INTRODUCTION: Our lifestyles have undergone a sea change with the advancement in technology especially in the field of computers.

Computers are an integral part of our lifestyles today and are found at offices, homes, schools, colleges, hotels, shops etc. This advance in technology has made our lives easy and comfortable. For instance, we can execute a number of activities using computer based systems- we can write a draft on word processor and email it, make calculations using an electronic spreadsheet and incorporate graphics, create a database of friends with their phone numbers, addresses and e-mail ids etc. It is an arduous process to perform these activities using existing traditional methods. Computers can also simplify other tasks such as word processing, designing, web site development, database management etc. Therefore, a computer should be referred to as a data processor. The computer comprises of technologically advanced hardware put together to work at great speed. To accomplish its various tasks, the computer is made of different parts, each serving a particular purpose in conjunction with other parts. In other words, a 'computer' is an ensemble of different machines that you will be using to accomplish your job. A computer is primarily made of the Central Processing Unit (usually referred to as the computer), the monitor, the keyboard and the mouse. Other pieces of hardware, commonly referred to as peripherals, can enhance or improve your experience with the computer. ADVANTAGES: Compared to traditional systems, computers offer many noteworthy advantages. This is one reason that traditional systems are being replaced rapidly by computer-based systems. The main advantages offered by computers are as follows: High Accuracy Superior Speed of Operation Large Storage Capacity User-friendly Features Portability

 Platform independence Economical in the long term COMPONENTS: HARDWARE SOFTWARE

Basic Elements of Computer System

1. Mouse 2. Keyboard 3. Monitor 4. Memory 5. CPU 6. Motherboard 7. Hard Disk 8. Speakers 9. Modem 10. Power Supply 11. Processor

1. Mouse

In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting twodimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons. The mouse sometimes features other elements, such as "wheels", which allow the user to perform various system-dependent operations, or extra buttons or features that can add more control or dimensional input. The mouse's motion typically translates into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows for fine control of a graphical user interface. Types Of Mouse :a) Optical Mouse b) Mechanical Mouse c) Wireless Mouse 2. Keyboard

In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style device, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. Following the decline of punch cards and paper tape, interaction via teleprinter-style keyboards became the main input device for computers. A keyboard typically has characters engraved or printed on the keys and each press of a key typically corresponds to a single written symbol. However, to produce some symbols requires pressing and holding several keys simultaneously or in sequence. While most keyboard keys produce letters,numbers or signs (characters), other keys or simultaneous key presses can produce actions or computer commands. Despite the development of alternative input devices, such as the mouse, touchscreen, pen devices, character recognition and voice recognition, the keyboard remains the most commonly used and most versatile device used for direct (human) input into computers. In normal usage, the keyboard is used to type text and numbers into a word processor, text editor or other programs. In a modern computer, the interpretation of key presses is generally left to the software. A computer keyboard distinguishes each physical key from every other and reports all key presses to the controlling software. Keyboards are also used for computer gaming, either with regular keyboards or by using keyboards with special gaming features, which can expedite frequently used keystroke combinations. A keyboard is also used to give commands to the operating system of a computer, such as Windows' Control-Alt-Delete combination, which brings up a task window or shuts down the machine. Keyboards are the only way to enter commands on a command-line interface.

3. Monitor

A monitor or display (also called screen or visual display unit) is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry and an enclosure. The display device in modern monitors is typically a thin film transistor liquid crystal

display (TFT-LCD) thin panel, while older monitors use a cathode ray tube (CRT) about as deep as the screen size. Originally, computer monitors were used for data processing while television receivers were used for entertainment. From the 1980s onwards, computers (and their monitors) have been used for both data processing and entertainment, while televisions have implemented some computer functionality. The common aspect ratio of televisions, and then computer monitors, has also changed from 4:3 to 16:9 (and 16:10).

4. Motherboard

A motherboard (sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, planar board or logic board) is a printed circuit board (PCB) found in all modern computers which holds many of the crucial components of the system, such as the central processing unit (CPU) and memory, and provides connectors for other peripherals. Motherboard specifically refers to a PCB with expansion capability. The term mainboard is applied to devices with a single board and no additional expansions or capability. In modern terms this would include controlling boards in televisions, washing machines and other embedded systems.

