Chapter 1

Overview of Computers
and
Software

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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What is a computer?

A computer is a device that can be instructed

to carry out an arbitrary set of arithmetic or
logical operations automatically.
A computer is a device that can follow
instructions to accept input, process the input
and then produce information.

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 History of computer
Pre-20th century
The abacus is invented,
probably in Babylonia

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 1642 - Blaise Pascal builds the first
numerical calculating machine that
can add and subtract.

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 1672 Gottfried Leibnitz

builds and creates a machine

that can add, subtract,
multiply and divide
automatically

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 1805 - Josef-Marie Jacquard invents
perforated card for use on his loom

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 1833 - Charles Baggage desings
the analytical machine that follows
instructions from punched cards

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 1890- Hermann Hollerith constructs
an electromechanical machine using
perforated cards

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 First Generation(1941-1956)
(electronic)

1941- Konrad Zuse builds the Z3

computer, the first calculating machine
with automatic control of its operations

10010101

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 1943 -Colossus, a British computer
used for code-breaking

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 1944- Mark I . It is relay-based
computer for the U.S.Navy

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 1946 - ENIAC first electronic
computer with 18000 vacuum tubes
and it weighed 80 tons.It could do
5000 additions and 360
multiplications per second

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 1951 UNIVAC used a magnetic tape
unit as a buffer memory

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 Second Generation(1956-1963)
By 1947, the invention of the transistor greatly
changed the computers developement.The
transistor replaced the large,unpractical vacuum
tube in computers. Computers came
smaller,faster,more reliable and more energy-
efficent

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 Third Generation(1964-1971)
Integrated circuits semiconductor devices with
several transistors built into one physical
component.Texas Instrument and Fairchild both
announce the integrated circuit 1959

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 Fourth Generation(1971-present)
Intel 4004 chip took the integrated circuit one
step further by locating all the components of
a computer on silicon chip.Whereas
previously had manufactured to fit a special
purpose, now one microprosessor could be
manufactured and programmed to meet any
number of demands.Other Intel prosessors
8008, 8086, 80286, 80386, 80486, pentium,
pentium pro,pentium II,pentium III
and pentium IV.

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 Fifth Generation(present -)
There are thousand processors or more that
work parallel processing as one
processor.The most famous example of fifth
generation computer is the HAL 9000. It use
visual input, voice recognitation and learn its
own experiences.Advance superconductor
technology allows the flow of electricity with
no or little resistance, greatly improving the
speed of information flow.

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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Computers are made of

1. HARDWARE
2. SOFTWARE

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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Hardware

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
20

Hardware

CPU

memory

motherboard

hard drive
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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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Input Devices

Translate data from form that humans

understand to one that the computer can
work with
Most common are keyboard and mouse

Selector Buttons

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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Examples of Input Devices

1. Keyboard (QWERTY keyboard, ATMs keyboard)
ATM: automatic teller machine
2. Mouse
3. Scanner
4. Pre-storage Devise (Disk, CDs, etc.)
5. Optical mark recognition (Light Pin , Bar code
scanners)
6. Microphone
7. Joystick .

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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Examples of Input Devices(2)

8. Point and Draw devices

9. Trackball
10. Touchpad
11. Touch screen
12. Magnetic stripes and smart cars.
13. Digital Cameras

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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CPU
Output Devices
Pieces of equipment that translate the
processed information from the CPU into a
form that humans can understand.

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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Output Devices
Monitors
Printers
Dot matrix printers
Ink jet printers
Laser printers
Sound Blasters (Sound Card By Creative Lab)
Controlling other devices

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
26

Software

The instructions that tell the computer

what to do
1. Application Software - helps end-users
perform general purpose tasks
2. System Software - enables application
software to interact with the computer

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
27

System Software

The software that controls everything

that happens in a computer.
Background software, manages the
computers internal resources

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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System Software /
Operating System
Unix and BSD:
UNIX System V, IBM AIX, HP-UX, Solaris (SunOS), IRIX,
List of BSD operating systems
GNU/Linux:
List of Linux distributions, Comparison of Linux
distributions
Microsoft Windows:
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows
2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista,
Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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System Software /
Operating System
DOS
86-DOS: (QDOS), IBM PC DOS, MS-DOS, DR-DOS,
FreeDOS
Mac OS:
Classic Mac OS, macOS (previously "OS X" and "Mac OS
X")
Embedded and real-time:
List of embedded operating systems
Experimental:
Amoeba, Oberon/Bluebottle, Plan 9 from Bell Labs

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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Application Software
Office suite:
Word processing, Desktop publishing, Presentation
program, Database management system, Scheduling &
Time management, Spreadsheet, Accounting software
Internet Access:
Browser, Email client, Web server, Mail transfer agent,
Instant messaging

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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Application Software
Design and manufacturing:
Computer-aided design, Computer-aided
manufacturing, Plant management, Robotic
manufacturing, Supply chain management
Graphics:
Raster graphics editor, Vector graphics editor, 3D
modeler, Animation editor, 3D computer graphics, Video
editing, Image processing

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LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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Application Software
Audio:
Digital audio editor, Audio playback, Mixing, Audio
synthesis, Computer music
Software engineering:
Compiler, Assembler, Interpreter, Debugger, Text editor,
Integrated development environment, Software
performance analysis, Revision control, Software
configuration management

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
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Application Software
Educational:
Edutainment, Educational game, Serious game, Flight
simulator
Games:
Strategy, Arcade, Puzzle, Simulation, First-person
shooter, Platform, Massively multiplayer, Interactive
fiction
Misc:
Artificial intelligence, Antivirus software, Malware
scanner, Installer/Package management systems, File
manager
Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh,
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)
 Computer Languages
Assembly languages:
ARM, MIPS, x86
High-level programming languages:
Ada, BASIC, C, C++, C#, COBOL, Fortran, PL/1,
Java, Lisp, Pascal
Scripting languages:
JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP, Perl

Powerpoint slides to be used with C Programming for Beginners by HC Ling, SN Cheong, YK Teh, 34
LC Kwek, Emerson, Vishnu Monn B and Badrolhisham (Pearson Education, 2010)