Computer: A computer is an electronic device that processes data and converts it into information.

Computers run programs, which processes data and perform tasks based on the instructions contained in the program. Program: A program is a sequence of instructions given to the computer to perform a specific task. In the new model, the output data depend on the combination of two factors: the input data and the program. Von Neumann Model: According to Von Neumann theory Data and program can be stored in the same memory. Thus the machine can itself alter either its program or internal data The model defines a computer as Four Subsystems. 1. Memory: Memory is the temporary storage area. 2. ALU: Arithmetic and Logic Unit is a part of processor and performs all logical comparisons and calculations 3. CU: Control Unit is a part of processor and manages all activities inside the processor. The control unit also controls the operations of the memory, ALU, and the input/output subsystem. 4. Input/Output: The I/O unit manages data and instructions entering and leaving the processor. History of Computers: ABACUS: The history of computers starts about 5000 years ago with the birth of the ABACUS. IT is a wooden rack with beads strung on them. When these beads are moved around, according to the programming rules memorized by the user, all regular arithmetic problems can be done. Charles Babbage (1791-1871) Charles Babbage was an English Mathematician and professor. In 1822, he persuaded the British government to finance his design to build an automatic mechanical calculating machine, which he called a Difference Engine. With Charles Babbage's creation of a general purpose, fully program-controlled, automatic mechanical digital computer "Analytical Engine" (1833) computers took the form of a general purpose machine. First Generation of Computers (1951-1958) Vacuum Tubes The first generation of computers used vacuum tubes and started in 1951 with the creation of UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) a tabulating machine which won the contest for the fastest machine which could count the US 1890 census. Vacuum Tubes are electronic tubes about the size of electric bulb. Second Generation of Computers (1959-1964) Transistors Transistor was invented at Bell Labs in 1947. The invention of transistor shrunk the size of first generation computers. 200 transistors are about the same size as one vacuum tube in a computer. They were more reliable, had more computational power, and consumed far less electricity. Also they were less expensive and a transistor could work 40 times faster than a vacuum tube. The do not get hot and burn out like a vacuum tube.

Third Generation of Computers (1965-1970) Integrated Circuits The concept of the IC was developed by Jack St. Clair Kilby in 1958. An IC is about square inch silicon chip and can contain thousand of transistors. They can perform the function of thousand of transistors. Fourth Generation of Computers (1971-1989) Microprocessors The microprocessor is a complete processing circuitry on a chip. Ted Hoff produced the first microprocessor in 1971 for Intel, which was named as Intel 4004. Its processing speed was just 108 kHz and 4 bit processing speed 4004 had about 2250 transistors. A microchip is a Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit (VLSI) that can contain millions of transistors, capacitors, inductors. Fifth Generation of Computers 1990-present Artificial Intelligence Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development stage. The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum computation and molecular and nano-technology will radically change the shape of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self organization. Birth of Personal Computers MITS Altair - 1975 The Altair 8800 from Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS) is considered to be the first personal computer. The Altair used the 2 MHz Intel 8080 microchip and used only 256 bytes as memory. Being just a box with flashing lights, it used Altair BASIC, a true programming language written by Microsoft. It was available in $495 in assembled form and kit was available in $395 IBM PC 1981 It was IBM-Intel-Microsoft joint venture. Original IBM 5150 PC supported only 64K of RAM on the motherboard and used Intel 8088 microchip at 4.77 MHz processing speed. It used one or two floppy disk drives and cassette system. It used as Microsoft BASIC as its OS. Apple Computers - 1977 Apple Computers Inc. was founded in 1976. Apple II was released in 1977 and was widely used in schools. In 1984 Macintosh was released powered by Motorola 68000 microchip processor and floppy drives. It was the first commercial computer with graphical user interface GUI and pointing device, a mouse 1990s Pentiums and Power MACs In early 1990s, computers penetrated into every niche, every desk, homes etc. The computers became faster and less expensive. Windows 95 was a decent GUI for PCs. MACs became more PC compatible and allowed easy file transfers. 21st Century Computing The ongoing century witnessed a great increase in speed, storage and memory. The world experienced increase in the speed of Internet. More networking turned the world in a global village. Computers went wireless and paved the way for PDAs and cell phones.

