Computers

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Indian Arts and Science College BCA Dept

NON-MAJOR ELECTIVE

INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

UNITI

Introduction: History of Computer - Parts of Computer System Hardware Devices
Software Operating System Examples of Operating systems Computer Networking
Visual Editor

UNITII

Microsoft Word - Microsoft Excel Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Access

UNITIII

Introduction to Multimedia Images Sound -Video Desktop Publishing Basics - Page
layout Programs - Text Generation - Graphics for DTP - Print Production.

UNITIV

Introduction to Internet Working of Internet- Internet Services Internet Addressing
E-Mail Basics- Web Development Tools- Introduction to HTML

UNITV

Information System Management Information concepts Planning Issues and the MIS
- Organizing Issues and the MIS - Control Issues and the MIS Decision Support
Systems.

References

1. Sanjay Saxsena, A First Course in Computer, Vikas Publishing House, 2000

2. Ron Mansfield, Working in Microsoft Office,Tata Mcgraw Hill, 1997

3. Linda Tway, Sapphiro Pacific Lajolla, Multimedia in Action, Academic Press,1995

4. Neil randal Teach yourself the internet in a week, Prentice Hall of India, Second
Edition, 1996.

5. ITL Edn Solutions,Introduction to Computer Science, Pearson Education.

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UNIT-1

Computers
Computer can be abbreviated as Common Oriented Machine Particularly Used for
Trade Education and Research.
Computer is an advanced electronic device that takes raw data as input from the
user and processes these data under the control of set of instructions (called
program) and gives the result (output) and saves output for the future use.
Functionalities of Computer
Today's world is an information-rich world and it has become a necessity for
everyone to know about computers.
Any digital computer carries out five functions in gross terms:
o Takes data as input.
o Stores the data/instructions in its memory and can use them when required.
o Processes the data and converts it into useful information.
o Outputs the information.
o Controls all the above four steps.

Advantages Disadvantages
1. Accuracy. 1. No IQ.
2. High speed. 2. Dependancy.
3. Storage capacity. 3. Environment.
4. Diligence. 4. No feeling.
5. Versatility.
6. Reliability.
7. Automation.
8. Reduction in paper work.
9. Reduction in cost.
Applications
1. Business 5. Marketing. 9. Communication.
2. Banking. 6. Health care. 10. Government applicants.
3. Insurance. 7. Engineering design.
4. Education. 8. Military.
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Computer Generations
Generation in computer terminology is a change in technology a computer is/was
being used.
Initially, the generation term was used to distinguish between varying hardware
technologies. But nowadays, generation includes both hardware and software, which
together make up an entire computer system.
There are totally five computer generations known till date. Each generation has
been discussed in detail along with their time period, characteristics.

First Generation
The first computers used vacuum tubes for
circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and
were often enormous, taking up entire rooms.
They were very expensive to operate and in
addition to using a great deal of electricity,
generated a lot of heat, which was often the
cause of malfunctions.
First generation computers relied on machine
language, the lowest-level programming
language understood by computers, to perform
operations, and they could only solve one
problem at a time.
Input was based on punched cards and paper
tape, and output was displayed on printouts.

Some Advantages of First Generations
o Vacuum tube technology.
o Support Machine language.
S.N. Generation & Description
1
First Generation
The period of first generation: 1940-1956. Vacuum tube based.
2
Second Generation
The period of second generation: 1956-1963. Transistor based.
3
Third Generation
The period of third generation: 1964-1971. Integrated Circuit based.
4
Fourth Generation
The period of fourth generation: 1971-Present. Microprocessor based.
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Fifth Generation
The period of fifth generation: 1971-Present and Beyond. Artificial
Intelligence based.
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Some Drawbacks of First Generations
o Unreliable.
o Very costly.
o Generate lot of heat.
o Huge size.
o Consumed lot of electricity.
o Slow input and output device.
Some Computers in this Generation
o ENIAC.
o EDVAC.
o UNIVAC.
o IBM-701.
o IBM-650.
Second Generation
o Transistors replaced vacuum tubes
and ushered in the second generation
of computers.
o The transistor was invented in 1947
but did not see widespread use in
computers until the late 1950s.
o The transistor were cheaper,
consumed less power, more compact
in size, more reliable and faster than
the first generation machines made of
vacuum tubes. In this generation,
magnetic cores were used as primary
memory and magnetic tape and
magnetic disks as secondary storage
devices.
o In this generation assembly language like FORTRAN, COBOL was used.

