Evolution of computers; basics of computer and its operation; functional components and their interconnections, concept of booting .
Software concepts: Types of Software - system software, utility software and application software
System Software: Operating system, complier, interpreter and assembler
Operating System: Need for operating system, functions of operating system (processor management, memory management, file management and device management), types of operating system-interactive (GUI based), time sharing, real time and distributed, commonly used operating
system: UNIX, LINUX, Windows, Solaris, BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions);
Utility Software: Anti Virus, Compression tools.
Open Source Concepts: Open source software, freeware, shareware, proprietary software.
Application Software: Office tools - word processor, presentation tool, spreadsheet package,
database management system; domain specific tools - school management system, inventory
management system, payroll system, financial accounting, hotel management, reservation system
and weather forecasting system.
Number System: Binary, octal, decimal, hexadecimal and conversion between two different number
systems.
Internal Storage encoding of Characters: ASCII, ISCII (Indian Scripts Standard Code for
Information Interchange), and UNICODE (for multilingual computing)
Microprocessor: Basic concepts, clock speed (MHz, GHz), 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit processors; Types
- CISC, RISC.
Memory Concepts:
Units: Byte, Kilo Byte, Mega Byte, Giga Byte, Tera Byte, Peta Byte
Primary Memory: Cache, RAM, ROM
Secondary Memory: Fixed and Removable storage - Hard Disk Drive, CD/DVD Drive, Pen Drive,
Blue Ray Disk.
Input Output Ports/ Connections: Serial, Parallel and Universal Serial Bus, PS-2 port, Infrared
port, Bluetooth, Firewire.
Programming Methodology
General Concepts: Clarity and simplicity of expressions, Use of proper names for identifiers,
comments, indentation; documentation and program maintenance; running and debugging
programs, syntax errors, run-time errors, logical errors
Problem solving methodologies: Understanding of the problem, solution for the problem, breaking
down solution into simple steps (modular approach), identification of arithmetic and logical
operations required for solution; control structure- conditional control and looping (finite and
infinite).
Problem Solving: Introduction to algorithms/flowcharts..
Introduction to Python
Getting Started:
Introduction to Python- an interpreted high level language, interactive mode and script mode.
Variables, Expressions and Statements:
Values, Variables and keywords; Operators and Operands in Python: (Arithmetic, relational and
logical operators), operator precedence, Expressions and Statements (Assignment statement); Taking
input (using raw_input() and input()) and displaying output (print statement); Putting Comments.
Functions:
Importing Modules (entire module or selected objects), invoking built in functions, functions
from math module (for example, ceil, floor, fabs, exp, log, log10, pow, sqrt, cos, sin, tan, degrees,
radians), using random() and randint() functions of random module to generate random numbers,
composition.
Defining functions, invoking functions, passing parameters (default parameter values, keyword
arguments), scope of variables, void functions and functions returning values, flow of execution
Conditional constructs and looping:
if else statement
While, for (range function), break, continue, else, pass
Programming with Python
Strings: Creating, initialising and accessing the elements; string operators: +, *, in, not in, range
slice [n:m]; comparing strings using relational operators;
String functions and methods: len, capitalize, find, isalnum, isalpha, isdigit, lower, islower,
isupper, upper, lstrip, rstrip.
Lists: Concept of mutable lists, creating, initializing and accessing the elements, traversing,
appending, updating and deleting elements;
List operations (joining, list slices);
List functions and methods: len, insert, append, extend, sort, remove, reverse, pop.