DEO

CHAPTER 1 BASICS OF COMPUTER.

What is a computer?

Computer is a device that transforms data into meaningful information. Data can be
anything like name, age, height etc of all the students in a class

What are the basic operations performed by a computer?

The basic operations performed by a computer are

i. accept data,
ii. store data,
iii. process data as required by the user
iv. Prints results in desired format
v. It controls all operations in a computer
vi. It can gives the result in a the form of output

What are the major characteristics of a computer?

The major characteristics of a computer are speed, accuracy, diligence, versatility and
storage.

What you mean by peripheral devices?

Peripheral devices are device that are connected to the computer externally.
Peripheral devices are as follows:
Input Devices 2. Output Devices 3. Other Peripherals

1
Draw block diagram of computer organization.

Fig 1.1: computer organization

What are the five basic operations performed by the computer? & briefly describe.

vii. Input Unit: Input is the process of entering data and programs into the computer
system. Input device accepts data and instructions from the user.
Eg-Keyboard, Mouse etc.
viii. Memory Unit (MU): Computer is used to store data and instructions. Computer
memory is classified into two. Primary memory and secondary memory.
ix. CPU: The brain of the computer. The ALU and the CU of a computer system are
jointly known as the Central Processing Unit.
x. Control Unit (CU): The process of input, output, processing and storage is
performed under the supervision of a unit called 'Control Unit'. It takes care of step
by step processing of all operations inside the computer.
xi. Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU): The major operations performed by the ALU are
addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, logic and comparison.
xii. Output Unit: Output is the process of producing results from the data for getting
useful information. Output device return processed data, ie, information to the user.
Eg: Monitor, Printer etc.

2
What is an input device? Briefly describe various important input devices.

Input devices accept data and instructions from the user.

1) Keyboard
 The most common input device.
 The keyboard in most common use is the QWERTY board.
 Generally standard keyboard has 104 keys.
The three categories of keys are:
a) Alphanumeric keys- It consists of alphabets(A- Z or a- z),numbers( 0-9) and other
characters(@,!,$,%,( ),{ },+,-,/,*,^,&,~,’, “.
b) Special keys – It performs specific tasks like Shift keys,Caps Lock keys,Enter key
etc
c) Function keys-It is used to perform a set of operation by a single keystroke like
F1,F2 etc.
2) Mouse
 A mouse is an electro-mechanical, hand-held device.
 It is used as a pointer.
 It can perform functions like selecting menu commands, moving icons, resizing
windows, starting programs, and choosing options.
 It is a small box with a round shaped ball on the bottom and one or more buttons on
the top.
3) Light pen
 An input device that utilizes a light-sensitive detector to select objects on a display
screen.
 Using light pen we can move the pointer and select objects on the display screen by
directly pointing to the objects with the pen.
4) Optical Scanner
3
  These devices are used for automatic data collection
 The devices of this category completely eliminate manual input of data.
For example,
 The bar-code reader is actually just a special type of image scanner.
 An image scanner translates printed images into an electronic format that can be
stored in a computer’s memory, and with the right kind of software, one can alter a
stored image.
 Another example of scanner is optical character recognition (OCR) device, used
by banks to convert the scanned image of a typed or printed page into text that can
be edited on the computer.
5) Touch Screen
 It is an input device.
 User interacts with the computer by touching text or images on the screen.
 Touch panel displays and pads are now being offered as alternatives to keyboard.
 Here the input can be given through the computer screen that accepts the input
through monitor.
6) Microphone
 Microphone is an input device, which takes voice as input.
There are two types of microphones
1) Desktop Microphone
2) Hand held Microphone
7) Track Ball
 Trackball is an input device.
 A pointing device, is a mouse lying on its back.
 To move the pointer, we rotate the ball with our thumb, our fingers, or the palm of
our hand.

4
  The advantage of trackballs over mouse is that the trackball is stationary so it does
not require much space to use it.
What is an output device?
Output devices return processed data that is information, back to the user. Some of the
commonly used output devices are:
1) Monitor (Visual Display Unit)
2) Printers
3) Plotter
4) Speakers
Define monitor

• The most important output device.

