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Chapter- 1 Computer System Organization

Computers Are Everywhere:

Computers are seen everywhere around us, in all spheres of life. May it
be the field of education and research, travel and tourism, weather
forecasting, social networking, ecommerce or any other; computers have
now become an indispensable part of our lives. The manner, in which
computers have revolutionized our lives because of their accuracy and
speed of performing a job, is truly remarkable. Today no organization can
function without a computer. In fact various organizations are trying to
become paper free owing to benefits of computers.
What is Computer?
Computer is an advanced electronic device that takes raw data as input
from the user and processes these data under the control of set of
instructions (called program) and gives the result (output) and saves
output for the future use. It can process both numerical and non-
numerical (arithmetic and logical) calculations.

Functioning of a computer:
A computer performs basically five major functions irrespective of its size
and make.
It accepts data or instructions by way of input
It stores data
It processes data as required by the user

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Chapter- 1 Computer System Organization

It controls operations of a
computer
It gives results in the form
of output
(IPO CYCLE)

Input (Data):
Input is the raw information entered into a computer from the input
devices. It is the collection of letters, numbers, images etc.
Process:
Process is the operation of data as per given instruction. It is totally
internal process of the computer system.
Output:
Output is the processed data given by computer after data processing.
Output is also called as Result.
We can save these results in the storage devices for the future use.

Functional Components of a Computer

The computer is the combination of hardware and software. Both
hardware and software together make the computer system function.
Every task given to a computer follows an Input- Process- Output Cycle
(IPO cycle).

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Chapter- 1 Computer System Organization

Functional Components of a Computer System

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

It is the brain of computer system. It controls, guides, directs to all the

connected devices. It is divided in to two major parts-

Control Unit:
It controls to all the devices and guides the flow of data and information.

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU):

This unit performs all the arithmetical (+, -, x, / ) and logical (>, <, <=, >=,
<>) calculations.

Both Units is designed in a single Circuit known as Microprocessor in PCs.

Memory Registers:
A register is a temporary unit of memory in the CPU. These receive
data/information and then this data/information is held in them as per
the requirement.
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Input Devices:
Input device is a peripheral used to enter data, instructions or commands
and user response in to computer.
NOTE: An Input unit fetches the input and converts it into binary form
which is directly understood by the computer.

The following devices are used as input device

Key Board Mic

Mouse (Mechanical, Optical) MICR
Light Pen OCR
Touch Screens OMR
Joystick Smart card Reader
Scanner (Hand held, Flatbed & Drum) Camera
Biometric Sensor Digital / Web Graphic Tablet

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Keyboard: It is an input device which sends data in to the computer. The

data send depends on the key pressed by the user.
Mouse: A mouse is a small handheld input device which controls a cursor
in a graphical user interface. It can move and select text, files, folders etc.
on our computer according to the user input.
Scanner: Scanner optically reads and document, file or image and then
changes it into digital signal and sends to the computer.
OMR: optical mark recognition/ reader, is used to read marks on a
document and send them to computer.
OCR: OCR stands for optical character Recognition, is an input device
which reads printed text and sends that to computer.
MICR: Magnetic Ink Character Reader is an input device which generally
finds application is banks to process cheques.
Microphone: it receives audio generated by some input source and sends
the same to a computer. Webcam: it sends the captured images to a
computer.
Graphics Tablets: This input device is used to draw using hand.
Trackballs: an upside down mouse, encased within a socket. It is a cursor
control device.
Barcode reader: It is used to read the barcode of various items and feed
the same to computer.

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Gamepad: Also known as joy pad is the input controller for video games.
Joystick: these input devices are used to control video games.

Output Devices:
Output devices produce output (result) in human understandable form.
The following devices are used as output device.
NOTE: A Monitor is termed as both an Input as well as an Output device.

Monitor (CRT & LCD / TFT [Thin Film Transistors])

Printer (Dot Matrix, Inkjet, Laser)
Plotters
Speakers

Monitor: A monitor is an output device that is responsible for receiving

data from a computer and displaying that information as text or images
for users to see.

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Speakers: Receives sound signal from a computer and then plays that
sound signal and thus we hear songs or music or any other audio.

