MODULE - 1

I. Von Neumann Architecture

The modern computers are based on a stored-program concept introduced by John bon
Neumann. In this concept, programs and data are stored in a separate storage unit called
memories and are treated the same. This novel idea meant that a computer built with this
architecture would be much easier to reprogram.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

CPU can be considered as the heart of the computer system, includes three main
components:
i) Control Unit (CU) determines the order in which instructions should be executed
and controls the retrieval of the proper operands. It interprets the instructions and
the execution of each instruction is determined by a sequence of control signals
produced by the control unit.
ii) ii) Arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a digital circuit used to perform arithmetic and logic
operations. It represents the fundamental building block of the central processing
unit (CPU) of a computer. Most of the operations of a CPU are performed by on or
more ALUs, which load data from input registers. A register is a small amount of
storage available as part of a CPU. The control unit tells the ALU what operation to
perform on that data and the ALU stores the result in an output register. The control
unit moves the data between these registers, the ALU, and memory.
iii) Registers are temporary storage locations to quickly store and transfer the data and
instructions being used. Because the registers are on the same chip and directly
 connected to the control unit, the registers have faster access time than other
memories. Therefore, using registers both as the source operand and destination
operand for storing results will improve the performance.

Register Use
MAR Memory Address Register Holds the memory location of data
that needs to be accessed
MDR Memory Data Register Holds data that is being transferred
to or from memory
AC Accumulator Where intermediate arithmetic and
logic results are stored
PC Program Counter Contains the address of the next
instruction to be executed
CIR Current Instruction Contains the current instruction
Register during processing

Memory

Memory is used to store program instructions and data. A memory unit is a collection of
storage cells together with associated circuits needed to transfer information in and out of
the storage.
Input Devices
i) Keyboard is the most common and very popular input device which helps to input
data to the computer. The design of the keyboard is like that of a traditional
typewriter, although there are some additional keys provided for performing some
additional functions
ii) Mouse is the most popular pointing device. It is a cursor control device having a
small palm size box with a round ball at its base, which senses the movement of the
mouse and sends corresponding signals to the CPU, when the mouse buttons are
pressed.
iii) Joystick is also a pointing device which is used to move the cursor position on a
monitor screen. It is a stick having a spherical ball at its both lower and upper ends.
The lower spherical ball moves in a socket. The joystick can be moved in all four
directions.
iv) Scanner is an input device, which works like a photocopy machine. It is used when
some information is available on paper and it is to be transferred to the hard disk of
the computer for further manipulation. Scanner captures images from the source
which are then converted into a digital form that can be stored on the disk. These
images can be edited, if required.
v) Microphone is an input device to input sound that is then stored in a digital form.
The microphone is used for various applications such as adding sound to a
multimedia presentation or for mixing music.
Output Devices
i) Monitor is the most common output device used with computers, which displays
video images and text. A monitor is made up of circuitry, a screen, a power supply,
buttons to adjust screen settings, and casing that holds all of these components.
ii) Printers are another common output device found in homes and offices. In
computing terms, they take electronic data stored on a computer and generates a
hardcopy of it. There are different types of printer, with Ink jet and Laser printers
being two of the most common types.
iii) Computer Speakers are hardware devices that transform the signal from the
computers sound card in to audio. Speakers create sound using internal amplifiers
that vibrate at different frequencies according to data from the computer. This
produces sound. Speakers are essential if you want a louder sound, surround sound,
fuller bass or just higher quality audio.
iv) Headphones also known as earphones, allow you to listen to audio without
disrupting other people in the vanity. They connect via computer line out or to the
speakers.
v) Projector, as its name suggests, this output device projects computer images onto a
wall or a screen. Projectors are typically used for presentations, watching movies or
as a teaching aid, as they enable an entire roomful of people to see images
generated by a single computer.

II. Memory
Memory is the brain of a computer which stores data and information and also for
retrieving it.
i) Primary memory, also known as main memory is the area in a computer which
stores data and information for fast access. It is a volatile memory, meaning the
data is stored temporarily and is liable to change or lose in case of power failure.
The two main types of primary storage are Random Access Memory (RAM) and
Read Only Memory (ROM).

RAM (Random Access Memory) ROM (Read Only Memory)

Data is volatile. Data is present till Data is permanent. Data

power supply is present. remains even after power
supply is not present.

