CHAPTER TWO

COMPUTER SYTEMS
Computer system refers to a collection of components that are linked to process, store and
manage information.

Functional organization of the elements of a computer system

The computer system is organized into three elements:

(i) Hardware
Consist of the mechanical, electrical and electronic parts of a computer. Physical and
tangible parts of a computer system.
(ii) Software
It is a set of computer programs that guides the computer in each and every activity that
happens inside the computer during data processing.
(iii) Live ware
Refers to users who are computer knowledgeable and hence can properly utilize the
computer hardware and software.

Hardware Components
Input device
These are devices which accept data and pass them into the computer.

i. Keying devices
Types of keyboards
 Cordless keyboard is a battery powered keyboard that uses Bluetooth technology instead
of being physically connected to system unit
 Braille keyboard is designed for use by the blind. Has keys identified by raised dots.
 Ergonomic keyboard is designed specially to provide comfort and eliminate wrist pain to
users
 Flexible keyboard is a portable keyboard that can be folded and unpacked in a bag.
 Traditional keyboard is full sized rigid keyboard.
ii. Pointing devices
(a) Mouse – enter data or instruction by controlling a pointer on the screen.
Types of mouse
 Cordless mouse – is a battery powered mouse that uses infrared of Bluetooth signals.
 Optical mouse – Has a tiny digital camera that takes 1500 pictures every second of
the surface on which its resting. Interpreting the pictures indicating the direction of
the mouse movement hence pointer position on screen
 Standard mouse – Has a ball underneath, two buttons locked between left and right
buttons

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 (b) Track ball – Its users a sphere located on top that is rotated by hand to control cursor
movement
(c) Joystick – It looks like a car gear lever which can moved sideways, upwards,
downwards to no space control of the cursor.
(d) Light pen – It is a hand-held pen-like device that has light sensitive point

iii. Scanning devices

They are the devices that capture data into the computer directly.
Classification of scanners

a. Optical scanners
They capture data using light.
 Optical mark recognition (OMR)
This scanner uses mark- sensing to scan and translate the locations of a series of pen
or pencil marks into computer- understandable form used in marking KCP.E.
multiple choice examinations, Questionnaire etc.
Advantages of OMR
(i) Has low error rates
(ii) Conspicuous errors are easily corrected
(iii) Data captured at source, hence minimizing amount of manual work

Disadvantages of OMR
(i) Mark readers are relatively slow
(ii) Verification of marked data is difficult
(iii) Not widely used in business

Application of OMR
 Multiple choice exams
 Market research questionnaires
 Payroll data entry
 Traffic surveys

 Optical bar recognition (OBR)

They scan and translate a bar code into machine understandable mode used in
supermarket, wholesale shops etc.

Advantages of OBR
i. Barcode can be printed by normal printing methods
ii. The type of item or price does not have to be repeatedly written/typed

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 Disadvantage of OBR
i. Bar codes can only be read by machines
ii. Only numbers can be coded in this way
[Link] are relatively fixed so they are unsuitable for recording prices which can
frequently change

Application of OBR
 On labels and on shelves for stocktaking
 Printed on shop goods e.g. supermarkets
 In libraries

 Optical Character/image scanner (OCR)

Used to scan character and image i.e. can be used to scan real objects.
Advantages of OCR
i. Data is captured at sources hence errors are limited
ii. It's an easier method to use
iii. Document design is less complicated
iv. Characters can be read by people

Disadvantages of OCR
i. Optical readers are expensive
ii. OCR may require redesigning quite frequently
iii. Only certain font is acceptable

Application of OCR
 Used in billing

b. Magnetic scanners
They capture data using magnetic technology

 Magnetic – Ink Character Recognition (MICR)

This scanner is able to detect characters written in special magnetic ink. It is used in
banks to read cheques, credit card etc.

Advantages of MICR
i. Its fast accurate and automatic
ii. The codes are both machine and human readable
iii. Reduced forgery i.e., it's difficult to forget

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 Disadvantages of MICR
i. MICR system is limited to only 14 characters
ii. MICR system is based on magnetism and can easily be damaged

Application Of MICR
i. Banking industry for cheques

 Magnetic Stripe Recognition

A magnetic stripe is a thin magnetic tape often found at the back of a plastic card e.g.
ATM card. The magnetic stripe is recognize the data in such cards

Advantages of magnetic stripe

i. Simple to produce
ii. Not easily damage
iii. Stores fairly large number of characters

Disadvantages of magnetic stripe

i. Data can be changed or erased by magnetic fields

Application of magnetic stripe

i. On credit cards iii. As tags on clothes
ii. On bank cards iv. As a phone card

iv. Speech recognition devices

This is a type of input method where microphone is used to enter data in a form of spoken
words into the computer.

