BASIC ELECTRONICS M#5

MODULE #5
Basic Computer engineering

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COMPUTER

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of

instructions.

Computer systems consist of the following hardware components:

 Input devices accept data or commands in a form useable by

computers. Data and commands can also be sent to the processing
unit; e.g., keyboards, mice, scanners, microphone, digital camera.
 Output devices display the processed information understandably
and usefully; e.g. printers, monitors, speakers.
 Processing devices are contained in a computer’s system unit and
are comprised of circuitry. The main circuit board is the
motherboard, with its central processing unit (CPU) and memory.
 Storage devices include secondary storage for data and programs
outside the computer’s processing unit; e.g., hard disk drives, floppy
disk drives, Zip® drives, CD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives.
Drives read from and write to storage media (the physical material
that can store data and programs).
 Communication devices provide connections between computers
and communication networks, allowing for exchange of information
and data with other computers via transmission media such as
cables, telephone lines, and satellites.

MAGNETIC MEMORY
* Non-volatile

* Slower than semiconductor memories.

* Used for bulk storage.

* Important magnetic memories-FLOPPY DISC, Magnetic Bubbles, MAGNETIC

TAPE,

Magnetic Core, HARD DISK

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HARD DISK

1. The Physical Contents of a Hard Disk

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, circular disks, called platters, on

which information is electronically
stored
• Platter: made of aluminum, glass,
or ceramic and is coated with a
material which allows for
information to be magnetically
recorded on its surface
• Platters, read/write heads, and
the mechanism for moving the heads
across the disk's surface are sealed in
an airtight case for protection

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2. Characteristics of a Hard Disk

• Stores information using magnetic patterns

• Can write on a hard disk and read from it
• Undergoes 2-3 formatting steps: 1) Low-level formatting: organizes both
sides of each platter into tracks and sectors to define where information will
be stored on the disk 2) Partitioning (does not always occur): divides hard
drive into separate areas to make it more efficient 3) High-level formatting:
used to define the file allocation table (FAT), a table used to locate files
• Multiple platters are stacked on top of one another
• Each platter contains a read/write head for each side
• The hard disk has arms that move the read/write heads to the proper
location on the platter
• Due to the stacked nature of the platters, the locations of the read/write
heads are often referred to by cylinder (the location of a single track through
all platters)
• While the computer is running, the platters rotate at about 3,600 to 7,200
revolutions per minute, and continue to rotate until the computer is turned
off
• This spinning creates a small layer of air (two millionths of an inch) between
the platter and the read/write head
• The read/write therefore floats above the platter and does not make contact
with it

3. Advantages and Disadvantages

• Advantages: can purchase hard disks which stay in the computer or which
are removable, fast access time (because spinning fast and constantly),
continually getting cheaper as technology improves
• Disadvantages: some newer forms of storage can hold more data more
efficiently and at a lower cost

4 Typical Uses

• The hard disc is usually the main backing storage media for a typical server
It is used to store--

*The operating system (e.g. Microsoft® Windows)

*Applications software (e.g. word-processor, database, spreadsheet, etc.)

*Files such as documents, music, videos etc

5. Storage Capacity

• Can typically store from 2-16 GB of information.

• A typical Hard Drive stores about 8-10GB.

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FLOPPY DISC

1. The Physical Contents of a Floppy Disk

(3.5 inch)

• Consists of a circular, thin, flexible plastic

disk with a magnetic coating enclosed in a
square-shaped plastic shell
• Components: Shutter, Shell, Liner, Disk,
Metal Hub, Magnetic Coating

2. Characteristics of a Floppy Disk

• A "track" is a narrow recording band that

forms a full circle on the surface of the disk
• The disk's storage locations are then divided into pie-shaped sections, which
break the tracks into small arcs called sectors (can hold 512 bytes of data)
• Floppy Disks store data on both sides. Each side consists of 80 tracks with
18 sectors per track
• To read from and write on the disk, sectors are grouped into clusters (consist
of 2 to 8 sectors)
• A cluster is the smallest unit of space used to store data

3. Advantages and Disadvantages

• Advantages: portable, inexpensive, write-protect notch

• Disadvantages: cannot hold a lot of information compared to other modes of
storage, fairly easy to damage, relatively slow, sometimes not formatted
(although not difficult to do)

4. Typical Uses

• Floppy disks are useful for transferring data between computers

• Used for keeping a back-up of small files.

5 Storage Capacity

• About 1.44 MB

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MAGNETIC TAPE
1. The Physical Contents of a Magnetic
Tape

• Manufactured out of plastic base with a thin coating of ferromagnetic

material[FeO,Fe2O3]
• Width of the tape is about 0.5” and thickness is about 0.002”.

2. Characteristics of a Magnetic Tape

• Data is recorded in many tracks along the length of the tape.

