Introduction to

Computing
John Louis Mercaral, MIS
What is a computer?
A computer is an electronic device that can receive, store, process,
and output data. It is a machine that can perform a variety of tasks and
operations, ranging from simple calculations to complex simulations
and artificial intelligence.

The history of computers can be traced back to the 19th century when
mechanical devices such as the Analytical Engine and tabulating
machines were developed. Today, computers are widely used in
various industries such as education, finance, healthcare, and
entertainment, and they have revolutionized the way we live, work,
and communicate.
Characteristics of Computer System

Speed Accuracy Reliability

works faster and more have better accuracy than produces consistent results
accurately than human. the work done by a human
being

Automation Versatility Memory

conducts tasks automatically performs multiple and stores millions of records
after instructions are different tasks at the same
programmed time
Advantage of Computer Disadvantage of Computer

• Multitasking • Virus and hacking attacks

• Speed • Online Cyber Crimes
• Accuracy • Reduction in employed
• Data Security opportunity
• Task completer • High Cost
• Communication • Distractions/disruptions
• Productivity • Increases waste and impacts
• Reduces workload the environment
• Reliability • Health Problems
• Storage
Origin of Computers

Pascaline
Napier’s Bones
Abacus also called an Arithmetic Machine
or Adding Machine. A French
A manually operated
mathematician-philosopher Blaise
calculating device and as the
Around 4000 years ago, the Pascal invented this between 1642
name indicates, it was invented
Chinese invented the Abacus, and 1644. It was the first
by John Napier.
and it is believed to be the first mechanical and automatic
computer. calculator.
Origin of Computers

Analytical Engine
Difference Engine
Stepped Reckoner Again in 1830 Charles Babbage
developed another calculating
Charles Babbage who is also
machine which was Analytical
known as the “Father of Modern
A German mathematician- Engine. Analytical Engine was a
Computer” designed the
philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm mechanical computer that used
Difference Engine in the early
Leibniz in 1673 developed this punch cards as input.
1820s. Difference Engine was a
device by improving Pascal’s
mechanical computer which is
invention to develop this
capable of performing simple
machine.
calculations.
 Origin of Computers

Mark I
Differential Analyzer
Tabulating Machine In 1937, Howard Aiken initiated
plans for a machine to handle large
The Differential Analyzer,
calculations. This led to the 1944
introduced in 1930 in the United
Herman Hollerith, an American creation of the Mark I computer by
States, was the first electronic
statistician invented this machine IBM and Harvard, the first
computer. It was an analog device
in the year 1890. Tabulating programmable digital computer.
invented by Vannevar Bush,
Machine was a mechanical
utilizing vacuum tubes to switch
tabulator that was based on punch
electrical signals for performing
cards.
calculations.
Five Generations
of Computers
1 Gen st
1940s-1950s
• Main electronic component – vacuum tube
• Main memory – magnetic drums and magnetic tapes
• Programming language – machine language
• Power – consume a lot of electricity and generate a lot of heat.
• Speed and size – very slow and very large in size (often taking up
entire room).
• Input/output devices – punched cards and paper tape.
• Examples – ENIAC, UNIVAC1, IBM 650, IBM 701, etc.
• Quantity – there were about 100 different vacuum tube
computers produced between 1942 and1963.
2 Gen nd
1950s-1960s
• Main electronic component – transistor
• Memory – magnetic core and magnetic tape / disk
• Programming language – assembly language
• Power and size – low power consumption, generated less heat,
and smaller in size (in comparison with the first generation
computers).
• Speed – improvement of speed and reliability (in comparison
with the first generation computers).
• Input/output devices – punched cards and magnetic tape.
• Examples – IBM 1401, IBM 7090 and 7094, UNIVAC 1107, etc.
3 Gen rd
1960s-1970s
• Main electronic component – integrated circuits (ICs)
• Memory – large magnetic core, magnetic tape / disk
• Programming language – high level language (FORTRAN,
BASIC, Pascal, COBOL, C, etc.)
• Size – smaller, cheaper, and more efficient than second
generation computers (they were called minicomputers).
• Speed – improvement of speed and reliability (in comparison
with the second generation computers).
• Input / output devices – magnetic tape, keyboard, monitor, printer,
etc.
• Examples – IBM 360, IBM 370, PDP-11, UNIVAC 1108, etc.
4 Gen th
1970s-2010s
• Main electronic component – very large-scale integration (VLSI) and
microprocessor.
• Programming language – high level language (Python, C#, Java, JavaScript,
Rust, Kotlin, etc.)
• Size – smaller, cheaper and more efficient than third generation computers.
• Speed – improvement of speed, accuracy, and reliability (in comparison with
the third generation computers).
• Input / output devices – keyboard, pointing devices, optical scanning, monitor,
printer, etc.
• Examples – IBM PC, STAR 1000, APPLE II, Apple Macintosh, etc.
5 Gen th
Present and Future
• Main electronic component: based on artificial intelligence using
ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration)
• Language – understand natural language (human language).
• Power – consume less power and generate less heat.
• Speed – remarkable improvement of speed, accuracy and reliability
(in comparison with the fourth generation computers).
• Size – portable and small in size, and have a huge storage capacity.
• Input / output device – keyboard, monitor, mouse, trackpad (or
touchpad), touchscreen, pen, speech input (recognize voice /
speech), light scanner, printer, etc.
• Example – desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.
 Types of
Computers
Supercomputer
• Supercomputers are the computers that are the fastest
and they are also very expensive.
• It was first developed by Roger Cray in 1976.
• It can calculate up to ten trillion individual
calculations per second, this is also the reason which
makes it even faster.
• It is used in the stock market or big organizations
for managing the online currency world such as Bitcoin
etc.
• It is used in scientific research areas for analyzing data
obtained from exploring the solar system, satellites,
etc.
Mainframe Computer
• It is also an expensive or costly computer.
• The first successful mainframe computer is invented by
IBM.
• It has high storage capacity and great performance.
• Mainframe computer’s speed is comparatively less than
Supercomputers.
• It can process a huge amount of data (like data
involved in the banking sector) very quickly.
• It runs smoothly for a long time and has a long life.
Minicomputer
• Minicomputer is a medium size multiprocessing
computer.
• There are two or more processors, and it supports 4 to
200 users at one time.
• Its weight is low.
• Because of its low weight, it is easy to carry anywhere.
• less expensive than a mainframe computer.
• It is fast.
Workstation Computer
• A workstation computer is designed for technical or
scientific applications.
• It consists of a fast microprocessor, with a large
amount of RAM and a high-speed graphic adapter.
• It is a single-user computer.
• It is expensive or high in cost.
• They are exclusively made for complex work purposes.
• It provides large storage capacity, better graphics, and a
more powerful CPU when compared to a PC.
Personal Computer (PC)
• Personal Computers is also known as a microcomputer.
It is basically a general-purpose computer designed for
individual use.
• It consists of a microprocessor as a central processing
unit(CPU), memory, input unit, and output unit.
• This kind of computer is suitable for personal work
such as making an assignment, watching a movie, or at
the office for office work, etc.
• It is the smallest in size.
Other Types
Server Computer Analog Computer
are computers that are combined data are particularly designed to process
and programs. Electronic data and analog data. Continuous data that
applications are stored and shared in changes continuously and cannot have
the server computer. discrete values are called analog data.

Digital Computer Tablet & Smartphones

are designed in such a way that they are the types of computers that are
can easily perform calculations and pocket friendly and easy to carry is
logical operations at high speed. these are handy. This is one of the best
use of modern technology.
 Classification of Computers
The computer systems can be classified on the following basis:

Size Functionality Data Handling

• Microcomputers: Small, individual • Servers: Manage network resources • Analog Computers: Continuous
use. and provide services. data.
• Minicomputers: Medium-sized, • Workstations: High-performance • Digital Computers: Binary data.
multi-user. for technical/scientific tasks. • Hybrid Computers: Combination of
• Mainframes: Large, enterprise-level • Embedded Systems: Specialized, continuous and discrete data.
processing. task-specific integration.
• Supercomputers: Extremely
powerful, specialized
computations.
Components of
Computer
John Louis Mercaral, MIS
 Parts of Computer System

01 02
Hardware Software
consists of the mechanical parts that set of instructions that tells the
make up the computer as a machine. computer about the tasks to be
performed and how
these tasks are to be performed.