Advantages of speech recognition

 No keyboard is necessary i.e. very fast
 Useful in situation where
 Can be used from remote location via the telephone

Disadvantages of speech recognition

 Homophones – some words sound the same
 Recognition is slow
 Limited vocabularies
 Background noise can disrupt the data entered
 Speaker variability i.e. the speed, pitch, loudness, pronunciation of individuals

Application areas of speech recognition

 Security and access control e.g. –office security for room access, house/car security
 Quality control and automation in factories i.e. speech input used to order robots

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  Automated materials handling – in airports to direct lugged to appropriate conveyor belt
 Voice activated toys and games

v. Others digital devices

Touch Screen
This devise recognizes the location of a contact on the screen through a built-in grid of sensing
lines and sensors

Digitizers
It is a graphic tablet on which the user writes on, using a device similar to a pen (stylus). The
stylus moves on the tablets and the drawing is directly reflected on the screen

Touch Pad
A surface that is sensitive and pressure and [Link] you move four fingertips across the
pad, the pointer on the screen moves in the same direction

Smart board
A large interactive display that connects to a computer. The computer display is projected on to
the board’s surface where the user controls the computer and writes using a pen or a finger.

Factors to consider while selecting an input device

 Cost  Accuracy
 Volume  Mode of operation
 Reliability  Appropriateness

Output Devices
Output devise are peripheral devices that a computer user to give out information produced after
processing

Types of Output Devices

 Soft copy
Refers to the intangible output mainly displayed on the screen or through device like the
speakers

 Hard copy
Refers to the tangible output produced on papers [Link]’ plotters etc.

Types of Soft copy Output devices

 VDU (Visual Display Unit)

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Types of Display Screen
a) Flat panel screens
b) Cathode ray tubes (CRT)

Characteristics of CRT
 The screen of CRT is curved slightly outward
 They are not portable
 They consume a lot of power
 They are cheap

Characteristics of flat panel display

 The screen is flat  Occupy less space
 They are portable  Are expensive
 Consume less power  Provide high quality output

Advantages of VDU
 This display of output is almost instantaneous
 Minimizes paperwork

Disadvantages of VDU
 Can lure computer operator into not keeping hardcopy records
 Screen might not allow the viewing of the full array of data

Sound Output
Sound output in a form of spoken words. Speakers are used to output the sound from
computer e.g. music, warnings, videos etc.

Advantages of sound output

 No reading is necessary
 Useful in situation where you can’t look or where you are busy
 Fast, natural output
 People grow fond of “computer speak”

Disadvantages of sound output

 Not suitable for noisy situations
 Inappropriate for length or permanent information

Application of sound output

 Learning aids e.g., computer aided learning
 Lifts – messages can be use in lift to greet visitors and tell them the floor they are in

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  Emergence messages i.e., public
 Address system, in cars when running out of petrol, household e.g. vacuum cleaners “tub
is overloaded”
 Text to speech translation – for blind

Data Projector
Used to display output from the computer onto a plain white screen like a wall or whiteboard

 Hardcopy output devices

Hardcopy devices a device that produce output on paper on form of text or graphics

Examples of hardcopy devices

 Printer
Printer produces a hard copy of information on papers

Classification of printers
Printers are categorized as follows:
 How they produce character on papers
 The speed at which they print
A. How they produce characters on paper
i. Impact Printers
They provide prints by printing head element coming into actual contact with the
stationery through inked ribbon
ii. Non-impact printers
They provide prints by the print head element not coming into actual contact with the
stationery, but other means e.g., thermal

Different between impact and Non-impact printers

IMPACT NON-IMPACT
Slow Faster
use inked ribbons Use thermal, laser, electrostatic principles
Cheaper Costly
Noisy Quiet
Multiple copy production possible Multiple copy production almost impossible

Types of Impact Printers

 Dot Matrix Printer
It’s an impact character printer that’s provides character prints in terms of [Link] printing
head element is made up of a set of arranged needles, which are activated depending on the
character to be formed for printing

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 Daisy wheel printer
It has a wheel with petals on which character are mounted. When printing, the wheel rotates
allowing petals to hit a ribbon with different character

 Golf Ball Printer

The character image is incorporated on the surface of a gold ball like print head, which is
either rotating or pivoted

 Drum Printer
It provides one whole line print at a time. The character is incorporated on circular bands that
moves round the surface of the drum surface

 Chain Printer
It's an impact line printer that incorporates engraves character printing slugs on a moving
chain belt. The chain moves the character printing slugs at high constant speed past printing
positions

Types of Non-Impact Printers

 Thermal Printer
Its non-impact character printer that provides character prints using heat principles

