_ L MODULE 2 Basic Component of Computer Components of Computer refer to physical and the non-physical part of the system. Aco mputer system can be divided into hardware, software and humanware The Hardware The hardware refers to the physical components and the devices which make up the visi ble computer. It can be divided into two: Central Processing Unit (CPU) and the Peripher als. The CPU is responsible for all processing that the computer does while the peripher als are responsible for feeding data into the system and for collecting information from t he system, The CPU consists of Main storage, ALU and Control Unit. The main storage is used for storing data to be processed as well as the instructions for processing them. The ALU is the unit for arithmetic and logical operations. The control unit ensures the smooth opera tion of the other hardware units. It fetches instruction, decode (interprets) the instruction and issues commands to the units responsible for executing the instructions ‘The peripherals are in three categories: Input devices, Output devices and auxiliary stor age devices. ‘The input device is used for supplying data and instructions to the computer. Examples are terminal Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Microphone, Scanney, Webcam, etc. Output device is used for obtaining result (information) from the computer. Examples are Printers, Video Display Unit (VDU), loudspeaker, projector etc, Auxiliary Storage Devices are used for storing information on a longterm basis. Exampl es are hard disk, flash disk, magnetic tape, memory card, solid state drive SDD ete. Asimple model of the hardware part of a computer system is shown below: Peripherals Auxiliary Output Un | Unit ‘Storage Pe Unit | x Main Memory Processing ores ‘Aithmetic | and Logic | | Central | | Unit | x= = | L | | | |Figure 2.1: Hardware part of a computer system 1.1 The Software Software are basically referred to as programs. A program consists of sequence of instr uctions required to accomplish well-defined tasks. Examples of such tasks include: 1. Finding the average score of a student 2. Computing the net pay of an employee 3. Solving a set of simultaneous linear equations Itis the software that enables the hardware to be put into ef fectiveuse. There are two m ain categories of software ~ System software and Application software. 3.1.1 System Software System software are programs commonly written by computer manufacturers, which ha ve direct effect on the control, performance and ease of usage of the computer system Examples are Operating System, Language Translators, Utilities and Service Programs, a nd Database Management Systems (DBMS). Operating System is a collection of program modules which form an interface between t he computer hardware and the computer user. Its main function is to ensure a judicious and efficient utilization of all the system resources (such as the processor, memory, perip herals and other system data) as well as to provide programming convenience for the us et, Examples are Unix, Linux, Windows, Macintosh, and Disk Operating system, Language Translators are programs which translate programs written in non-machine la guages such as FORTRAN, C, Pascal, and BASIC into the machine language equivalent Example of language translators are assemblers, interpreters, compilers and preprocesso r «Assemblers: This is a program that converts program written in assembly langua “d rTL «Interpreter: This is a program that converts program written in high level languag e (HLL) into its machine language (ML) equivalent one line at a time. Language li ke BASIC is normally interpreted. ge (low level language) into machine language equivalent © Compiler: Thisis a program that translates program written in high level languag € (HLL) into machine language (ML) equivalent all at once. Compilers are normal! y called by thenames of the high-level language they translate. For instance, COB OL compiler, FORTRAN compiler etc. Preprocessor: This is a language translator that takes a program in ane HLL and produces equivalent program in another HLL. For example, there are many prepro cessors to map structured version of FORTRAN into conventional FORTRAN. Database Management System (DBMS) is a complex program that is used for creation, storage, retrieving, securing and maintenance of a database. A database can be describ ed as an organized collection of related data relevant to the operations of a particular or ganization. The data are stored usually ina central location and can be accessed by diff erent authorized users. Linker is a program that takes several object files and libraries as input and produces on e executable object file Loader is a program that places an executable object file into memory and makes them ready for execution. Both linker and loader are provided by the operating system Utility and Service Programs These are programs which provide facilities for performing common computing tasks of a routine nature. The following are some of the examples of commonly used utility progr ams @ Sort Utility: This is used for arranging records of a file in a specified sequence (al phabetic, numerical or chronological) of a particular data item within the records. The data item is referred to as the sort key. # Merge Utility: This is used to combine two or more already ordered files together t 0 producea single file © Copy Utility: This is used mainly for transferring data from a storage medium tot he other, for example from disk to tape. @ Debugging Facilities: These are used for detecting and correcting errors in progra m @ Text Editors: These provide facilities for creation and amendment of program fro “d rT_ L m the terminal. © Benchmark Program: This is a standardized collection of programs that are used to evaluate hardware and software. For example, a benchmark might be used toc compare the performance of two different computers on identical tasks, assess the comparative performance of two operating systems etc. Application Software ‘These are programs written by a user to solve individual application problem. They do no thave any effect on the efficiency of the computer system. An example is a program toc alculate the grade point average of all the 100L students. Application software can be di vided into two namely: Application Package and User's Application Program. When app! ication programs are written in avery generalized and standardized nature such that the y can be adopted by a number of different organizations or persons to solve similar prob lem, they ate called Application Packages. There are a number of micro-computer based packages. These include word processors (such as Ms-word, WordPerfect, WordStar); Da tabase packages (such as Oracle, Ms-access, Sybase, SQL Server, and Inf ormix); Spread sheet packages (such as Lotus 1-2-3 and Ms-Excel) ; Graphic packages (such as CorelDra w, Fireworks, Photoshop etc), and Statistical packages (such as SPSS). User's Applicatio n Program is a program written by the user to solve specific problem which is not genera lized in nature. Examples include writing a program to find the roots of quadratic equatio 1, payroll application program, and program to compute students’ results The Human-ware Although, the computer system is automaticin the sense that once initiated, it can, witho ut human intervention, continue to work on its own under the control of stored sequence of instructions (program), however, it is not automatic in the sense that it has to be initiat ed by a human being, and the instructions specifying the operations to be carried out on the input data are given by human being. Therefore, apart from the hardware and softw are, the third element that can be identified in a computer system is the human-ware. T his term refers to the people that work with the computer system. The components of the human-ware in a computer system include the system analyst, the programmer, data ent ry operator, end users ete. Organizational Structure of a Typi Computer Installation The following diagram shows the organizational structure of a typical computer installat ion | System Development Operations Team [ 1 [ System Analysts Programmers Operators Control Clerks Data Entry OperatorFigure 2.2: Organizational Structure of a typical computer installation Data Processing Manager (DPM) supervises every other persons that work with him and is answerable directly to the management of the organization in which he works A System Analyst is a person that understudies an existing system in operation in order to ascertain whether or not computerization of the system is necessary and/or cost-effe ctive. When found necessary, he designs a computerized procedure and specifies the fu Nctions of the various programs needed to implement the system ‘A Programmer is the person that writes the sequence of instructions to be carried out by the computer in order to accomplish a well-defined task. The instructions are given in co mputer programming languages. A data entry operator is the person that enters data into the system via keyboard or any input device attached to a terminal. There are other ancillary staffs that perform other fu nections such as controlling access to the computer room, controlling the flow of jobs in and out of the computer room ‘An end-useris one for whom a computerized system is being implemented. The end-use r interacts with the computerized system in their day-to-day operations of the organizatio n. For example a cashier in the bank who receives cash from customers or pays money t © customers interacts with the banking information system