MODULE 1

Introduction
to
Computer
 2

Table of Content
 What is a Computer?
 Input Devices
 Output Devices
 Designing efficient programs
 Introduction to C
 Structure of C program
 Files used in a C program
 Compilers
 Compiling and executing C programs, variables, constants,
Input/output statements in C
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What is a Computer?
 The straightforward meaning of a computer is a
machine.
 A computer is a programmable electronic machine
used to store, retrieve, and process data.
 According to the definition, "A computer is a
programmable electronic device that takes data,
perform instructed arithmetic and logical
operations, and gives the output."
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History of Computers
 Charles Babbage - father of computer
» 1800’s planned analytical engine
 ENIAC - developed at end of WW II

(Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer)

 1951 - 1963 1st and 2nd generation
» very large, used unreliable vacuum tubes
 1963 - present - 3rd and 4th generation
» smaller, faster - use transistors and integrated
circuits
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History - Microcomputers

 Apple
» First sold in late 1970’s
» Developed by Jobs and Wozniak
 IBM Personal Computers
» First sold in 1981
» Was quickly accepted by businesses
» IBM compatibles soon developed
 Generations of 6

Computer
 First Generation (1946 - 1959): During the
first generation, computers were based on
electronic valves (Vacuum Tubes). Some
popular computers of first-generation are
ENIAC, EDVAC, UNIVAC, etc.
 Second Generation (1959 - 1965): During
the second generation, computers were
based on Transistors. Some popular
computers of second-generation are IBM
1400, IBM 1620, IBM 7000 series, etc.
 Generations of 7

Computer
 Third Generation (1965 - 1971): During the third
generation, computers were based on
Integrated Circuits (ICs). Some popular
computers of the third generation are IBM 360,
IBM 370, PDP, etc.
 Fourth Generation (1971 - 1980): During the
fourth generation, computers were based on
very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits.
Some popular computers of fourth-generation
are STAR 1000, CRAY-1, CRAY-X-MP, DEC 10,
etc.
 Generations of 8

Computer
 Fifth Generation (1980 - Present): The fifth
generation is still ongoing. The computers are
based on multiple technologies, such as ultra
large scale integration (ULSI), artificial
intelligence (AI), and parallel processing
hardware. The fifth generation of computers
includes Desktop, Laptop, NoteBook, etc.
 Types of Computers – 9

Personal Computers (PC)

 Also called
Microcomputers
 Available in desktop
size, notebook size and
handheld
 Can be IBM, IBM
Compatible or Apple
 Types of Computers - 10

Minicomputers

 Size of filing cabinet

 Used by small and medium size
companies and institutions
 Operated by computer specialist
 Terminals allow many people to use
 Types of Computers - 11

Mainframes

 Very powerful
 Very fast
 Used by large corporations and
governmental agencies
 Operated by computer specialist
 Types of Computers- 12

Supercomputers

 Most powerful
 Fastest
 Most expensive
» Several million dollars each
 Used only by
» Governmental agencies
» Large international corporations
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Computer Operations

Input Processing Output

External Storage
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Hardware
 Computer hardware is the collection of physical
elements that constitutes a computer system.

 Computer hardware refers to the physical parts or

components of a computer such as the monitor,
mouse, keyboard, computer data storage, hard
drive disk (HDD), system unit (graphic cards, sound
cards, memory, motherboard and chips), etc. all of
which are physical objects that can be touched.
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Input Devices - Keyboard

 Most commonly used input device

 Ergonomic - fit natural hand placement

 Special keys
» Enter, Function, Ctrl, Alt, Num Lock, Esc
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Input Devices - Mouse

 Controls cursor on
screen
 May be mechanical
or optical
 Most models have a
“wheel” for scrolling
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Input Devices - Other

 Pointers (replaces mouse on notepads)

» Track point, track ball, touch pad

 Scanner
 Digital camera
 Touch screen
 Voice
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Output Devices

 Monitor
 Printer
 Disk Drive
» Can also be input device
 Modem
» Can also be input device
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Monitors
 Made up of tiny
elements called
pixels
 Each row of pixels is
called a scan line
 Picture is displayed
by an electronic
beam lighting up
certain pixels
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Monitors - Resolution

 Resolution is how sharp and clear the

picture is

 How many scan lines on the screen

– 640 x 480 is low resolution
– 1600 x 1200 is high resolution
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Monitors - Dot Pitch

 Measures the distance between pixels

 Commonly seen on monitors advertised

» .49 (not very good)
» .28 (much better)
» .26 or lower (excellent)
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Monitors - Sizes

 Screen measured diagonally

» May also measure actual viewing area
 14” or 15” on bargain systems
 17” has become the standard
 19 and 21” available but are more
expensive.
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Monitors - LCD

