Hardware, Software

Helping the mankind

Hardware

What are the components of a computer?

It has a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a permanent storage device (Fixed Disk/Hard Disk), a temporary memory (RAM), a display unit (Monitor), input devices (Floppy Disk Drive (FDD), KeyBoard).

CPU is also called Microprocessor. Based on its calculation speed a computer is named viz. 286, 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium II.

Other high capacity computers are Mini-computers, Mainframes and Supercomputers.

A computer may have add-ons like Tape Drive, Soundcard, Netword Card, CD-Rom/DVD and Printer. Based on the requirement of an individual or a business house the configuration of a computer may vary.

IBM, Dell, HP, SUN, Apple, Olivetti - to name a few leading computer manufacturers.

Starting process of a computer is called 'booting'. If the computer is on and you try to reboot without properly shutdown all your processes then it is called a 'warm booting'. Booting checks for the computer's hardward integrity.

A Disk Operating System (DOS) is a software that interacts with hardware to get your work done. For example your key board input signals have to be converted into characters before displaying on a monitor. MS-DOS, Windows NT, Unix, OS2, Linux are some of the DOS.

Software

Programs are set of commands interpreted and executed by the computers. For this to happen all programs should be in machine readable format ie. in 0s and 1s.

System softwares

System softwares are that ... like OSs, Network protocols, Telecommunication softwares. Basically they interact with hardwares. System softwares are written in Assembly languages, middle-level languages, and high level languages.

e.g., DOS, TCP/IP, Internet phone...

Assembly languages

Assembly languages (also called low-level languages) are machine (hardware) specific, in other words, program written in one assembly language cannot be executed in another type of hardware. Assembly language programs are converted into machine readable by using an assembler.

Commands and statements are very cryptic for a programmer and difficult to understand and learn.

High-level languages

To overcome the difficulty of writing code in Assembly language, High level languages are developed. They are more programmer friendly and follow English-like command structure. So it is easy to read and understand the code written in high level languages.

e.g., Basic, Pascal, Fortran, Cobol...

Middle-level language

Language C combines the power of an assembly language and the flexibility and easy use of a high level language, so it is called a middle-level language. It is also called 3GL (3GL-3rd Generation Language).

Application softwares

Application softwares are tailored to suit specific day-to-day needs of all of us either at work or at home.

e.g., MS-Office, Lotus suite, Wordperfect, Coreldraw, Pagemaker.

Databases

DBase, Foxpro, MS-Access and all other application softwares allow users to store data in a record format. These databases also have programming capability, which is much more easier than writting a program in a 3GL.

They are also important because using MS-Office or Coreldraw you cannot manipulate what is store in a file. For example you can store customer details, order entries, production details, inventory of items in a database and generate reports according to your requirements.

There are 4 data models to develop a database application, namely,

	Hier-archical datamodel
	Network datamodel
	Relational datamodel
	Object datamodel

RDBMS

Relational DataBase Management Systems allow large volume of data to be stored and retrieved according to your business needs. They can store millions and trillions of records and have high level of security to access.

e.g, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Ingres, DB2...

ORDBMS

From RDBMS evolved Object Relational DataBase Management Systems which take OOPS approach. Oracle is the only database which is leading in this direction.

e.g., Oracle 8i.

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