Topics for Prelims IT/ICS 121

IT Application domains:

IT/ICS 121 Lecture Notes

Prelims Sem SY 2010-2011

2nd

Bio-informatics and medical applications Business applications Law enforcement Political processes E-commerce Manufacturing Education Entertainment Agriculture (and others)
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Bio-informatics and Medicine

Biopendium: Using proprietary bioinformatics applications on one of the world's most sophisticated high speed computer clusters, the Company has developed a formidable relational database known as the Biopendium(TM), which brings together information on sequence, structure and function relationships for all gene products in the public domain. This currently comprises over 100 million such relationships enabling essential information to be derived about potential new targets, as part of the validation and lead optimisation process. The Biopendium pre-calculated database and integrated data mining and visualisation tools can be used to enhance drug discovery in the following ways:
Target Discovery and Validation Structure-Function Annotation Sequence to Structure and Function Identification of the Functional Residues of a Protein Added Confidence in Drug Development
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Business
Accounting / ERP Software ERP - Financials / Accounting ERP - Time & Billing ERP - Order Management & Fulfillment ERP - Purchasing Management ERP - Inventory Management ERP - Front & Back Office Integration CRM Software CRM - Sales Force Automation (SFA) CRM - Marketing Automation CRM - Customer Service & Support CRM - Partner Relationship Management CRM - Customer Self-Service CRM - Front & Back Office Integration Ecommerce Software Ecommerce - Web Store Ecommerce - Web Analytics Ecommerce - Web Site Ecommerce - SEO Ecommerce - Site Building Ecommerce - Front & Back Office Integration Business Intelligence Executive Dashboards Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Real-Time Analytics & Reporting KPI Scorecards Customer Dashboards Front & Back Office Integration
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Law Enforcement
The Washington State Department of Information Services (DIS) designed the computer application known as Possible Criminal History and Case and Criminal History (PCH/CACH). King County incorporated the History (PCH/CACH) software its jail inmate lookup service (JILS) as a pilot program. PCH/CACH provides Washingtons law enforcement professionals with quick and seamless access to an individuals criminal and court case history. With PCH/CACH, information from multiple criminal justice organizations can be received through a single search -- simplifying the research responsibilities of law enforcement professionals like police officers and prosecuting attorneys. Groundbreaking law enforcement software has earned King and Yakima counties top honors from the American Council for Technology (ACT), a national committee of government and industry IT professionals. The software is a finalist for the 2007 ACT Intergovernmental Solutions Awards. It allows police officers to use a single program to search local and state criminal and court information on inmates.
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Politics
The Political Data Incorporated (PDI) Online Campaign Center is a web-based campaign management software application to be used by political campaigns and consultants. It is designed with the specific goal of providing more voter information resources to political campaigns. In addition, the application is user-friendly for individuals with varying campaign and computer experience. The web-based data environment allows PDI to perform the more complex data management tasks and lets the campaigns focus on campaign work. This seamless backend partnership between PDI and the campaign is the true strength behind the application. 6

E-Commerce
AmeriCommerce is more than a Shopping Cart, it is an Ecommerce platform that provides online store owners with the power to manage, market, and analyze their stores via an easy to use yet powerful web based administration console. In development since 2001, AmeriCommerce has pioneered several innovations in the hosted shopping cart industry, including Multiple Storefronts, set it and forget it shopping portal feeds, integrated graphical analytics, SEO and developer API. AmeriCommerce provides unmatched power for managing and marketing multiple highly targeted online stores via one administration console using the unique Multiple Storefronts technology saving valuable time and resources. Set it and forget it shopping portal feeds means automatically submitting the stores catalog to several online shopping portals such as ShopZilla, Google Base, and Yahoo Shopping every day. Built in graphical analytics allows for automatic tracking of shopping portals, pay per click, organic search, banner ads, affiliate programs, email campaigns and direct mail.
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Manufacturing
EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) is
synonymous with the dispatch, management, and tracking of preventive maintenance activities or the leaning out of spare-parts inventories.

EMI (Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence)

is a term which applies to software used to bring a corporation's manufacturing-related data together from many sources for the purposes of reporting, analysis, visual summaries, and passing data between enterprise-level and plant-floor systems. As data is combined from multiple sources, it can be given a new structure or context that will help users find what they need regardless of where it came from. The primary goal is to turn large amounts of manufacturing data into real knowledge and drive business results based on that knowledge.
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Education
Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium by Microsoft Corporation Used by 2259 users. Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 16.0 includes a wide range of tools and resources for students. It includes templates and tutorials to help you do your homework in Microsoft Office. Includes Microsoft Math for doing mathematical calculations including solving equations and plotting graphs, calculus, etc. Dictionary and Thesaurus helps learn foreign languages too. E-learning comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The Information and communication systems, whether networked or not, serve as specific media to implement the learning process

Entertainment
America's entertainment software industry creates a wide array of computer and video games to meet the demands and tastes of audiences. Below is a list of the top 10 entertainment software industry facts: 1. U.S. computer and video game software sales grew 6% in 2007 to $9.5 billion more than tripling industry software sales since 1996. 2. 65% of American households play computer or video games.

