CLU/COSC 101

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE

BY

Mrs. Hannah Akinwumi

3 Units
 Course Outline
• History of Computer science and their generations
• Origin of computing machines
• Computer hardware; functional components
• Modern I/O units.
• Diverse and growing computer/digital application
• Information processing and it's role in the society
 Fundamentals of Computer System
Definition of a Computer: A computer can be described as an electronic device that
can receive data, process the data, and produce the result as the outcome.
Conventionally, the received data is known as input while the result of the processing
is known as output or information. A computer also has the capability of storing data
and/or information in its memory for future use. This relationship is illustrated in
Figure 1.

Basically, a computer is divided into two major parts, namely, hardware and software.
This configuration is like the division of human being into body and spirit/soul. That is,
the body is the hardware while the software is the spirit or soul. While the hardware,
the physical or most visible part is tangible, the software is intangible. Normally, the
software resides and operates within the hardware. Essentially, hardware the physical
part of the computer while the software is the code that runs on the computer
 Fundamentals of Computer System
 Computers are capable of processing numerical data in form of 0’s
and 1’s or simply in binary digital format or shortened to bits
from Binary digit .
 Smallest unit of information computer can process
 Can have one of two values: 0 or 1
 This digital format is the basis of the machine language which
differs from human-readable languages. They can solve repetitive
computational jobs with high level of accuracy and timeliness
depending on the software capability.
 Fundamentals of Computer System
 Byte
• Collection of 8 bits
• Can represent 256
different messages
(256 = 28)
Kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte are terms that describe large units of data
used in measuring data storage • Example: 100 GB hard drive 8 bits = 1 Byte 1024
Bytes = 1 Kilobyte (KB) 1,048,576 Bytes = 1 Megabyte (MB) 1,043,741,824 Bytes = 1
Gigabyte (GB) 1,099,511,627,776 Bytes = 1 Terabyte (TB)
 Fundamentals of Computer System
• Description of a Computer System
A computer system involves a complete suite of hardware and
software resources as well as the users that operate the computer
system. While a computer system does the basic function of a
computer device, different kinds of computer systems can handle
certain specific additional functionalities. Ideally, a full-fledged
computer system is made up of users, application software, systems
software, operating system and hardware as shown in figure below.
 What Computers Do
Four basic operations:
 Receive input: Accept information from outside world
 Process information: Perform arithmetic or logical operations on
information
 Produce output: Communicate information to outside world
 Store information: Store and retrieve information from memory
and storage devices
Architecture of a Computer system
Components of a Computer system
 Classifications and Types of computers
• Personal computers Personal computers, popularly shortened as PC, are common,
cheaper, versatile, small and portable in sizes. They are single-user computer based
on different kinds of microprocessors. Laptops are kinds of PCs that consume less
power due to their miniaturized integrated internal components
• Workstations These computers are relatively more powerful than PCs in terms of
computational capability. They are also single-user based. Although, a workstation is
like a personal computer, however it has a higher specifications and better quality
• Minicomputers Minicomputers are multi-users-based computers. They support a
large array of users concurrently and are usually able to handle larger complex
or/and large computational jobs. PCs and workstations are usually connected to
minicomputers in a network for the joint execution of tasks, processes, and
programs. Minicomputers are not portable, they belong to large organizations such
as the Nigerian National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA),
National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),
national astronautics and space administration (NASA), European Space Agency
(ESA), among others. During your next industrial training, you may wish to visit
such organization to see such computers
 Classifications and Types of computers
• Mainframe Mainframe computers are larger, expensive and more
powerful multi-user systems. They simultaneously support
thousands of users than minicomputers. They have higher
specifications in terms of processing speed and storage. They are
quite huge and expensive. Mainframe computers are mostly found
in large corporations, They are designed to perform large numbers
of calculations for governments and large enterprises
• Supercomputer Although, these computers are similar to
mainframe, they are extremely the fastest and can be used to
perform hundreds of millions of instructions per second. They are
designed to solve grand challenge problems that are often data-
and computationally intensive, such as DNA sequencing/human
genome, Space exploration, Mars mission, national population
census, national electoral system, national database systems,
banking applications and database, health informatics, etc. A
 Historical Generations Advancements of Computers
Computer history specifically dated back to 1833 when
Charles Babbage, a
mathematician, invented the first runner of digital
programmable and general purpose computers. Barely, a
century later, Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer (ENIAC) was invented by John W. Mauchly and J.
Presper Eckert, this
computer was the first general-purpose electronic
computer.
 Historical Generations Advancements of Computers
First Generation: 1940-1956
This generation showcased the use of vacuum tubes for logic
circuitry through the flow of electrical current. Magnetic drums were
used for data transfer and storage. During this period, machine
language was developed for systematic programming. ENIAC was
among the systems developed during this period. The drawbacks of
the systems include slower speed, excessive heat, and high cost.
 Historical Generations Advancements of Computers
Second Generation: 1957-1963 In this generation, transistors
were used as the major switching devices thus making computers
smaller, faster and energy-efficient. The programming format was
assembly languages. The figure shows a typical second generation
computer.
 Historical Generations Advancements of Computers
Third Generation 1964-1971 Integrated circuits (IC) were
developed and used as the switching devices for the flow of data. A
single IC contains several numbers of transistors, capacitors, and
resistors in the entire circuitry. computers became smaller in size,
faster in processing and generally efficient. High level programming
languages were also introduced during this period. Figure 7 shows a
typical third generation computer. Prominent computers in the third
generation were PDP (Personal Data Processor), IBM-168/360/370
series, Honeywell-6000 series
 Historical Generations Advancements of Computers
• Fourth Generation Computers 1972-1990 The fourth-generation
computers were based on the successful invention and
development of microprocessors as the central processing units
(CPU). Personal and portable computers were manufactured due
to the production of miniatured computing components. As a
result, the Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits technology
was implemented in the design of the microprocessors and other
kinds of switching devices. Intel was the first company to design
and develop microprocessors. Efficient high-level programming
languages were also developed such as Java, C++, C#, VB.NET
among others.
 Historical Generations Advancements of Computers
Fifth Generation Computers 1990 to date The computers of this
generation are designed based on superconductors, VLSI,
miniaturized components, multi-core technologies, and artificial
intelligence. Future computers will advance more on machine
learning, expert systems, natural language processing, neural
networks, advanced parallel computation, robotics, and fuzzy logic
designs. Virtual reality, fault-tolerance, and artificial intelligence
will dominate the hardware and software designs of fifth-
generation computer.
Computer hardware; functional components System
 Computer hardware; functional components System

