INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS

WHAT IS A COMPUTER?

The word “Computer” comes from the word “Compute”, which means to calculate. Hence, a
computer is normally considered to be a calculating device, which can perform arithmetic
operations at enormous speed.

Generally a computer is a high speed digital device that accepts processes and stores data
automatically by means of sophisticated hardware and software to produce the required output. It
operates by executing a set of instructions normally called computer programs.

A computer can also be defined as a programmable machine. It allows the user to store all sorts of
information and then ‘process’ that information, or data, or carry out actions with the information,
such as calculating numbers or organizing words.

WHY COMPUTERS?

 Computers are fast in processing data

 Computers are accurate i.e. they give accurate results provided you give accurate input
 Computers can handle large volumes of data
 They can undertake complex operations effectively
 They process information at less cost than a manual system

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  They improve the scope and quality of management information(as a result of the
computer’s presentation and complex computation capabilities)
 They are able to take in large amounts of information and to store that information in a
small space for future retrieval or use
 Computers can work continuously for 24 hours a day
 Today computers can be used to exchange messages or data through computer networks
all over the world

COMPONENTS OF A COMPUTER

A computer is made up of hardware and software. The diagram below illustrates the basic
components of a computer and their subcategories:

COMPUTER

Hardware Software
Input Systems software
Processing Application software
Output Developmental software
Storage

HARDWARE

These are the physical components of a computer system. Hardware can be subcategorized into
four areas namely:

 Input
 Processing
 Output
 Storage

The diagram below shows the relationship between the four subcategories of the hardware
devices:

See diagram in C.S French (Computer Science)

A. INPUT

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This is the entering of data into the computer system. Input devices accept user commands in a
form the computer can use and sends them into the computer for processing. They are thus used
for data entry. Since data exist in different forms therefore several input devices can be used to
suit a particular form of data. Data can be obtained from source documents for example invoices,
receipts, timesheets and financial statements. No useful task can be performed by the computer
without the input and output devices.

Input devices include keyboard, mouse, microphone, scanner, digital camera, joystick and
document readers such as magnetic ink character reader (MICR), optical character reader (OCR)
and optical mark reader (OMR).

Methods of input

i. Online data input- the operator directly enters data from a keyboard onto a backing
storage source
ii. Offline data input- involves the preparation of the input data in a machine readable
format off-line, then inputs directly from the machine readable format to the backing
source.
iii. Special purpose input- involves either the computer itself or a special microprocessor
ready characters or marks on some input device.

TITLE
Online input Keyboards with visual display units(VDU), Device connected directly to
point of sale equipment the computer
Offline input Magnetic tape, Magnetic disk Operator works independent
of the computer
Special purpose OMR, OCR, MICR, Bar coding Machines read data from a
input document and transmit it to
the computer

Input Devices

i. Mouse
A mouse is a device that controls the movement of the cursor or pointer on a display screen. The
mouse may contain up to three push buttons each of which has a different functions depending on
the program being used have. Nowadays, mice may also include a scroll wheel for scrolling
through long documents etc.

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ii. Keyboard
A keyboard contains a set of typewriter like keys that enable you to enter data in the computer.
The keys on computer keyboards are often classified as follows:
a. Alphanumeric keys - letters and numbers
b. Punctuation keys - comma, period, semicolon etc.
c. Special keys - function keys, control keys, arrow keys, Caps Lock key etc.
The standard keyboard layout that we use is known as a QWERTY keyboard because the first six
keys on the top row of letters spell QWERTY. Local computer stores sell keyboards with the
Maltese characters.

iii. Trackball
A trackball is a pointing device. Essentially, a trackball is a mouse lying on its back. To move the
pointer, you rotate the ball with your thumb, your fingers, or the palm of your hand.
The trackball usually has two or three buttons next to the ball. These buttons are used in the same
way that you use mouse buttons. The trackball, unlike the mouse, is stationary and so it does not
require much space to use it.

iv. Scanner
A scanner is a device that transfers printed text and images to a computer. There are different
types of scanners – the flatbed scanners being the most common. Other types of scanners are
sheet-fed scanners and handheld scanners.

Flatbed Scanners

The most commonly used scanner is a flatbed scanner also known as desktop
scanner. It has a glass plate on which the picture or the document is placed.
The scanner head placed beneath the glass plate moves across the picture and
the result is a good quality scanned image. For scanning large maps or
toposheets wide format flatbed scanners can be used.

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Sheet-fed Scanners

Sheet fed scanners work on a principle similar to that of a fax machine. In

this, the document to be scanned is moved past the scanning head and the
digital form of the image is obtained. The disadvantage of this type of scanner
is that it can only scan loose sheets and the scanned image can easily become
distorted if the document is not handled properly while scanning.

Handheld Scanners

Hand-held scanners although portable, can only scan images up to

about four inches wide. They require a very steady hand for moving the scan
head over the document. They are useful for scanning small logos or
signatures and are virtually of no use for scanning maps and photographs.

Sometimes scanners form part of a multifunction printer. Such printers have printing, scanning
and photocopying features.
Scanners arrive with:

a. Driver software –the program that controls the operation of the scanner.
b. Photo-editing software – the program used to manipulate scanned images.
c. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software – the program used to transfer
printed text into a word-processor for editing and formatting

There are other types of scanners that are used for specialized purposes. These include magnetic
strip reader, magnetic ink character reader, optical mark reader and bar code reader. They are
explained separately below.

v. Magnetic Strip Reader

This input device reads a magnetic strip on a card. Handy for security reasons, it provides quick
identification of the card's owner. This method is used to run bank cash points or to provide quick
identification of people entering buildings

A Credit card showing the

magnetic strip

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vi. Magnetic Ink Character Reader (MICR)
A computer can read numbers and letters printed with ink containing magnetic material. MICR is
used by banks to process cheques. The account details at the bottom of the cheque can be
accurately read in this manner since MICR is not affected by dirt.

A cheque detailing the

MICR number

vii. Optical Mark Reader

The Optical Mark Reader (OMR) can read information in the form of numbers or letters and put
it into the computer. The marks have to be precisely located as in multiple choice test papers.

A sample multiple choice answer paper

viii. Bar Code Reader

Bar codes can be used on goods in supermarkets, libraries and on magazines. Bar codes provide a
quick method of recording the sale of items. A bar code is a pattern printed in lines of differing
thickness. The system gives fast and error free entry of information into the computer system.

Infra-red bar code reader Bar code

ix. Touchpad

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A touchpad is a small, touch-sensitive pad used as a pointing device on most laptop computers.
By moving a finger or other object along the pad, you can move the pointer on the display screen.
Tapping the pad is equivalent to clicking the mouse.

x. Stylus
A stylus is a pointing and drawing device shaped like a pen used on digitizing tablets or touch
screens on mobile phones. The stylus is used to move the pointer and select objects on the display
screen.

xi. Joystick
A joystick is a lever that moves in all directions and controls the movement of a pointer or some
other display symbol. It is similar to the aircraft control stick. Joysticks typically include two
buttons called triggers and are used mostly for computer games, training simulators and
controlling robots.

xii. Web camera or Webcam

A webcam is a device used to hold video communications over Internet. Typically webcams are
used with communication programs such as Skype and MSN Messenger. Through webcams users
are able to see each other and movements in real time. Webcams can be used to record video files
and to take still pictures. External webcams connect to the computer through USB ports. Most
laptops have in-built webcams.

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xiii. Digital camera
A digital camera is an electronic camera that uses a light-sensitive processor chip to capture
photographic images in digital form on a small diskette inserted in the camera or on flash-
memory chips. Once a picture has been taken, it can be transferred to the computer, and then
manipulated with a graphics program and printed.
Digital photos can be incorporated in word-processing documents, presentations, sent by email or
posted on a web site. The resolution of the digital photos is limited by the optical resolution of the
digital camera. Digital photos are quicker and cheaper to process compared to film photos.

xv. Microphone
A microphone is a device that allows sound signals to be converted into digital files that may be
stored on the computer. Microphones can be stand-alone or incorporated with headphones or in-
built in laptops.

Voice-recognition software uses a microphone to convert a person’s speech into digital signals by
comparing the electrical patterns produced by the speaker’s voice with a set of pre-recorded
patterns stored in the computer. Microphones are also used along with Internet telephony
software to communicate with other people via Internet.

xvi. MIDI Devices

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a system designed to transmit information

between electronic musical instruments. A MIDI musical keyboard can be attached to a
computer and allow a performer to play music that is captured by the computer system as a
sequence of notes with the associated timing (instead of recording digitized sound waves).

xvii. Graphic Tablet

A Graphic tablet is a pointing device that facilitates the accurate input of drawings and designs. A
drawing can be placed directly on the tablet, and the user traces outlines or inputs coordinate
positions with a hand-held stylus.

A graphic tablet with pen

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B. PROCESSING

Processing is done by the central processing unit (CPU) also known as the processor or
microprocessor. The CPU is the brain of the computer and it is responsible for processing data
and instructions. There are many different processors made by many different companies; the two
main companies producing chips particularly for Windows based computer systems are Intel and
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Intel manufactures the Intel and Celeron brands of processors
while AMD produces the Athlon and Duron brands of processors.
Other companies make chips for other applications, particularly IBM, Motorola, nVIDIA and
ATi. Other companies however license out their processor designs for other companies to
fabricate, for example ARM and Sun.

The CPU is composed of the Control Unit, Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) and registers.

Control Unit
The control unit is the command centre of the processor. It generates command signals that are
used to control the operations of all devices in the computer system. The control unit
thus maintains order within the computer system and directs the flow of traffic (operations) and
data. The control unit retrieves instructions from memory and executes them accordingly. It is
responsible for keeping each part of the computer in proper synchronization. The primary
functions of the control unit can be summarized as:
 To read and interpret program instructions
 To direct the operations of internal processor components
 To control the flow of programs and data in and out of RAM (for RAM see page ……)
Examples of control information include RESET signals and READ/WRITE signal.

Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)

The Arithmetic and Logic Unit performs arithmetic operations such as additions, multiplication,
subtraction and division. It also performs logical operations such as AND, OR, NAND, NOT and
NOR. The actual processing or execution of programs or data happens in the ALU

Registers
The registers are temporary storage locations found inside the processor. They store information
during processing. The processor executes instructions sequentially (one after another) hence sub
results have to be temporarily stored in registers before they are recalled for further processing.
For example let’s say the processor wants to calculate (23 x 2) + (27 / 3). It first multiplies 23 by
2 and divides 27 by 3 and then stores the result, recalls it and then adds the result to 23. It will
then recall the result of (23 x 2) which is 46 and the result of (27 /3) which is 9 and then
multiplies them to get 414.

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Computer Speed
The processor speed also referred to as the clock speed is the rate at which instructions are
executed by the processor. A processor speed is measured in megahertz (MHz) which means
millions of cycles or instructions per second. A processor can be single (1x), Dual (2x), Quad
(4x) core. Multi cores imply that the processor executes the same instruction at one goal with the
power of multiple processors. This principle of sharing one process among multiple processes is
referred to as multi processing.

Units used in measuring processor speed

Equivalent to
1 instruction 1 Hertz(Hz)
1000 Hertz 1 Kilohertz (KHz)
1000 Kilohertz 1 Megahertz (MHz)
1000 Megahertz 1 Gigahertz (GHz)
1000 Gigahertz 1 Terahertz (THz)

Computer Performance
The processing speed of a computer is the rate at which the hardware and software interact to
manipulate data. There are several factors determining the processing speed of a computer:

1. The clock speed of the CPU – A higher clock speed means more units of data can be
processed each second. The clock speed of the CPU is measured in megahertz (MHz) or
gigahertz (GHz).

2. The design of the CPU – Different CPUs may be designed to process larger units of data
at a time or process certain types of data more efficiently. An Intel Pentium Celeron
processor running at 800MHz will not be as fast as an Intel Pentium II processor running
at the same clock speed.

3. The amount of RAM – Increasing the memory size of RAM improves the speed of a
computer. This is because at any single time more programs and data can be loaded from
the hard disk to it. Thus, the CPU can process data more efficiently.

4. The type of hard disk – Different hard disks have different access speeds. Access speed
is the time taken to read and write data to the disk. High access speeds improve the
processing speed of a computer.

Also the amount of free space on the hard disk affects the processing speed of the
computer. MS Windows is constantly shuffling data between the hard disk and RAM,
creating a lot of temporary files in the process. Hard disk space is needed for these
temporary files. Thus, free hard disk space can optimize the performance of a computer.

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 5. The type of graphics card – Modern graphics cards often have new design features and
more built in memory than older ones. These graphic cards enable computers to run
graphics orientated software more quickly and smoothly.

6. The type of CD-ROM or DVD-ROM – Fast CD- and DVD- ROMs reduce the time
taken to access data and move data. A 52× speed CD-ROM drive is faster than a 36×
speed drive for a given type of disk.

7. The number of applications running – The processing speed of a computer slows down
if a lot of programs/applications are running at the same time. It is important to close
programs which are not being used.

C. OUTPUT

This is the displaying of the results of the processing to the user. Output devices accept results or
data generated by the computer and present this information to the user in a variety of different
means. Output can be in the form of hard copy, softcopy and sound.

 Softcopy - refers to output that can be display on a monitor. A soft copy output can be
referred to as a digital document.
 Hardcopy - refers to output from a printer or a plotter. Unlike softcopy output,
hardcopy output can be viewed without the need of the computer.
 Sound – refers to output from the speakers

Examples of output devices are printers, monitors, speakers.

Printers
Printers produce “hard copies” printed on permanent material. The two categories of printers are
impact and non-impact printers.

i. Impact Printers

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Impact printers are the oldest print technologies still in active production. They are most
functional in specialized environments where low-cost printing is essential such as for back office
printing. Impact Printers use a print head containing a number of metal pins which strike an inked
ribbon placed between the print head and the paper. Some print heads have only 9 pins to make
the dots to build up a character; some have 24 pins which produce a better resolution.

Ink ribbon used by impact printers

An impact printer showing detail of print head

The three most common forms of impact printers are dot-matrix, daisy-wheel, and line printers.
a. Dot-Matrix Printers
It uses a print head to strike the printer ribbon imprints ink dots on the paper which form human-
readable characters. Because the print head must strike the surface of the paper with enough force
to transfer ink from a ribbon onto the page, it is ideal for environments that must produce carbon
copies through the use of special multi-part documents.
Each character is made as a group of small dots. The printer can use one or two columns of dot
hammers. Speeds range from 200 to 400 characters per second (cps).

Multi part document

Examples of dot matrix printers include Epson LX300, Epson LX780 and Citizen Prodot 24s.

Advantages
 Low purchase cost.
 Have one of the lowest printing costs per page
 Can handle multipart forms or make carbon copies.
 They are able to use continuous paper rather that individual sheets
 Low repair cost.
 They can withstand unclean or dusty environment whereas Inkjet or laser jet printers
require clean environment
 Using these printers require negligible operator training
 They are reliable in situations where printed content is more important than quality

Disadvantages
 They are noisy since the print head has direct contact with the print material
 Produces low quality print particularly for pictures
 They have limited color performance.

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  They have lower speeds compared to non impact printers.

Dot matrix printer common problems

 Light or poor print quality
 Paper jams
 Missing print
 Paper out
 Dark smudges
 Flecks of ink

b. Daisy-wheel Printers
It uses the same printing technology as a typewriter. Daisy-wheel printers are loud and slow.
They cannot print graphics, and cannot change fonts unless the print wheel is physically replaced.
The standard of print is similar to that produced by an electric typewriter. As the characters on the
wheel are fixed, the size and font can only be changed by using a different wheel. However, this
is very rarely done. With the advent of better forms of printers, daisy-wheel printers are generally
not used in modern computing environments.

A daisy wheel showing detail of the characters

Advantages
 They are not expensive
 Can produce letter-quality text
 They can be used for carbon copy printing
 They are able to use continuous paper rather that individual sheets

Disadvantages
 They produce more noise than dot matrix printers when printing
 They cannot print graphics.
 They can print only one type of font hence to change font you have to manually replace
the print wheel
 They are slow

c. Line printers
Line Printers are high-speed impact printers in which one line of type is printed at a time. These
printers are similar to dot matrix printers, however, Line Printers use paper that is provided in
boxes of continuous fan folds rather than cut sheets. Line Printers are still popular for accounting
and other business and bookkeeping applications.

