Assignment # 01

Assignment Topic: Computer Memory & its Types

`Subject: Computer Science

Submitted by: Nimra Rafi

Roll Number: 190316

Discipline: BS-2nd, Psychology

Submitted to: Sir Khalil Ur Rahman

Institution: Psychology Department, Islamia College University

Peshawar
Assignment Topic: Computer Memory & its Types

What is a computer?

 Computer:
A computer is an electronic device, operating under the control of instructions
stored in its own memory that can accept data (input), process the data according to
specified rules, produce information (output), and store the information for future use.
Functionalities of a computer:
Any digital computer carries out five functions in gross terms:
i. Takes data as input.
ii. Store the data /instructions in its memory and use them when required.
iii. Processes the data and converts it into useful information.
iv. Generates the output data.
v. Controls all the above the four functions.

 Computer Components:
Any kind of computers consists of;
a. hardware
b. software
 Hardware: Computer hardware is the collection of physical elements that constitutes a
computer system. Computer hardware refers to the physical parts or components of a
computer such as the monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer data storage, hard drive disk,
system unit (graphic cards, sound cards, memory, motherboard and chips), etc. all of which are
physical objects that can be touched.

 Input Devices:
Input device is any peripheral (piece of computer hardware equipment to provide data
and control signals to an information processing system such as a computer or other
information appliance. Input device Translate data from form that humans understand to
one that the computer can work with. Most common are keyboard and mouse.

 Central Processing Unit (CPU):

A CPU is brain of a computer. It is responsible for all functions and processes.
Regarding computing power, the CPU is the most important element of a computer
system. The CPU is comprised of three main parts.
 Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU): It executes all arithmetic and logical operations.
Arithmetic calculations like as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Logical
operation like compare numbers, letters, or special characters.
  Control Unit (CU):
It controls and co-ordinates computer components.
1. Read the code for the next instructions to be executed.
2. Increment the program counter so it points to the next instruction.
3. Read whatever data the instruction requires from cells in memory.
4. Provide the necessary data to an ALU or register.
5. If the instruction requires an ALU or specialized hardware to complete, instruct the
hardware to perform the requested operation.
 Registers:
It stores the data that is to be executed next, "very fast storage area".
 Computer memory:
Memory is internal storage areas in the computer system. The term memory identifies
data storage that comes in the form of chips, and the word storage is used
for memory that exists on tapes or disks. You can think of main memory as an array of
boxes, each of which can hold a single byte of information.

 Primary Memory:

Primary memory is the only type of memory which is directly accessed by the CPU. The CPU
continuously reads instructions stored in the primary memory and executes them. Any data that
has to be operated by the CPU is also stored. The information is transferred to various locations
through the BUS.
TYPES:

Primary memories are of two types, they are:

1. RAM
2. ROM
i. RAM:
It stands for Random Access Memory. Here data can be stored temporarily, so this type of
memory is called as temporary or volatile memory because when power fails the data from
RAM will be erased. The information stored in the RAM is basically loaded from computer’s
disk and includes information related to thr operating system and applications that are
currently executed by the processor. RAM is considered random access because any memory
cell can be directly accessed if its address is known. RAM is of distinct types like SRAM,
DRAM, VRAM.
ii. ROM:
It stands for Read Only Memory. In this, the data will be furnished by the manufacturers
regarding the system, so this information can simply be read by the user but cannot add
new data or it cannot be modified.
TYPES:
ROMs are of distinct types:
 PROM—Programmable Read Only Memory
 EPROM—Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
 EEPROM—Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
 Secondary Memory:
Secondary memory or auxiliary memory consists of slower and less expensive device that
communicates indirectly with CPU via main memory. The secondary memory stores the data and
keeps it even when the power fails. It is used to store or save large data or programs or other
information.
TYPES:
The secondary storage devices are explained below:
1. Magnetic disks
2. Magnetic tape
 3. Optical disk
4. USB flash drive
5. Mass storage device

