TOPIC # 1 (COMPUTER AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS) COMPUTER: The word computer is derived from the Latin word Compute.

Computer is an electronic device which takes input process it and gives you output or result according to the given instructions.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTER: Following are the characteristics of computer: 1. SPEED: The real power of the speech is the speed with which it performs calculations. It can process a large amount of data in few seconds, much faster than humans. The time used by a computer to perform an operation is called PROCESSING. Computer speed is measure in Mega Hertz (MHz) and Giga Hertz (GHz). 2. STORAGE: A computer can store a large amount of data. User can use this data at any time. We can store any type of data in a computer. Text, Graphics, Pictures, Audio and Video can be stored easily. The storage capacity of the computer increases rapidly. 3. PROCESSING: The main function of computer is data processing. It can perform different type of processing like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It can also perform logical operations. It also includes classification of data and its transmission from one place to another. 4. ACCURACY: In addition to being very fast computer are also very accurate in calculations. A modern computer performs millions of operations in one

second without any error. If the input data and the program instruction are correct then we expect the computer will produce accurate result. The accuracy of calculations depends upon the input data and the program instruction. 5. RECALLING: A computer can recall the data and information as and when required. The data stored in the computer can be used at later time. The computer can recall the required data in few seconds. 6. CONTROL SEQUENCE: A computer work strictly according to the given instructions. It follows the same sequence of execution that is given in a program. 7. CONSISTENCY: Computer can work in a consistent way. It does not take concentration due to heavy work. It does not become tired or bored. Computer performs all jobs with equal attention. 8. COMMUNICATION: Most computers today have the capability to communicate with other computers. We can connect two or more computers by a communication device. The computer can store data, information and instructions. A collection of connective computer is called network. We can communicate with other people in the world via internet. 9. VERSATILE: Computers are extremely versatile and are capable of performing almost any task. Computers can be used to solve problems relating to various different fields like hospitals, banks or at home etc. 10. NO-FEELINGS: It cannot be affected by heavy work. It cannot be affected by sorrow. It cannot expects feelings as an input 11. NO-INTELLIGENCE: It uses the intelligence of human beings not its own. It only follows the given instructions. If a computer is a program for addition, it cannot perform subtraction by itself. 12. COST REDUCTION: -

We can perform different task using computer in less time and cost.

TOPIC # 2 USES OF COMPUTER: Today computer is used in every field of life. The use of computer has made different tasks very easy. Computer has made a vital impact on our society. It has changed the way of life. Moreover the computer being used in every field of life. Such as medical, Business, Industry, Airlines and weather forecasting. 1- USES OF COMPUTER AT HOME: Computer can be used at home in the following ways: A- HOME BUDGET: Computer can be used to manage home budget. User can easily calculate income and expenses. He can list all expenses in one column and income in other column. The user can apply any calculations on these columns to plan his home budget. B- COMPUTER GAMES: Computer can be used at home for playing games. Different kind of games are available that are separately developed to improve your mental capability and thinking power. C- WORKING FROM HOME: People can manage office work at home. The owner of the company can check the work of employees from home. He can control his office work while sitting at home. D- ENTERTAINMENT: People can find entertainment from internet. We can watch movies, hear songs and different stuff. We can also watch live matches on the internet. E- CHATTING: We can chat with our friends on internet. We can also talk with them, can send different messages, files and information to them. 2- USES OF COMPUTER IN EDUCATION: -

Computers can be used in educational field to improve teaching and learning process. It is used to educate students effectively. Many computer based educational programs are available. Many educational games are becoming popular in the students. Computer can be used in education in the following ways; A- CBT (OMPUTER BASED TRAINING): CBT are different programs that are supplied on CD-Rom. These programs include text, Graphics and sounds. Audio and video files are recorded on the CDs. CBT is a low cost solution for educating people. You can train a large number of people easily. B- CAL (COMPUTER AIDED LEARNING): CAL is a process of using information technology to help teaching and learning process. The use of computer can reduce the time spend on preparing teaching material. The use of multimedia projector and slides improve the quality of teaching. It also helps learning process. C- ONLINE EDUCATION: Many websites provides online education. User can download educational material, Books and tutorials. Some universities provide online lectures for the students. Students can ask questions and discuss their problems by sending E-Mails to these websites. D- RESEARCH: Computer can also used for research purposes. Different research scientists can share their work using internet. Many websites are developed for research activities. Students are young researchers, can benefit from research websites. 3- USES OF COMPUTER IN INDUSTRY: Computers are used in industry in different types of robotic systems. Computers are used to control many complex tasks. Computers can be used in industry in following ways; A- AUTOMATED PRODUCTION SYSTEM: Many car factories are completely computerized. Cars are assembled by computers controlled reborts. These systems work quickly than human

beings and becoming popular. B- DESIGIN SYSTEM: Many products are designed using CAD (Computer Aided Design). Computers programs are used to design the modal of the product on the computer. After the design is complete, the actual product is produced. 4- USES OF COMPUTER IN BUSINESS: The use of computer technology in business provides many facilities. Businessman uses computer to interact with their customer anywhere in the world. Computers also help them to reduce the overall cost of their business. Computers can be used in business in the following ways: A- MARKETING: Any business organization can use computer for marketing their products. Marketing applications provide information about the product to computer. Computers also used to manage distributions system, Advertising and selling. B- STOCK EXCHANGE: Stock exchange is the most important place of the businessman. Many stock exchanges use computer to conduct bids. The stock brokers perform all trading activities electronically. They connect with computer were broker match the buyer with seller. It reduces cost as no paper or special building is required to conduct their activities. C- BANKS: The use of computer in banks has provided many benefits. It saves time and provides convenience to customers. Many banks provide the facility of Automated Teller Machine (ATM). ATM is used to draw cash directly from machine. Banks use computer to maintain customers accounts (A/C). The transactions are handled easily and quickly with the computerized system.

