JUST HAVE A CASUAL READING!!!

COMPUTER BASICS

Things to remember

• Any facts and figures collected for some purpose is known as data. Data in itself do not have any meaning
• Meaningful presentation of data is known as information. Information is achieved after processing data.
• We do not use computers to gather data but they are excellent devices to store, process and retrieve.
• Arranging (in ascending/descending or any other order), calculating (add, subtract, multiply, divide or any other computations) or any sort of manipulation on data to derive required information is known as processing.
• Bits is the abbreviation (short form) of Binary Digits. 8 bits makes one byte.

·         Hard is used in computer literatures to mean permanent and tangible such as hardware, hardcopy output etc

·         Soft is used in discussions to mean temporary and intangible such as software, softprint, softcopy output.

·         The term ‘Computer’ is a word and not abbreviation. So, the full form ‘Common Operating Machine Particularly Used for technical, Entertainment and Research’ is just a fun. It neither the full form nor defines computer properly.

• The term ‘Computer’ is derived from its Latin origin ‘Computare’ which means to reckon (Add).
• A more acceptable definition for computer is “an electronic device that accepts data as input, processes to produce output in suitable format. It can store data and information for future reference”.
• A complete definition should be “an electronic device that accepts data input, process it and produce output which has features like speedy, accurate, reliable,  diligent, versatile and huge storage”.
• Automatic is the feature of a machine that can complete task by itself after initial setup is done
• Computers are 100% accurate but it can suffer from GIGO (Garbage-in-garbage-out).
• The term GIGO means Computers may produce useless information if you provide wrong data or used wrong program.
• Computers are reliable because they use electronic components which have very low failure rate
• Computer is never tired and does not suffer from boredom. This feature illustrates diligence of computers.
• Versatility indicates its diverse uses.
• Computers are the best devices to store huge amount of data for extensive time duration.
• The difference between a calculator and computer is highlighted by versatility.
• Human being are superior to computers because we have intelligence. Computers are good at diligence than human beings.
• Future generation of computers are expected to have artificial intelligence and be able to use natural language.

MEMORY AND SPEED

A group of 4 binary digits is called a nibble (4 bits = 1 Nibble). Similarly a group of 8 bits is called a byte (1 byte = 8 bits).
As you have seen the example above, each character requires 8 bits which is 1 byte. So 1 character requires 1 byte space. Now, if you have a text file whose size is 32 bytes, it means there are 32 x 8 binary digits (0s and 1s) stored in it.
In the metric system 1000 lifts up the unit to the higher such as 1000 meter is 1 kilometer, 1000 liter is 1 kiloliter etc. In binary numbering system it is 1024 (=2 ¹⁰) that converts to higher unit. Following table lists the different units and their values:

Space Measurement Units

Units	Equivalent
0 or 1	1 Bit
4 bits	1 Nibble
8 bits	1 Byte
1024 bytes	1 Kilobytes (KB)
1024 Kilobytes	1 Megabyte (MB)
1024 Megabytes	1 Gigabytes (GB)
1024 Gigabytes	1 Terabytes (TB)
1024 Terabytes	1 Petabyte (PB)
1024 Petabytes	1 Exabyte (EB)

Oh! Surprising and new words. I guess you will hardly need units larger than petabyte for current purpose. These are all the units in ascending order. There are many units to represent quantities much smaller than bytes and bits.

Speed Measurement - Units

Well, speed is related to time and as you know computer is very speedy device. It can perform millions of tasks in one second. So to compare the speed of computer operation (execution of programs and instructions) we require some units that can represent a very small fraction of time. Following are the units used to indicate fraction of seconds:

ts

Units	Equivalent
1000 th of a second	1 Milliseconds (MS)
1000 th of a milliseconds	1 Microseconds (µs)
1000 th of a microseconds	1 Nanosecond (ns)
1000 th of a nanoseconds	1 Picoseconds (ps)
1000 th of a picoseconds	1 Femtoseconds (fs)

There are some more units, but I believe this would be sufficient for our course purpose.

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