Algorithms and Programming Techniques
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INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE 1 (CSC 111) What is a Computer? A computer can simply be described as a powerful electronics device which has the capability of accepting data as (input) in a prescribed format, apply a series of arithmetic and logical operation on the data (processing) and produce the result of these operation as an (output) in a specified format at a very fast speed under the control of a logical sequence of instruction called "PROGRAM". A computer can simply be defined as an electronic device which accepts input (data), process it and gives desired output (information) under the instructions of stored program. From the description above, a computer can be described as an input - process-output (IPO) system, pictorially represented in the figure below Input Processing Output (Data) (Information) Fig. 1 A schematic diagram to define a computer A computer is a system and the word system has several commonly used definitions and meaning. There are for example the digestive system, grading system, electronic system and telephone system among others. In all these, one thing is clear and is the fact that in a system, there is more than one part. A system is an integration of two or more devices that are connected together to form a whole. Therefore, a computer system is a group of devices that under the control of stored programs process data into information. In a more comprehensive form, a computer system can be defined as an electronic machine which under the control of stored programs accepts data through the input device, process it into information which can be stored in its memory for later use or communicated to the user through any available output device. It can also be defined as an electronic machine which by means of stored instructions performs rapid, often complex calculations or compiles, correlates and selects data. Basically, a computer can be thought of as a machine that manipulates information in the form of numbers and characters. It is a device that works under the control of stored programs, automatically accepting, storing and processing data to produce information. What makes computer remarkable and appreciated is the speed and precision with which it can store, retrieve and manipulate data. Computer system is different from other systems because it works under the control of stored program. HISTORY OF COMPUTER The Abacus and the Personal Computers are two lap sized data processing devices separated by thousands of years of history. ABACUS was the first manual calculating device developed in China around 3000BC which is used by children for playing these days. It is having rows of beads in iron rods in a rectangular frame. Counting was done by shifting beads from one side to another. First mechanically CALCULATING machine was made by French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642. It had wheels of 10 segments with interconnected gears such hat when one wheel moved by one revolution, other moved by 1/10th of its revolution. Charles Babbage was the first person to develop a fully developed computer in 1883, which was named the Difference Engine, but it was a mechanical computer as it had all mechanical parts. It could do an addition in one second. The arrival of modern electronic computers was in the middle of 20th century with the computer named ENIAC, the first electronic computer. GENERATION OF COMPUTERS The first electronic computer was designed and built at the University of Pennsylvania based on vacuum tube technology. Vacuum tubes were used to perform logic operations and to store data. From ENIAC to Artificial Intelligence Systems, the computers have been divided into five generations. They have been divided into five according to the development of technologies used to fabricate the processors, memories and I/O units. 1st Generation: 1946 – 1959 2nd Generation: 1959 – 1965 3rd Generation: 1965 – 1970 4th Generation: Since 1970 5th Generation: Around 1990s to present First Generation (1946 – 1959) In this generation, Vacuum Tubes, also called Valves were used and the computers of this generation were ENIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator, EDSAC – Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, EDVAC – Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer, and UNIVAC – Universal Automatic Computer. Around 1950, the first generation of computer was used for US census. Characteristics: . Physically very large in size . Contained Vacuum tubes . Limited memory . Occupy more space . Consume more power with limited performance . Punched cards and paper tape were invented to feed programs and data and to get results. Used Magnetic tape as secondary memory . Slow processing speed (in milliseconds) . High cost ENIAC had 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors. It had a weight of 27 tons (27,000kg!) and uses about 130 KW of power. It required about 1500 sq meter of space. Below is a picture of the ENIAC. Second Generation (1959 - 1965) In this generation, Transistors were used to manufacture computers. Examples of second generation computers are IBM 1400 series, IBM 7000 series, LEO MARK –III. The Second generation computer is shown in the picture below. Characteristics: . Reduced physical size . Transistor used instead of Vacuum tubes (invented at AT&T Bell lab in 1947) . Larger memory . Less space . Greater processing speed (in microseconds) . Comparatively cheaper . Increased reliability . Batch processing and Faster Inputs and Outputs . Less power consumption and better performance . Used magnetic ferrite core memories as main memory which is a random-access nonvolatile memory . Used magnetic tapes and magnetic disks as secondary memory . Increasingly used in business, industry and commercial organizations for preparation of payroll, inventory control, marketing, production planning, research, scientific & engineering analysis and design etc. Third Generation (1965 - 1970) In this generation, Integrated Circuits (IC’s) were used. The mainframe computers like IBM 260, DEC 10, ICL 1900 and 2900 series & mini like Digital PDP-11, VAX range are examples of this generation The advances in microelectronics led to the advent of integrated circuits, which combines tens to thousand to hundreds of thousands of functional units into one chip. The machines were built using integrated circuit and there are small, medium, large and very large-scale integrated circuits depending on the level of integration. Third generation computer uses small, medium and large integration circuits. It is shown below. Characteristics: . Greater reduction in Physical size . Technology used was IC’s instead of Transistors. One IC has 100s of transistors. Higher speed of computation (in nanoseconds) . Increased reliability . Time sharing and multiprocessing . Mass storage devices with random access capability . Comparatively less cost . Faster processors . In the beginning magnetic core memories were used. Later they were replaced by semiconductor memories (RAM & ROM). Fourth Generation (since 1970) In this generation Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) technology was used. Computers using microprocessors such as Personal Computer (PC, PC-XT, PC-AT) are examples of this generation of computers. Other examples are ICL 29 series, Micro VAX system, Intel’s 8088,80286,80386,80486 .., Motorola’s 68000, 68030, 68040, Apple II, and CRAY I/2/X/MP. Below is a picture of one of the earliest PCs. Characteristics: Design Point of View: . Increased Input and Output (I/O) capability . Greater system reliability . Technology used was VSLI (Very Large Scale Integration). Tens of thousands of transistors can be placed in a single chip (VLSI design implemented) . Emergence of PCs . Semiconductor memory chips were used as the main memory. Secondary memory was composed of hard disks – Floppy disks & magnetic tapes were used for backup memory . Less power consumption . High performance, lower cost and very compact . Introduction of Networking. Functional Point of View . More powerful languages . Use of multi programming and multiprocessing OS (Operating System). Shifting from batch processing to On-line, remote, interactive processing. Fifth Generation (Around 1990’s) Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization. IBM notebooks, Pentium PCs-Pentium 1/2/3/4/Dual core/Quad core, SUN work stations, Origin 2000, PARAM 10000, IBM SP/2 are all examples of this generation computers. Characteristics: . Introduced of Artificial Intelligence (AI) . Evolution of data flow architecture and functional languages . Development of expert systems . Introduced ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration) technology – Intel’s Pentium 4 microprocessor contains 55 million transistors millions of components on a single IC chip. Memory chips up to 1 GB, hard disk drives up to 180 GB and optical disks up to 27 GB are available (still the capacity is increasing) . Portable note book computers introduced . Storage technology advanced – large main memory and disk storage available . Introduced World Wide Web and other existing applications like e-mail, e Commerce, Virtual libraries/Classrooms, multimedia applications etc.) . New operating systems developed – Windows