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Components Of Information Technology

Dr. Gita A. Kumta


School of Business Management NMIMS (Deemed University)
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What is a Computer?
An electronic device that stores, retrieves, and processes data, and can be programmed with instructions. A computer is composed of hardware and software, Can exist in a variety of sizes and configurations.

Types of Computers
Mini and Mainframe Computers
Very powerful, used by large organisations such as banks to control the entire business operation.

Personal Computers
Cheap and easy to use. Often used as stand-alone computers or in a network. May be connected to large mainframe computers within big companies.

Packaging the Computer


The many physical forms of the general purpose computer All follow general organization: Primary memory Input units Output units Central Processing Unit
Fast Expensive Complex Large Super Computers Mainframe Computers

Minicomputers
Microcomputer Palmtop Computer Calculator Slow Cheap Simple Small

Basic Concepts of Computer Hardware


The term hardware refers to the physical components of your computer such as the system unit, mouse, keyboard, monitor etc. Input / Output (I/O): Refers to the process of getting information into and out of the computer. Input: Those parts of the computer receiving information to programs. Output: Those parts of the computer that provide results of computation to the person using the computer.

Computer System

Cont.

The Central Processing Unit


The Central Processing Unit ( CPU)
Often referred to as the brain of the computer. Responsible for controlling all activities of the computer system.

Motherboard: The place where most of the electronics including the CPU are mounted.

Major Components of CPU


The three major components of the CPU are:
Arithmetic Unit (Computations performed) Accumulator (Results of computations kept here) Control Unit (Has two locations where numbers are kept) Instruction Register (Instruction placed here for analysis)
Program Counter (Which instruction will be performed next?) Instruction Decoding Unit (Decodes the instruction)

Primary Storage or Memory


This is where the data and program that are currently in operation or being accessed are stored during use. Consists of electronic circuits: Extremely fast and expensive.
RAM (non-permanent) Programs and data can be stored here for the computers use. Volatile: All information will be lost once the computer shuts down. ROM (permanent) A class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty.

Input Devices
Connecting Hardware to the computer
Hardware needs access through some general input/output connection.
Port: The pathway for data to go into and out of the computer from external devices such as keyboards. There are many standard ports as well as custom electronic ports designed for special purposes. Ports follow standards that define their use.
SCSI, USB: Multiple peripheral devices (chain). RS-232, IDE: Individual peripheral devices.

Input Devices
How to tell it what to do and capture input? Two categories of input hardware:
Those that deal with original data. Those that handle previously stored data.

Input Devices
Input hardware: Those that deal with original data.
Keyboard Mouse Voice recognition hardware Scanner Digital camera

Digitizing: The process of taking a visual image, or audio recording and converting it to a binary form for the computer.

Input / Output Devices


Category Name of the Device

Keying Device Pointing Device

Keyboard
Punch Card Reader

Mouse
Touch Screen

Joy Stick
Light Pen

Optical Character Recognizer Other Devices

Bar Code Reader


Optical Character Reader

Cameras
Digitizers ( for maps a, graphs etc )

Smart Cards
Telephone

Output Devices

Printer, Plotter, Fax, Monitor

Input Devices
Peripheral device: A piece of hardware like a printer or disk drive, that is outside the main computer Hardware needs software on the computer that can service the device.

Input Devices Basic Technologies for Storing


Common Basic Technologies for Storing Binary Information: Electronic Magnetic Optical

Input Devices Electronic Circuits


Most expensive of the three forms for storing binary information. A flip-flop circuit has either one electronic status or the other. It is said to flip-flop from one to the other. Electronic circuits come in two forms:
Permanent Non-permanent

Storage Devices Magnetic Technology


Two parts to most of the magnetic forms of information storage: The medium that stores the magnetic information
Floppy disk. Tiny spots on the disk are magnetized to represent 0s and 1s.

The device that can read that information from the medium.
The drive spins the disk. It has a magnetic sensing arm that moves over the disk. Performs nondestructive reading.

Input Devices Optical


Uses lasers to read the binary information from the medium, usually a disc.
Millions of tiny holes are burned into the surface of the disc. The holes are interpreted as 1s. The absence of holes are interpreted as 0s.

Secondary Memory Input Devices


These input devices are used by a computer to store information and then to retrieve that information as needed.
External to the computer. Commonly consists of floppy disks, hard disk drives, or CD-ROMs.

Secondary memory uses binary.


The usual measurement is the byte. A byte consists of 8 binary digits (bits). The byte is a standard unit.