Data can be read, erased or Data is read only.

modified.
 Used to store data that CPU needs Used to store data that in
for current instruction processing. needed to bootstrap the
computer.
Speed is quite high. Speed is slower than RAM.

CPU can access data stored on Data to be copied from ROM to

RAM. RAM so that CPU can access its
data.

RAM memory is large and high ROM is generally small and of

capacity. low capacity.

Used as CPU Cache, Primary Used as firmware b

microcontrollers. y
Memory.
Costly Cheap

ii) Secondary memory is computer memory that is non-volatile and persistent in

nature and is not directly accessed by a computer/processor. Primary memory
has limited storage capacity and is volatile. Secondary memory overcome this
limitation by providing permanent storage of data in bulk quantity. Secondary
memory is also termed as external memory and refers to the various storage
media on which a computer can store data and programs. Some o the secondary
memory devices are:
a) Hard disk drive, the data is stored by magnetizing or demagnetizing the
magnetic coating. A magnetic reader arm is used to read data from and write the
data to the disks.
b) CD Drive, CD stands for compact disk. CDs are circular disks that use optical
rays; usually lasers, to read and write data. CDs are inserted in CD drives built
into CPU cabinet.
c) DVD Drive, DVD stands for Digital video display. DVDs are optical devices tat
can store 15 times the data held by CDs. They are usually used to store rich
multimedia files that need high storage capacity. They also come in 3 varieties -
read only, recordable, rewritable
d) Pen drive is a portable memory device that uses solid state memory rather
than magnetic fields or lasers to record data. It is also called USB drive.
e) Blu ray disk, BD is an optical storage media used to store high definition (HD)
video and other multimedia field. It uses shorter wavelength laser as compared
to CD/DVD.
iii) CPU Cache is a hardware used by the CPU of a computer to reduce the average cost (time
and energy) to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory,
located closer to a processor core. CPU Cache is a hardware which is divided into three main
levels: L1, L2 & L3
 a) L1 (Level1) Cache is the fastest memory that is present in a computer system. In
terms of priority of access, L1 cache has the data the CPU is most likely to need while
completing a certain task. The L1 cache is usually split into two sections: the
instruction cache and the data cache. The instruction cache deals with the
information about the operation that the CPU must perform, while the data cache
holds the data on which the operation is to be performed.
b) L2 (Level 2) cache is slower than the L1 cache but bigger in size. Where an L1
cache may measure in kilobytes, modern L2 memory caches measure in megabytes.
The L2 cache size varies depending on the CPU, but its size is typically between
256KB to 8MB. When it comes to speed, the L2 cache lags behind the L1 cache but is
still much faster than your system RAM.
c) L3 (Level 3) cache is the largest but also the slowest cache memory unit. Modern
CPUs include the L3 cache on the CPU itself. With multicore processors, each core
can have dedicated L1 and L2 cache, but they can share an L3 cache. If an L3 cache
references an instruction, it is usually elevated to a higher level of cache.

III. System Software and Application Software

System Software:
System Software is the type of software which is the interface between application
software and system. Low level languages are used to write the system software.
System Software maintains the system resources and gives the path for application
software to run. An important thing is that without system software, system can not
run. It is a general purpose software.
 Application Software:

Application Software is the type of software that runs as per user request. It runs on
the platform which is provided by system software. High level languages are used to
write the application software. Its a specific purpose software.

The main difference between System Software and Application Software is that
without system software, system can not run on the other hand without application
software, system always runs.

System Software Application Software

System Software maintain the system

resources and give the path for Application software is built for
1. application software to run. specific tasks.

While high level languages are

Low level languages are used to write used to write the application
2. the system software. software.

While its a specific purpose

3. Its a general purpose software. software.

Without system software, system can’t While without application

4. run. software system always runs.

System software runs when system is

turned on and stop when system is While application software runs as
5. turned off. per the user’s request.

Example of system software are Example of application software

6. operating system, etc. are Photoshop, VLC player etc.

Application software
System Software programming is programming is simpler as
7. complex than application software. comparison to system software.

IV. High level and low level languages

A programming language defines a set of instructions that are compiled together to
perform a specific task by the CPU (Central Processing Unit).