3. The average game player is 35 years old and has been playing games for 13 years. 4. The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 40 years old. 5. 40% of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33%) than boys age 17 or younger (18%).

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Entertainment
6. In 2008, 26% of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from 9% in 1999. 7. 36% of heads of households play games on a wireless device, such as a cell phone or PDA, up from 20% in 2002. 8. 85% of all games sold in 2007 were rated "E" for Everyone, "T" for Teen, or "E10+" for Everyone 10+. 9. 94% of game players under the age of 18 report that their parents are present when they purchase or rent games. 10. 63% of parents believe games are a positive part of their childrens lives.

Agriculture
Shivrai Technologies - Agriculture Initiative (For Small to Medium Businesses) Internet based applicationware that provides full enterprise resource planning package for total farm management. Agtrace Inc. - AGTRACE (For Small to Medium Businesses) Provides quality control and traceability of food products throughout the production, processing, and supply chain. Franwell Software - Agware Grower-Packer-Shipper (For Medium-Sized Businesses) Integrated financial and logistics software system designed specifically for the perishable foods industry.

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Some Terminology
Data representation unit and processing unit
1. Binary Digits (Bits)
Two levels of status in computers electronic circuits
Whether the electric current passes through it or not Whether the voltage is high or low
(or Column) (or Table)

(or Row)

1 digit of the binary system represented by 1 or 0 Smallest unit that represents data inside the computer 1 bit can represent 2 values of data, 0 or 1 2 bits can represent 4 different values 00, 01, 10, 11

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Bit representation
Switches Current Lights Open (0) or closed (1) Not flowing (0) or flowing (1) Off (0) or on (1)

Primary and Secondary Storage Devices

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Primary Memory - RAM

RAM Types - in order to enable computers to work faster, there
are several types of RAM available today. Within a single computer there is no longer just one type of memory. Because the types of memory relate to speed, it is important to understand the differences when comparing the components of a computer.

Single In-line Memory Modules (SIMM)

SIMMs are used to store a single row of DRAM, EDO or BEDO chips where the module is soldered onto a PCB. One SIMM can contain several chips. When you add more memory to a computer, most likely you are adding a SIMM. The first SIMMs transferred 8 bits of data at a time and contained 30 pins. When CPU's began to read 32-bit chunks, a wider SIMM was developed and contained 72 pins. 72 pin SIMMS are 3/4" longer than 30 pin SIMMs

SIMM DIMM RIMM

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Dual In-line Memory Modules (DIMM)

DIMMs allow the ability to have two rows of DRAM, EDO or BEDO chips. They are able to contain twice as much memory on the same size circuit board. DIMMs contain 168 pins and transfer data in 64 bit chunks.

Rambus In-Line Memory Modules (RIMM)

RIMMs appeared on motherboards sometime during 1999. The in-line memory modules are called RIMMs. They have 184 pins and provide 1.6 GB per second of peak bandwidth in 16 bit chunks. As chip speed gets faster, so does the access to memory and the amount of heat produced. An aluminum sheath, called a heat spreader, covers the module to protect the chips from overheating.

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Read Only Memory (ROM)

Read-only memory (ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware.
Firmware - software that is very closely tied to specific hardware, and unlikely to need frequent updates
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BIOS
BIOS (basic input/output system) is the program a personal computer's microprocessor uses to get the computer system started after you turn it on. It also manages data flow between the computer's operating system and attached devices such as the hard disk , video adapter , keyboard , mouse , and printer . BIOS is a program that is made accessible to the microprocessor on an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip. When you turn on your computer, the microprocessor passes control to the BIOS program, which is always located at the same place on EPROM
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Secondary Memory Hard Disk

HARD DISK ASSEMBLY - A hard disk drive consists of a motor, spindle, platters, read/write heads, actuator, frame, air filter, and electronics. The frame mounts the mechanical parts of the drive and is sealed with a cover. The sealed part of the drive is known as the Hard Disk Assembly or HDA. The drive electronics usually consists of one or more printed circuit boards mounted on the bottom of the HDA.
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Hard Disk
A head and platter can be visualized as being similar to a record and playback head on an old phonograph, except the data structure of a hard disk is arranged into concentric circles instead of in a spiral as it on a phonograph record (and CD-ROM). A hard disk has one or more platters and each platter usually has a head on each of its sides. The platters in modern drives are made from glass or ceramic to avoid the unfavorable thermal characteristics of the aluminum platters found in older drives. The platters are mounted on the spindle which is turned by the drive motor. Most current IDE hard disk drives spin at 5,400, 7,200, or 10,000 RPM and 15,000 RPM drives are emerging.
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Compact Disk
CD Basics CDs work by reading the data that is etched on the plastic surface. This data is stored in binary, a pattern of 1s and 0s that the computer can understand. As the laser reads the data, it sends it back to the computer for interpretation. CD burners use the same laser technology to etch the data onto the CD, rather than simply reading it.
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Compact Disk
Burning Data

