COMPUTER SYSTEM

1.1 INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SYSTEM “A computer would

A computer is an electronic device that can be deserve to be
programmed to accept data (input), process it and called intelligent if
generate result (output). it could deceive a
human into
believing that it
A computer system primarily comprises a central
processing unit (CPU), memory, input/output devices
was human.”
and storage devices. –Alan
. Turing
Figure 1.1 shows the block diagram of a computer
system. The directed lines represent the flow of data
and signal between the components.
Secondary Storage Devices

PrimaryMemory
Inthischapter
» Introduction to ComputerSystem
InputDevice ControlUnit (CU) OutputDevice » EvolutionofComputer
» ComputerMemory
» Data Transfer betweenMemory and CPU
ArithmeticLogicUnit (ALU)
» Data andInformation
» Microprocessors
Central Processing
Unit(CPU) » Software
Figure 1.1:Components of a computer system » OperatingSystem

1.1.1 CentralProcessingUnit(CPU)
It is the electronic circuitry of a computer that carries
out the actual processing and usually referred as the
brain of the computer.
It is commonly called processor also.
.

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The CPU is given instructions and data through

programs.
The CPU then fetches the program and data from
the memory and performs arithmetic and logic
operations as per the given instructions and stores
the result back to memory.
Keyboard

While processing, the CPU stores the data as

wellas instructions in its local memory called
Mouse
registers.

Other than the registers, the CPU has two main

Components—Arithmetic Logic Unit(ALU) and Control
Scanner Unit (CU).
ALU performs all the arithmetic and logic operations
Figure 1.2:Inputdevices that need to be done asper the instruction in a
program.
TouchScreen
CU controls computer’s memory, ALU and input or
output devices.
CPU is also popularly known as microprocessor.

Input Devices

The devices through which control signals are sent to

a computer are termed as input devices.
These devices convert the input data into a digital
form
. Some examples of input devices include
Keyboard ,mouse, scanner, touch screen,etc.,
we can now enter data through voice, for example,
Displaymonitor
we can use Google voice search to search the web

Data entered through input device is temporarily

stored in the main memory (also called RAM)
Speaker
For permanent storage and future use, the data as
well as instructions are stored permanently in
additional storage locations called secondary
Printer
memory.
Figure
1.3:Outputdevices 1.1.2 Output Devices
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3Dprinter
 2 COMPUTERSCIENCE–CLASSXI

The device that

receives data from a
computer system for
display is called
output device.
It converts digital
information into
human-
understandable form.
For example,
monitor, projector,
head phone, speaker,
printer,etc. Some
output devices.

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A printer is the most commonly used device to get

output in physical (hardcopy) form.
Three types of commonly used printers are inkjet,
laserjet and dot matrix.
Now-a-days, there is a new type of printer called
3D-printer.
1.1.3 Units of Memory
A computer system uses binary numbers to store and
process data.
The binary digits 0 and 1, which are the basic units of
memory, are called bits.
A 4-bit wordis called a Nibble.
Examples of nibble are 1001, 1010, 0010,etc.
Atwonibbleword,i.e.,8-bitwordis
calleda byte,forexample,01000110,01111100,10000001,etc.
.

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Table1.1Measurementunitsfordigital data
Unit Description Unit Description
KB (Kilobyte) 1KB=1024 Bytes PB 1PB=1024 TB
(Petabyte)
MB(Megabyt 1MB=1024 KB EB 1EB=1024 PB
e) (Exabyte)
GB 1GB=1024 MB ZB 1ZB=1024 EB
(Gigabyte) (Zettabyte)
TB 1TB=1024 GB YB 1YB=1024 ZB
(Terabyte) (Yottabyte)

