Chapter Two

Computer Systems
Chapter Objectives
• At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
• Define computer systems and its components.
• Identify and give examples of categories of computer hardware.
• Identify types of software and difference between software and hardware.
What is Computer System
• A computer system is a set of parts, including the computer itself, that
work together to perform tasks.
• These tasks may be relatively simple, as in a calculator, or they may be
very complex, as in air traffic control systems.
• The collection of hardware and software constitutes a computer system.
• But the real meaning of "computer system" comes with interconnection.
• Generally, a computer system is composed of two main components:
• Computer hardware and
• Computer software
Computer Hardware

• Computer hardware is the physical part of the computer

system that can be seen and felt.
• Based on information processing, we can divide computer
hardware into five:
• Input Devices
• Storage Devices
• Output Devices
• Central Processing Unit (CPU)
• Communication Devices

4
Computer Hard…
Input Devices
• Input devices are used to enter information into computer.
• They convert the data we give them into the form that can be
manipulated in the computer (electronic format).
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Optical Recognition Systems
• OMR (Optical Mark recognition)
• Image Scanner
• Speech Recognition Systems
• Light Pen
• Touch Screen
Keyboard
• Keyboard is an input device consisting of a set of typewriter-like keys
that enable one to enter data into a computer.
• The keys on the keyboard are often classified as follows
• Alphanumeric keys - Letters and numbers
• Punctuation keys - comma, period, semicolon, etc.
• Special keys- function keys, control keys, arrow keys, caps lock, etc.
• The arrangement of the keys on the keyboard may differ.
• The most common in English- speaking countries is the QWERTY
keyboard.
Mouse
• Mouse is a hand-operated device that controls the movement of the
cursor or pointer on a display screen.
• Mouse have three buttons
• Left-button: for left click. Example, selecting text
• Right-button: for right click. Example, see property of file
• Middle button: for scrolling purpose. This button is sometimes missing.
• Most mice are connected to the system unit by a cable or cord.
• There are also cordless (wireless) mice connected with the computer
by infrared light
Other Input Devices

