CS401 Midterm Notes by Sonu Ilyas

Assembly Language Programming · Lecture Notes CS401 · MIT DEPARTMENT

what is Basic Computer Architecture?

2 Basic Computer Architecture. The main components in a typical computer system are the processor, memory, input/output devices, and the communication channels that connect them. ... In a typical system there will be only one processor, known at the central processing unit, or CPU.

What is a computer program?

A Program is a set of instructions compiled together in a file to perform some specific task by the CPU (Central Processing Unit). It is a series of binary numbers (0s and 1s) arranged in a sequence, which when given to the computer performs some task.

Computer is a dumb machine with expeditious computational speed. It can give quick results to many of the complex scientific calculations but it can’t perform a task on its own. A computer needs set of

I/O · PROCESSOR · MEMORY

instructions to do some task. This set of instructions is contained in a computer program. Computer program is basically in binary language i.e. series of 0s and 1s. A large bunch of programs makes the computer functional without which the computer would be like a paralyzed machine.

You may think computer as an idiot person who does not know to cook. If you provide ingredients for cooking Pasta to that idiot person, you cannot expect a delicious dish. However, if you provide ingredients along with the full step-by-step recipe of cooking Pasta then you may expect a real Pasta from that idiot person. Same is the concept with computers, for computers the ingredients are data (might be an integer, string, images, videos or anything) and the recipe is a program.

What is Programming?

Programming is the process of writing an algorithm into a sequence of computer instructions. Or you can simply say it is the process of writing programs. We generally transform the solution of a specific problem into computer language. It is the only way through which we can create our own programs and can execute them on a computer. Programming requires skill, logical thinking and lots of experience.

The world’s first programmer was Ada Lovelace. She was widely known for her work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine (general-purpose mechanical computer).