Computer Fundamentals

1
BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Underlying Structure

Secondary
Memory

Logical Structure of Digital Computers

2
BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output

Secondary
Memory

3
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output

Terminal
 Simpler than a PC
 Designed strictly for input and output
 Has keyboard and screen
 Does not have a processor
 Connected to computer with telecommunication line
 Allows user to key data directly into computer

4
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output

Terminal
 Special types:
 Point-of-sale (retail)
 ATMs (banking)

5
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output
 Common input methods:
 Keyboard– records user input in the form of keystrokes
 Mouse – Records user input as motion and clicks
 Imaging – inputs digital form of documents and photos
 Bar code labeling – scans bar codes on packages or
products, and reads into computer

6
BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output
 Common input methods:
 Touch Pad – A surface that records motions and clicks by
sensing the user’s fingers’ motions across it.
 Touch Screen A Touch Sensitive Screen is a pointing
device that enables the user to interact with the
computer by touching the screen.

7
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output

 Common output methods:

 Print – output to paper using various types of printers
 Monitor – Visual output to a CRT/ LCD screen
 Speaker – audio output to speakers/headphones

8
BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Memory

Secondary
Memory

9
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Memory

Memory
 All data flows to and from memory
 Divided into cells:
 Each has a unique address
 Memory cell types:
 Byte – stores one character of data
 Word – stores two or more characters of data

10
 Types of Memory

M e m o ry

P r im a r y S e c o n d a ry

ROM RAM

PROM EPROM EAPROM EAPROM SRAM DRAM

11
Primary Memory

It is the main or internal memory .

It can be broadly categorized into two parts

 RAM (Random Access Memory)

 ROM (Read Only Memory)

12
 RAM
 It is known as the Read and Write memory. This
memory is volatile.

 Whatever information you store is temporary in nature

and when you switch off the computer everything is
erased.

13
Dynamic RAM

 Dynamic Memory is often referred to as volatile

memory.
 Data is stored within the capacitance of a transistor.
The capacitor is unable to prevent the charge from
slowly discharging. This would result in the loss of
data. A solution to this problem is the introduction of
additional circuitry which performs a 'memory
refresh' by periodically restoring the charge.
 Dynamic memory is cheaper than Static memory and
is used in larger memory systems.

14
 Static RAM
 Static memory is more expensive to produce
than Dynamic memory, but because of its lower
power consumption it is often used in small to
medium sized systems.
 Static memory retains data within a cell until the
data is overwritten or lost as a result of power
being shut down.

15
ROM
 It is a memory unit that performs the Read
operation only and does not have a write
capability.

 The Binary information in the ROM is made

permanent during the hardware production of the
unit and it is not accessible to users to store
information.

16
BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files
(Secondary Storage)

Secondary
Memory

17
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files (Secondary Storage)

 When power is off, everything stored in memory

is lost
 Computer files are used to store data long term
 File storage devices:
 Magnetic tape drives, disk drives, floppy drives
 Optical CD or DVD drives

18
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files

 Sequential access files

 Usually stored on magnetic tape drives
 Direct access files
 Stored on Direct Access Storage Devices (DASD) -
magnetic disk drives

19
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files

 Types of DASD
 Fixed (hard) drives

20
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files

 Types of DASD
 Removable:
 Floppy drives
 Zip drives
 USB drive

21
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files
 Types of DASD
 Optical Disk Storage
 CD-ROM 700 megabytes
 DVD-ROM 4.7/8 gigabytes
 BluRay 25 GB

22
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Bits and Coding Schemes

 Each memory cell is a set of circuits

 Each circuit is on or off (represented by 1 or 0)
 Each circuit corresponds to a bit (binary digit)
 Most computers – 8 bits (circuits) represents a
character (byte)
 2 common bit coding schemes used today:
 ASCII
 EBCDIC

23
BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Arithmetic/Logical Unit

Secondary
Memory

24
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Arithmetic/Logical Unit

 Consists of VLSI circuits on a

silicon chip
 Carries out:
 arithmetic – add, subtract,
multiply, divide …
 logical operations –
comparing two numbers

25
CPU - Registers (1 of 2)

 The CPU also contains a small

high speed memory which is
used to store temporary
results and control
information.
 This memory consists of a
number of registers, each
performing a specific
function.


26
CPU - Registers (2 of 2)
 Accumulators - serve the purpose of holding data used in
calculations.
 Address Registers - are used for storing the memory location of
data to be used by a program.
 Stack Pointer - this register is used during sub-routine nesting and
stack based arithmetic.
 Status Register - this register provides a service to the CPU by
maintaining the status of the last operation carried out by the
ALU.
 Instruction Pointer - sometimes referred to as the program
counter, the pointer is responsible for retaining the memory
address of the next instruction to be executed.

27
BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Control Unit

Secondary
Memory

28
BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Control Unit
 Controls computer to take advantage of speed and capacity
of other components
 Directed by list of operations (program) that tells control
unit what to do
 decoding the instructions within a computer
 sequencing the reading and writing of data within the CPU
and externally on the data bus
 controlling the sequence in which instructions are executed
 controlling the operations performed by the ALU

29
THE STORED-PROGRAM CONCEPT

 Program – list of what computer needs to do for

an application
 Instruction – each individual step or operation in
a program
 Control unit – carries out one step or instruction
at a time at electronic speed

30
 Network

 Includes
 Computers
 Servers
 Routers
 Wireless devices
 Etc.
 Purpose is to
transmit data

Appendix
31
 Packet Switched Network

 Usual telephone network is circuit switched

 For each call, a dedicated circuit is established
 Dedicated bandwidth
 Modern data networks are packet switched
 Data is chopped up into discrete packets
 Packets are transmitted independently
 No real circuit is established
 More efficient bandwidth usage
 But more complex than circuit switched

Appendix
32
Network Protocols

 Study of networking focused on protocols

 Networking protocols precisely specify the
communication rules
 Stateless protocols don’t remember
 Stateful protocols do remember

Appendix
33
Protocol Stack

 Application layer protocols user

 HTTP, FTP, SMTP, etc. application
space
 Transport layer protocols
 TCP, UDP transport
OS
 Network layer protocols network
 IP, routing protocols
 Link layer protocols link
 Ethernet, PPP NIC
 Physical layer card
physical

Appendix
34
 Layering in Action
router
data application application data
transport transport
network network network
link link link
host physical physical physical
host

 At source, data goes down the protocol stack

 Each router processes packet up to network layer
 That’s where routing info lives
 Router then passes packet down the protocol stack
 Destination processes up to application layer
 That’s where the data lives

Appendix
35
Encapsulation data X

 X = application data at the source application

 As X goes down protocol stack, each layer

transport
adds header information:
 Application layer: (H, X) network
 Transport layer: (H, (H, X))
 Network layer: (H, (H, (H, X)))
link
 Link layer: (H, (H, (H, (H, X))))
 Header has info required by layer physical

 Note that app header is on the inside

packet
(H,(H,(H,(H,X))))
Appendix
36
Application Layer

 Applications
 Web browsing, email, P2P, etc.
 Run on hosts
 Hosts want network to be transparent
 Application layer protocols
 HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, Gnutella, etc., etc.
 Protocol is one part of an application
 For example, HTTP only part of Web browsing

Appendix
37
Client-Server Model

 Client “speaks first”

 Server tries to respond to request
 Hosts are clients and/or servers
 Example: Web browsing
 You are the client (request web page)
 Web server is the server

Appendix
38
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Model

 Hosts act as clients and servers

 For example, when sharing music
 You are client when requesting a file
 You are a server when someone downloads a file from
you
 In P2P model, more difficult for client to find a
server
 Many different P2P models

Appendix
39
A client does not share any of its resources, but
requests a server's content or service function.
Client-server describes the relationship between
two computer programs in which one program, the
client program, makes a service request to another,
the server program.
Standard networked functions such as email
exchange, web access and database access, are
based on the client-server model.
The client-server model has become one of the
central ideas of network computing. .
Many business applications being written today
use the client-server model.
Each instance of the client software can send data
requests to one or more connected servers. In turn,
the servers can accept these requests, process
them, and return the requested information to the
client.
1. Web Browsers
2. E-mail Client
3. Online Chat Client
1. Web Servers
2. FTP Servers
3. Application Servers
4. Database Servers
5. Name Servers
6. Mail Servers
7. Print Servers
8. Terminal Servers
 Another type of network architecture is known as
peer-to-peer, because each host or instance of
the program can simultaneously act as both a
client and a server, and because each has
equivalent responsibilities and status. Peer-to-
peer architectures are often abbreviated by P2P.
 Another type of network architecture is known as
peer-to-peer, because each host or instance of
the program can simultaneously act as both a
client and a server, and because each has
equivalent responsibilities and status. Peer-to-
peer architectures are often abbreviated by P2P.
 Both client-server and P2P architectures are in
wide usage today. Details may be found in
Comparison of Centralized (Client-Server) and
Decentralized (Peer-to-Peer) Networking.
 While classic client-server architecture requires
one of the communication endpoints to act as a
server, which is much harder to implement,
Client-Queue-Client allows all endpoints to be
simple clients, while the server consists of some
external software, which also acts as passive
queue (one software instance passes its query to
another instance to queue, e.g. database, and
then this other instance pulls it from database,
makes a response, passes it to database etc.).
1. A client-server architecture enables the roles and
responsibilities of a computing system to be
distributed among several independent
computers that are known to each other only
through a network.
2. All the data is stored on the servers, which
generally have far greater security controls than
most clients.
3. Since data storage is centralized, updates to that
data are far easier to administer than what would
be possible under a P2P paradigm.
4. Many mature client-server technologies are
already available which were designed to ensure
security, friendliness of the user interface, and
ease of use.
5. It functions with multiple different clients of
different capabilities.
1. Traffic congestion on the network has been an
issue since the inception of the client-server
paradigm.
2. The client-server paradigm lacks the robustness of
a good P2P network.