Introduction to Computer

What are computers?

❑ Computers are electronic devices that are capable of processing data/information given in
the form of numbers, words, pictures, and even sounds.
❑ They can be programmed (given instructions) to carry out various kinds of information
processing jobs.

Application of Computers
❑ Various kinds of jobs that are done using computers:
– Scientific computations
– Keeping track of information -- Banking, Railways or Airlines Reservations
– Preparation of documents and multimedia presentations
– Simulation of real or imaginary world scenes – Virtual Reality, Computer Games
– Storing and sharing information – World Wide Web

Different Kinds of Computers

❑ Depending on the size and capacity, computers are classified into three types:
– Mainframe computers
– Minicomputers
– Microcomputers or Personal computers.
➢ Mainframe Computers
• Large and powerful computers that are used by many people (users) at the
same time; typically installed in large organizations.
• Located in a central place and accessed by users via computer terminals or
other computers placed at different locations and connected to the mainframe
computer.

➢ Supercomputers:
• Extremely powerful mainframe computers used in scientific and engineering
applications.

Date Developed: Document No.:

ET M9
Issued by:
Computer January, 2021 Marikina Polytechnic Page
Programming Developed by: College 1
and CAD
Jessie T. Perez
Revision No.:
 Introduction to Computer

➢ Minicomputers
• Minicomputers are medium sized computers -- Between Mainframe computers
and Microcomputers
• Are also used by many users at the same time
• Used in small organizations.

➢ What is a SERVER?
• Until recently, the big computers were called as mainframes and the smaller
ones as minicomputers.
• As computer networks have begun to dominate, the mainframe has just become
one of many computers. However, because of its large size, it is often the one
where other computers on the network look for data and also the one that runs
powerful software and serves other computers.
• Hence the term Server.

➢ Microcomputers or Personal Computers

• Small computers that fit on your desk; meant to be used by one user (at a time)
• Workstation: A microcomputer with enhanced graphics and
communication capabilities
• Laptop: A microcomputer that is small enough to fit in a briefcase.
• Network computer: A small microcomputer with no built-in disk storage,
but makes use of larger computers of the company’s network or the
Internet through a browser
• With the advent of smaller and faster computer chips and low-cost-high-
capacity storage devices, present day personal computers are becoming more
and more powerful, with capabilities comparable to the mainframe computers
of olden days.

Date Developed: Document No.:

ET M9
Issued by:
Computer January, 2021 Marikina Polytechnic Page
Programming Developed by: College 2
and CAD
Jessie T. Perez
Revision No.:
 Introduction to Computer

Components of a Computer

❑ The components of a computer are classified into the three main categories – hardware,
software and documentation
❑ Hardware: The mechanical and electronic parts that perform the various tasks of the
computer
❑ Software: The programs or instructions that tell the hardware what tasks are to be done and
how.
❑ Firmware/Documentation: Instructions in read only memory (ROM).

Hardware components
❑ The hardware of a typical computer system, irrespective of its size, consists of the
following components:
– Central Processing Unit -- CPU
– Memory
– Storage devices
– Input devices
– Output devices.

➢ Central Processing Unit (CPU)

• The CPU performs arithmetic and logical calculations and controls the operations
of other parts of the computer.
• The CPU may be a single silicon chip or a series of chips. A chip contains
thousands of electronic switching circuits.
• Each circuit can be set ON or OFF and it represents a bit whose value can be 1
or 0.
• Computer stores and processes data/information in terms of these bits.

➢ Computer speed
• A basic arithmetic operation like addition of two numbers is a single computer
instruction. An instruction is executed in one or more clock cycles.

Date Developed: Document No.:

ET M9
Issued by:
Computer January, 2021 Marikina Polytechnic Page
Programming Developed by: College 3
and CAD
Jessie T. Perez
Revision No.:
 Introduction to Computer

• Computer speeds are measured in megahertz or millions of clock cycles per

second.
• Typical speeds of present day microprocessors are few hundred megahertz.
• A super computer can do trillions of arithmetic and logical operations per second.

➢ Data representation and size

• Typical representation of various data:
– A character is represented by one byte
– An integer is represented by 4 bytes.
– A floating point is represented by 4 or 8 bytes.
– The size of data to represent a color picture (image) covering one fourth of your
computer screen may be a few MB.

• 1 byte = 8 bits
•
1 KB (kilobytes) = 210 that is about one thousand bytes
• 1 MB (megabytes) = 210 KB
• 1 GB (gigabytes) = 210 MB.

➢ Memory and Storage Devices

• Computer Memory, also known as internal storage device, consists of silicon chips
that are directly linked to the CPU.
• There are two kinds of memory
– Read-Only Memory or ROM: Contains basic instructions of the computer stored
permanently
– Random-Access Memory or RAM: In RAM the computer copies and keeps
temporarily user’s programs and data, in part or full, at the time of
execution.
• The size of RAM is important for speedy execution of large programs. For a
personal computer, typical size of RAM is 32 or 64 or 128 MB or 256 Mb.

➢ Storage Devices …..

• In order to store user programs and data permanently or as long as user wants,
computers use (external) storage devices.
• The common storage devices used in personal computers are:
– Hard disks: These are disks, fixed inside the cabinet, used for storing (read and
write) very large amounts of information. Typical sizes are about 10 or 20 GB.
– Floppy disks: Used by means of floppy disk drive(s) attached to the computer.
Floppy disks in normal use today store about 800 KB or 1.44 MB of data – read
and write.