D- DEPARTMENTAL STORES: The use of computer in departmental store has made the business

activities fast and accurate. The cashier can enter the data in the computer using bar code reader. The bar code contains price of a particular item. The computer use this input to calculate bill. The record of sale is also stored in computer. This record can be used analyze, stock, inventory & accounts. E- ACCOUNTS/PAYROLL: Accounts system is computerized in many organizations. Account system maintains daily transaction of a company. It maintains daily book, trial balance and other information of accounts. Payroll system calculates pay bonuses and other information of employees. F- FAX: The user can send fax from computer. Different programs are used for this purpose. The quality of fax is also higher. It is also possible to receive a fax directly to computer. G- VIDEO-CONFERENCING: Many companies using video conferencing to deal with other companies. In video conferencing people residing at various places can talk with each other. They can see one another. It is very useful in this busy age. It prevents a lot of time and cost. H- OFFICE AUTOMATION: Word processing is used to create documents electronically. It is used to produce letters, applications and other documents. Spread sheet programs are used for calculations. It provides work sheet to enter data. The work sheet is a collection of rows and columns. It allows you to make different calculations using formulas and built-in function. We can also display our data using charts and figures. 5- USES OF COMPUTER IN MEDICAL FIELD: Computer can be used in medical field in the following ways: A- HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION: Hospital is an important organization. We can use computer for the administration of the hospital. We can computerize the accounts payroll and stock inventory of the hospital. We can keep record of different

medicines and their distribution in different words etc. B- RECORDING MEDICAL HISTORY: Computer can be used to store natural history of the patient. We can store important facts about the patient in the computer. We can keep the record of his past treatment and suggested medicines and their results etc. such systems can be very effective and helpful for the doctors. C- MONITORING SYSTEM: Some serious patient must be monitored continuously. Monitoring is needed especially in Operation Theater and intensive care unit (Intensive Care Unit). Many computerized devices are used to monitor the blood pressure, heart beat and brain of the patient. D- LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM: Life support system is used to help disabled persons. Many devices are used to deaf person to hear. Scientists are trying to create a device that will help blind person to see. E- DIAGNOSES OF DISEASES: Many softwares are available that store diseases and their symptoms. Diagnoses of diseases are possible by entering the symptoms. Moreover different computerized devices are used in laboratories for different tests of blood etc. TOPIC # 3 GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS: The major changes in computer manufacturing technologies with the passage of time are called GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER. There are five generations of computer which are briefly discussed below: 1- FIRST GENERATION: (1942-1955) These computers were build from 1942-1955. Vaccume tube technology are used was used in first generation computer. Vaccume tube is a glass device which controls and amplify electric signals. Vaccume tube was developed by MAUCHLY & ECHERT at census department of USA in 1947. These computers could only perform simple calculations. These computers were very big in size and also very costly. The processing speed was slow

and had a very small storage/memory. This computer was not so reliable and the output result is not accurate. The air conditioning was compulsory for this computer because of over heating. The instructions had to be given directly in machine language. These computers could perform operations in milli seconds. Examples of first generation computers are ENIAC, UNIVAC-I & EDVAC etc. 2- SECOND GENERATION: (1955-1964) These computers were build from 1955-1964. The transistor technology was used in second generation computer. Transistor was developed in 1947 at Bell Laboratories by J. BARDEEN, WILLIAM BRATTIAN & WILLIAM SHOCKLEY. Transistor is a small device that transfers electric signals across register. These computers were designed separately for scientific calculations and Business Application. As compare to first generation computer these computers were small in size, fast in speed and producing more accurate results. The Air Conditioning was used to reduce heating. These computers had more storage as compare to first generation computer. This computer are used both low level language and high level language for computer programs. Examples of second generation computers are IBM 7094 SERIES, IBM 1400 SRIES, CDC 164 etc. 3- THIRD GENERATION: (1964-1975) These computers were build from 1964-1975. Integrated Circuit (IC) were used in third generation computer. JACK KILBEY in 1958 developed using small scale integration (SSI). These computers were smaller in size, faster in processing speed and have more internal storage as compare to previous generations. These computers used more high level language like Pascal & C. Third generation computer were used for both scientific and Business applications at the same time. Examples of third generations computers are IBM 370, UNIVAC 1108 & UNIVAC 9000. 4- FOURTH GENERATION: (1975-Present)

These computers built from 1975 and still this technology is under development. The Micro Chip technology was used in fourth generation computer. TED HOFF in 1971 produced first micro processor for Intel. Micro processor are invented using large scale integration (LSI) and very large scale integration (VLSI). Micro processor consists of thousands of transistor and other electronic components. Examples of fourth generation computers are APPLE MACINTOSH & IBM PC. 5- FIFTH GENERATION: (Present-Beyond) Nowadays and in future the Ultra large Scale Integration (ULSI) technology is being used. These computers are ultra high processing speed and are high in cost. These computers have high very memory and are comparatively smaller in size. Nowadays super computer comes under this generation. Such as CRAY and NEC where multiples processor are used. It appears that the fifth generation computers have at least following important characteristics. 1- Mega Chip Memory. 2- Ability of extensive parallel processing. 3- Artificial intelligence (spoken words, Computer with IQ, Quantum computation, Molecular technology, Speech-image-character recognition). TOPIC # 4 TYPES OF COMPUTERS: Computers can be devided on the basis of there working into the following types:1- ANALOG COMPUTER: Analog is a Greek word which means establishing similarities between two quantities. Analog computer work on measurement. It recognizes data as a continous measurement of a physical property. It has no stale. Analog computers are special purpose computers and mainly used in the field of engineering and medicines. Following are the characteristics of Analog Computer: -

1- They give output in terms of graph or on scale 2- These computers have limited memory and result is less reliable. 3- These computers are difficult to operate. Following are the examples of analog computer. 1- Thermometer is the example of analog computer because it measures the length of mercury column continuously. 2- A traditional clock is the example of analog computer because the needle of a clock covers the distance of dial continuously. 3- Wait machine and speedometer are other examples of analog computers. 2- DIGITAL COMPUTER: Digital computer works on the principal of counting. These computers operate on discrete numbers that is (i-e) digits. Every thing is described in two states that is (i-e) ON and OFF. The digit 1 represents ON and digit 0 represents OFF state. It shows result in digital form. These computers are manufactured in wide variety of size, speed and capacities. Depending on flexibility in operation, digital computers are either special purpose or general purpose. Digital computers are commonly used in offices and in educational institutions. Following are the characteristics of digital computer: 1- Digital computers have two states that are On and Off. 2- These computers are easy to use. 3- Their result is accurate and reliable. 4- They have high quality graphics. 5- Digital computers have high memory. Following are the examples of the digital computer: 1- Digital watches are examples of digital computers because the time which is displayed does not vary continuously but changes from one discrete to another.