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Impact Printer Consumables
Of all the printer types, however, impact printers have relatively low consumable costs. Ink
ribbons and paper are the primary recurring costs for impact printers. Some Impact printers
(usually line and dot-matrix printers) require tractor-fed paper, which can increase the costs of
operation somewhat.

ii. Non impact printers

There are three types of non impact printers:
 INK JET PRINTERS
 LASER PRINTERS
 THERMAL PRINTERS

a. Inkjet printers
They are also commonly called bubble jet printers. Inkjet printers use color cartridges which
combine magenta, yellow and cyan inks to create colour tones. A black cartridge is also used for
crisp monochrome (one colour) output. Inkjets use nozzles to spray characters on to the page and
they use ink cartridges as consumables.
This method of printing can generate up to 200 characters (cps) and allows for good quality,
cheap colour printing. Ink-jet printers will remain the choice of any environment, home or office
with low volume printing needs
Examples of inkjet printers include Canon BJC 620, HP 610C, HP590C, Epson Stylus Colour
300 and HP859C

Advantages of inkjet printers

 High resolution output
 Quiet
 Small footprint
 Energy efficient
Disadvantages of inkjet printers
 Higher cost per page than laser printers
 Slower than laser printers
 Cut sheet only
 High cost of print catridges

Ink catridges

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 b. Laser Printers
Laser printers use a laser beam and dry powdered ink to produce a fine dot matrix pattern. The
standard of print is very good and laser printers can also produce very good quality printed
graphic images too. It uses the principle of a photocopier and uses a laser beam to print characters
onto a page. Laser printers use toner catridges as consumables.
High speed, high quality page printers will remain the mainstay of office printing for the
foreseeable future. Examples include HP LaserJet 1100, HP LaserJet 2100, HP LaserJet 4L and
Epson EPC 5700.

Advantages of Laser Printers

 High resolution output
 Fast
 Quiet
 Low cost per page

Disadvantages of Laser Printers

 High purchase price
 Cut sheet only

c. Thermal Printers
Characters are formed by heated elements being placed in contact with special heat sensitive
paper forming darkened dots when the elements reach a critical temperature. Thermal printer
paper tends to darken over time due to exposure to sunlight and heat. The standard of print
produced is poor. Thermal printers are widely used in battery powered equipment such as
portable calculators.

A fax machine uses a thermal printer

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iii. All –in One (multifunction) Printers
The all-in-one printer has emerged as the choice in the home or office with copier, scanner, and
fax needs, too.

Advantages of All-in-One Printers

 Can function as a printer, a scanner, a copier, and a fax machine
 Get four functions for the price of 1 or 2
 Functional specifications close to separate devices (output quality, speed, and so on)
Disadvantages of All-in-One Printers
 Can handle only one function at a time
 Larger footprint than a comparable printer

Factors to consider when buying a printer

 The quality of the printout normally reffered to as print resolution. Print resolution is
measured in dots per inch (dpi)
 The speed of the printer measured as pages per minute (ppm), characters per second (cps)
or lines per minute (lpm).

Plotters
A plotter is a graphics printer that draws images with multi colored ink pens. Plotters are large-
scale printers that are very accurate at reproducing line drawings. They are commonly used for
technical drawings such as engineering drawings or architectural blueprints in scientific and
engineering sectors. The output includes graphs, drawings, charts, maps etc. The two basic types
of plotters are called flatbed plotters and drum plotters.

i. Flatbed plotter is a plotter where the paper is fixed on a flat surface and pens are moved to
draw the image. This plotter can use several different colour pens to draw with. The size of the
plot is limited only by the size of the plotter's bed.

Top view of a flat bled plotter

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 ii. Drum plotters, also called upright plotters, are vertically positioned. They have a drum that
the paper rolls on. Drum plotters usually make more noise and are more compact than flatbed
plotters.

Speakers
Speakers can be plugged into the back of computers carrying a sound card. The sound card is
used to capture as well as play back recorded sounds. The speakers enhance the multimedia
capabilities of computers.

Voice synthesis has a robotic sound due to the difficulties of replicating the complexities of
human speech and pronunciation. Voice answer back (VAB) is used to respond to telephone
enquiries, such as the speaking clock.

Headphones
Headphones are typically plugged into the front of computers. These are used to hear sound
coming out of the computer. Some headphones incorporate also a microphone.

Monitors
Monitors are devices used to display information from the computer. They are also reffered to as
visual display units (VDU). There are two main types of monitor screens namely Cathode Ray
Tube (CRT) and Thin film Transistor - Liquid Crystal Display (TFT -LCD) normally reffered to
as flat screens.
CRT monitors are old generation monitors that are large, bulky and heavy. They however are
durable.
Today’s LCD monitors are flat, more attractive, take up minimal desk space and are relatively
light weight. They also consume less power compared to CRT screens

CRT monitor LCD/ TFT monitor

Basic factors to consider when buying monitors

 Screen resolution- screen resolution attributes to the quality of the screen output. It is
measured in pixels (picture elements). Pixels make up the screen image and the greater
the number of pixels in the screen image, the better the resolution. And the greater the
resolution, the sharper the image appears. Typical screens are capable of displaying 640 x
480 pixels. Larger screens are required for higher resolution of say 1024 x 768 pixels
 Screen size – monitor sizes are measured in inches and they come in various sizes
starting at 14 inches going upwards. The measurement of the size is the diagonal size of
the screen.
Monitor Size(inches) Recommended Resolution(pixels)

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 14 640 x 480
15 640 x480 or 800 x 600
17 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768
20 1024 x 768 or 1280 x 1024
21 1280 x 1024 or 1024 x 768

Projectors
A video projector takes a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection
screen using a lens system. All video projectors use a very bright light to project the image, and
most modern ones can correct any curves, blurriness, and other inconsistencies through manual
settings. Video projectors are widely used for conference room presentations, classroom training,
and home theatre applications.
Common display resolutions for a portable projector include SVGA (800×600 pixels), XGA
(1024×768 pixels), and 720p (1280×720 pixels).

D. INPUT/OUTPUT DEVICES
Some devices e.g. touch screens and modems can serve as both input and output devices.

Touch screens
Touch screens used in some restaurants and some ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) can also
be used as both input and output devices. These screens are covered with a plastic layer, behind
which are invisible beams of infrared light. Users can input requests for information by pressing
buttons or menus displayed. The answers to users’ requests are displayed as output in words or
pictures on the screen.
There are three forms of touch screen: pressure-sensitive, capacitive surface and light beam.

A touch sensitive monitor

Modems
Modems are used as input devices when these receive information from the Internet (such as
email). They are used as output devices when sending information (such as email) to a recipient.

Terminals
It is a very popular interactive input-output unit. It can be divided into two types: hard copy
terminals and soft copy terminals. A hard copy terminal provides a printout on paper whereas soft
copy terminals provide visual copy on monitor. A terminal when connected to a CPU sends

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instructions directly to the computer. Terminals are also classified as dumb terminals or
intelligent terminals depending upon the work situation.

STORAGE

This is the keeping of information for future reference. Storage devices can be classified into
two areas namely:

 Primary storage
 Secondary storage

Primary Storage
Primary storage is also known as main memory. It is subdivided into Random Access Memory
(RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM) and Cache Memory.

i. Random Access Memory (RAM)

Random Access Memory temporarily stores jobs when the computer is processing. It is volatile
meaning when the power is switched off data is lost from the computer. It is directly accessible to
the processor. The more RAM you have the better the performance of your computer. RAM is
normally referred to as main memory or simply memory. Primary memory is more expensive
than secondary memory. Because of this the size of primary memory is less than that of
secondary memory

ii. Cache Memory

Cache memory is an advanced form of RAM. It sits between microprocessors and RAM. It is
used to help speed up the performance of the computer by keeping frequently used data and
instructions. Today’s technology allows integrating the cache memory into the processor hence
improving the speed of data and instruction access by the processor. Two common layers of
cache memory are Level1 (L1) cache and Level 2 (L2) cache. Normally the L1 cache is
integrated into the processor and the L2 cache is found just outside the processor.

RAM CACHE MEMORY PROCESSOR

iii. Read Only Memory (ROM)

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Read Only Memory is non volatile memory that is it continues storing its contents even if power
is switched off. It is used to permanently store programs about the computer’s configuration
settings e.g. booting up programs are stored in ROM chips as well as instructions that enable
hardware devices to communicate.
You can only read data from ROM, and you cannot write into it. Programs are normally written
into ROM during the manufacturing process and once written the data cannot be erased. There are
however other variations of ROM which include:
a. PROM (programmable read-only memory) - a PROM is a memory chip on which you
can store a program or write data to it. Once the PROM has been used, you cannot wipe it
clean and use it to store something else. Like ROMs, PROMs are non-volatile.
b. EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory) - an EPROM is a special type
of PROM that can be erased by exposing it to ultraviolet light.
c. EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) - an EEPROM is
a special type of PROM that can be erased by exposing it to an electrical charge.

Computer memory
A bit is a binary digit (1’s and 0’s). It is the basic unit to measure the size of memory in the
computer. Computer memory is however measured in bytes

Equivalent to
1 bit Either 0 or 1
8 bits 1 byte (one character)
1024 bytes 1Kilobyte (Kb)
1024Kb 1Megabyte(Mb)
1024Mb 1Gigabyte(Gb)
1024Gb 1Terrabyte(Tb)

Secondary Storage
Secondary storage is often referred to as auxiliary storage. It is used for permanent storage of
data. Examples of secondary storage devices include hard disks, floppy diskettes, magnetic tapes
and flash disks. Secondary storage differs from primary storage in that it is not directly accessible
to the CPU. The computer usually uses its input and output channels to access secondary storage
and transfers the desired data using intermediate area in a primary storage. Secondary storage
media are said to be non volatile that is in the event of a power cut data stored in any given
medium is not lost.

Secondary storage can be categorized into:

i. Optical storage media

It makes use of random access technology to access data stored in a secondary storage. Examples
of optical storage media are CD and DVD drives.

a. CD-ROM (Compact Disk – Read-only memory)

A CD–ROM is an optical disk containing data, which has been written and can be read through
the use of a laser beam. CD-ROMs are read-only media i.e. data on CD-ROMS cannot be erased

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or modified – it can only be read. CD-ROM disks have large storage capacities of about 700MB.
Typically, these disks are used to distribute large databases (catalogues) and reference
encyclopedias (e.g. Encarta, Britannica etc).
Other types of optical disks include CD-R and CD-RW.
 CD-R (CD-Recordable) - disks can be written to once. Data on CD-R disks can be read
but cannot be modified or deleted. They are also called Write Once Read Many(WORM)
 CD-RW (CD-Rewritable) - disks can be erased and written to over and over again.

b. DVD (Digital Versatile Disk or Digital Video Disk)

DVDs are very similar to CD-ROMs but they can store much more data than CDs. DVDs have
storage capacities which range from 4.7GB to 17GB. Typically these disks are used for full-
length movies, advanced multimedia games and interactive encyclopedias.

ii. Semiconductor storage media

It makes use of random access technology to access data on a storage media. Examples are RAM
and Flash Disk.

a. USB flash drive

A USB flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board protected inside a plastic, metal or
rubber case. The USB connector is often protected by a removable cap. USB flash drives are
small and easy to carry around. They can store large amounts of data (up to 256GB). USB flash
drives connect to the computer through USB ports.

b. Memory card
Memory card or flash memory card is a compact disk used to store digital data. Memory cards are
typically used with digital cameras, smart phones etc.

iii. Magnetic storage media

Diskettes and hard drives are examples of magnetic storage media.

a. Hard disk
A hard disk is constructed of rigid magnetic disks sealed in a protective case. Data is recorded
magnetically onto concentric circular tracks, each one divided into a number of sectors. Hard
disks can hold very large amounts of data e.g. (300GB, 500GB and even 1TB).
Most hard disks, referred to as internal hard disks, are fixed inside the computer. There are also
external hard disks which connect to the computer through USB ports (small rectangular slots in
the computer). External hard disks can be carried around easily.

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 b. Magnetic Tapes

Magnetic tapes are resistant to different environmental conditions. Physically they look similar to
audio cassettes. They are mostly used for backups or archives (tertiary storage). Tape drives can
range in capacity from a few megabytes to upwards of 800 GB compressed.
Magnetic tapes are used for large computers like mainframe computers where large volume of
data is stored for a longer time. In PC also you can use tapes in the form of cassettes. The cost of
storing data in tapes is inexpensive. Tapes consist of magnetic materials that store data
permanently. It can be 12.5 mm to 25 mm wide plastic film-type and 500 meter to 1200 meter
long which is coated with magnetic material. The deck is connected to the central processor and
information is fed into or read from the tape through the processor. It similar to cassette tape
recorder.

Fig. 2.3 Magnetic Tape

Advantages of Magnetic Tape:

 Compact: A 10-inch diameter reel of tape is 2400 feet long and is able to hold 800, 1600
or 6250 characters in each inch of its length. The maximum capacity of such tape is 180
million characters. Thus data are stored much more compactly on tape.
 Economical: The cost of storing characters is very less as compared to other storage
devices.
 Fast: Copying of data is easier and fast.
 Long term Storage and Re-usability: Magnetic tapes can be used for long term storage
and a tape can be used repeatedly without loss of data.

c. Floppy diskettes

They normally come with a 3.5inch disk drive or a 5.25inch disk drive. Floppy diskettes are used
to transfer small amounts of data between computers. A typical 3.5 inch floppy is holds 1.44MB
of data whereas the capacity of a 5.25-inch floppy is 1.2 mega bytes. Before data is stored on a
floppy diskette, the diskette needs to be formatted.

Access mechanisms on secondary storage

There two mechanisms used to access data stored on a storage medium are referred to as
sequential and direct access storage.

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 a. Sequential access storage
A storage technology that is read or write in a serial (one after the other) fashion. Magnetic tapes
are examples of sequential storage medium.

b. Direct access storage

This is any secondary storage device which has relatively low access time for all its capacity. The
direct access storage use the random access technology which is not the case in tape drives.

Storage hierarchy
As we go upwards on the storage hierarchy pyramid there is an decrease in access time due to low
capacity. As we go downwards there is an increase in capacity.
Increase in capacity

Decrease in access time

Cache Memory
MEMORY
Primary Storage

Secondary Storage

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 SOFTWARE

It is a set of programs and data that controls the operations of the hardware of the computer
system and interface the user to the computer.
A program is a set of instructions.

NATURE OF SOFTWARE

 Software is intangible
 It is easy to reproduce
 It is industry and labor intensive
 It is easy to modify
 It does not wear out

CLASSIFICATION OF SOFTWARE
Software can be subcategorized into three areas:

 System software
 Application software
 Developmental software

SOFTWARE

System software Application software Developmental software

Firmware General purpose e.g. Java, Visual Basic, C++
Operating system Specific purpose
Utility programs

SYSTEM SOFTWARE

System software manages the operations of the computer system. This is a set of programs that
controls the overall function of the computer. It is subdivided into four areas:

 Firmware
 Operating system
 Utility programs

Firmware
This is known as the manufacturer's software. It contains instructions that enable hardware
devices to communicate. It is also referred to as device drivers and is stored in ROM chips in the
computer system

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Operating system
This is a set of programs that manage, oversee and control all the activities of a computer. It acts
as interface between hardware, application software and the user. Operating systems are large
complex programs which provides for loading and execution of other programs. Examples
include Windows family (98, 2000, XP, VISTA etc), Mac OS, Linux and UNIX

Operating systems may be classified by both how many tasks they can perform simultaneously
and by how many users can be using the system simultaneously. That is: single user or multi user
and single tasking and multi tasking

Functions of operating systems

User interface, job management, task management, memory management, file management,
device management, security

Control hardware access - The operating system manages the interaction between applications
and the hardware

File and Folder Management - The operating system creates a file structure on the hard disk
drive to allow data to be stored. Program and data files are grouped together in a directory
(folder). The files and directories are organized for easy retrieval and use.