Date Developed: Document No.:

ET M9
Issued by:
Computer January, 2021 Marikina Polytechnic Page
Programming Developed by: College 4
and CAD
Jessie T. Perez
Revision No.:
 Introduction to Computer

– CD-ROMs: Used by means of CD-ROM drive(s). Standard capacity is about 600

MB of data – read only.
• While a hard disc is fixed to the computer, floppy disks and CD-ROMs are
removable and can be used to transfer data.

➢ Input Devices

• Input devices are used by the user to enter data, commands and programs to
the computer. Most common devices are:
– Keyboard: Used to enter text data.
– Mouse: Used to point and click at any location on the computer’s video display
screen. Normally a mouse will have two or three buttons.
– Trackball: Replaces the mouse on laptops.

• Other input devices

– Joystick: Similar functionality as mouse
-- Light pen: Used to point or sketch directly on the screen.
– Scanners: To scan (input) images
– Digital cameras: To capture pictures directly.
– Voice recognition systems: These accept spoken words as input.
➢ Output Devices
• Monitor or Display: It is the main output device of a computer. It displays text as
well as pictures in black and white or color.
– The monitor screen consists of an array of tiny dots called pixels (picture
elements). Typical sizes of this array of pixels are 640 by 480 or 800 by 600 or
1024 by 768. This is also referred as the resolution.
– Each pixel can be independently illuminated by a color. The number of colors
displayable on a monitor can be 16 or 256 or 216 (high color) or 224 (true
color).
– Resolution and number of colors can be set by user.

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ET M9
Issued by:
Computer January, 2021 Marikina Polytechnic Page
Programming Developed by: College 5
and CAD
Jessie T. Perez
Revision No.:
 Introduction to Computer

• Printer: Another output device to which the computer can directly send the
data to
• obtain hard copy printouts of the results.
– Laser printer: Commonly used printer. In general it will be black and white.
There are also color laser printers.
– Other types of printers: Ink-jet printer, Dot-matrix printer.

Modem
• A device used to link two computers via (analogue) telephone lines.
• It converts digital signals into analogue signals and vice-versa.

Computer Software/Program
❑ A software/program is a sequence of commands written in a computer programming
language that specifies a task the computer will perform.
❑ Some of the computer programming languages are:
– FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, C, C++, Java

Classification of Computer Software

❑ Computer software can be classified into following categories:
– Operating system
– User Programs
– Application programs
➢ Operating System
• Operating system (OS) is the basic software responsible for interacting with the
hardware.
• It is the foundation on which user programs and application programs are built.
• It helps the user to enter programs or data, store them in files and execute
programs.
• Two popular operating systems in use today are
– Unix – for mainframes and minicomputers.
– Microsoft Windows – for personal computers.

Date Developed: Document No.:

ET M9
Issued by:
Computer January, 2021 Marikina Polytechnic Page
Programming Developed by: College 6
and CAD
Jessie T. Perez
Revision No.:
 Introduction to Computer

➢ User Programs

• User Programs: Written by users or programmers for themselves or for their

organization.

➢ Application Programs
• Computers are increasingly being used in almost every activity - business, industry,
commerce, health, education, entertainment, sports, etc.
• Application programs is the catch-all name for all programs that are used for
carrying out specific tasks - office document creation, pay roll processing, …
• We discuss a few of the highly popular application programs

 Word processing
• A word processor is an application program that supports the basic tasks of
entering, editing, formatting and archiving a text document.
• Microsoft Word includes a number of powerful features, such as word wrap,
find and replace, tables, columns, spell check, grammar and style analysis
and mail merge.

 Desktop Publishing
• Provides functions that until ten years back were only possible to be carried
out at a good printing house.
• A basic function is page layout, the ability to place text, diagrams and
images on a page in any way, easily and accurately.
• Other functions include a variety of fonts, styles, content and index
generation, etc.
 Spreadsheets
• A spreadsheet application program is used to enter numeric data in tabular
format, along with row/column labels and formulae that can be combined
to solve a variety of business numeric problems.
• Spreadsheet applications also include facilities for drawing charts, graphs,
etc. from tabulated data.
 Databases
• Database application programs are used when very large amounts of data
are to be stored in a structured manner, maintaining various relationships
among the data - for example, information of all employees in a company.
• A very powerful feature is the ability to rapidly answer a variety of queries
from the user about the data in the database.

Date Developed: Document No.:

ET M9
Issued by:
Computer January, 2021 Marikina Polytechnic Page
Programming Developed by: College 7
and CAD
Jessie T. Perez
Revision No.:
Introduction to Computer

 Network
• Network applications are programs that enable us to communicate with and
use facilities of remote computers.
• These applications have proliferated with the spread of the Internet and the
introduction of the WWW.
• Commonly used programs are - E-Mail, Newsgroups, Chat, Games, File
transfer,...

 Multimedia
• It all began with games, now it is dynamic web pages, interactive
courseware and catalogues with sound and video - multimedia application
programs enable us to create exciting content.
• These programs include facilities to create, edit and render on the screen,
text, pictures, sound, animation, video and 3D graphics.

Date Developed: Document No.:

ET M9
Issued by:
Computer January, 2021 Marikina Polytechnic Page
Programming Developed by: College 8
and CAD
Jessie T. Perez
Revision No.: