Introduction To Computers
Introduction To Computers
INTRODICTION TO DIGITAL
COMPUTER
Computers have become the basic necessity of any organisation with serious
objectives. They are used for all sorts of problems ranging from simple addition to highly
complex calculations in the field of research, Engineering simulations, satellite control, and
weather forecasting.
What is a Computer?
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Pascalein 1642 A French It was made up of
mathematician, counter wheels.
Blaise Pascal This was capable of
performing basic
arithmetic
operations. The era
of mechanical
calculating
machines started
with the invention
of Pascalein.
Rotating Wheel 1671 A German An electro-
Calculator mathematician, mechanical
Gottfried Von computer. This was
Leibnitz designed based on
the principles of
counter wheels that
were used in
Pascalein.
Jacquards Loom 1802 A French textile Punched cards
manufacturer,
Joseph Marie
Jacquard
Differential 1822 Professor of A hand operated
Engine mathematics at machine built with
Cambridge wheels, levers, and
University, Charles mechanical
Babbage linkages.
Analytical Engine 1833 Charles Babbage This machine
consisted of five
functional units
such as Input,
Output, Memory,
Arithmetic, and
Control unit. The
architecture of the
modern digital
computer
resembles the
Analytical engine
and hence Charles
Babbage is called
the father of
computers.
Mark-I 1943 An American Consisted of 72
mathematician, adding
Howard H. Aiken accumulators, 60
switches, buttons,
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punched tape.
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Generations of computers
Non-electronic generation
They were developed before the semiconductor revolution took place in 1946.
They were made up of wooden or mechanical components.
Examples: Abacus, Napiers bones, Differential Engines.
Electronic generation
Computers developed after 1946 are categorised into five generations.
They were mainly built with electronic circuitry and hence they are called electronic
generation computers.
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They were were concept of
batch introduced. operating
processing Languages system,
systems FORTRAN, parallel
and used Pascal, processing
for ALGOL were were
scientific used. introduced
and .
business
based
applicatio
ns
Examples ENIAC, IBM 1401, IBM IBM 3033, Cray
UNIVAC- HONEYWEL system/36 HP-3000 machines(Japan
I, EDSAC, L 400 0, NCR ), PARAM
EDVAC 395 10000(India)
The basic functional units of this system are explained in this section.
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Input Unit
Input is an external device that is connected to CPU. It is used to feed data and
instructions for solving the problem. The control unit sends signals to this unit for receiving
data and instructions from the user, this data and instructions are communicated to CPU.
The most commonly used input device is the keyboard. Some of the important input
devices are:
1. keyboard
2. mouse
3. joystick
4. light pen
5. track ball
6. optical scanner
7. digitize
8. microphone
9. disks
System Unit
Data and instructions are stored in the system unit when they are received from
input unit. This unit further consists of two units:
1. Central Processing Unit (CPU)
2. Memory Unit
1. CPU
The data and instructions received from the input device are processed in this unit.
CPU is considered as the heart and brain of the computer system. CPU consists of two
important functional units:
1. Control Unit
2. Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)
Control Unit
This unit controls and coordinates the activities of all the units of a computer
system. It acts as a supervisor. The following are the functions performed by this unit.
Fetching data and instructions from the main memory
Interpreting these instructions
Controlling the transfer of data and instructions to and from the main memory
Controlling input and output devices
The overall supervision of a computer
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ALU
All calculations are carried out in this unit. An ALU consists of an electronic
circuitry which performs basic arithmetic operations. It also consists of logic cercutry
which performs logical operations. Logical operations results in either TRUE or FALSE.
3. Memory Unit
This is storage device. Memory unit is a device which stores data and instructions
fed by the user. The memory of a computer measured in terms of bits, bytes and words.
Computer memory is classified into:
Main memory
Secondary memory
Cache memory
Main memory
This is a place e\where the data and instructions supplied by the input devices are
stored. This is a temporary memory since data and instructions stored are erased when
power shuts down. It is a semiconductor memory. It consists of RAM and ROM memories.
Its storage capacity is measured in terms of megabytes and gigabytes.
PROM - Programmable Read Only Memory: the contents of this memory are decided by
the user. It is initially empty. Later user can store programs, data or any other kind of
information permanently. This cannot be erased once it is written.
EPROM - Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory: the contents of this memory can be
erased by exposing it to the ultraviolet rays for about 10-20 minutes. Then new information
can be added.
EEPROM Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory: the contents stored
in this memory can be erased electronically. Then new information can be added.
Secondary Memory
This is a permanent memory. It stores a large amount of data for a long time. It is
also called a backup or auxiliary memory. The secondary memory is made up of magnetic
materials. Magnetic tape, magnetic disk and magnetic drum are secondary memory devices.
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Cache Memory
This is a high speed memory and is placed between CPU and main memory. The
data and instructions stored in it are access at higher speed compared to main memory.
Users cannot access this memory. It stores data and instructions that are currently to be
executed.
Output Unit
This unit is for displaying results after the execution of a program. The control unit
sends signal to this unit for displaying the processed data from the memory. The most
commonly used output unit is monitor. Some of the output devices are listed below.
1. printer
2. plotter
3. plasma display panels
4. LCD displays
5. Speaker
6. disks
Organisation of a Computer
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The keyboard is connected to CPU via cable.
The power cord connects the system to the electricity supply point.
The monitor cable is used to connect the system unit and the monitor.
The use of mouse is optional but for Graphical User Interface based applications, it is
necessary.
The front of the system unit consists of
Power ON/OFF button
Reset button
Turbo button
LEDs
Disk Drives
2. HARDWARE
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Input devices Keyboard, mouse, light pen, joy stick, scanner and digitizer.
Output devices various types of printers and plotters.
Secondary storage devices Floppy disk, Hard disk, CD ROM, Specifications of peripherals
and Computer system.
Input Devices
Input is any data or instructions entered into the memory of a computer. An input
device is any hardware component that allows a user to enter data and instructions into a
computer. The following is a list of the most common input devices which are nowadays
found in a computer system.
Keyboards
A keyboard contains keys that allow a user to enter data and instructions into the
computer. All computer keyboards have a typing area that includes the letters of the
alphabet, numbers, punctuation marks, and other basic keys. Many desktop computer
keyboards also have a numeric keypad located on the right side of the keyboard. On
notebook and many handheld computers, the keyboard is built into the top of the system
unit. A standard computer keyboard is called a QWERTY keyboard because of the layout
of its typing area which is similar to that of a typewriter.
Fig 1: Keyboard
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The keyboard is the most widely used means of entering information into a
computer. Pressing a key on the keyboard generates a code that represents the character
associated with the key.
The two main codes associated with computers are ASCII and EBCDIC. ASCII is a
seven bit code, so characters generated by the keyboard are made available as a seven bit
code (a total of 128 different combinations). ASCII stands for American Standard Code for
Information Interchange. EBCDIC stands for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange
Code, and is used primarily by IBM.
The Keyboard along with key switches has a Microprocessor called keyboard
controller and small memory called keyboard buffer. The sequence of operations that are
carried out when a key is passed from the keyboard can be explained using the following
diagram:
Fig 2: Keyboard
Step 4: The operating system obtains the scan code and deletes the scan code from the
keyboard buffer.
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Step 5: The operating system then sends the scan code or equivalent ASCII code to the
CPU. The CPU then sends the character to display unit. Thus, the typed character is visible
on the screen.
In short, whenever a key is pressed, the electronic circuitry inside the keyboard
identifies the key pressed. The circuit inside the keyboard determines which key is pressed
and is converted into 8-bit binary number. This 8-bit number or code is called scan code
and sent to CPU. The CPU converts it into ASCII (American Standard Code for
Information Interchange) value and is displayed on the screen.
It is not necessary to buy additional equipment because most computer systems are
normally supplied with keyboards.
Entering data and instructions with keyboards is generally faster than with pointing
devices.
Mouse
A mouse is the most widely used pointing device with a GUI environment on
personal computers. A mechanical mouse has a rubber ball on its underside to detect
movement of the mouse. An optical mouse uses devices that emit and sense light to detect
the mouse's movement. A cordless mouse (either mechanical or optical) transmits data
using wireless technology such as radio waves or infrared light waves.
Fig 3: Mouse
Most mouse have two or more buttons, which users depress to select items from a
menu or click on graphical objects on the computer screen, thus sending commands to the
computer. The mouse is held in the hand and moved across a flat surface. As the mouse is
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moved, its movement is detected and translated into both X and Y movements, which
updates the indicated position of the mouse pointer on the computer screen accordingly.
The position of the mouse is shown on the screen as the mouse cursor and is
denoted by a number of symbols.
How mouse works? When the mouse is moved, the ball which is situated at the
bottom of the mouse rolls. This movement is converted into electrical signal and is
transferred to CPU. These movements are interpreted and displayed on the screen in the
form of an arrow. This arrow is called mouse pointer. So, moving the mouse in any
direction on the hard flat surface moves the arrow in that direction on the screen. Thus,
mouse can point to any area on the screen.
A mouse needs more desk space to operate when compared with a trackball.
Digitizers
Digitizers are devices which send information to the computer. A very simple
digitizer is a mouse, which sends its relative movements to the computer and thus controls
the cursor position. Tablets and pads are similar to mice. With tablets and pads, the
intelligence is in the pad or tablet, not the pointing device. They are used in conjunction
with a pen or stylus, which is held in the hand and moved across the surface of the tablet or
pad.
The major area of use for these is Computer Aided Draughting (CAD) in the design
of plans for buildings, maps and other devices. A plan can be quickly inputted to the
computer as a series of dots. The plan is laid on the tablet, then the pen is positioned and
clicked at key corners. The tablet converts each to a relative x,y co-ordinate. When all
corners and key points are entered, a graphics program can draw lines between the entered
points and display the plan graphically.
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Pressure Sensitive Pads
These are about the same size as a mouse pad. Most use a cordless pen which may
also have several buttons. As the pen is moved across the surface of the pad, its position is
detected by pressure, and sent as x,y co-ordinates to the computer. It is suitable for free
hand drawing, painting and general graphic work.
The above image shows a pressure pad, which replaces a mouse pad.
The above image shows another Graphics Tablet suitable for CAD work.
Scanners
Scanners are devices which scan documents containing text or graphics and convert
them into a bitmap (picture image). The image may be in black and white, grey scale, or
colour depending upon the features of the scanner.
The resolution of a scanner refers to how many pixels (dots) per inch it can detect
and reproduce in the final bitmap image.
Scanners are also used with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to scan text
documents as graphic images, then convert them back to text again, saving the user having
to retype the entire document.
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Because scanners deliver a large amount of data when a document is scanned,
scanners normally connect to a computer using a dedicated controller board. This board
must be correctly installed and configured before the scanner can be used. Once the board
is installed, the next step is to load the software which will allow documents to be scanned
and saved.
Hand held scanners are generally cheap and aimed at the low end home user market.
They come in various resolutions up to about 800dpi (dots per inch) and either grey scale or
colour. In general, they can only scan documents of a certain width and length. To scan
large documents require several scan passes to be made and then combined.
FlatBed Scanners
Flatbed scanners tend to be larger than hand held or sheet feed scanners, but produce good
quality images as a result of their better construction.
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Fig 9: HPiicx Flatbed Scanner
a light source illuminates the paper, and light is reflected off the paper down onto
the scanning mechanism
blank or white spaces reflect more light than darker areas
a motor moves the scanning head underneath the page along its length
as the scan head moves down the page, it captures the reflected light bounced off
the page
the light captured from the page is reflected through a series of mirrors
a lens assembly focuses the light beam from the mirrors onto a light sensitive array
that converts the light into electrical signals
the electrical signals are converted into corresponding dots. In a colour scanner, the
light is passed through red, green and blue filters in order to extract colour
information.
the converted dots is sent to the computer for storage
Some scanners use three passes, one for each colour. They are obviously slower at
scanning pages than a single pass scanner.
Advantages
2. The copy of the scanned document which is stored in memory will never deteriorate in
quality with time. It can be displayed or printed whenever required.
3. The data from the document can be obtained directly by scanning and fed into the
computer. This eliminates human intervention increasing the data accuracy.
4. This eliminates the duplication of human effort required to get the data into the
computer.
5. Scanning helps in increasing the timeliness of the information processed because the
human beings do not have to enter the data from the keyboard.
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Disadvantages
1. The text document scanned is stored as an image and hence not possible to edit i.e.,
modification is not possible since the computer can not interpret the stored document as
letters, numbers etc.
3. Since the document is stored as an image, the file size is very large when compared to
the equivalent text file.
Light Pen
A light pen is a pointing device that can detect the presence of light. Light pens are
used by health care professionals (such as doctors and dentists) and design work.
It is connected to a computer monitor and allows the user to both point to objects
and to draw on the screen. It works because the monitor contains a light sensitive detector
which picks up light emitted from the pen and calculates its position on the screen.
Using a light pen is more direct and precise than using a mouse.
Light pen is also convenient for applications with limited desktop space.
Joystick
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Fig 11: joystick
A joystick is a pointing device with a vertical lever mounted on a base. The lever
usually includes buttons called triggers, which activate certain events when pressed.
Joysticks are mainly used for computer games and ultrasound scanners in hospitals.
Output Devices
Printers
Impact
In impact printers, the print head mechanism strikes an inked ribbon located
between the print head and the paper. The general features of impact printers are
The two main types of impact printers are Dot-Matrix and Daisy-Wheel.
Non-Impact
With non-impact printers, the print head does not make contact with the
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paper, and no inked ribbon is necessary. The general features of non-impact printers
are
The three main types of non-impact printers are LaserJet, ink-jet and thermal.
Dot-Matrix Printers
Dot matrix printers are suitable for draft copies and home use, where quality of the
finished type is not critical. Dot matrix printers have tended to become cheap, but now are
being quickly overtaken by cheap LaserJet and inkjet printers, which offer higher printing
speeds and superior quality, as well as good colour.
the print head consists of a number of wires formed vertically, creating one column
of the dot matrix for every strike
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Fig 13: Dot Matrix Print Head Solenoid
a large number of different characters or graphics can be created using a dot matrix
pattern
speeds up to 250 characters per second (cps) are possible
High speeds because smudging of the characters, as the print head must stop, fire
the pins, wait for the pins to retract, then move the print head to the next column before
firing again. The less time there is involved between firing the pins means it reaches a stage
where the pins have not fully retracted from the previous firing, which causes smudging as
the print head is moved to the next column position. The character printing speed restriction
is thus based on the physical mechanism being used to print the characters.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Daisy-Wheel Printers
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Daisy wheel printers use a spoke wheel with characters placed at the end of each
spoke. A print hammer is used to strike the desired character onto the ink ribbon and then
the paper.
The spoke wheel of characters is rotated around until the desired character is under
the print hammer, then the print hammer is fired which strikes the character, pushing it
against the ink ribbon, and onto the paper, creating the character.
Different fonts are available by changing the print wheels. Daisy wheel printers
were commonly found in typewriters. Below is an image of the Brother electronic
typewriter which uses a Daisy Wheel print mechanism.
Laser-Jet Printers
LaserJet printers are very common today. Most LaserJet printers have been based on
the Canon Print Engine, which originally ran at 4ppm (pages per minute), with a
resolution of 300dpi (dots per inch).
Refinements to the print engine have increased the speed of printing and resolution of the
print quality.
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the drum rotates a little further round, the paper is fed past a heating element which
fuses the toner onto the paper and then the paper is fed out of the printer
the drum surface is then returned to a single charge using a corona wire, which
removes all positive charges and returns the entire surface of the drum passing
underneath it to a negative charge
Ink-Jet Printers
Ink-Jet printers have become the defacto standard for home computers and low cost
printing. They offer good quality at an affordable price.
conductive ink is forced through a small nozzle producing a small droplet of ink,
which is propelled towards the screen surface
the size and spacing of the ink drops is kept constant by vibrating the nozzle at a
high frequency (100KHz)
each drop of ink, after leaving the nozzle, is charged as it passes an electrode the
drops are deflected using another electrode
characters are formed from a dot-matrix, typically there are 10^3 drops per
character
print quality is high, speed is slow, typically about 100cps
good results may require special non-absorbing paper, overhead transparencies
require special material
Plotters
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These devices are similar to printers, but are generally vector based in the way that
they draw lines and information on the paper. Vector based means from point to point, in
comparison to the way that the majority of CRT displays are drawn, which is pixel based.
Vector based tends to give must crisper lines and graphics.
There are two different sorts of plotter, one where the paper moves, and the other
where the paper is stationary. The majority of plotters use a serial connection to the
computer.
Most printers use a special language, the most popular being HP-GL, invented by
Hewlett Packard. Early printers such as the HP7475A used pens, mounted in a carousel.
The required pen was selected, and then across the paper to the desired spot. When
positioned correctly, the pen was moved down to make contact with the paper surface.
At this point, either the pen or paper was moved to draw the information. At the end
of the sequence, the pen was moved up to stop drawing, then positioned at the next co-
ordinates.
Monitor Screens
Monitor screens are devices used to display information from the computer. In fact,
Television sets include monitor screens, though in general, the monitor screens used in
computer systems are of a much higher quality.
Monitors come in various sizes, commonly starting at 14", then 15", as well as 17"
and 19". This is the size of the viewable screen measured across the diagonal from corner to
corner. The larger the size the more expensive the monitor. Larger sizes are required for
higher resolutions.
Resolution refers to the number of dots displayed in the X (across) and Y (down)
co-ordinates. Typical screens are capable of displaying 640x480 dots. Larger screens are
required for higher resolutions, for example, 1024x768 resolutions displayed on a 14"
screen look very small, but the same resolution on a 17" screen is much easier to read.
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Another term used with monitors is refresh rate. This refers to the number of times
per second that the image is redrawn on the monitor screen. A refresh rate of 60Hz means
the images is redrawn 60 times a second. Typical refresh rates are 60Hz, 72Hz and 75Hz.
higher refresh rates are required for larger resolutions, else the viewer tend to notice the
image on the screen flicker. The images on the screen have to be refreshed at a reasonable
rate (greater than 50Hz), otherwise the human eye perceives the image as flickering.
majority is based on Cathode Ray Tube technology (CRT), using the same principle
as used in television sets
the CRT consists of a vacuum tube enclosed in glass. At the end of the tube is an
electron gun (which generates an electron beam), focusing and deflection assembly.
At the other end of the tube is the screen surface which is coated in phosphorous
which emits a dot of light when struck by the electronic beam.
the screen image is repeated at the refresh rate, as the image dissipates quickly.
colour systems use three electron beams, one each for red, blue and green.
in colour systems, three different phosphors are used which match each of the three
beams. This collection of three phosphors is called a triad.
a shadow mask is used to prevent the beams from striking the wrong phosphors
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Fig 20: Shadow Mask and Triad
Interlaced Displays
the screen picture is made up of two full passes of the electron beam from top to
bottom
the first pass builds up one screen doing only odd line numbers the second pass
completes the screen doing all the even line numbers
the technique relies upon the persistence of the image on the screen so that the
human eye blends both passes together. Persistence is a measure of how long the
image remains on the screen before it fades away. This is because phosphor only
emits light when struck by electrons, when it stops being struck, it stops emitting
light.
this technique is commonly used for Television
Non-Interlaced Displays
In non-interlaced displays, the screen picture is made from one single pass of the
electron beam from top to bottom.
Dot Pitch
Screen Resolutions
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is the amount of detail that the display can show
it is expressed in a number of horizontal and vertical picture elements called pixels
(dots)
the higher the resolution, the more information that can be displayed on the screen,
but also require larger screen sizes else the image looks too small
the following table shows some common resolutions
A device that holds the data even when the computer is turned off is called a storage
media. So, storage media represent a physical material on which data is stored. The storage
media are very much essential for storage and subsequent retrieval of the instructions and
data.
For example: Floppy disk, hard disk etc., are the storage media.
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When the current passes through the coil inside read/write head, the head acts us an
electromagnet and induces a magnetic field. This magnetic field creates a magnetic
spot on the media represent 1.
In the absence of current, the coil inside read/write head don not act as an
electromagnet and hence do not induce any magnetic filed. Hence a magnetic spot
will not be created on the media representing a 0.
Thus, as the head passes over storage media, the data sent by the CPU in the form of
electrical impulses are converted into magnetic spots on the disk. These magnetic spots on
the disk represent data. Thus, the processor writes the data.
How data is read from a magnetic disk
During reading, no current flows through the read/write head. But, the storage
medium has magnetic spots representing the data. The data in the form of magnetic spots
can be read from storage device as shown below:
Whenever the data has to be read, the CPU instructs the read/write head to move
over the disk
As the head moves over the storage medium, the storage medium charges the
magnet in the head producing variations in current.
These electrical variations (electrical impulses) generated by the read/write head are
transferred to the CPU. A high current may represent 1 and low current represent 0.
Thus, the data in the form of magnetic spots are converted into electrical pulses and are
transferred to CPU. Thus, the processor (CPU) reads the data from the storage media.
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Each track is subdivided into a number of sectors. Each sector contains a specific
number of bytes or characters. Typical sector capacities are 128, 256, 512, 1024 and 4096
bytes.
Increasing the number of tracks is one way to increase the storage capacity of a disk
drive. Often the physical size of the disk imposes space restrictions which make this
impractical. The most common choice is increasing the number of sectors per track (from
17 to 34), or increasing the number of bytes stored in each sector.
Bad Blocks
The drive maintains an internal table which holds the sectors or tracks which cannot
be read or written to because of surface imperfections. This table is called the bad block
table, and is created when the disk surface is initially scanned during a low level format.
Partitions
A disk partition is a sub-division of the disk into one or more areas. Each partition
can be used to hold a different operating system. The computer system boots from the
active partition, and software provided allows the user to select which partition is the active
one.
Rotation Speed
This refers to the speed of rotation of the disk. Most hard disks rotate at 3600rpm.
To increase data transfer rates, higher rotational speeds are required, or multiple read/write
heads arranged in parallel, or disk arrays (multiple disks arranged in parallel).
Low level formatting is placing track and sector information, plus bad block tables
and other timing information on the disk. Sector interleave can also be specified at this
time.
High level formatting involves writing directory structures and file allocation tables
to the disk. Often this also means transferring the boot file for the operating system onto the
hard disk.
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Access Time
Access time refers to how soon the drive makes data available once issued with the
command to read the data. Once a read command is issued, the drive must position the
read/write head at the appropriate track number and wait for the correct sector to arrive.
Latency
This refers to the delay between the read/write request, and the appearance of the
required sector under the read/write head.
X Number of tracks
Number of tracks = 80
= 1474560 bytes
= 1440 KB bytes
= 1440 / 1000
= 1.44 MB
Floppy Drives
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Floppy disks were invented by IBM as a means of loading programs into a
computer. A floppy disk also called diskette is a storage media consisting of thin flexible
circular plastic material which is coated with a magnetic material and enclosed in a rigid
rectangular plastic case. Floppy disks are useful to transfer the data between computers and
store the files.