1.1.4 Types of Memory

computers have two types of memory — primary and
secondary.
(A) PrimaryMemory
Primary memory is an essential component of a
computer system.
Program and data are loaded into the primary
memory before processing.
The CPU interacts directly with the primary memory
to perform read or write operation.
It is of two types viz.
(i) Random Access Memory (RAM)
(ii) Read Only Memory (ROM).
RAM is volatile ,i.e.,as long as the power is
supplied to the computer, it retains the data in it.
But as soon as the power supply is turned off, all
the contents of RAM are wiped out. It is used to store
data temporarily while the computer is working.
RAM is usually referred to as main memory and it
is faster than the secondary memory or storage
devices.
ROM is non-volatile, which means its contents are
not lost even when the power is turned off.
It is used as a small but faster permanent storage
for the contents which are rarely changed.
CacheMemory
RAM is faster than secondary storage, but not as fast
as a computer processor. So, because of RAM ,a CPU

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 COMPUTERSYSTEM 5

may have to slow down.

To speed up the operations of the CPU, a very high speed memory is placed
between the CPU and the primary memory known as cache.
It stores the copies of the data from frequently accessed primary memory
locations, thus, reducing the average time required to access data from
primary memory.
When the CPU needs some data, it first examines the cache otherwise the
primary memory is accessed.
(B) SecondaryMemory
Primary memory has limited storage capacity and is either volatile (RAM) or
read-only (ROM).
Thus, a computer system needs auxiliary or secondary memory to
permanently store the data or instructions for future use.
The secondary memory is non-volatile and has larger storage capacity
Than primary memory.
It is slower and cheaper than the main memory.
But, it cannot be accessed directly by the CPU.
Contents of secondary storage need to be first brought into the main memory
for the CPU to access.
Examples of secondary memory devices include Hard Disk Drive (HDD), CD/
DVD, Memory Card, etc.,
Data transfer between computers have become easier and simple due to
the availability of small-sized and portable flash or pen drives.

1.2 SOFTWARE
Till now, we have studied about the physical
components or the hardware of the computer
system.
Hardware needs to be operated by a set of
instructions.
These sets of instructions are referred to as software.
It is that component of a computer system, which
we can not touch or view physically.

1.2.1 Need of Software

The sole purpose of a software is to make the computer hardware useful and
operational.
Software acts as an interface between human users and the hardware.
software can be broadly classified into three categories viz.
(i) System software,
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(ii) Application software

I ) System software,

A system software knows how to operate and use different

hardware components of a computer.
Examples of system software include operating systems,
system utilities, device drivers, etc

(A) Operating System

An operating system is the most basic system software, without
which other software cannot work.
Some of the popular operating systems are Windows, Linux,
Macintosh, Ubuntu, Fedora, Android, iOS, etc.

(C) System Utilities

Software used for maintenance and configuration of the
computer system is called system utility
for example, anti-virus software, disk cleaner
tool, disk compression software, etc.
(C) Device Drivers
the purpose of a device driver is to ensure proper functioning of a particular
device.
But everyday new devices and components are being added to a computer
system. . The responsibility for overall control, operation and management of a
particular device at the hardware level is delegated to its device driver.
The device driver acts as an interface between the
device and the operating system.
1.2.2 ProgrammingTools
Inorder to get some workdone by
the computer, we need to give
instructionswhichareappliedonthein
put datatogetthedesired outcome.
Computerlanguagesaredeveloped
Figure1.13:Categorisationofsoftware for writing these instructions.