2345-

Digital Digital Digital Digital

power station. Thermometer. Camera. Computer.

3- HYBRID COMPUTER: The computers that have qualities of both Analog and Digital computers are called Hybrid Computers. In many cases a Hybrid computer is an Analog computer controlled by a digital computer instead of human beings. They have the speed of analog computer and accuracy of digital computers. Output is given in both graphical and numeric form. Hybrid computers are used for special purpose. Following are the examples of Hybrid Computers. 1- In an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) Analog devices measure the patient heart functions, temperatures and others vital signs. These measurements are then converted into numbers and supplied to digital components that monitor the patient vital signs and signals of abnormal reading. 2- In cement factory a Hybrid computer is used. All calculations are performed by the digital computers and action like increase/decrease of material. Fuel and temperature are performed by Analog Computers TOPIC # 5 CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTERS: Normally computers are classified on the basis of size, speed, power, processing and price. Computers are manufactured in wide variety of size speed and capacities. In computer terminologies size refers to the amount of data that a computer can handle. Depending upon their speed and memory size. Computers are classified into the following categories: 1- Micro Computer 2- Mini Computer 3- Mainframe Computer

4- Super Computer. 1- MICRO COMPUTER: Micro computers are also called personal computer. It was introduced in 1970. Micro computers are used to be designed to be used by a single person at a time. It consists of one or more input devices, output devices, storage devices, memory and processor. Micro computers are small in size and are used in offices, at home and educational institutions. The major types of personal computers are Desktop Computers and Personal Computers. A- DESKTOP COMPUTER: Desktop computers are the most common type of personal computers. It is designed in a way that all its components fit on desk or table. Different types of desktop computers are as follows: i. ALL IN ONE COMPUTER:It is a less expensive computer. In this computer monitor and system unit are combine into a single device. ii. WORKSTATION COMPUTER:It was introduced in early 1980s, it is more expensive and powerful personal computer. It is used for calculations and graphical works. It is mostly used by architect, engineers and graphics artists. iii. SERVER COMPUTER: It is a computer that manages resources of a network. It controls access to the software and hardware of the network. It also provides centralized area to store data, information and software. 2- PORTABLE COMPUTER: It is a personal computer that can be carried from one place to another easily. Following are the two main types of Portable Computer. i. NOTEBOOK COMPUTER: It is also called LAPTOP COMPUTER. It is small in size and can be placed

on laps easily. Only one user can use them at a time. It used less power. It can be used by using batteries. A laptop computer can perform the same basic functions as a personal computer. Notebook computers can be brought anywhere easily because of its light weight ii. HANDHELD COMPUTERS: It is also known as PALMTOP COMPUTERS. It can easily fit on hand of user. It contains small screen and small keyboard. Handheld computer often use stylus as an input device to enter data. Some hand-held computers also support voice input. Hand-held has usually no disc drive. The programs and data are stored on chips in the system unit. Hand-held computer is not powerful as compare to desktop computers and notebook computers. Some examples of hand-held computers are as follows: a- PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANT: (PDA) PDA is used to organize personal information. It provides the facility of calendar, appointment books, address books, calculator and notepad. Some PDA provides word processing and spread sheet functions. b- WEB-ENABLED CELLULAR PHONE: It is also called smart phone. It is used to send and receive messages on the internet. It can also browse websites that are specially designed to be used on cellular phones.

3- MINI COMPUTER: Mini computer is large and more powerful computer than personal computer (PC).They are more expensive and have more processing speed than micro computers. Mini computers were introduced in 1960s. It is also called mid range server. Mini computer can serve upto four thousand connected user simultaneously. It is normally accessed by personal computer and terminal. They are used for monitoring details of a large business organization to analyze the result of experiments to control and maintain the production activity in a factory. Following are the examples of midrange server: -

PRIME 9755, IBM 360 etc. 4- MAINFRAME COMPUTER: Mainframe computer is large computer in terms of price, power and speed. It is more powerful than mini computers. It is specially designed to perform multiple intensive tasks for multiple users simultaneously. Mai-frame computers can serve upto fifty thousand users simultaneously. These computers can store large amount of data, informations and instructions. It often runs 24 hours a day. It can be serviced an upgraded while it is running. The user can access the main frame computer through personal and terminal. These computers are used by large business organizations like banks, big factories, Air blue, for scientific research and for weather forecasting. Examples of mainframe computers are given as follows: IBM 4381, NEC 810 and DEC 10 etc. 5- SUPER COMPUTER: The most powerful and the most fastest computer available is called Super Computer. It was first developed in 1970s. It is biggest in size and the most expensive in price than any other computer. It is used to prove complex scientific jobs. It has a very large storage capacity. It can process trillions of instruction in one second. The modern super computer consists of thousands of processors. The processors are connected in parallel processing. Super computers are mainly used in weapon designed, chemical and biological systems, mapping the surface of the planet and studying natural network of the brain. Examples of such computers are follows: CRAY-I, DEEP BLUE, ETA 10 and NEC etc. TOPIC # 6 HISTORY OF COMPUTERS: Computers were invented because necessity is the mother of invention. Man always searches for fast calculating device. It took a long time to invent the digital computer.

