Block Diagram

 it accepts data or instructions from input unit

 it stores data,
 it processes data as required by the user,
 it gives results in the form of output, and
 it controls all internal operations of a computer.

FUNCTIONAL UNITS

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

Logic Unit: After entering data through input device, it is stored in the primary memory. Arithmetic
Logical Unit performs the processing of the data and instructions. The major operations performed by
the ALU arithmetic calculation and logical comparisons.
Control Unit (CU)
Control Unit, acts like the supervisor; monitoring the processing and functions performed in a proper
order. Control Unit is responsible for coordinating various operations using time signal. It determines
the sequence of instructions to execute the program.
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
The ALU and CU together referred as the central processing unit of a computer system. CPU acts like a
brain of computer system, which takes all major decisions, makes calculations and directs different
parts of the computer functions by activating and controlling the operations.

General Features of Computer

Speed : Solves the complex computation in millisecond or nanosecond.
Accuracy : Based on the input it gives result accurately.
Storage: Stores enormous amount of data in different formats
Diligence : Works for hours without any break or error.
Versatility : Performs completely different types of tasks at the same time.

Types of Computer

Based on Principles of Operation

Analog Computers: Works on continuous range of values. Results are in approximate value as they
deal with variables such as voltage, pressure, temperature, speed, etc.
 Digital Computers: Operates on digital data such as numbers, uses binary number system in which
there are only two digits 0 and 1 or input and output signal. Results are accurate and faster. Used in
the field of design, research and data processing. Further classification of Digital computer:
 General Purpose Computer used for any type of application or program.
 Special Purpose Computer built for a specific application or program.
 Hybrid Computers combines the features of analog and digital computers. Mostly used for
automatic operations of complicated physical processes and machines.

Based on Configuration
Super Computers: Are the best in terms of processing capacity and are the most expensive in terms
of value. These can process billions of instructions per second. Used for applications that require
intensive numerical computations such as stock analysis, weather forecasting etc.
Mainframe Computers Can also process data at very high speeds hundreds of million instructions per
second and they are also relatively expensive. They are used in banking, airlines and railways, etc. for
their applications.
Mini Computers Are lower to mainframe computers in terms of speed and storage capacity. They are
less expensive than mainframe computers.
Micro Computers The invention of microprocessor (single chip CPU) gave birth to the much cheaper
microcomputers. Further classified as:
 Desktop Computers are usually easier to use and more affordable
 Laptop Computers are portable computers also known as notebook. Operate on batteries and
hence are very convenient to use.
 Handheld Computers (PDAs) Use a pen like stylus and accept handwritten input directly on the
screen. Within the network range, it works on wireless technology.

Input and Output Units

Input Devices
Keyboard: Input device to enter data with letters, numbers, symbols, and special function keys.
Mouse: A hand-operated electronic pointing device that controls the cursor on computer screen as
it moves around on a pad.
Scanner: Input device, which converts text, pictures, or photos into digital form of data.
Digital camera: Captures photographs or videos as a digital file and uploaded directly to a
computer. Joystick: A device manually controls the movements on the screen with lever or handle
that moves freely in any direction, popularly used in gaming applications or navigation systems.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) – OCR scans text optically character by character, converts
them into a machine-readable code and stores the text on the system memory.
Optical Mark Reader (OMR) – OMR is an optical scanner to recognize the mark made by pen or
pencil for selection of choice.
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) – Input device, used in banks or financial organizations
to read the codes written on cheques with special ink that contains particles of magnetic material.
Light pen – used to select a displayed menu item or draw pictures on the monitor screen. It consists
of a photocell and an optical system placed in a small tube.
Track ball – A pointing device that used instead of a mouse, an inverted mouse.
Microphone – Microphone is an input device; used in various applications for adding sound.
Bar Code Reader –Bar Code Reader scans a bar coded images, converts it into an alphanumeric value.

Output Devices
Display Unit– An output device that, displays signals as a result on a screen.
Printer – Printer is an output device that produces information on paper in the form of text, images,
graphics etc.
Plotter – A plotter is a vector graphics-printing device connected to a computer. Vector graphics are
as points, lines, curves, and polygons, etc.
 Speakers and Headphones – They produce the sound received from computer. A sound card in a
system is to capture as well as play back the recorded sounds.

Storage Units

Primary Memory Devices

Random Access Memory (RAM) – Primary memory of a computer as it allows user to access the
memory cells directly. RAM is volatile memory.
Read Only Memory (ROM) – A non-volatile memory, the information is stored permanently in
memory during manufacture.
Programmable Read only Memory (PROM) – PROM is read-only memory that can be written only
once by the user.
Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM) – Ultra-violet light is passed for erasing the
contents of EPROM.
Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) – EEPROM is programmed
and erased by exposing it to electrical charge. EEPROMs can be erased one byte at a time, rather
than erasing the entire chip.

