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Exercises · Q7

Q.Draw the block diagram of a computer system. Briefly write about the functionality of each component.

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The block diagram of a computer shows five cooperating blocks — input unit, CPU (control unit + ALU + registers), primary memory, secondary storage and output unit — connected so that data flows in, gets processed via memory, and results flow out.

The block diagram

                 +---------------------------------------+
                 |     Central Processing Unit (CPU)     |
  +-------+      |  +--------------+   +-------------+   |      +--------+
  | Input | ---> |  | Control Unit |   |     ALU     |   | ---> | Output |
  | Unit  |      |  |     (CU)     |   |             |   |      | Unit   |
  +-------+      |  +--------------+   +-------------+   |      +--------+
                 |             [ Registers ]             |
                 +-------------------^-------------------+
                                     |   (system bus)
                          +----------v-----------+
                          |   Primary Memory     |
                          |    (RAM  /  ROM)     |
                          +----------^-----------+
                                     |
                          +----------v-----------+
                          |  Secondary Storage   |
                          |  (HDD / SSD / DVD)   |
                          +----------------------+

As a node-and-arrow list: Input Unit → CPU; CPU ↔ Primary Memory; Primary Memory ↔ Secondary Storage; CPU → Output Unit — all transfers riding on the system bus.

Functionality of each component

  • Input unit — the computer's receiving end. Devices such as the keyboard, mouse, scanner and microphone accept data and instructions from the user and convert them into a form the computer can process (binary).
  • Central Processing Unit (CPU) — the brain of the computer, which processes both data and instructions. Inside it:
    • Control Unit (CU): the supervisor — it fetches instructions from memory, decodes them, and directs/coordinates the activities of all other units (when to read input, what the ALU should do, where results go).
    • Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU): performs all arithmetic operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide) and logical/comparison operations (greater than, equal, AND/OR). …

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