A brief history behind the invention of computer is as follows: i. ABACUS: The first computing device was abacus. It was developed in 600 BC. It is used to perform simple additions and subtractions. It consists of wooden beads. The beads could be moved easily. Calculations were performed by moving the beads. Abacus was invented by Chinese. ii. JOHN NAPIER BONE: Another manually calculating device was John Napier Bone. It was designed in early 17th century. It was a card board multiplication calculator. iii. BLAISE PASCAL: In 1642 a French Mathematician Blaise Pascal developed mechanical adding machine. It could only perform addition and subtraction/ multiplication was done by repeated addition and subtraction. iv. PUNCH BOARD: A French engineer JOSEPH developed punch board system for power looms. It was used to create specific waving pattern on cloths. Later on the system was used in computing devices. v. CHARLES BABAGE: In 1822 a Mathematician Charles invented different engines for mathematical calculations. In 1842 he developed analytical engine that was automatic. This engine could perform sixty additions per minute. vi. HERMAN HOLLERITH: In 1889 Herman applied idea of punch board system in computer. He used punch board card for input and output. vii. ATANASOFT: Atanasoft was a professor at Lowa University. He invented an electronic computer. He applied Boolean Algebra to computer circuitry. viii. GEORGE BOOLE: George Boole simplified binary system of algebra. His rule stated that any mathematical calculations can be stated simply as either true or false. ix. GOTTFIELD WILHEM VON LEIBNITZ: In 1694 German scientist developed a calculating machine. It was the first

calculator that put multiply and divides. x. MARK -I COMPUTER: - (1937-1944) It is also known as automatic sequence controlled calculator. It was first fully automatic calculating machine. It was designed by HOWARD A. AIKEN of HARWARD UNIVERSITY. It was very reliable but large in size. xi. ENIAC: - (1943-1946) ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator. It was invented by JOP EKERT and JOHN MAUCHLY in 1946. It was the first electronic computer. The ENIAC was very heavy and large in size. It consumes 140 Kilowatts of power and capable of doing 5000 addition per second. xii. EDVAC: - (1946-1952) EDVAC stands for Electronic Discreet Variable Automatic Calculator. It was developed by Dr. John Von Neuman. It could store instructions and data. xiii. UNIVAC: - (1951) UNIVAC stands for Universal Automatic Computer. It was first digital computer. It was used in industry and business. xiv. COMERCIAL COMPUTER: The first commercial computer was IBM 701. It was invented by IBM.

HARDWARE: DEFINITION OF HARDWARE: The physical parts of a computer system are called Hardware. Hardware can be seen or touch. INPUT DEVICES: A hard ware components used to enter data and instructions into the computer is called input device. Some of the most commonly used input

devices are Keyboard, Mouse, Scanner, Light Pen, Digital Camera, Joy Stick, Graphic Tablet, Touch Screen etc. 1- KEYBOARD: A key board contains keys of (characters, numbers, letters, punctuation marks and Special characters) pressing the relevant key tells the computer what to do or write. Alphabetic keys contains alphabets (A-Z, a-z), Special keys contains (Enter, Spacebar, Tab, Escape), Numeric keys contains (+,,*, /) (plus, minus, multiply and divide). Navigational keys are arrow sign. A keyboard also contains function keys from F1 - F12, which perform different functions according to the application being run. It also contains modifier keys like Ctrl, Alt, Del etc. 2- MOUSE: A mouse is a small, light weight input device. It is also called pointing device. A mouse has a special ball beneath it that allows you to roll it around on pad or on a desk. Its movement guides the cursor on the screen of the monitor. By clicking on the button of the mouse we give the computer direction what to do. There are other devices similar to the mouse that can be used in tits place. Some of the alternate devices to the mouse are as under: A) TRACK BALL: A track ball cane be used as an alternate to the mouse. This device has buttons similar to those on mouse. It has a large rotating ball on the top. The body of the track ball does not move. The ball is rolled with fingertips and the position of the cursor is controlled on the screen by rotating the ball. B) TOUCH PAD: A touch pad is small and flat surface over which the user moves his fingertip. The movement of the finger moves the cursor on the screen. It is also known as track pad. A touch pad also has one or more buttons work like mouse buttons. Touch pad is mostly used in notebook computers. C) POINTING STICK: It is a pressure sensitive device. It is similar to pencil eraser and exists between the keys of keyboard. The pointer on the screen moves when the

user pushes the pointer stick. 3- GRAPHICS TABLET: It consists of a small pad upon which user draws images with a stylus pen. It creates the same image on the screen as designer can produce. It is also called digitizer. 4- TOUCH SCREEN: It is a video display screen that receives input from the touch of finger. The screen is covered with plastic layer. There are invisible beams of infrared light behind the screen. The user enters data by touching icons or menus on the screen. Touch screen is well suited for simple application like Automated Teller Machine (ATM). 5- DIGITAL SCANNER: It is an input device. It is used to read picture and other printed materials placed on its glass surface. It reads the picture or printed material and translates it in digital form. Digital scanner uses laser technology to read the images. 6- DIGITAL CAMERA: It records photographs in the form of digital signals. These photographs can be directly stored into the computer memory. No chemical film is used in it. 7- LIGHT PEN: A light pen is a handheld pen like device. It is light sensitive stylus. It is connected by a wire in the computer. It has a device at the tip that emits light. The pen sends the information to the computer when user touches the pen on certain areas of a specially designed screen. Light pen is usually used by engineers and graphic designers. 8- JOY-STICK: A joystick consists of a based and a stick. The stick can be moved in any direction to move an object around the computer screen. A joystick can perform a similar function to a mouse or a track-ball. The most common use of a joystick is for playing computer games. 9- PEN-BASED COMPUTER: -

Pen-based system is used to enter hand writing in computer by using pen like stylus instead of keyboard. The user writes the words and symbols on the screen. The system used handwriting recognition software that translates handwriting characters into useable and readable data. Pen based systems are commonly used to input signature and messages that are stored and transmitted as a graphical image. OUTPUT DEVICES: A hardware components use to display information to the user is called output device. Some of the commonly used output devices are monitor, printer & speakers. 1- MONITOR: It looks like a television (TV). The monitor allows us to see what you and the computer are doing together. Output displayed by the monitor is called soft copy output. Some of the features of a monitor are as follows: FEATURES OF DISPLAY SCREEN: A- SIZE: Monitors are available in different sizes. The standard monitor for the Personal computer (PC) is in the size of 1316 (inches). B- COLOUR: The display screen can be either monochrome or colour. The colour display screen can display output in multiple colours. The colour display screen monitors are also called RGB (Red, Green and Blue). The RGB screen can create 256 colours and thousands of their variations. The monochrome display screen displays output in single colour. Monochrome display screen display image in a single colour usually white, green, blue, red or amber colour. However monochrome display screen can display different shades of the same colour. C- RESOLUTION:All characters and images on the screen made of pixels and dots. Pixels are the dots or picture elements that form images on the monitor. Resolution of the monitor is the number of pixels on the screen. It is the image

sharpness of a display screen. High number of pixels means sharper image.

