The sixth edition of the highly acclaimed “Fundamentals of Computers” lucidly presents how a computer system functions. 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, the memory, and the 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, cellular wireless communication systems, WiFi (Wireless high fidelity), and WiMAX have become important. Thus it has now become part of “fundamental knowledge” of computers and has been included. Besides this, use of computers in multimedia processing has become commonplace and hence is discussed. With the increase in speed of networks and consequently the Internet, new computing environments such as peer to peer, grid, and cloud 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 Applications (BCA and MCA), undergraduate students of engineering and computer science who study fundamentals of computers as a core course, and 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.
Key features
• Fully updated retaining the style and all contents of the fifth edition.
• In-depth discussion of both wired and wireless computer networks.
• Extensive discussion of analog and digital communications.
• Advanced topics such as multiprogramming, virtual memory, DMA, RISC, DSP, RFID, Smart Cards, WiGig, GSM, CDMA, novel I/O devices, and multimedia compression (MP3, MPEG) are described from first principles.
• A new chapter on Emerging Computing Environments, namely, peer to peer, grid, and cloud computing, has been added for the first time in an entry level book.
• Each chapter begins with learning goals and ends with a summary to aid self-study.
• Includes an updated glossary of over 340 technical terms used in the book.
V. Rajaraman, Ph.D. (Wisconsin) is an Emeritus Professor at the Supercomputer Education and Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Earlier, Prof. Rajaraman was a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at IIT, Kanpur (1963–1982), Professor of Computer Science and Chairman of Supercomputer Education and Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (1982–1994), and IBM Professor of Information Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (1994–2001). A Padma Bhushan awardee in 1998, he is also a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 1976, the Homi Bhabha Prize by U.G.C., Om Prakash Bhasin Award, the ISTE Award for excellence in teaching computer engineering, Rustam Choksi Award, the Zaheer Medal by the Indian National Science Academy.
Prof. Rajaraman is a lifetime contribution awardee of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Computer Society of India. He has received a DSc (h.c.) from IIT, Kanpur, and the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Sibpur. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy, the National Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and the Computer Society of India. An author of several well-established and highly successful computer books, Prof. Rajaraman has published many research papers in reputed national and international journals. (A detailed biodata may be found in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Vaidyeswaran_Rajaraman).
Books written by V Rajaraman for PHI Learning https://www.phindia.com/SearchBooks/SearchphiBooks/?searchbooks=rajaraman|
Neeharika Adabala, Ph.D. (IISc), is the founder and chief architect of CybULab Pvt. Ltd., a company that applies information visualization techniques and cognition theory to develop educational services. She is also a co-founder of Lifetape Inc. She was previously a researcher at Microsoft Research India, where she worked on effective visualization of and interaction with information, as well as on use of semantics to improve user-computer interaction. She has worked in MIRALab at the University of Geneva and also in University of Central Florida. She has published papers in the areas of fluid simulation, realistic and abstract rendering techniques, and information visualization. She is on the editorial board of the Springer-Verlag journal for computer graphics and serves on the program committees of international conferences in the areas of computer graphics and animation.
