Computer System

CHAPTER 1

Computer System

 A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to

accept data (input), process it and generate result (output).

 A computer along with additional hardware and software
together is called a computer system.

 A computer system comes in various forms and sizes. It can
vary from a high-end server to personal desktop, laptop, tablet
computer, or a smartphone.

Components of computer system are

 Central processing unit (CPU)

 Memory
 Input/output devices
 Storage devices

Block diagram of a computer system.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

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 It is the electronic circuitry of a computer that carries out the

actual processing and usually referred as the brain of the
computer

 CPU can be placed on one or more microchips called integrated

circuits (IC).
 The CPU then fetches the program and data from the memory
and performs arithmetic and logic operations as per the given
instructions and stores the result back to memory.

Control Unit: It controls and directs the transfer of program

instructions and data between various units.
The main activity is to maintain order and direct the
operations of the entire system.

Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU):

o Arithmetic and Logic Unit performs arithmetic and logical
operations and controls the speed of these operations.
o Arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division (+,-,*, /) and logical operations
like AND, OR, NOT and relational operations like (, <=,>=)
are being carried out in this unit

Registers:
 CPU stores the data as well as instructions in its local
memory called registers.
 Registers are part of the CPU chip and they are limited
in size and number.
 Different registers are used for storing data, instructions
or intermediate results

Input Unit

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 The devices through which control signals are sent to a

computer are termed as input devices.
 These devices convert the input data into a digital form
that is acceptable by the computer system.
 Some examples of input devices include keyboard,
mouse, and scanner, touch screen, etc.
 Specially designed braille keyboards are also available to
help the visually impaired for entering data into a
computer
 Data entered through input device is temporarily stored
in the main memory (also called RAM) of the computer
system.

Output Devices
 The device that receives data from a computer system for
display, physical production, etc., is called output device.
 It converts digital information into humanunderstandable
form.
 For example, monitor projector, headphone, speaker,
printer, etc.
 A braille display monitor is useful for a visually challenged
person to understand the textual output generated by
computers.

NOTE

Hard copy refers to the digital document file which is printed

on paper.
Soft copy refers to the digital document that is present in
computer or USB .

Computer Memory

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A computer system needs memory to store the data and

instructions for processing.
There are two kinds of memory are commonly used in computers.
1. Primary Memory (Semi-Conductor Memory)
2. Secondary Memory (Magnetic Memory)

Units of Memory
 A computer system uses binary numbers to store and process
data.
 The binary digits 0 and 1, which are the basic units of memory,
are called bits.
 A 4-bit word is called a Nibble.
 A 8-bit word is called a byte.

Types of Memory

The Primary memory is the main memory of the computer.

 It stores the programs and data, which are currently needed
by the CPU.
 The size of the main memory is comparatively much smaller
than that of the secondary memory because of its high cost.
 The CPU communicates directly only with the main memory.

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 As the CPU works at very high speed, its matching memory

must be very fast.
 Only primary memory devices can provide the matching
speed.
 RAM and ROM’s are used as the main memory of the
computer.

Primary memory is of two types.

1. RAM (Random Access Memory)
2. ROM (Read Only Memory)

Cache Memory

 To speed up the operations of the CPU, a very high speed

memory is placed between the CPU and the primary
memory known as cache.
 It stores the copies of the data from frequently accessed
primary memory locations, thus, reducing the average
time required to access data from primary memory
 When the CPU needs some data, it first examines the
cache.

Secondary Memory

 Computer system needs auxiliary or secondary memory to

permanently store the data or instructions for future use.
 The secondary memory is non-volatile and has larger storage
capacity than primary memory.
 It is slower and cheaper than the main memory.
 It cannot be accessed directly by the CPU.

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 Contents of secondary storage need to be first brought into the

main memory for the CPU to access.
 Examples of secondary memory devices include Hard Disk Drive
(HDD), CD/ DVD, Memory Card, etc.

Data Transfer between Memory and CPU

 Data need to be transferred between the CPU and primary

memory as well as between the primary and secondary
memory.
 Data are transferred between different components of a
computer system using physical wires called bus.
 For example, bus is used for data transfer between a USB port
and hard disk or between a hard disk and main memory.