5. Hard disk drive

A hard disk drive (HDD; also hard drive, hard disk, or disk drive) is a magnetic data storage device featuring low cost, non-volatility andrandom-access. Introduced by IBM in 1956, HDDs have been the dominant secondary storage device in general purpose computers since the early 1960s.[3] They have maintained this position against competing products, including today's solid-state drives, through technological advances in recording capacity and continued improvements in cost per unit of storage and reliability. An HDD consists of one or more rigid ("hard") rapidly rotating discs (platters) coated with magnetic material. Magnetic heads arranged on a moving actuator arm read and write data to the surfaces. The read-write heads are supported on a thin layer of air inside the enclosed disk unit with only tiny gaps between the heads and the disk surface. HDD capacity is specified in multiples of 1000 - a 1-terabyte (TB) drive has a capacity of 1,024 gigabytes (GB 1 billion bytes). However, due to system usage and reporting not all of the specified storage is ever available for user storage. The primary performance measurements of an HDD are the time to move the heads to a file (average access time) plus the time it takes for the file to move under its head (average latency, a function of the physical rotational speed in revolutions per minute) and the speed at which the file is transmitted (data rate). The original hard drive was the size of two refrigerators, but modern HDDs typically are in a 3.5-inch form factor in desktop computers and servers and 2.5-inch form factor in laptops. HDDs are connected to systems by standard interface cables such as SATA (Serial ATA),USB or SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) cables. More than 200 companies have manufactured HDD units but today only four remain, Western Digital, Seagate, Simmtronics, and Toshiba. Worldwide revenues for HDDs shipments are expected to reach $38 billion in 2012, up about 19% from $32 billion in 2011.

6. Modem

A modem (modulator-demodulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used over any means of transmitting analog signals, from light emitting diodes to radio. The most familiar example is avoice band modem that turns the digital data of a personal computer into modulated electrical signals in the voice frequency range of a telephonechannel. These signals can be transmitted over telephone lines and demodulated by another modem at the receiver side to recover the digital data. Modems are generally classified by the amount of data they can send in a given unit of time, usually expressed in bits per second (bit/s, or bps), orbytes per second (B/s). Modems can alternatively be classified by their symbol rate, measured in baud. The baud unit denotes symbols per second, or the number of times per second the modem sends a new signal. For example, the ITU V.21 standard used audio frequency shift keying, that is to say, tones of different frequencies, with two possible frequencies corresponding to two distinct symbols (or one bit per symbol), to carry 300 bits per second using 300 baud. By contrast, the original ITU V.22 standard, which was able to transmit and receive four distinct symbols (two bits per symbol), handled 1,200 bit/s by sending 600 symbols per second (600 baud) using phase shift keying.

7. Speakers

Computer speakers, or multimedia speakers, are speakers external to a computer, that disable the lower fidelity built-in speaker. They often have a low-power internal amplifier. The standard audio connection is a 3.5 mm (approximately 1/8 inch) stereo jack plug often color-coded lime green (following the PC 99 standard) for computer sound cards. A plug and socket for a two-wire (signal and ground) coaxial cable is widely used to connect analogaudio and video components. Rows of RCA sockets are found on the backs of stereo amplifier and numerous A/V products. The prong is 1/8" thick by 5/16" long. A few use an RCA connector for input. There are also USB speakers which are powered from the 5 volts at 500 milliamps provided by the USB port, allowing about 2.5 watts of output power. Computer speakers range widely in quality and in price. The computer speakers typically packaged with computer systems are small, plastic, and have mediocre sound quality. Some computer speakers have equalization features such as bass and treble controls. The internal amplifiers require an external power source, usually an AC adapter. More sophisticated computer speakers can have a subwoofer unit, to enhance bass output, and these units usually include the power amplifiers both for the bass speaker, and the small satellite speakers. Some computer displays have rather basic speakers built-in. Laptops come with integrated speakers. Restricted space available in laptops means these speakers usually produce lowquality sound. For some users, a lead connecting computer sound output to an existing stereo system is practical. This normally yields much better results than small low-cost computer speakers. Computer speakers can also serve as an economy amplifier for MP3 player use for those

who wish to not use headphones, although some models of computer speakers have headphone jacks of their own. 8. C.P.U.

A central processing unit (CPU), also referred to as a central processor unit, is the hardware within a computer system which carries out theinstructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s.The form, design, and implementation of CPUs have changed over the course of their history, but their fundamental operation remains much the same. On large machines, CPUs require one or more printed circuit boards. On personal computers and small workstations, the CPU is housed in a single silicon chip called a microprocessor. Since the 1970s the microprocessor class of CPUs has almost completely overtaken all other CPU implementations. Modern CPUs are large scale integrated circuits in packages typically less than four centimeters square, with hundreds of connecting pins. Two typical components of a CPU are the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs arithmetic and logical operations, and the control unit (CU), which extracts instructions from memory and decodes and executes them, calling on the ALU when necessary. Not all computational systems rely on a central processing unit. An array processor or vector processor has multiple parallel computing elements, with no one unit considered the "center". In the distributed computing model, problems are solved by a distributed interconnected set of processors.

