COMPUTER SYSTEM FUNDAMENTALS

Evolution of Computers

FIRST GENERATION COMPUTERS (1945 - 1956)

They used vacum tubes as their basic electronic component. They were extremely large in size and
not reliable. Machine language had to be used for giving instructions. Some of the first generation
computers are:
ENIAC (Electronic Numeric Integrator and Calculator)
EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)
UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer)

Disadvantages
They were bulky and not portable.
They emitted large amount of heat because they used vacum tubes.
Air conditioning was required.
They were prone to frequent failure and were unreliable.

SECOND GENERATION COMPUTERS (1956 - 1963)

In this generation of computers transistors were used in place of vacum tubes. Transistors are more
compact and durable than vacum tubes as they are made up of semiconductors. Programming
languages such as COBOL and FORTRAN were developed during this period. With fast CPUs and
the advent of magnetic tape and disk storage operating systems were introduced during this period.

Disadvantages
Frequent maintenance needed
Commercial production was still difficult
Air conditioning was required

THIRD GENERATION COMPUTERS (1964 - 1971)

In third generation computers transistors were replaced by Integrated Circuits (ICs). An IC is a

sillicon chip or wafer that contains all elements of an electronic circuit on a small area. These
computers were small in size and were fast and reliable. They consumed less power and were
commercially viable. The multisharing and multiprogramming concept of operating system came
into picture during this period.

FOURTH GENERATION COMPUTERS (1971 Onwards)

They used VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration Technology). The use of VLSI technology squeezed
thousands of components onto a single chip. These computers had larger memory and greater
functional speed. They consumed less power and generated negligible heat. At software level new
concepts such as database management systems were introduced.
 FIFTH GENERATION COMPUTERS

Scientists are now at work on the fifth generation of computers. These computers will have
thinking power i.e. they will have artificial intelligence. In contrast to present dips/lips
(Data/Logic Information Processing Systems) the fifth generation of computers will have KIPS
(Knowledge Information Processing System).

Basics of Computers & its Operation

Computer is an electronic device designed to accept and store input data, process it and output the
results under the direction of detailed step by step programs and instructions.

Computer as a system is a combination of hardware and software that jointly offer the necessary
services to the user.

Hardware: It refers to the physical and tangible components. For example mouse, keyboard, hard
disk, processor etc
Software: It is a set of programs that govern the operation of a computer system and make the
hardware run.

Functions of Computer

Input: A computer has to accept data for processing.

Storing: The data given to the computer may have to be stored so that it is available for initial or
additional processing.
Processing: A computer performs arithmetic or logic operations on data in order to convert the input
data into useful information.
Output: It is the result of the processing done by the computer on the given data.

FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS AND INTERCONNECTIONS

The internal architectural design of computers may differ from one another but there is a basic
organization seen in all the computers.
 CPU

CU Output Unit
Input Unit
ALU

Memory

Input Unit
Data and instructions must be entered into the computer in order to carry out the computations. This
data entry task is carried out by the Input Unit. Regardless of their type all input devices convert data
into binary form and then send it for further processing.

Central Processing Unit

ALU (Arithmetic & Logic Unit)
It performs the arithmetic and logical operations on the data as a result of the execution
of the decoded instruction. It can perform arithmetic operations like addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division etc and logical operations (>,<,<=,>=,<>). The
result of logical operations is either true or false.

CU (Control Unit)
Control Unit gets instructions from memory and executes them one after the other. After
getting the instruction from memory the instruction is decoded and interpreted by CU to
decide the operation that has to be performed. After the work of this instruction is
completed it sends a signal to memory to send the next instruction to it. It also controls
the flow of data from input devices to memory and from memory to output devices.

Memory
This part of the computer is used for storage of program as well as data. Therefore the present day
computers are also known as stored program computers. Memory can be

Internal Memory (Main Memory or Primary Memory)

It is directly accessible to the CPU. It is volatile in nature i.e. the contents of the main
memory are lost as soon as the power is switched off. The main memory is so organised
that the time of access of data is independent of its location in memory.
External Memory
It is not directly accessible to the CPU. The contents of the external memory have to be
brought into the main memory so that they can be processed. It is non-volatile in nature
i.e. the contents are not lost even when the power is turned off. For example: Hard disk,
Floppy disk, Zip drive etc
 Output Unit
This unit of the computer provides the result of the computations and processing to the outside world.
Since a computer works with binary data, the result produced by it is also in binary form. The task of
converting it into human readable form is performed by the output unit.

Concept of Booting
When the computer is switched on, a copy of boot program is brought from ROM into
the main memory. This process is called booting. The CPU first runs a jump instruction
that transfers to BIOS (Basic Input output System) and it starts executing. The BIOS
conducts a series of self diagnostic tests called POST (Power On Self Test). These tests
include memory tests, configuring and starting video circuitry, configuring the systems
hardware and checking other devices that help to function the computer properly.
Thereafter the BIOS locates a bootable drive to load the boot sector. The execution is
then transferred to the Boot Strap Loader program on the boot sector which loads and
executes the operating system. If the boot sector is on the hard drive then it will have a
Master Boot record (MBR) which checks the partition table for active partition. If found,
the MBR loads that partitions boot sector and executes it.
Booting Process is of two types Warm and Cold
Cold Booting: When the system starts from initial state i.e. it is switched on, we call it
cold booting or Hard Booting. When the user presses the Power button, the instructions
are read from the ROM to initiate the booting process.
Warm Booting: When the system restarts or when Reset button is pressed, we call it
Warm Booting or Soft Booting. The system does not start from initial state and so all
diagnostic tests need not be carried out in this case. There are chances of data loss and
system damage as the data might not have been stored properly.

