Introduction to computers ● A computer is very versatile machine and flexible in

performing the jobs to be done.

What is a Computer?
● This machine can be used to solve the problems related to
● A computer is an electronic device that manipulates various fields.
information, or data. It has the ability to store, retrieve, and
process data. ○ https://edu.gcfglobal.org 06 Reliability
● A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry ● A computer is a reliable machine.
out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations
automatically. Modern computers can perform generic sets ● Modern electronic components have long lives.
of operations known as programs. These programs enable 07 Automation
computers to perform a wide range of tasks. ○
https://en.wikipedia.org ● Automation is the ability to perform a given task
automatically. Reduction in Paperwork and 08 Cost
● A computer is a programmable electronic device that
accepts raw data as input and processes it with a set of ● The use of computers for data processing in an
instructions (a program) to produce the result as output. ○ organization leads to reduction in paperwork and results in
https://www.javatpoint.com speeding up the process.

Functionalities of a Computer Disadvantages of Computers

Step 1 Takes data as input. 01 No I.Q
Step 2 Stores the data/instructions in its memory and uses ● A computer is a machine that has no intelligence to
them as required. perform any task.
Step 3 Processes the data and converts it into useful ● Each instruction has to be given to the computer.
information.
● A computer cannot take any decision on its own
Step 4 Generates the output.
02 Dependency
Step 5 Controls all the above four steps
● It functions as per the user’s instruction, thus it is fully
.COMPUTER dependent on humans.
Input Process Output 03 Environment
Advantages of Computers ● The operating environment of the computer should be
dust free and suitable.
01 High Speed
04 No Feeling
● Computer is a very fast device.
● Computers have no feelings or emotions.
● It is capable of performing calculations of very large
amount of data. ● It cannot make judgement based on feeling, taste,
experience, and knowledge unlike humans.
02 Accuracy
Applications
● Computers are very accurate and the calculations are
100% error free. Here are the list of various field below:
● Computers perform all jobs with 100% accuracy provided 1) Business 2) Banking
that the input is correct.
3) Insurance 4) Education
03 Storage Capability
5) Marketing 6) Healthcare
● Memory is a very important characteristic of computers.
7) Engineering Design 8) Military
● It can store large amounts of data or any type of data such
9) Communication 10) Government
as images, videos, text, audio, etc.
1. Business
04 Diligence
Computer is used in business organizations for –
● It can work continuously without any error and boredom.
● Payroll calculations ● Budgeting
● It can perform repeated tasks with the same speed and
accuracy. ● Sales analysis ● Financial forecasting
● Managing employee database
● Maintenance of stocks, etc.
05 Versatility Business Software (Business Application)
● Is any software or set of computer programs used by Here are the list of the best 10 free educational apps for
business users to perform various business functions. These students:
business applications are used to increase productivity, to
measure productivity, and to perform other business 1. Google Classroom 2. edX
functions accurately. 3. Khan Academy 4. Duolingo
2. Banking 5. Remind 6. Photomath
Banking provide the following facilities – 7. SoloLearn 8. Quizlet
● Online accounting facility, which includes checking current 9. Kahoot 10. Udemy
balance, making deposits and overdrafts, checking interest
charges, shares, and trustee records. 5. Marketing

● ATM machines which are completely automated are In marketing, uses of the computer are following –
making it even easier for customers to deal with banks. ● Advertising − With computers, advertising professionals
Online Banking create art and graphics, write and revise copy, and print and
disseminate ads with the goal of selling more products.
● Online banking allows a user to conduct financial
transactions via the Internet. Online banking is also known ● Home Shopping − Home shopping has been made possible
as Internet banking or web banking. through the use of computerized catalogues that provide
access to product information and permit direct entry of
● Online banking offers customers almost every service orders to be filled by the customers.
traditionally available through a local branch including
deposits, transfers, and online bill payments. Virtually every Here are the list of the top 12 must-have digital Marketing
banking institution has some form of online banking, Apps in 2021:
available both on desktop versions and through mobile 1. Buffer 2. Hootsuite
apps.
3. Facebook Pages Manager 4. Facebook Ads Manager
3.Insurance 5. Later 6. Mention 7. Canva
Insurance companies are maintaining a database of all 8. Grammarly Keyboard 9. REP
clients with information showing –
10. Plai 11. Over 12. Google Analytics
● Procedure to continue with policies ● Starting date of the
policies 6. Healthcare
● Next due installment of a policy Computers have become an important part in hospitals,
labs, and dispensaries. They are being used in hospitals to
● Maturity date keep the record of patients and medicines. It is also used in
● Interests due scanning and diagnosing different diseases. ECG, EEG,
ultrasounds and CT scans, etc. are also done by
● Survival benefits computerized machines. Following are some major fields of
● Bonus health care in which computers are used.