When the disk is placed in a disk drive, the data are recorded magnetically on one or
both sides of the disk surface. The data is stored in the floppy diskette in the form of
magnetic spots. The presence of a magnetic spot represents a binary value 1 and the
absence of a magnetic spot represents a o value.
Various components of a floppy disk:
The front view, plastic material inside and back of the most commonly used 31/2 inch
floppy disk is shown below:
Advantages
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They are portable. That is, the disks can be easily removed and can be moved from
one place to another easily.
Easy to use
If the computers are not in a network, using the floppy disk, the data can be
transferred from one machine to another machine.
They can be treated as non-volatile because, the data stored in the disk is not lost
when the computer is turned off.
Disadvantages
Hard disk
Hard disk is one of the storage devices, developed to store huge amount of data. The
introduction of high capacity hard disks for micro computer system solved two serious
problems related to the limited storage capacity of diskettes.
First, as a business begins to use micro computers extensively, the amount of software
acquired and data collected tends to grow substantially. As a result the number of diskettes
required, increases, dramatically second, the largest file that can be accessed at one time is
limited to the capacity of the main memory and the storage medium. A hard disk can store
huge amount of data in a most convenient way.
In hard disk system, data is stored in the same way as it is on diskettes. A series of tracks
are divided in to sectors when the disk is formatted. Hard disk is made out of a rigid
substance that is capable of storing a greater amount of data than the soft material used for
diskettes. The hard disk drives for the micro computer can be internal or external.
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In a disk pack, the access mechanism can position itself to access data from each of
the 200 cylinder is a set of all tracks with the same distance from the axis about which the
disk pack rotates. In this example there are 10 tracks in each cylinder.
The capacity of diskettes in wide use today ranges from 360KB to 144MB each. Microsoft
hard disk capacity ranges from 10MB to 1GB or higher. Hard disks larger capacity allows
the user to store larger files and larger programs than can be used with diskettes. Access
time with the hard disk is much lower than that of diskette i.e., data retrieval is much faster
with the hard disk than a diskette.
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The read/write heads are attached to a single access mechanism so that they cannot
move independently. All read/write heads are moved together to position the heads
on the require track. But, at any point of time one of the read/write heads is used to
access the data. The read/write head can move horizontally inwards and outwards
using the access mechanism while accessing the data. The entire unit is enclosed in
a sealed chamber. The hard disks available today have 40GB to 200+ GB of storage.
Most entry-level consumer PCs no come with hard disks of at least 40GB.
The present day hard disks in most PCs spin at speed of 3600 to 10000 rpm. The
speed at which the disk spins determines the performance of the hard disk. This high
rotational speed allows more data to be recorded on the disk surface. Hence, they
are capable of storing more data and accessing of data is much faster. The outer
surface of the first disk is not used for storing the data.
Advantages
Disadvantages
They are not portable. That is, they can not be moved from one computer to another lie a
floppy diskette.
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Optical storage devices
An optical storage device is a flat, circular storage medium which is coated with a
thin metal on which bits may be stored in the form of highly reflexive area or less reflexive
area. The data is read when the disc is illuminated with laser beam. These devices are
capable of storing enormous amount of data in a limited amount of space. Since laser
technology is used to read the data or write the data, these devices are called laser disks or
optical laser disks.
For example: CD-ROM, DVD etc. are optical storage devices.
A CD-ROM stands form Compact Disk-Read Only Memory. A CD is a small
optical disk on which data such as music, text or graphic images can be stored
digitally (in the form of 0s and 1s). The CDs are shiny, silver colour metal disk of
12cm in diameter. The CDs have become the standard medium for distributing large
quantities of information. These are originally developed for storing digital audio.
Like hard disk, a CD can store huge amounts of digital information permanently.
The data stored on CD can not be erased and it is the most reliable storage medium.
The capacity of CD range from 650MB to 700MB and is inexpensive to
manufacture. Unlike hard disks CDs are very portable and handy to use.
We know that data is stored in the form of pits and lands. During reading, when
the laser beam falls on the pit, the light will be scattered as shown in figure and sensor
will not receive reflected light. This is interpreted as 0. As the disk rotates, when the
laser beam falls on the land, the light is reflected and is passed to the sensor using a
prism. The sensor receives this reflected light and it is interpreted as bit 1. The sensor
passes this information of 1s and 0s to the CPU. Thus, CPU reads the information from
CPU.
Advantages
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They are relatively tough as long as the surface does not get too scratched.
High quality recording of sound and graphical images
They are less expensive
Used in multimedia and educational applications
Used in high quality music recording
Most software program are sold on CD-ROMs
Disadvantages
3. SOFTWARE
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Introduction
Software is a set of programs that are used to carry out certain jobs or tasks. It is the
set of programs which actually makes the computer operational. To write a program for a
computer, you must use a computer language. Over the years computer languages have
evolved from machine language to natural languages. Computer software is divided into
two broad categories: system software and application software. System software manages
the computer resources. It provides interface between the hardware and the user.
Programs that are used in performing individuals work are known as application
software.
System Software
System software refers to the files and programs that make up computer's operating
system. System files include libraries of functions, system services, drivers for printers and
other hardware, system preferences, and other configuration files. The programs that are
part of the system software include assemblers, compilers, file management tools, system
utilities, and debuggers. The system programs are generally written in assembly language
and are then translated to machine code.
Application Software
With the growing popularity and ever increasing user friendly characteristics of
computers, the demand for software in specific areas is on rise. The programs that are used
in performing an individuals work are called application software.
Application specific software can be used only for its intended purpose. A general
ledger system used by accountants and a material requirements planning system used by a
manufacturing organization are examples of application specific software. They can be
used only for the task they were designed for; they cannot be used for other generalized
tasks.