CLASSIFICATION OF SOFTWARE

System Software Application Software

General Application Utilities Customised

Software (Packages) (e.g. disk Application
defragmenter Software
Operating System Language Processors etc)
(Compilers, Interpreters,
Assemblers)

Software can be classified broadly into two broad categories: System Software and Application
Software.
SYSTEM SOFTWARE

The software that controls internal computer operations (viz. reading data from input devices,
transmitting processed information to output devices, checking system components, converting
data/instructions to computer understandable form etc) is known as system software.

The System Software can further be classified into two categories: Operating System and Language
Processor.

OPERATING SYSTEM

An operating system serves as an interface between the user and the hardware. The purpose of the
operating system is to provide an environment in which the a user can execute programs and to use the
computer hardware in an efficient manner. The operating system controls and coordinates the use of
the hardware among the various application programs for the various users.

Operating System acts a resource allocator. A computer system has many resources (hardware &
software that may be required to solve a problem: CPU time, memory space, file storage space, I/O
devices and so on. The operating system acts as a manager of these resources and allocates them to
specific programs and users as necessary. Since there may be many conflicting requests for resources
(i.e more than one process asking for the same resource at the same time) the operating system must
decide which requests are to be allocated to operate the computer system efficiently and fairly. An
operating system also controls the execution of user programs to prevent errors and improper use of the
computer.

The common functions of controlling and allocating resources are brought together into one piece
of software: the operating system.

FUNCTIONS OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

Program Execution
The Operating System is responsible for executing various programs whether user or
system programs.

Main Memory Management

Keep track of which parts of memory are being used and by whom
Decide which processes are to be loaded into main memory when space is available
 Allocate and deallocate memory space as needed.

File Management & Secondary Storage Management

Creation and deletion of files
Creation and deletion of directories
Support for manipulating files and directories
Free space management
Storage allocation
Disk scheduling

I/O System Management

A memory management component including buffering, caching and spooling
A general device driver interface
Drivers for specific hardware devices

Accounting
Keeps track of what functioning is taking place and what type of errors have occurred.

LANGUAGE PROCESSORS

The software programs which convert programs in assembly or high level language are called language
processors. The language processors are:

i. Assembler: This language processor converts programs written in assembly language into machine
language.

ii. Interpreter: This language processor converts a HLL program into machine language by converting
and executing it line by line. If there is any error in any line, it reports it at the same time and
program execution cannot resume until the error is rectified.

iii. Compiler: It converts a HLL program into machine language but the conversion manner is different
than an interpreter. It converts the entire HLL program in one go and reports all the errors along
with the line numbers.

APPLICATION SOFTWARE

Application software is a set of programs designed to help the user perform specific tasks. Numerous
application software have been developed over the years to serve different purpose. You can choose
application software depending upon your requirements. Application software can further be divided
into three categories:

a) General Purpose Application Software

 General purpose application software is developed keeping in mind the general needs and
requirements of a large number of people. Some examples of such software are:

Word Processing Software

Spreadsheet Software
Database Management System (DBMS)
Desktop Publishing Software
Graphics, Multimedia and Presentation Software

b) Specific Purpose Application Software

Specific purpose application software is developed keeping in mind the requirements of an
organization or an individual. This software designed specially to achieve specific tasks is
also known as customized software. Examples of this software are Accounting Management
Software, Reservation System, Human Resource Management System, Attendance System,
Payroll system, School inventory and control system, Billing System

c) Utility Software
Utility software is a program designed to perform maintenance work on a computer system
to help in its smooth functioning. Examples of this software are: Disk Defragmentor
software, Antivirus software (like Norton, AVG, Avira, McAfee), Disk Backup software,
Data Compression software.
Open Source Concepts
Software are mainly categorised into the following categories based on their licenses:
1. Proprietary
2. Shareware
3. Freeware
4. Open source
5. Free Software
Proprietary
We pay a supplier for a copy of the software which these days may be supplied on
physical media (disks) or downloaded from the Internet. We get the permission to

use the software on one or sometimes more than one machines. Examples of this
type of software include Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows.
Shareware
Shareware is basically a software for trial purpose that the user is allowed to try
for free, for a specified period of time. It is usually downloaded from the Internet.
When the trial period ends, the software must be purchased or uninstalled.
Freeware
Freeware software is free of cost and is usually bundled up with some operating
system or any other software. Examples of freeware include Microsoft Internet
Explorer which comes bundled up with any Microsoft operating system. The
author of the freeware software is the owner of the software, though people may
use it for free. The source code is not available, so no modifications can be done.
Freeware should not be mistaken with Open Source Software or Free Software.
Open source
Open Source Software (OSS) is the software which gives the users freedom to
run/use the software for any purpose and in any manner. They can be used,
modified and even redistributed. In simple terms it can be freely used but it may
not be free of charge. The source code is freely available to the customer. Python,
Tux Paint etc are examples of Open Source Software.
Free Software
This type of software is freely accessible and can be freely used, modified, copied
or distributed by anyone. And no licence fee or any other form of payment need to
be made for a free software. The source code is also accessible in case of free
softwares.