9. Power Supply Unit of Computer

A power supply unit (PSU) converts mains AC to low-voltage regulated DC power for the internal components of a computer. Modern personal computers universally use a switched-mode power supply. Some power supplies have a manual selector for input voltage, while others automatically adapt to the supply voltage. Most modern desktop personal computer power supplies conform to the ATX specification, which includes form factor and voltage tolerances. While an ATX power supply is connected to the mains supply, it always provides a 5 V standby (5VSB) voltage so that the standby functions on the computer and certain peripherals are powered. ATX power supplies are turned on and off by a signal from the motherboard. They also provide a signal to the motherboard to indicate when the DC voltages are in spec, so that the computer is able to safely power up and boot. The most recent ATX PSU standard is version 2.31 of mid-2008.

10.R.A.M

Random-access memory (RAM) is a form of computer data storage. A random-access device allows stored data to be accessed in very nearly the same amount of time for any storage location, so data can be accessed quickly in any random order. In contrast, other data storage media such ashard disks, CDs, DVDs and magnetic tape, as well as early primary memory types such as drum memory, read and write data only in a predetermined order, consecutively, because of mechanical design limitations. Therefore the time to access a given data location varies significantly depending on its physical location. Today, random-access memory takes the form of integrated circuits. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are not random access, as data is read in bursts, although the name DRAM / RAM has stuck. However, many types of SRAM, ROM, OTP, and NOR flash are still random access even in a strict sense. RAM is often associated with volatile types of memory (such as DRAM memory modules), where its stored information is lost if the power is removed. Many other types of non-volatile memory are RAM as well, including most types of ROM and a type of flash memory called NOR-Flash. The first RAM modules to come into the market were created in 1951 and were sold until the late 1960s and early 1970s.

11.Printer

A printer is a piece of hardware for a computer. It is a device that must be connected to a computer which allows a user to print items on paper, such as letters and pictures. It can also work with digital cameras to print directly without the use of a computer. Types of Printers : Inkjet printers, also sometimes called bubble jet printers use colored ink they put on a paper. Plotters are large format inkjet printers, or printers that use special pens. Laser printers transfer tiny particles of toner onto the paper. Dot-matrix printers are now almost extinct. They used a ribbon and made a lot of noise. There were models with 9 pins and models with 24 pins. Dye sublimation printers produce very high quality images. Three colors are used. Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. Each color is printed one at a time from cellophane sheets. The image is the sealed with an clear top layer. Some small photographic printers made by Kodak and Canon use this process. Daisy Wheel printers are a typewriter printer; Results look hand-typed with excellent looking text, no real graphics and very loud.

12.Storage
CD (compact disc): The most common type of removable media, suitable for music and data CD-ROM Drive: A device used for reading data from a CD CD Writer: A device used for both reading and writing data to and from a CD DVD (digital versatile disc): A popular type of removable media that is the same size as a CD but stores up to 12 times as much information- the most common way of transferring digital video and is popular for data storage DVD-ROM Drive: A device used for reading data from a DVD DVD Writer: A device used for both reading and writing data to and from a DVD DVD-RAM Drive: A device used for rapid writing and reading of data from a special type of DVD Blu-ray Disc: A high density optical disc format for data and high-definition video that can store 70 times as much information as a CD BD-ROM Drive: A device used for reading data from a Blu-ray disc BD Writer: A device used for both reading and writing data to and from a Blu-ray disc HD DVD: A discontinued competitor to the Blu-ray format Floppy disk: An outdated storage device consisting of a thin disk of a flexible magnetic storage medium used today mainly for loading RAID drivers Iomega Zip drive: An outdated medium-capacity removable disk storage system, first introduced by Iomega in 1994 USB flash drive: A flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB interface, typically small, lightweight, removable and rewritable with varying capacities from hundreds of megabytes (in the same ballpark as CDs) to tens of gigabytes (surpassing, at great expense, Blu-ray discs) Tape drive: A device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape, used for long term storage and backups SECONDARY STORAGE This hardware keeps data inside the computer for later use and retains it even when the computer has no power. Hard disk: A device for medium-term storage of data Solid-state drive: A device quite similar to the hard disk, but containing no moving parts and which stores data in a digital format

 RAID array controller: A device to manage several internal or external hard disks and optionally some peripherals in order to achieve performance or reliability improvement in what is called a RAID array

Software

Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provides the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it. Software refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of the computer for some reasons. In other words, software is a set of programs, procedures, algorithms and its documentation concerned with the operation of a data processing system. Program software performs the function of the program it implements, either by directly providing instructions to the computer hardware or by serving as input to another piece of software. The term was coined to contrast to the old term hardware (meaning physical devices). In contrast to hardware, software "cannot be touched".[1]Software is also sometimes used in a more narrow sense, meaning application software only. Sometimes the term includes data that has not traditionally been associated with computers, such as film, tapes, and records.[2] Computer software is so called to distinguish it from computer hardware, which encompasses the physical interconnections and devices required to store and execute (or run) the software. At the lowest level, executable code consists of machine language instructions specific to an individual processor. A machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer

from its preceding state. Programs are an ordered sequence of instructions for changing the state of the computer in a particular sequence. It is usually written in high-level programming languages that are easier and more efficient for humans to use (closer to natural language) than machine language. High-level languages are compiled or interpreted into machine language object code. Software may also be written in an assembly language, essentially, a mnemonic representation of a machine language using a natural language alphabet. Assembly language must be assembled into object code via an assembler.

