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 Index
 What is a Computer?
1. History of Computers.
2. Components of a Computer.
 Types of Computers by size:
1. Microcomputers.
2. Minicomputers(Mid- Range Computers).
3. Mainframe Computers.
4. Supercomputer.
 Functions of These Computers.
1. Microcomputers.
2. Personal Computers and Laptops.
3. Supercomputers.
 Types of Computers by function:
1. Servers.
2. Workstations.
3. Information Appliances.
4. Embedded Computer.
 What is a Computer?
A computer is a general purpose device that can be programmed to
carry out a finite set of arithmetic or logical operations. Since a sequence
of operations can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than
one kind of problem.
Conventionally, a computer consists of at least one processing element,
typically a central processing unit (CPU) and some form of memory. The
processing element carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a
sequencing and control unit that can change the order of operations
based on stored information. Peripheral devices allow information to be
retrieved from an external source, and the result of operations saved and
retrieved.
The first electronic digital computers were developed between 1940 and
1945 in the United Kingdom and United States. Originally they were the
size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred
modern personal computers (PCs). In this era mechanical analog
computers were used for military applications.
 Continued…
Modern computers based
on integrated circuits are
millions to billions of times
more capable than the early
machines, and occupy a
fraction of the space. Simple
computers are small enough
to fit into mobile devices,
and mobile computers can be
powered by small batteries.
Personal computers in their
various forms are icons of
the Information Age and are
what most people think of as
"computers". However,
the embedded
computers found in many
devices frommp3
players to fighter aircraft and
from toys to industrial
 History Of Computers
Earlier, the word “computer” was used for a person who did hard
calculations and solved logical operations were quickly . The history of
the modern computer begins with two separate technologies, automated
calculation and programmability, but no single device can be identified as
the earliest computer, partly because of the inconsistent application of
that term. A few devices are worth mentioning though, like some
mechanical aids to computing, which were very successful and survived
for centuries until the advent of the electronic calculator.

We have heard a lot of times that Charles Babbage is the father of

computers. He had invented the computers but at that time they weren't
so compact and user friendly. They covered a large space and were costly
which made them unpopular with the commoners. But then many people
started improvement on these computers and then they were made as
compact as they are today.

First of all the computers use vacuum tubes as their electronic parts or
elements but then processors and microprocessors or more commonly
called “computer chips were introduced and used in this field.
Components of a Computer
There are different components of a computer like:
•Control unit : The control unit manages the computer’s various
components. It reads and interprets the program instructions,
transforming them into a series of control signals which activate other
parts of the computer.

•Arithmetic logic unit(ALU): The ALU is capable of performing two classes

of operations : arithmetic and logic. The set of arithmetic operations may
be limited to addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and
trigonometry calculations like sine, cosine etc. Some may also use
integers, floats, and real numbers. Superscalar computers may contain
multiple ALUs, allowing them to process several instructions
simultaneously. Graphic processors and computers with SIMD and MMID
features often contain ALUs that can perform arithmetic on vectors and
matrices.

•Memory: A computer’s memory can be viewed as a list of cells into which

numbers can be placed or read. Each cell has a numbered "address" and
can store a single number. The computer can be instructed to "put the
number 123 into the cell numbered 1357" or to "add the number that is in
cell 1357 to the number that is in cell 2468 and put the answer into cell
 Continued…
•Input/output(I/O): I/O means the exchanges of information with the
outside world. Devices that provide input or output to the computer
are called peripherals. On a typical personal computer, peripherals
include devices like the keyboard and mouse, and output devices like
monitor and printer. Hard drives, floppy disks, CDs and pen drives can
be used both for input and output.

•Other components consists of:

• Internet Modems.
• Wireless Routers(Not a Part of the computer).
• And many Others..
TYPES OF COMPUTERS
Today we see a lot of types of computers around us and some of these are
away from us, used in scientific researches. Some of these are:
•Microcomputers: Microcomputers are the most common type of
computers used by the common people in today's world. The term
“Microcomputers” refers to the computers with a single chip processors.
Some examples are:
• Desktop Computers: These are also known as Personal Computers.
These commonly consist of a Cpu, monitor, keyboard and other
common input and output devices.
• In Cars: These are commonly called “Carputers” and are used for
entertainment and navigation purposes.
• Game Consoles: Fixed computers used for entertainment purposes.
E.G. Play stations, iPods and others.
• Some Other Mobile Devices:
• Laptops, Notebook and Palmtop Computers.
• Tablet Computers.
• Smartphone, Smart tablets, and PDA’s.
• Programmable Calculators,
• Handheld Consoles.
 MINICOMPUTERS
•Mini Computers : A minicomputer, or
colloquially mini, is a class of
smaller computers that evolved in the mid-
1960s and sold for much less than
mainframe and mid-size computers
from IBM and its direct competitors. In a
1970 survey, the New York
Times suggested a consensus definition of
a minicomputer as a machine costing less
than 25,000 USD, with an input-output
device such as a teleprinter and at least
4K words of memory, that is capable of
running programs in a higher level
language, such as Fortran or Basic. The
class formed a distinct group with its own
hardware architectures and operating
systems.
•When single-chip CPUs appeared,
beginning with the Intel 4004 in 1971, the
term "minicomputer" came to mean a
Some Pictures
 Continued…
Some Minicomputers are:
•Control Data's CDC 160A and CDC 1700
•DEC, PDP and VAX series
•Data General Nova
•Hewlett-Packard HP 3000 series, HP
2100 series, HP1000 series.
•Honeywell-Bull Level 6/DPS 6/DPS
6000 series
•IBM midrange computers
•Varian 620 100 series
•Norsk Data Nord-1, Nord-10, and Nord-100
•Prime Computer Prime 50 series
•SDS, SDS-92
•SEL, one of the first 32-bit real-time
computer system manufacturers
•Texas Instruments TI-990
•Wang Laboratories 2200 and VS series
•K-202, first Polish minicomputer and
probably first personal computer
Mainframe Computers
•Mainframe Computers : Mainframe
computers (colloquially referred to as "big
iron") are computers used primarily by
corporate and governmental organizations for
critical applications, bulk data processing such
as census, industry and consumer
statistics, enterprise resource planning,
and transaction processing. The term
originally referred to the large cabinets that
housed the central processing unit and
main memory of early computers. Later, the
term was used to distinguish high-end
commercial machines from less powerful
units. Most large-scale computer system
architectures were established in the 1960s,
but continue to evolve.
Supercomputers
•Supercomputers : A supercomputer is a computer at
the frontline of current processing capacity,
particularly speed of calculation.
Supercomputers were introduced in the 1960s and
were designed primarily by Seymour Cray at Control
Data Corporation(CDC), and later at Cray Research.
While the supercomputers of the 1970s used only a
few processors, in the 1990s, machines with
thousands of processors began to appear and by the
end of the 20th century, massively parallel
supercomputers with tens of thousands of "off-the-
shelf" processors were the norm.
Systems with a massive number of processors
generally take one of two paths: in one approach, e.g.
in grid computing the processing power of a large
number of computers in distributed, diverse
administrative domains, is opportunistically used
whenever a computer is available. In another
approach, a large number of processors are used in
close proximity to each other, e.g. in a computer
cluster. The use of multi-core processors combined
Some Supercomputers
Some Pictures …
Functions Of Computers
There are various functions of these computers like:
•Microcomputers: The functions of microcomputers like Smartphone and
tablets are:
• These are used for calling.
• These are used to access the internet (If cellular network or wifi is
available.).
• Used for entertainment purposes like watching movies, listening to
songs, playing games.
• Used for navigation.
• These are compact so are easily portable.
• These computers have Operating systems like i OS, Android, Windows,
and other systems.
•Personal Computers and Laptops: the functions of these commonly used
computers are:
• Used for Business purposes.
• Used for entertainment purposes.
• We can access internet through these computers.
• We can make documents on these like MS-WORD, MS-ACCESS, MS-
Power Point.
• Can be used for social purposes.
 Continued…..
•Supercomputer: This big computer has many purposes to serve in this
IT influenced era:
• Used for highly calculation-intensive tasks and such as problems
including quantum physics, weather conditions, climate research,
oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling(computing the
structures and properties of chemical compounds,
biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals).
• Physical simulations as in airplanes air tunnels.
• Simulation of the detonation of nuclear weapons.
• Research into nuclear fusion.
 Types of Computers
By Function
The topic of computers is divided by function into :
• Servers: In most common use, a server is a physical
computer (a computer hardware system) dedicated to
run one or more services (as a host), to serve the
needs of the users of other computers on a network.
Depending on the computing service that it offers it
could be a database server, file server, mail
server, print server, web server, gaming server, or
some other kind of server.
•In the context of client-server architecture, a server is
a computer program running to serve the requests of
other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server"
performs some computational task on behalf of
"clients". The clients either run on the same computer
or connect through the network.
•In the context of Internet Protocol (IP) networking,
a server is a program that operates as
a socket listener.
 Workstations:
•Workstations: A workstation is a high-
end microcomputer designed for technical or
scientific applications. Intended primarily to be
used by one person at a time, they are commonly
connected to a local area network and run multi-
user operating systems. The term workstation has
also been used to refer to a mainframe
computer terminal or a PC connected to a network.
Both being microcomputers, workstations had
offered higher performance than desktop
computers, especially with respect to CPU
and graphics, memory capacity, and multitasking
capability. They are optimized for
the visualization and manipulation of different
types of complex data such as 3D mechanical
design, engineering simulation (e.g. computational
fluid dynamics), animation and rendering of
images, and mathematical plots. Typically,
consoles consist of a high resolution display,
a keyboard and a mouse at a minimum, but also
offer multiple displays, graphics tablets, 3D mice
Information Appliances
In general terms, an information
appliance or information device is
any machine or device that is usable for
the purposes of
computing, telecommunicating, reprodu
cing,
and presenting encoded information in
myriad forms and applications.[citation
needed] The common technical usage of
"information appliance" (IA) is more
specific — i.e., an appliance that is
specially designed to perform a
specific user-friendly function —such
as playing music, photography,
or editing text.
Typical examples
are smartphones and personal digital
assistants (PDAs). Information
appliances partially overlap in definition
with, or are sometimes referred to as
smart devices, embedded
EMBEDDED COMPUTER
An embedded system is a multi-agent system and computer
system designed for specific control functions within a larger system, often
with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete
device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a
general-purpose computer, such as a personal computer (PC), is designed
to be flexible and to meet a wide range of end-user needs. Embedded
systems control many devices in common use today.
Embedded systems contain processing cores that are
either microcontrollers or digital signal processors (DSP). The key
characteristic, however, is being dedicated to handle a particular task.
Since the embedded system is dedicated to specific tasks, design
engineers can optimize it to reduce the size and cost of the product and
increase the reliability and performance. Some embedded systems are
mass-produced, benefiting from economies of scale.
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