OCR Barcode Reader Image Scanner

OMR

Speech Recognition Touch Screen Light Pen

Output Devices
• Output devices are used to get data out of a computer
• It converts information from machine-understandable form to a
human understandable form.
• The outputs are of two types:
• Softcopy: displayed on monitor, projector, or similar devices and
• Hardcopy: printed on paper
Monitor
• is the most frequent type of output device.
• It consists of a display surface called screen which displays output to
the user.
• Image is displayed on monitors using pattern of lighted dots.
• Each of these lighted dots is called pixel a short form of picture
element.
• There are three types of monitor:
• CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)
• LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
• Plasma display
CRT Monitor
• CRT is similar in size and technology to televisions.
• It uses electron guns that emit electrons.
• These electrons are directed towards phosphorous coated screen.
• The phosphorous coat glows (emits light) when hit by electron from
electron guns.
• Disadvantage:
• Large in size
• Higher power consumption
LCD Monitors
• Uses liquid crystal for display purpose, not electron guns.
• Most commonly used in digital watches, clocks, calculators, laptops
etc.
• The liquid crystal is deposited between sheets of polarizing material
which allows or blocks light to display information.
• Advantages than CRT
• Smaller in size
• Consume less power
Gas Plasma
• Gas plasma substitutes neon gas for liquid crystal.
• The neon gas glows and produces pixels that form picture.
• Advantage:
• better display quality than LCD
• Disadvantage
• more expensive than LCD
• Requires more electric power
Printers
• Printer is a device that enables us to produce a hardcopy of
data/information.
• Based on the way they print, printers are divided into two:
 Impact printers
 Non-impact printer
Impact printers
• Impact printers transfer printable material onto paper by striking
paper, ribbon, and character together.
• Most of such printers take continuous form of paper.
• The most commonly used impact printers are dot-matrix printers.
(The combination of small dots printed closely forms a character.)
• Example: Epson printers
Non-Impact Printers
• They print without having a mechanism that strikes a paper.
• They print by spraying ink or by using heat and pressure to fuse black
powder onto paper.
• Inkjet Printers:- An inkjet printer sprays tiny drops of ink onto paper.
• Ink is propelled by heat or pressure through the nozzle holes of the print head
and form character or image on the paper.
• Produce high quality print
• Quiet because the paper is not struck
• Heavy weight paper is recommended
 Con’t
• Laser Printer:-
• They work similarly to photocopying machine. They convert data from
computer into a laser beam (kind of light), why they are called laser printer.
• They use mirrors to direct light onto a drum which in turn produce characters
on paper.
• The drum is light sensitive material that becomes charged when it is hit by
light. The charged area of the drum attracts ink from toner and the ink is
transferred onto paper. A heating material heats the ink and attaches it onto
the paper.
• It produces high quality print.
 Con’t
• Thermal printers :-use heat to transfer inks from ink sheets onto printing
surface.
• They produce high-quality print.
• Plotters:-Plotters are used to produce high-quality drawings such as bar
charts, maps, architectural drawings, and three-dimensional drawings.
• Can produce high quality multi-color documents
• Can print on large size papers, which most printers can’t handle.
Central Processing Unit
 It is also called microprocessors or processors.
 LSI (Large Scale Integrated) chip which performs the functions of
automatic data processing.
 Computers also have co-processors in addition to CPU for complex
and special tasks.
 CPU speed is measured in Hertz (Hz). Hertz is the number of cycles
per second.
 Affects entire performance of computer
 CPU has three sub-components:
▪ Control Unit (CU)
▪ Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
▪ Memory
Storage Devices
• Data can be stored in computer on different storage media
temporarily or permanently.
• Storage: Magnetic or optical.
• Data on any device are digitized. That means they are expressed as
myriads of 0s and 1s.
• Storage devices can be categorized into two as:
• Primary storage device
• Secondary storage device
• Primary memory is the main memory on the motherboard of the
computer used to store the program or data permanently.
Primary Memory / Main Memory
• Refers to integrated circuit that stores program instructions and data.
• The CPU closely works with the main memory to perform its activities.
• Memory stores three things:
• Operation system software instructions
• Application software instruction
• Data that is being processed
• Depending on the type of information they store and the technology
used, the primary memory can be categorized into three:
• RAM (Random Access Memory)
• ROM (Read Only Memory)
• CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor)
RAM
• Store data being processed in processor.
• RAM is temporary storage i.e. the data is lost when the computer is off
• Because of this it is called volatile memory.
• When you write anything on your computer, first it is stored on RAM.
• When you save the file, it is transferred into secondary storage.
• RAM has differing capacity, the common ones being 1gb, 2gb, 4gb and 8gb.
• It is directly accessible by CPU.
• It is called RAM because each memory location can be accessed randomly
using memory address.
 Demo

