PART 2

C H A P T E R 1 : O V E RV I E W O F A
COMPUTER SYSTEM

CSC118 FUNDAMENTALS OF ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT

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 LESSON OUTCOMES
Upon completion of this chapter, students should be able to
describe:

 A computer is and its components

 Computer hardware
 Computer software
 System unit (memory & CPU) 
 
 

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SYSTEM UNIT

SYST E M U N I T

 All computer system have a system unit.

System unit contains most of the
computer’s electronic components.
 The basic components in the system unit,
including the system board,
microprocessor, memory, system clock,
expansion slots and cards, bus lines, ports,
cables and power supply units.

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SYSTEM UNIT

SYST E M U N I T

 System board – connects all system

components to one another.
 Microprocessor – controls operations and
performs arithmetic and logical operations.
 Memory – holds data, instructions, and
information.
 System clock – emits a beats or pulse that
sets the operating pace for all of the
components in the system unit.

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SYSTEM UNIT

SYST E M U N I T

 Expansion slots – provide connections for

expansion cards to the system board.
 Expansion card – allow external devices to
connect to and expand a computer’s capability.
 Bus lines – provide data pathways that
connect various system components.
 Ports – socket for external devices to connect
to the system unit.
 Cables – connect exterior devices to the system
unit via the ports.
 Power supply unit – converts AC (alternating
current) to DC (direct current), providing
power to the system unit.

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 SYSTEM UNIT
4 basic types of microcomputer system units:

 Typically contain the system’s electronic

components and selected secondary storage
devices.
 Input and output devices, such as mouse,
keyboard and monitor are located outside
DESKTOP the system unit.

 Portable and much smaller.

 These system units contain the electronic components,
selected secondary storage devices, and input devices
(keyboard and pointing device). Located outside the
system unit, the monitor is attached by hinges.
 Often called laptops.
NOTEBOOK
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 SYSTEM UNIT
4 basic types of microcomputer system units:

 Similar to notebook system units.

 Highly portable device that supports the use
of a stylus or pen to input commands and
data.
TABLET PC

 The smallest and are designed to fit into the palm of

one hand.
 Also known as palm computer, this system contains an
entire computer system, including the electronic
components, secondary storage, and input/output
devices.
HANDHELD  Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are the most widely
COMPUTER used handheld computers.

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SYSTEM UNIT

M OT H E R B OA R D
 Motherboard – the main circuit board of the
system unit. Many electronic components
attach to the motherboard; others are built
in.
 Motherboard contains expansion slot,
processor (CPU) chip, and memory slots.
Memory chip are installed on memory slot on
the motherboard.
 Motherboard contains a lot of small piece of
semiconducting material – computer chip.
Chip is made of silicon on which integrated
circuits are fixed/engraved.

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SYSTEM UNIT

P RO C ES S O R
 Also called Central Processing Unit (CPU),
interprets and carries out the basic
instructions that operate the computer.
 The latest technology of processor is multi-
core processors. A multi-core processor is a
chip with two or more separate processors.
Two common multi-core processors used
today are:
 Dual-core – chip that contains two
separate processors
 Quad-core – chip that contains four
separate processors

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 SYSTEM UNIT
2 components of a processor:

 Directs and coordinates most of the operations in

CONTROL the computer.
UNIT (CU)  It interprets each instruction issued by a program
and then initiates the appropriate action to carry
out the instruction

ARITHMETIC  Performs arithmetic, comparison and other

operations
LOGIC UNIT  Arithmetic operations include basic calculations –
(ALU) addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

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 SYSTEM UNIT
PROCESSOR - MACHINE CYCLE

For every instruction, a processor repeats a set of four basic operations, which
comprise a machine cycle

# OPERATIONS EXPLANATION

Process of obtaining a program instruction or data item

1 FETCH
from memory

Process of translating the instruction into signals the

2 DECODE computer can execute

3 EXECUTE Process of carrying out the commands

4 STORE Store the results to memory

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 SYSTEM UNIT
MACHINE CYCLE ( FETCH-DECODE-EXECUTE-STORE)

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SYSTEM UNIT

P RO C ES S O R – SYST E M C LO C K
 The processor relies on a small quartz
crystal circuit – system clock. It controls
the timing of all computer operations.
 System clock generates regular electronic
pulses (beat/rhythm) or ticks – set the
operating pace (speed) of components of the
system unit.
 The pace of the system clock – clock speed.
It is measured by the number of ticks per
second. (gigahertz - GHz)
 1 GHz – one billion ticks of the system
clock per second

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 SYSTEM UNIT
DATA REPRESENTATION
 M o s t c o m p u t e r s a r e d i g i t a l . D i g i t a l s i g n a l s re c o g n i z e s
o n ly t wo ( 2 ) d i s c re t e s t a t e s : O N ( 1 ) a n d O F F ( 0 )
 C o m p u te r u s e s a b i n a r y s ys te m b e c a u s e i t re c o g n i z e s
t wo u n i q u e d i g i t s , 1 a n d 0 , c a l l e d b i t s .
 A computer circuit represents the 0 or the 1 electronically by the
presence or absence of an electrical charge.

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 SYSTEM UNIT
DATA REPRESENTATION

B I T S & BY T ES

 A bit (binary digit) is the smallest unit of

data.
 Eight bits grouped together as a unit are
called a byte. A byte represents a single
character in the computer.
 A byte provides enough different
combinations of 0s and 1s to represent 256
individual characters (numbers, uppercase &
lowercase letters, punctuation marks, etc.)