When you burn a CD, the CD burner's laser runs over the surface of the disk to etch the binary data. It begins at the innermost part of the CD and works outward, which is why burned CDs are darker in the middle than blank ones. Each section of data has a microscopic set width. As it passes over the disk, it etches a line to represent a 1 and leaves a blank space to represent a 0. Since the width of each binary entry is set, the reader is able to interpret long strings of the same character as the appropriate number of entries.
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Compact Disk
Rewritable CDs Rewritable CDs use the same technology as single write CDs. The CD is coated with a material that can be melted and solidified to erase the existing data. When you write to a rewritable CD that has data, the section you are replacing is super heated and allowed to cool before the data is etched. Each time you rewrite the CD, some of this material is lost, so you can only use a rewritable disk a finite number of times before it becomes unusable.

Compact Disk
Burning Speeds CD burners work at different speeds, based upon how quickly the CD spins in the drive and how fast the laser can etch the data. The base speed, 1x, translates to a burn time of 60 minutes for 60 audio minutes. A 4x CD takes 15 minutes to burn the same amount of data. New CD burners operate at above 32x speed and can burn a CD in a few minutes rather than half an hour or more.

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Compact Disk Recordable

Recordable CD and DVD media are made of several layers of different materials. In addition to the label surface, a disc is comprised of a protective coating, a layer of reflective material, a layer of dye/polymer material, and a thicker transparent substrate. The dye/polymer layer changes when a specific kind of laser is focused through the transparent layer and onto it. To write data onto a disc, the optical drive uses this type of laser to make a series of microscopic marks in the dye. The resulting sequence of light and dark spots (called "pits" and "lands") represent the digital ones and zeros that comprise your data. To read a disc, the optical drive shines a different light on the disc surface, and the sequence of pits and lands are reflected back and read as information.
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Compact Disk Recordable

Recordable and rewritable CDs and DVDs are manufactured with a small amount of written "pre-groove" data that contains various disc attributes, including the disc type, part number, manufacturer, the kind of dye used, its writable capacity, rated write speed, and other items. This data resides in a very small area on the disc that is not part of the user-writable area. The optical drive reads this data to determine how it should handle the disc.
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DVD Recordable
A DVD-RW disc is a rewritable optical disc with equal storage capacity to a DVD-R, typically 4.7 GB. The format was developed by Pioneer in November 1999.
The smaller Mini DVD-RW holds 1.46 GB, with a diameter of 8 cm.

DVD Recordable
One competing rewritable format is DVD+RW. Hybrid drives that can handle both, often labeled "DVDRW", are very popular due to the lack of a single standard for recordable DVDs. The recording layer in DVD-RW and DVD+RW is not an organic dye, but a special phase change metal alloy. The alloy can be switched back and forth between a crystalline phase and an amorphous phase, changing the reflectivity, depending on the power of the laser beam. Data can thus be written, erased and re-written.
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The primary advantage of DVD-RW over DVD-R is the ability to erase and rewrite to a DVD-RW disc. According to Pioneer, DVD-RW discs may be written to about 1,000 times before needing replacement. DVD-RW discs are commonly used for volatile data, such as backups or collections of files. One benefit to using a rewritable disc is if there are writing errors when recording data, the disc is not ruined and can still store data by erasing the faulty data.
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Blu Ray Disc

Blu-ray Disc (official abbreviation BD) is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The format defines as its standard physical media a 12 cm (same as DVDs and CDs), 25 GB per-layer optical disc, with dual layer discs (50 GB) the norm for feature-length video discs and additional layers possible later. The name Blu-ray Disc refers to the "blue laser" used to read the disc, which allows for six times more storage than on a DVD. The term Blu (Blue in Italian) was used instead of the correct Blue which is commonly used in English (and therefore not registrable as a trademark).
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Blu ray Disc

Blu-ray Disc was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group representing makers of consumer electronics, computer hardware, and motion pictures. As of June 2009, more than 1,500 Blu-ray Disc titles were available in Australia and the United Kingdom, with 2,500 in the United States and Canada. In Japan, as of July 2010 more than 3,300 titles were already released. During the high definition optical disc format war, Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD format. Toshiba, the main company that supported HD DVD, conceded in February 2008, releasing their own Blu-ray Disc player in late 2009.
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USB Flash Memory Stick

