Introduction

In electronics, an integrated circuit (also known as IC, or chip) is an assembly of electronic components, fabricated as a single unit, in which miniaturized active devices (e.g., transistors and diodes) and passive devices (e.g., capacitors and resistors) and their interconnections are built up on a thin substrate of semiconductor material (typically silicon).
A typical integrated circuit, shown on a fingernail.

CPU
Abbreviation of central processing unit, and pronounced as separate letters. The CPU is the brains of the computer. A CPU that is manufactured as a single integrated circuit (IC) is usually known as a microprocessor. The CPU is where most calculations take place. In terms of computing power, the CPU is the most important element of a computer system. On large machines or mainframes, CPUs require one or more printed circuit boards. On personal computers and small workstations, the CPU is housed in a single chip called a microprocessor. Two typical components of a CPU are:

The arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs arithmetic and logical operations. The control unit (CU), which extracts instructions from memory and decodes and executes them, calling on the ALU when necessary.

Programming languages
First Generation: Machine Language Programming of the first stored-program computer systems was performed in machine language. This is the lowest level of programming language. All the commands and data values are given in ones and zeros, corresponding to the "on" and "off" electrical states in a computer.

Second Generation: Assembly Language Assembly languages are symbolic programming languages that use symbolic notation to represent machine-language instructions. Symbolic programming languages are strongly connected to machine language and the internal architecture of the computer system on which they are used. They are called low-level languages because they are so closely related to the machines. Nearly all computer systems have an assembly language available for use.

Third Generation: High-Level Language

Third-generation languages spurred the great increase in data processing that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. During that time, the number of mainframes in use increased from hundreds to tens of thousands. The impact of third-generation languages on society has been huge. High-level languages fall somewhere between natural languages and machine languages, and were developed to make the programming process more efficient. Languages like FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator) and COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language) made it possible for scientists and business people to write programs using familiar terms instead of obscure machine instructions. Programmers can now pick from hundreds of high-level languages (Java, C, C++, Ada, FORTRAN, ALGOL, COBOL, VB .NET etc.). Programming languages like Java, C, C++ and Ada are examples of object-oriented programming languages. In object-oriented programming, a program is no longer a series of instructions, but a collection of objects. These objects contain both data and instructions, are assigned to classes, and can perform specific tasks. With this approach, programmers can build programs from pre-existing objects and can use features from one program in another. These results in faster development time, reduced maintenance costs, and improved flexibility for future revisions.

Translator Since machines (computers) can understand only machine languages, a translator is needed to translate the symbolic statements of both low-level and high-level languages into computer-executable machine language. The programs that translate low-level programs written in assembly language into machine language are called assemblers. The programs that translate high-level programs into machine language are called interpreters and compilers. Regardless of which translator is used, one highlevel program statement changes into several machine-language statements. Each language has many compilers, and there is one for each type of computer. The machine language generated by one computer's COBOL compiler, for example, is not the same as the machine language of some other computer. Therefore, it is necessary to have a COBOL compiler for each type of computer on which COBOL programs are to be run. In other words, to run any high-level programming language on your computer, you must first install the corresponding compiler. Fourth Generation: Very High-Level Languages With each generation, programming languages have become easier to use and more like natural languages. However, fourth-generation languages (4GLs) seem to sever connections with the prior generation because they are basically nonprocedural. Procedural languages tell the computer how a task is done: add this, compare that, do this if something is true, and so on, in a very specific step-by-step manner. In a nonprocedural language, users define only what they want the computer to do, without supplying all the details of how something is to be done. Although there is no agreement on what really constitutes a fourth-generation language, several characteristics are usually mentioned: 3

the instructions are written in English-like sentences; they are nonprocedural, so users can concentrate on the "what" instead of the "how"; they increase productivity because programmers type fewer lines of code to get something done.

An example of a 4GL is the query language that allows a user to request information from a database with precisely worded English-like sentences. A query language is used as a database user interface and hides the specific details of the database from the user. For example, Structured Query Language (SQL) requires that the user learn a few rules of syntax and logic, but it is easier to learn than COBOL or C. It is believed that one can be ten times more productive in a fourth-generation language than in a third-generation language.

Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET): VB.NET is an object-oriented computer language that can be viewed as an evolution of Microsoft's Visual Basic (VB) implemented on the Microsoft .NET framework. Its introduction has been controversial, as significant changes were made that broke backward compatibility with older versions and caused a rift within the developer community. The great majority of VB.NET developers use Visual Studio .NET as their integrated development environment (IDE). SharpDevelop provides an open-source alternative IDE. Like all .NET languages, programs written in VB.NET require the .NET framework to execute

Module Module1 'A program that prints a given message on the monitor. Sub Main() System.Console.Write("Hello people, I like VB.NET Programming") System.Console.WriteLine("press any key to continue") System.Console.ReadLine() End Sub End Module

Module Module1

' A program to evaluate the area of a right triangle

Sub Main()

' Local declaration Dim base As Decimal Dim hight As Decimal Dim Area As Decimal ' The key word "System" written before "Console.Write" ' or "Console.Read" is optional ' See instruction 3 from the buttom
Console.WriteLine("enter height:") height = Console.ReadLine() Console.WriteLine("enter base:") base = Console.ReadLine()

' Calculate Area of the triangle

area = 0.5 * base * height Console.WriteLine("area = " & area) Console.WriteLine("press any key to continue") Console.ReadLine() End Sub End Module