03 04
Data User
are isolated values or raw facts, are people who write computer
which by themselves have no much programs or interact with the
significance. computer.
The Input-Process-Output Concept
A computer is an electronic device that (1) accepts data, (2) processes data, (3) generates output, and (4) stores data. The concept of
generating output information from the input 4 data is also referred to as input-process-output concept.

Input Process Output

The computer accepts input data The computer processes the input The output is the result generated
from the user via an input device data. For this, it performs some after the processing of data. The
like keyboard. The input data can actions on the data by using the output may be in the form of text,
be characters, word, text, sound, instructions or program given by sound, image, document, etc.
images, document, etc. the user of the data.
Functional Components of a Computer
Input/Output
Unit
• The user interacts with the computer via the I/O unit.
• The Input unit accepts data from the user and the Output unit
provides the processed data i.e. the information to the user.
• The Input unit converts the data that it accepts from the user, into a
form that is understandable by the computer.
• Similarly, the Output unit provides the output in a form that is
understandable by the user.
• The input is provided to the computer using input devices like
keyboard, trackball and mouse.
• Some of the commonly used output devices are monitor and printer.
Central Processing
Unit
• CPU controls, coordinates and supervises the operations of the computer.
It is responsible for processing of the input data. CPU consists of
Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) and Control Unit (CU).
 ALU performs all the arithmetic and logic operations on the input
data.
 CU controls the overall operations of the computer i.e. it checks
the sequence of execution of instructions, and, controls and
coordinates the overall functioning of the units of computer.
• Additionally, CPU also has a set of registers for temporary storage of
data, instructions, addresses and intermediate results of calculation.
Arithmetic Logic
Unit
• ALU consists of two units—arithmetic unit and logic unit.
• The arithmetic unit performs arithmetic operations on the data that is
made available to it. Some of the arithmetic operations supported by the
arithmetic unit are—addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
• The logic unit of ALU is responsible for performing logic operations.
Logic unit performs comparisons of numbers, letters and special
characters. Logic operations include testing for greater than, less than or
equal to condition.
• ALU performs arithmetic and logic operations, and uses registers to hold
the data that is being processed.
Registers
• Registers are high-speed storage areas within the CPU, but have the least
storage capacity. Registers are not referenced by their address, but are
directly accessed and manipulated by the CPU during instruction
execution.
• Registers store data, instructions, addresses and intermediate results of
processing.
• Registers are often referred to as the CPU’s working memory.
• The data and instructions that require processing must be brought in the
registers of CPU before they can be processed. For example, if two
numbers are to be added, both numbers are brought in the registers, added
and the result is also placed in a register.
Registers
• Registers are used for different purposes, with each register serving a
specific purpose. Some of the important registers in CPU are as follows—
• Accumulator (ACC) stores the result of arithmetic and logic
operations.
• Instruction Register (IR) contains the current instruction most
recently fetched.
• Program Counter (PC) contains the address of next instruction to
be processed.
• Memory Address Register (MAR) contains the address of next
location in the memory to be accessed.
• Memory Buffer Register (MBR) temporarily stores data from
memory or the data to be sent to memory.
• Data Register (DR) stores the operands and any other data.
Control
Unit
• The control unit (CU) organizes data and instruction processing, acting
as a supervisor for other computer units.
• It coordinates input and output devices and directs the execution of stored
program instructions.
• The CU uses the Instruction Register (IR) to determine which circuits to
activate and instructs the ALU to perform operations.
• The Program Counter (PC) register tracks the next program instruction
during execution.
• The CU holds the CPU's Instruction Set, listing all operations the CPU
can perform.
Memory
Unit
• Memory unit stores the data, instructions, intermediate results and
output, temporarily, during the processing of data. This memory is
also called the main memory or primary memory of the computer.
• The input data that is to be processed is brought into the main
memory before processing.
• The instructions required for processing of data and any intermediate
results are also stored in the main memory.
• The output is stored in memory before being transferred to the output
device.
Activity: Exploring the Applications
of Computers
Computers have proliferated into various areas of our lives. For a user, computer is a
tool that provides the desired information, whenever needed.

To understand the diverse applications of computers in various fields, you will be

divided into groups. Explain the importance of computers in the assigned
field(Transportation, Entertainment and Social Media, Healthcare, Finance and
Business, and Education) and include overview, examples, benefits, and impacts.