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It is important to understand here that computers As the

and humans understand completely different computer can
languages. While humans are able to write programs understand
in high-level language, computers understand only machine
machine language. There is a continuous need for language, a
conversion from high level to machine level translator is
language, for which translators are needed. Also, to needed to
write the instruction, code editors convert
(e.g.,IDLEinPython)[Link] program
retheprogramminglanguages,languagetranslators writteninasse
and program development tools. mblyorhighlev
(A) ClassificationofProgrammingLanguages ellanguageto
It is very difficult for a human being to write machine
[Link] of
computer programming languages are developed to
simplify the coding. Two major categories of
computer programming languages are low-level
languages and high-level languages.
Low-
levellanguagesaremachinedependentlanguagesandincl
udemachinelanguageandassemblylanguage. Machine
language uses 1s and 0s to write instructions which
are directly understood and executed by the
computer. But writing a code in machine language is
difficult as one has to remember all operation codes
[Link]
written in machine language is difficult.
To simplify the writing of code, assembly language
wasdevelopedthatallowedusageofEnglish-likewords
and symbols instead of 1s and 0s. But one major
drawback of writing a code in this language is that
the code is computer specific, i.e., the code written
for one type of CPU cannot be used for another type
of CPU.
High level languages are machine independent
and are simpler to write code into. Instructions are
using English like sentences and each high level
language follows a set of rules, similar to natural
languages. However, these languages are not
directly understood by the computer. Hence,
translators are needed to translate high-level
language codes into machine
[Link]++,
Java, Python, etc.
(B) LanguageTranslators
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NOTES

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 COMPUTERSYSTEM 9

Code in high levellanguage language. The program code written in assembly or

(SourceCode)
high-level language is called source code. The source
code is converted by a translator into the machine
understandable form called object (machine) code as
depicted in Figure 1.14.
Language translater
As we have different types of computer
languages, different translators are needed to
convert the source code to machine code. The three
types of translators used in computing systems are
Codeinmachinelanguage
(ObjectCode) assembler, compiler and interpreter.
Thetranslatorusedtoconvertthecodewrittenin
Figure1.14:Translatorto assembly language to machine language is called
convert source code assembler. Each assembler can understand a specific
into object code microprocessor instruction set only and hence, the
machine code is not portable.
We also need translators to convert codes
writtenin high level language (source code) to
machine understandable form (machine code) for
execution by the computer. Compiler converts the
source code into machine code. If the code follows all
syntactic rules of
thelanguage,[Link]
translated, the compiler is not needed.
Aninterpretertranslatesonelineatatimeinsteadofth
[Link],
convertsitintoexecutablecodeifthelineissyntacticallyco
rrect, and then it repeats these steps for all lines in
the source code. Hence, interpreter is always needed
whenever a source code is to be executed.
(C) Program Development Tools
Whenever we decide to write a program, we need a
text
[Link]
lewherewetypeinstructionsandstorethefileasthesourc
[Link]
[Link] the program
development, there are software called Integrated
Development Environment (IDE) consisting of text
editor, building tools and debugger. A program can
be typed, compiled and debugged from the IDE
[Link],Netbeans,Eclipse,Atom,
Lazarus are few other examples of IDEs. Debugger,
as the name implies, is the software to detect and
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 10 COMPUTERSCIENCE–CLASSXI

correct errors in the

source code.

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 COMPUTERSYSTEM 1

1.2.3 ApplicationSoftware Activity1.7

With the help of your teacher, install one applicationsoftwarein your computer.
The system software provides the core functionality
of
[Link],differentusersneedthec
omputersystemfordifferentpurposesdependingupon
their requirements. Hence, a new category of
software is needed to cater to different requirements
of the end- users. This specific software that works
on top of the
[Link]
reagaintwobroadcategoriesofapplicationsoftware—
A computer systemcan work without application software, but it cannot work without system software. For example, wecanuseacomputer even if no w
is installed, butgeneral
if no operating purpose and
system is installed, customised
we cannot application
workonthecomputer.
Inotherwords,theuseofcomputerispossible
software. in the absence of application software.

