COMPUTER.

- OUTPUT DEVICES
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Following a re few of the important output devices which are used in a computer.

• Monitors
• Graphic Plotter
• Printer

Monitors
onitors. commonly called as Visual Display Unit VDU, are the main output device of a computer. It
orms Images from tiny dots. called pixels that are arranged in a rectangular form . Tlhe sharpness
f the image depends upon the number of pixels.
here are two kinds of viewing screen used for monitors.

• Cathode-Ray Tube CRT

• Flat- Panel Display

thode,- Ray Tube CRT Monitor

he CRT display Is made up of small picture elements called pixels. The smaller the pixels. the
better the image clarity. or resolution. It takes more than one illuminated pixel to form whole
haracter. such as the letter •e• in the word help.
finite number of characters can be displayed on a screen at once. The screen can be divided
into a serie:s of character boxes - fixed location on the screen where a standard character can be
placed . Most screens are capable of dlsplaying 80 characters of data horizontally and 25 lines
ertically. There are some disadvantages of CRT:
• Large in Size
• High power consumption

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lat-Panel Display Monitor

he flat-panel display refers to a class of video devices that have reduced volume. weight and
ower requirement in comparison to the CRT. You can hang them on walls or wear them on your
rists. Current uses of flat-panel displays include ca lculators, video games. monitors. laptop
omputer, graphics display.
 he flat-panel display Is divided into two categories:
• Emlsslve Displays• The em lsslve displays are devices that convert electrical energy Into
light. Exa mple are plasma panel and LEDL/g/11 - EmittlngDlodes.
• Non-Emlsslve Displays• The Non-emlsslve displays use optical effects to convert sunlight
or light from some other source Into graphics patterns. Example Is LCDL/quid - Crysta/Device

Printers
rlnter Is an output device, which Is used to print Information on paper.
here are two types of printers:
• Impact Printers
• Non-Impact Printers

Impact Printers
he Impact printers print the characters by striking them on the ribbon which Is then pressed on
he paper.
haracteristlcs of Impact Printers are the following:
• Very low consumable costs
• Very noisy
• Useful for bulk printing due to low cost
• There Is physical contact with the paper to produce an Image
hese printers are of two types
• Character printers
• Line printers

haracter Printers
haracter printers are the printers which print one character at a time.
hese are further divided Into two types:
 • Dot Matrix PrinterDMP
• Daisy Wheel

Dot Matrix Printer

In the market one of the most popu lar printers is Dot Matrix Printer. These printers are popu lar
because of their ease of printing and economical price. Each character printed Is In form of
attern of dots and head consists of a Matrix of Pins of size s • 7, 7 • 9, 9 • 7or9 • 9 which come out to
orm a character that Is why it is called Dot Matrix Printer.
dvantages
• Inexpensive
• Widely Used
• Other language characters can be printed

Disadvantages
• Slo,w Speed
• Poor Quality

Daisy Wheel
Head is lying on a wheel and pins corresponding to characters ar,e like petals of Daisy flowemalT!e
hat is why It is called Daisy Wheel Printer. These printers are generally used for word-processing
In offices which requ ire a few letters to be sent here and there with very nice qua lity.

dvantages
• More reliable than DMP
• Better quality
• The fonts of character can be easily changed

Disadvantages
• Slower than DMP
• Noisy
• More expensive than DMP

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Line Pri nters
lne printers are the printers which print one line at a time.

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hese are of further two types

• Drum Printer
• Cha in Printer

Drum Printer

his printer Is like a drum In shape so It Is called drum printer. The surface of drum Is divided into
number of tracks. Total tracks are equal to size of paper I.e. for a paper width of 132 characters,
rum will have 132 tracks. A character set is embossed on track. The differernt character sets
va ilable in the market are 48 character set, 64 and 96 characters set. One rotation of drum prints
ne line . Drum printers are fast In speed and can print 300 to 2000 lines per minute .
dvantages
• Very high speed
Disadvantages
• Very expensive
• Characters fonts cannot be changed

haln Printer

n this printer, chain of character sets are used so it is called Chain Printer. A standard character
et may have 48, 64, o r 96 characters.
dvantages
• Character fonts can easily be changed.
 • Differe nt langua ges can be used with the same printer.
isadva ntage s
• Noisy

on-im pact Print ers

on-Imp act printer s print the charac ters withou t using ribbon . These printer
s print a comple te
age at a time so they are also called as Page Printers.