Application Management - The operating system locates an application and loads it into the
RAM of the computer. Applications are software programs, such as word processors, databases,
spreadsheets, games, and many other applications. The operating system ensures that each
application has adequate system resources.

Memory and Storage Management -The OS makes memory available to an application when
required. When an operating system manages the computer's memory, there are two broad tasks
to be accomplished:

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  Each process must have enough memory in which to execute, and it can neither run into
the memory space of another process nor be run into by another process.
 The different types of memory in the system must be used properly so that each process
can run most effectively.

Processor Management -A system should make it possible for a user’s application to use the
processing unit. Most OSs support a notion that a program in execution by the processor may be
regarded as a process. The heart of managing the processor comes down to two related issues:

 Ensuring that each process and application receives enough of the processor's time to
function properly
 Using as many processor cycles for real work as is possible

Other functions include:

 File/disk management
 Memory allocation
 Error detection (error logging)
 Detects errors in CPU, memory, hardware and software
 Loads application programs for execution
 It interfaces the hardware, software and the user
 It keeps record of users and resources they use and it keeps the statistics
 It uses passwords and profiles to protect both resources from harmful users
 It manages all requests to read/write data from input/output devices
 It enables time sharing
 It provides system tools to monitor computer performance

User interface

The operating system enables the user to interact with software and hardware. There are 3 basic
types of user interfaces:

 Command user interface

 Graphic user interface
 Menu driven interface

A good user interface should have the following characteristics:

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  It should be user friendly, allowing the user to do basic operations without having to first
read the computer manual
 It should be attractive so that it encourages the user to use it
 It should be effective and easy to use.

Command line interface The user communicates with the computer using typed commands. A
prompt is a character or group of characters which the computer displays to let the user know that
a command can be input. The conversation consists of the following sequence:

1. The computer displays a prompt

2. The user types a command and presses the ENTER (or RETURN) key
3. The computer carries out the command
One common interface used is MSDOS found in Microsoft based environments.

Advantages

 It is fast in executing programs

 The user can have great deal of control over the actions to be performed.

Disadvantages

The user has to remember (or look) up a variety of commands and their various options or
parameters, making it difficult for novice users to operate

Menu driven interface

A menu is a list of choices presented to the user by an interactive program. The user selects one
of the options to say what the program should do next. A menu bar is a set of menu titles
displayed across the screen at the top or the bottom so that the user can pick a menu. A pull down
menu is a menu which appears below the menu bar when it is selected. A full screen menu is one
which takes up all or most of the screen

Advantages

It is appropriate when you wish to limit the functions that are available to users

Disadvantages

Graphic user interface (GUI)

Interacts with the computer by using a WIMP. Which is the combination of using Windows,
Icons, Menus, and Pointers.

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A window is a rectangular area on the screen selected for a particular display

An icon is a small symbol on the screen which you can select from a menu

A menu: is a list of choices presented to the user by an interactive program. The user can select
from the list. Menu can be a pop up menu or a pull down menu.

Mouse-Used for all “point and click” operations

Translates the movement of the hand to the movement of an arrow called the mouse pointer on
the screen.

User Interface - The operating system enables the user to interact with software and hardware.
There are three types of user interfaces namely:

 Graphic user interface (GUI)

 Command Line Interface (CLI)
 Menu driven interface (MDI)

Bootstrap

This is a set of programs that copy the operating system from the secondary store mainly the hard
disk to the main memory when the computer is switched on. Thus it is responsible for the booting
process.

TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

Real-time Operating System

Another category of real-time systems are those that are used to offer services like ATM
(Automatic teller machine) or airlines reservation systems. The systems of the latter kind are
often called transaction oriented systems. This is because the basic information processing
involves a transaction.

The main objective is to assure timeliness in response.

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It is a multitasking operating system that aims at executing real-time applications. Real-time
operating systems often use specialized scheduling algorithms so that they can achieve a
deterministic nature of behavior. The main object of real-time operating systems is their quick
and predictable response to events. They either have an event-driven or a time-sharing design. An
event-driven system switches between tasks based of their priorities while time-sharing operating
systems switch tasks based on clock interrupts.
For example, in industrial process control systems, real-time computers have to collect data about
the production process and use it to control machines in the factory.

Multi-user and Single-user Operating Systems

The operating systems of this type allow a multiple users to access a computer system
concurrently. Time-sharing system can be classified as multi-user systems as they enable a
multiple user access to a computer through the sharing of time. Single-user operating systems, as
opposed to a multi-user operating system, are usable by a single user at a time. Being able to have
multiple accounts on a Windows operating system does not make it a multi-user system. Rather,
only the network administrator is the real user. But for a Unix-like operating system, it is possible
for two users to login at a time and this capability of the OS makes it a multi-user operating
system.

Multi-tasking and Single-tasking Operating Systems

When a single program is allowed to run at a time, the system is grouped under a single-tasking
system, while in case the operating system allows the execution of multiple tasks at one time, it is
classified as a multi-tasking operating system. Multi-tasking can be of two types namely, pre-
emptive or co-operative. In pre-emptive multitasking, the operating system slices the CPU time
and dedicates one slot to each of the programs. Unix-like operating systems such as Solaris and
Linux support pre-emptive multitasking. If you are aware of the multi-threading terminology, you
can consider this type of multi-tasking as similar to interleaved multi-threading. Cooperative
multitasking is achieved by relying on each process to give time to the other processes in a
defined manner. This kind of/ multi-tasking is similar to the idea of block multi-threading in
which one thread runs till it is blocked by some other event. MS Windows prior to Windows 95
used to support cooperative multitasking.

Distributed Operating System

An operating system that manages a group of independent computers and makes them appear to
be a single computer is known as a distributed operating system. The development of networked
computers that could be linked and communicate with each other, gave rise to distributed
computing. Distributed computations are carried out on more than one machine. When computers
in a group work in cooperation, they make a distributed system.

Embedded System
The operating systems designed for being used in embedded computer systems are known as
embedded operating systems. They are designed to operate on small machines like PDAs with
less autonomy. They are able to operate with a limited number of resources. They are very

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compact and extremely efficient by design. Windows CE (Consumer Electronics), PalmOS,
FreeBSD and Minix 3 are some examples of embedded operating systems.

Utility programs

Utility programs are also known as service programs. They are responsible for performing
housekeeping functions in a computer system. Utility programs are designed to help analyze,
configure, optimize and maintain the computer system. Utilities are often rather technical and
targeted at people with an advanced level of computer knowledge.

Most utilities are highly specialized and designed to perform only a single task or a small range of
tasks. However, there are also some utility suites that combine several features in one software.

Most major operating systems come with several pre-installed utilities. The categories of utility
programs include:

 Disk storage utilities

 Disk defragmenters can detect computer files whose contents are broken across several
locations on the hard disk, and move the fragments to one location to increase efficiency.
 Disk checkers can scan the contents of a hard disk to find files or areas that are corrupted
in some way, or were not correctly saved, and eliminate them for a more efficiently
operating hard drive.
 Disk cleaners can find files that are unnecessary to computer operation, or take up
considerable amounts of space. Disk cleaner helps the user to decide what to delete when
their hard disk is full.
 Disk space analyzers for the visualization of disk space usage by getting the size for
each folder (including sub folders) & files in folder or drive. showing the distribution of
the used space.
 Disk partitions can divide an individual drive into multiple logical drives, each with its
own file system which can be mounted by the operating system and treated as an
individual drive.
 Backup utilities can make a copy of all information stored on a disk, and restore either
the entire disk (e.g. in an event of disk failure) or selected files (e.g. in an event of
accidental deletion).
 Disk compression utilities can transparently compress/uncompress the contents of a
disk, increasing the capacity of the disk.
 File managers provide a convenient method of performing routine data management
tasks, such as deleting, renaming, cataloging, uncataloging, moving, copying, merging,
generating and modifying data sets.
 Archive utilities output a stream or a single file when provided with a directory or a set
of files. Archive utilities, unlike archive suites, usually do not include compression or
encryption capabilities. Some archive utilities may even have a separate un-archive utility
for the reverse operation.
 System profilers provide detailed information about the software installed and hardware
attached to the computer.
 Anti-virus utilities scan for computer viruses.
 Hex editors directly modify the text or data of a file. These files could be data or an
actual program.

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 Data compression utilities output a shorter stream or a smaller file when provided with
a stream or file.
 Cryptographic utilities encrypt and decrypt streams and files.
 Launcher applications provide a convenient access point for application software.
 Registry cleaners clean and optimize the Windows registry by removing old registry
keys that are no longer in use.
 Network utilities analyze the computer's network connectivity, configure network
settings, check data transfer or log events.
 Command line interface (CLI) and Graphical user interface (GUI) Allows the user to
contact and make changes to the operating system.
 Voice recognition software is a program used to convert spoken words to text. The term
"voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to speech recognition where the
recognition system is trained to a particular speaker. These programs are often used by
persons with visibility impairment.
 Screen reader is a program that reads the contents of a computer screen aloud to a user.
Screen readers are used primarily by visually impaired persons.
 Screen magnifier is a program that magnifies a portion of the computer screen, so that it
can be more easily viewed. Screen magnifiers are used primarily by individuals with
partial visual impairment.
 On-screen keyboard is a program that displays a virtual keyboard on the computer
screen that allows people with mobility impairments to type data by using a pointing
device or joystick. Besides providing a minimum level of functionality for some people
with mobility impairments, on–screen keyboard can also help people who do not know
how to type.

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APPLICATION SOFTWARE
Application software enables users to perform specific information processing activities. They
can be divided into 2 broad categories: general purpose and specific purpose.

General purpose
These are used to carry out a wide range of common tasks e.g. a word processor is capable of
producing a variety of documents that are suitable for many different purposes. They can also be
referred to as off-the shelf software as they are developed for use by the general public and are
available from all software selling shops. The use of general purpose application software is
varied depending upon the user. Common to this category includes the following:

i. Word processing software

Word processors are used to produce written material such as letters, memos, reports, projects
and books. Examples are Microsoft Word, Lotus WordPro, AmiPro, Display Write, WordPad and
Word Perfect.
ii. Spreadsheet programs
These are used for accounting purposes. Examples are Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro
and Super Cal
iii. Database Management software (DBMS)
These are programs used to store, sort, search and retrieve information as easily as possible. A
telephone directory is an example of a database. Examples of database management programs are
Microsoft Access, FoxPro, Dbase and Paradox
iv. Graphic and presentation software
They are designed to add interest and clarity to reports and presentations. These include paint
programs, draw programs, photo editing programs, computer aided drafting and 3D modeling
programs. Examples include Microsoft PowerPoint, Ms Paint, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw,
and Harvard Graphics.
v. Multimedia Applications
Examples include:
 Encyclopedias such as Microsoft Encarta, EduSoft
 Games such as Need for speed, FIFA
 Educational programs such as Science Advantage 2000
vi. Internet Web Browsers

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 Examples include MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. They are used to locate and
display information at Web sites. Browsers display Web pages with text, graphics, sounds and
video-clips.
vii. Communications software
Examples include MS Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird. They are used for the transmission of
electronic messages or documents between different computers.

Specific purpose
It comprises programs intended to serve a specific purpose or carry out a clearly defined
information processing task. Specific purpose application software is thus developed for a
dedicated task. They can also be referred to as tailor-made or bespoke application software.
Examples include payroll software, accounting software and billing software.

DEVELOPMENTAL SOFTWARE

This is software that allows users to develop their own software in order to carry out processing
tasks. It is sometimes referred to as programming languages. Programming languages can be
described in terms of their historical position in the development of computer programming
system i.e. first generation, second generation, third generation, fourth generation etc.

Over the years, a wide range of programming languages have been developed,
including BASIC, FORTRAN, PASCAL, C++, JAVA, and so on. Each language has a unique set
of words (codes) that it understands and a special syntax for organizing program instructions.
The language the computer actually understands is called machine language, which comprises
numbers only. This language is used by the computer to understand the programming language
and translate the terms into executable instructions. Lying between programming languages and
machine languages are assembly languages. Assembly languages have the same structure and set
of commands as machine languages but they enable a program to use names instead of numbers.
Please note: most people who use computers today do not need to worry about programming,
machine, or assembly languages. This is because the software being used today is written in a
highly user-friendly manner and in a way that does not require knowledge of the computer
languages which were used to create and use it.

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The Types Of Computers: Analog and Hybrid (classification based on operational principle)

 Analog Computers: The analog computer is almost an extinct type of computer these
days. It is different from a digital computer in respect that it can perform numerous
mathematical operations simultaneously. It is also unique in terms of operation as it
utilizes continuous variables for the purpose of mathematical computation. It utilizes
mechanical, hydraulic, or electrical energy or operation.
 Hybrid computers: These types of computers are, as the name suggests, a combination
of both Analog and Digital computers. The Digital computers which work on the
principle of binary digit system of “0” and “1” can give very precise results. But the
problem is that they are too slow and incapable of large scale mathematical operation. In
the hybrid types of computers the Digital counterparts convert the analog signals to
perform Robotics and Process control.

Classifications of computers

A computer’s power is determined by the technology it uses, NOT its physical size. Greater
speed, greater capability and capacity to store information, and greater facility to accommodate
additional peripheral (external) equipment will make one computer more powerful than another
regardless of their overall physical sizes. We do not go into detail on each of the different types of
computers.

Computers are classified according to size, speed and memory capacity. Computers are of
different types:

 Super Computers
 Main frame Computers
 Mini frame Computers
 Personal Computers (PC)

SUPER COMPUTERS
Super Computers are the largest, faster, and the most expensive computer system in the world.
They are used to process complex scientific jobs. They are considered to be the resources (assets)
of any nation. Super Computer are used to performed million of instructions at the same time.
Very few companies in the world produce super computers. Cray research and ETA systems are
two primary manufacturers of super computers in the United States. Fujitsu, Hitachi and NEC are
the companies in Japan, which produce super computers.
Uses
Super computers are widely used in meteorological where weather patterns are predicted by

34
manipulating vast amount of data.

MAINFRAME COMPUTERS
The Mainframe Computers are the large computers available in different models, capacities and
prices etc. The mainframe is the data and application repository for most organisations. It is also
the hub for most online business activities. They are designed for large scale processing such as
processing the organization’s payroll. Examples include IBM 370, DEC 1090 and NEC etc. The
main characteristics of mainframe computers are:

 They are based on the principle of strong physical computing power. Many people can
make use of the same machine at the same time.
 They are sensitive to variations in temperature, humidity, dust etc., and are hence in a
controlled environment, i.e., air conditioned rooms.
 Qualified operators and programmers are required for their operations. They support
 Wide range of peripherals.
 They have a large storage capacity.
 They can make a use of wide range of software
 These systems generally support 500 to 2000 local and remote users

MINI COMPUTERS
Mini-computers are mid-sized multi-processing computers. Mini Computers were introduced in
the 1960s. They have less capacity to manipulate and store data, compared to mainframe
computers. Examples: Digital Equipment Company (DEC) introduces first Mini frame computer
called VAX. Mini computers are often referred to as servers by companies such as IBM (e.g. the
IBM AS/400) and Hewlett-Packard (e.g. HP Alpha). Some of the characteristic of minicomputers
are:

 They offer limited range of peripherals.

 Limited software can be used.
 There is facility for direct operation of the machine by the end user
 Air conditioning is not necessary for minicomputers.
 Computers are widely used for data processing and in industry.
 These systems generally support 10 to 200 users.

PERSONAL COMPUTERS (PCS)

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These are computers that are used by one person at a time and they are at times referred to as
single user systems. They are also referred to as microcomputers. PCs may be divided into 2
categories namely the desktop computers and the laptop computers. Desktop computers are
designed for use in a fixed location while the laptop is designed for portability.

However laptops certainly aren't the only portable devices on the market and they certainly aren't
the smallest. There are a wide variety of portable options available today, many of them
providing some of the functionality of a computer. For example, an iPod can store music,
contacts, photos, etc.

Some of the characteristics of PCs are:

 They are cheap and easy to use

 They are used for a variety of purposes
 They have limited input and output capacity
 A visual display screen or a printer is used to get the output

They are used for various applications such as entertainment and personal applications.