D- VIDEO DISPLAY ADAPTER/ GRAPHIC ADAPTER (VGA): A display screen must have a video display adapter attached with a computer to display graphics. It is also called video graphic card (VGA). It is a circuit board that determines the following things: FEATURES: i. Resolution. ii. Number of colours. iii. Speed with which images are displayed on the screen. iv. Refresh rate. REFRESH RATE: The refresh rate is the speed with which a monitor redraws the image on the screen. It is also known as vertical scan rate or vertical frequency. It is measured in Hertz. It indicates the number of times the screen is refreshed in one second. The image on the screen appears more solid if the refresh rate is high. The refresh rate should be at least 72 Hertz. Common monitors have refresh rate between 7585 Hertz. 2- DOTPITCH: The distance between each pixel of a monitor is called dot pitch. It is also called pixel pitch. The distance between each pixel is measured in millimeters. Many monitors have a dot pitch of 0.260.28mm. The smaller dot pitch means that there is less space between each pixel which results in sharper image display. TYPES OF DISPLAY SCREEN: A- CRT SCREEN: It is the most commonly used type of display screen. It looks like a T.V. It can display text as well as graphics. WORKING OF CRT MONITOR: It uses a cathode ray tube (CRT). CRT tube creates an image on the screen by an electronic beam. CRT consists of one or more guns that fire a beam

of electrons inside the screen. The screen is coated with very tiny phosphorous dots from inside. CRT in colour monitors consists of three guns. These guns generate red, green and blue (RGB) colours. The other colours are generated with the combination of these three colours. B- FLAT PANEL MONITOR: Laptop PC use flat panel monitor. These monitors take less space. Flat panel monitor use variety of technologies. The most common technology is called Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). LCD monitors use much less power than the CRT monitor. These monitors are available in different sizes such as 14 inch, 15 inch & 17 inch. LCD monitors creates image with a special tube of liquid crystals that is normally transparent but becomes solid when charged with electricity. LCDs monitors are active matrix or passive matrix. In active matrix display each pixel on screen is controlled by its own transistor. It is also called thin film transistor (TFT). It is much brighter then passive screens. It also requires more power. In Passive matrix display two transistors control a whole row or column of pixels each at the same time. It is also called dual scan monitor. It is less expensive and uses less power than active monitor display. C- TOUCH SCREEN MONITORS: These are used for input as well as output. A touch screen is a special type of visual display unit (VDU). It has a grid of light beams or fine wires on the screen. it allows the user to interact with the computer by touch of a finger rather than typing on the keyboard or moving the mouse. The users enter data by touching icons or menus displayed on the screen. Touch screen is well suited for simple application like Automated Teller Machine (ATM). 2- SPEAKER & HEADPHONE: A type of output produce in the form of sound, voice or music is known as audio output. Speakers are headphones are two commonly used output devices for this type of output.

3- PRINTER: A printer is an output device that prints characters, symbols and graphics on the paper. The printed output is called Hard Copy Output. Print resolution is measured in dot per inch (dpi). Different types of printers are as follows: i. IMPACT PRINTER: An impact printer prints on the paper with the strike of hammer or pins on the ribbon. These printers work like type writers. Following are the main types of impact printers: A- DOT-MATRIX PRINTER: Dot matrix printer is a character printer. It prints one character at a time. The printing pins of a dot matrix printer are arranged on matrix. The number of pins in a matrix varies from 9*7 24*9 (nine multiply seven to twenty four multiply 9). The pins in the printer are pressed forward by magnetic device and the required printer is printed. Dot-matrix printer also prints in colour other than black by using colour ribbon. Dot matrix printer also used to print characters of other languages like Urdu, Arabic and Chinese etc. B- DAISY WHEEL PRINTER: It is a character printer. It is very much like a modern electronic typewriter. The printing speed of this printer is in the range of 10 to 100 characters per second. Daisy wheel printer uses a printing wheel known as daisy wheel. Each petal of daisy wheel has on it a fully formed character at its end. A motor rotates the wheel when the desired character reaches the printing position on the paper a hammer strikes on the desired petal against the ribbon and the character is printed on the paper. C- LINE PRINTER: Line printers are impact printer. These are of two types: DRUM PRINTER: Drum printer is an impact ink printer. It consists of a cylindrical drum that has a complete set of characters around the drum in lines. It speed ranges

from 3002500 per minute. CHAIN PRINTER: It is another type of line printer. It uses a chain of printable characters wrapped around two pulleys. The chain rotates with very high speed to print the output or to fit the character of one line on the printer. Its speed ranges from 3002500 lines per minute. ii. NON-IMPACT PRINTER: Non impact printers use thermal electro static, laser and inkjet technologies for printing. These printers are fast and produce high quality output as compare to impact printers. Some of the non impact printers are described below: LASER PRINTER: These are non impact printer. It is also called page printer because it prints one page at a time. A laser printing creates image on the paper by laser beam s. laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Infact laser printer use the same technique to create image on the paper as photocopier do. A full page of output is assembled in the printer buffer and its image is copied on the paper. Laser printers have very high speed for printing which ranges from 450 pages per minute. Colour laser printers are also available to print text and graphics in different colours. INK-JET PRINTER: An ink-jet printer is a non-impact printer. It creates output on the paper by a spray of ink from a fine spray jet. An electronic field controls the spraying jet that forms characters or graph on the paper. When ink is sprayed on the paper it absorbs quickly. It is a character printer and prints one character at a time. Its quality is better than a dot-matrix printer. The printing speed is upto 250 characters per second. Colour ink-jet printers are also available. THERMAL PRINTER: -