hese printer s are of two types

• Laser Printers
• Inkjet Printers

harac terlst lcs of Non- impa ct Print ers

• Faster than Impac t printer s.
• They are not noisy.
• High quality .
• Suppo rt many fonts and differe nt charac ter size.

ser Print ers

hese are non-im pact page printers. They use laser llghts to produc e
the dots needed to form the
haract ers to be printed on a page.

• Very high speed

• Very high quality output
• Give good graph ics quality
• Suppo rt many fonts and differe nt charac te·r size

lsadvantages

• Expensive.
• Canno t be used to produce multip le copies of a docum ent in a single
printin g.
nkjet Printers
Inkjet printers are non-Impact character printers based on a relatively new technology. They print
haracters by spraying small drops of Ink onto paper. Inkjet printe rs produce high qua lity output
Ith presentable features.
hey ma ke less noise because no hammering is done and these have many styles of printing
odes available . Colour printing Is also possible. Some models of Inkjet printers can produce
multiple copies of printing also.

dvantages

• High quality printing

• More reliable

Disadvantages

• Expensive as cost per page is high

• Slo,w as compared to laser printer

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DESIGNING AN EFFICIENT PROGRAM

Designing an efficient program in c involves several principles :

1.DEFINE THE PROBLEM

Understand Requirements: Clearly outline what the program needs to achieve.

2.PLAN THE SOLUTION

Algorithm Design: Choose algorithms that are appropriate for the problem
Data Structures: Select the right data structures

3.WRITE EFFICIENT CODE

Clean Code Principles: Keep the code readable and maintainable.

Modularity: Break the program into functions or modules to enhance reusabllity and testing.

4.TESTING AND VALIDATION

Unit Tests: Write tests for individual components to ensure they function correctly.

5.REVIEW AND REFACTOR

Code Reviews: Get feedback from peers to identify potential improvements.

Refactoring: Regularly improve the code without changing its external behavior.

6.DOCUMENTATION

Document the code and algorithms to make it easier for others (and yourself) to understand and
maintain in the future.
3 -WHAT IS A COMPUTER?
Computer is an eleclronic device. As mentioned in the introduction it can do arithmetic calculations
faster. But as you will see later it does much more than that. It can be compared to a magic box, which serves
different purpose to different people. For a common man computer is simply a calculator, which works
automatic and quite fast. For a person who knows much about it, computer is a machine capable of solving
problems and manipulating data. It accepts data, processes the data by doing some maLhematical and logical
operations and gives us the desired output.
Therefore, we may define computer as a device that transfon11s clara. Data can be anything like marks
obtained by you in various subjects. It can also be name, age, sex, weight, height, etc. of all the students in
your class or income, savings, inveslments, etc., of a country. Computer can be defined in terms of its
functions. It can iJ accept data ii) store data, 'iii}iprocess data as desired, andf]y) retrieve the stored data as and
when require,d and v) print the result in desired format. You will know more about these functions as you go
through the later lessons.

4- CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTER
Let us identify the major characteristics of computer. These can be discussed under the headings of
speed, accuracy, diligence, versatility and memory.
4.1 Speed
As yolll know computer can work very fast. ll takes only few seconds for calculations that we take hours
to complete. SupJ>2se }'.OU are asked to calculate the average montlily income of o ne thousand persons in your
nefgboorhoocl. For this you have to add income from all sources for all persons on a day to day basis and find
out the average for each one of them. How long will it take for you to do this? One day, two days or one
week? Do you know your small computer can finish this work in few seconds? The weather forecasting that
you see every day on TV is the results of compilation and analysis of huge amount of data on temperature,
humidity, pressure, etc. of various places on computers. It takes few minutes for the computer to process this
huge amount of data and give the result.
You will be surprised to know that computer can perform millions (f:tiOO--:ooQ) of instructions and even more
per second. Therefore, we determine the speed of computer in terms of microsecond (I 0-6 part of a second)
or nano-second ( I0-9 part of a second). From this you can imagine bo w fast your computer performs work.

