1 Basic Concepts
1 Basic Concepts
BASIC CONCEPTS
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Let us begin with the word compute. It m eans to calculate. W e all
are familiar with calculations i n our day-to-day life. W e appl y m ath -
e m a t i c a l o p e r a t i o n s l i k e add i t i o n, s ubt r a ct i on, m ul t i pl i c at i o n, et c.
a n d m a n y other f or m ul ae for calculations. S i m p l e cal culati ons t ake
less time. Bu t co m pl ex calculations t ake m u c h longer time. A not her
factor is accura c y i n calculations. S o m a n ex pl ored wi t h the i dea to
devel op a m achine, whi ch c an perform this t ype of arithmetic calcu-
lation faster, a n d w i t h full ac c ur a c y. T h i s g a v e bi rt h t o a d e v i c e or
m achi ne called computer.
1.2 O BJ E C T IV E S
After goi n g t hrou gh this lesson, yo u w o u l d be in a position to:
define a c o m p u t e r
identify t he characteristics o f a c o m p ut e r
explain t he origin a n d evol ution o f a co m put e r
identify the capability of computer in terms of speed and accuracy
dis ti ngui sh c o m p u t e r f r o m h u m a n b e i n g s a n d cal cul ator
appreci at e t he evolut ion of c o m pu t e r t hrough five generat i ons
define the different typ e s of c o m p u t e r s bas ed o n el ect ronics
e x p l a i n t h e c l a s si f i c a t i o n o f c o m p u t e r o n t h e b a s i s o f s i z e o f
m em or y
2 :: B asic C o mp u t i n g Skills
Fi g. 1 . 1 : A p e r s o n a l c o m p u t e r
Basic Co ncep ts :: 3
(a) Speed
As you know computer can work very fast. It takes only few seconds
for calculations that we take hours to complete. Suppose you are
asked to calculate the average monthly income of one thousand
persons in your neighborhood. For this you have to add income
from all sources for all persons on a day-to-day basis and find out
the average for each one of them. How long will it take for you to do
this? May be one day, two days or one week? Do you know your
small computer can finish this work in few seconds? The weather
forecasts that you see every day on TV is the result of compilation
and analysis of huge amount of data on temperature, humidity,
pressure, etc. from various places processed by computers. It takes
few minutes for the computer to process this huge amount of data
and give the result.
(b) Accuracy
Suppose some one calculates faster but commits a lot of errors in
computing. Such result is useless. There is another aspect. Sup-
pose you want to divide 15 by 7. You may work out up to 2 decimal
places and say the quotient is 2.14. I may calculate up to 4 decimal
places and say that the result is 2.1428. Some one else may go up
to 9 decimal places and say the result is 2.142857143. Hence, in
addition to speed, the computer provides very high level of accuracy
or correctness in computing.
(c) Diligence
A computer is free from tiredness, lack of concentration, fatigue,
etc. It can work for hours without creating any error. If millions of
calculations are to be performed, a computer will perform every cal-
culation with the same accuracy. Due to this capability it is better
than human being in routine type of work.
4 :: B asic C o mp u t i n g Skills
(d) Versatilit y
It m e a n s the capacit y to per form com pl e t el y different t yp e of work.
Y o u m a y u se yo u r c o m p u t e r to prepare pa yrol l slips. N e x t m o m e n t
y o u m a y u s e it for i nv ent or y m a n a g e m e n t o r t o p r e p a r e electricit y
bills o r pr e pa r e a c co unt s , et c. T h e r e f o r e c o m p u t e r i s hi ghl y ve rs a -
tile.
(e) P o w e r of R e m e m b e r i n g
C o m p u t e r h a s t he p o w e r o f st ori ng h u g e a m o u n t o f i n fo rm a t i on o r
dat a . In f o rm at i on c a n b e st ored a n d recal l ed as l o n g a s yo u r equi re
it, for an y n um b e r of years. It depends entirely up on you, h o w m u c h
data yo u w an t to store in a comput er a n d w h e n to use or retrieve
these data.