Ports: A port can be defined as a socket that enables an external device such as a printer to be attached to the computer. Sources of Data for the Computer: There are two types of data stored in a computer. 1) Original Data is the data that is entered first time in a computer. 2) Previously Stored Data is the data that has already been processed by a computer and is being stored for later use. Keyboard: A keyboard is an electronic device to enter data into the computer. The keyboards that are standard today are called enhanced keyboards and hold 104 keys. Ergonomic keyboards are curved to make them more comfortable for the hands and wrists. Mouse: A mouse is a pointing device used to move a pointer on the screen and to make selections. The bottom of a mouse has a rotating ball or an optical sensor that tracks movement and controls the location of the pointer. Monitor: A monitor is also called a display or a screen. The resolution of the monitors is the number of pixels on the screen. CRT Monitors use three electric guns to create images. It consists of a phosphor coated screen that glows when electrons hit it. Flat Panel Monitors are not bulky like CRT monitors. The most common is Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitor that produces an image using a liquid crystal material made of large, easily polarized molecules. Liquid crystal blocks or allows light to pass for each pixel. Form Factors: The standards that describe the size, shape, configuration, and physical arrangement of the components motherboard, power supply, case so that they work together are called from factors. Some of the form factors: ATX (Advanced Technology Extended) developed by Intel in 1995 MicroATX, FlexATX BTX (Balanced Technology Extended) developed by Intel in 2003 MicroBTX, PicoBTX LNX (New Low-profile Extended) developed by Intel in 1998 Soft Power feature can turn off the power to the system after the shutdown procedure is done. Computer Case sometimes called the chassis houses the power supply, motherboard, expansion cards and drives. Examples: Minitower, Mid-size Tower, Full-size Tower, Desktop, Slimline desktop. Chipset is a group of microchips on the motherboard that controls the flow of data and instructions to and from the processor. This group of chips also controls memory, buses and some peripherals. SLI (Scalable Link Interface) and CrossFire are two competing technologies that allow for multiple video cards installed in one system. A hub is used to connect buses. All I/O buses connect to a hub, which connects to the system bus, The fast end of the hub, which contains graphics and memory controller, connects to the system bus and is called the hubs North Bridge. The slower end of the hub, called the South Bridge contains the I/O controller hub. All I/O devices except, display and memory, connect to the hub by using the slower South Bridge. Processor Socket is a socket that holds the processor. The socket and the chipset collectively determine which processors a board can support. PGA (Pin Grid Array) socket has pins aligned in uniform rows around the socket. LGA (Land Grid Array) socket uses lands rather than pins. Some sockets include LGA1366, LGA775, LGA771, Socket 478, Socket 423.

ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) sockets have a lever on the side of the socket that is used to lift the processor up and out of the socket.

Expansion Bus is a bus that does not run in sync with the system clock and always connects to the slow end of the chipset, South Bridge. Local Bus runs in sync with the system clock. Expansion Slot is a slot located on the motherboard or riser board that allows adapter cards to be connected to it. ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) It was introduced by IBM and was originally an 8-bit computer bus that was later expanded to a 16-bit bus. PnP ISA bus, developed by Intel and Microsoft, allowed the computer to automatically detect and setup ISA peripherals, such as a modem or sound card without having to configure using DIP switches or jumpers. PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The first PCI bus had a 32-bit data path and operated at 33 MHz. It was the first bus that allowed expansion cards to run in sync with the CPU. PCI Version 2.x introduced the 64bit. PCI buses use a parallel bus. All conventional PCI slots connect to the processor by way of a single PCI bus, which connects to the I/O controller hub or South Bridge. PCIe (PCI Express) Unlike PCI bus, PCI Express uses a serial bus, which is faster than a parallel bus because it transmits data in packets similar to how an Ethernet network transmit data. A PCIe expansion slot can provide one or more of these serial lanes. Each PCI Express slot for a PCIe card has its own link or bus to the South Bridge, and one PCI Express slot has a direct link to the faster memory controller hub or North Bridge.

