Computers In Education

Unit-I
Introduction
The history of computing is the record of the ongoing effort to make computer hardware faster, cheaper, and capable of storing more data. A computer is an electronic computing device which performs the execution according to the given set of instructions called program. It accepts the data, processes it and produces the information.

Computer:
a computer is a programmable machine. This means it can execute a programmed list of instructions and respond to new instructions that it is given. The word computer itself is a short form of below sentence. C ommon O riented M achine P articularly U sed for T rade E ducation R esearch. From this abbreviation, we can conclude that the computer is an electronic device which is used to solve more than one kind of problem faster and more accurate than human beings.

Units of a Computer:
A general purpose computers parts are classified into 3 units according to their purposes (or) Usage. And these units are connected by wires called busses. They are 1. Input Unit 2. Central Processing Unit (CPU). 3. Ouput Unit And the CPU is further divided into 3 sub units called. 1. Arithamatic & Logic Unit. 2. Control Unit

3. Memory Unit.

Characteristics of Computer:
Computer has many unique facilities. Lets see what are they. 1. Speed: Computers are faster than humans. It will Solve our problems in nano or pico seconds. Let us see about our time constraint. 1 milli second=1*10^-3 second 1 micro second=1*10^-6 second 1 nano second=1*10^-9 second 1 pico second=1*10^-12 second 2. Accuracy It denoted the accuracy of the computer. They are reliable and robust. It ever makes a mistake. Most probably the error occurs due to the user rather than the computer. Spontaneous The computers are automatic. It may execute the process without any intervention of user once they are assigned to a work. Once the data or instruction are fetched from the secondary devices such as optical disks, hard disks etc. Immediately they get stored into RAM (primary memory) and then sequentially they get executed. Pertinacity This denotes that the computers never get tried as the humans do. If there are surplus amount of executions to be made then each and every execution will be executed at the same time period. They can perform their assigned task without taking any refreshment. 5.Memory Secondary storage devices are the key for the data storage. They store the data for which the user wants to retrieve these data for future use. The examples for various secondary devices are Floppy disk, Optical disks (CS and DVD), Zip drives, Thumb drives etc. The data of smaller size can be easily fetched and they can be copied to the primary memory (RAM).

6.Cheaper Computers are short term investment in order to achieve a long term gain. Though the investment is high they reduce the cost of each and every transaction. They reduce man power and leads to an elegant and efficient way for computing various tasks. On the whole The characteristics of computer are Speed, Accuracy, Automatic, Endurance, Versatility, Storage, Reduction of cost, Intelligent quotient.

Generation of Computers
There are five generations of computer. and each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable devices. First Generations of computer: ( 1940 1956 ) The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions. First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts. The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951. Second Generation Computer: (1956 - 1963 ) Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers. The transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the late 1950s. The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their firstgeneration predecessors. Though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output.

Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology. Third Generation computer ( 1964 - 1971) The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers. Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors Forth generation computer (1972 - Present ) The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located all the components of the computerfrom the central processing unit and memory to input/output controlson a single chip. In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors. As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices. Fifth generation computer: (Present and Beyond) 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. Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.

Classification of computers
Computers can be classified, or typed, many ways. Some common classifications are summarized below. 1.Super Computers 2.Mainframe Computers 3.Mini Computers 4.Micro Computers

Super Computers: A supercomputer is focused on performing tasks involving intense numerical calculations such as weather forecasting, fluid dynamics, nuclear simulations, theoretical astrophysics, and complex scientific computations. A supercomputer is a computer that is at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation. computational capability, memory size supercomputers are the most powerful, are very expensive. Mainframe computers The term mainframe computer was created to distinguish the traditional, large, institutional computer intended to service multiple users from the smaller, single user machines. These computers are capable of handling and processing very large amounts of data quickly. Mainframe computers are used in large institutions such as government, banks and large corporations. its measured in MIPS (Million instructions per second) and reponds up to 100's of million users at one time. Mini Computers A minicomputer is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the smallest multi-user systems and the largest single-user systems The contemporary term for this class of system is midrange computer, such as the higher-end SPARC, POWER and Itanium -based systems from Sun Microsystems, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Micro Computers: Microcomputers are the most common type of computers used by people today, whether in a workplace, at school or on the desk at home. The term microcomputer was introduced with the advent of single chip microprocessors..

These computers include:

Desktop computers A case and a display, put under and on a desk. In-car computers Built into a car, for entertainment, navigation, etc. Game consoles Fixed computers specialized for entertainment purposes A separate class is that of mobile devices: Laptops, notebook computers and Palmtop computers Portable and all in one case. Varying sizes, but other than smartbooks expected to be full computers without limitations. Tablet PC Like laptops, but with a touch-screen, sometimes entirely replacing the physical keyboard. Smartphones, smartbooks and PDAs (personal digital assistants) Small handheld computers with limited hardware. Programmable calculator Like small handhelds, but specialised on mathematical work. Handheld game consoles The same as game consoles, but small and portable.

Hardware Vs Software:
The word Hardware Refers to objects that you can actually touch, like disks, disk drives, display screens, keyboards, printers, boards, and chips. In contrast, software is untouchable. Software exists as ideas, concepts, and symbols, but it has no substance. Books provide a useful analogy. The pages and the ink are the hardware, while the words, sentences, paragraphs, and the overall meaning are the software. A computer without software is like a book full of blank pages -- you need software to make the computer useful just as you need words to make a book meaningful.

Unit-II
Input Devices:
An input device is any hardware device that sends data to the computer, without any input devices, a computer would only be a display device and not allow users to interact with it, much like a TV. Below is a complete listing of all the different computer input devices that can be used on a computer. Many input devices can be classified according to:

modality of input (e.g. mechanical motion, audio, visual, etc.) the input is discrete (e.g. key presses) or continuous (e.g. a mouse's position, though digitized into a discrete quantity, is fast enough to be considered continuous) the number of degrees of freedom involved (e.g. two-dimensional traditional mice, or three-dimensional navigators designed for CAD applications) Keyboard A 'keyboard' is a human interface device which is represented as a layout of buttons. Each button, or key, can be used to either input a linguistic character to a computer, or to call upon a particular function of the computer. Traditional keyboards use spring-based buttons, though newer variations employ virtual keys, or even projected keyboards. Mouse

The mouse is a basic input device of the computer. Mice were an enhancement to the keyboard, which is the main input device of a computer. Mice allow the user to click on a button or interact with the computer without using both hands for typing. It is also an integral part of a Windows machine. Although most Windows forms have alternate key functions, the use of a mouse is more intuitive for end-users. Joystick A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft Touch Screen

A touch screen is a computer display screen that is also an input device. The screens are sensitive to pressure; a user interacts with the computer by touching pictures or words on the screen.

Touchpad A touch pad is a device for pointing (controlling input positioning) on a computer display screen. It is an alternative to the mouse. Originally incorporated in laptop computers, touch pads are also being made for use with desktop computers. A touch pad works by sensing the user's finger movement and downward pressure. Magnetic Ink Character reader: OCR: Bar code Reader: Scanner: