Chapter two

Components of computer system

Computer system is composed of Hardware Components (input, processing, memory

and output units) and Software Component (system, and application software).

1. HARDWARE COMPONENTS
Hardware components are units that are visible/tangible or physical part of computers.
The hardware of the computer can be divided into:
A. Input Devices
B. Output Devices
C. Processing Devices
D. Storage Devices

These system components are organized as shown in the following figure.

Figure 1 Organization of Computer System

A. Input Devices
Input Devices are those devices that are required to translate data that is in human
readable form, into a form the computer can process. These devices allow direct
interaction between human and machine.
Keyboard: A Keyboard converts letters, numbers and other characters into electrical
signals that are machine readable by the computer’s processor. There are two types of
keyboard
(a) Special Purpose Keyboard
(b) General Purpose Keyboard

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a) Special Purpose Keyboard contains limited number of keys and they are used for
specific applications.
For Example: 1. Billing Machines 2. ATM in Banks, etc.
b) General Purpose Keyboard is connected to the personal computer and look like a
typewriter keyboard to which some additional keys are added. There are different
categories of keys available in the keyboard.

Standard tying keys (alphanumeric keys) are in the same familiar QWERTY
arrangement of letter, number and punctuation keys found on any typewriter. QWERTY
refers to the alphabet keys in the top left row on a standard typewriter keyboard. The
Space Bar, Shift, Tab and Caps Lock keys do the same things on the computer that they
do on a typewriter. An Exception is the “Enter” (bent left arrow) key. The Enter key,
sometimes called as the “Return” key, is used to accept the commands given into the
computer. In addition it is also used to begin a new paragraph in word processing
system.
Cursor movement keys: The Cursor, also called the insertion point, is the symbol on the
display screen that shows where data may be entered next. The cursor movement keys,
or arrow keys, are used to move the cursor around the text on the screen. These keys
move the cursor left, right, up or down.
Numeric keypad: A separate set of keys, 0 through 9 known as the numeric keypad, is
laid out like the keys on a calculator. The toggle key called Num-Lock changes the
function of some of the keys on the numeric keypad as a number entering key and cursor
movement key alternately. Function keys are the keys labeled with an F and a number,
such as F1 and F2. Personal Computers have normally 12 Function keys. Editing keys:
Space bar, Backspace, Delete, Insert are used to change a text.

Mouse: is a small, handy pointing device containing usually two buttons:

 Primary button (Left button)
 Secondary button (Right Button) and
 Sometimes a scrolling button in the middle.

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Mouse contains a rolling ball beneath it and on moving the mouse, the cursor moves on
the screen, as the ball rotates. The following operations can be performed using the
mouse.
 Selection (Single click)
 Giving Commands (Double click)
 Dragging Objects (By pressing mouse button)
 Dropping Objects (By releasing mouse button)

Track Ball: Are another pointing device and a variant of the mouse. It contains a
rotating ball on top of the stationery device. On rotating the ball the cursor moves on the
screen. The track ball also contains two buttons and the operations are as similar for the
mouse. It requires less desk space when compared to the mouse.

Touchpad: the cursor is controlled with the fingers. About the same size as a mouse,
touchpad is a flat, rectangular device. As fingers are moved over the surface of the
touchpad the cursor moves on the screen. The click operation is performed by tapping
the fingers on the surface of the pad.

Light Pen: is a light sensitive stylus or pen like device, connected by a wire to the
computer. There is a button in the Light Pen. When the user brings the pen to the
desired location in the screen and presses the button, the computer identifies the
command and executes accordingly. It is mainly used for CAD (Computer Aided
Design) applications. Used for entering data by writing on a computer screen.

Digitizing Tablet: is an electronic device with a flat surface and specially designed
stylus. A user can draw or write anything over the flat surface using the stylus. It is used
mainly for CAD and graphics applications in designing cars, buildings, medical devices
and robots.

Touch Screen: is a device that has a mixed characteristic of being input and output
device. It displays the choice of commands, and instructions. When you touch the screen

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using your fingers, the unit senses the X-Y coordinate points and executes the command
at that point.

Scanner: The keyboard can input only text through keys provided in it. If we want to
input a picture the keyboard cannot do that. Scanner is an optical device that can input
any graphical matter and display it back. The common optical scanner devices are
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR), Optical Mark Reader (OMR) and Optical
Character Reader (OCR).

Microphones: are used to enter voice data. They let computers listen to us. Without
microphones, computers would not have sound data in them.

Digital Cameras: are photoelectrical devices that enter image data to computers.

B. Output Devices
Results have to be received from the CPU after processing. Output devices are used to
receive the results from the CPU after processing. These output devices after receiving
the results, translate the information processed by the computer into a form that humans
can understand. There are various output devices:

Monitor or Display Devices

The Monitors are also called as Display devices or soft copy output devices. Any
information displayed in the screen is called the softcopy output. These monitors display
information in the human readable form. The size of the monitors (measured diagonally
from one corner to another) differs from 12 inches to 17 inches. Size of the display area
is 25 lines and 80 characters. In the monitor a blinking object called CURSOR, helps to
identify the control. Cursor helps the user to identify the control of the computer system
and helps to find the present position of the control.
The display devices are of different types.
a. Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT)
b. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
c. Electro Luminescent (EL)

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Monitors are also used as input devices by using LIGHT PEN, TOUCH SCREEN, etc.
Touch screens allows the operator to touch the screen to select his input through his
finger. BPL, HP, ACER, IBM, TATUNG is the famous monitor manufacturers.

Printers
Printers are also called as Hardcopy output devices. Using printers any information
consisting of text, symbols, pictures (graphics), etc. can be printed in paper for future
reference. Any printed information is called the Hardcopy.

Plotter is also a printer that produces hard copy output. Plotters produce high quality
color graphics output by using pens for creating images. Plotters help to draw maps from
stored data. Plotters are ideal for Engineering, Drafting and many other applications that
require intricate graphics.
Speakers are sound producing output devices. They are used in multimedia systems.

C. Processing Devices
The Central Processing Unit is the Computing part of the Computer and is also called as
the Brain of the Computer. The various components within the CPU can be identified as
following:
1. Control Unit
2. Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)
3. Memory Unit

In a personal computer or microcomputer, the control unit and the ALU together, is a
small chip called the Microprocessor or the Processor. This Processor and other
components necessary to make the computer to function are housed in a main circuit
board called the Mother Board or the System Board. In micro-computers the processor
works hand in hand with memory unit and other components to carry out processing.
Finally, the various components within the CPU can be consolidated as

(a) The Processor (Control Unit and Arithmetic & Logic Unit)
(b) Memory Unit.

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a) The Processor executes the given instructions and manipulates data into information.
As mentioned earlier the processor can be further divided into two components
 Control Unit
 Arithmetic & Logic Unit

The Control Unit directs the Instructions in the form of electronic signals, to the rest of
the computer that are input unit, ALU, memory and output unit. The Control unit can be
defined as ‘the section of the CPU that selects, interprets and sees to the execution of
program instructions’

The Arithmetic & Logic Unit performs all Arithmetic and Logical operations and
controls the speed of those operations. The ALU can be defined as ‘the part of a
computing system containing the circuitry that does the adding, subtracting,
multiplying, dividing and comparing.’

Control and Arithmetic & Logic Unit are separate from memory, because memory varies
from control and ALU depending upon the user's requirement. As a separate device the
control and ALU units are known as the Processor. Processors used in Microcomputers
are known as Microprocessors. The speed of the Processor is summed by 2 things
 The number of Operating cycle it executes in a time period
 And the amount of data it can process in one cycle.

During one operating cycle, "the processors transfers an amount of data from memory to
the arithmetic unit, performs a calculation on an amount of data, Transforms an amount
of data from memory to an output device, or Reverse data into memory from an input
device". A clock called RTC - Real Time Clock - coordinates the activity of all of the
devices controlled by the processor. The speed of the clock governs the number of cycles
a processor can execute each second. Minimum speed of the processor operates at about
1 million cycles per second.