PCI Express currently comes in four different slot sizes called PCI Express x1, x4, x8, and x16. A PCI Express x1 slot contains a single lane for data, which is actually four wires. One pair of wires is used to send data and the other pair receives data, one bit at a time. The x16 slot contains 16 lanes, each lane timed independently of other lanes. There has been one minor revision of PCIe (PCIe Version 1.1), and one major revision (PCIe Version 2). PCIe version 1.1 allowed for more wattage to PCIe cards. PCIe Version 2 doubled the frequency of the PCIe bus, theoretically doubling the throughput Riser Card provides expansion slots for other adapter cards. These riser cards come for all types of PCI slots including PCIe, PCI-X, and conventional PCI. AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) It is an advanced port designed for video cards, designed by Intel and introduced in 1997. AGP introduced a dedicated point-to-point channel so that the graphics controller can directly access the system memory. The AGP channel is 32-bits wide and runs at 66 MHz. This translates into a total bandwidth of 266 MB/s, which is much greater than the PCI bandwidth of up to 133 MB/s AMR (Audio Modem Riser) These small slots accommodate small, inexpensive expansion cards called riser cards, such as a modem riser card, audio riser card, or network riser card. This specification allows for the motherboard to be manufactured at a lower cost. -If a connector is a group of pins sticking up on the board, the connector is called a header. In the past, conguring these and other motherboard settings was done in three different ways: DIP switches, jumpers, and CMOS RAM. A small trickle of electricity from a nearby lithium coin-cell battery enables CMOS RAM hold conguration data, even while the main power to the computer is off. Booting a Computer: The term booting refers to the computer bringing itself up to a working state without the user having to do anything but press the on button. A hard boot involves turning on the power with the on/off switch. A hard boot initializes the processor and clears the memory. A soft boot involves using the operating system to reboot. ROM BIOS: BIOS is a set of some basic instructions to start the computer and use some simple hardware devices such as keyboard, mouse and is stored on special ROM chip on the board. The motherboard ROM BIOS serves three purposes: System BIOS: The BIOS used to manage simple devices is called System BIOS. Startup BIOS: The BIOS that is used to start the computer is Startup BIOS. BIOS Setup: The BIOS used to change settings on the motherboard is called BIOS Setup. These motherboard settings are stored in a small amount of RAM located on the rmware chip and are called CMOS RAM or just CMOS. The functions performed during the boot can be divided into four parts. 1. The startup BIOS runs the POST and assigns system resources. POST (power-on self test) is a series of tests performed by the startup BIOS to determine if it can communicate correctly with essential hardware components required for a successful boot.

2. The startup BIOS program searches for and loads an OS. The boot sequence information stored in CMOS RAM tells startup BIOS where to look for the OS. The BIOS turns to the specied device, reads the beginning les of the OS, copies them into memory, and then turns control over to the OS. Step 1: POST and Assignment of System Resources 1. When the power is rst turned on, the system clock begins to generate clock pulses. 2. The processor begins working and initializes itself (resetting its internal values). 3. The processor turns to memory address FFFF0h, which is the memory address always assigned to the rst instruction in the ROM BIOS startup program. 4. This instruction directs the processor to run POST. 5. POST rst checks the BIOS program operating it and then tests CMOS RAM. 6. A test determines that there has been no battery failure. 7. Hardware interrupts are disabled. (This means that pressing a key on the keyboard or using another input device at this point does not affect anything.) 8. Tests are run on the processor, and it is initialized further. 9. A check determines if this is a cold boot. If so, the rst 16 KB of RAM are tested. 10. Hardware devices installed on the computer are inventoried and compared to conguration information. 11. The video card is tested and congured. 12. POST checks RAM by writing and reading data. The monitor might display a running count of RAM during this phase. 13. Next, the keyboard is checked, and if you press and hold any keys at this point, an error is occurred with some BIOSs. 14. IRQ, I/O addresses, and DMA assignments are made. Some hardware devices have BIOSs of their own that request resources from startup BIOS. 15. The DMA and interrupt controllers are checked. 16. BIOS begins its search for an OS. Step 2: Start BIOS finds and Loads the OS 1. On the outermost track, one sector (512 bytes) is designated the beginning of the hard drive. This sector, called the Master Boot Record (MBR), contains two items. The rst item is the master boot program, which is needed to locate the beginning of the OS on the drive. The second item in the MBR is a table, called the partition table. This partition tells the BIOS which partition is used for booting. 2. At the beginning of the boot drive (usually drive C) is the OS boot record. This 512-byte sector is physically the second sector on the hard drive right behind the MBR. This OS boot record contains a small program that points to a larger OS MBR. This OS boot record contains a small program that points to a larger OS program le that is responsible for starting the OS load. For Windows XP, that program is Ntldr. 3. The first OS program (BootMgr or Ntldr) begins the process of loading the OS into memory. For Windows XP, Ntldr is responsible for loading the OS, and is, therefore, called the boot loader program. In Vista, BootMgr turns the job over to Winload.exe, which loads the OS. Therefore, for Vista, Winload.exe is the boot loader program