Thermal technology uses heat technology to transfer ink on the paper. Thermal printer is the best colour printer currently available it is also very expensive. It was used in scientific labs to record data. Now this printer is widely used to produce very high quality colour art work and text. 4- PLOTTER: A plotter is an output device that is used to produce quality image graphics in a variety of colours. A plotter works by drawing lines on the paper using pens held in mechanical arm. Different types of plotters are as follows: i. FLAT BED PRLLOTER: Flat bed plotters are used to plot or draw images. It contains pens for drawing images. The plotter is placed on table like surface. Software instructs the pen to move down on the paper. The pens then move to create image on the paper. Most flat bed plotters have one or more pens of different colours and width. ii. DRUM PRLLOTER: Drum plotter use a rotating drum or cylinder. The drawing pens are mounted on the drum. The pens are moved to the right and left as the drum rotates. This movement creates the desired image. The advantage of drum plotter is that the length of the plot is almost unlimited. The roll paper is used to draw out very lengthy images. The width of the image depends on the width of the drum. 5- DATA PROJECTOR: Data projector is an output device that projects the output of computer screen onto a large screen. The output projected by the data projector can be viewed by a number of people very clearly. Different types of data projector are as follows: i. LCD PROJECTOR: LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. LCD projector uses liquid crystal display technology. It is attached to the computer directly. It uses its own

light source to display the information. ii. DLP PROJECTOR: DLP stands for Digital Light Processing. DLP projector uses tiny mirrors to reflect light. It produces brighter and sharper image then LCD projector.

SYSTEM UNIT: 1. CPU: CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. It is the brain of the computer. It is also called processor. A computer cannot work without CPU. All computers must have central; processing unit. CPU is located on the motherboard / main-board. CPU performs all operations on data according to the given instructions and tells other parts of computer what to do. Most of the work consists of calculations and data transfers. CPU consists of two main units: i. ARITHMETIC LOGIC UNIT: ALU is the part of CPU. Actual execution of instructions takes place in this part. All arithmetic and logical operations are performed in ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit). It consists of two units: A- ARITHMETIC UNIT: Arithmetic unit of ALU performs basic arithmetic functions such as addition, multiplication, subtraction and division (+, --, *, /) B- LOGIC UNIT: Logic unit of ALU performs logical operations like comparing two data items to find which data item is greater than, equal to or less than the other. ii. CONTROL UNIT: Control unit is an important part of CPU. It acts like a supervisor of the computer. It does not execute program instructions by itself. It controls and coordinates all the activities of computer system. Control unit also provides clock pulses that are used to regulate and control all operations in computer system. 2. MEMORY: -

A component in the computer used for storing instructions and data is called memory. Different types of memory are as follows: i. RAM: RAM stands for Random Access Memory. It is also called Direct Access Memory. Random Access means that each individual byte in the entire memory can be accessed directly. RAM is used to store data and instructions temperately. A program must be located into RAM before execution. RAM is a volatile memory. It means that its contents are lost when the power is turned off. RAM is a read/write memory. CPU can read data from RAM and writes data to RAM. RAM is also called Main Memory or Primary Memory. A bigger RAM size provides larger amount of space for processing. So the processing speed is increased. RAM is built by using two different techniques. A- DRAM: DRAM stands for Dynamic Random Access Memory. DRAM requires an electric current to maintain its electrical state. The electrical charge of DRAM decreases with time that may result loss of data. DRAM is reached or refreshed again and again to maintain its electrical state for storing data. The processor cannot access the data of DRAM when it is being refreshed. That is why it is slow. B- SRAM: SRAM stands for Static Random Access Memory. It can store data without any need of frequent recharging. CPU does not wait to access data from SRAM during processing. That is why it is faster than DRAM. It utilizes less power than DRAM. SRAM is more expensive. ii. ROM: ROM stands for Read only Memory. The instructions in ROM prepare the computer for use. These instructions can only be read and cannot be changed or deleted. It is not possible to write new informations and instructions into the ROM. ROM stores data and instructions permanently. When the power is switched off the instructions stored in RAM are not lost. Therefore ROM is called non-volatile Memory. The information in Ram is

stored by the manufacturer. ROM contains a small set of instructions called ROM BIOS. BIOS stands for Basic Input output System. These instructions tell the computer how to access hard disk, find operating system and lead it in RAM. Different types of ROM are as follows: A- PROM: PROM stands for Programmable Read only Memory. This form of ROM is initially blank. The user or manufacturer can write data and programs on it using special devices. The user can write data and instructions on it only once. If there is any error in writing the instructions, the error cannot be removed from PROM. The chip becomes un-useable. B- EPROM: EPROM stands for Eraseable Programmable Read only Memory. This form of ROM is initially blank. The user or manufacturer can write data and programs on it using special devices. The data and programs written on it can be erased with special devices using ultra violet rays. The user then can write new programs on it. C- EEPROM: EEPROM stands for Electronically Eraseable Programmable Read only Memory. In this memory user can erase and write instructions with the help of electrical pulse. If there is any error in writing the instructions user can erase the contents electronically. The contents of EEPROM can be modified easily. iii. CACHE MEMORY: A cache is a small and very fast memory. It is designed to speed up the transfer of data and instructions. It is located inside or close to CPU. It is faster than RAM. The data and instructions that are most recently or most frequently use by the CPU are stored in cache. The data and instructions are retrieved from RAM when CPU uses them for the first time. A copy of that data or instructions is stored in cache. The next time the CPU need that data or instruction, it first looks in cache. If the required data is found there it is retrieved from cache memory instead of main memory. It speeds

up the working of CPU. iv. FLASH MEMORY: Flash Memory is a type of Non-volatile Memory. It can be erased electronically like EEPROM. Most computer use it to store startup instructions as it allows the computer to update its contents easily. Flash memory chip also store data and programs on mobile computers and other devices such as smart phones, portable media player, printers and digital Camera etc. v. CMOS: CMOS stands for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. It stores configuration information of computer. The information includes the type of disc drivers, keyboard, monitor, current date and time and other startup information required during booting process. CMOS chip uses battery power to retain its information even the computer is turned off. The information in CMOS chip can be changed. STORAGE DEVICES: Storage devices are used to store data and programs permanently. These devices have the capacity of strong large amount of data and programs. Some examples of storage devices are Hard Disk, Floppy Disk and CD Rom etc. Two important functions of storage devices are reading and writing. The process of copying data, instructions or information from storage media to memory is called reading. The process of copying data, instructions or information from memory to a storage media is called writing. TYPES OF STORAGE DEVICES: 1- MAGNETIC TAPE: Magnetic tape is a flexible plastic tape coated with magnetic material. It is widely used when large amount of data is to be processed sequentially. An advantage of magnetic tape is that it is very cheap and economical storage media. Its major disadvantage is that it is very slow and it is only sequential.