(A) GeneralPurposeSoftware
The application software developed for generic
applications, to cater to a bigger audience in general
are called general purpose software. Such ready-
made application software can be used by end users
as per
[Link],spreadsheettoolCalc
of LibreOffice can be used by any computer user to
do
[Link],
GIMP, Mozilla web browser, iTunes, etc., fall in the
category of general purpose software.
(B) CustomisedSoftware
These are custom or tailor-made application
software,
thataredevelopedtomeettherequirementsofaspecifico
rganisation or an individual. They are better suited to
theneedsofanindividualoranorganisation,consideringth
[Link]
mples of user-defined software include websites,
school management software, accounting
software,etc. It
issimilartobuyingapieceofclothandgettinga tailor-
made garment with the fitting, colour, and fabric of
our choice.
for anyone with the required knowledge to improve
or add new functionality. More examples of FOSS
include Python, Libreoffice, Openoffice, Mozilla
Firefox, etc.
Sometimes,softwarearefreelyavailableforusebut
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1.2.4 ProprietaryorFreeandOpenSourceSoftware
le Activity1.8
Wih the help of your teacher, install onefree and open source applicationsoftwareon your computer.

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 COMPUTERSYSTEM 3

ThinkandReflect
OPERATINGSYSTEM
When a computer is
turned on, who brings An operating system (OS) can be considered to be a
the OS into RAM from resourcemanagerwhichmanagesalltheresourcesofa
the secondary computer,i.e.,itshardwareincludingCPU,RAM,Disk,
storage?
Networkandotherinput-
[Link]
eanddevicedrivers,managessystem security and
handles access by different users. It is the most
important system software. Examples of popular OS
are Windows, Linux, Android, Macintosh and so on.
The primary objectives of an operating system are
[Link]
running application programs. When an application
program needs to be run, it is the operating system
whichloadsthatprogramintomemoryandallocates it to

Types of User Interface of OperatingSystem

Command-basedInterface

GraphicalUser Interface

Touch-based Interface

Voice-based Interface

for anyone with

Gesture-based the required knowledge to improve
Interface
or add new functionality. More examples of FOSS
include Python, Libreoffice, Openoffice, Mozilla
Figure1.15:Typesofuser the CPU for execution. When multiple application
Firefox,
interface of OS etc.
programsneedtoberun,theoperatingsystemdecides
Sometimes,softwarearefreelyavailableforusebut
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 4 COMPUTERSCIENCE–CLASSXI

the order of the

execution.
The second
objective of an
operating system is
to
provideaninterfaceto
theuserthroughwhich
theuser can interact
with the computer. A
user interface is a
software component
which is a part of the
operating system
and whose job is to
take commands or
inputs from a user
for the operating
system to process.
1.2.5 OSUserInterfa
ce
Therearedifferenttype
sofuserinterfaceseac
hofwhichprovidesadi
fferentfunctionality.S
omecommonlyused
interfaces are shown
in Figure 1.15.
(A) Command-
basedInterface
Command-based
interface requires a
user to enter the
commandstoperform
differenttaskslikecrea
ting,

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 COMPUTERSYSTEM 1

opening, editing or deleting a file, etc. The user has rovide other
to remember the names of all such programs or means of
specific commands which the operating system human-
supports. computer
The primary input device used by the user for interaction.
command based interface is the keyboard. Command Userstodayca
based interface is often less interactive and usually nusevoice-
allows a user to run a single program at a time. basedcomma
Examplesofoperatingsystemswithcommand-based ndstomakeac
interface include MS-DOS and Unix. omputerworki
(B) Graphical User Interface nthedesiredw
GraphicalUserInterface(GUI)letsusersrunprograms or [Link]
give instructions to the computer in the form of ting
icons, menus and other visual options. Icons usually
represent files and programs stored on the computer
andwindowsrepresentrunningprogramsthattheuser
has launched through the operating system.
TheinputdevicesusedtointeractwiththeGUI
commonly include the mouse and the keyboard.
Examples of operating systems with GUI interfaces
include Microsoft Windows, Ubuntu, Fedora and
Macintosh, among others.
(C) Touch-basedInterface
Today smartphones, tablets and PCs allow users to
interact with the system simply using the touch
input. Using the touchscreen, a user provides inputs
to the operating system, which are interpreted by the
OS as
commandslikeopeninganapp,closinganapp,dialing a
number, scrolling across apps, etc.
Examplesofpopularoperatingsystemswithtouch-
based interfaces are Android and iOS. Windows
8.1 and 10 also support touch-based interfaces on
touchscreen devices.
(D) Voice-basedInterface
Modern computers have been designed to address
the
needsofalltypesofusersincludingpeoplewithspecial
needs and people who want to interact with
computers
[Link]
who cannot use the input devices like the mouse,
keyboard,andtouchscreens,modernoperatingsystemsp
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 2 COMPUTERSCIENCE–CLASSXI

