Computer Fundamentals

1. APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS
In this chapter, we will discuss the application of computers in various fields.
Business
Computer is used in business organizations for:
 Payroll calculations
 Budgeting
 Sales analysis
 Financial forecasting
 Managing employee database
 Maintenance of stocks, etc.
Banking
Banks provide the following facilities:
 Online accounting facility, which includes checking current balance, making
deposits, checking interest charges, shares, and trustee records.
 ATM machines which are completely automated are making it even easier for
customers to deal with banks.
Insurance
Insurance companies are maintaining a database of all clients with information
showing:
 Procedure to continue with policies
 Starting date of the policies
 Next due installment of a policy
 Interests due
 Survival benefits
 Bonus
Education
The computer helps in providing a lot of facilities in the education system.
 The computer provides a tool in the education system known as CBE
(Computer Based Education).
 CBE involves control, delivery, and evaluation of learning.
 Computer education is rapidly increasing the graph of number of computer
students.
 There are a number of methods in which educational institutions can use a
computer to educate the students.
 It is used to prepare a database about performance of a student and analysis is
carried out on this basis.
Marketing
In marketing, uses of the computer are following:

2.  Advertising - With computers, advertising professionals create art and
graphics, write and revise copy, and print and disseminate ads with the goal
of selling more products.
 Home Shopping - Home shopping has been made possible through the use of
computerized catalogues that provide access to product information and
permit direct entry of orders to be filled by the customers.
Healthcare
Following are some major fields of health care in which computers are used.
 Diagnostic System - Computers are used to collect data and identify the cause
of illness.
 Lab-diagnostic System - All tests can be done and the reports are prepared
by computer.
 Patient Monitoring System - These are used to check the patient's signs for
abnormality such as in Cardiac Arrest, ECG, etc.
 Pharma Information System - Computer is used to check drug labels, expiry
dates, harmful side effects, etc.
 Surgery - Nowadays, computers are also used in performing surgery.
Engineering Design
 Structural Engineering - Requires stress and strain analysis for design of
ships, buildings, budgets, airplanes, etc.
 Industrial Engineering - Computers deal with design, implementation, and
improvement of integrated systems of people, materials, and equipment.
 Architectural Engineering - Computers help in planning towns, designing
buildings, determining a range of buildings on a site using both 2D and 3D
drawings.
Military
Some military areas where a computer has been used are:
 Missile Control
 Military Communication
 Military Operation and Planning
 Smart Weapons
Communication
Some main areas in this category are:
 E-mail
 Chatting
 FTP
 Video-conferencing
Government
Some major fields in this category are:
 Budgets

3.  Sales tax department
 Income tax department
 Computation of male/female ratio
 Computerization of voters lists
 Computerization of PAN card
 Weather forecasting
Disadvantages of Computer
Following are certain disadvantages of computers.
No I.Q.
 A computer is a machine that has no intelligence to perform any task.
 Each instruction has to be given to the computer.
 A computer cannot take any decision on its own.
Dependency
 It functions as per the user’s instruction, thus it is fully dependent on humans.
Environment
 The operating environment of the computer should be dust free and suitable.
No Feeling
 Computers have no feelings or emotions.
 It cannot make judgment based on feeling, taste, experience, and knowledge
unlike humans.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HUMAN AND
COMPUTER
The computer may be faster; more accurate but it cannot compete with human brain.
However there are some similarities between the human and the computer which
would make the computer more understandable.
Human Computer
Like human beings has ears, nose, eyes
etc.
Computers have input devices such as
keyboard, scanner, touch screen, mouse
etc to get information.
Like we remember things Computer also stores information.
We recollect certain information as
required.
The computer also retrieves information
when times,
We express ourselves by speech,
writing etc
Computer expresses through screen,
Printouts etc which We call as output.

4. Human Computer
When we watch, hear, learn certain
things and analyze.
with the help of software, computer also
can analyze Information and draw
conclusions.
The place where we store, analyze, The computer brain is known as CPU
conclude information is known as the
brain (Central Processing Unit) where it
analyses information.
The computer has storage devices like floppies, hard disks, compact disks to store
and retrieve information. However computer does not understand emotions, it does
not meaning beyond words, it cannot read between the lines like the human. We
learn many things unknowingly, certain things knowingly; we call it as upbringing.
But computers can learn everything only knowingly. We learn many things on our
own, but computer has to be taught to do everything.
THE COMPUTER SYSTEM
Computer is an electronic device that accepts data as input, processes the input data
by performing mathematical and logical operations on it, and gives the desired
output. The computer system consists of four parts (1) Hardware, (2) Software, (3)
Data, and (4) Users. The parts of computer system are shown in Figure 1.13.
Hardware consists of the mechanical parts that make up the computer as a machine.
The hardware consists of physical devices of the computer. The devices are required
for input, output, storage and processing of the data. Keyboard, monitor, hard disk
drive, floppy disk drive, printer, processor and motherboard are some of the
hardware devices.
Figure 1.13 Parts of computer system

5. Software is a set of instructions that tells the computer about the tasks to be
performed and how these tasks are to be performed. Program is a set of instructions,
written in a language understood by the computer, to perform a specific task. A set
of programs and documents are collectively called software. The hardware of the
computer system cannot perform any task on its own. The hardware needs to be
instructed about the task to be performed. Software instructs the computer about the
task to be performed. The hardware carries out these tasks. Different software can
be loaded on the same hardware to perform different kinds of tasks.
Data are isolated values or raw facts, which by themselves have no much
significance. For example, the data like 29, January, and 1994 just represent values.
The data is provided as input to the computer, which is processed to generate some
meaningful information. For example, 29, January and 1994 are processed by the
computer to give the date of birth of a person.
Users are people who write computer programs or interact with the computer. They
are also known as skinware, liveware, humanware or peopleware. Programmers,
data entry operators, system analyst and computer hardware engineers fall into this
category.