• It is a display screen used to provide visual output from a computer.
• Information processed within the CPU, that needs to be visually displayed, is sent to video
adapter.
• The video adapter converts information from the format used, in the same manner as a
television displays information sent to it by a cable service.
• Two basic types of monitors are used with microcomputers, which are as follows:

 Cathode Ray Tube (CRT): CRT or Cathode Ray Tube Monitor is the typical monitor
that you see on a desktop computer. It looks a lot like a television screen, and works
the same way. This type uses a large vacuum tube.
 Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD): This type of monitors are also known as flat panel
monitor. Most of these employ liquid crystal displays (LCDs) to render images.
These days LCD monitor are very popular.
Briefly describe various printers.

5
Printer is an output device which allows a user to print items on paper, such as letters and
Pictures. Some of the most commonly used printers are:
1) Laser Printer:
Laser printers produce images on paper by directing a laser beam to produce an image on
a drum, which then electrically attracts powdered toner to the paper to form an image.
Advantages:
 A laser printer produces high quality print.
 It is extremely fast and quiet.
 A laser printer is easy with automatic paper loading and no smudging or messing
up.
 It can print up to 200 pages per minute in monochrome (black and white) and up to
100 pages per minute in color.
Disadvantage:
 Expensive.
 The maintenance, repair & servicing charges are also high.
 Laser printers emit small amount of ozone and are hazardous to health and the
atmosphere.
2) Ink-Jet Printer:
An ink-jet printer creates an image directly on paper by spraying ink through as many as
64 tiny nozzles.
Advantages:
 Costs only half as much as a laser printer.
 Quality of ink-jet images is still high than dot-matrix.
 Like laser printer, an ink-jet printer is quiet and convenient than dot matrix printer.
Disadvantages :
 The image it produces is not generally quite as sharp as the output of a laser printer.

6
  It is not fast as laser printer.
 An ink-jet printer is more expensive than a dot-matrix printer.
3) Dot Matrix Printer:
 In dot matrix printer the print head contains 9 to 24 pins which physically "hits" the
paper through the ribbon and produces text (or images) by the combination of dots.

 Its speed is measured in characters per second (CPS).

Advantages:
 It is inexpensive.
 The maintenance cost of dot matrix printer is also low.
Disadvantages:
 The quality of dot matrix printer is very low.
 It creates a lot of noise.
 The speed of operating dot matrix printers is less.
4) Line Printer:
 Line printers, or line-at-a-time printers, use special mechanism that can print a
whole line at once; they can typically print the range of 1,200 to 6,000 lines per
minute.

 It prints one line at a time. In business where enormous amount of material are
printed, the character-at-a-time printers are too slow; therefore, these users need line
printers. It is used to produce text based data processing reports.
Advantages:
 Line printers are high-speed printers with speeds ranging anywhere from 100 to
about 3800 lines per minute.
Disadvantages:
 Print quality on line printers was not high.
 Developments in technology are improving the print quality on line printers.

7
  Cost range of line printers are high ( lakhs of Rupees).
What is the plotter?

 A plotter is a special kind of output device that, like a printer, produces images on
paper, but does so in a different way. Plotters are designed to produce large drawings
or images, such as construction plans for buildings or blueprints for mechanical
objects.
 Plotters use a pen, pencil, marker, or another writing tool to draw multiple,
continuous lines onto paper rather than a series of dots like a traditional printer.

 The plotter picks up the appropriate pen through its arm, positions it at the beginning
coordinates drops the pen down to the surface of the paper and draws to the ending
coordinates.
 Plotters draw curves by creating a sequence of very short straight lines.
Advantages
 Plotters can work on very large sheets of paper while maintaining high resolution
 They can print on a wide variety of flat materials including plywood, aluminum,
sheet steel, cardboard, and plastic.
 Plotters allow the same pattern to be drawn thousands of times without any image
degradation.
Disadvantages
 Plotters are quite large.
 Plotters are expensive.

Plotters usually come in two designs:

1) Flat Bed: Plotters of small size to be kept on table with restriction of paper size.
2) Drum: These plotters are of big size using rolls of paper of unlimited length.
Define speaker

8
 Speaker is an output device, which allows you to listen to voice like music, and
conversation with people.
What is a program?

A set of instructions in a particular sequence to the computer to perform a task are called
Programs.
What is software?