Here are the list of the top 10 Life Insurance Companies in ● Diagnostic System − Computers are used to collect data
and identify the cause of illness
the Philippines 2021:
1. Sun Life 2. AXA . ● Lab-diagnostic System − All tests can be done and the
reports are prepared by computer.
3. Pru Life UK 4. Philam Life
● Patient Monitoring System − These are used to check the
5. BPI-Philam 6. Manulife patient's signs for abnormality such as in Cardiac Arrest,
ECG, etc.
7. PNB Life 8. BDO Life
● Pharma Information System − Computer is used to check
9. FWD 10. Insular Life drug labels, expiry dates, harmful side effects, etc.
4. Education ● Surgery − Nowadays, computers are also used in
The computer helps in providing a lot of facilities in the performing surgery.
education system. 7. Engineering Design
● The computer provides a tool in the education system Computers are widely used for Engineering purpose. One of
known as CBE (Computer Based Education). the major areas is CAD (Computer Aided Design) that
● There are a number of methods in which educational provides creation and modification of images. Some of the
institutions can use a computer to educate the students. fields are –

● It is used to prepare a database about performance of a ● Structural Engineering − Requires stress and strain
student and analysis is carried out on this basis. analysis for design of ships, buildings, budgets, airplanes,
etc.
● Industrial Engineering − Computers deal with design, basic components for memory and circuitry for CPU (Central
implementation, and improvement of integrated systems of Processing Unit). These tubes, like electric bulbs, produced a
people, materials, and equipment. lot of heat and the installations used to fuse frequently.
Therefore, they were very expensive and only large
● Architectural Engineering − Computers help in planning organizations were able to afford it.
towns, designing buildings, determining a range of buildings
on a site using both 2D and 3D drawings. In this generation, mainly batch processing operating
system was used. Punch cards, paper tape, and magnetic
8. Military tape was used as input and output devices. The computers
Computers are largely used in defense. Modern tanks, in this generation used machine code as the programming
missiles, weapons, etc. language.

Military also employs computerized control systems. Some First Generation The main features of the first generation
military areas where a computer has been used are – are –

● Missile Control ● Military Communication ● Vacuum tube technology ● Unreliable

● Military Operation and Planning ● Smart Weapons ● Supported machine language only

9. Communication ● Very costly ● Generated a lot of heat

Communication is a way to convey a message, an idea, a ● Slow input and output devices ● Huge size
picture, or speech that is received and understood clearly ● Need of AC (Air conditioning is required)
and correctly by the person for whom it is meant. Some
main areas in this category are – ● Non-portable ● Consumed a lot of electricity

● E-mail ● Chatting ● Usenet Some computers of this generation were –

● FTP ● Telnet ● Video-conferencing ● ENIAC ● EDVAC ● UNIVAC

Here are some list of free communication apps: ● IBM-701 ● IBM-650

1. Slack 2. Microsoft Teams 3. Flock EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)
was one of the earliest electronic computers. Unlike its
4. Skype 5. WhatsApp 6. Discord predecessor the ENIAC, it was binary rather than decimal,
7. Google Hangouts 8. Facebook Messenger and was designed to be a stored-program computer.