• RAM
ROM
• ROM stores data and programs that are permanently required by the
computer.
• They have programs built into them at the factory and that program
could not be changed or erased by the user, but read.
• It is non-volatile, read-only (not changeable) memory.
• ROM contains special instruction called BIOS that the computer uses
when it is turned on.
CMOS
• CMOS contains essential information that is required when the
computer is turned on. E.g. RAM size, type of mouse, etc.
• It is non-volatile, but modifiable to incorporate changes.
• It is powered by battery when computer is off.
Secondary Storage
• Secondary storage (also called auxiliary storage) supplements the
primary memory.
• It includes punched cards, punched paper tape, magnetic tape,
magnetic disk and optical disk.
• Based on information access, secondary storage devices are
divided into two:
• Sequential Access: information is accessed sequentially. E.g. tape
recorder cassette
• Random Access: information can be accessed in any order. E.g. CD
Sequential Access Media
• Punched Cards:-
• Data is stored on punched cards by cutting parts of the paper out and
leaving other parts intact.
• The cut part (hole) may represent binary 1 and the intact part represents
binary 0.
• Magnetic Tapes
• consists of thin ribbon plastic called tape.
• One side of the tape is coated with iron-oxide, a material that can be
magnetized.
 Con’t
• Disadvantage:
• Sequential access
• Advantage:
• Store more data on a small area
• Today they are used primarily for back up purposes.
• Backup is data that is stored in a different place than the original
computer where data is used.
Random Access Storage Media
• Magnetic Disks
• Magnetic disk is the most widely used storage medium on all computers.
• It consists of a round piece of plastic or metal the surface of which is covered with
magnetic material.
• Magnetic disks are metals or plastic platters coated with ferrous oxide, an easily
magnetically material.
• Magnetic disks offer:
• High storage capacity
• Reliability
• Fast date access during reading or writing to disk.
• Examples: floppy disk, hard disk
Hard Disk.
• A high capacity magnetic disk made up of metal which can be fixed in the system
unit of the computer.
• It serves as a secondary storage and it enables very fast accessibility of data.
• Disks (Platters) are grouped together to form hard disk. The disks, which are
usually grouped together into a disk pack are separated by small air spaces to
allow access for read-write head.
• Each disk is subdivided into tracks and sectors on which information is stored.
• The disk pack is mounted on a magnetic disk drive which rotates the disk at speed
up to 1,000 revolutions per second.
 Cont’d
• The amount of time it takes to retrieve (or store) data from (or
to) disk is called the disk access time.
• Data is stored on hard disks by magnetizing and demagnetizing
the surface each cylinder.
• They store data on both sides of the cylinder i.e two sided. It is
read-write head that reads or writes data from/to hard disk.
Optical Disks
• Optical disks use laser light to read or write data to/from optical disk.
• Optical disks use high powered laser light to burn microscopic holes on the
surface of the disk to store data, and low powered laser to read data.
• Burned out part is called pit, and the non-burnt part is called land.
• Land may represent binary 0 and pit binary 1.
• There are two most common types of optical disks:
• CD (Compact Disc)
• DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)
CD (Compact Disc)
• CD can store 700BM of information. Data is stored
only on one side of the disc.
• There are three basic types of CDs:
• CD-ROM(Compact Disc Read Only Memory):- This kind of is
read only. You can’t write or erase data from this type of
CD.
• CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable) :-write only once read
many times.
• CD-RW(Compact Disc Read-Write):- They are also called
erasable optical discs.
DVD (Digital Versatile Disk)
• It is similar to CD except that it can store large amounts of data and it
has narrow tracks than CD.
• It can store 4 -17GB of information.
System Unit
• Is the main body of a desktop computer.
• It typically consists of a metal or (rarely) plastic enclosure containing the
motherboard, power supply, cooling fans, internal disk drives, and memory
and expansion cards
• Case: the enclosure that contains the main components of a computer
• Power Supply: converts 120/240 volts Alternating Current (AC) into 5 and
12 volts Direct Current (DC) used by the PC.
• Motherboard: is the central or primary circuit board making up a complex
electronic system. A typical computer is built with the
microprocessor(CPU), main memory(RAM), and other basic components on
the motherboard.
 Cont’d
• Ports and Connectors:
• A port is a socket used to connect the peripheral devices to system unit.
• It serves as an interface between the computer and other computers or
peripherals
Serial ports:
• serial port transmits or receives data one bit at a time. Used for keyboard, mouse etc.
• A newer type of Serial port is the USB.
Parallel ports:
• transfer and receive multiple bits of information at a time. (eight bits of data
simultaneously across eight parallel wires.)
• Used for printers, disk drives, tape drives, etc.
Ports and back of the system
 Con’t
• Expansion Slots and Cards
• An expansion slot is a socket designed to hold circuit boards called cards.
Expansion cards add capability to your computer like playing sound (sound
card), watching TV (TV card), connecting computers together (network card)
or to the internet (modem), etc. These cards are plugged into the expansion
slot of the motherboard.
• Drives:
• drives are devices that read data from or write data onto storage devices.
• Examples of drives include hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, CD drive, DVD
drive, etc. Drives have some sort of motors that rotate the storage devices
from which data is read or onto which data is stored.
The peripherals
• A peripheral is any device connected to the system unit.
• These are keyboards, monitors, mice, printers, scanners,
microphones, speakers, cameras, to list just the most familiar ones.
Computer Software
Introduction

• Computer hardware is directed by a set of instructions.