NOTES

istogive(allocate)andtake(free)memoryfromrunning
processes. Since there are multiple processes
running atatime,therearisesaneedtodynamically(on-
the-go) allocate and free memory to the processes.
Operating system should do it without affecting other
processes that are already residing in the memory
and once the process is finished, it is again the
responsibility of the
operatingsystemtotakethememoryspacebackforre-
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 COMPUTERSYSTEM 3

systems which provide voice-based control to users

includeiOS(Siri),Android(GoogleNowor“OKGoogle”),
Microsoft Windows 10 (Cortana) and so on.
(E) Gesture-basedInterface
Some smartphones based on Android and iOS as well
as laptops let users interact with the devices using
gestures like waving, tilting, eye motion and shaking.
This technology is evolving faster and it has
promising potential for application in gaming,
medicine andother areas.
1.2.6 FunctionsofOperating System
Now let us explore the important services and tasks
that an operating system provides for managing the
computer system.
(A) Process Management

Whileacomputersystemisoperational,differenttasks
are running simultaneously. A program is intended to
carry out various tasks. A task in execution is known
Operating system is called resource manager as it managesdifferentresources
as process. like main
We memory,
can CPU,I/O devices, so
activate a thatsystem
each resourcemonitor
is used optimally
andsystemperformancedoes not deteriorate.
program that provides information about the
processes being executed on a computer. In some
systems it can be activated using Ctrl+Alt+Delete. It
is the responsibility of operating system to manage
these processes and get multiple tasks completed in
minimum time. As CPU is the main resource of
computer system, its allocation among processes is
the most important service of the
[Link]
themanagementofmultipleprocesses,allocationof
required resources, and exchange of information
among processes.
(B) MemoryManagement
Primary or main memory of a computer system is

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4 COMPUTERSCIENCE–CLASSXI

[Link] management

istogive(allocate)andtake(free)memoryfromrunning
processes. Since there are multiple processes
running atatime,therearisesaneedtodynamically(on-
the-go) allocate and free memory to the processes.
Operating system should do it without affecting other
processes that are already residing in the memory
and once the process is finished, it is again the
responsibility of the
operatingsystemtotakethememoryspacebackforre-
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[Link],memorymanagementconcernswith
NOTES
managementofmainmemorysothatmaximummemoryis
occupied or utilised by large number of processes
while keeping track of each and every location within
the memory as free or occupied.
(C) FileManagement
Data and programs are stored as files in the
secondary
[Link]
hecreation,updation,deletionandprotectionofthese
files in the secondary memory. Protection is a crucial
function of an operating system, as multiple users
can access and use a computer system. There must
be a
mechanisminplacethatwillstopusersfromaccessing
files that belong to some other user and have not
been shared with them. File management system
manages
secondarymemory,whilememorymanagementsystem
handles the main memory of a computer system.
(D) DeviceManagement
AcomputersystemhasmanyI/Odevicesandhardware
connected to it. Operating system manages these
heterogeneous devices that are interdependent. The
operatingsysteminteractswiththedevicedriverandthere
lated software for a particular device. The operating
systemmustalsoprovidetheoptionsforconfiguring a
particular device, so that it may be used by an end
user or some other device. Just like files, devices also
need security measures and their access to different
devices must be restricted by the operating system
to theauthorisedusers,softwareandotherhardwareonly.