Projector: Gets data from a computer and displays or projects the same
information onto a screen or a wall. Projector cannot directly accept data
from a user and send that data to another device.

Memory:
Memory attached to the CPU is used for storage of data and instructions.

The memory unit is divided into:

Random Access Memory (RAM)

Read Only Memory(ROM)

RAM:
Random Access Memory, often know as RAM, provides space for your
computer to temporarily store data that is in current use so the CPU can
quickly access and read information.
The reason why RAM is 'random' is because any piece of information can
be circulated through it, regardless of its location or its relation to the
other data stored already.

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Characteristic of Main Memory

 These are semiconductor memories.
 It is known as main memory.
 Usually volatile memory.
 Data is lost in case power is switched off.
 It is working memory of the computer.
 Faster than secondary memories.
 A computer cannot run without primary memory.

RAM ROM

ROM (Read Only Memory):

It is used to store the instructions provided by the manufacturer, which
holds the instructions to check basic hardware inter connecter and to
load operating system from appropriate storage device.

In this type of memory the information is stored permanently; it is not

lost after the system shuts down. The advantage of using this memory is
that there are some complex functions like translators that are used
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repeatedly. These functions are permanently stored in the ROM and

these instructions are hard wired in ROM so the execution is very fast.

Cache Memory:
A cache is a temporary memory area
that helps your computer or peripheral
to process information. This is a very
high speed semiconductor memory
which can speed up CPU. It acts as a buffer between the CPU and main
memory. A buffer is a data area shared by hardware devices or program
processes that operate at different speeds or with different sets of
priorities.

Units of Memory:
The elementary unit of memory is a bit. A group of 4 bits is called a nibble
and a group of 8 bits is called a byte. One byte is the minimum space
required to store one character.

Other units of memory are:

The smallest unit is bit, which mean either 0 or 1.

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1 bit = 0 or 1
1 Byte = 8 bit
1 Nibble = 4 bit
1 Kilo Byte = 1024 Byte = 210 Byte
1 Mega Byte = 1024 KB = 210 KB
1 Gega Byte = 1024 MB = 210 MB
1 Tera Byte = 1024 GB = 210 GB
1 Peta Byte =1024 TB = 210 TB
1 Exa Byte =1024 PB = 210 PB
1 Zetta Byte = 1024 EB = 210 EB
1 Yotta Byte = 1024 ZB = 210 ZB

Secondary memory:
Secondary Memory is the external memory of a
computer. Secondary Memory is also called Auxiliary memory or device.
Secondary memory is computer memory that is non-volatile and
persistent in nature and is not directly accessed by a computer/processor.
It allows a user to store data that may be instantly and easily retrieved,
transported and used by applications and services.

Secondary memory consists of all permanent or persistent storage

devices, such as read-only memory (ROM), flash drives, hard disk drives
(HDD), magnetic tapes and other types of internal/external storage

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media. In computing operations, secondary memory is accessed only by

the primary or main memory and later transported to the processor.

Secondary memory is slower than primary memory but can store and
retain data, even if the computer is not connected to electrical power. It
also has substantial storage capacities, ranging from some MBs to several
TBs of storage space within single memory.

Secondary memory is needed because of the following reasons:

A. For permanence: As the RAM is volatile, i.e. it loses all information

when the electricity is turned off, something is needed for permanence.
Secondary storage devices serve this purpose. They do not lose data
when electricity is turned off.

B. For portability: Secondary storage, like the CDs, flash drives can be
used to transport data from one computer to another.
There are the following main types of storage media.

a. Magnetic b. Optical c. Solid State

Magnetic storage media:

Examples of magnetic storage media are hard disks, floppy disks and
magnetic tapes. Magnetic media is coated with a magnetic sensitive layer

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and this layer is magnetized in clockwise or anticlockwise directions,

which then are interpreted as binary 1s and 0s at reading.

Magnetic Tape:

Magnetic Tape is a recording medium consisting of a thin tape with a

coating of a fine magnetic material, used for recording analogue or digital
data. A device that stores computer data on magnetic tape is a tape drive.
The capacity of tape media are generally on the same order as hard disk
drives (The largest being about 5 Terabytes in 2011). Magnetic Tapes
Generally transfer data a bit slower than hard drives, however magnetic
tapes are cheaper and are more durable.