9. Telegram 10. Workplace from Facebook UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer)

11. Viber 12. LINE IBM 701 (Electronic Data Processing Machine) - Known as
the Defense Calculator while in development. –
Computers play an important role in government services.
Some major fields in this category are – IBM’s first commercial scientific computer and its first series
production mainframe computer, which was announced to
● Budgets ● Sales tax department the public on April 29, 1952.
● Income tax department IBM 650 (Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine)
● Computation of male/female ratio Second Generation
● Computerization of voters lists The period of second generation was from 1959-1965. In
● Computerization of PAN card this generation, transistors were used that were cheaper,
consumed less power, more compact in size, more reliable
● Weather forecasting and faster than the first generation machines made of
vacuum tubes. In this generation, magnetic cores were used
Generations as the primary memory and magnetic tape and magnetic
Generation in computer terminology is a change in disks as secondary storage devices.
technology a computer is/was being used. In this generation, assembly language and high-level
1946-1959 First Generation Vacuum tube based. programming languages like FORTRAN, COBOL were used.
The computers used batch processing and
1959-1965 Second Generation Transistor based. multiprogramming operating system.
1965-1971 Third Generation Integrated Circuit based. Second Generation The main features of second generation
are –
1971-1980 Fourth Generation VLSI microprocessor based.
● Use of transistors
1980-onwards Fifth Generation ULSI microprocessor based.
● Reliable in comparison to first generation computers
First Generation
● Smaller size as compared to first generation computers ●
The period of first generation was from 1946-1959. The Generated less heat as compared to first generation
computers of first generation used vacuum tubes as the computers
● Consumed less electricity as compared to first generation The main features of fourth generation are –
computers
● VLSI technology used ● Very cheap
● Faster than first generation computers
● Portable and reliable ● Use of PCs
● Still very costly
● Very small size ● Pipeline processing
● AC required
● No AC required
● Supported machine and assembly languages
● Concept of internet was introduced
Some computers of this generation were –
● Great developments in the fields of networks
● IBM 1620 ● IBM 7094 ● CDC 1604
● Computers became easily available
● CDC 3600 ● UNIVAC 1108
Fifth Generation
Third Generation
The period of fifth generation is 1980-till date. In the fifth
The period of third generation was from 1965-1971. The generation, VLSI technology became ULSI (Ultra Large Scale
computers of third generation used Integrated Circuits (ICs) Integration) technology, resulting in the production of
in place of transistors. A single IC has many transistors, microprocessor chips having ten million electronic
resistors, and capacitors along with the associated circuitry. components.
The IC was invented by Jack Kilby. This development made This generation is based on parallel processing hardware
computers smaller in size, reliable, and efficient. In this and AI (Artificial Intelligence) software. AI is an emerging
generation remote processing, time-sharing, branch in computer science, which interprets the means and
multiprogramming operating system were used. High-level method of making computers think like human beings. All
languages (FORTRAN-II TO IV, COBOL, PASCAL PL/1, BASIC, the high-level languages like C and C++, Java, .Net etc., are
ALGOL-68 etc.) were used during this generation. used in this generation.
Some computers of this generation were – The main features of fifth generation are –
● IBM-360 series ● Honeywell-6000 series ● ULSI technology
● PDP (Personal Data Processor) ● Development of true artificial intelligence
● IBM-370/168 ● TDC-316 ● Development of Natural language processing
The main features of third generation are – ● Advancement in Parallel Processing
● IC used ● Advancement in Superconductor technology
● More reliable in comparison to previous two generations ● More user-friendly interfaces with multimedia features
● Smaller size ● Generated less heat ● Faster Some computer types of this generation are –
● Lesser maintenance ● Costly ● AC required ● Desktop ● Laptop ● NoteBook
● Consumed lesser electricity ● UltraBook ● ChromeBook
● Supported high-level language AI includes −