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SUMMARY
A computing device, also referred as computer, processes the input data as per given instructions to generate desired output.
Computer system has four physicalcomponentsviz.(i) CPU, (ii) Primary Memory, (iii) Input Device and (iv) Output Devices.
Computer system has two types of primary memoriesviz.(i)RAM,thevolatilememoryand
(ii) ROM, the non-volatilememory.

istogive(allocate)andtake(free)memoryfromrunning
processes. Since there are multiple processes
running atatime,therearisesaneedtodynamically(on-
the-go) allocate and free memory to the processes.
Operating system should do it without affecting other
processes that are already residing in the memory
and once the process is finished, it is again the
responsibility of the
operatingsystemtotakethememoryspacebackforre-
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NOTES (A) System bus is used to transfer data,

addresses and control signals between
components of the computer system.
(B) A microprocessor is a small-sized electronic
component inside a computer that
performsbasic arithmetic and logical operations
on data.
(C) Microcontrollerisasmallcomputingdevicewhich
hasaCPU,afixedamountofRAM,ROMandother
peripherals embedded on a single chip.
(D) Softwareisasetofinstructionswrittentoachievet
hedesiredtasksandaremainlycategorised as
system software, programming toolsand
application software.
(E) Hardwareofacomputercannotfunctiononitsown.I
t needs software to be operational or functional.
(F) Operatingsystemisaninterfacebetweentheuser
and the computer and supervises the workingof
computersystem,i.e.,itmonitorsandcontrolsthe
hardware and software of the computer system.

EXERCISE
1. Namethesoftwarerequiredtomakeacomputer
functional. Write down its two primary services.
2. Howdoesthecomputerunderstandaprogramwritte
n in high level language?
3. Whyistheexecutiontimeofthemachinecodeless
than that of source code?
4. What is the need of RAM? How does it differ from
ROM?
5. Whatistheneedforsecondarymemory?
6. How do different components of the computer
communicate with each other?
7. [Link]
ite about the functionality of each component.
8. What is the primary role of system bus? Why is
data bus is bidirectional while address bus is
unidirectional?
9. Differentiate between proprietary software and
[Link].

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 2 COMPUTERSCIENCE–CLASSXI

10. Write the main difference between that have

microcontroller a
[Link] microcont
ave a microcontroller instead of microprocessor roller.
embedded in them?
11. Mention the different types of data that you deal
with while browsing the Internet.
12. Categorise the following data as structured,
semi- structured and unstructured:
• Newspaper
• CricketMatch Score
• HTMLPage
• Patientrecords in a hospital
13. Nametheinputoroutputdeviceusedtodothefollowin
g:
a) Tooutputaudio
b) Toenter textual data
c) Tomakehardcopyofatextfile
d) Todisplaythedataorinformation
e) Toenteraudio-basedcommand
f) Tobuild3Dmodels
g) To assist a visually-impaired individual in
entering data
14. Identify the category (system,
application, programming tool) of the
following software:
a) Compiler
b) Assembler
c) Ubuntu
d) Text editor

EXPLOREYOURSELF
1. Ask your teacher to help you locate any two
device drivers installed on your computer.
2. Writeanytwosystemsoftwareandtwoapplication
software installed on your computer.
3. Whichmicroprocessordoesyourpersonalcomputerh
ave? Which generation does it belong to?
4. Whatistheclockspeedofyourmicroprocessor?
5. Name any two devices in your school or home
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NOTES

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4 COMPUTERSCIENCE–CLASSXI

NOTE 6. Check the size of RAM and HDD of a computer in

S your school. Make a table and write their size in
Bytes, Kilobytes, Megabytes and Gigabytes.
7. List all secondary storage devices available at
your school or home.
8. Which operating system is installed on your
computer at home or school?

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