Bus is of three types—

(i) Data bus
(ii) Address bus
(iii) Control bus

Data bus

 Data bus to transfer data between CPU and main memory using
bus.
 It provides a path to transfer data between CPU and memory. o
The data bus may consists of 32, 64, 128 lines of wire.
 Any data entered from input device or the data to be accessed
from hard disk needs to be placed in the main memory for
further processing.

Address bus

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 It connects CPU & RAM with a set of lines similar to data

bus.
 The address bus width determines the maximum number
of memory location the computer can address.
 The address of the main memory location from which it
wants to read data or to write data.
 While executing the instructions, the CPU specifies the
read or write control signal through the control bus
 The address of the main memory location from which it
wants to read data or to write data. While executing the
instructions, the CPU specifies the read or write control
signal through the control bus.

Control Bus

 It is used to control the access to and the use of the data and
address lines.
 The control bus and address bus are unidirectional.
 To write data into memory, the CPU places the data on the
data bus, which is then written to the specific address provided
through the address bus.
 In case of read operation, the CPU specifies the address, and
the data is placed on the data bus by a dedicated hardware,
called memory controller.

Microprocessor

 A processor (CPU) which is implemented on a single microchip

is called microprocessor. Nowadays, almost all the CPUs are
microprocessors.

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 Microprocessor is a small-sized electronic component inside a

computer that carries out various tasks involved in data
processing as well as arithmetic and logical operations.
 A microprocessor is built over an integrated circuit comprising
millions of small components like resistors, transistors and
diodes.
 Currently available microprocessors are capable of processing
millions of instructions per millisecond.

Microprocessor Specifications

Microprocessors are classified on the basis of different features

which include chip type, word size, memory size, clock speed, etc.
These features are briefly explained below:

(A) Word Size

Word size is the maximum number of bits that a microprocessor

can process at a time.
The minimum word size is 16 bits and maximum word size is 64
bits.

(B) Memory Size

Depending upon the word size, the size of RAM varies.

As word size increased to 64 bits, it has become feasible to use
RAM of size upto 16 Exabytes (EB).

(C) Clock Speed

Computers have an internal clock that generates pulses

(signals) at regular intervals of time.

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Clock speed simply means the number of pulses generated per

second by the clock inside a computer.
The clock speed indicates the speed at which the computer can
execute instructions.
it is now measured in Gigahertz (GHz), i.e., billions of pulses per
second.

(D)Cores Core

Core is a basic computation unit of the CPU.

Earlier processors had only one computation unit, thereby
capable of performing only one task at a time.
With the advent of multicore processor, it has become
possible for the computer to execute multiple tasks, thereby
increasing the system’s performance.
CPU with two, four, and eight cores is called dual-core, quad-
core and octa-core processor, respectively.

Microcontrollers

 The microcontroller is a small computing device which has a

CPU, a fixed amount of RAM, ROM and other peripherals all
embedded on a single chip as compared to microprocessor that
has only a CPU on the chip.
 Keyboard, mouse, washing machine, digital camera, pendrive,
remote controller, microwave are few examples of
microcontrollers.
 As these are designed for specific tasks only, hence their size as
well as cost is reduced.
 Because of the very small size of the microcontroller, it is
embedded in another device or system to perform a specific
functionality.

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Example
The microcontroller in a fully automatic washing machine is used to
control the washing cycle without any human intervention.
The simple use of microcontroller has permitted repetitive execution
of tedious tasks automatically without any human intervention,
thereby saving precious time.

Data and Information

 A computer system considers everything as data, be it

instructions, pictures, songs, videos, documents, etc.
 Data can also be raw and unorganised facts that are processed
to get meaningful information.

Data and Its Types

 A computer system has many input devices, which provide it

with raw data in the form of facts, concepts, instructions, etc.,
 Internally everything is stored in binary form (0 and 1), but
externally, data can be input to a computer in the text form
consisting of English alphabets A–Z, a–z, numerals 0–9, and
special symbols like @, #, etc.
 Data can be input in other languages too or it can be read from
the files.

Primarily, there are three types of data.

Structured Data
Unstructured Data
Semi-structured Data

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Structured Data
 Structure data is a data which follows a strict record
structure and is easy to understandable is called
structured data.
 Such data with pre-specified tabular format may be
stored in a data file to access in the future.
 It is clear that such data is organized in row/column
format and is easily understandable
 Structured data may be sorted in ascending or descending
order.
 example, attendance data is sorted in increasing order
 Other examples of structured data include sales
transactions, online railway ticket bookings, ATM
transactions, etc.

