SRIMATHI SUNDARAVALLI MEMORIAL SCHOOL, CHENNAI – 63.

CLASS: XI SUBJECT:COMPUTER
SCIENCE

WELCOME
TO
COMPUTER SCIENCE
Computer Memory:

 A computer system needs memory to store the data and instructions for processing.

 Whenever we talk about the ‘memory’ of a computer system, we usually talk about
the main or primary memory.

 The secondary memory (also called storage device) is used to store data,
instructions and results permanently for future use.

 Human beings memorise many things over a lifetime, and recall from memory to
make a decision or some action.

 However, we do not rely on our memory completely, and we make notes and store
important data and information using other media, such as notebook, manual,
journal, document, etc.
Types of Memory:

 Similarly, computers have two types of memory — primary and secondary.

A. Primary Memory:
 Primary memory is an essential component of a computer system.
 Program and data are loaded into the primary memory before processing.
 The CPU interacts directly with the primary memory to perform read or
write operation. It is of two types viz.
1) Random Access Memory (RAM)
2) Read Only Memory (ROM).
 RAM is volatile, i.e., as long as the power is supplied to the computer, it
retains the data in it.

 But as soon as the power supply is turned off, all the contents of RAM are
wiped out.

 It is used to store data temporarily while the computer is working.

 Whenever the computer is started or a software application is launched,

the required program and data are loaded into RAM for processing.