Desktop/Tower computers
Desktop computers are designed for home or office use. These computers are used to run
application programs such as word-processors, spreadsheets, databases, presentation software etc.
Desktop systems have units that are placed on a desk. Tower systems have units that can either be
placed on or underneath the desk.

Laptop (or notebook) computers

Laptops are lightweight portable computers with a built-in (thin screen) monitor, keyboard, hard-
disk drive, battery, and power supply adapter. Laptops can easily be transported and conveniently
used in libraries, temporary offices and at meetings. Laptop computers typically cost more than
desktop computers with the same capabilities.

Tablet PCs
Tablet PCs are similar to laptops but these have an LCD screen on which the user can write using
special pens or stylus. The handwriting is converted to typed text by a handwriting recognition
program. Tablet PCs are typically used in environments where users remaining standing. Tablet
PCs are more expensive than laptops.

Handheld Portable Digital Devices

Nowadays there is a variety of handheld and portable computers which can be used for different
tasks.

Personal digital assistants (PDAs)

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PDAs are handheld computers (also known as palmtops), designed to manage the day to day
tasks. They have several personal organisation tools such as address book, appointments diary
and phone list. Most PDAs offer applications, such as spreadsheet, word processor, database,
clock, calculator and games. Data can be easily transferred between the PDA and the desktop PC.
PDAs are often used by people during meetings, seminars, lectures etc.

Palmtop Computers
These are small computers that usually contain a limited number of applications. They are
significantly small in size which allows them to be carried around in a briefcase or even a pocket.

Mobile Phones
Mobile phones are long-range devices used for voice or data communication over a mobile
telephone network. Nowadays mobile phones support services such as SMS for text messaging,
gaming, Bluetooth, camera with video recorder, music player (usually mp3) and radio.

Smartphones
Smart phones are phones with advanced features like e-mail, Internet and e-book reader
capabilities, and/or a built-in full keyboard or external USB keyboard.

Multimedia players
Multimedia players are electronic devices capable of storing and playing digital media. Music and
videos are typically stored in internal disks or a small memory card that can be inserted in these
handheld devices.

Wearable Computers: A record-setting step in the evolution of computers was the creation of
wearable computers. These computers can be worn on the body and are often used in the study of
behavior modeling and human health. Military and health professionals have incorporated
wearable computers into their daily routine, as a part of such studies. When the users’ hands and
sensory organs are engaged in other activities, wearable computers are of great help in tracking
human actions. Wearable computers are consistently in operation as they do not have to be turned
on and off and are constantly interacting with the user.

Personal Computer Configuration

Now let us identify the physical components that make the computer work. These are

1. Central Processing Unit (CPU)

2. Computer Memory (RAM and ROM)

3. Data bus

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4. Ports

5. Motherboard

6. Hard disk

7. Output Devices

8. Input Devices

All these components are inter-connected for the personal computer to work.

MAIN PARTS OF A PERSONAL COMPUTER

External Hardware / Peripheral Devices

External hardware, also known as peripherals, refers to hardware that connects to the outside of
the computer case. If disconnected the computer still functions, only functions performed by this
peripheral will not be available. Peripheral devices allow information to be entered from external
source, and allow the results of operations to be sent out.

The monitor, keyboard, and mouse are the most common external hardware devices. The printer
and speakers are also popular peripherals. You can connect external hardware to your computer
through the computer ports.

Internal Hardware
Internal hardware refers to hardware that resides inside the computer case. This includes the
central processing unit (CPU) — the brains of the computer — memory chips that are used for
temporary data storage while you work, disk drives that are used for long-term storage, and
circuit boards that supply many of the ports on the back of the computer case.

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Basic Hardware for a Portable computer System

r
Wi-Fi is a wireless technology that connects computers, mobile phones and other electronic
devices over a wireless network. You may need a login or password to use a library or other
public wireless.

The above computer is often referred to as a personal computer (PC). Typically a PC consists of a
system unit (tower or desktop) that contains slots for CDs/DVDs and USB flash drives, a
monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, a set of speakers and a printer.

We use the term peripheral device for any equipment that is externally connected to the system
unit such as keyboard, printer, mouse, monitor, speakers, scanner, webcam, microphone, digital
camera, data projector etc.

Input / Output Ports

Computers have different input/output ports i.e. slots where cables connect peripherals to the
computer.

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Typically all computers will have these ports:

 USB port – is a slot in the computer that supports fast transfer data rates.
USB flash disks, digital cameras, mice, keyboards etc can be connected to
the computer via the USB port.

 Serial port - is a general-purpose interface that can be used to

connect mice and keyboards to the computer.

 Parallel port – is an interface that connects the

printer to the computer.

 Network port – is used to connect the computer to a network or a modem.

40
 FireWire port – is a slot that connects digital video cameras to the
computer. FireWire supports faster transfer data rates than USB ports.

41
Computer Performance
The processing speed of a computer is the rate at which the hardware and software interact to
manipulate data. There are several factors determining the processing speed of a computer:

1. The clock speed of the CPU – A higher clock speed means more units of data can be
processed each second. The clock speed of the CPU is measured in megahertz (MHz) or
gigahertz (GHz).
2. The design of the CPU – Different CPUs may be designed to process larger units of data
at a time or process certain types of data more efficiently. An Intel Pentium Celeron
processor running at 800MHz will not be as fast as an Intel Pentium II processor running
at the same clock speed.
3. The amount of RAM – Increasing the memory size of RAM improves the speed of a
computer. This is because at any single time more programs and data can be loaded from
the hard disk to it. Thus, the CPU can process data more efficiently.
4. The type of hard disk – Different hard disks have different access speeds. Access speed
is the time taken to read and write data to the disk. High access speeds improve the
processing speed of a computer. Also the amount of free space on the hard disk affects
the processing speed of the computer. MS Windows is constantly shuffling data between
the hard disk and RAM, creating a lot of temporary files in the process. Hard disk space
is needed for these temporary files. Thus, free hard disk space can optimize the
performance of a computer.
5. The type of graphics card – Modern graphics cards often have new design features and
more built in memory than older ones. These graphic cards enable computers to run
graphics orientated software more quickly and smoothly.
6. The type of CD-ROM or DVD-ROM – Fast CD- and DVD- ROMs reduce the time
taken to access data and move data. A 52× speed CD-ROM drive is faster than a 36×
speed drive for a given type of disk.
7. The number of applications running – The processing speed of a computer slows down
if a lot of programs/applications are running at the same time. It is important to close
programs which are not being used.

42
HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

In 1937, Dr John V. Atanasoff and his assistant Clifford Berry designed and began to build the
first electronic digital computer during the winter of 1937-38.

During the years 1943 to 1946, Dr John W. Mauchly and J Presper Eckert, Jr. completed the
ENAIC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first large-scale electronic digital
computer. It weighed 30 tons, contained 18,000 vacuum tubes and occupied a 30’ x 50’ space.

In 1953, the IBM model 650 was one of the first widely used computer systems.

In 1958, computers built with transistors marked the beginning of the second generation of
computer hardware.

In 1969, Dr Ted Hoff of Intel Corporation developed a microprocessor, or microprogrammable

computer chip, the Intel 4004. In 1969, under pressure from the industry, IBM announced that
some of its software would be priced separately from the computer hardware. This “unbundling”
allowed software firms to emerge in the industry.

In 1976, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs built the first Apple computer.

In 1980, IBM offered Microsoft Corporation‘s founder, Bill Gates, the opportunity to develop the
operating system for the soon to be announced IBM personal computer. With the development of
MS-DOS, Microsoft achieved tremendous growth and success.

The IBM PC was introduced in 1981, signaling IBM’s entrance into the personal computer
marketplace. The IBM PC quickly garnered the largest share of personal computer market and
became the personal computer of choice in business.

In 1984, IBM introduced a personal computer, called the PC AT that used the Intel 80286
microprocessor. Apple introduced the Macintosh computer, which incorporated a unique
graphical interface, making it easy to learn.

In 1990, Microsoft released Windows 3.0, a substantially enhanced version of its Windows
graphical user interface first introduced in 1985. The software allowed users to run multiple
applications on a personal computer and more easily move data from one application to another.
It was an instant success and by 1990, more than 54 million computers were using this software
in the United States.

In 1993, several companies introduced computer systems using the Pentium microprocessor from
Intel. The Pentium chip is the successor to the Intel 486 microprocessor.

In 1995, Intel began shipment of Pentium Pro microprocessor, the successor to its widely used
Pentium chip. Microsoft released Windows 95. In the US, 2 out of 3 employees have access to a
PC. One out of every 3 homes has a PC. More than 50 million PCs were sold worldwide in 1995;
over 250 million are in use.

43
In June of 1998, Microsoft released Windows 98 which was considered a minor upgrade to
Microsoft 95.

In 2000, Microsoft released Windows 2000 which was considered by some to be the best version
to date.

COMPUTER GENERATIONS

A generation refers to the state of improvement in the development of a product. This term is
also used in the different advancements of computer technology. With each new generation, the
circuitry has gotten smaller and more advanced than the previous generation before it. As a result
of the miniaturization, speed, power, and memory of computers has proportionally increased.
New discoveries are constantly being developed that affect the way we live, work and play.

The First Generation: 1946-1958 (The Vacuum Tube Years)

The first generation computers were huge, slow, expensive, and often undependable. In 1946two
Americans, Prosper Eckert, and John Mauchly built the ENIAC electronic computer which used
vacuum tubes instead of the mechanical switches of the Mark I. The ENIAC used thousands of
vacuum tubes, which took up a lot of space and gave off a great deal of heat just like light bulbs
do. The ENIAC led to other vacuum tube type computers like the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete
Variable Automatic Computer) and the UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer).

The vacuum tube was an extremely important step in the advancement of computers.
Vacuum tubes were invented the same time the light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison and
worked very similar to light bulbs. Its purpose was to act like an amplifier and a switch. Without
any moving parts, vacuum tubes could take very weak signals and make the signal stronger
(amplify it). Vacuum tubes could also stop and start the flow of electricity instantly (switch).
These two properties made the ENIAC computer possible.

The ENIAC gave off so much heat that they had to be cooled by gigantic air conditioners.
However even with these huge coolers, vacuum tubes still overheated regularly. It was time for
something new.

The Second Generation: 1959-1964 (The Era of the Transistor)

The transistor computer did not last as long as the vacuum tube computer lasted, but it was
no less important in the advancement of computer technology. In 1947 three scientists, John
Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain working at AT&T's Bell Labs invented what
would replace the vacuum tube forever. This invention was the transistor which functions like a
vacuum tube in that it can be used to relay and switch electronic signals.

There were obvious differences between the transistor and the vacuum tube. The transistor
was faster, more reliable, smaller, and much cheaper to build than a vacuum tube. One transistor

44
replaced the equivalent of 40 vacuum tubes. These transistors were made of solid material, some
of which is silicon, an abundant element (second only to oxygen) found in beach sand and glass.
Therefore they were very cheap to produce. Transistors were found to conduct electricity faster
and better than vacuum tubes. They were also much smaller and gave off virtually no heat
compared to vacuum tubes. Their use marked a new beginning for the computer. Without this
invention, space travel in the 1960's would not have been possible. However, a new invention
would even further advance our ability to use computers.

The Third Generation: 1965-1970 (Integrated Circuits - Miniaturizing the Computer)

Transistors were a tremendous breakthrough in advancing the computer. However no one
could predict that thousands even now millions of transistors (circuits) could be compacted in
such a small space. The integrated circuit, or as it is sometimes referred to as semiconductor
chip, packs a huge number of transistors onto a single wafer of silicon. Robert Noyce of Fairchild
Corporation and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments independently discovered the amazing
attributes of integrated circuits. Placing such large numbers of transistors on a single chip vastly
increased the power of a single computer and lowered its cost considerably.

Since the invention of integrated circuits, the number of transistors that can be placed on a
single chip has doubled every two years, shrinking both the size and cost of computers even
further and further enhancing its power. Most electronic devices today use some form of
integrated circuits placed on printed circuit boards-- thin pieces of bakelite or fiberglass that have
electrical connections etched onto them -- sometimes called a mother board.

These third generation computers could carry out instructions in billionths of a second. The
size of these machines dropped to the size of small file cabinets. Yet, the single biggest
advancement in the computer era was yet to be discovered.

The Fourth Generation: 1971-Today (The Microprocessor)

This generation can be characterized by both the jump to monolithic integrated circuits
(millions of transistors put onto one integrated circuit chip) and the invention of the
microprocessor (a single chip that could do all the processing of a full-scale computer). By
putting millions of transistors onto one single chip more calculation and faster speeds could be
reached by computers. Because electricity travels about a foot in a billionth of a second, the
smaller the distance the greater the speed of computers.

However what really triggered the tremendous growth of computers and its significant
impact on our lives is the invention of the microprocessor. Ted Hoff, employed by Intel (Robert
Noyce's new company) invented a chip the size of a pencil eraser that could do all the computing
and logic work of a computer. The microprocessor was made to be used in calculators, not
computers. It led, however, to the invention of personal computers, or microcomputers.

It wasn't until the 1970's that people began buying computer for personal use. One of
the earliest personal computers was the Altair 8800 computer kit. In 1975 you could purchase
this kit and put it together to make your own personal computer. In 1977 the Apple II was sold to
the public and in 1981 IBM entered the PC (personal computer) market.

Today we have all heard of Intel and its Pentium® Processors and now we know how it all
got started. The computers of the next generation will have millions upon millions of transistors

45
on one chip and will perform over a billion calculations in a single second. There is no end in
sight for the computer movement.

DATA PROCESSING CYCLE

Each organization, regardless of its size or purpose, generates data to keep a record of events and
transactions that take place within the business. Generating and organizing this data in a useful
way is called data processing. Hence the conversion of data into information represents the data
processing cycle. Data Processing pertains to the capture, digitization and processing of data that
originates from various sources

Data is entered into the -computer using different input devices and data can be obtained from
source documents and captured in an electronic form where it is processed and stored and give
the final output to the end user.

VERIFICATION
DATA ENTRY &
VALIDATION

46
 STORAGE

PROCESSING

Data Entry

Entering data from manual records into an electronic means or form.

Reasons for errors

Consequences of errors

Verification and validation

Once data has been entered into the computer system it goes through verification of errors that is
if data contains errors or is represented in a way form it is corrected before processing. Data
should meet the required purpose. The process of verification and validation is done to avoid
Garbage In Garbage Out (GIGO). When incorrect data is entered into the computer system if it is
not checked of errors and validated then the final result will be wrong.

Verification involves checking that what is on the input document is exactly the same as what is
entered into the computer. Two common verification methods are:

a) Double entry which involves two people typing in the same data and only if the data is
identical is it accepted for further processing.
b) Proof reading involves checking fully what has been typed in against what was on the
original document.

Validation is the process of detecting any data that is inaccurate, incomplete or unreasonable.
Validation is performed by a computer program. Validation usually perform some or all of the
following types of checks:

a) Character type checks which makes sure that the right type of characters have been
entered. Such checks detect numbers where characters should have been entered and vice
versa.
b) Range checks are performed on numbers to make sure that they lie within a specified
range.
c) Presence checks ensure that fields that require data are filled in

47
 d) Hash totals. A hash total is a meaningless total
e) Control total. A control total is just like a hash total except that the total has some
meaning.
f) Check digits. When any large number is input to a computer, either using a keyboard or
using a direct input device such as a barcode reader, there is always a chance of error. An
additional number is usually included, placed at the end of the original number. This
additional number is called a check digit and is calculated from the other numbers.
g) Spelling checkers
h) Custom dictionaries
i) Length checks
j) Lookup tables. Stock items are given a unique code to identify them. Whenever this
code is used, it is checked against a table stored by the computer to make sure that it is a
valid stock code. If the code is not in the table it is rejected, thus preventing any
processing using incorrect codes.
k) Parity checks. It is used to check data that is sent along a communication channel to
ensure that it is not corrupted in any way.

Types of error

a) Transcription errors occur due to misreading or mistyping data. This may be caused by
bad handwriting or confusing, for example the number 5 with the letter S or 0 with O
b) Transposition errors occur when two digits or letters are swapped around. If you are
typing in data at high speed you do not always look at the screen.