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b) The Memory Unit is known as the main memory or primary memory or internal
memory or Random Access Memory (RAM) of the computer. Memory can be defined as
‘Descriptive of a device or medium that can accept data, hold them and deliver
them, on demand at a later time. Data recorded in memory remain there as long as
electrical current is available to sustain the memory pattern of ‘+ve’ and ‘-ve’ charges. If
power drops information stored in memory is destroyed. That is, if power is off,
information stored in memory will be destroyed. That is why, main memories are said
to be volatile.
There is also another type of Memory called Read Only Memory (ROM).
Information once stored cannot be modified. Information stored in this memory can be
used only for reading purpose. Hence, the name Read Only Memory. ROM is also
called as BIOS. The expansion of the word BIOS is BASIC INPUT OUTPUT SYSTEM.
PHONIX, AMI, AMD are some BIOS–ROM manufacturer’s name. There are different
types of ROMs
 PROM – Programmable Read Only Memory
 EPROM – Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
 EEPROM – Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
Programmable read only memory – once programmed it cannot be modified. That is,
when a PROM is loaded with program then it becomes a ROM. If in a PROM it is
possible to write then it is called EPROM – Erasable Programmable read only memory.
But as a rule nobody will modify, as it requires special devices to modify. All ROM,
PROM, EPROM are called FIRMWARE - that is, Software built into the Hardware.

D. Storage Devices
The Memory which can store data or information permanently for future use is called
secondary storage devices. Normally, these secondary storage devices are very huge in
storage capacity and economical when compared to the main memory or RAM.
Examples of secondary storage devices are:
 Hard disks
 Magnetic Tapes
 CD-ROM (Compact Disk – Read Only Memory)
 Floppy Disks, Etc.

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HARD DISKS are also called as Non-removable disk or Rigid Disk fixed inside the
computer. It can contain more volume of data. Removable, smaller size hard disks are
called Winchester Disk. Brand names of the hard disks are SEAGATE, SAMSUNG,
KANESK, LARSON AND TUBRO.
Hard disks are available in many sizes such as
 20MB, 40MB, 100MB, 540MB, 1GB, 20GB, 40GB [TODAY] ONWARDS

FLOPPY DISKS are also called floppies – flexible diskettes or removable disks used for
backup purpose. They are encased permanently in a protective envelope, which is
insulated into the disk drive.
Optical Disk Optical disks use laser light to read or write data from optical disk. Laser -
Light Amplified Stimulated Emission of Rays. Optical disks use high powered laser light
to burn microscopic holes on the surface of the disk to store data. Burned out part is
called pit, and the non-burnt part is called land. Land may represent binary 0 and pit
binary 1.

CD pit and land

Optical disks use low powered laser to read data. There are two most common types of
optical disks:
 CD (Compact Disc)
 DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)

CD (Compact Disc)
CD can store 700BM of information. Data is stored only on one side of the disc. There
are three basic types of CDs:
1. CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read Only Memory) - This kind is read only i.e. you

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 can’t write data to such CDs or you can’t erase from them. Data is only
accessed/read from these CDs.
2. CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable) - It is also called WORM (Write Once and
Read Many). These CDs can be written on once. But then after, you can’t rewrite
on it or erase data from it. After you first wrote data on such discs, then only thing
you can do to read data from them.
3. CD-RW (Compact Disc Read-Write) - They are also called erasable optical discs.
You can write data as many times as you want on such CDs. You can also erase
the content of such CDs.
DVD
DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc. It is a relatively new technology that is introduced
recently. It is similar to CD except that it can store large amounts of data and it has
narrow tracks than CD. It can store 4 -17GB of information.
Another possible categorization is based on the significance of the devices – System Unit
and Peripheral Devices.
Disk drive: is part of a computer system which reads from and writes data on a disk.

The following terms are used to denote the capacity of the memory

Bit – Binary digit – Either 0 or 1 – Smallest unit of measurement.