Secondary Storage Devices

Magnetic Tape – It is a thin tape with a coating of a fine magnetic material, used for storing data.
Hard Disk –It is a non-volatile and random access digital magnetic storage device.
Optical disk –Data is written on disk by lasers. CD, DVD, Blu-ray disk are few examples of optical
disks.
Memory Stick/Card or Flash Memory –are in use with digital cameras, mobile phones, etc. These
storage devices are USB compatible; storing and transferring data is very easy.

Software
Set of instructions stored in a proper sequence, that enable the user to interact with a
computer. Software is divided in two categories:
 System software
 Application software
System software : includes an operating systems and all the utilities that enable the
computer to function. The system software interfaces between the hardware and user
applications. Examples are operating systems, device drivers, server programs, windows
system and utility programs.
Application software : includes programs that user can use to accomplish the specific
task. Examples are word processors, spreadsheets, database management system, games,
audio/video players, etc.

Operating System
An Operating System is a computer program that manages the resources of a computer. It
accepts the input from keyboard or any input device and displays the results of the action
through output device, and allows the user to run applications or communicate with other
computers via networked connections.

Functions of an operating system

The basic functions of an operating system are:
 Booting the computer
 Performs basic computer tasks eg. managing the various peripheral devices
 Provides a user interface, e.g. command line, graphical user interface (GUI)
  Handles system resources such as computer's memory and sharing of the central
processing unit (CPU) time by various applications or peripheral devices
 Provides file management which refers to the way that the operating system
manipulates, stores, retrieves and saves data.

Computer Security
Computer security refers to the security of computers against intruders (hackers) and
malicious software (viruses).

 Objects: passive entities whose security attributes must be protected

 Subjects: active entities that access objects
 Threats: potential dangers which harm security
 Security Policy: a precise specification to describe appropriate levels of security
 Security Mechanism: an implementation of a given security policy

Types of Threats
 Interception: an unauthorized subject has gained access to an object, such as stealing
data, overhearing others communication, etc.
 Interruption: services or data become unavailable, unusable, destroyed, and so on,
such as loss of file, denial of service, etc.
 Modification: unauthorized changing data or tempering with services, eg. alteration of
data, modification of messages or by any other means
 Fabrication: additional data or activities are generated that normally does not exist,
such as adding a password to a system, replaying previously send messages, etc.

Security Mechanism
 Encryption: transforming data into something an attacker cannot understand, i.e.,
providing a means to implement confidentiality, as well as allowing user to check
whether data have been modified.
 Authentication: verifying the claimed identity of a subject, such as user name,
password, or access code.
 Authorization: checking whether the subject has the right to perform the action
requested.
 Auditing: tracing which subjects accessed what, when, and which way. In general,
auditing does not provide protection, but is a tool for analyzing the problems.

What is a ‘Virus’?
A computer virus is a program or piece of code that operates by attaching itself to some other
program or downloaded file. When this program starts, the virus code unintentionally runs,
replicates itself and infects other programs or documents on the system. A computer virus can
seriously damage or completely destroy files or software on a computer.

A computer virus mainly spreads via e-mail attachments, downloadable files from the Internet
or portable disks. Virus infection can be prevented by installing anti-virus software.
Types of Virus
Boot Sector Infector
These viruses infect the boot sector on hard drives. The boot sector is a small program that
initializes the operating system. It loads itself into the memory and it is able to run
whenever the computer is on, infecting the entire system.
Macro Viruses
These viruses function by relying on the built–in or internal programming languages used in
popular applications, such as Microsoft Word and Excel, which allow users to create
macros. Macros are very simple programs that automate tasks. Virus writers have created
macros that, when opened unknowingly, replicate themselves and spread into other
documents. These can then be spread via e-mail attachments, or other removal media.
File Infectors
These viruses function by modifying specific program files, such as .EXE or .COM files.
When the program runs, the virus executes by loading itself into the memory and later
infects and corrupts other files. These viruses spread via infected removal media, over
networks or the Internet.

Preventing Virus Infection

 When the sender of an e-mail is unknown, avoid clicking on attachments containing an
executable file.
 Creating back-ups of files will not directly prevent virus infection, but it may speed up
the recovery process in the event of a virus erasing or damaging files.
 Install and regularly update anti-virus software.

What does Anti-virus software do?