Methods of avoiding errors

Using direct input methods. E.g. OCR, bar code

Automatic spell checking

Processing

It involves the conversion of data into information by means of specific programs. All different
forms of data are executed in the central processing unit. The central processing unit works in
conjunction with input/ output devices.

Storage

Data awaiting processing data within intermediate stages of processing and programs for data
execution are stored within the memory unit. Memory unit can be divided into primary and
secondary memory.

48
 Output

Refers to information from processed data that can be applied for a particular use. This output can
be used as input in the next processing cycle.

COMPUTER COMMUNICATION

When data is input into a computer, the numbers or words we understand are translated into a
binary numbers system. Binary is the language of computers. Everything you type, input, output,
send, retrieve, draw and so on is, in the end, converted to the computer’s native language: binary.
Binary number system: A numerical system wherein each digit stands for a power of two. The
binary system uses only two symbols, 0 and 1, to represent values.
In the decimal system, commonly used in most countries, each digit represents a value of 10. For
example, the number 103 would break down as follows:
1 x 100 = 100
0 x 10 = 0
3x1=3
103 = 103
In the binary system, each digit position represents a value of 2. Because computers use the
binary system, powers of 2 play an important role. This is why everything in computers seems to
come in 8s (2 to the 3rd power), 64s (2 to the 6th power), 128s (2 to the 7th power), and 256s (2
to the 8th power). Therefore, in the binary system, the number 103 would break down as follows:
1 x 64 = 64
1 x 32 = 32
0 x 16 = 0
0x8=0
1x4=4
1x2=2
1x1=1
1100111 = 103
The values in a binary system -- the 0s and 1s -- are called ‘binary digits’ or bits.
Binary digit (bit): A digit within the binary number system. A bit is the smallest unit of
information held in a computer. The computer’s electronic circuits have only two states, on or
off, and therefore can only understand 0s and 1s, which may represent such opposites as on or
off, yes or no, or up or down. This is why all computers use the binary system. In order to make
the bits useful, they are combined into ‘bytes’ of information.
Byte: A combination of bits that represent one character. A byte is usually composed of 8 bits.
Computer programmers have developed codes for various bytes of information, so that they may
be read by different computer programs. For example, one code might define the letter A as
‘11000001’ and the letter B as 11000010’. The number 6 might be defined as ‘11110110’ and the
number 8 as ‘11111000’. When the person entering data strikes the A key on the keyboard, the
computer registers it as ‘11000001’. When he or she enters the B, the computer reads it as
‘11000010’. Similarly, the number 6 is understood by the computer as ‘11110110’ and the
number 8 as ‘1111100’. In this way, the computer can store words and numbers as binary digits
and then retrieve them and convert them back into words or numbers as required. As discussed
earlier, this work of manipulating, storing and processing the data takes place in the Central
Processing Unit, the computer’s main memory. The CPU consists of an arithmetic and logic unit,
or ALU, a control unit, and a set of registers.

49
• The arithmetic and logic unit is the portion of the CPU where arithmetic and logical operations
take place.
• The control unit is the part of the CPU that supervises the general operations of the computer.
• The registers are devices that hold data inside the computer’s memory long enough to execute a
particular function, such as indexing, calculating, sorting or otherwise manipulating data. They
are the CPU’s own internal memory. Data travels from one part of the computer to another
through a kind of path known as a bus.
Bus: The channel or path that lets the parts of a computer communicate with each other. Similar
to a school bus for school children, a computer data bus picks up a load of data from one of the
components on the main computer board and then transfers the data to another component on the
main computer board. The main circuit board of a microcomputer is also known as the
motherboard. The motherboard is the principal board that has connectors for attaching devices to
the bus. Typically, it contains the CPU, memory and basic controllers for the system. The data
bus is really a series of electrical circuits that connect the various electrical elements on the main
board. The data are input into the computer and processed in the CPU. They travel along the bus
to be stored in the computer’s memory. The amount of memory available is described in bytes of
information, referring to the combination of bits representing
characters. The higher the number of bytes the more memory the computer has. Today’s
computers hold ‘megabytes’ or even ‘gigabytes’ of data. A megabyte is a unit of one million
bytes; a gigabyte is one billion bytes, and a terabyte is one trillion bytes. If a computer has a
memory of 64 megabytes, then it can hold 64 million bytes of information. Data can be stored so
that it is readable again only using the software with which it was created, or it can be stored in
other formats, so that it may be transferred or used by other software programs. There is a
standard character code used to store data so that it may be used by other software programs; this
code is called ASCII or American Standard Code for Information Interchange. The ASCII code
assigns a specific pattern of bits to each character, as described above. Another code that may be
found, especially in IBM-brand mainframe computers, is EBCDIC, or Extended Binary Coded
Decimal Interchange Code. The important point to remember about these codes is that their main
value is to store information so that it is readable by other computers. By using ASCII or
EBCDIC, it is possible for people to retrieve and use someone else’s data using a different type of
hardware or software. The main disadvantage of using ASCII or EBCDIC is that the formatting
or other special qualities of computerized information may be lost.

50
Parallel processing

It speeds up the execution of a program by dividing it into multiple fragments that can be
executed simultaneously each on its own processor.

Multiprogramming

Running several different programs in a computer apparently at the same time (usually on a
mainframe). A number of programs are loaded and the operating system switches quickly
between them, processing a bit of each one in turn. The high speed of the processor makes it
seem like more than one program is being run at the same time. On a personal computer this is
called multitasking

Timesharing

The cpu time is divided into time slices (in milisec). Each task is assigned a certain number of
time slices. When time slices expires another task gets a turn.

Multiprocessing

Is the ability to execute more than one process (program) at the same time that is several
programs run concurrently also known as parallel processing.

Batch processing is execution of a series of programs ("jobs") on a computer without manual

intervention.

Batch jobs are set up so they can be run to completion without manual intervention, so all input
data is preselected through scripts or command-line parameters. This is in contrast to "online" or
interactive programs which prompt the user for such input. A program takes a set of data files as
input, process the data, and produces a set of output data files. This operating environment is
termed as "batch processing" because the input data are collected into batches on files and are
processed in batches by the program.

Benefits

Batch processing has these benefits:

 It allows sharing of computer resources among many users and programs,

 It shifts the time of job processing to when the computing resources are less busy,

51
  It avoids idling the computing resources with minute-by-minute manual intervention and
supervision,
 By keeping high overall rate of utilization, it better amortizes the cost of a computer,
especially an expensive one.

History

Batch processing has been associated with mainframe computers since the earliest days of
electronic computing in the 1950s. Because such computers were enormously costly, batch
processing was the only economically-viable option of their use. In those days, interactive
sessions with either text-based computer terminal interfaces or graphical user interfaces were not
widespread. Initially, computers were not even capable of having multiple programs loaded into
the main memory.

Batch processing has grown beyond its mainframe origins, and is now frequently used in UNIX
environments and Microsoft Windows too. UNIX systems use shells and other scripting
languages. DOS systems use batch files powered by COMMAND.COM, Microsoft Windows has
cmd.exe, Windows Script Host and advanced Windows PowerShell.

Modern Systems

Despite their long history, batch applications are still critical in most organizations. While online
systems are now used when manual intervention is not desired, they are not well suited to the
high-volume, repetitive tasks. Therefore, even new systems usually contain a batch application
for cases such as updating information at the end of the day, generating reports, and printing
documents.

Modern batch applications make use of modern batch frameworks such as Spring Batch, which is
written for Java, to provide the fault tolerance and scalability required for high-volume
processing. In order to ensure high-speed processing, batch applications are often integrated with
grid computing solutions to partition a batch job over a large number of processors.

Common batch processing usage

Data processing

A typical batch processing procedure is End of day-reporting (EOD), especially on mainframes.

Historically systems were designed to have a batch window where online subsystems were turned
off and system capacity was used to run jobs common to all data (accounts, users or customers)
on a system. In a bank, for example, EOD jobs include interest calculation, generation of reports
and data sets to other systems, print (statements) and payment processing.

Printing

A popular computerized batch processing procedure is printing. This normally involves the
operator selecting the documents they need printed and indicating to the batch printing software
when, where they should be output and priority of the print job. Then the job is sent to the print
queue from where printing daemon sends them to the printer.

52
Databases

Batch processing is also used for efficient bulk database updates and automated transaction
processing, as contrasted to interactive online transaction processing (OLTP) applications.

Images

Batch processing is often used to perform various operations with digital images. There exist
computer programs that let one resize, convert, watermark, or otherwise edit image files.

Converting

Batch processing is also used for converting a number of computer files from one format to
another. This is to make files portable and versatile especially for proprietary and legacy files
where viewers are not easy to come by.

Job scheduling

UNIX utilizes cron and at facilities to allow for scheduling of complex job scripts. Windows has
a job scheduler. Most high-performance computing clusters use batch processing to maximize
cluster usage.

Distributed computing

Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A

distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a
computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal. A
computer program that runs in a distributed system is called a distributed program, and
distributed programming is the process of writing such programs.[1]

Distributed computing also refers to the use of distributed systems to solve computational
problems. In distributed computing, a problem is divided into many tasks, each of which is solved
by one computer.[2]

Introduction

The word distributed in terms such as "distributed system", "distributed programming", and
"distributed algorithm" originally referred to computer networks where individual computers
were physically distributed within some geographical area.[3] The terms are nowadays used in a
much wider sense, even when referring to autonomous processes that run on the same physical
computer and interact with each other by message passing.[4]

While there is no single definition of a distributed system,[5] the following defining properties are
commonly used:

53
  There are several autonomous computational entities, each of which has its own local
memory.[6]
 The entities communicate with each other by message passing.[7]

In this article, the computational entities are called computers or nodes.

A distributed system may have a common goal, such as solving a large computational problem. [8]
Alternatively, each computer may have its own user with individual needs, and the purpose of the
distributed system is to coordinate the use of shared resources or provide communication services
to the users.[9]

Other typical properties of distributed systems include the following:

 The system has to tolerate failures in individual computers.[10]

 The structure of the system (network topology, network latency, number of computers) is
not known in advance, the system may consist of different kinds of computers and
network links, and the system may change during the execution of a distributed program.
[11]

 Each computer has only a limited, incomplete view of the system. Each computer may
know only one part of the input.[12]

(a)–(b) A distributed system.

(c) A parallel system.

Parallel or distributed computing?

The terms "concurrent computing", "parallel computing", and "distributed computing" have a lot
of overlap, and no clear distinction exists between them.[13] The same system may be
characterized both as "parallel" and "distributed"; the processors in a typical distributed system
run concurrently in parallel.[14] Parallel computing may be seen as a particular tightly-coupled
form of distributed computing,[15] and distributed computing may be seen as a loosely-coupled
form of parallel computing.[5] Nevertheless, it is possible to roughly classify concurrent systems
as "parallel" or "distributed" using the following criteria:

 In parallel computing, all processors have access to a shared memory. Shared memory
can be used to exchange information between processors.[16]
 In distributed computing, each processor has its own private memory (distributed
memory). Information is exchanged by passing messages between the processors.[17]

The figure on the right illustrates the difference between distributed and parallel systems. Figure
(a) is a schematic view of a typical distributed system; as usual, the system is represented as a
graph in which each node (vertex) is a computer and each edge (line between two nodes) is a
communication link. Figure (b) shows the same distributed system in more detail: each computer
has its own local memory, and information can be exchanged only by passing messages from one
node to another by using the available communication links. Figure (c) shows a parallel system in
which each processor has a direct access to a shared memory.

54
The situation is further complicated by the traditional uses of the terms parallel and distributed
algorithm that do not quite match the above definitions of parallel and distributed systems; see the
section Theoretical foundations below for more detailed discussion. Nevertheless, as a rule of
thumb, high-performance parallel computation in a shared-memory multiprocessor uses parallel
algorithms while the coordination of a large-scale distributed system uses distributed algorithms.

History

The use of concurrent processes that communicate by message-passing has its roots in operating
system architectures studied in 1960s.[18] The first widespread distributed systems were local-area
networks such as Ethernet that was invented in 1970s.[19]

ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet, was introduced in the late 1960s, and ARPANET e-
mail was invented in the early 1970s. E-mail became the most successful application of
ARPANET,[20] and it is probably the earliest example of a large-scale distributed application. In
addition to ARPANET and its successor Internet, other early worldwide computer networks
included Usenet and FidoNet from 1980s, both of which were used to support distributed
discussion systems.

The study of distributed computing became its own branch of computer science in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. The first conference in the field, Symposium on Principles of Distributed
Computing (PODC), dates back to 1982, and its European counterpart International Symposium
on Distributed Computing (DISC) was first held in 1985.

Applications

There are two main reasons for using distributed systems and distributed computing. First, the
very nature of the application may require the use of a communication network that connects
several computers. For example, data is produced in one physical location and it is needed in
another location.

Second, there are many cases in which the use of a single computer would be possible in
principle, but the use of a distributed system is beneficial for practical reasons. For example, it
may be more cost-efficient to obtain the desired level of performance by using a cluster of several
low-end computers, in comparison with a single high-end computer. A distributed system can be
more reliable than a non-distributed system, as there is no single point of failure. Moreover, a
distributed system may be easier to expand and manage than a monolithic uniprocessor system. [21]

Examples of distributed systems and applications of distributed computing include the following:
[22]

 Telecommunication networks:
o Telephone networks and cellular networks.
o Computer networks such as the Internet.
o Wireless sensor networks.
o Routing algorithms.
 Network applications:
o World wide web and peer-to-peer networks.
o Massively multiplayer online games and virtual reality communities.
o Distributed databases and distributed database management systems.

55
 o Network file systems.
o Distributed information processing systems such as banking systems and airline
reservation systems.
 Real-time process control:
o Aircraft control systems.
o Industrial control systems.
 Parallel computation:
o Scientific computing, including cluster computing and grid computing and
various volunteer computing projects; see the list of distributed computing
projects.
o Distributed rendering in computer graphics.

Theoretical foundations
Main article: Distributed algorithm

Models

Many tasks that we would like to automate by using a computer are of question–answer type: we
would like to ask a question and the computer should produce an answer. In theoretical computer
science, such tasks are called computational problems. Formally, a computational problem
consists of instances together with a solution for each instance. Instances are questions that we
can ask, and solutions are desired answers to these questions.

Theoretical computer science seeks to understand which computational problems can be solved
by using a computer (computability theory) and how efficiently (computational complexity
theory). Traditionally, it is said that a problem can be solved by using a computer if we can
design an algorithm that produces a correct solution for any given instance. Such an algorithm
can be implemented as a computer program that runs on a general-purpose computer: the
program reads a problem instance from input, performs some computation, and produces the
solution as output. Formalisms such as random access machines or universal Turing machines
can be used as abstract models of a sequential general-purpose computer executing such an
algorithm.

The field of concurrent and distributed computing studies similar questions in the case of either
multiple computers, or a computer that executes a network of interacting processes: which
computational problems can be solved in such a network and how efficiently? However, it is not
at all obvious what is meant by “solving a problem” in the case of a concurrent or distributed
system: for example, what is the task of the algorithm designer, and what is the concurrent and/or
distributed equivalent of a sequential general-purpose computer?

The discussion below focuses on the case of multiple computers, although many of the issues are
the same for concurrent processes running on a single computer.

Three viewpoints are commonly

Online transaction processing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

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Online transaction processing, or OLTP, refers to a class of systems that facilitate and manage
transaction-oriented applications, typically for data entry and retrieval transaction processing. The
term is somewhat ambiguous; some understand a "transaction" in the context of computer or
database transactions, while others (such as the Transaction Processing Performance Council)
define it in terms of business or commercial transactions.[1] OLTP has also been used to refer to
processing in which the system responds immediately to user requests. An automatic teller
machine (ATM) for a bank is an example of a commercial transaction processing application.

The technology is used in a number of industries, including banking, airlines, mail-order,

supermarkets, and manufacturing. Applications include electronic banking, order processing,
employee time clock systems, e-commerce, and eTrading. The most widely used OLTP system is
probably IBM's CICS.[2]

Requirements

Online transaction processing increasingly requires support for transactions that span a network
and may include more than one company. For this reason, new OLTP software uses client/server
processing and brokering software that allows transactions to run on different computer platforms
in a network.

