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PROGRAMMING IN ‘C’
 A Computer is an electronic device that stores, manipulates

and retrieves the data. We can also refer computer computes
the information supplied to it and generates data.
 A System is a group of several objects with a process. For
Example: Educational System involves teacher, students
(objects). Teacher teaches subject to students i.e., teaching
(process). Similarly, a computer system can have objects
and process.
The following are the objects of computer System
 User (A person who uses the computer)
 Hardware
 Software
 Hardware
Hardware of a computer system can be referred as
anything which we can touch and feel.
Example: Keyboard and Mouse.
 Software
Software is a set of instructions, data or programs used
to operate computers and execute specific tasks.
Example: Excel or Windows or iTunes
 Computer systems ranging from a controller in a microwave oven to a
large supercomputer contain components providing five functions.
 A typical personal computer has hard, floppy and CD-ROM disks for
storage, memory and CPU chips inside the system unit, a keyboard and
mouse for input, and a display, printer and speakers for output. The
arrows represent the direction information flows between the
functional units.
 If you use a desktop computer, you might already know that there isn't
any single part called the "computer." A computer is really a system of
many parts working together. The physical parts, which you can see
and touch, are collectively called hardware.
 Software, on the other hand, refers to the instructions, or programs, that
tell the hardware what to do.
 Also called as a processor, microprocessor, central processor, "the
brains of the computer”, the CPU is the heart of any computer system.
It interprets and carries out basic instructions that operate a computer.
 Central Processing Unit itself consists of three main subsystems; first is
the Control Unit, the second is Registers, and the third is Arithmetic
and Logic Unit(ALU).
 Input devices are the devices which are used to receive data from the
user like keyboard etc.
 Output devices are the devices which are used to give the output to the
user like monitor etc.
 Memory is also known as primary storage, primary memory, main
storage, internal storage, main memory, and RAM (Random Access
Memory); all these terms are used interchangeably by people in
computer circles.
 Memory is the part of the computer that holds data and instructions for
processing. Although closely associated with the central processing
unit, memory is separate from it. Memory stores program instructions
or data for only as long as the program they pertain to is in operation
 The Memory unit is classified into two types.
1) Primary Memory
2) Secondary Memory
Primary memory :The following are the types of memories which are
treated as primary
 ROM: It represents Read Only Memory that stores data and
instructions even when the computer is turned off. The Contents in the
ROM can‘t be modified once if they are written . It is used to store the
BIOS information.
 RAM: It represents Random Access Memory that stores data and
instructions when the computer is turned on. The contents in the RAM
can be modified any no. of times by instructions. It is used to store the
programs under execution.
Cache memory: It is used to store the data and
instructions referred by processor.
Secondary Memory: The following are the
different kinds of memories
 Magnetic Storage: The Magnetic Storage devices
store information that can be read, erased and
rewritten a number of times.
 Example: Floppy Disks, Hard Disks, Magnetic Tapes
Optical Storage: The optical storage devices that
use laser beams to read and write stored data.
Example: CD(Compact Disk),DVD(Digital
Versatile Disk)
 Computer software is divided in to two broad categories: system
software and application software .
 System software manages the computer resources .It provides the
interface between the hardware and the users.
 Application software, on the other hand is directly responsible for
helping users solve their problems.
System Software
 System software consists of programs that manage the hardware
resources of a computer and perform required information processing
tasks.
 These programs are divided into three classes:
a) the operating system
b) system support, and
c) System development.
 The operating system provides services such as a user interface, file
and database access, and interfaces to communication systems such as
Internet protocols. The primary purpose of this software is to keep the
system operating in an efficient manner while allowing the users access
to the system.
 System support software provides system utilities and other operating
services. Examples of system utilities are sort programs and disk
format programs. Operating services consists of programs that provide
performance statistics for the operational staff and security monitors to
protect the system and data.
 The last system software category, system development software,
includes the language translators that convert programs into machine
language for execution ,debugging tools to ensure that the programs are
error free and computer –assisted software engineering(CASE) systems
Application software
Application software is broken in to two classes:
1. general-purpose software and
2. application – specific software.
General purpose software is purchased from a software developer
and can be used for more than one application. Examples of general
purpose software include word processors, database management
systems ,and computer aided design systems. They are labeled general
purpose because they can solve a variety of user computing problems.
Application –specific software can be used only for its intended

purpose. A general ledger system used by accountants and a material
requirements planning system used by a manufacturing organization
are examples of application-specific software. They can be used only
for the task for which they were designed they cannot be used for
other generalized tasks. The relationship between system and
application software is shown below. In this figure, each circle
represents an interface point .The inner core is hard ware
 The word compute is used to refer to the process of converting
information from data. The advent of several new kinds of
computers created a need to have different computing environments.
 The following are the different kinds of computing environments
available
A. Personal Computing Environment
B. Time Sharing Environment
C. Client/Server Environment
D. Distributed Computing Environment

 In 1971, Marcian E. Hoff, working for INTEL combined the basic
elements of the central processing unit into the microprocessor. If we
are using a personal computer then all the computer hardware
components are tied together. This kind of computing is used to satisfy
the needs of a single user, who uses the computer for the personal tasks.
 Ex: Personal Computer
 The concept of time sharing computing is to share the processing of
the computer basing on the criteria time. In this environment all the
computing must be done by the central computer.
 The complete processing is done by the central computer. The
computer which ask for processing are only dumb terminals.
 A Client/Server Computing involves the processing between two
machines. A client Machine is the one which requests processing.
Server Machine is the one which offers the processing. Hence the
client is Capable enough to do processing. A portion of processing is
done by client and the core(important) processing is done by Server.
 A distributed computing environment provides a seamless
integration of computing functions between different servers and
clients. A client not just a requestor for processing the information
from the server. The client also has the capability to process
information. All the machines Clients/Servers share the processing
task.
 Example: Ebay on Internet

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PROGRAMMING IN ‘C’

 A Computer is an electronic device that stores, manipulates

Application –specific software can be used only for its intended

B. Time Sharing Environment

D. Distributed Computing Environment

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