4.2 Accuracy
Suppose some one calculates faster but commits a lot of errors in computing. Such result is useless.
There is another aspect. Suppose you want to divide 15 by 7. You may work out up to 2 decimal places and

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say the dividend is 2.14. I may calculate up to 4 decimal places and say that the resull is 2.1428. Some one
else may go up to 9 decimal places and say the result is 2.142857143. Hence, in addition to speed, the
computer should have accuracy or correctness in computing.
The degree of accuracy of computer 1s very J11gh and every calculntion is performed with the same accumcy.
The uccumcy level 1s cletermmed on tlie 6as1s of ilesign of computer. The errors in computer are clue to
humnn andanaccurate datai
4.3 Diligence
A computer is free from tiredness, lack of concentration, fatigue, etc. It can work for hours without
creating any error. If millions of ca.lculations are to be performed, a computer will perform every calculation
with the same accuracy. Due 10 this capability it overpowers human being in rout me type of work.
4.4 Versatility
It means the capacity to perform completely different type of work. You may use your computer to
prepare payroU slips. Next moment you may use it for inventory management or lo prepare electric bills.
4.5 Power of Remembering
Computer has the power of storing any amount of information or data. Any information can be stored
and recalled as long as you require it, for any numbers o f years. It depends entirely upon you how much data
you want to store In n computer and when to lose or retrieve these data.
4.6 No IQ
Computer is a dumb machine and it cannot do any work without instruction from the user. It performs
the instructions at tremendous speed and with accuracy. It is you to decide what you want 10 do and in what
sequence. So a computer cannot take its own decision as you can.
4.7 No Feeling
It does not have foclings or emotion, taste, knowledge and experience. Thus it does not get tired even
after long hours of work. It does not distinguish between users.
4.8 Storage
The Computer has an in-built memory where it can store a large amount of data. You can also store data
in secondary storage devices such as floppies, which can be kepi outside your computer and can be carried to
other compu1ers.

5- Computer Categories.
Complllters are categorized into four general types based mainly on their processing speeds and their
capacity lo store data.
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 1- Supercomputers:
Supercomputers are high-capacity computers that cost millions of doUars. Occupy special air-
conditioned rooms, and are often used for research. wea1herforccas1ing, and ma1hc ma1ical researcli

2- Mainframe Computers:
Less powerful than supercomputers. Mainframe computers are fast, large-capacity computers also
occupying specially wired, a ir-conditioned rooms. Mainframes are used by large organizations. banlcs,
airlines universities.

3- Mini,computers:
Because of their lesser processing speeds and data-storing capacities, they have been typically
used by medium-sized companies for specific purposes, such as accounting.

4- Microcomputers:
Microcomputers are small computers that can fit on a desktop. Microcomputers are of two types:
personal comp_uters and workstations.

FUNCTIONAL UNITS
In order 10 carry out the operations mentioned in the previous section the computer allocates the task
between its various functional units. The computer system is divided into three separate units for its
operation. They are 1) arithmetic logical unit, 2) control unit, and 3) central processing unit.