In large applications, efficient OLTP may depend on sophisticated transaction management

software (such as CICS) and/or database optimization tactics to facilitate the processing of large
numbers of concurrent updates to an OLTP-oriented database.

For even more demanding Decentralized database systems, OLTP brokering programs can
distribute transaction processing among multiple computers on a network. OLTP is often
integrated into SOA service-oriented architecture and Web services. Because there is a need for
transactions you will need online processing.

Benefits

Online Transaction Processing has two key benefits: simplicity and efficiency. Reduced paper
trails and the faster, more accurate forecasts for revenues and expenses are both examples of how
OLTP makes things simpler for businesses.

Disadvantages

As with any information processing system, security and reliability are considerations. Online
transaction systems are generally more susceptible to direct attack and abuse than their offline
counterparts. When organizations choose to rely on OLTP, operations can be severely impacted if
the transaction system or database is unavailable due to data corruption, systems failure, or
network availability issues. Additionally, like many modern online information technology
solutions, some systems require offline maintenance which further affects the cost-benefit
analysis.

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Ergonomics

Study of human and tool interaction. It is concerned with physical interaction. It attempts to
improve safety and comfort.

Repetitive strain injury (RSI)

It is caused by continuous misuse of the body. Many professionals suffer from RSI

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpel tunnel is a passage in the wrist. It holds nerves and tendons. Prolonged keyboarding
causes swelling tendons.

E-Commerce
is a concept that describes the process of buying, selling, or exchanging products , services, and
information via computer networks including Internet.

Pure and Partial E-Commerce

There is a subtle distinction between these two. Pure E-Commerce concerns business whose
transactions are largely carried out on the Internet. For instance, my favorite commercial web site,
Sibelius Music publishes music written by members of the public. You can peruse the music,
listen to it on line, then pay for it using your credit card and download it for yourself - All done
on the Internet.

Partial E-Commerce on the other hand concerns business in which a large part of the transaction
takes place in the off-line real world. Amazon, for instance, will sell you books online, but these
must be stored in large warehouses and physically delivered through the post.
E-Business
is a broader definition of E-Commerce that covers:

 Communications
 Business process
 Service
 Online
 Collaborations
 Community

Types of e-commerce transactions

Business-to-business (B2B): In B2B transactions, both the sellers and the buyers are

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business organizations. The vast majority of EC volume is of this type.

Collaborative commerce (c-commerce): In c-commerce, business partners collaborate

(rather than buy or sell) electronically. Such collaboration frequently occurs between and
among business partners along the supply chain .

Business-to-consumers (B2C): In B2C, the sellers are organizations, and the buyers are
individuals. B2C is also known as e-tailing.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C): In C2C, an individual sells products or services to other

individuals. (You also will see the term C2C used as “customer to-customer.” The terms are
interchangeable, and both will be used in this book to describe individuals selling products
and services to each other.)

Business-to-business-to-customers (B2B2C): In this case a business sells to a business but

deliver the product or service to an individual consumer, such as in Godiva’s case.

Consumers-to-businesses (C2B): In C2B, consumers make known a particular need for a

product or service, and suppliers compete to provide the product or service to consumers. An
example is Priceline.com, where the customer names a product and the desired price, and
Priceline tries to find

a supplier to fulfill the stated need.

Intrabusiness (intraorganizational) commerce: In this case an organization uses EC

internally to improve its operations. A special case of this is known as B2E (business-to-its-
employees) EC, which was illustrated in the opening case.

Government-to-citizens (G2C) and to others: In this case a government entity (unit)

provides services to its citizens via EC technologies. Government units can do business with
other government units as well as with businesses (G2B).

Mobile commerce (m-commerce): When e-commerce is done in a wireless environment,

such as using cell phones to access the Internet and shop there, we call it m-commerce.

THE BENEFITS OF E-COMMERCE

Benefits to organizations

 Expands the marketplace to national and international markets.

 Decreases the cost of creating, processing, distributing, storing and retrieving
paper-based information.

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  The pull-type processing allows for customization of products and services
which provides competitive advantage to its implementers.
 Reduces the time between the outlay of capital and the receipt of products and
services.
 Supports business processes reengineering efforts.
 Lowers telecommunications cost.

Benefits to consumers

 Enables consumers to shop or do other transactions 24 hours a day, all year

round from almost any location.
 Provides consumers with more choices.
 Provides consumers with less expensive products and services by allowing
them to shop in many places and conduct quick comparisons.
 Allow quick delivery of products and services (in some cases) especially with
digitized products.
 Consumers can receive relevant and detailed information in seconds, rather
than in days or weeks.
 Makes it possible to participate in virtual auctions.
 Allows consumers to interact with other consumers and electronic communities
and exchange ideas as well as compare experiences.
 Facilitates competition, which results in substantial discounts.

Benefits to society

 Enables more individuals to work at home, and to do less traveling for

shopping, resulting in less traffic on the roads, and lower air pollution.
 Allows some merchandise to be sold at lower prices benefiting less affluent
people
 Enables people in Third World countries and rural areas to enjoy products and
services which otherwise are not available to them.
 Facilitates delivery of public services at a reduced cost, increases effectiveness,
and/or improves quality.

THE LIMITATIONS OF E-COMMERCE

Technical limitations of electronic commerce

 Lack of sufficient system's security, reliability, standards, and communication

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 protocols.
 Insufficient telecommunication bandwidth.
 The software development tools are evolving and changing rapidly.
 Difficulties in integrating the Internet and electronic commerce software with
some existing applications and databases.
 The need for special Web servers and other infrastructures, in addition to the
network servers. (additional cost)
 Possible problems of interoperability, meaning that some EC software does not
fit with some hardware, or is incompatible with some operating systems or
other components.

Non-technical limitations of electronic commerce

 Cost and justification

- The cost of developing an e-commerce in house can be very high, and
mistakes due to lack of experience may result in delays.
- There are many opportunities for outsourcing, but where and how to do it
is not a simple issue.
- In order to justify the system, one needs to deal with some intangible
benefits which are difficult to quantify.

 Security and Privacy

- These issues are especially important in the B2C area, but security
concerns are not so serious from a technical standpoint.
- Privacy measures are constantly improving too.
- The e-commerce industry has a very long and difficult task of convincing
customers that online transactions and privacy are, in fact, very secure.

 Lack of trust and user resistance

- Customers do not trust
 Unknown faceless sellers
 Paperless transactions
 Electronic money

- Switching from a physical to a virtual store may be difficult.

- Other limiting factors are:

 Lack of touch and feel online.

 Many unresolved legal issues.
 Rapidly evolving and changing e-commerce.
 Lack of support services.
 Insufficiently large enough number of sellers and buyers.
 Breakdown of human relationships.
 Expensive and/or inconvenient accessibility to the Internet

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What forces are driving E-commerce?
There are two basic types of pressure driving companies towards E-commerce operations:

 Consumer pressure: Consumers often (although not always) find that they prefer
shopping on the Internet. The general image of online shopping is one of consumers
sitting at desks clicking with a mouse and then waiting for the goods to arrive at their
doors. Of course, it is often not that simple, but proper use of the Internet can make life a
lot easier for customers, and that is the image that is widely promulgated.
 Economic pressure: E-commerce offers the potential for great efficiencies and reduced
overheads. With more aspects of business being done online, there is less need for
physical shops or offices.

Of course, E-business does bring with it its own set of requirements. Web servers need
constant maintenance as they form the backbone of communications with the customers.
Every minute that a web server is out of action represents losses to the company. There is
a great deal of data to be kept secure, for instance, records of transactions that need to be
kept - more so than a company in the off-line world as all the records are now electronic,
and there is no longer a trail of paper receipts.

E-commerce also offers businesses an opportunity to acquire a great deal of intelligence about its
customers and potential customers. A well designed web site can track the movement of visitors
from page to page and build-up a "profile" of people. This data, when collected for large numbers
of people, allow the company to tailor their operations to maximize profitability. To a certain
extent, large stores already have this facility as regards loyalty cards (for instance, Tesco issue a
club card, on which they collect data about their customers), but this only applies to those
customers who apply for and use these cards - with E-commerce, every move that every visitor
makes can be recorded and analyzed.

DATA COMMUNICATIONS AND COMPUTER NETWORKING

Communication is the transmission of data from the source to the destination by means of a
transmission media. Data communications involve the use of computers and communication
aided devices to transmit data from one point to the other. A communication channel is the path
through which the message is transmitted that is, medium in a data communication system.
Communication mode refers to the means data can be transmitted.

Reasons for Networking

Resource sharing(physical resources such as printers and scanners, data resources such as
customer records, inventories, accounts receivables etc)
Communication medium(email, video conferencing, ebusiness)

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 What Are the Benefits of Networking?

The benefits of networking (either wired or wireless) in homes are:

 file sharing - Network file sharing between computers gives you more flexibity than using
removable drives such as flash drives. Networks allow you to transfer documents as well as
save copies of all of your important data on a different computer.

 printer / peripheral sharing - Once a home network is in place, it's easy to then set up all of
the computers to share a single printer. No longer will you need to bounce from one system or
another just to print out an email message. Other computer peripherals can be shared similarly
such as network scanners, Web cams, and CD burners.

 Internet connection sharing - Using a home network, multiple family members can access
the Internet simultaneously without having to pay an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for
multiple accounts. You will notice the Internet connection slows down when several people
share it, but broadband Internet can handle the extra load with little trouble. Sharing dial-up
Internet connections works, too. Painfully slow sometimes, you will still appreciate having
shared dial-up on those occasions you really need it.

 multi-player games - Many popular home computer games support LAN mode where friends
and family can play together, if they have their computers networked.

 Internet telephone service – services such as Voice over IP (VoIP) services allow you to
make and receive phone calls through your network across the Internet, saving you money.

 home entertainment - Newer home entertainment products such as digital video recorders
(DVRs) and video game consoles now support either wired or wireless home networking.
Having these products integrated into your network enables online Internet gaming, video
sharing and other advanced features.

Although you can realize these same benefits with a wired home network, you should carefully
consider building a wireless home network instead, for the following reasons:

1. Computer mobility. Notebook computers and other portable devices are much affordable than
they were a few years ago. With a mobile computer and wireless home network, you aren't
chained to a network cord and can work on the couch, on your porch, or wherever in the house is
most convenient at the moment.

2. No unsightly wires. Businesses can afford to lay cable under their floors or inside walls. But
most of us don't have the time or inclination to fuss with this in our home. Unless you own one of
the few newer homes pre-wired with network cable, you'll save substantial time and energy
avoiding the cabling mess and going wireless.

3. Wireless is the future. Wireless technology is clearly the future of networking. In building a
wireless home network, you'll learn about the technology and be able to teach your friends and
relatives. You'll also be better prepared for future advances in network technology coming in the
future.

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Disadvantages of networks

The cost of installing the network and ensuring a secure and reliable network service.

What is a network protocol?

Protocols serve as a language of communication among network devices. Network protocols like
HTTP, TCP/IP, and SMTP provide a foundation that much of the Internet is built on.

The transmission of information

The communication system is responsible for the transmission of information from the sender to
the recipient.

A transmission channel- that is the physical link between the communicating parties.

A modulator that takes the source signal and transforms it so that it is physically suitable for the
transmission channel.

A transmitter that actually introduces the modulated signal into the channel usually amplify the
signal as it does so.

A demodulator that receives the original source signal from the received signal and passes it to
the sink.

Components of a computer network

a. Servers

Servers control the flow of information around the network and use specialized software called
the network operating system (NOS) to manage the network. They are designed to process
requests and deliver data to other computers over a local network or the Internet. Common types
of network servers include Web, proxy and FTP servers. The server and NOS together enable
sharing of information, application software and hardware devices such as printers. It also
controls access to information in files. For a network of perhaps 20 people or more, the function
of a server may be split between several servers to share the load. There may be a separate file
server, print server, password server and database server.

b. End user computers or terminals

The access points for users of a network are known variously as clients, nodes, workstations or
most commonly, PCs. To work on the network each client must have networking software such
as Novell Netware installed. A connection to the network is also required through either a
network cable connected to a network interface card in one of the PC’s slots or through a wireless
network system.

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The majority of terminals used in a data communication system fall into the following categories:
(i) Display terminals (ii) Teleprinters (iii) batch terminals (iv) special purpose terminals
Display terminals are quiet and relatively easy to use in comparison to other key driven devices.
All data are fully displayed and scrolling and flipping pages can be used to give the user access to
a great deal of data with relative ease.
The main feature of a teleprinter is the printing device that proves fast printing mechanisms.
Many display devices and teleprinters are controlled at one location via a single control unit.
Batch terminals use the total output of many operators to make up the large batches of
information needed to justify the higher transmission speed capabilities.
Special purpose terminals are designed to meet special purposes and these include supermarket
data collection system, voice response units, optical readers, ATMs and audio input devices.
c. Telecommunication processors

These are the pieces of hardware that are used to link the servers and clients and different
networks together. They are usually referred to by their specific names such as hubs,
multiplexers, bridges and routers.

d. Middleware

Middleware is a specialized type of software which allows different software applications to

communicate. It acts as a layer between other software to assist in data transfer between
incompatible systems.

e. Computer

Its function is to transport information from the user at a terminal there is always a computer in
the path between terminals. To manage the flow of information over communication line,
computer systems have communication programs that establish the necessary dialogue with the
terminal operator and handle various management functions in the transmission system. The
differing in speeds between the computer and channels and human prove the existence of
problems. The following techniques include multiplexing and time sharing are used to rectify this
crisis.

Communication links

Communication links may be categorized as follows:

a. Public lines

On which the cost of sending and receiving data depends on the length of time taken that is the
lines are tolled or charged per unit of time irrespective of the amount of data exchanged.

b. Private or leased lines

For which there is a fixed cost (annual or part thereof) and the line can be used as often as needed
at no extra cost.

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Communication media

The transfer of data from any two points can take place over a combination of different media.

a. Twisted pair cable

Used in many telephone networks each pair of wire connects to a single telephone or data circuit.

b. Coaxial cable

This consists of a central conducting core which is insulated by multiple layers of material.

c. Fiber optic cable

Carry signals in the form of modulated forms of light. Data cannot be tapped. Fiber optic is
suitable for high speed transmission. It is more difficult to cut so it need specialized equipment.

Methods of data transmission

a. Analogue transmission

Data transmission is achieved using continuous wave patterns. This is an excellent way of
transmitting voice data, but data emanating from a computer is in digital form. In order for
computer data to be transmitted over analogue links such as the twisted pair, it must be translated
into an analogue pulse.

b. Digital transmission

Data are transmitted over the channel in the form of discrete binary coded pulses. This method of
transmission is capable of much faster communications and the circuits needed for this method
are much cheaper.

Communication modes

a. Simplex transmission

Transmission of data that is possible in one direction only that is the sender and receiver are well
defined and they maintain their roles. It does not offer feedback to the sender. Examples are
address systems and broadcasting .

b. Half duplex

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It permits the transfer of data in both directions but one direction at a time that means
transmission is never bi directional even though the channel permits transfer in either direction.
For example in some computer devices such as disk drives which can communicate with the rest
of the system in only one direction at a time.

c. Full duplex

The method of data transmission which permits perfect bi directional transfer of data. This
method of transmission mode apply to telephone networks (it is up to the communicating parties
not the system to regulate the exchange). Duplex communication are at play when the user sees
data on the screen as it is keyed in.

Wired technologies

a. Twisted pair

Is the most widely used medium for telecommunications. It is ordinary telephone wires which
consists of two insulated copper wires twisted into pairs and are used for both voice and data
transmission. The transmission speed ranges from two million bits per second to hundred million
bits per second.

b. Coaxial cable

Is widely used in TV system, office buildings and other worksites for LANs. The cables consists
of copper or aluminum wire wrapped with insulated layer typically of a flexible material with a
high dielectric constant all of which are surrounded by a conducive layer.

c. Fiber optic

Consists of one or more filaments of glass fiber wrapped in protective layers. It transmit light
which can travel over extended distances without interference. Fiber optic cables are not affected
by electromagnetic radiation. The transmission speed of optic fiber is 100s of times faster than for
coaxial cables and 1000s times than of twisted pair.

