Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC)

1. Computer Fundamentals - Evolution of Computing machine, Generation and classification of Computers, Various Components of a computer system, Basic concepts of Hardware and Software, Boolean Algebra , Minimization of Boolean Functions, Logic gates, Digital IC families ( RTL, DTL, TTL, ECL, MOS, CMOS ), Combinatorial circuits, Arithmetic circuits, Code Converters, Multiplexer, De-multiplexer and decoders, Sequential circuits Latches, flip-flops, Counters and shift-registers, Comparators, timers, multivibrators, Sample and hold circuits , ADC’s and DAC’s , Semiconductor Memories , Logic implementation using programmable devices (ROM, PLA and FPGA). Number System ,Integer Arithmetic, Floating point Arithmetic, Computer Languages- machine, assembly and high level language, system and application software.



2. Computer System Organization and Architecture : BASIC COMPUTER ORGANIZATION : Computer description and design of basic computer, Instruction codes, computer instructions addressing models, timing and control, Instruction cycles. Interrupts, CONTROL UNIT: Hardwired V/s microprogrammed control unit, Central Processing unit(CPU)-General register Organization, Stack organization, Instruction format, Data transfer and manipulation, Program control, RISC, CISC., INPUT- OUTPUT ORGANIZATION : Peripheral devices, I/O interface, Data transfer schemes(program control, Interrupt, DMA transfer), I/O processor, MEMORY UNIT : Memory hierarchy, Cache memory, Associative memory, Interleave Virtual memory.



3. Object Oriented Programming (C++) : Object Orientation , Concepts of abstraction, polymorphism, encapsulation and inheritance, Data types, Control structures, Recursion, Functions, Virtual Functions, Function overloading, Operator overloading , File Handling , Exception handling, Templates.



4. Data Structures and Algorithms : Data type V/s Data Structure ,Stacks, Queues, Linked List, Trees, Tables and Graphs, Various Operations( insertions, deletion, traversal) on these data structures , Searching and Sorting Algorithms , Time and Space Complexity of Algorithms.

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1. Operating System : Evolution of OS, Functions of OS, Multiprogramming, Multiprocessing and Time Sharing System. Process Management- Processor Scheduling algorithms, Concurrent Processes, Semaphores, deadlocks -Introduction, Analysis of conditions, Prevention and avoidance, Detection and recovery, Memory Management - contiguous memory allocation , address bindings, overlays, fixed partitioning v/s variable partitioning, paging and virtual memory, File management - File access methods, Directory structure, File protection and file structure , Allocation methods, Secondary storage management- Disk structure, Scheduling and management.



2. Microprocessor : Basics of 8/16-bit microprocessor, architecture, I/O, Peripheral Controllers, CPU, Microcontrollers , Assembly Language Programming- Registers, addressing modes, instruction set, use of an assembly language viz string and numeric manipulation, searching and sorting of a list and use of I/O instructions.



3. Theory of Computations : Regular Languages and Regular Sets- Finite automata(deterministic and non-deterministic) and their equivalence , Applications of Finite automata , Properties of Regular sets and minimization of finite automata. Context-free Grammers : Simplification of Context-free grammars , Chomsky and Greibach normal forms, Properties of Context-free grammars , Coke- Kasami- Young algorithon.



4. Turing Machines : Turing Machine model, Techniques for its construction , Recursive languages , Deterministic Context-free languages and its normal form for deterministic pushdown predicting machines , LR(O), LR(K) grammars.

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1. Computer Networks : Data Communication & Network - Data transmission concepts, transmission impairments, switching, modulation and multiplexing , Transmission media – Magnetic, twisted pair, coaxial cable, fiber optics, wireless transmission , Introduction to basics of ATM and ISDN , Seven layer OSI architecture of ISO, concepts of layer protocols and interfaces , physical layer concepts of bandwidth, bit rate, error rate, transmission delays, modems, speed and compression standards, LAN, WAN, MAN and Network topologies , IEEE LAN standards – Ethernet, token ring and token bus , Data link and network layers – protocols and concepts, HDLC , circuit, packet and message switching , datagram and virtual circuits , concepts of routing and congestion control , Transport layer – Transport connection, different levels of Transport level protocols and their applications , Network devices – router, bridge, repeater, gateway, modems , Network service – FTP, Telnet, E-mail, WWW.



2. Data Base Management Systems : Introduction to DBMS - concepts and applications. Desirable characteristics of an ideal data processing system. Drawbacks/Limitations of traditional file based system , benefits of DBMS.
   
   Types of DBMS : Hierachical, Network, Relational, Object Relational , Object Oriented DBMS, distributed database management system.Relational Database Design: E-R Diagram, Normalization - INF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF and 4NF.Relational Database Implementation - SQL- DDL, DML & DCL , Concepts of cursor and triggers.
   
   Relational Database Administration : Transaction processing, concurrency control mechanism, recovery techniques, database security & authorization.



3. Computer Graphics : Graphics Hardware, Input/Output and Display Devices, Scan Conversion Algorithms for line, circle, ellipse, sector, 2-D Transformations, 3-D Transformations, 2D and 3D clipping, use of Homogeneous coordinate system, projections, viewing transformations in 2-D and 3-D, Hidden lines and surface Algorithms, shading Algorithms.

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1. Software Engineering : Principles and objectives of Software Engineering, Process and product concepts, process models, software quality issues , software design concepts – Design principles for procedural and object oriented systems , coding principles, testing and debugging. Reliability concepts , software maintenance and re-engineering. Software standards ISO/IEEE/CMM etc., Software project management, software metrics.



2. Artificial Intelligence : Importance and Application areas of AI, knowledge representation-predicate logic, semantic networks, frames etc, state space and search – problem definition as state space search, blind search, heuristic search, hill climbing, best first etc, natural language processing – grammers and languages , expert systems – shelps and architecture and knowledge reasoning – Non-monotonic and probabilistic , pattern recognition – classification process, clustering etc. An overview of AI programming languages (LISP, PROLOG).



3. Computer Based Optimization Techniques : Basics of operations research modelling approach and various real-life situations , linear programming problems and applications , components of LPP formulation , solution of LPP by graphical and simplex method , sensitivity analysis , duality theory , revised simplex method , dual simplex method , transportation and assignment problems , phases of project management – PERT and CPM computations , Integer programming concepts, its formulation and applications , Dynamic programming concepts, its formulation and applications , Goal programming, its methods and applications.