 Liquid Crystal Display

 Similar to digital watch
 Used for notebook computers
» Should be an Active Matrix Screen
 Also used in flat screen monitors
» Much thinner than regular CRT monitor
» More expensive than regular CRT monitor
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Monitors - Video Card

 Processes info to send to monitor

 Amount of video memory may speed up
graphic intensive programs
» 32 megs –general purpose
» 128 or more megs – graphic intensive use
 AGP port can speed up graphics
 3D accelerator card improves graphics
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Monitor - Buying Hints

 17” or larger
 .28 dot pitch or better
 32 or more megs of memory on
video card
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Printers

 Laser

 Ink Jet

 Dot Matrix
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Printers - Laser

 Works similar to a copy machine

» Color printers available but more expensive

 Fast, quite, with excellent quality

 More expensive to buy and operate

 Some units scan, photocopy, and print

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Printers - Ink Jet

 Squirts small jet of ink onto paper to

form characters
 Replaced dot matrix
 Quiet
 Does good job on color
 Good quality and reliability
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Printers - Dot Matrix

 Strikes pins against ribbon to print

 Comes in 9 and 24 pin

 Once very popular

 Now replaced by ink jet and laser

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Printers - Speed

 Measured in pages per minute (PPM)

 Laser printers range from 20-45 ppm

» Color printing is slower

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Printers - Quality of Print

 One measure is dots per inch (DPI)
» 300 dpi for general purpose uses
» 600 dpi for higher quality
» 1200 dpi for photo quality
 May have different vertical and
horizontal resolution
» 600 x 300
 Other factors can affect quality
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Basic Processing Cycle

Central Internal
Data
Processing Memory
Bus
Unit
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How Information Is Stored

 Memory consist of switches which can

be either on or off - Off=0 On=1
 Each on/off switch is called a bit
 Eight bits make up a byte
 It takes one byte to store a character
» Character can be letter, space, punctuation,
etc.
» ASCII code used
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Other Memory Terms

 Byte is eight bits

 Kilobyte (KB) is approx. 1,000 bytes

 Megabyte (MB) is approx. 1million bytes

 Gigabyte (GB) is approx. 1 billion bytes

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Central Processing Unit

 Also called CPU, processor or

microprocessor

 Is the “brains” of the computer

 Performs all computer operations

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CPU - IBM COMPATIBLES

 Many made by company called Intel

 Also made by AMD

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Pentium class processors

 Needed to run most current software

 Intel – Celeron or Pentium IV
 AMD
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CPU - Clock Speed

 Number of “cycles” per second

computer can operate
 Measured in megahertz (MHz)
 One MHz = 1 million cycles per second
 One gigahertz(GHz)=1 billion cycles
 Current speeds 2-4 GHz
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CPU - Misc.
 Performance also affected by speed of
data bus
» 400-800 MHz on most current systems
 Cache can increase speed
» Stores data you will likely need next in an
area that has faster access
» Both memory cache and disk cache used
» Should be 512 K or better
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CPU - Buying Hints

 Minimum of Pentium IV or AMD Athlon

 Minimum of 2 GHz clock speed

 Minimum of 512K of cache

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Internal Memory - RAM

 RAM - Random Access Memory
» CPU can access any location as quickly as any
other
 Can not only read current info but also write
new info
 Very important in determining capabilities of
the computer system
 Computer should have at least 256 megs -
512 preferred (can add to later)
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Internal Memory - ROM

 ROM - Read Only Memory

» Can read info Stored in ROM
» Can not write new info into ROM

 Used for “internal workings” of computer

 Buyer is not very concerned with ROM
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External Memory
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Floppy Drives

 Comes in 5 1/4” and 3 1/2”

» All systems now only have 3 1/2”

 HD - High density - comes on all current

systems
» 3 1/2” - 1.44 megs
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Hard Drives
 Builtinto machine
 Made up of stack of platters
 Can store much more than floppy
drives
» 40 gigabytes should be minimum
 Can access info much faster than
floppy drive
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CD ROM

 Same as music CDs

 Are read only
 Can store over 650 megs
 All programs now only sold on CD
 Make multimedia possible
 Come in different speeds - 20x, - 50x
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DVD-ROM

 Digital Video Disk

 Can store up to 17 GB

 Can store full-length movies

 Can also read CD-ROM disk

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CD-RW & DVD-RW DRIVES

 Allows you to write to disk
 Useful for
» Data backup
» Storage of large files
» Recording music and other multimedia files
 DVD-RW
» Allows you to write to both CD and DVD disk
» Still somewhat expensive
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Storage Devices - Other