Wireless technologies

a. Bluetooth

A short range wireless technology that operate at approximately 1 mbps with range from 10 to
100 metres. It is an open wireless protocol for data exchange over short distances.

b. Wireless web

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The wireless web refers to the use of world wide web through equipment like cellular phones and
other portable communication devices.

c. Communication satellites

It uses microwave radio as their telecommunication medium which are not deflected by the earth
atmosphere. The satellites are stationed in space typically 22000 miles above the equator. These
earth orbiting system are capable of receiving and relaying voice, data and TV signals.

d. Wireless LANs

Wireless LANs use a high frequency radio technology similar to digital cellular and a low
frequency radio technology. Wireless LANs use spread spectrum technology to enable
communication between multiple devices in a limited area.

CATAGORIES OF NETWORKS

A network can be established when two or more computers are connected together. Networks can
be classified by size or the capabilities of a given network. There are three types of networks that
is:

a. Local Area Network (LAN)

It consists of computers confined to a given local area or building. A LAN can be made of
computers in different network segments to form one network by interconnecting the available
network segments.

b. Municipal Area Network (MAN)

Refers to a network that covers a large area such as a city and the its surrounding towns. It is
larger than a LAN in both capabilities and size that is, the number of computers available on that
network.

c. Wide Area Network (WAN)

It is an interconnection of all networks globally to form one entire network. The world wide web
(www) is an example of a WAN.

Network Topologies

Bus, ring, star, and other types of network topology

Topology in Network Design

Think of a topology as a network's virtual shape or structure. This shape does not necessarily
correspond to the actual physical layout of the devices on the network. For example, the

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 computers on a home LAN may be arranged in a circle in a family room, but it would be highly
unlikely to find a ring topology there.

Network topologies are categorized into the following basic types:

 bus
 ring
 star
 tree
 mesh

More complex networks can be built as hybrids of two or more of the above basic topologies.

Bus Topology

Bus networks (not to be confused with the system bus of a computer) use a common backbone to
connect all devices. A single cable, the backbone functions as a shared communication medium
that devices attach or tap into with an interface connector. A device wanting to communicate with
another device on the network sends a broadcast message onto the wire that all other devices see,
but only the intended recipient actually accepts and processes the message.

Ethernet bus topologies are relatively easy to install and don't require much cabling compared to
the alternatives. 10Base-2 ("ThinNet") and 10Base-5 ("ThickNet") both were popular Ethernet
cabling options many years ago for bus topologies. However, bus networks work best with a
limited number of devices. If more than a few dozen computers are added to a network bus,
performance problems will likely result. In addition, if the backbone cable fails, the entire
network effectively becomes unusable.

Ring Topology

In a ring network, every device has exactly two neighbors for communication purposes. All
messages travel through a ring in the same direction (either "clockwise" or "counterclockwise").
A failure in any cable or device breaks the loop and can take down the entire network. To
implement a ring network, one typically uses FDDI, SONET, or Token Ring technology. Ring
topologies are found in some office buildings or school campuses

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Star Topology

Many home networks use the star topology. A star network features a central connection point
called a "hub" that may be a hub, switch or router. Devices typically connect to the hub with
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Ethernet.

Compared to the bus topology, a star network generally requires more cable, but a failure in any
star network cable will only take down one computer's network access and not the entire LAN. (If
the hub fails, however, the entire network also fails.)

Tree Topology

Tree topologies integrate multiple star topologies together onto a bus. In its simplest form, only
hub devices connect directly to the tree bus, and each hub functions as the "root" of a tree of
devices. This bus/star hybrid approach supports future expandability of the network much better
than a bus (limited in the number of devices due to the broadcast traffic it generates) or a star
(limited by the number of hub connection points) alone.

Mesh Topology

Mesh topologies involve the concept of routes. Unlike each of the previous topologies, messages
sent on a mesh network can take any of several possible paths from source to destination. (Recall

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that even in a ring, although two cable paths exist, messages can only travel in one direction.)
Some WANs, most notably the Internet, employ mesh routing.

A mesh network in which every device connects to every other is called a full mesh. As shown in
the illustration below, partial mesh networks also exist in which some devices connect only
indirectly to others.

Summary

Topologies remain an important part of network design theory. You can probably build a home or
small business computer network without understanding the difference between a bus design and
a star design, but becoming familiar with the standard topologies gives you a better understanding
of important networking concepts like hubs, broadcasts, and routes.

TRANSMISSION TECHNIQUES

Circuit Switching

This method involves the physical interconnection of two devices. A good example of circuit
switching involves the Public phone network. A data example would be the classic A/B switch!

Packet Switching

Packet Switching techniques switch packets of data between destinations. Traditionally, this
applied to X.25 techniques, but this also applies to TCP/IP and IPX/SPX routers also. Proprietary
Frame Relay switches can switch voice signals.

Message Switching

Message Switching techniques were originally used in data communications. An example would
be early "store and forward" paper tape relay systems. E-Mail delivery is another example of

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message switching. In voice systems, you can find Voice Mail delivery systems on the Internet.
The classic "forward voice mail" capability in some voice mail systems is another example.

Cell Switching

Cell Switching is similar to packet switching, except that the switching does not necessarily occur
on packet boundaries. This is ideal for an integrated environment and is found within Cell-based
networks, such as ATM. Cell-switching can handle both digital voice and data signals.

Internet and world wide web

The internet allows communication between connected computers worldwide. The PCs within
homes and business are connected to the internet via local internet service providers (ISPs)
which, in turn, are linked to larger ISPs with connection to the major national and international
infrastructure or backbones.

The internet is a global public network. It is a vast collection of different networks that use
certain common protocols and provides certain common services. The TCP/IP suite is the
primary protocol used on the internet.

Advantages of the internet

Exchange information

Download software

Collaborate interactively

Shop online

Transfer files from one computer to another

Access available information on any subject

Communicate instantly via chat sessions

Participate in subject group discussions

Services of the internet

Electronic mail (e-mail)

FTP

Telnet

WWW

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Electronic Mail (E-mail)

E-mail is the paperless method of sending messages via the internet

Features

Allows one to one or one to many communications

Allows instant communication

Physical presence of recipient is not required

It is the most inexpensive mail service available 24 hours a day seven days a week

It encourages informal communication

Components

mail server where the

mailbox resides

[email protected]

type of organization on the

name of mailbox on internet which is hosting the
the destination mail server
computer

E - Mail - How Does It Work?

Introduction

E-mail (electronic mail) is the exchange of computer-stored messages by telecommunication.

(Some publications spell it email; we prefer the currently more established spelling of e-mail.) E-
mail messages are usually encoded in ASCII text. However, you can also send non-text files,
such as graphic images and sound files, as attachments sent in binary streams. E-mail was one of
the first uses of the Internet and is still the most popular use. A large percentage of the total
traffic over the Internet is e-mail. E-mail can also be exchanged between online service provider
users and in networks other than the Internet, both public and private. E-mail can be distributed
to lists of people as well as to individuals. A shared distribution list can be managed by using an
e-mail reflector. Some mailing lists allow you to subscribe by sending a request to the mailing
list administrator. A mailing list that is administered automatically is called a list server. E-mail
is one of the protocols included with the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
suite of protocols. A popular protocol for sending e-mail is Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and a
popular protocol for receiving it is POP3. Both Netscape and Microsoft include an e-mail utility

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with their Web browsers.

How Does E-mail work?

Billions of electronic mail (e-mail) messages move across the Internet every year. Sending
electronic letters, pictures and data files, either across a building or across the globe, has grown
so popular that it has started to replace some postal mail and telephone calls. This universal
medium is no longer restricted to exchange of simple text messages and is now regularly used to
deliver voice mail, facsimiles and documents that may include images, sound and video.

Typically, a message becomes available to the recipient within seconds after it is sent—one
reason why Internet mail has transformed the way that we are able to communicate.

1 MESSAGE SENDER uses mail software, called a client, to compose a document, possibly
including attachments such as tables, photographs or even a voice or video recording. System
software, called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), divides the message into packets and adds
information about how each packet should be handled-for instance, in what order packets were
transmitted from the sender. Packets are sent to a mail submission server, a computer on the
internal network of a company or an Internet service provider.

2 INTERNET MAIL ADDRESSES attached to each message are in the form

"mailbox@domainname" - one specific example being "[email protected]." The
multipart domain name in the above example denotes a top-level domain (".com") following the
second-level domain ("seniorindian"). A message is delivered to an individual or a group by the
mailbox name ("webmaster").

3 MAIL SUBMISSION SERVER converts the domain name of the recipient’s mail address
into a numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address. It does this by querying domain name servers
interspersed throughout the Internet. For example, the mail submission server can first request
from the "root" name server the whereabouts of other servers that store information about ".com"
domains (a). It can then interrogate the ".com" name server for the location of the specific
"sciam.com" name server (b). A final request to the "sciam.com" name server provides the IP
address for the computer that receives the mail for sciam.com, which is then attached to each
message packet (c).

4 ROUTERS dispersed throughout the Internet read the IP address on a packet and relay it
toward its destination by the most efficient path. (Because of fluctuating traffic over data lines,
trying to transmit a packet directly to its destination is not always the fastest way.) The packets
of a single message may travel along different routes, shuttling through 10 or so routers before
their journey’s end.

5 DESTINATION MAIL SERVER places the packets in their original order, according to the
instructions contained in each packet, and stores the message in the recipient’s mailbox. The

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recipient’s client software can then display the message.

Follow the Trail

Just as a letter makes stops at different postal stations along its way, e-mail passes from one
computer, known as a mail server, to another as it travels over the Internet. Once it arrives at the
destination mail server, it's stored in an electronic mailbox until the recipient retrieves it.

Sending and Receiving Messages

To receive e-mail, you must have an account on a mail server. This is similar to having an
address where you receive letters. One advantage over regular mail is that you can retrieve your
e-mail from anywhere location. Once you connect to your mail server, you download your
messages to your computer.

To send e-mail, you need a connection to the Internet and access to a mail server that forwards
your mail. The standard protocol used for sending Internet e-mail is called SMTP, short for
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It works in conjunction with POP servers. POP stands for Post
Office Protocol.

When you send an e-mail message, your computer routes it to an SMTP server. The server looks
at the e-mail address (similar to the address on an envelope), then forwards it to the recipient's
mail server, where it is stored until the addressee retrieves it. You can send e-mail anywhere in
the world to anyone who has an e-mail address. Remember, almost all Internet service providers
and all major online services offer at least one e-mail address with every account.

At one time, Internet e-mail was good only for text messages. You couldn't send attachments,
such as formatted documents. With the advent of MIME, which stands for Multipurpose
Internet Mail Extension, and other types of encoding schemes, such as UUencode, not only can
you send messages electronically, but you can also send formatted documents, photos, sound and
video files.

E-Mail Addresses

Internet e-mail addresses typically have two main parts:

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[email protected]

First there is the user name (professor) that refers to the recipient's mailbox. Then there's an at
sign (@). Next comes the host name (learnthenet), also called the domain name. This refers to
the mail server, the computer where the recipient has an electronic mailbox. It's usually the name
of a company or organization.

The end of the domain name consists of a dot (".") followed by three or more letters (such as
.com and .gov) that indicate the top-level domain (TLD). This part of the domain name indicates
the type of organization or the country where the host server is located.

Here are the top-level domains currently in use:

.aero--For the air-transport industry

.biz--Reserved for businesses

.com--For businesses, commercial enterprises, or online services like America Online.

Most companies use this extension.

.coop--Reserved for cooperatives

.edu--For educational institutions and universities

.gov--Reserved for United States government agencies

.info--For all uses

.int--For organizations established by international treaties

.mil--For the United States military

.museum--For use by museums

.name--For use by individuals

.net--For networks; usually reserved for organizations such as Internet service providers

.org--For non-commercial organizations

.pro--For use by professionals, such as attorneys and physicians

For e-mail addresses outside of the United States, there is often a two letter country code. For
instance, .ca indicates Canada, .uk indicates the United Kingdom and .mx indicates Mexico. For
Zimbabwe you know it is .zw

The chart below shows the difference between an e-mail address and the address of a website,
also known as a URL.

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With the advent of an Internet protocol called MIME, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension,
and other types of encoding schemes, you can send formatted documents, photos, sound and
video files as attachments to your e-mail messages.

These protocols use a complex mathematical formula to convert files to text and then back to
their original form. This conversion process is known as encoding and decoding. If the person to
whom you are sending an attachment uses a MIME-compliant or UUencode e-mail program--
most programs do--it will automatically detect the attachment, decode it, and either open it or
prompt the recipient to save the file to disk. This process is mostly invisible to you. Before you
send binary files or formatted documents as attachments, make sure that the person you are
sending them to has the ability to decode the files.

By the way, don't confuse encoding a file with encrypting a file. Encoding files adds no security.
Anyone with the right decoding software can view it.

Opening E-mail Attachments

One of the most useful features of e-mail is the ability to send digital files. But once you receive
an attachment, how do you open it? The answer depends on the type of file and how your
computer is configured.

All digital files have names, such as "balloon1.jpg." The letters after the "." are known as the file
extension and indicate which kind of program can open the file. For instance, you can view a .jpg

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photo with your web browser and listen to a .mp3 music file with a program called WinAmp,
among others. The most common types of files sent over the Net include these:

File Type Extension Opens With...

.jpg
Images A web browser
.gif

.mp3 Windows Media Player

.mpeg Windows Media Player
Music
.ra RealPlayer
.wmf Windows Media Player

.avi Windows Media Player

.mov QuickTime
Video
.qt QuickTime
.ram RealPlayer

.doc Word
Documents .xls Excel
.pdf Acrobat Reader

Spam

Ten Tips to Stop Spam

Unfortunately, spam is here to stay. That doesn't mean you have to be an innocent victim. Here's
how to fight back:

Protect your e-mail address.

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Spammers either buy lists of e-mail addresses or use software programs that mine the addresses
from the Internet. If your address is posted in discussion groups, on websites, chat rooms etc., the
chances are that it will end up on one or more of these lists. Only post your address publicly when
absolutely necessary.

Set up multiple e-mail accounts.

If you do participate regularly in online activities where you post your address, then set up
another e-mail account. Reveal it only to close friends and family.

Use spam filters.

Many e-mail programs, such as Outlook Express, have built-in tools that block messages sent
from certain addresses or that filter messages based on keywords you define. To learn how these
features work, check the online help files for your e-mail software.

Use anti-spam software.

You can install special software designed to eliminate spam. Some work by matching incoming
messages against a list of known spammers; others block messages that don't match a pre-
approved list of acceptable addresses.

Don't respond.

Don't retaliate.

Opt-out.

Many websites now require you to register to use their services. Before you
do, review the site's privacy policy to see how it uses your personal
information like your e-mail address. If the site sends out commercial
messages, you should be given a choice whether you want to receive e-mail
from the site or from its third party partners. If you don't want to hear from
them, be sure to check the No box.

Remove address from directories.

Your address may be listed with people finder services, such as Yahoo! People Search and other
directories that are gold mines for spammers. To prevent your address from being harvested, e-
mail these lookup services and ask them to remove your name.

Report violators.

A number of government agencies and private organizations accept complaints. Whether they can
actually do anything to stop the deluge is an unanswered question.

Use your Delete key.

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Perhaps the path of least resistance is to highlight the offending message and delete it, banishing
it to the trash bin. If everyone ignored spam, it would eventually go away.

Intranets and extranets

Intranet is a network in which information limited to those inside an organization. They are used
for sharing information such as staff phone directories, staff procedures or quality manuals,
information for agents such as product specifications, current list and discounted prices etc.

An extranet is a network which allows access to some people outside the organization but not
everyone beyond the organization. It is accessed by authorized people outside the company such
as collaborators, suppliers or major customers. An extranet can be used to activities such as
ordering from suppliers.

World Wide Web

It provides a standard method for exchanging and publishing information on the internet. The
medium on standard documents formats such as HTML (Hypertext markup language). It is the
combination of web spread business use of the internet.