Unstructured Data

 Data which are not organised in a pre-defined record format is

called unstructured data.
 Examples include audio and video files, graphics, text
documents, social media posts, satellite images, etc.

Semi-structure Data

 Data which have no well-defined structure but maintains

internal tags or markings to separate data elements are called
semi-structured data.
 Example E-mail document, HTML page, comma separated
values (csv file).
 Semi-structured data containing student’s month-wise
attendance details.

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Data Capturing, Storage and Retrieval

 To process data, we need to first input or capture the data.

 This is followed by its storage in a file or a database so that it
can be used in the future.
 It is first retrieved from the file or database so that we can
perform further actions on it.

Data Capturing

It involves the process of gathering data from different sources in the

digital form.
This capturing may vary from simple instruments like keyboard,
barcode readers used at shopping outlets, comments or posts over
social media, remote sensors on an earth orbiting satellite, etc.
Heterogeneity among data sources makes data capturing a complex
task.

Data Storage

It is the process of storing the captured data for processing later.

The decrease in the cost of digital storage devices has helped in
simplifying this task.
The storage devices also require to be upgraded periodically.
In large organisations, computers with larger and faster storage
called data servers are deployed to store vast amount of data.
Such dedicated computers help in processing data efficiently.

Data Retrieval

 It involves fetching data from the storage devices, for its

processing as per the user requirement.

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 As databases grow, the challenges involved in search and

retrieval of the data in acceptable time, also increase.
 Minimising data access time is crucial for faster data processing
Data Deletion and Recovery

 The storage devices can malfunction or crash down resulting in

the deletion of data stored.
 Users can accidentally erase data from storage devices, or a
hacker or malware can delete the digital data intentionally.
 Deleting digitally stored data means changing the details of
data at bit level, which can be very timeconsuming.

In case data gets deleted accidentally or corrupted, there arises a

need to recover the data.

Recovery of the data is possible only if the contents or memory

space marked as deleted have not been overwritten by some other
data.
Data recovery is a process of retrieving deleted, corrupted and lost
data from secondary storage devices.
There are usually two security concerns associated with data.

One is its deletion by some unauthorised person or software.

There is also an option of encrypting files to protect them from
unwanted modification.

The other concern is related to unwanted recovery of data by

unauthorised user or software.
Many a times, we discard our old, broken or malfunctioning storage
devices without taking care to delete data.
This concern can be mitigated by using proper tools to delete or
shred data before disposing off any old or faulty storage device.

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Software

 Hardware needs to be operated by a set of instructions.

 These sets of instructions are referred to as software.
 It is that component of a computer system, which we cannot
touch or view physically.
 It comprises the instructions and data to be processed using
the computer hardware.
 The software comprises a set of instructions which on
execution deliver the desired outcome.
Operating systems like Ubuntu or Windows 7/10
Word processing tool like LibreOffice or Microsoft Word
Video player like VLC Player, photo editors like GIMP and
LibreOffice draw.

Need of Software

 The sole purpose of software is to make the computer

hardware useful and operational.
 Software knows how to make different hardware components
of a computer work and communicate with each other as well
as with the end-user.
 We cannot instruct the hardware of a computer directly.
Software acts as an interface between human users and the
hardware

Software can be broadly classified into three categories.

(i) System software,
(ii) Programming tools
(iii) Application software.

System Software

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• The software that provides the basic functionality to operate a

computer by interacting directly with its constituent hardware
is termed as system software.
• System software knows how to operate and use different
hardware components of a computer.
• It provides services directly to the end user, or to some other
software.
• Examples of system software include
• operating systems
• system utilities
• Device drivers, etc.

Operating System

The operating system is a system software that operates the

computer.
An operating system is the most basic system software, without
which other software cannot work.
The operating system manages other application programs and
provides access and security to the users of the system.
Example: Windows, Linux, Macintosh, Ubuntu, Fedora, Android, iOS,
etc

System Utilities

Software used for maintenance and configuration of the computer

system is called system utility.
This software is focused on how os works on the basis it performs
tasks to enable the smooth functioning of the computer.
Example disk defragmentation tool, formatting utility, system restore
utility.
Another set of utilities are those which are not shipped with the
operating system but are required to improve the performance of

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the system, for example, anti-virus software, disk cleaner tool, disk
compression software, etc.