Advantages
o Use of Transistors.
o Smaller size compared to first generation.
o Consumed less electricity compared to first generation.
o Faster than first generation.
o Support machine and assembly language.
Drawbacks
o Very costly.
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Some computers used in this generation
o IBM 1620.
o IBM 7094.
o UNIVAC 1108.

Third Generation
o The development of the integrated
circuit was the hallmark of the third
generation of computers. Transistors were
miniaturized and placed on silicon chips,
called semiconductors, which drastically
increased the speed and efficiency of
computers.
o Instead of punched cards and printouts,
users interacted with third generation
computers through keyboards
and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to
run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored
the memory.
o Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they
were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.
o In this generation high level programs are used.
Some main features:
o Used Integrated Circuit.
o More reliable.
o Smaller size.
o Generate less heat.
o Faster.
o Still costly.
o Consumed less electricity.
o Support high level language.
Some Computers used in this Generation
o IBM-360 Series.
o Honeywell-6000 Series.
o PDP (Personal Data Processor)
o IBM-370/168.
o TDC-316.
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Fourth Generation
o The microprocessor brought the
fourth generation of computers, as
thousands of integrated circuits were
built onto a single silicon chip.
o What in the first generation filled an
entire room could now fit in the palm
of the hand.
o The Intel 4004 chip, developed in
1971, located all the components of
the computerfrom the central
processing unit and memory to
input/output controlson a single
chip.
o All high level languages like C, C++, DBASE, etc., were used in this generation.

Some main features
o Microprocessor used.
o Portable and reliable.
o Very cheap.
o Very small size.
o Concept of internet was introduced.
o Great developments in the field of networks.
o Computers became easily available.

Some computers used in this technology
o Super computers.
o DEC 10.
o STAR1000.

Fifth Generation
o Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in
development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are
being used today.
o The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial
intelligence a reality. Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will
radically change the face of computers in years to come.
o The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural
language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.
Some features
o Robotics.
o Game playing.
o Development of expert systems to make decisions in real life situations.
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o More user friendly interfaces with
multimedia features.
o Availability of very powerful and
compact computers at cheaper rates.
Some computers used in this generation
o Desktop.
o Laptop.
o Notebook.
o Ultra book.

Computer Hardware
Input and Output Devices

o Computers and human can be interacting through input and output devices each
other.
o User gives input through any of the input device, the input processed by computer
and show result of operation through any of the output device.
Input Devices:

o Following are few of the important input devices, which are used in Computer
Systems:
1. Keyboard
2. Mouse
3. Joystick
4. Light pen
5. Track Ball
6. Scanner
7. Graphic Tablet
8. Microphone
9. Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR)
10. Optical Character Reader (OCR)
11. Bar Code Reader
12. Optical Mark Reader
Keyboard
o Most common and very popular input device is keyboard. The keyboard helps in
inputting the data to the computer.
o The layout of the keyboard is like that of traditional typewriter, although there are
some additional keys provided for performing some additional functions.
o Keyboards are of two sizes 84 keys or 101/102 keys, but now 104 keys or 108 keys
keyboard is also available for Windows and Internet.

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Sr.
No.
Keys Description
1 Typing Keys
These keys include the letter keys (A-Z) and digits keys
(0-9) which generally give same layout as that of
typewriters.
2 Numeric Keypad
It is used to enter numeric data or cursor movement.
Generally, it consists of a set of 17 keys that are laid out
in the same configuration used by most adding machine
and calculators.
3 Function Keys
The twelve functions keys are present on the keyboard.
These are arranged in a row along the top of the
keyboard. Each function key has unique meaning and is
used for some specific purpose.
4 Control keys
These keys provide cursor and screen control. It includes
four directional arrow key. Control keys also include
Home, End, Insert, Delete, Page Up, Page Down,
Control(Ctrl), Alternate(Alt), Escape(Esc).
5 Special Purpose Keys
Keyboard also contains some special purpose keys such
as Enter, Shift, Caps Lock, Num Lock, Space bar, Tab,
and Print Screen.
Mouse
o Mouse is most popular Pointing device. It is a very famous cursor-control device. It
is a small palm size box with a round ball at its base which senses the movement of
mouse and sends corresponding signals to CPU on pressing the buttons.
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o Generally, it has two buttons called left and right
button and scroll bar is present at the mid. Mouse
can be used to control the position of cursor on
screen, but it cannot be used to enter text into
the computer.
ADVANTAGES
Easy to use
Not very expensive
Moves the cursor faster than the arrow
keys of keyboard.