Arithmetic ILogical Unit (ALU)

After you e.nter data through the input device it is stored in the primary storage unit. The actual
processing of the data and Instruction are performed by Arithmetic Logical Unit. The major operations
performed by the ALU are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, logic and comparison. Data is
transferred to ALU from storage unit when required. After processing the output is returned back to storage
unit for further processing or getting stored.
Control Unit (CU)
The ne:xt component of computer is the Control Unit, which acts like the supervisor seeing that things
are done in proper fashion. The control unit detennines the sequence in which computer programs and
instructions are executed. Things like processing of programs stored in the main memory, inteliJ)relation of
the instructi.o ns and issuing of signals for other units of the computer lo execute them. It also acts as a switch
board operator when several users access the computer simultaneously. Thereby it coordinates t he activities
of computer 's peripheral equipment as they perform the input and output. Therefore it is the manager of aU
operations mentioned in the previous section.
Central Processing Unit (CPU)

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 The ALU and Lhe CU of a computer system are jointly known as Lhe central processing unit. You may
call CPU as. the brain of any computer system. It is just like brain that takes all major decisions, makes all
sorts of calculations and directs different parts of the computer functions by activating and controUing the
operations.

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A computer is a fast electronic device that processes raw data, performs arithmetic and
logical operations, and produces output. Nowadays, the computer has become a part of
our life and can be used in most fields. In a computer, there are various characteristics
of computer systems depending on their size, capacity, and specifications. But, the
major characteristics of the computer can be classified into Speed, Accuracy, Diligence,
Versatility, Reliability, Consistency, Memory, Storage Capacity, Remembrance Power,
and Automation.

Speed,

Accuracy,

Diligence,

Versatility,

Reliability,

Consistency,

Memory,

Storage Capacity,

Remembrance Power,

SPEED.

The computer is a fast device; it can perform a task in a few seconds that a human
being does in an entire year. Powerful computers can capable of performing about 3 to
4 billion simple arithmetic operations per second.

ACCURACY.
The accuracy is one of the most important features in computer. Accuracy means the
computer is always perfect in his work and he never makes mistakes
Diligence :

The capacity of computer of performing repetitive task without getting tired is called
diligence. A computer is free from tiredness, lack of concentration, fatigue etc therefore
it can work for hours without creating any errors

Versatility :
A computer's versatility is its ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously or
different types of work

Reliability
Reliability refers to its ability to consistently perform its planned functions without
errors or failures . A rel iable computer is one that operates as expected and delivers
consistent performance under a variety of cond itions and workloads.

Consistency
Consistency refers to the ability of a computer to work In a reliable and predictable
manner. Consistency allows the computer to perform at the same level of
performance regardless of the workload or usage conditions.

Memory

A computer has built-in memory called primary memory where It stores data.
Secondary storage are removable devices such as CDs, pen drives, etc., which are also
used to store data.

Storage capacity

Storage capacity refers to how much disk space one or more storage devices provides.
It measures how much data a computer system may contain.
TYPES OF COMPUTE RS
• Analog
• Digital
1. Mini
2. Micro
3. Super
4. Mainframe
• Hybrid
1) Supercomputer
Let's explain the type of computer known as a supercomputer and its significance in
modem computing. Supercomputers are the largest and fastest computers, capable
of processing trillions of functions in seconds. These computers are primarily used for
data-intensive and computation-intensive scientific tasks such as password encryption
and decryption, weather forecasting, exploring the solar system etc.

2) Mainframe computer
Mainframe computers have a large amount of memory and processors and can perform
billions of transactions and simple calculations in real time. This type of computer is
primarily used for transaction servers, commercial databases, and applications that
require high reliability, security, and speed. These are the computers to have when '0'
downtime is acceptable.

3) Minicomputer
Minicomputers are smaller, less expensive, and less powerful than mainframes or
supercomputers but more pricey and powerful than personal computers. These
computers are multi-user systems with more than one user working simultaneously.
These computers are primarily used for engineering and scientific computations, file
management, business transaction processing, and other similar tasks.

4) Workstation
Now let's explain the type of computer known as a workstation and its significance in
modern computing. A workstation is a computer or group of computers used primarily
by a single user to perform professional or commercial work. These types of computers
have more computational (processing} power than a standard PC. They are primarily
used for video editing, playing high-graphic games, 3D animation, etc.
5) PC
A PC or personal computer or microcomputer, is a general-purpose computer for
personal use. This type of computer comprises a CPU, memory, an input unit, and an
output unit. This type of computer is appropriate for personal tasks such as watching a
movie, completing an assignment, etc.
HYBRID COMPUTERS: These combined analog and digital components to
leverage the strengths of both.

