CS1001E

Computer Programming
Lecture #6
Fundamentals of Computing

Monsoon 2024
Amit Praseed, Saleena N, Santosh Kumar Behera
CSED NITC
Outline
• Fundamentals
• Hardware
• Software
• Logical Units
• Program
• Programming Languages
• Programming
• Program execution

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Hardware

• Hardware - Physical devices

• Input/output devices – mouse, keyboard, display screen, printer …

• Processing units
• Memory - primary memory, secondary storage devices like hard disk

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Software - Programs

• Word Processor
• Browser
• Search Engine
• Operating System
• ………

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Software contd.

• Operating Systems (Linux, Windows, macOS …)

• manages computer resources like processor, memory

• provides services to applications

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Logical Units
Logical Units
• Input Unit
• Output Unit
• Memory Unit
• Central Processing Unit (CPU)
• Secondary Storage Unit

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Logical Units
• Input Unit
• Input data and programs
• keyboard, mouse, touch screens, devices for audio/ video, image inputs …

• Output Unit
• Output the processed information
• screen, printer, audio/video output …

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Logical Units contd.
• Memory Unit
• Stores program and data
• Primary memory / Main Memory
• RAM (Random Access Memory)
• volatile
• read / write
• ROM (Read Only Memory)

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Logical Units contd.

• Central Processing Unit (CPU)

• Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)
• calculations (additions, subtraction…)
• comparing data items
• logical operations
• Coordinates and supervises the operation of other units

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Logical Units contd.

• Secondary Storage Unit

• Long-term storage, high capacity
• Hard drives, USB flash drives …
• Slower and cheaper compared to Primary memory

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Program
Program

• Program - set of instructions to the computer to perform a specific

task
• written in a programming language
• program to add two numbers

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Program

• Program - set of instructions to the computer to perform a specific

task
• Program to add two numbers consists of instructions to
• read the numbers - input
• add the numbers – arithmetic operation
• print the result - output

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Instruction

• command to perform operations like

• assign value to variable
• perform arithmetic / logical operations
• input / output …

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Programming Languages
• Low level languages
• Machine dependent
• Machine Language
• Assembly language

• High-level language
• Machine independent
• C, C++, Java, Python …

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Programming
Programming
• Writing
• Compiling
• Executing (running)
• Testing
• Debugging

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Programming
• Writing
• Typing a program using an editor

• Compiling
• Translating the program to object code (the code that machine can
understand)

• Executing (running)
• Performing the operation specified in each instruction of the program

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Programming

• Testing
• Checking if the program does what it is supposed to do

• Debugging
• Resolving bugs (errors) in the program

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Program Execution
Program Execution

• Memory contains
• set of instructions in the program
• data items
• Operation specified in each instruction is performed

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Runtime Memory Layout

Program Area

Data Area

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Runtime Memory Layout

Instruction 1
Program Area
Instruction 2
........

Data1
Data2 Data Area
………

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Programming Languages
• Low-Level languages – machine dependent
• Machine Language
• elementary operations represented by bit strings (strings of 1s and 0s)
• Assembly language
• elementary operations represented by mnemonics (like load, add, store)
• Assembler – a program to translate assembly code to equivalent code in machine
language
• High-level language – machine independent
• Examples - C, C++, Java, Python …
• Compiled / Interpreted

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Compiled vs. Interpreted
• Compiler
• translates HLL program (source code) to machine language code (target code)
• often to assembly language code
• different compilers for different machines

• Interpreter
• executes HLL programs directly
• converts the program to some intermediate representation

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HLL program translation
a = b + c;
Meaning: add together values in the memory locations b and c, store the result in
location a

Primitive operations
• Load value from location b to register1
• Load value from location c to register2
• Add values in register1, register2
• Store the result in location a
Note: Registers are storage units in CPU for holding the operands and results of operation being executed

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Code Generated (hypothetical machine)

HLL instructions Low Level instructions

a = b + c; load R1, b
load R2, c
add R1, R2
store a, R1

add R1, R2 // assuming result in R1

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C Programming - phases
C Programming - phases
• Writing a program
• Preprocessing and Compiling
• Linking
• Loading
• Execution
• Testing

• Debugging

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Programming
• Write a program
•Type in the program using an editor
• Store (save) the program as a file
• file name with extension .c (example: sample.c)
• Compile the program
• translate the program to machine understandable form
• Execute (run) the program

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Writing a C program
• Editing a program in an editor
• some popular editors used in Linux - vi, emacs, gedit
• Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like eclipse provide editor and
other tools required for compilation, debugging etc.
• Store (save) the program (source code) as a file in a secondary storage
device
• file name with extension .c (sample.c)

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Programming in the Linux environment
• text editors - vi, emacs, gedit …

• command to compile the program named sample.c

gcc sample.c
• creates a file named a.out containing the executable code

• command to execute (run) the program

./a.out

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Preprocessing and Compiling
• Compiler translates C program to machine code (also known as object
code)
• Compilation command invokes a preprocessor before translation
begins
• Preprocessor acts based on the preprocessor directives
• e.g.: #include <stdio.h>
• Does modifications in the source code, like inserting contents from other files
• The preprocessed source code is translated to object code
• Compiler detects and reports some of the errors
• Syntax errors like missing semicolon – compile time errors
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Linking
• Linker
• program that links together multiple object files to create an executable
in Linux, the executable is named a.out (by default)
• C programs typically use functions defined in other files
• standard library functions - e.g. printf(), scanf()
• Command gcc compiles and links

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Loading
• Loader
• loads the executable from secondary storage to memory
• in Linux, ./a.out loads and executes the program

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Errors
• Compile time errors
• Compiler detects and reports some of the errors
• Syntax errors like missing semicolon
• variables used without declaration

• Runtime or execution-time errors

• e.g. executing program is attempting to divide by 0
• May terminate without results / terminate with incorrect results
• Program does not terminate?
• Debugger – program that helps in detecting the bugs

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Historical Developments
Historical Developments
• Early developments
• mechanical devices for automating arithmetic computations
• Charles Babbage’s designs
• 1820s - Difference Engine
• 1830s - Analytical Engine
• Similar in design to a modern computer
• Couldn’t complete a working model

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Historical Developments contd.
• Early Computers
• programmed externally using wires, connectors and plug boards
• memory unit stored only data, not instructions
• The stored program computer
• Model proposed by John Von Neumann in 1946
• Von Neumann Architecture- instructions encoded in binary, stored in memory along with
data
• invented programming
• EDVAC (1949) – one of the first stored program computer
• 1950s
• computers built for sale - UNIVAC I, IBM 701
• first High level programming languages - FORTRAN, COBOL

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Historical Developments contd.
• Early computers
• bulky, expensive, slow and unreliable
• vacuum tubes for processing and storage, punched cards for I/O
• Technology changes caused reduction in size and cost, and increase in processing
speed
• Late 1950s - transistors replaced vacuum tubes
• 1965-75 - Integrated circuits – several electronic components etched onto a
piece of silicon
• minicomputers
• 1975-85 - complete computer system on a single circuit board
• microcomputers – desktop machines

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Historical Developments - self study
• Developments during World War II
• Contributions of Alan Turing
• ENIAC

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C programming Language
• Originally developed in the Bell Labs for the UNIX operating system by
Dennis Ritchie in the early 1970s
• the OS, the C compiler, and UNIX applications were written in C
• Standard C (1989) / ANSI C
• approved by ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and ISO
(International Standards Organization)
• revisions – C99, C11, C17, C23 (expected to be published in 2024)
• Popular
• second most popular language as per TIOBE index (Aug ‘24)

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