 Inkjet Printer
This printer forms characters by spraying ink from tiny nozzles through an electrical field
that arranges the charges ink particles into characters

 Electrostatic Printer
It’s a non-impact that uses electrostatics charges to form characters in a line on a special
paper

 Laser Printer
It prints by passing a laser beam back and forth over a rotating drum

B. Classification based on speed of printing

i. Character printers
They produce one character at a time e.g., Daisy wheel, don’t matrix etc.

ii. Line Printers

They produce one line at a time e.g., drum, chainetc.

iii. Page Printers

They produce an entire page at once e.g., laser printer

Factors to consider when selecting a printer

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  Initial cost and subsequent cost of maintenance
 Volume of printing expected reports
 Nature of the report to be generated
 Range of capability for selected printers e.g., multiple copiers, print style etc.
 Interface with the computer system speed
 Quality of prints

 Plotters
It a type of hard copy output. They are used mainly in the fields of engineering and
architecture for producing graphic output on paper.

Types of plotters
 Flatbed plotter
 Drum plotter

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The central processing unit (processor)is that part of the computer that decodes and executes
instruction

Functional units of CPU

Arithmetic logic unit (ALU)
In this unit of CPU all the arithmetic and logical operation are carried out

Functions of ALU
Does all the mathematical computation in a computer
Does all of the logic comparisons of values

Control unit
This unit coordinates all processing activities in the CPU as well as input, storage and
output operations

Functions of control unit

Directs the flow of information into the CPU memory and storage
Controls the instruction the CPU will perform next

Main Memory (Primary storage)

This unit provides storage location for data and instruction accessed by the control unit.

If you have limited memory or have many programs open, your computer may need to use part
of the hard drive to stimulate more memory. This simulated memory is called (virtual memory).

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The amount of memory determines the number of programs a computer can run at once and how
fast programs will operate.

Functions of Main Memory

 Holds data waiting processing
 Holds data that has been processed waiting to be output
 Holds data that is currently being processed

Types of memory
A. Read only Memory (ROM)
This memory is used to store programming instruction and data permanently or semi
permanently.
Data and instruction stored in ROM are those required to remain unchanged for a long time.

Types of ROM
i. MROM (Mask Read Only Memory)
Once contents are written on it by the manufacturer, it cannot be changed.

ii. Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM)

This allows the user to alter the content written on it

iii. Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM)

The content stored in this memory can be erased by exposing them to ultra violet light
and then reprogrammed for another use

iv. Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM)

This memory can be erased and programmed using electricity.

Characteristics of ROM
 Can only be read but cannot written on it
 Its non-volatile
 Store permanent instruction from manufacturer

B. Random Access Memory (RAM)

It's called random access memory because; its content can be read directly regardless of
the sequence in which it was stored.

Types of RAM
i. Static RAM (SRAM)
It’s a very fast memory and holds its content as long as there is power

ii. Dynamic RAM(DRAM)

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 It holds its contents for a short while even when the power is on.
To maintain its content, it must be refreshed severally per second

Characteristics of RAM
 Data can be written in it
 It is temporary: its contents disappear when the computer is switched of
 Its contents are user defined

Special Purpose Memories

 Buffer
It is special purpose memory used during input/output or processing to temporarily hold
data or instruction between communications elements

 Cache Memory
It’s a very high-speed type of SRAM whose purpose is to allow the processer to access
data and instructions faster.

 Register
They are temporarily storage locations within CPU that holds one piece of data at a time

Examples of registers
 Accumulators-temporarily holds the result of the last processing step of ALU
 Instruction registers-temporarily holds an instruction before its interpreted into a form
that CPU can understand it
 Address registers-temporarily holds text piece of data writing to processed
 Storage registers-temporarily holds a piece of data that is on its way to and from the
CPU and main memory

Functional organization of CPU

The arithmetic logic unit, control unit and main memory are linked through electrical pathways
called buses.
A bus is an electrical path for signal to flow from one point to another in a circuit

Type of computer Buses

 Control Bus
This is pathway for all timings and controlling function sent by the control unit to other parts
of the system

 Address Bus
This pathway is used to locate the storage position in memory of the data to be executed or
an instruction to be decoded

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  Data Bus
This is the pathway where the actual data transfer take place

Secondary Storage Devices

These are storage devices that complement the primary memory. They are used to store
information for longer time

Characteristics of secondary storage

 Non-volatile storage
Data stored this media is permanent unless erased by user
 Mass storages
Stores large volume of data

 Reusability
Stored data can be erased and the media reused to store fresh data and programs

Classification of storage devices

 Removable storage devices
These devices are not housed inside the system unit hence can be used in another
computer [Link], flash disk CD

 Fixed storage devices

These devices are housed inside computer system unit e.g. hard disk

Removable Storage Devices

i. Magnetic disks
(a) Floppy disks
They are made of flexible round disk coated with iron oxide. They are used to store
information for later user in the same direction computer, and can used to move
information from one computer to another.