Device Drivers

The purpose of a device driver is to ensure proper functioning of a

particular device.
The responsibility for overall control, operation and management of
a particular device at the hardware level is delegated to its device
driver.
The device driver acts as an interface between the device and the
operating system.
It provides required services by hiding the details of operations
performed at the hardware level of the device.

Classification of Programming Languages

Two major categories of computer programming languages are low-

level languages and high-level languages.

Low-level languages are machine dependent languages and include

machine language and assembly language. Machine language uses 1s
and 0s to write instructions which are directly understood and
executed by the computer.
Low-Level Languages
Machine level languages
Assembly languages
High-Level Languages
Examples of high level language include C++, Java, Python, etc

Language Translators

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As the computer can understand only machine language, a translator

is needed to convert program written in assembly or high level
language to machine language.

The three types of translators used in computing systems are

assembler, compiler and interpreter.

Assembler
The translator used to convert the code written in assembly language
to machine language is called assembler.
Each assembler can understand a specific microprocessor instruction
set only and hence, the machine code is not portable.

Compiler
It converts the source code (high level language to machine level)
into machine code.
If the code follows all syntactic rules of the language, then it is
executed by the computer. Once translated, the compiler is not
needed.

Interpreter
 An interpreter translates one line at a time instead of
the whole programs at one go.
 Interpreter takes one line, converts it into executable code if
the line is syntactically correct, and then it repeats these steps
for all lines in the source code.

NOTE
SOURCE CODE : A program written in a high-level language is called
source code.
OBJECT CODE: A program in machine language is called object code.

Program Development Tools

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• An editor is a software that allows us to create a text file where

we type instructions and store the file as the source code.
• There are software called Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) consisting of text editor, building tools and
debugger.
• A program can be typed, compiled and debugged from the IDE
directly. Besides Python IDLE, Netbeans, Eclipse, Atom, Lazarus
are few other examples of IDEs.
• Debugger, as the name implies, is the software to detect and
correct errors in the source code.

Application Software
 Users need the computer system for different purposes
depending upon their requirements we need application
software to perform any task for the users.
 This specific software that works on top of the system software
is termed as application software.
There are again two broad categories of application software—
General purpose Software
Customized application software.

General Purpose Software

 The application software developed for common applications,
to provide to a bigger audience in general is called general
purpose software.
 Such ready-made application software can be used by end
users as per their requirements.
 For example, spreadsheet tool Calc of MSOffice or Libre office
can be used by any computer user to do calculation or to create
account sheet.

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Customised Software
 These are custom or tailor-made application software, that are
developed to meet the requirements of a specific organisation
or an individual.
 They are better suited to the needs of an individual or an
organisation, considering that they are designed as per special
requirements.
 Some examples of user-defined software include websites,
school management software, accounting software, etc.
 It is similar to buying a piece of cloth and getting a tailor-made
garment with the fitting, colour, and fabric of our choice.

Proprietary or Free and Open Source Software

 Some application software developers provide their source
code as well as free software to public, with an aim to develop
and improve further.
 Such software is known as Free and Open Source Software
(FOSS).
 More examples of FOSS include operating system Ubuntu
Python, Libreoffice, Openoffice, Mozilla Firefox, etc.

 Sometimes software are freely available for use but source

code may not be available are called freeware.
 Examples of freeware are Skype, Adobe Reader, etc
 When the software to be used has to be purchased from the
vendor who has the copyright of the software, then it is a
proprietary software.
 Examples of proprietary software include Microsoft Windows,
Tally, Quickheal, etc.
 A software can be freeware or open source or proprietary
software depending upon the terms and conditions of the

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person or group who has developed and released that

software.

Operating System
 An operating system (OS) can be considered to be a resource
manager which manages all the resources of a computer.
 its including CPU, RAM, Disk, Network and other input-output
devices.
 It also controls various application software and device drivers,
manages system security and handles access by different users.
 Examples of popular OS are Windows, Linux, Android,
Macintosh and so on

The primary objectives of an operating system are two-fold.

The first is to provide services for building and running
application programs.
 When an application program needs to be run, it is the
operating system which loads that program into memory and
allocates it to the CPU for execution.
 When multiple application programs need to be run, the
operating system decides the order of the execution.