i. Magnetic Disks:
Magnetic disks are made of rigid metals or synthetic plastic material. The disk platter is
coated on both the surfaces with magnetic material and both the surfaces can be used for
storage. The magnetic disk furnishes direct access and is for both small and large
computer systems. The magnetic disk furnishes direct access and is for both small and
large computer systems.
TYPES:
The magnetic disk comes in two forms:
 Floppy disks
 Hard disks
ii. Magnetic tape:
Magnetic tape is serial access storage medium and it can store a large volume of data at
low costs. The conventional magnetic tape is in reel of up to 3600 feet made of Mylar
plastic tape. The tape is one-half inch in width and is coated with magnetic material on
one side. The reel of tape is loaded on a magnetic tape drive unit. During any read/write
operation, the tape is moved from one spool to another in the same way as in the
audiocassette tape recorder. The magnetic tape is densely packed with magnetic spots in
frames across its width.
iii. Optical drives:
Optical drives are a storage medium from which data is read and to which it is written by
lasers. Optical disks can store much more data up to 6GB. Optical store devices are the
most widely used and reliable storage devices.
TYPES:
The most widely used type of optical storage devices are explained below:
 CD-ROM
 DVD-ROM
 CD-RECORDABLE
  CD-REWRITABLE
 PHOTO-CD

iv. USB flash drives:

USB flash drives are removable, rewritable and are physically much smaller drives,
which have the weight of less than 30g. In the year of 2010, the storage capacity of the
USB flash drives was a large as 256GB. Such devices are a good substitute for floppy
disks and CD-ROMs as they are smaller, faster, have thousands of times mores capacity,
and are more durable and reliable. Until 2005, most desktop and laptop computers had
floppy disk drives, but nowadays floppy disk drives have been abandoned in favor of
USB ports. The USB connector is often protected inside a removable cap, although it is
not likely to be damaged if unprotected. USB flash drives draw power from the computer
through external USB connection. The most widely used USB flash drives are the
memory cards.

v. Mass storage devices:

Mass storage devices refer to the saving of the huge data in a persistent manner. Mass
storage machines can store up to several trillion bytes of data and hence are used to store
or save large databases, such as the information of customers of a big retail chain and
library transactions of students in college.
TYPES:
Some of the commonly used storage devices are explained below:
 Disk array
 Automated tape
 CD-ROM jukebox
Output devices:
An output device is any piece of computer hardware equipment used to communicate the
results of data processing carried out by an information processing system (such as a
computer) which converts the electronically generated information into human readable
form.
 Software:
Software is a generic term for organized collections of computer data and instructions,
often broken into two major categories: system software that provides the basic non task-
specific functions of the computer, and application software which is used by users to
accomplish specific tasks.
Software Types:
a. System software:
System software is responsible for controlling, integrating, and managing the
individual hardware components of a computer system so that other software and
the users of the system see it as a functional unit without having to be concerned
with the low-level details such as transferring data from memory to disk, or
rendering text onto a display. Generally, system software consists of an operating
system and some fundamental utilities such as disk formatters, file managers,
display managers, text editors, user authentication (login) and management tools,
and networking and device control software.
b. Application software:
Application software is used to accomplish specific tasks other than just running
the computer system. Application software may consist of a single program, such
as an image viewer; a small collection of programs (often called a software
package) that work closely together to accomplish a task, such as a spreadsheet
or text processing system; a larger collection (often called a software suite) of
related but independent programs and packages that have a common user
interface or shared data format, such as Microsoft Office, which consists of
closely integrated word processor, spread sheet, database, etc.; or a software
system, such as a database management system, which is a collection of
fundamental programs that may provide some service to a variety of other
independent applications.
Comparison Application Software and System Software:
System Software Application Software
Computer software or Application software, also
just software is a general known as an application or
term primarily used for an "app", is computer
digitally stored data such software designed to help
as computer programs the user to perform
and other kinds of specific tasks
information read and
written by computers.
App comes under
computer software
though it has a wide
scope now.
Example: 1) Microsoft Windows 1) Opera (Web Browser)
2) Linux 2) Microsoft Word (Word
3) Unix Processing)
4) Mac OSX 3)Microsoft Excel
5) DOS (Spreadsheet software)
4)MySQL(Database
Software)
5) Microsoft PowerPoint
(Presentation Software)
6)Adobe Photoshop
(Graphics Software)
Interaction: Generally, users do not Users always interact with
interact with system application software while
software as it works in doing different activities.
the background.
Dependency: System software can run Application software
independently of the cannot run without the
application software. presence of the system
software.