INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SYSTEMS

TYPES OF COMPUTERS

CO M PUTERS

SUPERCO M PUTERS M IN IC O M P U T E R S M IC R O C O M P U T E R S

Supercomputers, as its name suggests are the most powerful of the three
classes of computers in term of speed and capacity. It is beyond the scope of
this report and will be ignored.

Minicomputers are parallel binary systems with 8, 12, 16, 18, 24 or 32 bit
word length incorporating semiconductor or magnetic core memory offering
from 4K words to 64K words of storage and a cycle time of 0.2 ms to 8 ms or
less. These units are characterized by higher performance than
microcomputers or programmable calculators, richer instruction sets, higher
price and a proliferation of high-level languages, operating systems and
networking methodologies.

Microcomputers is a general term refering to a complete tiny computing

system, consisting of hardware and software, whose main processing blocks
are made of semiconductor integrated circuits. In function and structure, it is
somewhat similar to a minicomputer with important differences being price,
size, speed of execution and computing power. The hardware of a
microcomputer consist of the Microprocessing Unit (MPU) which is usually
assembled on a printed circuit board and auxilliary circuits. Power supplies,
control console and cabinet are separate.

Main frame: This is the fundamental portion of a computer i.e. the portion that
combines the CPU and control elements of a computer system, as
contrasted with peripheral or remote devices usually of an input or
output nature.

WORKSTATIONS is a class of computers small enough in size and cost to be

used by a group or an individual in thier own work location yet powerful

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enough for large scale scientific and engineering applications. Typically it
operates on UNIX operating systems and produces good graphics. The
following are some components in a UNIX workstation:
CPU- The UNIX O/S with the use of X Windows Systems
require a fast processor. In networking, a fast processor
reduces the response time for various applications
executed simultaneously.
RAM- 4.8 MB is used simply to run the base system. A minimum
16MB is required to run the X Windows. Normally, the
RAM requirement is above 32MB.
Hard disk Under volume groups such as AIX and OSF/1,
memory several physical disks may be grouped together to make a
file system larger than any single hard disk. All UNIX
implementations are limited to a amximum of 2GB for any
file or file systems, with the exception being UNICOS. A
minimum disk space of 300MB is used to store UNIX.
Console- This is the communications center of the system while
booting, the bulletin board for error and informational
memos during system maintenence.
Terminals- Terminals previously denoted text-only displays connected
to a computer by a serial (RS232) line. Now, many ASCII
terminals have been replaced by PC's running terminal
emulation software and increasingly by X terminals.
SCSI Bus- This is the most popular standard for attatching hard disks
and tape drives to workstations. It requires each device on
the bus to have its own intelligent controller so that the
device and workstations can talk to each other in a high-
level language. SCSI I has a slow maximum data
transmission rate of 2-5mbs-1. SCSI II boosts the bus
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speed up to 10mbs . Fast SCSIs have speeds greater than
10mbs-1. The SCSI allows users to add external hard disks
and tape drives to the workstation.

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU)

The CPU controls the action, performs calculation and manipulates data in
the computer. In other words, it is the brain of the computer. The type of
microprocessor in the CPU determines the speed and efficiency of the

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computer operation. The microprocessor is the central arithmetic and logic
unit of the computer.
The characteristic of the microprocessor is defined along several
dimensions such as:
a) Chip technology ==> either Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) or
bipolar junction transistor.The most popular MOS is the n-
channel MOS. It has a high packing density and fast switching
speeds. Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)
provides faster speed and lower power consumption and its only
setback is its lower packing density.
b) Word size ===> it is a measure of processing power and addressing
capabilities. It is expressed in units such as 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-
bit in increasing word sizes.
c) Type ==> some microprocessors process all bits of data in parallel
microprocessor whereas some others work with slices of data
(bit-slice architecture) and is able to customise the CPU.
d) Clock frequency ==> it is a measure of the command execution
time.
e) Addressing ==> ability to reference large memory space capability
f) Software ==> type of high-level language used.

Examples of microprocessors (increasing performance)

The 8088 Microprocessor- 16 bit processor .14 registers to provide a working

area for data transfer and processing.
Each register holds 16 bits of data.These
registers are used for temporary storage of data,

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 memory addresses, program instruction pointers
and status and control flags
can access 1MB memory.
Contains 29,000 transistors.
Clock rate 4.77 Mhz.
0.33 MIPS. (million instructions per second)

The 8086 Microprocessor- identical to 8088.

Only difference is it uses full 16-bit data bus

The 80286 Microprocessor- 134,000 transistors.

2MIPS at 8 MHz.
Minimum clock rate 6 MHz.
Multitasking support.
Real mode 1 MB memory address
Protected mode 16 MB memory address.

The 80386 Microprocessor- Same basic function as the 8086.

Same protected mode memory management as
80286.
Clock speed 16-33 MHz.
275,000 transistors.
11 MIPS at 33 MHz.
Can perform computations and address memory
32 bits at a time .
80386 DX can directly access over 4000MB
memory .

The 80486 Microprocessor-built-in maths co-processor and integral cache.

1,200,000 transistors.
41 MIPS at 50 MHz.

The Pentium - 64-bit external data bus.

Microprocessor 3,000,000 transistors.
100 + MIPS at 66mhz.

SECONDARY STORAGE DEVICES

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 S T O R A G E D E V IC ES

P r im a r y S t o r a g e S e c o n d a ry s to ra g e
In te rn a l m e m o ry e g . R A M , R O M E x te rn a l m e m o ry

F lo p p y d is k d r iv e

H a r d d is k d r iv e

M a g n e t ic t a p e

C a s s e t t e / c a r t r id g e t a p e

M a g n e t ic d is k

O p t ic a l d is k

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Floppy disks- Three types i.e. microfloppy (3 2
inches),
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minifloppy (5 4
inches) and standard floppy (8
inches).
It also comes in three densities, single, double and
quad density. Single and double density can store
data at 48 tracks per inch (tpi) but the double density
contains twice the amount of ferrous oxide particles
in the disk coating as single density diskettes. Quad
density has twice the amount of ferrous oxide
particles compared to double density but the speed
is increased to 96 tpi.
Made of Mylar plastic enclosed in a stiff vinyl jacket
to protect it from dust and dirt.
When a particular read/write head is held motionless
over a rotating disk, a logical, or virtual ring of

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 magnetic medium moves past it as the disk rotates.
The concentric rings are called tracks.
Each track is divided into sectors, each holding
specific amounts of information.
Most floppies are two-sided. So, the position of the
read/write heads is described by a cylinder number.
A cylinder consists of one track per disk surface.

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Hard disk- Usually 3 2
or 5 4
inches in diameter.
The hard disk and its drive are usually built into the
computer with air filtration and air movement
system.
Data can be accessed 2-10 times faster than floppy
disks.
Data storage and retrieval similar to floppy disks.
Rotates at 3,600 rpm.
Uses a flying head so, it is sealed to keep away dust,
smoke and hair.
Recent inovations in hard disks include a hard-disk
card which is a combination of a hard disk that
stores at least 20 MB, and the controller card
which controls the transfer of information to and
from the card.

Magnetic tapes- Popular in mainframes and personal computers.

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The tape is made of thin Mylar tape from 2
to 4
inch, with ferrous oxide coating on which
information is recorded in binary form by selective
magnetization of spots on the tape.
Tape drive transfers information using a read/write
head by encoding the magnetic signals on the ferrous
oxide tape coating.
It is classified by the density of the tape and number
of tracks on it. The density is measured by the
number of bytes per inch (bpi) that can be stored
on the tape. Density ranges from 800bpi to 6,250bpi.

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Cassette/cartridge tape- Uses binary form to magnetically store the
information from the computer.
Looks similar to an audio cassette.
Can store in excess of 20MB of information.
Used in back up.

Magnetic disk- Metal or plastic disk coated with ferrous oxide.

Direct access possible.
Like the floppy disk, information is stored in
concentric tracks.
Number of tracks increases with size.

Optical disks- Information is stored by burning pits into the disk

surface with a laser beam.
Information is read using another laser in an optical
disk drive.
There are five types of optical disks i.e. laser disks,
CD-ROM, optical read- only memory disks,
write-once read mostly (WORM) disks and erasable
optical disks.
For the PC, CD-ROM is more popular.
Data can only be accessed from the disk.
Data is stored in a spiral manner on the surface of the
disk.
During data retrieval, the pits modulate the reflection
of the laser beam, and the reflected light is
decoded to reconstruct the original data.
The disk rotation rate varies to maintain a linear
velocity under the read/write head, faster when it
is near the center.