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 SYSTEM UNIT
DATA REPRESENTATION

 The combinations of 0s and 1s that represent

characters are defined by pattern called a
coding scheme.
 Two (2) popular coding scheme are:
 ASCII – American Standard Code for
Information Interchange ( pronounced
ASK-ee)
Most widely used coding system to
represent
 EDCDIC ( pronounced as EB-see-dik)
Used on mainframe computers and high-
end servers

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SYSTEM UNIT

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 SYSTEM UNIT
M E M O RY

Memory consists of electronic components that stores instructions waiting

to be executed by the processor, data needed by those instructions, and the
results of the processed data (information). Memory stores three (3) basic
categories of items:

APPLICATION
OPERATING SYSTEM & PROGRAMS
DATA BEING
OTHER SYSTEM (to carry out specific
PROCESSED &
SOFTWARE task such as word
RESULTING
(control or maintain the processing)
INFORMATION
computer & its devices)

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SYSTEM UNIT
M E M O RY

NOTE: The role of memory to store both

data and programs is known as the
stored program concept (Von Neumann
computer architecture)

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 SYSTEM UNIT
MEMORY – BYTE & ADDRESSABLE MEMORY
 A byte (character) is the basic storage unit in memory. Each byte
resides temporarily in a location in memory that has an address. An
address – unique number that identifies the location of the byte in
memory.
 Memory size is measured in kilobytes (KB or K), megabytes
(MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB).

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 SYSTEM UNIT
TWO TYPES OF MEMORY
 The system unit contains two types of memory:

VOLATILE NONVOLATILE
MEMORY MEMORY
Loses its contents Does not lose
when power is contents when
turned off power is removed
Examples include
Example includes ROM, flash
RAM, cache memory, and
CMOS
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 SYSTEM UNIT
VOLATILE

 Content of memory is losing when the computer’s power is

turned off (shut down).
 Temporary
 Example of volatile memory is RAM and cache.

1. RAM (Random Access Memory)

 Also called as main memory

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CSC118 FUNDAMENTALS OF ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT 23
 SYSTEM UNIT
VOLATILE - RAM

 There are three (3) basic types of RAM chips exist:

DYNAMIC
STATIC RAM MAGNETORESISTIV
RAM E (MRAM)
(SRAM)
(DRAM)
New type of
Faster and more RAM – stores
Chip must be re- reliable
data using
energized magnetic
constantly or
they lose their charges
Do not have to
contents instead of
re-energize as
often as DRAM, electrical
static charges

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 SYSTEM UNIT
VOLATILE - CACHE

2. CACHE (pronounced as cash)

 Most computers improve processing times with cache.
 Two types of cache are (i) memory cache and (ii) disk cache.
 Memory cache helps the processes of the computer because it
stores frequently used instructions and data.

 Two types of memory cache:

i. L1 cache
 Built in directly in the processor chip.
 Very small capacity (8 KB to 128 KB)
ii. L2 cache
 Slightly slower, but has larger capacity (64 KB to 16
MB)

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 SYSTEM UNIT
NONVOLATILE

 Content of memory retained although the computer is turned

off (shut down).
 Permanent
 Example of nonvolatile memory include ROM (Read Only
Memory), flash memory and CMOS.

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 SYSTEM UNIT
NONVOLATILE

 There are three (3) examples of nonvolatile memory:

CMOS
ROM (Read FLASH (Complementary
Only Memory) MEMORY Metal-Oxide
Semiconductor)

1. Memory chip 1. High speed &

consume little
storing power
permanent Can be 2. Use battery
data erased power to
&instructions electronicall retain
y & rewritten information
2. Called as such as
firmware calendar,
date

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SYSTEM UNIT
M E M O RY

MEMORY ACCESS TIME/ ACCESS TIME?

The amount of time the processor takes
to read data, instructions and
information from memory
(measured in nanoseconds)

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 SYSTEM UNIT
ADAPTER CARD, PORTS & CONNECTOR
1. ADAPTER CARD (EXPANSION CARD)
 Enhances functions of a component of the system unit/ provides
connections to peripherals. ( Peripheral – device that connects to
the system unit)
 Types of adapter card:

# ADAPTER CARD PURPOSE

1 DISK CONTROLLER Connects disk drives

2 FIREWIRE Connects to FireWire devices

3 HDTV tuner Allows viewing of HDTV broadcast on the monitor

4 MIDI Connects musical instruments

5 USB 2.0 Connects to USB 2.0 devices

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 SYSTEM UNIT
ADAPTER CARD, PORTS & CONNECTOR

2. PORT (also known as jack)

 Point at which a peripheral attaches to communicate with the
system unit.
 Example of ports : serial ports, parallel ports, USB ports,
FireWire ports

3. CONNECTOR
 Joins a cable to a port.
 A connector at one end of the cable attaches to a port on the system
unit, and another end attaches to a port on the peripheral.

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 SYSTEM UNIT
DRIVE BAYS

 Opening inside the system unit in which we can install additional

equipment.
 Typically hold disk drives, card readers, ports.

POWER SUPPLY

 Converts the wall outlet AC (alternate current)

power to DC (direct power)

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END OF CHAPTER 1

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