• Without these instructions, computers can do nothing.
• These set of instructions are called software (also called programs).
• software is intangible, meaning it "can not be touched".
• Software are categorized into two:
• System Software
• Application Software
System Software
• System software consists of programs that are related to controlling
the actual operations of the computer equipment/resource.
• Are low-level programs that interact with the computer at a very
basic level.
• They are not applied directly for benefiting of end user.
• There are three types of system software:
• Operating System
• Utility Software
• Language translators
Operating system
• Operating system coordinates the activity between the user and the computer.
• An operating system has four major functions.
• Process management:- The operating system does the task of managing these
processes that are being executed and waiting to be executed.
• Input/output Management: The I/O manager coordinates the computers
communication with outside world, through input and output devices
• Memory Management:- allocate or assign a memory area.
• System Administration:- Operating system as a system administrator manages
the performance of the system, system security, and storage device
management
Types of Operating System
• Based on the number of programs they can run a time, operating
systems are divided into two:
• Single tasking operating systems: only one program can be run on the
computer at a time. E.g MS-DOS
• Multi-tasking operating systems: on such systems you can run as many
programs as you like. E.g. Windows
 Cont’d
• Based on the number of users they can serve at a time
• Single User: they can serve only one user at a time. E.g. Windows 95,
Windows 98, Windows XP, etc
• Multi User: lets more than one user to access the computer at one time. This
is done via network that connects terminals to the multi user computer.
• E.g., UNIX.
Utility Programs
• Utilities are programs that make computing easier.
• They perform specific tasks related to managing computer resources or files.
• There are different utility programs:
• Troubleshooting programs: enable us to recognize and correct computer
problems before they become serious.
• File recovery software which is applicable to restore the formatted file from our
secondary storage hard disk .
• Anti-virus programs: they protect your computer against viruses or other
malicious programs that damage computer. E.g MacAfee, Sophos, Norton, etc.
• File compression programs: are used to reduce the size of files or data so that
it takes less storage space or network band. E.g WinZip, WinRAR, etc.
 Cont’d
 Uninstall programs: these software enable us to safely and completely remove
unneeded programs/software from your computer.
• Back up software: with the help of this software, we can make copies of files to
be used in case of the original data is lost/damaged. This copy is called back up.
• Screen savers: helps to prevent your work from being seen by others if you leave
your computer idle for some time.
Language translators
• There are different programming languages for writing a program.
• LT are used to convert the programming instruction written by users
into binary code that the computer can understand.
• They are written for specific programming languages and computer
system.
Application Software
• Also called end user programs are software designed for end users
• Are software designed to help the user perform some activities.
• It helps to solve problems in the real world.
• Figuratively speaking, applications software sits on top of systems
software because it is unable to run without the operating system and
system utilities.
• Includes database programs, word processors, and spreadsheets.
 Cont’d
• Word Processing software:- is the use of computer to produce documents that consist
primarily of text. Such documents can also contain pictures, drawing, photograph, etc.
• E.g Microsoft Word, Notepad
• Spreadsheet Software: Spreadsheet software is used to organize and manipulate numeric
information.
• E.g. Microsoft Excel
• Database Management system (DBMS) software:- Database is a collection of related data
that is stored in computer.
• Database software allow you to create a database and to retrieve, manipulate, and
update the data.
• Software used
• E.g. Microsoft Access
 Con’t
• Presentation Graphics: helps you to create professional and exciting
presentations that could be used in meeting, group discussion, etc.
• Example: Microsoft PowerPoint
• Accounting software:- enables companies to record and report their financial
transactions.
• E.g. Peachtree accounting
• Computer Aided Design: used to create design for products, new buildings, etc.
• E.g. AutoCAD
• Communication: They are used to transfer data from one computer to another.
• E.g. Internet Explorer
 Quiz one
1. _____________ is temporary storage i.e. the data is lost when the
computer is off unlike secondary storage.
2. _____________ is high capacity magnetic disk, use as secondary storage
of data and made up of metal which can be fixed in the system unit of the
computer.
3. Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor is non-volatile, but
modifiable to incorporate changes. True/False __________.
4. List four of Utility Programs and explain each of them with it’s usage.

5. Compare and contrast System Software vs Application Software, Broadly

explain and give example.
The end
Thank You !!!