Memory Technologies
DIMM: A DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Module) gets its name because it has independent pins on opposite sides of the module. SIMMs and the early DIMMs did not run in sync with the system clock because they were too slow to keep up. Their speeds are measured in nanoseconds (ns), which is how long it takes for the module to read or write data. The rst DIMM to run synchronized with the system clock was synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), which has two notches, and uses 168 pins. Synchronized memory runs in step with the processor and system clock, and its speeds are measured just as processor and bus speeds are measured in MHz. Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM) is an improved version of SDRAM. DDR runs twice as fast as regular SDRAM, has one notch, and uses 184 pins. Instead of processing data for each beat of the system clock, as regular SDRAM does, it processes data when the beat rises and again when it falls, doubling the data rate of memory. DDR2 is faster and uses less power than DDR and uses 240 pins. DDR3 is faster and uses less power than DDR2 and uses 240 pins. Single-sided DIMMs are always single ranked, meaning they provide only one 64-bit bank. Single Sided: DIMMs having memory chips installed on one side of the module. Double Sided: DIMMs having memory chips installed on both sides of the module. Memory Bank: A bank of a memory that a processor addresses at one time and is 64bit wide Dual Ranked: Double-sided DIMMs that provide two 64-bit banks are called dual ranked. Dual Channel: Dual channels allow the memory controller to communicate with two DIMMs at the same time, effectively doubling the speed of memory access. Triple Channel: Triple channels allow the memory controller to communicate with three DIMMs at the same time. DIMM Speeds: DIMM speeds are measured either in MHz (such as 800 MHz) or PC rating (such as PC6400). A PC rating is a measure of the total bandwidth of data moving between the module and the CPU. Some Current PC Ratings DDR3 2000 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1600 MHz, 1333 MHz DDR2 800 MHz, 667 MHz DDR 800 MHz, 500 MHz, 400 MHz, 333 MHz SDRAM PC100, PC133 SDRAM: SDRAM stands for synchronous dynamic random access memory. SDRAM is Single Data Rate meaning that SDRAM can accept one command and transfer one word of data per clock cycle. As SDRAMs have synchronous interface therefore they depend on the computer clock signals to perform operations. Typical speeds of SDRAM are 100 and 133 MHz. RIMM (Rambus Inline Memory Module): RIMMS are obsolete, and were only used by very few Intel Pentium 3 based motherboards, and early Pentium 4 motherboards, and while performance was good, they were over 3 times the cost of similar SD Ram (DIMMs) RAM sticks. Size can vary from 64 MB to 512 MB, and speed ratings are 800 MHz or 1066 MHz. RIMMs can use a 16-bit or 32-bit data bus.

SIMM (Single Inline Memory Module) SIMMs were common from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. SIMMs are rated by speed, measured in nanoseconds (ns). Common SIMM speeds are 60, 70, or 80 ns. This speed is a measure of access time, which is the time it takes for the processor to access the data stored on a SIMM. SIMMs use a data path of 32 bits or 16 bits.