 It scans the computer for viruses and deletes infected files.
 It monitors all incoming files and deletes any virus contained in the file.
 It places suspect files in quarantine.
 Updates the software produced by the program developers in order to address new
viruses as they emerge. The software can be set to check for updates at regular
intervals

Types of Computer Networks

A computer network is a collection of computers and devices that are interconnected by
communication channels that facilitates communication and allows sharing of resources and
information among interconnected devices. Networks is also classified according to a wide
variety of characteristics such as medium used to transport the data, communications
protocol used, scale, topology, organizational scope, etc.

Examples of different networks are:

 Local Area Network (LAN) – This type of computer network connects network devices
over a short distance. Eg. a networked office building, home or school contains a
single LAN. LAN may also span over a group of nearby buildings. These computer
networks are owned by one organization.
 Wide Area Network (WAN) – WAN ranges over a large physical distance. It is with
regard to the collection of LANs dispersed over a geographical area. The internet is a
very good example of a WAN. LANs connected to a WAN through a device, referred as
a router. Most WANs exist under distributed or collective ownership and management.
  Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) – This type of computer network refer to
LAN that is based on Wi-Fi wireless network technology.
 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) – This is a network that extents over a physical
area like a city that is smaller than a WAN but larger than a LAN. These computer
networks owned and operated by single entities, such as, government bodies.

Network Topologies
Network topology defines the structure of the network or the layout pattern of
interconnections of the various elements of a computer. Network topologies can be physical
or logical. Physical topology refers to the physical design of a network including the devices,
location and cable installation.
Logical topology refers how actually data is transferred in a network as opposed to its
physical design.

Types of network topologies

 Bus Topology: A bus topology uses a single mainstay cable that terminates communication
at both ends. All the computers connect directly to the main cable.
 Ring Topology: A ring topology connects one computer to the next and the last computer
to the first. This creates a physical ring of a cable. Each device incorporates a receiver for
the incoming signal and a transmitter to send the data to the next device in the ring. The
network is dependent on the ability of the signal to travel around the ring.
 Star Topology: A star topology connects all cables to a central point of concentration. In
LAN with a star topology, each network host connects the central hub with a point-to-
point connection. Network traffic traverses through the central hub. The hub acts as a
signal repeater. An advantage of the star topology is the simplicity of adding additional
nodes. The primary disadvantage of the star topology is that the hub represents a single
point of failure.
 Mesh Topology: A mesh topology provides as much protection as possible from
interruption of service. Each host has its own connections to all other hosts. Although the
Internet has multiple paths to any one location, it does not adopt the full mesh topology.

Internet
A network of networks joins many organizations of different scope and private computers
together and provides an infrastructure for the use of E-mail, bulletin boards, file archives,
hypertext documents, databases and other electronic resources. The vast collection of
computer networks which form & act as a single huge network for transport of data.

Browser
A software program which helps the user to explore the Internet in an easy way. Browser
navigates the Internet through a series of links to the user. Examples of popular browsers are
Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera, etc.

Search Engine
A search engine is a software program or script available through the Internet that searches
documents and files for keywords and returns the results of any files containing those
keywords. There are thousands of different search engines available on the Internet, each
with their own abilities and features.

Archie, the first search engine and was written by Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and Mike Parker
at McGill University in Montreal Canada and released on September 10, 1990.
Veronica (Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computer Archives), the first text-
based search engine, was developed by Steve Foster and Fred Barrie at the University of
Nevada in the United States and was released in 1992. The most popular and well-known
search engine is Google.

Email
Short for electronic mail, e-mail or email is text messages that contains files, images, or other
attachments sent through a network to a specified individual or group of individuals.
Ray Tomlinson sent the first e-mail in 1971. By 1996, more electronic mail, were sent than
postal mail. Below is an example and breakdown of an Internet e-mail address.
Eg: email@domainname.com
The first portion all e-mail addresses is the alias, user, username, group, or department of a
company. The @ symbol is used as a separator in the e-mail address. The end portion is
domain name of where the user belongs.

Introduction
Email (electronic mail) is a way to send and receive messages across the Internet. It's similar
to traditional mail, but it also has some key differences. To get a better idea of what email is
all about, take a look at the infographic below and benefit from its use.

Email advantages
 Productivity tools: Email is usually packaged with a calendar, address book, instant
messaging, and more for convenience and productivity.
 Easy mail management: Email service providers have tools that allow you to file, label,
prioritize, find, group and filter emails for easy management. Easily control spam or junk
email.
 Privacy: Email is delivered to personal and private account with a password required to
access and view emails.
 Communication with multiple people: Possible to send an email to multiple people at
once, option to include as few as or as many people as in a conversation.
 Accessible anywhere at any time: User need not to be at home to get an email. User can
access/login it from any computer or mobile device that has an Internet connection.
Computer Hardware and Software