Information System • Group of all networks, computers, and persons
involved in the collection, processing, storage, analysis, and dissemination of data and information within a particular environment – Definition is pieced together from various resources
• "Computers are everywhere" • A computer is an electronic device that processes
data, converting it into information that is useful to people
• Any computer is controlled by programmed instructions – Gives the machine a purpose and tells it what to do
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Information System • 5 components to Information Systems
– People – Procedures – Software – Hardware – Data
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People • Most common point of failure J • Two types of people:
– End Users – Everyone else
• System Designers • Administrators • Auditors • Management
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System Software • Operating System – controls all the hardware
functionality and provides a platform for executing applications
• Personal Computers: – Windows, MacOS, Unix/Linux
• Real-Time Operating Systems/Embedded OS – LynxOS, Windows CE – Used for satellites, Laser Printers, etc.
• Cell phones: – Palm OS/webOS, BlackBerry (RIM),
Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, and iPhone OS
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Application Software • Everything you “double-click” on the desktop • Web Browsers • Email Software:
– Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora • Productivity Software:
– Examples: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint • Multimedia Software:
– Examples: Adobe Creative Suite • Games
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Software “Shrink-wrapped” software
• Written for a variety of platforms
• MS Windows • MS Office, Adobe Creative
Suite • Video Games
• Are digital downloads killing software outlets?
Custom Applications
• Typically written for a very customized platform, with very specific hardware requirements
• Electronic Medical Records software (EMR)
• Enterprise resource planning software (ERP)
• Database back-ends
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Software • Web Applications
– Facebook, MySpace – Google Mail, Calendar, Docs – All run through the web
browser
• Is the web browser the new application platform?
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Computers – Server Class Supercomputers • “Most powerful type of
computer” • All custom built • Specialized Tasks
– Weather forecasting – Quantum physics modeling – Nuclear physics modeling – Cryptanalysis – Playing chess
• http://www.top500.org/
Mainframes • A powerful multi-user computer
capable of supporting many hundreds or thousands of users simultaneously
• Are prebuilt and customized • Used for processing a lot of
data – Payroll for McDonalds
corporation – Insurance claims for AAA
• Over 90% of market belongs to IBM
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Supercomputer Example – Watson • Artificial intelligence computer system capable of
answering questions posed in natural language • Built by IBM • Can process 500 gigabytes, the
equivalent of a million books per second • With 80 TeraFLOPs, it is currently
98th on the Top 500 Supercomputers list • In 2011, Watson competed on the quiz show
Jeopardy! – Watson beat Brad Rutter, the
biggest all-time money winner, and Ken Jennings, the record holder for the longest championship streak
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Computers • Minicomputer – A multi-user computer
capable of supporting from 10 to 100s of users simultaneously – Now dead
• Workstation – A powerful, single-user computer
• Personal computer – A small, single-user computer based on a microprocessor that also has a keyboard for entering data, a monitor for displaying information, and a storage device for saving data – Desktops – Laptops, notebooks
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More Computers • Hand-held devices
– Smartphones – Blackberry, HTC, Samsung, Intel, Motorola, iPhone
– Personal Desktop Assistant (PDA), Tablet – Game Boy, Nintendo DS,
PlayStation Portable (PSP) • Video game consoles
– Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, PS3
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Hardware • Electronic components that make computers
do wonderful things for us J • Brief breakdown (to be discussed in depth
later) – “System Unit” – contains processor and memory – Input/Output (I/O) devices – Secondary Storage – hard drives,
floppy, CD/DVD, etc. – Communication devices – modem,
network interface card (NIC)
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Files • Contain information • “Unprocessed data” becomes processed when
opened by a particular program • Typical types of files
– Documents - .txt .doc .docx .pdf – Worksheets - .xls .xlsx .csv – Database files - .mdb .accdb – Presentations - .key .ppt .pptx – Image files - .gif .jpg .tiff .png – Audio files - .wav .mp3 – Video files - .mpeg .divx .avi – Web files - .htm .html .css
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History of Computers • Timeline of Computer History
– http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/ • Illustrated History of Computers
– http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/History.htm
• Triumph of the Nerds – http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/
• History of Computing Hardware – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
History_of_computing_hardware
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