2- MAGNETIC DISK: Magnetic disk is the most widely used storage media. A magnetic disk is thin, circular metal plate or platter coated with magnetic material. Information can be recorded on or read from magnetic surface. A disk must be formatted before it can be used. The formatting process prepares the disk so that it can store data. Formatting process creates tracks and sectors on the disk. Each track on a disk is divided into sectors. A sector is the smallest physical storage unit on a disk. Its size is normally 512 Bytes. Magnetic disk is a Random Access Storage Media. It means that any part of the disk is directly accessable. Following are the types of magnetic disk. TYPES OF MAGNETIC DISK: A- FLOPPY DISK: Floppy Disk is also called Diskette. It consists of a thin plastic disk coated with magnetic material. The disk is enclosed in plastic jacket. It was introduced by IBM in early 1970s. It is a portable storage media and can be removed from one computer and inserted into another computer easily. Data access speed of floppy disk is slower than hard disk. The standard size of floppy disk sis 3.5 inch. The data storage capacity of floppy disk is 1.44 MB. The data stored on floppy disk can be read with floppy disk drive. The read/write hed in floppy disk drive is used to read and write data on floppy disk. B- HARD DISK: Hard Disk is type of magnetic disk. It is also called Fixed Disk because it is fixed in the system unit. A hard disk consists of several circular disks called platters sealed inside a container. The container contains a motor to rotate the disk. It also contains an access arm and read/write head to read and write data. The platters are used to store data. A platter in a hard disk is coated with magnetic material. C- ZIP DISK: Zip disk is a portable disk. It has more storage capacity than floppy disk. Its storage capacity is upto 1000 MB. Zip disk can be read/written by using Zip drive. It is used for taking the backup of large data.

D- SUPER DISK: Super disk is produced by IMATION. Its capacity is 120 MB. Super disk drive can also read the standard 1.44 MB floppy disk. Zip drive cannot read standard 1.44 MB floppy Disk. E- HiFD DISK: HiFd disk is produced by SONY CORPORATION. Its capacity is 200 MB. HiFD disk drive can also read standard 1.44 MB Floppy Disk.

3- OPTICAL DISK: Optical disk uses laser technology to read and write data. Laser stands for light amplification through stimulated emission of radiation. Laser beam writes on the surface by creating small pits (hole) in the disks. Optical drive reads data by focusing laser beam on the surface of the disk. A laser detects the presence of the pit indicates 1 and absence of pit indicates 0. Laser beam converts these pits into digital form. Different categories of laser disks are as follows: i. CD: CD stands for Compact Disk. It is the most widely used media today. A single CD can store from 650 MB (Mega Byte) to 1 GB (Giga Byte) of data. The contents of CD can be read by CD drive. The rotational speed of CD drive indicates the speed of transferring data from CD. For example a 32x CD drive can transfer 4.8 MB of data per second. Different types of CDs are as follows: a) CD-ROM : CD-ROM stands for compact disk read only memory. The data stored on CD-Rom can only be read. It cannot be deleted or changed. CD-ROM is a portable storage device. It can store about 700 MB of data. b) CD-R: CD-R stands for Compact Disk Recordable. The user can write data on CDR only once but can read it many times. The data written on CD-R cannot be erased. The process of putting information CD is called burning the CD. CD-R is also known as WORM (Write Once Read Many).

c) CD-RW: CD-RW stands for Compact Disk Rewriteable. It is also known as erasable optical disk. The user can write data on CD-RW many times by deleting the existing contents. The most common type of erasable and rewriteable optical disk is Magneto Optical Disk (MOD). It uses the technologies of both magnetic and optical disk. ii. DVD: DVD stands for Digital Video Disk or Digital Versatile Disk. It uses a laser beam with short wave length. The short wave length reads smaller holes (pits) on the disk. Data storage capacity of the disk increased if the pit size is small. So the data storage capacity of DVD-Rom is much greater than CD-ROM. DVD-Rom can store upto 17 GB of data. a) DVD-R: DVD-R stands for Digital Video Disk Recordable. It is similar to CD-R disks. The user can write data on DVD-R only once but can read it many times. The data written on DVD-R cannot be erased / deleted. b) DVD-RW: DBD-RW stands for Digital Video Disk Re-writeable. The user can write data on DVD-RW many times by erasing the existing contents. SOLID STATE STORAGE DEVICES: Solid state storage devices or flash memory devices are unique among all storage devices. These devices do not use disks or tape and have no moving part. These devices are neither magnetic nor optical. It realizes on integrated circuit to store data. Some solid state storage devices are nonvolatile and volatile. Solid state storage devices are portable and provide fast access to data. They use very little power. These devices are very useful to store data on mobile devices. It is widely used in consumer devices such as digital camera, MP3 player, notebook computers, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) and Cell phones etc. 1) USB FLASH DRIVE: USB flash drive is also known as Pen Drive. It provides much greater

storage capacity than Floppy Disk or Zip Disk. A flash drive can store 256 MB to 64 GB of data. It can be plugged into any USB port. It is small and light weight storage device. USB flash drive requires no card reader. It is used to transfer documents, pictures, music and video files from one computer to another. 2) FLASH MEMORY CARDS: Flash memory cards are widely used in PDAs, Digital Camera, Cell Phones and notebook computers etc. Generally these cards are not interchangeable. Different types of flash memory cards are as follows: a) COMPACT FLASH: Compact flash size is about the size of match box. It provides high storage capacities and high access speed. It includes a built-in-controller to read and write data. It is very useful for use with digital camera that requires Mega Byte for each photo. It comes in various capacities of 512 MB and 1 GB. b) MULTIMEDIA CARD: It provides solid state storage in a package about the size of postage stamp. It was initially used in mobile phones and pagers. It is now used with digital camera and MP3 Player. It includes a built-in-controller. c) SECURE DIGITAL CARD: Secure digital card is based on multimedia card technology. It provides fast data transfer. It also includes cryptographic security protection for copy righted data or music. d) SMART MEDIA CARD: Smart media card was originally called solid state floppy disk card as it looks a floppy disk. It does not include a built-in-controller. It means that smart media reader manages read / write process. e) XD PICTURE CARD: It is a flash memory card that looks like a rectangular piece of plastic. It is slightly larger than a peny with one edged curve. The capacity of XD

picture card is from 16 MB to expected 8 GB. f) MEMORY STICK MEDIA: It is an elongated flash memory card about the width of peny developed by SONY. Memory stick media comes in capacities from 4 MB to 1 GB. FACTORS AFFECTING PROCESSOR SPEED: Following are the important factors that affect the processing speed of the computer. 1) REGISTER: Register is a small high speed memory inside a CPU. CPU contains a number of registers. Register stores data and information while the CPU processes them. The size of register determines the amount of data which the computer can work at one time. The size of register is in Bytes. A register can be of one, two, four or eight bytes. Computer with 32 Bit register means the CPU can process four bytes of data at one time. Bigger size of register increases the performance of computer. 2) RAM (RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY): Amount of RAM directly affect the processing speed of the computer. Bigger amount of RAM means more programs instructions and data can be store in memory. If a computer does not have enough memory to run a program, it must move data between the RAM and Hard Disk frequently. This process is called swapping, that can greatly slow a computer performance. 3) SYSTEM CLOCK: System Clock is an electronic component. It generates electric signals at a fast speed. The time required to execute a single instruction is called clock speed. Clock speed tells us show much time a CPU takes to execute each instruction. CPU takes from 1 6 clock takes to execute one instruction. Clock speed is measures as cycle per second. Its unit is Hertz (Htz). If a computer has a clock speed of 300 MHz, its system clock takes 300 Millions times every second. A faster clock can execute more instructions each

time. 4) BUS: A bus is a path between the components of a computer. Data and instructions travels along these paths. The bus width determines how many bits can be transmitted between the CPU and other devices. Bus width also affects the performance of computer. A higher bus width means that the bus can carry more data. It increases the performance of computer. 5) CACHE MEMORY: A cache is high speed memory that holds the most recent data and instructions that have been loaded by the CPU. It is designed to speed up the transfer of data and instructions. Cache is located directly on the CPU or between the CPU and RAM. Cache is faster than RAM, the data and instructions and retrieved from RAM when CPU uses them for the first time. A copy of that data or instructions is stored in cache. The next time the CPU needs that data it first looks in cache if the required data is found there it is required from cache instead of main memory. It speeds up the working of CPU. COMPUTER BUSES: A bus consists of set of parallel lines. It is used to transfer data between different components of the computer. One line of bus can transfer one bit at a time. The capacity of computer depends on the number of lines on it. A bus with 16 lines can carry 16 bits or 2 bytes of data. A bus with 32 lines can carry 32 bits or 4 bytes of data. The amount of data that a bus can carry at one time is called bus width. Different types of buses are as follows: 1) SYSTEM BUS: System bus is used to connect the main components of a computer such as CPU and main memory. System buses are part of motherboard / main board. Different types of system buses are as follows: a) DATA BUS: Data bus is the most common type of bus. It is used to transfer data

between different components of computer. The number of lines in data bus affects the speed of data transfer between components. The data bus consists of 8, 16, 32 or 64 lines. A 64 lines data can transfer 64 bits of data at one time. Data bus lines are bi-directional. b) ADDRESS BUS: Many components are connected with one another trough buses. Each component is assigned a unique ID. This ID is called the address of that component. If a component wants to communicate with another component, it uses address bus to specify the address of that component. The address bus is uni-diretional. It can carry information only in one direction. It carries address of memory location from micro-processor to the main memory. c) CONTROL BUS: Control bus is used to transmit different command signals from one component to another component. Suppose CPU wants to communicate from main memory, it will use control bus to send the memory read command to the main memory of the computer. The control bus is also used to transmit control signals like Acknowledgment Signals (ACKS). d) EXPANSION BUS: Expansion bus is a type of computer bus that is used to connect CPU with peripheral devices such as keyboard, mouse, printer and camera etc. TERMINALS: Terminal is a device that performs input and output. It consists of a monitor, keyboard and a video card. 1) DUMB TERMIANAL: It has no processing power and cannot function as a independent device. It can enter and transmit data to a computer to which it is connected. Dumb terminal is normally connected to a host computer. Host computer performs the processing and then sends the output back to the dumb terminal. 2) INTELLIGENT TERMINAL: It also contains memory and a processor to perform some functions

independent of the host computer. It is also called programmable terminal. 3) SERIAL PURPOSE TERMINAL: It performs specific tasks and for use in a particular industry. Two examples are point of sale terminal and Automated Teller machine (ATM). a) POINT OF SALE TERMINAL: It is used to record purchase at the point where the consumer purchases a product or service. It is used in grocery store etc. b) AUTOMATED TELLER MACHINE (ATM): It is self service banking machine. It connects to a host computer through a network. The user inserts a plastic bank card with a magnetic strip into the ATM and enters the password. The password is also called Personal Identification Number (PIN). It is used to access bank account. PORTS: A port is an interface or pint of attachment. It is used to connect peripheral devices such as printer, keyboard or mouse etc. all peripheral device communicates with the computer using port. The port connectors are attached to motherboard. Each type of port operates at a certain speed. The speed is measured in kilobits per second (KBS). Different types of ports are as follows: 1) SERIAL PORT: A type of port that that transmits 1 bit at a time is called serial port. It is usually used to connect devices that do not require fast data transmission like keyboard and mouse etc. Serial port is often referred to as communication (COM) port. It is an external port on the back of computer. It is attached directly to motherboard. The speed of serial port is 115 Kilo Bits per Second (KBS). 2) PARALLEL PORT: A type of port that transmits many bits at a time is called parallel port. It is much faster than a serial port. It is usually used to connect devices that require fast data transmission like printer and scanner etc. Parallel ports are often referred to as line printer (LPT) port. The speed of parallel port is 12 Mega Byte per Second (MBPS).

3) USB PORT: USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. It is a plug and play hardware interface. It is used to connect devices keyboard, joystick, scanner and printer etc. It has a maximum bandwidth of 12 MB (Mega Bits) per second. It can connect upto 127 devices.