher level language such as BASIC into machine
language
 Advantages - fairly easy to write, and easy to debug
 Disadvantage - SLOW
 Examples - basic, lisp

 Utility Software: is a program used to support, enhance, expand, and

secure existing programs and data in the computer system. Most
common functions of system utilities include:

 Back up: sometimes data files can get corrupt, or get accidentally
deleted. In such a case, data backups become very useful. A backup
system utility is essential for those organizations that want to keep
their data intact.

 Data recovery: used to recover data. Since, disk drives or other

hardware may fail, these utilities are essential to recover data.

 Virus protection: Antivirus scans for the hard disk for any kind of
virus.

 Disk management: includes defragmenting disks, data compression

software, and formatting disk tools.

2.2.2 Application Software: Software refers to the detailed set of

instructions that direct the computer to perform a certain task. Application
software is software developed to do user specific tasks such as word
processing, spreadsheet and database management. It is developed using the
language software. Application software is a set of related programs designed to
carry out certain tasks that fulfill users’ specific needs.

Examples of application software are:

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 Microsoft-Word (used for writing letters, reports, or

other documents).
 Microsoft-Excel ( used to perform calculations)

 Microsoft-Access (used for storing information)

 Internet Explorer (enables a user to access an

internet) …. etc.

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