Web browsers and servers

Web browsers are software applications that are used to access the information on the world
wide web that is stored on web servers. Web servers are used to store, manage and supply the
information on the World Wide Web. Common web browsers include Microsoft Internet
Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. Web browsers display the text and graphics accessed from
web sites and provides tools for managing information from web sites.

E-commerce

It involves using technology to conduct business transactions, such as buying and selling goods
and services. E-commerce activities can be broken down into 5 basic types:

Business to business (B2B) – transactions take place between companies

Business to consumers (B2C) – companies sell products directly to consumers

Business to government (B2G) – transactions take place between companies and public sector
organizations

Consumer to consumer (C2C) – transactions take place between private individuals

Mobile commerce (m- commerce) – it is a relatively new development and it involves selling
goods and services via wireless technology, especially mobile phones.

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NETWORK COMPUTING
A network computing environment is one in which an organization has linked together personal
computers that have been connected into a network. There are a number of types of computer
networks.
Local area network: A computer network located within a relatively limited area such as a
building, agency or university campus. Also known as a LAN.
Wide area network (WAN): A computer network that covers a large geographical area. There are
an estimated 25 million computers connected to local area networks worldwide. The purpose of
networking personal computers and even mainframes together is to permit employees in the
organization to
• communicate with one another as well as others outside the organization, normally through the
use of electronic messages
• access information and services supported on the World Wide Web
• share documents and data
• support various work processes in the organization based on the automation of specific tasks.
A network environment can range in sophistication from very simple to very complex. Some
networks are used to support simple electronic mail communication. In other networks,
employees may be able to share documents with each other and carry out the work of their work
groups, project teams, etc. by exchanging electronic documents through e-mail. The most
sophisticated organisations may have automated entire work processes. For instance, draft
documents such as responses to letters sent to senior officials, are sent through various approval
levels (such as action officer to manager to director to senior official) without ever being printed
onto paper (except perhaps the final version, which needs to be signed by the senior official).
A computer network can be simple and limited to a small number of computers or complex,
linking a large number of computers.
A computer that is not connected to a network is referred to as a stand-alone computer. When a
computer is physically connected to a local area network, using a cable or other communications
channel, the computer becomes a workstation on the network. Each device on the network
including workstations, servers, and printers is referred to as a node.
Node: A processing location on a network.
A workstation normally has all of the usual resources found in the personal computing
environment (hard drive, software, data and printer). However, users of workstations will also
have access to network resources, which typically include application software, storage space for
data files, and printers other than those on the local workstation. On a network, the network
server typically provides the applications software and storage space for data files.
Network server: A computer that is connected to the network and that ‘serves’ or distributes
resources to network users. Networks use different kinds of servers to carry out specialized
functions. For example, a file server is a computer and storage device dedicated to storing files.
File server: A computer that serves or distributes application programs and data files to
workstations within a computer network. The hard drive of the file server is shared by the
workstations on the network. Any user on the network can store files on the server. Other types of
servers include a print server to manage one or more printers and a database server to process
database queries. Most network users will need to understand file servers because this is where
they will store their files on the network. A typical local area network uses a powerful PC as a file
server. However, a minicomputer or mainframe computer can also be a file server. File servers
fall into three categories; dedicated, non-dedicated and application servers. A dedicated file server
is devoted only to the task of delivering programs and data files to workstations. A dedicated file
server does not process data or run programs for the workstations. Instead, programs run using
the memory and processor of the workstation. In some cases, a network computer performs a dual

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role as both file server and workstation. When a non-dedicated file server is used, the computer
workstation functions like a normal workstation, but other workstations can access programs and
data files from the hard disk of the user’s computer workstation. An application server is a
computer that runs applications software and runs the results of processing to workstations as
requested. An application server makes it possible to use the processing power of both the server
and the workstation. Use of an
application server splits processing between the workstation client and the network server. The
method is also referred to as client/server architecture. Some networks include a host computer,
usually a minicomputer or mainframe attached with terminals. A terminal has a keyboard and
screen but does not have a local storage device and does no processing on its own. When a
terminal is connected to a host computer, all processing takes place on the host.
The software on a local area network typically includes many of the same applications one might
use in a personal computing environment, such as word processing, spreadsheet, and database
management and so on. As the use of networks increase, however, organisations have begun to
demand software that facilitate the flow and sharing of documents. This software includes
groupware and workflow software.
Groupware: Applications software that supports collaborative work between a group of users by
managing schedules, sharing documents and undertaking intragroup communications.
Essentially, groupware manages a pool of documents and allows users to access those documents
simultaneously. A key feature of groupware is document version management which maintains
all revisions within a document when more than one group member revises a document.
Workflow software: Software that automates the process of electronically routing documents
from one person to another in a specified sequence and time. Workflow software facilitates a
process or a series of steps. Workflow is based on a ‘process-centered model’ as opposed to
groupware’s ‘information-centered model’. With workflow software, the focus is on a series of
steps. With groupware software, the documents are the focus.
Peer-to-peer network: A type of network in which each workstation has equivalent capabilities
and responsibilities. Peer-to-peer networks simply link a number of PCs together with no network
server. This is a cheaper way of networking, and while files and printers can be shared the wider
advantages of having a network server are lost. The main advantage of a computer network is that
all the users can share resources, rather than have users each maintain his or her own resources. It
is not necessary to purchase multiple copies of software; instead a license can be purchased to use
the software within the network which allows everyone to use the program at the same time.
When a computer network is used, finding, retrieving, and storing files on a network is not very
different from the process used on a stand-alone computer. However, when using a network,
security is much more of an issue. Information is now
accessible to a wide group of people, and sensitive or personal information needs to be
protected. An internal network that belongs to an organization and is accessible only by that
organization’s members is often referred to as an Intranet.
Intranet: An internal computer network that belongs to an organization and is accessible only by
that organization’s members.

Integrated digital service network(isdn)

ISDN is a service provided by the telecommunications companies that enables ordinary telephone
lines to carry digital communications. You do not need a modem but instead need a device called
a ISDN terminal adapter.

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Costs of installing networks

The costs involved in the installation of a network are as follows:

 Terminal costs
 Server costs
 Cabling costs
 Network cards
 Software
 Backup devices
 The cost of the modem or ISDN adapter
 Internet service provider (ISP) costs
 Telephone or other communications charges
 Connectors

Search engines

Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com)

Infoseek (www.infoseek.com)

Google (www.google.com)

HotBot (www.hotbot.com)

Ask Jeeves (www.askjeeves.com)

MSN Internet Search (search.msn.com)

Alta Vista (www.altavista.com)

Search.com (www.search.com)

Excite (www.excite.com)

Northern Light (www.northernlight.com)

Netscape Search (search.netscape.com)

Lycos (www.lycos.com)

Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com)

Dogpile (www.dogpile.com)

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INTRODUCTION TO DATABASE SYSTEMS CONCEPT

A database is a collection of related files. Databases can exist on paper e.g. a telephone directory
but are inefficient and costly to maintain. A computer based database offers the advantage of
powerful search facilities which can be used to locate and retrieve information many times faster
than by manual methods.

The importance of data

Data within an organization can be shared among users from different functional departments. It
is a critical resource and it is as important as finance and human resources in any organization.
Data is managed by the data processing unit controlled by the Database Administrator.

Organizing data in a database

Data in an electronic database is organized by fields and records. A field is a single item of
information such as a name or a quantity. A record is a collection of related fields and a table is a
collection of related records.

Common database terms

Entity

is a name to a real world object that can be fully described its functionality by its properties
known as attributes for example

Attribute

It is an element of an entity or a property of an entity for example First name can be an attribute
of entity Person. An attribute is also known as a column on a table.

Table

Consists of rows and columns and relation is another name for a table.

Row

It refers to the records in a table particularly the horizontal section on a table. It is also known as a
tuple.

Primary key

It is an attribute that uniquely identifies a table. In order to identify a specific item of information
within a database, all records must contain a unique identifier, normally called the key field or

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primary key. The key field usually takes the form of a number or code and will be different for
each record in the database.

Database management system

It is a set of programs that enables the end user to retrieve, search, view, update, delete or add
data in a database by means of any interface.

TYPES OF DATABASES

Analytical database

Analysts may do their work directly against a data warehouse or create a separate analytic
database for Online Analytical Processing. For example, a company might extract sales records
for analyzing the effectiveness of advertising and other sales promotions at an aggregate level.

Data warehouse

Data warehouses archive modern data from operational databases and often from external sources
such as market research firms. Often operational data undergoes transformation on its way into
the warehouse, getting summarized, anonymized, reclassified, etc. The warehouse becomes the
central source of data for use by managers and other end-users who may not have access to
operational data. For example, sales data might be aggregated to weekly totals and converted
from internal product codes to use UPC codes so that it can be compared with ACNielsen data.
Some basic and essential components of data warehousing include retrieving and analyzing data,
transforming, loading and managing data so as to make it available for further use.

Operations in a data warehouse are typically concerned with bulk data manipulation, and as such,
it is unusual and inefficient to target individual rows for update, insert or delete. Bulk native
loaders for input data and bulk SQL passes for aggregation are the norm.

Distributed database

These are databases of local work-groups and departments at regional offices, branch offices,
manufacturing plants and other work sites. These databases can include segments of both
common operational and common user databases, as well as data generated and used only at a
user’s own site.

End-user database

These databases consist of data developed by individual end-users. Examples of these are
collections of documents in spreadsheets, word processing and downloaded files, even managing
their personal baseball card collection.

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External database

These databases contain data collected for use across multiple organizations, either freely or via
subscription. The Internet Movie Database is one example.

Hypermedia databases

The World Wide Web can be thought of as a database, albeit one spread across millions of
independent computing systems. Web browsers "process" this data one page at a time, while Web
crawlers and other software provide the equivalent of database indexes to support search and
other activities.

Operational database

These databases store detailed data about the operations of an organization. They are typically
organized by subject matter, process relatively high volumes of updates using transactions.
Essentially every major organization on earth uses such databases. Examples include customer
databases that record contact, credit, and demographic information about a business' customers,
personnel databases that hold information such as salary, benefits, skills data about employees,
Enterprise resource planning that record details about product components, parts inventory, and
financial databases that keep track of the organization's money, accounting and financial dealings.

THREE-LEVEL ARCHITECTURE
Objective: separate each user’s view of the database from the way it is physically represented.

EXTERNAL LEVEL (highest level)

• The user’s view of the database.
• Consists of a number of different external views of the DB.
• Describes part of the DB for particular group of users.
• Provides a powerful and flexible security mechanism by
hiding parts of the DB from certain users. The user is not aware of the existence of any attributes
that are missing from the view.
• It permits users to access data in a way that is customized to their needs, so that the same data
can be seen by different users in different ways, at the same time.

CONCEPTUAL LEVEL
• The logical structure of the entire database as seen by DBA.
• What data is stored in the database.
• The relationships among the data.
• Complete view of the data requirements of the organization,
independent of any storage consideration.
• Represents:
- entities, attributes, relations
- constraints on data
- semantic information on data
- security, integrity information

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Supports each external view: any data available to a user must be contained in, or derivable from
the conceptual level.

INTERNAL LEVEL
• Physical representation of the DB on the computer.
• How the data is stored in the database.
• Physical implementation of the DB to achieve optimal run–time performance and storage space
utilization.
- Storage space allocation for data and indexes
- Record description for storage
- Record placement
- Data compression, encryption

PHYSICAL LEVEL
Managed by the OS under the direction of the DBMS.

Database instance: the data in the DB at any particular point in time.

DATA INDEPENDENCE
The ability to modify a scheme definition in one level without affecting a scheme definition in a
higher level is called data independence.

1. There are two kinds:

Logical data independence
• The ability to modify the conceptual scheme without causing application programs to be
rewritten.
• Immunity of external schemas to changes in the conceptual schema.
• Usually done when logical structure of database is altered
Physical data independence
• The ability to modify the internal scheme without having to change the conceptual or external
schemas.
• Modifications at this level are usually to improve performance.

DATA MODELS
Data models are a collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data relationships, data
semantics and data constraints.

Components: structural part manipulative part integrity rules

There are three different groups:

Physical Data Models

Describe data at the conceptual and external levels
Object-based Data Models
- Entity-relationship model.
- Object-oriented model.
- Semantic data model.

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- Functional data model

Record-based Data Models

• Named so because the database is structured in fixed format records of several types.
• Each record type defines a fixed number of fields, or attributes.
• Each field is usually of a fixed length (this simplifies the implementation).
• The three most widely accepted models are the relational, network, and hierarchical data
model.

Physical Data Models

1. Are used to describe data at the lowest level.
2. Very few models, e.g.
o Unifying model.
o Frame memory.

Relational database

Relational databases enable data to be stored within a number of different tables and are the most
widely used type of database. The tables within a relational database can be linked together using
one or more record keys. This includes the primary key and also other keys to help locate data
stored in another table. The record keys contained in each table can be used to establish one or
more relationships between tables. By using record keys in combination it is possible to retrieve
data from several tables at once. The field used to locate information in another, related table is
often called a foreign key.

Retrieving data from a database

When using database software data is retrieved from a database using what is called is called a
query. A query enables a user to locate, sort, update or extract records from the database. Users
design a query by specifying the conditions that must be met in order for a record to be selected.
There are two types of query called selection queries and update queries.

A selection query can be used to locate and display any records meeting a set of specified
conditions. None of the data held in the database are altered and any records not meeting the
conditions set are simply hidden from view temporarily.

An update query can be used to modify records in a variety of ways such as according to a set of
conditions specified by the user. Common actions performed by update queries include updating
values held in fields, deleting any records no longer required, appending new records to the
database and generating new tables containing selected records or summary information.

The majority of database programs make use of a special structured query language (SQL) in
order to create queries. Structured Query Language (SQL) provides a standardized method for
retrieving information from databases.

File processing

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Involves the managing of records as manual files and it is prone to data redundancy that is, the
files contains repetitive details in multiple files. File processing is vulnerable to computer
insecurity.

Advantages of Database approach over file processing:

Data sharing

Data can be shared among different users , especially in a distributed database management
system.

Control of redundancy

Database approach reduces the amount of redundancy by integrating files so that several copies of
the same data are not stored.

Data consistency

By controlling redundancy the amount of inconsistency is reduced.

Data integrity

Refers to the validity and consistency of stored data.

Improved security

Database promotes user authorization through the use of usernames and passwords.

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Increased concurrency

A database management system can manage concurrency simultaneous database access and
ensures that no information is lost and there are no interferences encountered by the different end
users.

Improved backup and recovery services

A database management system provides facilitates for backup and recovery services of
information lost during system failure.

Threats to data stored in database

1. Errors and omissions – errors can be done on behalf of the system users and the
application program being used.
2. Dishonest employees- some employees try to sabotage the database by not performing
the required job responsibilities properly.
3. Fire or other natural hazards- these are hazards that are unpredictable that is a company
should have a contingency plan that specify the all issues on risk management.
4. Malicious damage by employees- workers can bypass the authorization procedure by
using incorrect usernames and passwords.
5. Theft

Types of database users

Naïve end users

These end users use the system for general purpose without need to know more about the source
program for example Accounts clerk, Electrician etc.

Sophisticated end users

These are end users that are concerned on how the system is designed and are involved in system
configuration and maintenance for example Database Administrator.

FILE ORGANISATION TECHNIQUES

Refers to the manner in which records of a file are arranged on secondary storage. The most
commonly used file organization schemes are:

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Sequential

Records are kept in a physical order. The next record follows the previous record. This technique
is used in magnetic tapes and printed output.

Indexed sequential

Records are arranged in logical sequence according to a key contained in each record. Indexed
sequential records may be accessed sequentially in key order or they may be accessed directly by
a search the system created index.

Sequential

- Records are placed in physical order. The next record is the one that physically follows the
previous record. The organization is used for file stored on magnetic tapes and printed output.
Disk files may also be sequentially organized.

Direct

Records are directly accessed by their physical address on a direct access storage device. Direct
files require that the application user be familiar with the detailed physical organization of the
disk upon which files are stored.

Partitioned

This is essentially a file of sequence sub files. Each sequential sub file is called a member. The
starting address of each member is stored in the file’s directory. Partitioned files are used to store
program libraries or macro libraries.

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