Low-level language
The low-level language is a programming language that provides no
abstraction from the hardware, and it is represented in 0 or 1 forms, which
are the machine instructions. The languages that come under this
category are the Machine level language and Assembly language.
 Machine-level language : The machine-level language is a language that
consists of a set of instructions that are in the binary form 0 or 1. Creating a
program in a machine-level language is a very difficult task as it is not easy for
the programmers to write the program in machine instructions. It is error-
prone as it is not easy to understand, and its maintenance is also very high. A
machine-level language is not portable as each computer has its machine
instructions
 Assembly Language : The assembly language contains some human-readable
commands such as mov, add, sub, etc. The problems which we were facing in
machine-level language are reduced to some extent by using an extended
form of machine-level language known as assembly language. Since assembly
language instructions are written in English words like mov, add, sub, so it is
easier to write and understand. As we know that computers can only
understand the machine-level instructions, so we require a translator that
converts the assembly code into machine code. The translator used for
translating the code is known as an assembler. The assembly code is not
faster than machine code.

High-Level Language
The high-level language is a programming language that allows a programmer to
write the programs which are independent of a particular type of computer. The
high-level languages are considered as high-level because they are closer to human
languages than machine-level languages. Advantages of a high-level language
 The high-level language is easy to read, write, and maintain as it is written in
English like words.
 The high-level languages are designed to overcome the limitation of low-level
language, i.e., portability. The high-level language is portable; i.e., these
languages are machine-independent

Low-level language High-level language

It is a machine-friendly language, It is a user-friendly language as this

i.e., the computer understands the language is written in simple English words,
machine language, which is which can be easily understood by humans.
represented in 0 or 1.
 The low-level language takes more It executes at a faster pace.
time to execute.

It requires the assembler to convert It requires the compiler to convert the high-
the assembly code into machine level language instructions into machine
code. code.

The machine code cannot run on all The high-level code can run all the
machines, so it is not a portable platforms, so it is a portable language.
language.

It is memory efficient. It is less memory efficient.

Debugging and maintenance are not Debugging and maintenance are easier in a
easier in a low-level language. high-level language.

V. Flow chart Algorithms

Algorithm:
The word Algorithm means “a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other
problem-solving operations”. Therefore Algorithm refers to a set of rules/instructions that
step-by-step define how a work is to be executed upon inorder to get the expected results.

Flowchart:
A flowchart is a graphical representation of an algorithm. It makes use of symbols which are
connected among them to indicate the flow of information and processing. The process of
drawing a flowchart for an algorithm is known as “flowcharting”.

Algorithm Flowchart

Algorithm is step by step Flowchart is a diagram created by different

1. procedure to solve the problem. shapes to show the flow of data.

Algorithm is complex to
2. understand. Flowchart is easy to understand.

3. In algorithm plain text are used. In flowchart, symbols/shapes are used.

4. Algorithm is easy to debug. Flowchart it is hard to debug.

5. Algorithm is difficult to construct. Flowchart is simple to construct.

 Algorithm is the pseudo code for Flowchart is just graphical representation of
6 the program. that logic.

Common symbols used in flowcharts

1. Terminal: The oval symbol indicates Start, Stop and Halt in a program’s logic flow.
A pause/halt is generally used in a program logic under some error conditions.
Terminal is the first and last symbols in the flowchart.

2. Input/Output: A parallelogram denotes any function of input/output type. Program

instructions that take input from input devices and display output on output devices
are indicated with parallelogram in a flowchart.

3. Processing: A box represents arithmetic instructions. All arithmetic processes such as

adding, subtracting, multiplication and division are indicated by action or process
symbol.

4. Decision Diamond symbol represents a decision point. Decision based operations

such as yes/no question or true/false are indicated by diamond in flowchart.

5. Connectors: Whenever flowchart becomes complex or it spreads over more than one
page, it is useful to use connectors to avoid any confusions. It is represented by a
circle.

6. Flow lines: Flow lines indicate the exact sequence in which instructions are executed.
Arrows represent the direction of flow of control and relationship among different
symbols of flowchart.
Expected problematic questions
1. Write an algorithm that converts the input Celsius degree into its equivalent
Fahrenheit degree. F = (9/5) *C+32
2. Write an algorithm to find the largest among 3 numbers
3. Write an algorithm to find whether the given year is leap year or not
4. Draw the flowchart to find the roots of a quadratic equation
5. write an algorithm to find the sum of the series (1/2) + (2/3) + (3/4)+…….+ 100/101
6. write an algorithm to find the sum of the series 12+22+32+42+……….+1002
7. Draw the flowchart to find the factorial of a number
8. Write an algorithm to find the sum of the series 1*2+2*3+3*4+……..+100*101
9. Write an algorithm to find nCr.