Joystick
o Joystick is also a pointing device, which is used to move cursor
position on a monitor screen. It is a stick having a spherical ball
at its both lower and upper ends.
o The lower spherical ball moves in a socket. The joystick can be
moved in all four directions.
o The function of joystick is similar to that of a mouse. It is
mainly used in Computer Aided Designing (CAD) and playing
computer games.

Light Pen
o Light pen is a pointing device, which is similar to a pen. It is used to select a
displayed menu item or draw pictures on the monitor
screen. It consists of a photocell and an optical system
placed in a small tube.
o When light pen's tip is moved over the monitor screen and
pen button is pressed, its photocell sensing element detects
the screen location and sends the corresponding signal to
the CPU.

Track Ball
o Track ball is an input device that is mostly used in notebook or laptop computer,
instead of a mouse. This is a ball, which is half
inserted and by moving fingers on ball, pointer
can be moved.
o Since the whole device is not moved, a track ball
requires less space than a mouse. A track ball
comes in various shapes like a ball, a button and
a square.

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Scanner
o Scanner is an input device, which works more like
a photocopy machine. It is used when some
information is available on a paper and it is to be
transferred to the hard disc of the computer for
further manipulation.
o Scanner captures images from the source which
are then converted into the digital form that can
be stored on the disc. These images can be edited
before they are printed.

Digitizer
o Digitizer is an input device, which converts analog information into a digital form.
Digitizer can convert a signal from the television
camera into a series of numbers that could be
stored in a computer. They can be used by the
computer to create a picture of whatever the
camera had been pointed at.
o Digitizer is also known as Tablet or Graphics
Tablet because it converts graphics and pictorial
data into binary inputs. A graphic tablet as
digitizer is used for doing fine works of drawing
and images manipulation applications.

Microphone
o Microphone is an input device to input sound that is
then stored in digital form. The microphone is used
for various applications like adding sound to a
multimedia presentation or for mixing music.

Magnetic Ink Card Reader (MICR)
o MICR input device is generally used in banks because of a large number of cheques
to be processed every day.
o The bank's code number and cheque number are
printed on the cheques with a special type of ink
that contains particles of magnetic material that are
machine readable.
o This reading process is called Magnetic Ink
Character Recognition (MICR). The main advantage
of MICR is that it is fast and less error prone.

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Optical Character Reader (OCR)
o OCR is an input device used to read a printed text.
OCR scans text optically character by character,
converts them into a machine readable code and
stores the text on the system memory.

Bar Code Readers
o Bar Code Reader is a device used for reading bar coded data (data in form of light
and dark lines).
o Bar coded data is generally used in labeling
goods, numbering the books, etc. It may be a
hand-held scanner or may be embedded in a
stationary scanner.
o Bar Code Reader scans a bar code image,
converts it into an alphanumeric value, which
is then fed to the computer to which bar code
reader is connected.

Optical Mark Reader (OMR)
o OMR is a special type of optical scanner used
to recognize the type of mark made by pen or
pencil.
o It is used where one out of a few alternatives
is to be selected and marked. It is specially
used for checking the answer sheets of
examinations having multiple choice
questions.
Output Devices
o The computer shows results of processed information through output devices.
o Following are few of the important output devices, which are used in Computer
Systems:
1. Monitors
2. Printer
Monitors
o Monitor commonly called as Visual Display Unit (VDU) is the main output device of a
computer. It forms images from tiny dots, called pixels, that are arranged in a
rectangular form. The sharpness of the image depends upon the number of the
pixels.
o There are two kinds of viewing screen used for monitors:
1. Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT)
2. Flat-Panel Display
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Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) Monitor
o In the CRT, display is made up of small picture
elements called pixels for short. The smaller the
pixels, the better the image clarity or resolution.
It takes more than one illuminated pixel to form
whole character, such as the letter 'e' in the
word help.
o A finite number of characters can be displayed
on a screen at once. The screen can be divided
into a series of character boxes - fixed location
on the screen where a standard character can be
placed.
o Most screens are capable of displaying 80 characters of data horizontally and 25 lines
vertically. There are some disadvantages of CRT:
Large in Size
High power consumption