Secondary Storage
A hard disk drive (HDD), most often called a hard drive, comes in two sizes for personal computers: the 2.5" size is used for laptop computers and the 3.5" size is used for desktops. SSD: A solid state drive (SSD), also called a solid state device (SSD), is called solid state because it has no moving parts. The drives are built using nonvolatile ash memory, which is similar to that used for USB flash drives. Magnetic HDD: A magnetic hard drive has one, two, or more platters, or disks, that stack together and spin in unison inside a sealed metal housing that contains rmware to control reading and writing data to the drive and to communicate with the motherboard. All the read/write heads are controlled by an actuator, which moves the read/write heads across the disk surfaces in unison. The disk surfaces are covered with a magnetic medium that can hold data as magnetized spots. Firmware: Firmware on a circuit board inside the drive housing is responsible for writing and reading data to these tracks and sectors and for keeping track of where everything is stored on the drive. File System: A file system is the overall structure an OS uses to name, store, and organize files on a drive. In a file system, a cluster is the smallest unit of space on a disk for storing a file and is made up of one or more sectors. The ATA Interface Standards: The ATA interface standards dene how hard drives and other drives such as CD, DVD, tape, and Blu-ray drives interface with a computer system. The standards dene data speeds and transfer methods between the drive controller, the BIOS, the chipset on the mother- board, and the OS. The standards also dene the type of cables and connectors used by the drive and the motherboard or expansion cards. The ATA standards can be categorized into two groups: PATA and SATA. PATA is the older and slower standard that has seen many changes. SATA is the faster and newer standard, which, so far, has had only three revisions. SATA uses a serial data path rather than the traditional parallel data path. S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a system BIOS feature that monitors hard drive performance, disk spin up time, temperature, distance between the head and the disk, and other mechanical activities of the drive in order to predict when the drive is likely to fail. A hard drive uses one of two methods to transfer data between the hard drive and memory: DMA (direct memory access) transfer mode or PIO (Programmed Input/Output) transfer mode. DMA transfers data directly from the drive to memory without involving the CPU. eSATA is up to six times faster than USB or FireWire.

SCSI: Small Computer System Interface SCSI is primarily used in servers. SCSI is a standard for communication between a subsystem of peripheral devices and the system bus. The SCSI bus can support up to 7 or 15 devices, depending on the SCSI standard. SCSI devices tend to be faster, more expensive, and more difcult to install than similar ATA devices. If a motherboard does not have an embedded SCSI controller, the gateway from the SCSI bus to the system bus is the SCSI host adapter card, commonly called the host adapter. All the devices and the host adapter form a single daisy chain. This chain must be terminated at both ends. Each device on chain is assigned unique device ID number that is determined by jumpers or DIP switches. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), allows for more than 15 devices on a single SCSI chain, uses smaller, longer, round cables, and uses smaller hard drive form factors that can support larger capacities than earlier versions of SCSI. RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks A technology that congures two or more hard drives to work together as an array of drives is called RAID. To improve fault tolerance or for improving performance. RAID0, RAID1, RAID5. When a disk is formatted, the OS creates four areas on its surface: Boot sector stores the master boot record, a small program that runs when you first start (boot) the computer File allocation table (FAT) a log that records each file's location and each sector's status Root folder enables the user to store data on the disk in a logical way Data area the portion of the disk that actually holds data

Booting of DOS After identifying the location of boot files, BIOS looks at the first sector (512 bytes) and copies information to specific location in RAM (7C00H) - Boot Record. Control passes from BIOS to a program residing in the boot record. Boot record loads the initial system file into RAM. For DOS, it is IO.SYS . The initial file, IO.SYS includes a file called SYSINIT which loads the remaining OS into the RAM. SYSINIT loads a system file MSDOS.SYS that knows how to work with BIOS. One of the first OS files that is loaded is the system configuration file, CONFIG.SYS in case of DOS. Information in the configuration file tells loading program which OS files need to be loaded (e.g. drivers) Another special file that is loaded is one which tells what specific applications or commands user wants to be performed as part of booting process. In DOS, it is AUTOEXEC.BAT. In Windows, its WIN.INI