“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask for your guidance and wisdom as we begin this

class. We ask for your help in understanding the material and retaining the knowledge we will learn. We
ask for your protection as we engage in discussions and activities. Amen’’ In the name of the father.

Today, almost all of us in the world make use of computers in one way or the other. You will find its
applications in various fields like engineering, medicine, commercial, research and others. Not only in
these sophisticated areas, but also in our daily lives, computers have become indispensable. They are
present everywhere, in all the devices that we use daily like cars, games, washing machines, microwaves
etc. and in day-today computations like banking, reservations, electronic mails, internet and many more.

The word computer is derived from the word compute. Compute means to calculate.

In general term, a computer is an electronic device used to process and convert data into useful
information. It is controlled by programmed instructions that gives output.

First Generation (1946-1959): • This generation relied on machine language to perform operations. •
They could only solve one problem at a time. • Input was based on punched cards and paper tape. •
Output was displayed on printouts.

Second Generation (1959-1965): • The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube • Computers to
become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable. • High-level programming
languages. – Machine • It is the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory.

Third Generation (1965-1971): • Integrated Circuit based. • Users interacted with the computers
through keyboards and monitors. • Interfaced with an operating system.

Fourth Generation - More user-friendly interfaces with multimedia features. • Very powerful and
cheaper. The microprocessor ushered in the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits
were built onto a single silicon chip. The technology in the first generation that filled an entire room could now
fit in the palm of the hand. all the components of the computer, from the central processing unit and memory to
input/output controls, on a single chip.

What have you notice from the 3rd and fourth generation of the computer?

The computers of third generation used Integrated Circuits (ICs) whereas fourth generation computers
used the VLSI technology or the Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits technology.
Fifth-generation based on artificial intelligence, is still in development. What are those examples? though
there are some applications, such as Face recognition, voice recognition and VR it enables a person to interact
with 3D dimensional reality. Also, we have Chat GPT. for Hardware, Drone Camera and more that are being
used today.

1. the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that
normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech
recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.
2.
The Five Generations of Computers can be described as the overall development of computer technology
respective to their size, power, memory, cost, and application. Compared to the first generations of the
computer, modern-day computers are faster, smarter, stronger, and cheaper and can store a huge amount of
data. Due to vast development and huge improvement of the modern computer, the work of mankind has been
made much more accessible than ever before with the development of high-speed and advanced processors
(CPU).

This Shows how the components of a computer interact to carry out a task.

The following sections describe the types of personal computers and mobile devices, as well as their
primary components (input devices, processor, memory, output devices, and communications devices).

Most devices connected to the computer communicate with the processor to carry out a task. When a
user starts a program, for example, its instructions transfer from a storage device to a memory. Data
needed by the program enters memory either from an input device or a storage device. The processor
interprets and executes instructions in memory and also performs calculations on the data in memory.
Resulting information is stored in memory, from which it can be sent to an output device or a storage
device for future access, as needed.

What is Input?

Everything we tell the computer is Input.

Types of Input: • Data (image from a Digital Camera, letters types via keyboard) • Programs •
Commands • User response Some input devices are: ▪ Keyboard ▪ Mouse ▪ Microphone ▪ Bar code
reader ▪ Graphics tablet.

Output device is used to send data out of the system.

1. Monitors, commonly called as Visual Display Unit (VDU), are the main output device of a computer. It
forms images from tiny dots, called pixels that are arranged in a rectangular form. The sharpness of the
image depends upon the number of pixels. Do you class have an idea why the picture or display become
blur or unclear? Because of the pixels and you have a poor-quality display that is not compatible with
your graphics.

2Printers Printer is an output device, which is used to print information on paper.

Processor and Primary Storage

Why is it called as the brain of the computer? CPU- Central Processing Unit

• The CPU 'controls' what the computer does and is responsible for performing calculations and data
processing. • It handles the movement of data to and from system memory. • CPU's come in a variety of
speeds which are known as 'clock rates'. Clock rates are measured in 'Hertz'. Generally, the faster the
clock rate, the faster the performance of the computer.

Main Memory. A memory is just like a human brain. Computer memory is the storage space in
computer where data is to be processed and instructions required for processing are stored.

Primary Memory (Main Memory) Primary memory holds only those data and instructions on which
computer is currently working. It has limited capacity and data is lost when power is switched off. It is
divided into two subcategories RAM and ROM.
RAM (Random Access Memory) • RAM is used to temporarily store information that is currently in use
by the computer. This can include anything from word documents to videos. • RAM can be read from
and written to and so the information stored in RAM can change all the time. • RAM is a fast memory.
Data can be written to and read from RAM very quickly. • RAM is Volatile Memory. This means that
information stored in RAM is deleted as soon as the computer is turned off. • The more RAM you have
installed in your computer the faster it can perform.

NOTE: If you use up your entire RAM by opening too many programs at once you will notice that your
computer becomes very slow or lag.

ROM (Read Only Memory) • ROM is used to permanently store instructions that tell the computer how
to boot (startup). • It loads the operating system (e.g. Windows). These instructions are known as the
BIOS (Basic input/output system) or the boot program. • Information stored in ROM is known as READ
ONLY. This means that the contents of ROM cannot be altered or added to by the user. • Data stored in
ROM can be accessed and read very quickly. • ROM is Non-Volatile memory, its content not lost when
the computer loses power.

Secondary Storage Devices (hard disk drive, CD/DVD drive, Flash Memory etc.

External memory. • It is slower than main memory. • These are used for storing data/Information
permanently. • CPU directly does not access these memories instead they are accessed via input-output
routines. Contents of secondary memories are first transferred to main memory, and then CPU can
access it. • Secondary storage devices permanently store data and programs for as long as we need. •
These devices are also used to back-up data in case original copies are lost or damaged.

A modem and a Wi-Fi router are two different devices that work together to provide internet
access123. A modem connects to the internet service provider and decodes the signal from them12. A
Wi-Fi router connects devices to the modem via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable and distributes the signal to
them123.