Fourth Generation ● Robotics ● Neural Networks ● Game Playing

The period of fourth generation was from 1971-1980. ● Development of expert systems to make decisions in real-
Computers of fourth generation used Very Large Scale life situations
Integrated (VLSI) circuits. VLSI circuits having about 5000 ● Natural language understanding and generation
transistors and other circuit elements with their associated
circuits on a single chip made it possible to have ● and compact computers at cheaper rates
microcomputers of fourth generation.
Types
Fourth generation computers became more powerful,
compact, reliable, and affordable. As a result, it gave rise to 01 PC (Personal Computer)
Personal Computer (PC) revolution. In this generation, time ● It is a single user computer system having moderately
sharing, real time networks, distributed operating system powerful microprocessor
were used. All the high-level languages like C, C++, DBASE
etc., were used in this generation. 02 Workstation
Some computers of this generation were – ● It is also a single user computer system, similar to
personal computer however has a more powerful
● DEC 10 ● STAR 1000 ● PDP 11 microprocessor.
● CRAY-1(Super Computer) ● CRAY-X-MP(Super 03 Minicomputer
Computer)
● It is a multi-user computer system, capable of supporting Supercomputers are one of the fastest computers currently
hundreds of user simultaneously. available. Supercomputers are very expensive and are
employed for specialized applications that require immense
04 Mainframe amount of mathematical calculations (number crunching).
● It is a multi-user computer system, capable of supporting For example, weather forecasting, scientific simulations,
hundreds of users simultaneously. Software technology is (animated) graphics, fluid dynamic calculations, nuclear
different from minicomputer.
energy research, electronic design, and analysis of
05 Supercomputer geological data (e.g. in petrochemical prospecting).

● It is an extremely fast computer, which can execute Components

hundreds of millions of instructions per second.
01 Take Input
PC (Personal Computer) ● The process of entering data and instructions into the
A PC can be defined as a small, relatively inexpensive computer system.
computer designed for an individual user. PCs are based on 02 Store Data
the microprocessor technology that enables manufacturers
to put an entire CPU on one chip. Businesses use personal ● Saving data and instructions so that they are available for
computers for word processing, accounting, desktop processing as and when required
publishing, and for running spreadsheet and database
management applications. At home, the most popular use 03 Processing Data
for personal computers is playing games and surfing the ● Performing arithmetic, and logical operations on data in
Internet. order to convert them into useful information.
Although personal computers are designed as single-user 04 Output Information
systems, these systems are normally linked together to form
a network. In terms of power, now-a-days high-end models ● The process of producing useful information or results for
of the Macintosh and PC offer the same computing power the user, such as a printed report or visual display.
and graphics capability as low-end workstations by Sun 05 Control the workflow
Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell.
● Directs the manner and sequence in which all of the above
Workstation operations are performed.
Workstation is a computer used for engineering Input Unit
applications (CAD/CAM), desktop publishing, software
development, and other such types of applications which ● This unit contains devices with the help of which we enter
require a moderate amount of computing power and data into the computer. This unit creates a link between the
relatively high quality graphics capabilities. user and the computer. The input devices translate the
information into a form understandable by the computer
Workstations generally come with a large, high-resolution
graphics screen, large amount of RAM, inbuilt network CPU (Central Processing Unit)
support, and a graphical user interface. Most workstations
also have mass storage device such as a disk drive, but a ● CPU is considered as the brain of the computer. CPU
special type of workstation, called diskless workstation, performs all types of data processing operations. It stores
comes without a disk drive. data, intermediate results, and instructions (program). It
controls the operation of all parts of the computer.
Common operating systems for workstations are UNIX and
Windows NT. Like PC, workstations are also single-user CPU itself has the following three components –
computers like PC but are typically linked together to form a
● ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) ● Memory Unit
local-area network, although they can also be used as stand-
alone systems. ● Control Unit

Mini Computer Output Unit

It is a midsize multi-processing system capable of supporting ● The output unit consists of devices with the help of which
up to 250 users simultaneously. we get the information from the computer. This unit is a link
between the computer and the users. Output devices
Main Frame translate the computer's output into a form understandable
by the users.
Mainframe is very large in size and is an expensive
computer capable of supporting hundreds or even
thousands of users simultaneously. Mainframe executes
many programs concurrently and supports many
simultaneous execution of programs.

Supercomputer