Floppy Disk:

Floppy Disks were an were a ubiquitous form of data storage between

1980's and early 2000's, However they have now been superseded by
data storage methods with much greater capacity, such as USB flash
drives. Floppy disk comes in 3 sizes: 8-inches, 5.5-inches and 3.5-inches.
The capacities of Floppy disks vary between 1-250 Megabytes and these
devices were very slow, reading data at rates of bytes and Kbytes/second.
However, most are very small and portable.

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Hard Disk:

The hard disk drive is the main and usually largest data storage device in a
computer. It is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data
storage device. A hard drive is made up of platters which stored the data,
and read/write heads to transfer data. A Hard Drive is generally the
fastest of the secondary storage devices, and has the largest data storage
capacity, approximately the same as Magnetic Tapes. Hard drives
however, are not very portable and are primarily used internally in a
computer system. Some persons use hard drives externally as a form of
storage and as a substitute for portable storage, hard drives used for
these purposes are called external hard drives.

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A Hard Disk is divided into tracks and sectors; Data on this hard disk is
positioned into these tracks and sectors so they can be easily read by
the heads and also to help reduce fragmentation on the hard disk.
Below are 2 diagrams depicting how a hard disk is divided into tracks
and sectors:

Data on a hard drive are accessed by two methods:

1) Fixed Head: Hard Disks with fixed heads have a read/write head for
each track on the hard disk, since there is no moving of heads to access
data, the data access time is generally faster for Fixed head Hard
Drives.
2) Moving Head: A moving head hard disk is one in which one or more
read-write heads are attached to a movable arm which allows each
head to cover many tracks of information

Optical storage media:

On an optical storage media information is stored and read using a laser
beam. The data is stored as a spiral pattern of pits and ridges denoting
binary 0 and binary 1.
Examples of optical media are CDs, DVDs etc.

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CD –

It is an abbreviation of compact disk, and is a form of data storage that

can transfer data up to the speed of 7800 KB/s. A standard 120 mm CD
holds up to 700 MB of data, or about 70 minutes of audio. There are two
types of CD: CD-ROM and CD-RW, CD-ROM are stands for CD-Read Only
Memory and they function the same way Read Only Memory Does. CD-
RW Stands for CD-Rewritable, these disks can be erased and rewritten at
any time.

DVD –

It is an abbreviation of Digital Versatile Disc, and is an optical disc storage

media format that can be used for data storage. The DVD supports disks
with capacities of 4.7 GB to 17 GB and access rates of 600 KBps to 1.3
MBps.
A standard DVD disc store up to 4.7 GB of data. There are two types of
DVD's: DVD-ROM and DVD-RW. DVD-ROM are stands for DVD-Read Only
Memory and they function the same way Read Only Memory Does. DVD-
RW Stands for DVD-Rewritable, these disks can be erased and rewritten
at any time.

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Blue Ray Disk:

This is the latest optical storage media to store high definition audio and
video. It looks like a CD or DVD but can store up to 27 GB of data on a
single layer disk and up to 54 GB of data on a dual layer disk. Where CDs
or DVDs use red laser beam, the blue ray disk uses a blue laser to
read/write data on a disk.

Solid State Memories:

The term ‘solid-state’ essentially means ‘no moving parts’. Hence Solid-
state storage devices are based on electronic circuits with no moving
parts (no reels of tape, no spinning discs, no laser beams, etc.) Solid-state
storage devices store data using a special type of memory called flash
memory. SSD, Solid-state drive (or flash memory) is used mainly in digital
cameras, pen drives or USB flash drives.

Flash Drive

A flash drive is a small external storage device, typically the size of a

human thumb that consists of flash memory. USB flash drives are
removable and rewritable reads and write to flash memory. They are a
solid-state storage medium that's both inexpensive and durable.
Currently, USB 2.0 flash drives on the market are able to reach a data
transfer speed of 480 Mbit/s and USB 3.0 has transmission speeds of up
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to 5 Gbit/s. USB Flash drives vary in sizes from 8 Megabytes to 512

Gigabytes. More commonly used sizes vary from 2 Gigabytes -16
Gigabytes.

