Fundamentals of Computers

The fifth edition of highly acclaimed “Fundamentals of Computers” lucidly presents how a computer system functions, besides teaching basics of programming. Both hardware and software aspects of computers are covered. The book begins with how numeric and character data are represented in a computer, how various input and output units function, how different types of memory units are organized and how data is processed by the processor. The interconnection and communication between the I/O units memory and processor is explained clearly and concisely. Software concepts such as programming languages, operating systems and communication protocols are discussed. With growing use of wireless to access computer networks both cellular wireless communication and WiFi (Wireless high fidelity) and WiMAX have become important. Thus it has now become part of “fundamental knowledge” and has been included. Besides this, use of computers in multimedia processing has become common place and hence is discussed. With the increase in speed of networks and consequently the Internet new computing environments such as peer to peer, grid, cloud and utility computing have emerged and will change the future of computing. Hence a new chapter on this topic has been included in this edition.

This book is an ideal text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Computer Science and Applications (BCA and MCA), undergraduate students of engineering where computer fundamentals is a core course and for students of management who should all know the basics of computer hardware and software. It is ideally suited for working professionals who want to update their knowledge of fundamentals of computers.