Machine Language
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In the earliest days of computers, the only programming languages available were
machine languages. Each computer has its own machine language, which is made of
streams 0s and 1s. This is because the internal circuits of a computer are made of
switches, transistors, and other electronic devices that can be one of the two states: off
(represented by 0) or on (represented by 1).
Each instruction in machine code consists of two parts: operation code and address.
The first part tells the computer the operation to perform, such as addition, subtraction,
store etc. every computer has an operation code or opcode for each type of operation. The
second part is the address of memory location where the data and instructions to be
manipulated are stored.
Example:
Advantages Disadvantages
The instructions in machine The difficulty ion programming
language are executed directly using machine language is that the
without the necessity of any programmer has to remember code
translation as required by the high numbers for several instructions and
level languages. also has to keep track of the storage
The programs written in machine locations of data and instructions.
language make use of machines Machine languages are machine
facilities efficiently, when it is run. dependent. Therefore program
Instructions can directly manipulate developed on one machine cannot
the bits in a byte of memory so be transferred to other.
execution is faster. The programmer should keep track
Efficient usage of computers of each register in computers ALU
memory may be achieved with the Program developed ion machine
programming in machine language, language is usually very large since
since programmer has control over many number of instructions are
the language instructions and required for even simple operations.
memory locations.
Assembly Language
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Hopper, Mathematician and U.S. Navy admiral, developed the concept of a special
computer program that would convert programs into machine language. These early
programming languages simply mirrored the machine languages using symbols, or
mnemonics, to represent the various machine language instructions. Hence these languages
were known as symbolic languages.
For example, an instruction that transfers data from memory locations represented
by temp to the register RO is given by:
Move RO temp
Mnemonic operand1 operand2
Advantages Disadvantages
Programs are easy to modify Assembly programs are to be
Programmers need not remember translated to machine level before
memory addresses of data values. they are run.
Less scope for errors. The Assembly language is machine
assembler finds the syntax errors dependent. The program developed
and displays them. Thus reducing on a machine cannot be used on
the time for debugging the program. other.
Programming in assembly language
requires skilled programmers, with
knowledge of computers working.
Working with symbolic languages was also tedious because each machine
instruction had to be individually coded. The desire to improve programmer efficiency and
to change the focus from the computer to the problem being solved led to the development
of English like languages called high -level languages.
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Normally high-level languages are application specific. For instance, FORTRAN
(Formula Translation) has been developed for scientific applications, COBOL (Common
Business Oriented Language) is used for business applications and BASIC (Beginners All
Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is basically developed for beginners.
Over the years, there has been constant endeavour to improve the programming
techniques and as a result of which, the following programming techniques have emerged.
Assemblers
The source program that cannot be understood by the computer has to be converted
to machine language before it is executed. An assembler serves this purpose.
A set of special programs that are used to translate a program written in assembly
language to machine language is called assembler. The assembled machine language
program is called object program.
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After the completion of the process of assembling, we can execute the resulting
object program. For this purpose, the object program has to be loaded from magnetic disk
to main memory (RAM). Another program loader that is part of the assembler does the job
of loading object program to main memory.
Finally, when the execution progresses, there is a possibility that certain logical
errors are present in the object program. System software called debugger stops the
execution of program when logical errors are found and checks the contents of registers and
memory locations to help the user locate the errors.
Compilers
The code in a source file stored on the disk must be translated into machine
language since high-level languages are not understood by the computers. The process of
translating high-language to machine language is called compilation. A set of system
programs known as compiler does this job. The compiler checks for the presence of
syntactical errors and displays a list of errors and their locations. On successful
compilation, the resulting machine code is stored as an object code. Then the link editor
links all the modules of the program and library functions if any and generates the
executable code. The functions performed by the compiler are:
Translates the high-level language to machine code
Allocates memory addresses for several objects and instructions
Generates an object code consisting of equivalent machine code after successful
compilation
Displays a list of errors and the corresponding statement numbers
Interpreters
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Interpreters translate one line of source into machine code at a time. They do not
produce object code. Therefore interpreters take long time to execute a program.
Interpreters are primarily meant for simplifying and debugging process. Following table
describes the difference between compiler and interpreter.
Compiler Interpreter
Translates the source code into Translates the source code into
machine language machine language
Compiles the entire program all at Compiles line by line and
once and produces object code immediately executes it. No object
code is generated
Execution of program is faster Executing of program is slow
Editors
The software used to write program is known as editor. The features of text editors
facilitate the user to feed the documents, programs and modify if any corrections. Some of
the features of text editors are search commands to locate and replace statements, copy and
paste of lines, deleting words, characters, lines and blocks, insertion of words, characters
and lines, saving files.
Text editors are supplied with compilers, operating systems. Examples of editors
with compiler are Turbo C Editor, Turbo Pascal Editor. The editors that are supplied
with operating system are vi with Unix and Norton Editor with DOS.
Operating System
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It handles input and output to and from attached hardware devices, such as hard
disks, printers, and dial-up ports.
It sends messages to each application or interactive user (or to a system operator)
about the status of operation and any errors that may have occurred.
It can offload the management of what are called batch jobs (for example, printing)
so that the initiating application is freed from this work.
On computers that can provide parallel processing, an operating system can manage
how to divide the program so that it runs on more than one processor at a time.
DOS: Disk Operating System was more predominant when IBM PC was introduced. It is a
single user operating system employing command line interface or the user. The serious
limitation with this operating system was that, it provided only 640 kilobytes of user
memory space. Since 1983, various versions of windows based interfaces have been
available with DOS.
UNIX: UNIX is an operating system which was first developed in the 1960s, and has been
under constant development ever since. By operating system, we mean the suite of
programs which make the computer work. It is a stable, multi-user, multi-tasking system
for servers, desktops and laptops.
UNIX systems also have a graphical user interface (GUI) similar to Microsoft Windows
which provides an easy to use environment. However, knowledge of UNIX is required for
operations which aren't covered by a graphical program, or for when there is no windows
interface available, for example, in a telnet session.
Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces
produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named
Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest
in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The most recent client version of Windows is Windows
Vista; the most recent server version is Windows Server 2008. Vista's successor, Windows
7 (currently a release candidate), is scheduled to be released soon.
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MKDIR Command
DIR Command
C:\>DIR
CD Command
This command is used to change over to any other directory from current directory.
C:\>CD newdir
C:\newdir>
COPY Command
This command copies files between directories, and between disk drive either by keeping
the same file name or by changing it to other name. The following command copies the file
Prog1.C to the file Pro2.C
DEL Command
C:\>DEL Prog3.C
REN Command
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RMDIR Command
C:\>RMDIR newdir
CLS command
C:\>CLS
DATE Command
C:\>DATE
TIME Command
C:\>TIME
External Commands
FORMAT Command
C:\> FORMAT B:
DISKCOPY Command
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C:\> DISKCOPY A:B:
FDISK Command
Configures a hard disk for use with MS-DOS and Windows 95/98/2000.
C:\>FDISK [/STATUS] /X
DELTREE Command
4. Computing Environments
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Micro Computer
Definition: The micro computer is a small, low cost digital computer. As the name
indicates, it is a computer with microprocessor. It also consists of memory unit,
input/output channels to perform input/output operations etc. The addition of a power
supply, connecting cables, peripherals such as keyboard, monitor, CD drive etc. provide a
complete micro computer. The term micro computer and personal computer (PC) are
normally used interchangeably.
Workstations
Tablet Computers
Handheld computers(PDAs)
Smart phones
Desktop computers
Advantages
Easily affordable
Powerful
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Disadvantages
It is not portable since each unit such as keyboard, monitor, mouse and system unit
needs to be carried around.
Single user
Workstations
A workstation is similar to a personal computer with more powerful features as:
Large memory
Advantages
Very powerful
Disadvantages
It is expensive
Single user
Not portable
Notebook computers
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They are powerful computers, small enough to be carried around. They can fit into a
briefcase. Notebook computer has the size of a notebook, weighs 2 to 3 kilograms.
It consists of a flat display screen, keyboard, mouse, CD/DVD drive, floppy drives
etc all packed into a single light weight.
Advantages
It is portable
It consumes very less power in comparison to a desktop PC and therefore can work
on built in rechargeable batteries.
Disadvantage
Expensive compared to a PC
Single user
Difficult to maintain
Their smaller keyboards and screens are harder to use for extended periods
Difficult to upgrade
Tablet computers
Advantages
They consist of built-in handwriting recognition software
They also may have speech recognition software to handle specific applications
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They can be connected in a network
External power supply is not required as they can work on their built-in
rechargeable batteries.
Disadvantage
Expensive
Single User
Very delicate
Handheld PCs are small computing devices which can be held in our hands or
palms. Therefore they are also known as palmtops. The most popular handheld computer is
called a PDA: Personal Digital Assistant.
The PDAs are used to:
Store and maintain appointments, contact numbers and addresses.
PDAs use a specially designed pen called stylus or light pen to write on the screen.
They can process small tasks such as word processing, spread sheet calculations,
handwriting recognition, playing games etc
Advantages
They can be connected to the internet through wireless connection
They can keep track of appointments and meetings acting like a personal assistant
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Do not require power supply since they use batteries
Disadvantages
Memory limitations
Single user
Relatively expensive
Smart Phones
Smart Phone is a mobile phone Containing advanced features. They can be used
to:
Send and receive e-mails, SMS and MMS(Simple Messaging Services and
Multimedia Messaging Services)
Advantages
Disadvantage
Limited Memory
Limited Space
Very delicate
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Single user
Mini Computers
Mini Computers are smaller in size and capability compared to mainframe system.
They lie in between mainframes and micro computer in cost and processing power. They
usually employ 16 or 32 bit processors. The primary memory may 16 to 96 MB.
Many users may use the system satisfactorily at the same time .mini Computers are
mainly used in small business organizations mainly because they provide an environment
similar to a mainframe but at low cost for lesser number of users.
They are faster than micro computers working at speeds of 10-30 MIPS (Million
Instruction per Second).
The leading manufacturers are IBM, Apple, Macintosh, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Texas
Instruments etc.
Mainframe Computers
Main frames are very large and powerful machines. They have large storage
capacity and high speed of processing. They typically have several megabytes of primary
memory. Hundreds of users can work on the system simultaneously. The System resources
are managed by a very secure and foolproof operating system. They usually employ
multiple processor configurations. Separate processors are used for input and output called
I/O processors to enhance system throughput and performance.
They are used in large organizations such as military service, Aerospace
Corporation and weather bureaus. They:
Are capable of processing at high speeds of more than 100 MIPS.
Some of the leading manufacturers are IBM, Control Data Corporation (CDC),
Digital System, HP etc.
Super Computers
Super computers are computers that are used for scientific and engineering
applications that must handle very large databases or do a great amount of computation. It
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is extremely fast computers that can perform one trillion operations per second .They are
made of multiple computers that perform parallel operations. Super computers are fastest,
costliest and most powerful computers available today. They are used for specialized
applications of mathematical calculations.
A super computer has the highest processing speed at a given time for solving
scientific and engineering problem. For example for weather Forecasting, for military
applications, electronic design, earth quake predictions etc.
Computer Networks
Definition: LAN stands for Local Area Network. A local area network is defined as
a computer network which operates over short distances at a very high speed. As the name
indicates, the connection of two or more computers is limited locally to a single
organization. The computers are connected via cables for transmitting the data. The range
between two end points is limited from few meters to less than 2 kilo meters.
Advantages
Accurate and Higher data transfer because of usage of cable and short distance
Device sharing: various devices such as printers can be shared by many computers.
Data accessing: the data from one system can be accessed from other system.
Reduction of software cost: The software can be stored in one machine and can be
accessed from any machine there by reducing the cost of the software.
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Disadvantages
Definition: WAN stands for Wide Area Network. A Wide Area Network is defined
as a computer network which operates over long distances covering larger geographical
area. It consists of two or more LANs. The scope of WAN is not limited to a building or
campus like LAN. But, spans over wide area .so, communication is mostly through
telephone or satellite links. Big organizations and companies, which have several branches
all over the world, are the ones who greatly benefit from WANs. The WANs enable them to
easily communicate with their partners or employees around the globe.
Advantages
Communication is possible over a wide distance, ranging from more than 100 or
1000s of kilometers usually across countries and continents.
Remote accessing: the data from one machine can be accessed from other machine.
Disadvantages
WANs have very low band width.
The communication between two points is relatively slow because of very large
distance and low bandwidth.
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LAN WAN
INTERNET
Using this internet, any computer in one part of the world can communicate
with computer in another part of the world. These connections allow the user to :
Exchange messages
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vii) Online services
viii) Peer to peer services
Before understanding the World Wide Web, we should know some key terms .Let us
discuss them first:
Web Server: Servers are dedicated computers for the specific job. A file server is a
computer dedicated to store the files only. Any user who uses the network can store files on
the file server. Similarly, a print server is a computer that manages one or more printers. A
computer that manages the network traffic in the network is called network server.
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IP Address (Internet protocol Address): Each and every computer connected to Internet has
an identification number. This identification number is called IP address. These IP address
are used to identify computers or a devices in a network.
Download: The process of copying files, information and images from the server to our
computer is termed as download. Even viewing a page on the internet is termed as
downloading.
Web pages: A document on web is called a web page .Each page is identified by a unique
URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
Web site: A collection of related web pages is called web site. The Web sites are stored in
web servers.
Web browser: it is a program which is used to access the contents of web and view web
pages. The various web browsers normally used are Microsoft Internet Explorer or
Netscape Navigator .It sends the address in the form of URL and obtains a web page from
the server. This web page which is in the form Of HTML text will be converted into
suitable form and displayed on the screen.
HTML: stands for Hypertext Markup Language. When the web browser receives a
webpage, it will be in HTML format. The web browser converts the HTML text into
suitable form to display it on the screen.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator): It is the global address of documents on the Web. The
URL has 3 parts
The first part of the address indicates the protocol to be used
Definition: World Wide Web often called web is a service available on the internet.
Web is a collection of documents or websites. When the users access internet and web
browser, web presents text, images, video, audio etc. to the user.
How the web works?
The following are activities are performed when we want to display a page using internet.
To access a website and display the page on the screen ,we first enter its address in
the form of URL in the address box of the browser as shown below:
Web browser such as internet explorer divides the above URL into three parts:
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[Indicates IP address .This indicates that computer by name
vtu.ac.in hosts the site]
File name---admissions_vtu.php
The web server locates the file (admissions_vtu.php) and sends the data to our
computer. This is called downloading.
The browser reads data which is in HTML format and converts it into suitable form
on the screen.
Using E-mail
E-mail was one of the first uses of the Internet and it is most widely used by many people
every day.
Definition: Electronic mail in short E-mail is a fast, easy and inexpensive way to
communicate with people around the world using the Internet. E-mail is used to send,
receive text messages, audio and video messages etc. The various advantages of E-mail are:
E-mail is faster than postal mail because E-mail messages reach their destination in
seconds rather then days.
Unlike the telephone, the persons communicating with each other need not be
available immediately.
Apart from sending messages, we can attach files to messages. The files can be
ordinary text or video or audio.
Understanding E-Mail
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We can send messages to people if they have E-mail address. These E-mail addresses
enable the users to send messages or receive messages.
The parts of e-mail address are:
To start with we have to create e-mail account. This is achieved by creating a
unique user name. The user name should be different for each e-mail account. An
email address consists of two parts: username @ servername
The symbol @ is used to separate the user name from the server
name
Very often the email address is in lower case letters and does not contain any
spaces.
Note: When we send e-mail messages, the messages are stored on a server (computer).This
server is called mail server. Many mail servers use post office protocol (POP)and are called
pop servers.
Modes of operation
Modes of operation are mainly concerned with making use of CPU time
efficiently .the processor executes the program (also called jobs) in some manner .The way
the programs submitted by the user are executed is called mode of operation. The following
are the basic modes of operation.
Batch processing
Time Sharing
Batch processing
In this method, a number of jobs (programs) are submitted by the user. They are
stored in the computer and then executed one by one. The execution may follow the
FCFS (First Come First Served) policy. When a particular job is executing, the entire
CPU time is dedicated to that job only, while all other jobs are kept in waiting state. After
the job is executed, their hard copy (print out) output is produced on a high speed printer.
This method of data processing is now largely obsolete.
Advantages
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Massive data processing
Disadvantages
Time Consuming
Time Sharing
In a time sharing system, the CPU allocates each terminal a small amount of time
called time slices or time quantum. This time slice is generally 10 milliseconds. The jobs
submitted by different users are queued up. The job is taken for execution from this queue
and executed for the specified time slice. If it completes its entire work within this time
slice, then it is terminated. Otherwise it is moved to the queue and the next job is taken for
execution. This process is continued until all jobs are executed. The system is so responsive
that the user at the terminal feels as if the whole system is at his/her own disposal. Time
sharing environment is adapted in minicomputers and the mainframe computers.
As the name implies, these systems process real-time applications such as weather
forecasting, rocket launching, missile control, process control etc. In a real time system, the
host computer is connected to a large number of terminals. All these terminals are
processing a single program. They converse with the host CPU. The CPU takes the
incoming data from the terminals and updates it. And, it transfers this modified data to all
terminals. Thus, we can find this modification made in all terminals.
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BMS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, BANGALORE-
560019
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M.TECH ON-LINE EXAMINATION JULY 2009
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