 RAM is usually referred to as main memory and it is faster than the

secondary memory or storage devices.
 On the other hand, ROM is non-volatile, which means its contents are not
lost even when the power is turned off.
 It is used as a small but faster permanent storage for the contents which
are rarely changed.
 For example, the startup program (boot loader) that loads the operating
system into primary memory, is stored in ROM.
(B) Cache Memory:
 RAM is faster than secondary storage, but not as fast as a computer
processor. So, because of RAM, a CPU may have to slow down.
 To speed up the operations of the CPU, a very high speed memory is placed
between the CPU and the primary memory known as cache.
 It stores the copies of the data from frequently accessed primary memory
locations, thus, reducing the average time required to access data from
primary memory.
 When the CPU needs some data, it first examines the cache. In case the
requirement is met, it is read from the cache, otherwise the primary memory
is accessed.
(C) Secondary Memory:
 Primary memory has limited storage capacity and is either volatile (RAM) or
read-only (ROM).
 Thus, a computer system needs auxiliary or secondary memory to
permanently store the data or instructions for future use.
 The secondary memory is non-volatile and has larger storage capacity than
primary memory. It is slower and cheaper than the main memory. But, it
cannot be accessed directly by the CPU.
 Contents of secondary storage need to be first brought into the main memory
for the CPU to access.
 Examples of secondary memory devices include Hard Disk Drive (HDD), CD/
DVD, Memory Card, etc.,.
Units of Memory:
 A computer system uses binary numbers to store and process data. The
binary digits 0 and 1, which are the basic units of memory, are called bits.
 Further, these bits are grouped together to form words.
 A 4-bit word is called a Nibble.
 Examples of nibble are 1001, 1010, 0010, etc.
 A two nibble word, i.e., 8-bit word is called a byte, for example, 01000110,
01111100, 10000001, etc.
 Like any other standard unit, bytes are grouped together to make bigger
chunks or units of memory.
Units of Memory:
Software:
 Hardware needs to be operated by a set of instructions. These sets of
instructions are referred to as software.
 The software contains a set of instructions which on execution deliver the
desired outcome.
Need of Software:
The sole purpose of a software is to make the computer hardware useful and
operational.
A software knows how to make different hardware components of a
computer work and communicate with each other as well as with the end-
user.
Need of Software:
We cannot instruct the hardware of a computer directly.
Software acts as an interface between human users and the hardware.
Depending on the mode of interaction with hardware and functions to be
performed, the software can be broadly classified into three categories viz.
(i) System software,
(ii) Programming tools and
(iii) Application software.
System Software:
The software that provides the basic functionality to operate a computer by
interacting directly with its constituent hardware is termed as system
software.
A system software knows how to operate and use different hardware
components of a computer.
It provides services directly to the end user, or to some other software.
Examples of system software include:
1. Operating systems,
2. System utilities, and
3. Device drivers, etc.
(A) Operating System:
 As the name implies, the operating system is a system software that
operates the computer.
 An operating system is the most basic system software, without which
other software cannot work. The operating system manages other
application programs and provides access and security to the users of the
system.
 Some of the popular operating systems are Windows, Linux, Macintosh,
Ubuntu, Fedora, Android, iOS, etc.
(B) System Utilities:
 Software used for maintenance and configuration of the computer system
is called system utility.
 Some system utilities are shipped with the operating system for example
disk defragmentation tool, formatting utility, system restore utility, etc.
 Another set of utilities are those which are not shipped with the operating
system but are required to improve the performance of the system, for
example, anti-virus software, disk cleaner tool, disk compression software,
etc.
(C) Device Drivers:
 The responsibility for overall control, operation and management of a
particular device at the hardware level is delegated to its device driver.
 The device driver acts as an interface between the device and the operating
system.
 It provides required services by hiding the details of operations performed
at the hardware level of the device.
 Just like a language translator, a device driver acts as a mediator between
the operating system and the attached device.
Programming Tools:
 In order to get some work done by the computer, we need to give
instructions which are applied on the input data to get the desired outcome.
 Computer languages are developed for writing these instructions.
 It is important to understand here that computers and humans understand
completely different languages.
 While humans are able to write programs in high-level language, computers
understand machine language.
 There is a continuous need for conversion from high level to machine level
language, for which translators are needed.
 Also, to write the instruction, code editors (e.g., IDLE in Python) are needed.
(A) Classification of Programming Languages:
 It is very difficult for a human being to write instructions in the form of 1s
and 0s.
 So different types of computer programming languages are developed to
simplify the coding.
 Two major categories of computer programming languages are low-level
languages and high-level languages.
Classification of Programming Languages:
 Low-level languages are machine dependent languages. Machine
language uses 1s and 0s to write instructions which are directly
understood and executed by the computer.
 High level languages are machine independent and are simpler to write
code into. Hence, translators are needed to translate high-level language
codes into machine language. Examples of high level language include C+
+, Java, Python, etc.
(B) Language Translators:
 As the computer can understand only machine language, a translator is
needed to convert program written in assembly or high level language to
machine language.
 The program code written in assembly or high-level language is called source
code.
 The source code is converted by a translator
into the machine understandable form called
object (machine) code.
 The translator used to convert the code written in assembly language to
machine language is called assembler.
 Each assembler can understand a specific microprocessor instruction set
only and hence, the machine code is not portable.
 We also need translators to convert codes written in high level language
(source code) to machine understandable form (machine code) for execution
by the computer.
 Compiler converts the source code into machine code. If the code follows all
syntactic rules of the language, then it is executed by the computer.
 Once translated, the compiler is not needed.
 An interpreter translates one line at a time instead of the whole program at
one go.
 Interpreter takes one line, converts it into executable code if the line is
syntactically correct, and then it repeats these steps for all lines in the
source code.
 Hence, interpreter is always
needed whenever a source
code is to be executed.
(C) Program Development Tools:
 Whenever we decide to write a program, we need a text editor. An editor is a
software that allows us to create a text file where we type instructions and
store the file as the source code.
 Then an appropriate translator is used to get the object code for execution.
In order to simplify the program development, there are software called
Integrated Development Environment (IDE) consisting of text editor, building
tools and debugger.
 A program can be typed, compiled and debugged from the IDE directly.
Besides Python IDLE, Netbeans, Eclipse, Atom, Lazarus are few other
examples of IDEs.
Application Software:
 The system software provides the core functionality of the computer system.
However, different users need the computer system for different purposes
depending upon their requirements.
 Hence, a new category of software is needed to cater to different
requirements of the end users.
 This specific software that works on top of the system software is termed as
application software.
 There are again two broad categories of application software — general
purpose and customised application software.
(A)General Purpose Software:
The application software developed for generic applications, to cater to a bigger
audience in general are called general purpose software.
Such ready-made application software can be used by end users as per their
requirements.
For example, Adobe Photoshop can be used by any computer user to do
for editing photographs, compositing digital art, animating, and graphic
design.
(B) Customised Software:
 These are custom or tailor-made application software, that are developed to
meet the requirements of a specific organisation or an individual.
 They are better suited to the needs of an individual or an organisation,
considering that they are designed as per special requirements.
 Some examples of user-defined software include websites, school
management software, accounting software, etc.