Storage Devices
How it saves data and programs for retrieval? The four most important characteristics of storage devices:
Speed and access time Cost / Removable versus non-removable Capacity Type of access

Storage Devices
Speed (Access time) - How fast information can be taken from or stored onto the computer memory devices medium.
Electronic circuits: Fastest to access.
40 billionths of a second.

Floppy disks: Very slow in comparison.


Takes up to 1/2 second to reach full speed before access is even possible.

Storage Devices
Capacity - The amount of information that can be stored on the medium.
Unit 1 bit 1 nibble 1 byte 1 kilobyte 1 megabyte 1 gigabyte 1 terabyte Description 1 binary digit 4 bits 8 bits 1,024 bytes 1,048,576 bytes 1 million bytes 1,073,741,824 bytes 1 billion bytes 1 trillion bytes Approximate Size

1 character 1/2 page, double spaced 500,000 pages 5 million pages 5 billion pages

Storage Devices
Type of Access Sequential - Obtained by proceeding through the storage medium from the beginning until the designated area is reached (as in magnetic tape). Random Access - Direct access (as in floppy and hard disks).

Output Devices
How it shows you what it is doing / done? Monitor
The monitor (the screen) is how the computer sends information back to you.

Printer
A printer is also an output device. There are many different types of printers. In large organizations laser printers are used as they can print very fast and give a very high quality output.

Output Devices
Storage Requirements: How much storage capacity is needed for
One keystroke on a keyboard. One page single-spaced document. 1 byte (8 bits) 4.0 K

Storage Capacity: How much data can be stored on


One inch of 1/2 in. wide magnetic tape. 4 K One DVD. up to 17 GB

Output Devices
Plotters
A plotter is an output device similar to a printer, but normally allows you to print larger images.

Speakers
Enhances the value of educational and presentation products.

Speech synthesisers
Gives you the ability not only to display text on a monitor but also to read the text to you.

Software
The software is a set of programmes, data structures and documentation. Programmes are a set of instructions that makes the computer work with data. Software is held either on your computers hard disk or a storage device and copied into the RAM (Random Access Memory) as and when required.

Types of Software
System Software Application Software Business Application Software

System Software
Controls various internal computer activities. Covers the following categories: Operating system, Utility software Data Base Management System. Device driver that will allow the computer to communicate with a particular device.

Utilities
Expands the performance of the operating system by adding functions that are not part of the original OS.
Utilities perform such jobs as troubleshooting hardware, inspecting diskettes for damage, file conversion, de-fragmentation, data compression, etc.

Application Software
Used to perform specialized functions or specific jobs. Specific jobs might be to create a family tree, learn basic math, create a plot for a novel, do payroll and accounting, collect payment, or draw flowcharts. Users can choose from thousands of applications to facilitate the job.

Major Categories of Application Software


Type Word Processing Software Microsoft Word Corel Word Perfect Microsoft Excel , Open Office / Star Office Adobe Macromedia Corel
Cont.

Spreadsheet Graphics Desktop Publishing

Business Application Software


Software that enables Business functions. From a batch process to on-line, real-time. Billing system, inventory system, accounting. Enterprise Resource Planning System Data Warehousing Business Intelligence

Programming Languages
Various methods of writing computer instructions. Instructions adhere to a particular set of protocols for each language. Regardless of which language a program was written in, a computer can only process binary code.

Generations of Computer Languages


First generation of computer languages was machine language. Second generation is assembly language developed in the 1950s. Third generation (3GL) languages, called high-level languages. Fourth generation (4GL) languages, called very high-level languages which rely on objects of code that are reusable.

Database Concepts
Information:

Refers to data that is viewed in some context.


May involve some processing also, e.g., a list of monthwise sales with the total yearly sales calculated. Information helps the user reveal trends or patterns in the data.

Database:
It is a shared and organized collection of logically relevant data designed to meet the information needs of multiple users in an organization, e.g., a database of all the addresses.