 The second objective of an operating system is to provide an

interface to the user through which the user can interact with
the computer.
 A user interface is a software component which is a part of the
operating system and whose job is to take commands or inputs
from a user for the operating system to process.

OS User Interface

There are different types of user interfaces each of which

provides a different functionality.

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 Command-based Interface
 Graphical User Interface
 Touch-based Interface
 Gesture-based Interface
 Voice-based Interface

Command-based Interface
 Command-based interface requires a user to enter the
commands to perform different tasks like creating,
 Opening, editing or deleting a file, etc.
 The user has to remember the names of all such programs or
specific commands which the operating system supports.
 The primary input device used by the user for command based
interface is the keyboard.
 Command based interface is often less interactive and usually
allows a user to run a single program at a time.
 Examples of operating systems with command-based interface
include MS-DOS and Unix.

Graphical User Interface

 Graphical User Interface (GUI) lets users run programs or give
instructions to the computer in the form of icons, menus and
other visual options.
 Icons usually represent files and programs stored on the
computer and windows represent running programs that the
user has launched through the operating system.
 The input devices used to interact with the GUI commonly
include the mouse and the keyboard.

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 Examples of operating systems with GUI interfaces include

Microsoft Windows, Ubuntu, Fedora and Macintosh, among
others

Touch-based Interface
 Today smartphones, tablets and PCs allow users to interact
with the system simply using the touch input.
 Using the touchscreen, a user provides inputs to the
operating system, which are interpreted by the OS as
commands like opening an app, closing an app, dialing a
number, scrolling across apps, etc.
 Examples of popular operating systems with touch based
interfaces are Android and iOS. Windows 8.1 and 10 also
support touch-based interfaces on touchscreen devices.

Gesture-based Interface
 Some smartphones based on Android and iOS as well as laptops
let users interact with the devices using gestures like waving,
tilting, eye motion and shaking.
 This technology is evolving faster and it has promising potential
for application in gaming, medicine and other areas.

Voice-based Interface
 Users today can use voice-based commands to make a
computer work in the desired way.
 Some operating systems which provide voice-based control to
users include iOS (Siri), Android (Google Now or “OK Google”),
Microsoft Windows 10 (Cortana) and so on.

Functions of Operating System

The important services and tasks that an operating system provides

for managing the computer system.

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 Process Management
 Memory Management
 File Management
 Device Management

Process Management

 A program is intended to carry out various tasks.

 A task in execution is known as process.
 We can activate a system monitor program that provides
information about the processes being executed on a
computer.
 In some systems it can be activated using Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
 It is the responsibility of operating system to manage these
processes and get multiple tasks completed in minimum time.
 As CPU is the main resource of computer system, its allocation
among processes is the most important service of the operating
system. Hence process management concerns the
management of multiple processes, allocation of required
resources, and exchange of information among processes.

Memory Management
 Primary or main memory of a computer system is usually
limited.
 The main task of memory management is to give (allocate) and
take (free) memory from running processes.
 Since there are multiple processes running at a time, there
arises a need to dynamically (on-the-go) allocate and free
memory to the processes.
 Operating system should do it without affecting other
processes that are already residing in the memory and once the

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process is finished, it is again the responsibility of the operating

system to take the memory space back for re utilisation.
 Hence, memory management concerns with management of
main memory so that maximum memory is occupied or utilised
by large number of processes while keeping track of each and
every location within the memory as free or occupied.

File Management

 Data and programs are stored as files in the secondary storage

of a computer system.
 File management involves the creation, updation, deletion and
protection of these files in the secondary memory.
 Protection is a crucial function of an operating system, as
multiple users can access and use a computer system.
 There must be a mechanism in place that will stop users from
accessing files that belong to some other user and have not
been shared with them.
 File management system manages secondary memory, while
memory management system handles the main memory of a
computer system.

Device Management

 A computer system has many I/O devices and hardware

connected to it.
 Operating system manages these heterogeneous devices that
are interdependent.
 The operating system interacts with the device driver and the
related software for a particular device.

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 The operating system must also provide the options for

configuring a particular device, so that it may be used by an end
user or some other device.
 Just like files, devices also need security measures and their
access to different devices must be restricted by the operating
system to the authorised users, software and other hardware
only.

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