(f) No IQ
C o m p u t e r i s a d u m b m a c h i n e a n d it c a n n o t d o a n y w o r k w i t h o u t
i n s t r u c t i o n s f r o m t he u s e r . It i s c o n s i d e r e d a s a f ai t h f ul i d i ot t h a t
c a n o n l y p e r f o r m t h e i nst ru ct i ons g i v e n t o it at t r e m e n d o u s s p e e d
and with high accuracy without understanding of the wo rk being
don e. C o m p u t e r h a s t o b e gu i d e d a s to w h a t yo u w a n t t o d o a n d i n
w h a t sequ en c e. S o a c o m p u t e r c a n n o t t a ke its o w n deci s i on as yo u
can.
(g) N o Feeling
It d o e s n o t h a v e feel i ngs o r e m o t i o n , taste, k n o w l e d g e a n d ex peri -
ence. Thus it does not get tired even after long hours of work. It does
n o t di st i n gui s h b e t w e e n users.
(h ) S t o r a g e
T h e c o m p u t e r h a s a n i n - b u i l t m e m o r y w h e r e it c a n s t o r e a l a r g e
a m o u n t o f dat a . Y o u c a n a l s o s t o r e d a t a i n s e c o n d a r y s t o r a g e d e -
vices such as floppies and C D s , w h i c h can be kept outside your
c o m p u t e r a n d c a n b e carri ed t o ot her c om p u t e r s .
INTEXT QUESTIONS
1.5 H IS TOR Y O F C O M P U T E R
H i s t o r y o f c o m p u t e r c o u l d b e t r a c e d b a c k t o t h e eff o rt o f m a n t o
count large numbers. This process of counting of large numbers
generat ed various s yst em s of num erati on like Bab yl oni an s yst em of
numeration, G r e e k s ystem of numeration, R o m a n system of nu-
m e r at i o n a n d Indi an s ys t e m of num e r at i on. O u t of t hese t he Indi an
s ys t e m o f n u m e r a t i o n h a s b e e n ac c ep t e d universall y. It is t he basi s
of m o d e r n decim al sys t em of num erati on (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).
Later yo u will k n o w h o w the com put er solves all calculations based
o n decim al s yst em. Ho w ev er , yo u will b e surprised to k n o w that the
c o m p u t e r d o e s n o t u n d e r s t a n d t he d e c i m a l s ys t e m a n d uses bi n a r y
s ys t em o f num e rat i on for processing.
(a) C al cul at i n g M a c h i n e s
It t o o k ge n e r a t i o n s f o r e a r l y m a n t o b u i l d m e c h a n i c a l d e v i c e s f o r
c o u n t i n g l a r ge n u m b e r s . T h e first cal cu l at i ng d e v i c e cal l ed A B A -
C U S , w a s d evel oped b y the E gypt i an a n d C hi nese peopl e.
Th e w o r d A B A C U S m e a n s calculating board. It consists of sticks in
horiz ont al pos i ti ons o n w h i c h a re i nsert ed sets o f pebbl es. A m o d -
ern f o r m o f A B A C U S is s h o w n in Fig. 1.2. It has a n u m b e r of hori-
z ont al bars e a c h h a v i n g t en be a ds. Ho ri z ont al b ar s r epres ent units,
t en s , h u n d r e d s , et c.
Fig. 1 .2 : A b a c u s
6 :: B asic C o mp u t i n g Skills
It was in the year 1823 that a famous English man Charles Babbage
built a mechanical machine to do complex mathematical calcula-
tions. It was called difference engine. Later he developed a general-
purpose calculating machine called analytical engine. You should
know that Charles Babbage is called the Father of computers.
F i g . 1 . 3 : S wi t c h i n g D e v i c e s u s e d i n d i f fer e nt g e n e r a t i o n s o f C o m p u t e r s
(h ) M o d e r n E l e c t r o n i c C a l c u l a t o r
T h e electronic calculator us ed in 1960s w a s run with electron tubes,
whi ch w a s quite bulky. Later it w a s repl aced wi t h transistors a n d as
a result the size of calculators b e c a m e t oo small.
T h e m o d e r n el ect ro ni c cal cul at ors c a n c o m p u t e all k i n ds o f m a t h -
e m a t i c a l c o m p u t a t i o n s a n d m a t h e m a t i c a l func t i o ns. It c a n al so b e
u s e d t o s t o r e s o m e d a t a p e r m a n e n t l y. S o m e c a l c u l a t o r s h a v e i n -
built pro gr a m s to pe rform s o m e compli cat ed calculations.