Operating System

An operating system (OS) is a collection of software that manages computer hardware resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is a vital component of the system software in a computer system. Application programs require an operating system to function. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also include accounting for cost allocation of processor time, mass storage, printing, and other resources. For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation, the operating system acts as an intermediary between programs and the computer hardware, although the application code is usually executed directly by the hardware and will frequently make a system call to an OS function or be interrupted by it. Operating systems can be found on almost any device that contains a computerfrom cellular phones and video game consoles to supercomputers and web servers.

Examples of popular modern operating systems include Android, BSD, iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, and IBM z/OS. All these, except Windows and z/OS, share roots in UNIX. Types of Operating Systems : Real-time : A real-time operating system is a multitasking operating system that aims at executing real-time applications. Real-time operating systems often use specialized scheduling algorithms so that they can achieve a deterministic nature of behavior. The main objective of real-time operating systems is their quick and predictable response to events. They have an event-driven or time-sharing design and often aspects of both. An event-driven system switches between tasks based on their priorities or external events while time-sharing operating systems switch tasks based on clock interrupts. Multi-user : A multi-user operating system allows multiple users to access a computer system concurrently. Time-sharing systems and Internet servers can be classified as multi-user systems as they enable multiple-user access to a computer through the sharing of time. Single-user operating systems, as opposed to multi-user operating systems, are usable by a single user at a time. Being able to use multiple accounts on a Windows operating system does not make it a multi-user system. Rather, only the network administrator is the real user. But for a UNIX-like operating system, it is possible for two users to log in at a time and this capability of the OS makes it a multi-user operating system. Multi-tasking vs. single-tasking : A multi-tasking operating system allows more than one program to be running at a time, from the point of view of human time scales. A single-tasking system has only one running program. Multi-tasking can be of two types: pre-emptive or co-operative. In pre-emptive multitasking, the operating system slices the CPU time and dedicates one slot to each of the programs. Unix-like operating systems such as Solaris and Linux support pre-emptive multitasking, as does AmigaOS. Cooperative multitasking is achieved by relying on each process to give time to the other processes in a defined manner. 16-bit versions of Microsoft Windows used cooperative multi-tasking. 32-bit versions, both Windows NT and Win9x, used pre-emptive multi-tasking. Mac OS prior to OS X used to support cooperative multitasking. Distributed : A distributed operating system manages a group of independent computers and makes them appear to be a single computer. The development of networked computers that could be linked and communicate with each other gave rise to distributed computing. Distributed computations are carried out on more than one machine. When computers in a group work in cooperation, they make a distributed system. Embedded : Embedded operating systems are designed to be used in embedded computer systems. They are designed to operate on small machines like PDAs with less autonomy. They are able to operate with a limited number of resources. They are very compact and extremely efficient by design. Windows CE and Minix 3 are some examples of embedded operating systems

How Computer Works

To accomplish a task using a computer, you need a combination of hardware, software, and input. Modern computers are electronic and digital. The actual machinery -- wires,transistors, and circuits -- is called hardware; the instructions and data are called software. All general-purpose computers require the following hardware components: memory: enables a computer to store, at least temporarily, data and programs. mass storage device: allows a computer to permanently retain large amounts of data. Common mass storage devices include disk drives and tape drives. input device: usually a keyboard and mouse, the input device is the conduit through which data and instructions enter a computer. output device: a display screen, printer, or other device that lets you see what the computer has accomplished. central processing unit (CPU): the heart of the computer, this is the component that actually executes instructions. It is not just one factor that is responsible for running a computer it is the combination of above all the units thats responsible for running of the computer. To understand the basic rudiments of the functioning of the computer refer to the basic block diagram of a computer as shown in Fig. This flow of information holds true for all types of computers such as Personal Computers, Laptops, Palmtops etc. In other words, the fundamental principle of working is the same.

As shown in there are four main building blocks in a computer's functioning input, processor, output and memory. The data is entered through input devices like the keyboard, disks or mouse. These input devices help convert data and programs into the language that the computer can process. The data received from the keyboard is processed by the CPU, i.e. the Central Processing Unit. The CPU controls and manipulates the data that produce information. The CPU is usually housed within the protective cartridge. The processed data is either stored in the memory or sent to the output device, as per the command given by the user. The memory unit holds data and program instructions for processing data. Output devices translate the processed information from the computer into a form that we can understand.