Software refers to a set of programs that makes the hardware perform a particular set of
tasks in particular order.
Draw a block diagram to illustrate the basic software organization of a computer system

Fig 1.2: classification of software

What is meant by system software?

System software’s are sets of programs, responsible for running the computer, controlling
various operations of computer systems and management of computer resources.
There are two types of System Software:
a) Operating System – eg : UNIX, Windows and Linux.

9
 b) Utility – eg : compress (zip)/uncompressed (unzip) files software, anti virus
software
What is an Operating System (OS)?

An operating system is a system software that provides an interface for a user to

communicate with the computer, manages hardware devices (disk drives, keyboard,
monitor, etc.), manages and maintains disk file systems and supports application programs.
e.g.: UNIX, Windows and Linux.
What is a utility software?
a) These are programs that bridge the gap between the functionality of an OS and the
needs of users.
b) Utility programs are a broad category of software such as compress
(zip)/uncompress (unzip) files software, anti-virus software, split and join files
software, etc.
Define application software
Application software is a set of programs, which are written to perform specific tasks, for
example: An application package for managing library known as library information
system is used to manage information of library such as: keeping book details, account
holder details, book issue details, book return details etc.
Application software can be broadly classified into two types:
a) Generalized packages
b) Customized packages
Write note on Generalized Packages

These are user friendly software written to cater to user’s very general needs such as
preparing documents, drawing pictures, database to manage data/information, preparing
presentations, play games etc.
Some of the generalized packages are:

10
1) Word Processing Software (for preparing documents): Word Perfect, MS-Word,
OpenOffice.org Writer
2) Spreadsheets (Data Analysis): Lotus Smart suites, MS Excel, OpenOffice.org calc,
Apple Numbers
3) Presentations : Presentation Graphics, MS-PowerPoint, OpenOffice.org Impress
4) Database Management System: MS-Access, OpenOffice.org Base, MS-SQL Server,
ORACLE
5) Graphics Tools: Paint shop pro, Adobe Photoshop
Define customized packages
 These are the applications that are customized (or developed) to meet the specific
requirements of an organization/institution.

 Example: Student information details, Payroll packages, inventory control etc.

 These packages are developed using high-level computer language.
Describe computer languages
Languages are a means of communication. This language is understood both by user and
the machine. Every computer language is bound by rules known as SYNTAX of that
language. The user is bound by that syntax while communicating with the computer
system.
Computer languages are broadly classified as:
1) Low Level Language:
The term low level means closeness to the way in which machine understand. The low
level languages are:
a) Machine Language:
 This is the language (in the form of 0’s and 1’s, called binary numbers) understood
directly by the computer. It is machine dependent.
 It is difficult to learn and even more difficult to write programs.

11
 b) Assembly Language:
 This is the language where the machine codes comprising of 0’s and 1’s are
substituted by symbolic codes (called mnemonics) to improve their understanding.
 Assembly language programming is simpler and less time consuming than machine
level programming, it is easier to locate and correct errors in assembly language
than in machine language programs.
 It is also machine dependent.
2) High Level Language
High level language has been evolved which uses normal English like, easy to understand
statements to solve any problem. Higher level languages are computer independent and
programming becomes quite easy and simple.
Various high level languages are given below:

 BASIC (Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code): It is widely used, easy
to learn general purpose language. Mainly used in microcomputers in earlier days.
 COBOL (Common Business Oriented language): A standardized language used for
commercial applications.

 FORTRAN (Formula Translation): Developed for solving mathematical and

scientific problems. One of the most popular languages among scientific
community.
 C: Structured Programming Language used for all purpose such as scientific
application, commercial application, developing games etc.
 C++: Popular object oriented programming language, used for general purpose.
Define a compiler and assembler
Compiler:

 The software (set of programs) that reads a program written in high level language
and translates it into an equivalent program in machine language is called as
Compiler.
12
  The program written by the programmer in high level language is called source
program and the program generated by the compiler after translation is called as
object program.

Fig 1.3: Compiler

Assembler:

 The software (set of programs) that reads a program written in assembly language
and translates it into an equivalent program in machine language is called as
Assembler.

Fig 1.4: Assembler

***

13