• Record/Play head is a very small, circular electromagnet with a small gap in
it. It consists of an iron core wrapped with wire. In the write mode, current
in the coil creates a magnetic flux and thus magnetizes the oxide on the tape
• Record/Play head is used to write data to or read data from the tape .It is a
small electromagnet
• When current passes through the head, magnetic flux lines will be produced
across the record head gap and it will permanently magnetize material on
the tape.
• The polarity of the magnetized region on the tape is determined by the
direction of the current flow and can be represented by ‘ONE’ in one
direction and in the reverse direction by a ‘ZERO’.
• Data can be read from the tape by the head
*When magnetized region of the tape is passed over the gap in the head, a
voltage

Is induced in the coil and

its polarity corresponds to the
polarity of the magnetized

.region read.

3 Advantages and
Disadvantages

• Advantages: relatively
cheap, can store very large
quantities of data

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(26GB),non-volatile , can be erased and reused many times.

• Disadvantages: Accessing data is very slow[can’t go directly into the data-
necessary to start from the beginning of the tape and search for the data as
the tape goes past the heads-Serial Access]
Huge mechanical system is required to keep the tape speed constant, and to
start

And stop the tape without breaking it

4 Typical Uses

• Often used to make a copy of hard disks for back-up reasons.

THE MEMORY

An electronic memory is simply any device that accepts and stores data. It
is characterised by capacity, Organisation, Method of addressing, Access time.

MEMORY IS BROADLY CLASSIFIED INTO TWO:

1) RAM
2) ROM

READ ONLY MEMORY (ROM)

• It is non volatile
• Used for permanent storage
• Has random access property
• The contents of memory in this cannot be altered and also no fresh
data can be written into it.
• It is generally used to store the information which is used frequently in a
system application such as monitor programs, code conversions.
• ROM with capacity to store M words of N bits is Æ M x N bits ROM

Types of ROM
1) Mask Programmed ROM
2) PROM
3) EPROM
4) EEPROM
5) CD ROM

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6) DVD
1) Mask Programmed ROM

It is a ROM which is programmed during its manufacture.

2) PROM (Programmable ROM)

¾ When a user like to store certain special information or data or

programs he can use this.
¾ Here the information’s are stored inside a chip.
¾ Once programmed it cannot be realtered.
¾ Provides a fast rate.
¾ Special equipment called PROM Programmer is sued for programming
ROM.

3) EPROM (Erasable PROM)

¾ Stored data can be erased and

reprogrammed
¾ Special programmer called EPROM
programmer is used for programming ROM.
¾ The Erasing is done by exposing the chip to a
high intensity UV radiation though a window on chip
package.
DISADVANTAGES

•
They have to be removed from there circuit for erasing and
reprogramming.
• Selective erasing is not possible.
• The erasing and reprogramming takes about 10 – 15 minutes so that it is
time consuming.
EEPROM (Electrically Erasable PROM)

1) Erasing is done with the help of electrical pulses.

ADVANTAGES

• They need not be removed from their

chips for erasing and reprogramming.
• Selective erasing is possible.
• It takes about few milliseconds for
erasing and reprogramming.

COMPACT DISC (CD)

9 It is a secondary storage device

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9 CD ROM is a shiny metallic disc having diameter 150 mm and a circular

hole of 15 mm in the centre.
9 It is made of polycarbonate which is covered by a photosensitive layer and
that is covered by a this layer of gold for protection.
9 Laser beam is used to write data on CD.
9 Information in the CD is stored in the form of signals.
9 The amount of information stored depends on the light reflected from the
disc.
9 In CD, the information’s are sorted in deferent tracks and that forms certain
sectors.
9 From the sectors the information are buffered.
9 CD ROM is inserted in a special drive called CD ROM drive which is
resistant to physical disturbances like Crack
9 Most of CD ROM that we buy today are CAV CD ROMS
9 ie. The CD Drive can spin at constant angular velocity.
9 Standard used for writing is ISO 9660.
In CD, information are stored as 1 and 0

One Æ indicates Pit

Zero Æ Indicates Land

DIGITAL VIDEO DISC (DVD)

• Encoded digital information is pressed into a thin layer of aluminum, Which

is sandwitched between layers of polycarbonate plastics
• It is done for protection.
• Storage Capacity – 4.7GB
• Information are stored in DVD with high frequency lasers.
• Advantages of DC are DVD is its high storage capacity and high transfer
rate.
• Since the DVD is much thinner than CD, we can glue two DVD such that its
storage capacity doubles to 9.4 GB.

RANDOM ACCESS
MEMORY

• Most commonly used storage

device.

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• Every location can be accessed independently

RAM is classified into

1) VOLATILE
2) NON VOLATILE
The information stored in a volatile memory is lost, when the power is switched off.

The information stored in a non volatile memory is permanent.

BASED ON PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

RAM IS CLASSIFIED AS:

1) DYNAMIC
2) STATIC
DYNAMIC RAM

• Information is stored in the form of charge on a capacitor.