Flash Memory cards

Flash memory is a EEPROM non-volatile computer storage chip. These

Memory cards currently vary in sizes between 1 Gigabytes -16 Gigabytes
and they transfer data at a rate of approximately 14.65 MB/s. Flash
memory cards have most of the same characteristics of a flash drive in
that they are inexpensive and durable, and are very small. However Flash
memory cards are Flat and have a size of about 1 inch * 0.75 inch with a
thickness of about 2mm. Flash memory cards also have a smaller version
which is used within cell phones; These smaller cards are about
6mmX3mm in size and are less than 1mm thick.

MOBILE SYSTEM ORGANIZATION

Mobile devices working:

A Mobile Phone is essentially a two-way radio, consisting of a radio
transmitter and a radio receiver.

Mobile Phone Components:

1. A circuit board as brains of the phone 5. A microphone

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2. A liquid crystal display (LCD) 6. An antenna

3. A keyboard / A touch screen 7. A battery
4. A speaker
Functional Components of a Mobile System

Functions of different components of mobile device

RF transceiver –
Receive and send radio signal from to mobile device with mobile network
(tower).

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SIM-
A subscriber identity module is an integrated circuit that store the
international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number and its related
key, which are used to identify and authenticate subscribers on mobile
telephony devices. It is also possible to store contact information on
many SIM cards.

Battery pack –

Batteries are miracles of chemical engineering, holding huge amounts of

energy to keep mobile devices running for hours.

Battery management –
An electronic system that manages are chargeable battery (cell or battery
pack), such as by protecting the battery from operating outside its safe
operating area [clarification needed], monitoring its state, calculating
secondary data, reporting that data.

A battery charger or recharger –

It is a device used to put energy into a secondary cell or rechargeable

battery by forcing an electric current through it.

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Touch interface –

Either keyboard based where user have to press key and commands are
given to mobile device or touch screen based where user touch the
screen to give commands.

Communication processor –

It is used to create an interface between radio signal management and

APU/GPU.

APU – a microprocessor processes application based data.

GPU–a microprocessor processes graphical data to how to display.

Codec –

It is short for "coder-decoder." A device used to encode audio/video data.

ADC - Analog to digital converter.

DAC– Digital to analog converter.

A Phone's memory –
It includes RAM and ROM. RAM equals the memory (or memory bar) of
the computer, while ROM is the device's internal storage, equaling the
hard disk of the computer. The bigger the RAM, the more software the
phone runs smoothly; While the bigger the ROM, the more platform data
it can store.

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Camera unit –
It provides a complete set of image processing operations like instant
image capture, high-resolution support, image stabilization and other
image enhancements.

External storage –
In some cases, mostly android or windows OS, phones support an
external micro SD card to further expand the storage available by default.

Computer Battery and Power

CMOS Battery
The Complementary Metal-Oxide
Semiconductor chip usually abbreviated as
CMOS chip is powered by the CMOS battery.
The CMOS battery, unlike the other battery
types is present in each and every computer
on its motherboard. They are small in size
(coinsized).
The CMOS chip or CMOS RAM on your computer remembers everything
like the disk drive, time and date, etc., so you don’t want to have a CMOS
battery failure.
The CMOS battery always provides power to the CMOS chip, i.e., even
when your computer is OFF to save all the settings. Traditionally, BIOS

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settings were stored in CMOS RAM, which was powered by a battery

when the computer was powered off. The battery was necessary because
the settings would be lost if all power was lost, just as the data in your
computer’s RAM is lost when it loses power. So, it is very important at the
time of booting your computer and other tasks.

Power Consumption
The power consumption of a CPU is determined primarily by operating
frequency, which is then determined by usage. Usage in this case refers
to processing power demand (CPU utilization).
The power consumption of computers varies significantly due to two key
factors: Usage and which parts are in them.
The power consumption for different computers are given below:
 For desktop computers, the power consumption ranges from 40 to
250 watts for PCs without monitors. Workstations may consume
more energy. A computer that is on for eight hours a day uses
almost 600 kWh and emits 175 kg of CO2 per year.
 Most laptop computers use about 60-100 watts/hour, far less than
desktops. A laptop that is on for eight hours a day uses between 150
and 300 kWh and emits between 44 and 88 kg of CO2 per year.

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