Byte – Group of 8 Bits is called a Byte. The memory capacity is generally
expressed in multiples of Byte.
Kilo Byte (KB) – 1024 Bytes make 1 KB.
Mega Byte (MB) – 1024 KB make 1 MB – 1 Million Bytes.
Giga Byte (GB) – 1024 MB make 1 GB – 1 Billion Bytes.
Tera Byte (TB) – 1024 GB make 1 TB – 1 Trillion Bytes.

2. SOFTWARE COMPONENTS
Software components are non-visible programs, procedures and associated
documentations that make possible the effective operation of computer system.
Firmware is software integrated into hardware.

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To convert or process any raw data into meaningful information software is required.
Software is very important to any computer and it is compared as “breathe life” into the
computer.
Definition: Computer software is nothing but the step-by-step instructions given to the
computer in the form of programs or procedures or routines in order to accomplish any
specified task or to process the raw data and convert it into meaningful information. In
short the software is nothing but the intelligence of the computer. Software is “Soft”
because you can’t touch the instructions, the way you touch the computer equipment –
the “hard” ware.

Software has two different types as it is, for the computer and for the user.
A. System Software – controls and coordinates the computer hardware.
B. Applications Software – designed to solve a specific problem.
A. System Software
System Software called the Boss of the computer, manages the computer’s basic
operations, allows the computer to run applications software and allows the user to
interact with the computer. System software tells the computer how to interpret data and
instructions; how to communicate with peripheral equipment’s like mouse, keyboard,
printers etc. and how to use the hardware in general. There are many number of system
software, but let us consider only a few for our discussion. The different types of system
software are
1. Operating Systems
2. Device Drivers
3. Language Translators
4. Utility Programs

1. Operating System is system software containing a set of programs called the

supervisor that manage the basic operations of a computer. Flexibility of the computer
usage depends on Operating System. Without the operating system loaded into the
computer, all hardware and other software are useless.

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When the computer is switched on the operating system is automatically loaded into the
main memory or RAM of the computer. This process of loading the operating system
into the RAM of the computer is called Booting the computer.
BASIC FUNCTIONS OF AN OS ARE
 Input output management
 Memory management
 File management and
 Job control

2. Device Drivers: Each and every device (input or output) connected to the computer
requires relevant software, which makes the device to communicate or interact with the
CPU. The software that makes the devices to communicate or interact with the CPU is
called the device driver.

3. Language Translators: Humans need to communicate with computers. Computers

cannot understand data or information in human readable form. The data or information
in human readable form has to be converted into computer understandable form. To
communicate with computers and to instruct the computers to accomplish any specific
task, humans have developed many computer languages. These computer languages are
of two types
 High Level Language like Basic, FORTRAN, Pascal, C, C++, PL/1, Java, etc.
 Low Level Language like Assembly Language

Both these high level language and low level language require language translators to
convert the instructions in the human understandable form into machine understandable
form.
Compilers and Interpreters are the language translators required to translate high level
language into machine understandable form. Compiler helps to convert instruction
understandable by humans into instructions understandable by computers. Assembler is
the language translator required to translate the assembly language into machine
understandable form.

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4. Utility Programs are generally used to support, enhance or expand existing programs
in a computer system. Examples of utility programs are
 Backup – to duplicate the data or information for safety.
 Data Recovery – to restore data that is physically damaged or corrupted.
 Virus Protection – Antivirus software which will eliminate viruses from affected
files or protect files from being infected from viruses.
 Data Compression – To compress huge files and save memory storage.

B. Application Software
Application software can be acquired directly from a software manufacturer. Basically,
there are four categories of application software.
1. Productivity Software: The purpose of this software is to make the users more
productive at performing general tasks. For example, word processing, spread sheets,
presentation, database managers, accounting etc.
2. Home / Personal software: The purpose of this software is mainly for domestic and
personal use. For example, cook books, medical guide, gardening, etc.
3. Education / Reference software: The purpose of this software is mainly to learn any
subject or to refer for additional information.
For example: Encyclopedia, Dictionaries, Computer Based Tutorials (CBT), etc.
4. Entertainment software: The purpose of this software is for entertainment and time
passing. For example games.

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