Flat-Panel Display Monitor
o The flat-panel display refers to a class of video devices
that have reduced volume, weight and power requirement
compared to the CRT.
o You can hang them on walls or wear them on your wrists.
Current uses for flat-panel displays include calculators,
video games, monitors, laptop computer, graphics display.
o The flat-panel display are divided into two categories:
Emissive Displays - The emissive displays are devices that
convert electrical energy into light. Example are plasma panel and
LED (Light-Emitting Diodes).
Non-Emissive Displays - The Non-emissive displays use optical effects to convert sunlight
or light from some other source into graphics patterns. Example is LCD (Liquid-Crystal
Device)

Printers
o Printer is the most important output device, which is used to print information on
paper.
o There are two types of printers:
1. Impact Printers
2. Non-Impact Printers
Impact Printers
o The printers that print the characters by striking against the ribbon and onto the
paper, are called impact printers.
o Characteristics of Impact Printers are the following:
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Very low consumable costs
Impact printers are very noisy
Useful for bulk printing due to low cost
There is physical contact with the paper to produce an image
o These printers are of two types:
1. Character printers
2. Line printers
Character Printers
o Character Printers are printers, which print one character at a time.
o These are of further two types:
1. Dot Matrix Printer (DMP)
2. Daisy Wheel
Dot Matrix Printer
o In the market, one of the most popular printer is Dot Matrix Printer because of their
ease of printing features and
economical price.
o Each character printed is in form of
pattern of Dot's and head consists of
a Matrix of Pins of size (5*7, 7*9,
9*7 or 9*9) which comes out to form
a character that is why it is called Dot
Matrix Printer.
Advantages
Inexpensive
Widely Used
Other language characters can be printed
Disadvantages
Slow Speed
Poor Quality

Daisy Wheel
o Head is lying on a wheel and Pins
corresponding to characters are
like petals of Daisy (flower name)
that is why it is called Daisy Wheel
Printer.
o These printers are generally used
for word-processing in offices
which require a few letters to be
send here and there with very nice
quality representation.
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Advantages
More reliable than DMP's
Better quality
The fonts of character can be easily changed.

Disadvantages
Slower than DMP's
Noisy
More expensive than DMP's

Line Printers
o Line printers are printers, which print one
line at a time.

These are of further two types:
1. Drum Printer
2. Chain Printer
Drum Printer
o This printer is like a drum in shape so it
called drum printer.
o The surface of drum is divided into number
of tracks.
o Total tracks are equal to size of paper, i.e., for a paper width of 132 characters,
Drum will have 132 tracks.
o A character set is embossed on track. The different character sets available in
market are 48 character set, 64 and 96 characters set. One rotation of drum prints
one line.
o Drum Printers are fast in speed and prints between 300 to 2000 lines per minute.
Advantages
Very high speed
Disadvantages
Very expensive
Characters fonts cannot be changed
Chain Printer
o In this printer, chains of character sets are used so it called Chain Printers. A
standard character set may have 48, 64, 96 characters.
Advantages
Character fonts can easily be changed.
Different languages can be used with the same printer.

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Disadvantages
Noisy
Do not have the ability to print any shape of characters.
Non-impact Printers
o The printers that print the characters without striking against the ribbon and onto
the paper are called Non-impact Printers. These printers print a complete page at a
time, also called as Page Printers.
o These printers are of two types:
1. Laser Printers
2. Inkjet Printers
Characteristics of Non-impact Printers:
Faster than impact printers.
They are not noisy.
High quality.
Support many fonts and different character size.
Laser Printers
o These are non-impact page printers. They use laser lights to produce the dots
needed to form the characters to be printed on a
page.
Advantages
Very high speed.
Very high quality output.
Gives good graphics quality.
Supports many fonts and different
character sizes.
Disadvantage
Expensive.
Cannot be used to produce multiple copies
of a document in a single printing.