• There is a great tendency for the package of charge.
• So frequent refreshing is required.
• For that a refreshing circuit is provided along with this
STATIC RAM

• Does not require frequent refreshing

• used is CPU registers
• Also used in High speed cache memories
• Space requirements for static RAM is more than dynamic RAM
• Is and 0s are represented by the condition of a transistor, whether it is on or
off.

PROGRAMMING

High level and low level language

organized list of instructions that, when executed, causes the computer to
behave in a predetermined manner. Without programs, computers are
useless.

A program is like a recipe. It contains a list of ingredients (called

variables) and a list of directions (called statements) that tell the
computer what to do with the variables. The variables can represent
numeric data, text, or graphical images.

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There are many programming languages -- C, C++, Pascal, BASIC,

FORTRAN, COBOL, and LISP are just a few. These are all high-level
languages. One can also write programs in low-level languages called
assembly languages, although this is more difficult. Low-level
languages are closer to the language used by a computer, while high-
level languages are closer to human languages.

Eventually, every program must be translated into a machine

language that the computer can understand. This translation is
performed by compilers, interpreters, and assemblers.

When you buy software, you normally buy an executable version of a

program. This means that the program is already in machine language
-- it has already been compiled and assembled and is ready to execute

•
A programming language such as C, FORTRAN, or Pascal that enables a
programmer to write programs that are more or less independent of a particular
type of computer. Such languages are considered high-level because they are closer
to human languages and further from machine languages. In contrast, assembly
languages are considered low-level because they are very close to machine
languages.

The main advantage of high-level languages over low-level languages is that

they are easier to read, write, and maintain. Ultimately, programs written in
a high-level language must be translated into machine language by a
compiler or interpreter.

The first high-level programming languages were designed in the 1950s.

Now there are dozens of different languages, including Ada, Algol, BASIC,
COBOL, C, C++, FORTRAN, LISP, Pascal, and Prolog.

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MACHINE LANGUAGE
The lowest-level programming language (except for computers that utilize
programmable microcode)

Machine languages are the only languages understood by computers. While

easily understood by computers, machine languages are almost impossible for
humans to use because they consist entirely of numbers. Programmers, therefore,
use either a high-level programming language or an assembly language.

An assembly language contains the same instructions as a machine

language, but the instructions and variables have names instead of being just
numbers

Operating system

Operating system (commonly abbreviated to OS,

O/S) is an interface between hardware and software
in a computer system. The OS is responsible for the
management and coordination of activities and the
sharing of the limited resources of the computer.

The operating system acts as a host for

applications that are run on the machine. As a host,
main purposes of an operating system are to handle
the details of the operation of the hardware. This
relieves application programs from having to
manage these low level details of hardware and
makes it easier to write software.

Almost all computers, including handheld

computers, desktop computers, supercomputers,
and even video game consoles, use an operating
system of some type. Some of the oldest models may
however use an embedded operating system, that
may be contained on a compact disk or other data
storage device.

Common contemporary operating systems include Mac OS, Windows, Linux,

BSD and Solaris. While servers generally run on Unix or Unix-like systems,
embedded device markets are split amongst several operating systems

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System software

System software is closely related to, but distinct from operating

system software. It is any computer software that provides the
infrastructure over which programs can operate, i.e. it manages and
controls computer hardware so that application software can perform.
Operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, are
prominent examples of system software.

System software is software that basically makes the computer work.

Besides operating systems, other examples are anti-virus software,
communication software and printer drivers. Without the system software
the computer doesn't work. In contrast to system software, software that
allows you to do things like create text documents, play games, listen to
music, or surf the web is called application software.[1]

In general application software are programs that enable the end-user

to perform specific, productive tasks, such as word processing or image
manipulation. System software performs tasks like transferring data from
memory to disk, or rendering text onto a display device.

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A compiler

A compiler is a computer program (or set of programs) that

transforms source code written in a computer language (the source
language) into another computer language (the target language, often having
a binary form known as object code). The most common reason for wanting
to transform source code is to create an executable program.

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The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that translate

source code from a high-level programming language to a lower level
language (e.g., assembly language or machine code).

A program that translates from a low level language to a higher level

one is a decompiler. A program that translates between high-level languages
is usually called a language translator, source to source translator, or

language converter. A language rewriter is usually a program that

translates the form of expressions without a change of language.

Assembler

Assembly languages are a family of low-level languages for

programming computers. It implements a symbolic representation of the
numeric machine codes and other constants needed to program a particular
CPU architecture.

This representation is usually defined by the hardware manufacturer,

and is based on abbreviations (called mnemonics) that help the programmer
remember individual instructions, registers, etc. An assembly language is
thus specific to a certain physical or virtual computer architecture (as
opposed to most high-level languages, which are usually portable).

A utility program called an assembler is used to translate assembly

language statements into the target computer's machine code. The
assembler performs a more or less isomorphic translation (a one-to-one
mapping) from mnemonic statements into machine instructions and data.
(This is in contrast with high-level languages, in which a single statement
generally results in many machine instructions.)

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