• Computer devices in physical form it Comprises of 4

components:
• • Input devices
• • Central Processing Unit (CPU)
• • Output devices
• •Memory
Modern Input/Output units
Input device is any hardware component that
allows users to enter data and instructions
Input devices
• Display devices are output device that visually conveys information
Information on display device sometimes called soft copy
• Monitor houses display device as separate peripheral
 Modern Processing units
 CPU often called “processor”
 Performs transformations of input into output
 Interprets and executes instructions in programs
 Performs arithmetic and logical data manipulations
 Communicates with other parts of the computer system indirectly through memory

Modern Microprocessor
• Complex collection of electronic circuits
• CPU housed with other chips on circuit board
• Circuit board containing computer’s CPU is called motherboard
 The CPU – How it works
 Typical CPU is divided into several functional units:
• Control unit
• Arithmetic logic unit (ALU) includes registers
• Decode unit
• Bus unit
• Prefetch unit
 These units work together to complete the execution of
program instructions.
The CPU – How it works
 Memory
• A memory is just like a human brain. It is used to store data and
instructions. Computer memory is the storage space in the
computer, where data is to be processed, results of processed data
and instructions required for processing are stored.
• Memory is primarily of three types −
(i) Cache Memory (ii) Primary Memory/Main Memory (iii) Secondary
Memory
 Memory
Cache Memory is a special very high-speed memory. The
cache is a smaller and faster memory that stores copies of the
data from frequently used main memory locations.
Cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to
reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a
smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the
most frequently used main memory locations. When the
processor needs to read from or write to a location in main
memory, it first checks whether a copy of that data is in the
cache. If so, the processor immediately reads from or writes to
the cache, which is much faster than reading from or writing to
main memory.
 Primary Memory
• Primary storage or memory is also known as the main memory,
which is the part of the computer that stores current data,
programs, and instructions. Primary storage is stored in the
motherboard which results in the data from and to primary storage
can be read and written at a very good pace.
• Primary Memory examples are RAM, ROM, cache, PROM, EPROM,
registers, etc.
• Classification of Primary Memory
• Primary memory can be broadly classified into two parts:
• Read-Only Memory (ROM)
• Random Access Memory (RAM)
Read-Only Memory
Any data which need not be altered are stored in ROM. ROM includes those programs which
run on booting of the system (known as a bootstrap program that initializes OS) along with
data like algorithm required by OS. Anything stored in ROM cannot be altered or changed
• Information is etched on chip when manufactured
• Stores start-up instructions and other critical information
Random Access Memory
Any process in the system which needs to be executed is loaded in RAM which is processed
by the CPU as per Instructions in the program. Like if we click on applications like Browser,
firstly browser code will be loaded by the Operating system into the RAM after which the CPU
will execute and open up the Browser.
• Most common type of primary storage
• Stores program instructions and data temporarily
• Memory locations have unique addresses
• Volatile—disappears when power is turned off
• Called DIMMS. Rated by both size and speed.