ANALOG COMPUTERS
1) DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZERS:
These were larQe-scale mechanical devices used to solve differential equations.
They employed gears, shafts, and integrators to represent variables and perform
mathematical operations
2) ELECTRONIC ANALOG COMPUTERS
Operational Amplifiers (Op-Amps): These are versatile electronic components that
can be used to perform various mathematical operations like addition, subtraction,
integration, and differentiation. They form the basis of many analog computer circuits.
"Introduction to C"
1. C is o high level programming language deve loped in the
early 1970's at Bell Labs by Dennis Ritchie C is a high-level
programming la ng uage developed in the early 1970s at Bell
Labs by Dennis Ritchie. It is known for its efriciency, flexibility,
and close-to-hardware capabilities, making it a popular choice
for system programming , embedded systems, and application
development.

2. :Key features:
2. 1 "Low-level Access" : C provides features that allow d irect
manipula tion of hardware and memory, making is suitable for
system-level programming.
2.2 "Probability" : C code can be compiled on various platforms
with minimal changes, allowing for widespread use across
different systems.
2.3 "Rich Library Support" : C hos a standard library that offers a
wide range of built-in functions for tasks such as string
manipulation, mathematical computations, and file handling.
2.4 "Procedura l Language" : C follows a procedural programming
paradigm, focusing on functions and procedures to operate o n
data.
2.5 "Modula rity" : C supports modula r p rogramming through
functions, which helps in o rganizing code and enhancing
reusability .

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3. C programming language is known for its simplicity and
efficiency. It is the best choice to start w ith programm ing as it
gives you a foundationa l understanding of programming.

4. "C Variables and Constants"

 4.1 A va riable in C language is the name associated w ith some
memory location to store data of different types. There are
many types of variables in C depending on the scope, storage
class, lifetime, type of data they store, etc. A variable is the
basic building block of a C program that can be used in
expressions as a substitute in place of t he value it stores.

4.2 The Constants in Care the read -only variables whose values
cannot be modified once they are declared In the C program.
The type of constant can be an integer constant, a floating
pointer constant, a string constant, or a character constant. In C
language, the constant keyword is used to define the constants.

5 "Operator's of c"
An operator in C can be defined as the symbol that helps us to
perform some specific mathematical, relational, bitwise, conditional, or
logical computations on values and variables. The values and variables used
with operators are called operands. So we can say that the operators are
the symbols that perform operations on operands.

6 uTypes of Operators in C"

6. 1 Arithmetic o perators
6.2 Relatio nal operators
6.3 Logica l operators
6.4 Bitwise opera tors
6.5 Assignment operators
6.6 other operators .

7. C is a general purpose programming language.

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 8. It is a very popular and most widely used
programming language.

9. Many of the important ideas of C are being brought

from the BPCL language.

10. C programming is considered as the base for other

programming languages, that is why it is known as mother
language.

11.C is strongly associated with UNIX, as it was

developed to write the UNIX operating system.

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WHY IS C LANGUAGE IMPORTANT
• Influential: C is a highly influent ial languag e that has served as
a basis for many other languages.

• Versatile: C is used in many areas. includin g developing

operati ng systems, embed ded system s, and application
softwar e.

• Fast: C is a fast language that can run smooth ly on older

devices.

• Compa ct: C Is kno'Nl'l for produc ing compa ct and efficien t

code.

• Portable: Programs written in C can run on any platform

withou t needing to be recompiled.

• Easy to ream: c is relatively easy to learn. making it a good

option for beginners.

• Prerequisite: C is a prerequisite for learning more modem

program ming languages.

• Dynamic memory manag ement C supports dynamic memor y

manag ement (DMA), which allows you to manage the size of
data structur es during runtime .

• Procedural: C is a procedural language that emphasizes the

algorithm side of programming.

• Integrates with other languages: C integrates well with other

programming languages.