A USB flash drive consists of a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g (1 oz). Storage capacities in 2010 can be as large as 256 GB with steady improvements in size and price per capacity expected. Some allow 1 million write or erase cycles and have a 10-year data retention cycle.
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USB Flash Memory Stick

A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board carrying the circuit elements and a USB connector, insulated electrically and protected inside a plastic, metal, or rubberized case which can be carried in a pocket or on a key chain, for example. The USB connector may be protected by a removable cap or by retracting into the body of the drive, although it is not likely to be damaged if unprotected. Most flash drives use a standard type-A USB connection allowing plugging into a port on a personal computer, but drives for other interfaces also exist. Most USB flash drives draw their power from the USB connection, and do not require a battery. They should not be confused with some look-alike music player devices that combine the functionality of a digital audio player with flash-drive-type storage and require a battery for the player function.
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Tape Drive
A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. It is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and long archival stability. A tape drive provides sequential access storage, unlike a disk drive, which provides random access storage. A disk drive can move its read/write head(s) to any random part of the disk in a very short amount of time, but a tape drive must spend a considerable amount of time winding tape between reels to read any one particular piece of data. As a result, tape drives have very slow average seek times
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Zip Drive
A zip drive is a type of removal disk storage capable of holding a moderate amount of computer information. Although the zip drive was embraced by many computer users when it was introduced in 1994, it never replaced the 3.5-inch floppy disk. Rather, items such as rewritable digital versatile discs (DVDs), rewritable compact discs (CDs), and flash drives gained popularity and have virtually replaced the floppy disk.
These storage devices have proven to be convenient and capable of holding large amounts of data. For this reason, the zip drive was never a popular device for data storage.

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Zip Drive
The first zip drive system, introduced by Iomega, was capable of holding only 100 megabytes of information. This made the zip drive, which cost just under 200 US dollars (USD), an instant success, as people used it to store files that were too large to be placed on a floppy disk. The zip drive was later beefed up to hold 250 megabytes, and ultimately 750 megabytes of information. At the same time, Iomega improved upon the zip drives ability to transfer data. The price for the 100 megabyte zip drive steadily fell as competition increased when other companies began offering their own versions.
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Floppy Diskette

A floppy disk is a data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible ("floppy") magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell.
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Floppy diskette
A "track" (see figure in previous slide) is a narrow recording band that forms a full circle on the surface of the disk The disk's storage locations are then divided into pieshaped sections, which break the tracks into small arcs called sectors (can hold 512 bytes of data) Floppy Disks store data on both sides. Each side consists of 80 tracks with 18 sectors per track To read from and write on the disk, sectors are grouped into clusters (consist of 2 to 8 sectors) A cluster is the smallest unit of space used to store data Typical sizes: 720 kb (single sided) and 1.44 mb (double sided high density)
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Punch Cards

Until the mid-1970s, most computer access was via punched cards. Programs and data were punched by hand on a key punch machine and read into a card reader. Large computing sites such as Columbia University purchased cards by the truckload and furnished them free of charge to users. During the IBM 360 era (1969-80) Columbia's cards were embossed with the legend "CUCC 360" (Columbia University Computer Center IBM 360) and the Columbia shield 42

Memory Cards
A removable module that contains non-volatile memory chips, typically flash memory cards such as SD Cards, Memory Sticks and Compact Flash. Memory cards are used for storing images and videos in digital cameras, camcorders and other portable devices. A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles. They are small, re-recordable, and they can retain data without power.
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Memory Cards - SD
Secure Digital Card - is a non-volatile memory card format developed by Panasonic, SanDisk, and Toshiba for use in portable devices.
Standard

SD cards have an official maximum capacity of 2 GB, though technically they can store up to 4 GB. SDHC (High-capacity) cards have a maximum capacity of 4 GB to 32 GB. SDXC (eXtended Capacity) allows for up to 32 gb to 2 TB cards. Dimensions : 32 24 2.1 mm

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Memory Cards Mini SD and Micro SD

Miniature variations of the SD Card were introduced with dramatically smaller footprints: the miniSD in 2003 and the microSD in 2005, the latter previously called "TransFlash." Electrically, as well as software compatible, miniSD and microSD cards fit into a regular SD slot via an adapter
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Memory Cards
Memory Stick Pro Duo

The original Memory Stick is approximately the size and thickness of a stick of chewing gum. It was available in sizes from 4 MB to 128 MB. The original Memory Stick is no longer manufactured.

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Memory Cards
Memory Stick Pro Duo
Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998, and is also used in general to describe the whole family of Memory Sticks. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity and faster file transfer speeds Memory Stick Duo, a small-form-factor version of the Memory Stick (including the PRO Duo); and the even smaller Memory Stick Micro (M2). In December 2006 Sony added the Memory Stick PRO-HG, a high speed variant of the PRO to be used in high definition still and video cameras.
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