Inkjet Printers
o Inkjet printers are non-impact character printers based on a relatively new
technology.
o They print characters by spraying small drops
of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers produce high
quality output with presentable features.
o They make less noise because no hammering is
done and these have many styles of printing
modes available. Colour printing is also
possible. Some models of Inkjet printers can
produce multiple copies of printing also.
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Advantages
High quality printing
More reliable
Disadvantages
Expensive as cost per page is high
Slow as compared to laser printer
Parts of Computer
Memory
o A memory is just like a human brain. It is used to store data and instructions.
Computer memory is the storage space in computer where data is to be processed
and instructions required for processing are stored.
o The memory is divided into large number of small parts. Each part is called cell. Each
location or cell has a unique address, which varies from zero to memory size minus
one.
o For example, if computer has 64k words, then this memory unit has 64 *
1024=65536 memory location. The address of these locations varies from 0 to
65535.
o Memory is primarily of three types:
1. Cache Memory
2. Primary Memory/Main Memory
3. Secondary Memory
Cache Memory
o Cache memory is a very high speed semiconductor memory, which can speed up
CPU. It acts as a buffer between the CPU and main memory.
o It is used to hold those parts of data and program which are most frequently used by
CPU. The parts of data and programs are transferred from disk to cache memory by
operating system, from where CPU can access them.
ADVANTAGE
Cache memory is faster than main memory.
It consumes less access time as compared to main memory.
It stores the program that can be executed within a short period of time.
It stores data for temporary use.
DISADVANTAGE:
Cache memory has limited capacity.
It is very expensive.

Primary Memory (Main Memory)
o Primary memory holds only those data and instructions on which computer is
currently working. It has limited capacity and data gets lost when power is switched
off.
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o It is generally made up of semiconductor device. These
memories are not as fast as registers. The data and
instructions required to be processed earlier reside in main
memory. It is divided into two subcategories RAM and
ROM.
Characteristic of Main Memory
These are semiconductor memories.
It is known as main memory.
Usually volatile memory.
Data is lost in case power is switched off.
It is working memory of the computer.
Faster than secondary memories.
A computer cannot run without primary memory.

Secondary Memory
o This type of memory is also known as external memory or non-volatile. It is slower
than main memory. These are used for storing Data/Information permanently.
o CPU directly does not access these memories, instead they are accessed via input-
output routines. Contents of secondary memories are first transferred to main
memory and then CPU can access it. For example, disk, CD-ROM, DVD, etc.
Characteristics of Secondary Memory
These are magnetic and optical memories.
It is known as backup memory.
It is non-volatile memory.
Data is permanently stored even if power is
switched off.
It is used for storage of the data in the
computer.
Computer may run without secondary memory.
Slower than primary memories.

Mother Board
o The motherboard serves as a single platform to connect all of the parts of a
computer together.
o A motherboard connects CPU, memory, hard drives, optical drives, video card, sound
card and other ports and expansion cards directly or via cables. It can be considered
as the backbone of a computer.
Features
o Motherboard varies greatly in supporting various types of components.
o Normally, a motherboard supports a single type of CPU and few types of memories.
o Video Cards, Hard disks, Sound Cards have to be compatible with motherboard to
function properly.
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o Motherboards, cases and power supplies must be compatible to work properly
together.
Popular Manufacturers
Intel
ASUS
AOpen
ABIT
Biostar
Gigabyte
MSI
Description:
o The motherboard is mounted inside the case and is securely attached via small
screws through pre-drilled holes.
o Motherboard contains ports to connect all of the internal components. It provides a
single socket for CPU. For memory, normally one or more slots are available.
o Motherboards provide ports to attach
floppy drive, hard drive and optical drives
via ribbon cables. Motherboard carries fans
and a special port designed for power
supply.
o There are peripheral card slots on front of
the motherboard using which video cards,
sound cards and other expansion cards can
be connected to motherboard.
o On left side, motherboard carries a number
of ports. These ports connect monitor,
printer, mouse, keyboard, speaker,
network cables and all to the motherboard.
Motherboards also provide USB ports,
which allow compatible devices to be connected in plug-in/plug-out fashion. For
example, pen drive, digital cameras, etc.

Software
o Software is a set of programs, which is designed to perform a well defined function.
A program is a sequence of instruction written to solve a particular problem.
o It has two types,
o Application software.
o System software.

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Application software:

o Application software are the software that are designed to satisfy a particular need of
a particular environment. All software prepared by us in the computer lab.
o Examples of application software are-student record software, railway reservation
software, income tax software, word processors etc.

Features of application software:-

*It is close to user.
*It is Slow in speed
*It is Easy to understand.
*It is Easy to manipulate
*It is Generally, written in high level language
*It is easy to design.
*System software-The system software is collection of programs
designed to operate , control and extend the processing
capabilities of the computer itself. System software are generally
prepared by computer manufactures.

FEATURES OF SYSTEM SOFTWARE-

*It is Close to system.
*It is Fast in speed.
*It is Difficult to manipulate.
*It is Smaller in size.
*It is Difficult to design.
*It is Difficult to understand.
*It is Generally written in low level language.

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