INTEXT QUESTIONS
IBM 1920 : Its size was small as compared to First Generation com-
puters and mostly used for scientific purpose.
IBM 1401 : Its size was small to medium and used for business
applications.
CDC 3600 : Its size was large and used for scientific purpose.
The salient features of this generation were:
1. relatively faster than the first generation computers.
2. smaller than the first generation computers
3. generated lower level of heat
4. more reliable
5. higher capacity of internal storage
more reliable
power efficient and high speed
use of high level languages
large memory
low cost
(d) Fourth Generation Computers (1971 onwards)
The present day computers that you see today are the fourth gen-
eration computers that started around 1975. It uses Large Scale
Integrated Circuits (LSIC) built on a single silicon chip called micro-
processors. Due to the development of microprocessor it is possible
to place computers central processing unit (CPU) on a single chip.
These computers are called microcomputers. Later very large scale
Integrated Circuits (VLSIC) replaced LSICs. These integrated cir-
cuits are so advanced that they incorporate hundreds of thousands
of active components in volumes of a fraction of an inch.
Thus the computer, which was occupying a very large room in ear-
lier days, can now be placed on a table. The personal computer (PC)
that you see in your school is a Fourth Generation Computer.
The salient features of this generation are:
very fast
very low heat generation
smaller in size
very reliable
negligible hardware failure
highly sophisticated
Fig. 1 . 4
1 2 :: B asic C o mp u t i n g Skills
Digital Computers
In digital computers, mathematical expressions are represented as
binary digits (0 and 1) and all operations are done using these digits
at a very high rate. It means that the computer operates on electri-
cal inputs that have only two states, ON and OFF. These computers
are widely used in commercial and control systems. Now a days
when we use the word computer, we mostly refer to a digital com-
puter.
Fig. 1 . 5
Hybrid Computers
Fig. 1 . 6
INTEXT QUESTIONS
APPLICATION OF COMPUTER
Computer, Its Development and Application
1 6 :: B asic C o mp u t i n g Skills
Fig. 1 . 7
1.9 DE V E LO P M E N T S IN TH E FIE LD O F GR AP H IC S IN
COMPUTERS
A s w e k n o w com puter graphics involves the generation, representa-
tion, m anipul ati on, processing a n d evaluation o f graphi c i m a ge s b y
a computer. Moreover, it com bi nes graphic i m ages with related n o n-
graphi c i nform at i on residing i n the c o m pu t e r files. G r a p h i c objects
m a y b e photographi c i m a ges or the y m a y be created wi t h the aid of
a c om p ut er in the f o r m of al phanum eri c character, special s ym bol s ,
line d r a w i n gs or gr a y s h a d e d areas.
1.9.1 W h a t is 3 D Graphics
T h e di spl a y s c r e e n or t h e p a p e r i n t he d i m e n s i o n a l r e n d e r i n g c a n -
not displ a y three-di mensional objects but onl y their projections. 2 D
g r a p h i c s a r e j ust l i ne d r a w i n g s w h e r e a s a 3 D r e n d e r i n g i n v o l v e s
m o d e l i n g a n obj e ct w i t h t he hel p o f c o m p u t e r s d o w n t o t he details
of lighting, shadi n g a n d reflections s o that it will l ook realistic.
Basic Co ncep ts :: 1 7
Fig. 1 . 8
text by the artist, where the artist has to draw lines and boxes manu-
ally to create a ready to use artwork.
Fig. 1 . 9
The method of DTP involves, (i) typing the text on the computer
keyboard, (ii) setting it in the page form with the help of DTP software,
(iii) giving different fonts to Headings, captions, etc. by simple
commands, and (iv) taking the final printout on a laser printer.
Ventura, PageMaker, CorelDraw are some of the software using which
very high class text setting, graphics designs and simple line drawings
can be created faster and more accurately.
Fi g. 1 . 1 0
4. W h y did the size of com put er get reduced in the third generation
c o m p u t e r?
5. Di scuss briefl y the co m pu t e r applications i n various fields.
S cale Integration
7. Fourth Generation