 USB drive
» Very popular – 64-512 MB
 Tape drive
» Similar to cassette tape
» Used for backup
 Zip drive
» 100 MB to 2 GB capacity
» Everyday use and backup
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Drives - Buying Advice

 40 gigabyte hard drive

 One 3 1/2” high density floppy drive

 CD-RW drive

 DVD not yet essential but useful

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Expansion Slots

 Allows you to add capabilities

 Example of cards you can add
» Network card
» Modem
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Ports
 Connects computer to another
device
 Parallel port
» Used primarily by printers
 Serial ports
» Modem, mouse, etc.
 SCSI - chain devices
 USB –may be needed for
» Digital Cameras
» Mp3 players
» Other devices
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Networks
 Connects computers
 LAN - Local Area
 WAN - Wide Area
 Wireless
 Allows sharing of
programs, files,
printers, etc.
 Server is “main”
computer
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Modems - General

 Allows 2
computers to
communicate over
phone lines
 Can be internal or
external
 Can also have fax
capabilities
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Modems
 Bits per second(bps) indicates speed
» Old modems - 9,600, 14,400, 28,800, 33,600
» 56,000 (56K) has becoming standard

 Ways of connecting to the Internet

» Dial-up modem – used in most homes
» Cable modem – uses TV cable lines
» DSL – modified phone line
» T1 line – used by schools, businesses, etc.
 Min Hardware 56

Requirements
 2 GHz Pentium IV Class Processor
 256 megabytes of RAM
 17”, .28 dot pitch monitor with 32 meg card
 40 gigabyte hard drive
 CD-RW
 56k modem
 Ink jet or laser printer
 Buying Hints - Software 57

Bundles
 Many systems come with software included
 Productivity
» Microsoft Works
» Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite, etc
» Quicken, Money, or other financial software
 Reference
» Microsoft Encarta or Compton’s encyclopedia
 Games
Buying Hints - Service and 58

Warranty

 Toll-free 24 hr 7 day support (800 #)

 1 year warranty on parts and labor

 Optional extended warranty

 30 day return policy

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Programs

 Set of instructions to the computer

 Programming languages
» Machine language
» Assembly language
» Procedural languages
– Basic, Fortran, Cobol
» Object oriented languages
– Visual Basic, C++, C#, Java
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Systems Software
 Run fundamental operations
» Loading and running programs
» Saving and retrieving data
» Communicating with printers, modems, etc.
 Examples of systems software
» DOS
» Windows 3.1, 95, 98, Me, 2000, and XP
» Unix
» Linux
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Applications Software

 Helps you to accomplish a certain task

 Examples
» Word processing - memos, reports, etc.
» Spreadsheets - budgets, etc.
» Database - search, sort, select data
» Educational - simulations, practice
» Graphics - charts, diagrams
» Desktop publishing - pamphlets, etc.
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Software - Legal Issues

 Commercial software
» Can only make backup copies for yourself
» Can only use on one machine at a time
– Site license - use on more that one machine

 Shareware
» Can use - make copies and give to anyone
» Should pay if you continue to use
 Freeware – can copy and use indefinitely
 64

Software Viruses
 Illegal code added to a program
 May spread to many computers
» Copy files from one computer to another
» Download files by modem
» E-mail attachments
 Virus may be relatively harmless
» Writes “You’ve been stoned” on screen
 Virus may also be very damaging
» Erases everything on hard drive
 Virus may activate on a certain date
 65

Virus Protection

 Be careful where you copy files from

 Do not open e-mail attachments unless
you are sure that it is safe
 Use virus protection program

» Detects and removes illegal code

» Should be updated often
 Characteristics of 66

Computer
 Speed: Computers are a high-speed electronic
machine. They can carry around 3-4 million instruction
per second. Even advanced computers can handle
trillions of instructions per second, cutting down the
time to perform any digital tasks.
 Accuracy: Computers are also known for their
accurate performance. They can complete the given
jobs at almost 100% accuracy. Although errors may
occur in computers, they are usually caused by
incorrect input, incorrect instructions, or bugs in chips.
All of these are human errors.
 Characteristics of 67

Computer
 Storage Capacity: Computers can easily store a
massive size of data. Modern computers come inbuilt
with high storage features compared to older days.
Additional data can be stored on secondary devices like
external hard disks, or flash memory, etc. Due to
incredible speed, data can be retrieved from storage in
no time.
 Reliability: Computers are reliable and consistent; they
can process the same tasks any number of times without
throwing any error. Computers don't get tired like
humans, so they are superior to perform rule-based,
repetitive tasks.
 References

• Wikipedia.org
• Google.com
• Seminarppt.com
• Studymafia.org
 Thanks
To
SeminarPpt.Com