INTRODUCTION TO

COMPUTER
CSE 1105: Introduction to Computer

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WHAT MAKES A
COMPUTER A
COMPUTER?

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LET’S DIG A BIT DEEPER

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 More
Application abstract
s

Programmi
ng
Softwar
Languages
e
Operating
Systems

Architecture

Computer Hardwar
Component e
s

Circuits Less
abstract
Transistors
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APPLICATIONS
Any program you run on your computer
฀Google Chrome, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint

.exe (Windows) or .app (Mac) file

You can use it without knowing how it works behind the scenes (abstraction)
Programs are written in code, the next layer of abstraction

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CODE
A series of instructions
Each instruction is an operation
Computer follows each instruction, one after another
A program contains millions of instructions!

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STRENGTHS AND
WEAKNESSES OF A
COMPUTER
Strengths
฀Very fast (billions of operations per second)
฀Very accurate

Weaknesses
฀Literal
฀Only simple operations (addition, comparison etc.)
฀No insight

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FROM CODE TO HARDWARE
Every instruction in a code is converted into a sequence of 1’s and 0’s, so
that the hardware can understand it
Why do hardware understands only 0 and 1?

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CHIPS
Transistor – vital electronic building block
A transistor is an electronic switch
฀Has two states – on and off

A single chip may contain billions of

transistors
Examples: CPU, RAM etc.

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TRANSISTORS

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THE BINARY NUMBER SYSTEM
A transistor is an electronic switch
฀Has two states – on (1) and off (0)

This is why a computer understands the language of 1’s and 0’s only
฀Binary number system
฀Two digits – 0 and 1
฀Every binary digit is also known as a bit
฀How many numbers can we store with 1 bit? 2 bits? 10 bits?

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BYTES
Single bits are not that useful
Usually 8 bits are grouped together into bytes
฀Optimized to handle bytes instead of bits

Byt
e

Bi
t
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LOTS OF BYTES
1 kilobyte (kB) = 1024 bytes
1 megabyte (MB) = 1024 kB
฀Used to measure audio and image sizes

1 gigabyte (GB) = 1024 MB

฀Used to measure video sizes and storage capacity

1 terabyte (TB) = 1024 GB

฀Used to measure storage capacity

Why 1024? Why not 1000?

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THREE MAJOR COMPONENTS
OF A COMPUTER
CPU
RAM
Storage

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CPU
Central Processing Unit
The brain of the computer
Follows the instructions in the code
Processor speed 2.4 GHz =
capability to execute 2.4 billion
operations per second

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RAM
Random Access Memory
Temporary, working storage of code and data
Examples
฀Open an image in Photoshop = image data loaded in RAM
฀Adding two numbers in a calculator = manipulating bytes in
RAM
฀Open a browser = the code of the browser gets loaded in
RAM

Non-persistent – data gone if power turned off

Faster – Can retrieve the value of any byte in a few
nanoseconds
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STORAGE

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STORAGE
Persistent storage of data and code
฀Bytes are preserved even when not powered

Hard disk: Stores bytes as a magnetic pattern on a spinning disk

SSD: Solid State Drive
Portable disks: CD, DVD, Bluray (optical, now deprecated)
Portable storage: Flash drives/pendrive

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MOTHERBOARD
The backbone of a computer
All components are connected to it
Provides data path between
components

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