(b) Zip disk

They resemble floppy disk but have high storage capacity. They are slightly larger and
thicker in size. Can hold at least 250 MB. Mostly they come with separate portable
external zip drive.

(c) Jaz disk

They are small portable disks with high storage capacity of about 1GB – 2GB. They are
used for storing data that require larger capacity. They have an external jazz drive

Advantages of Floppy disks

a. They are very cheap
b. Small, lightweight and convenient

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 c. Exchangeable

Disadvantages of Floppy disks

a. Floppies are vulnerable i.e. short life
b. Time consuming if access is needed to many files over a short period
c. Easily damaged
d. Storage area is limited

ii. Magnetic Tapes

This is ribbon of mylar (plastic – like) material coated with a tiny layer of iron oxide.
Magnetic tape resembles the music cassette.

Advantages of magnetic tapes

(a) They are portable
(b) Cheap
(c) Can be erased and re-used
(d) Hold a lot of data in a compact of space

Disadvantages of magnetic tapes

(a) Very slow in accessing of data
(b) Easily damage i.e. dust, heat, touching etc.
(c) The inter-block space is wastage of storage area

iii. Optical disks

These disks use laser beam to record data on them. The laser ray burns tiny holes into a shiny
surface to record data.

Examples of Optical Storage Disks

I. Compact Disks (CD)
They hold larger quantities of data and information. It holds as much as 700MB.

Forms of Compact disks

(a) CD- ROM (Compact Disk – Read Only Memory)
In this type of compact disks when data is recorded on them one can neither change them
nor add anything on them.

Advantages of CD –ROM
(a) Its smaller more portable and has larger storage compared to diskettes
(b) More secure as is cannot be changed or attacked by viruses
(c) Can’t erase the data stored

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 Disadvantages of CD- ROM
(a) Not possible to change data written on a CD –ROM
(b) Are expensive than diskettes

(b) Compact disk- recordable (CD-R)

They are initially bank; the user can record data on it. However, once the data has been
written on it, one can only read but no changing it.

(c) Compact disk- Rewritable (CD-RW)

With CD-RW the user can record, erase and rewrite new information

(d) WORM (write once read many times)

These are discs that allow the user to record data on them once and read many timese.g.
CD-ROMs and CD-Rs.

II. Digital versatile discs (DVDs)

They are also known as digital video disk.
They resemble compact disk but have higher storage capacity of up to 17GB.

They are suitable for recording motion picture e.g. video because they offer better
sound and picture quality than CDs.

III. Optical Card

It resembles the magnetic ink character reader card but users an optical recordable stripe
that store information instead of the magnetic stripe. Mainly used in banks and
companies

IV. Optical Tape

It's similar to a magnetic tape only that data is stored using optical technology

V. Photo CD
This CD is used to process – photographic film or negatives to produce and store high
quality photographs on a CD-R

Advantages of Optical Storage

(a) Have massive capacity (d) Secured [Link]'s hard to copy
(b) Stores data permanently (e) High quality pictures and sound
(c) Accessing of data is fast (f) Portable

Disadvantages of Optical Storage

(a) Expensive
(b) Costly hardware and software for reading
(c) Break easily (it’s fragile)

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 (d) Very sensitive to things like dust, water, heat, scratches which easily damage them

iv. Flash disk

 This is most current storage device in the market.
 It has a massive storage area, more reliable and portable.
 It’s small in size and can store over 1GB of information

Fixed Storage Devices

These are storage devices that are housed inside the computer system unit

Examples of Fixed Storage Devices

(a) Hard disk (Winchester)
They are made from metal and are coated with a thin film magnetic oxide. The hard disk unit
is made of shiny, rigid magnetic disks or platters that are arranged vertically on a common
axis. They can hold thousands of programs and files.

Types of Hard Disks

 Internal hard disk
Data Is written to and read from the internal disk through magnetic needle like heads.
 External hard disk
They are removable storage media cable of storing over a treble of information. Any
internal hard drive can be placed in a hard drive enclosure and used as external hard drive

Advantages of Hard disk

(a) It's cheap
(b) Very reliable
(c) Does not deteriorate as quickly as floppy
(d) More storage capacity
(e) Accessing of data is faster

Disadvantages of Hard disk

(a) They can suffer a head crash resulting to loss of data
(b) They are sensitive to thing like dust, humidity, magnetic which can corrupt the data
stored
(c) They are inflexible i.e., cannot be changed

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