Stages of Database Evolution:


Databases have evolved along with the evolution of programming languages.
Generation 1 (pre 60s) 2 (60s) 3 (70s) Languages Machine Different Stages of Evolution Assemblers 3 GLs (Generation Languages), e.g., C, Pascal, COBOL, BASIC... Databases Arrays, Lists, Variables... Files DBMS Hierarchical (e.g., IMS) & Network (e.g., IDS) Files serial, sequential, indexed, ISAM Relational DBMS (RDBMS), e.g., Oracle, SQL Server Object-oriented DBMS (OODBMS), Object-relational DBMS (ORDBMS)

4 (80s)

4 GLs -SQL, FORMS, C++, Java

5 (90s)

Nonprocedural, intellectual, e.g., AlON

Data Versus Information


Monthly Sales Report for West Region

Sales Rep: Charles Mann Emp No. 79154 Item Qty Sold Price TM Shoes 1200 $100

Logical Data Elements


Name Field

Payroll Record

Payroll File/Table

Personnel Database

Views of Data
There are different ways in which we can view the data. A database system typically has two levels of abstraction of data:
Physical level: Describes how a record (e.g., a customer) is physically stored on the computer Logical level: Describes data stored in the database and the relationships among them,

Data Modeling
Analysis of data objects that are used in a business or other context and the identification of the relationships among these data objects.
Is a collection of logical constructs used to represent the data structure & the data relationships found within the database.

Categories of Data Models


Conceptual models
Focus on the logical nature of the data representation. Concerned with what is represented rather than how it is represented. Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) is a popular conceptual model.

Implementation models
Place the emphasis on how the data are represented in the database : Hierarchical, Network, Relational, Objectoriented.

Hierarchical Model
In 1966, IBM released the first commercially available DBMS IMS (Information Management System) based on the hierarchical data model. The basic structure of this model is: Collection of records is logically organized to conform to the upside-down tree (hierarchical) structure. The top layer is perceived as the parent of the segment directly beneath it. The segments below other segments are the children of the segment above them. A tree structure is represented as a hierarchical path on the computer's storage media.

Network Model
General Electric (GE) developed a DBMS called IDS (Integrated Data System) based on the network data model in 1967. In this model, a relationship is called a set. Each set is composed of at least two record types: an owner (parent) record and a member (child) record. A set represents a 1:M relationship between the owner and the member.

Network DBMS

DBMS between the Database and the End Users

Data Dictionary Management


A data dictionary (or metadata) is the collection of descriptions of the data objects or items in a data model for the benefit of the programmers and others who need to refer to them. Data storage management
Data transformation and presentation Security management Multi-user access control Backup and recovery management Data integrity management Database access languages and application programming interfaces Database communication interfaces.

Sources of Data for the Computer


Two types of data stored within a computer:
Original data or information: Data being introduced to a computing system for the first time. Computers can deal directly with printed text, pictures, sound, and other common types of information. Previously stored data or information: Data that has already been processed by a computer and is being stored for later use. These are forms of binary data useful only to the computer. Examples: Floppy disks, DVD disks, and music CDs.

Moving Information Within the Computer


How do binary numerals move into, out of, and within the computer?
Information is moved about in bytes, or multiple bytes called words.
Words are the fundamental units of information. The number of bits per word may vary per computer. A word length for most large IBM computers is 32 bits:

Networking Concepts
A network provides the following major benefits: Simultaneous (or concurrent) access to critical program and data Sharing of peripheral devices (e.g., printers) Streamlined personal communications Easier back-up processes.

Network Design
Any network can be studied in either of the following ways:

Geography
LAN WAN MAN

Topology
Bus Star

Interactions
Server-based Client/server

Ring
Mesh

Peer-to-peer

Types Of Networks
LAN Local Area Network Is a small Geographical area such as Institute. MAN Metropolitan Area Network Is a network over a larger geographical area such as the provincial government. WAN Wide Area Network Is a network used over an extremely large geographical area such as the federal government.

Bus Topology

Allows information to be directed from one computer to the other.

Star Topology

Is the most common type used. All computers are attached to a hub. Less collisions and most efficient.

Ring Topology
Uses a token to pass information from one computer to the other. A token is attached to the message by the sender to identify which computer should receive the message. As the message moves around the ring, each computer examines the token. If the computer identifies the token as its own, then it will process the information. If one computer is broken or down, the message cannot be passed to the other computers.

Ring Topology

Mesh Topology
A network setup where each of the computers and network devices are interconnected with one another Allows most transmissions to be distributed, even if one of the connections go down. Not commonly used for most computer networks as it is difficult and expensive to have redundant connection to every computer. Commonly used for wireless networks.

Mesh Topology

Protocols
A protocol is synonymous with rule.

It consists of a set of rules that govern data communications. It determines what is communicated, how it is communicated and when it is communicated. The key elements of a protocol are syntax, semantics and timing

Elements of a Protocol
Syntax Structure or format of the data Indicates how to read the bits - field delineation Semantics Interprets the meaning of the bits Knows which fields define what action Timing When and what data should be sent. Speed at which data should be sent or speed at which it is being received.

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