Computers in a Networked World

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Opening Case: Napster



 

An overnight sensation, and a serious threat to the recording industry Legal and ethical issues Blurring the boundary between the computer and the network to which the computer is connected

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Performance Variable for IT



Functional capabilities and limitations



Price-performance ratio

 

Ease of use Compatibility



The extent to which various related technologies fit together Scalability the ability to change capacity without major disruptions
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Maintainability


Units of Measure for Technology Operation



Measuring Amounts of Data

    

Bit, byte Kilobyte (KB) $ 103 bytes Megabyte (MB) $ 106 bytes Gigabyte (GB) $ 109 bytes Terabyte (TB) $ 1012 bytes

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Measuring time
   

Millisecond = 10-3 second Microsecond = 10-6 second Nanosecond = 10-9 second Picosecond = 10-12 second Bits per second (bps), Kbps, Mbps
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Measuring the rate of data transfer



Measuring clock speed and transmission frequency

 

Hertz (Hz) measures cycles per second Current typical values for the internal clock of PCs are between 700 MHz and 1.5 GHz

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Measuring the speed of executing instructions

 

MIPS million of instructions per second FLOPS floating point operations per second
Better measure than MIPS for computers used for scientific computations  Megaflops, gigaflops, teraflops


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Overview of Computer Systems

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Computer = device that can execute previously stored instructions Program = a set of instructions for performing a particular task Hardware = the physical devices in a computer system Software = the programs
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Basic Model of a Computer System

 

Microprocessor or Central Processing Unit (CPU) -executes the instructions Random access memory (RAM) stores the instructions and data the processor works with Peripherals:
  

Input devices Output devices Storage devices

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Figure 8.1

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Types of Computers
   

Personal computer (PC) a single-user computer Laptop and notebook computers portable PCs Personal digital assistant (PDA) and palmtop computers handheld devices Workstation powerful single-user computer
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Midrange computers multi-user computers, typically shared by a department Mainframes powerful computers, typically linked to hundreds or thousands of terminals Supercomputers the most powerful computers at a given time. Used for both scientific and business applications
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Servers specialized computers, performing specific tasks for other computers in a network

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Four Approaches to Computing in Organizations

Centralized Computing  Personal Computing  Distributed Computing  Network Computing


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Centralized Computing


A single mainframe or midrange computer that performs the processing for multiple users Shortcomings:


 

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Inefficient, since the computer must also control each online user Total reliance on the central computer Must balance the workload, to avoid peak-load problems Alter Information Systems
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Personal Computing


Computers available as a personal tool at any time Graphical user interface (GUI) provides a user friendly interface Modern PCs can support several activities at the same time

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Distributed Computing


Individual computers are linked through a network sharing of information and computer resources Needs controls and administration to coordinate the sharing of resources A more restricted, but also more effective environment than personal computing
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Network Computing


Attempts to combine the traditional benefits of centralization with the flexibility & responsiveness of distributed computing Based on stripped down PCs called network computers or thin clients
 

Contain no hard disk Data and programs are stored on centralized servers
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Figure 8.6

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Client/Server and Beyond



Client/server architecture different processes on the network act as either client or servers


Clients send requests for services The client and server programs may or may not run on the same physical machine

A programming model


Modularity
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Figure 8.5

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Advantages
  

User convenience Technical scalability Greater ability to maintain hardware & software from different vendors Increased data and system administration efforts Requires more computing power
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Disadvantages:


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Middleware


The software tools that allow clients to communicate with servers Perform the necessary translation so that the clients request can be understood by the server

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Peer-to-Peer


An alternative to the client/server architecture for small networks Each computer can play the role of server for the other computers in the network Appropriate when the network users mostly do their own work, but occasionally need to exchange data
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How Computers Manipulate Data

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Converting Any Type of Information to Bits- Figure 8.7



Binary representation of numbers



Computers perform calculations using base 2 (binary) numbers



0s and 1s

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Binary representation of text

Binary coding schemes  ASCII:


Uses 8 bits (= one byte) for each character  Enough for 256 different combinations


UNICODE:
A superset of ASCII  Uses 2 bytes for each character  Enough for 65,536 different combinations


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Numerical representation of sounds and pictures  Digitizing the process of creating a digital
representation of an image or sound



Pixel = picture element

Representations of this type are always

approximations
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Figure 8.9

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Data Compression
 

Digitizing images and video generates a very large number of bits Data compression uses computational techniques to code the data by removing

redundancies
 

LOSLESS compression - used for business data and text LOSSY compression used for audio, video, and some images
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Data Encryption


The process of coding the data to make them meaningless to any unauthorized user Authorized users can use a special decoding process to convert the data back to their original form

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Machine Language


The computers internal programming language Specific to each family of microprocessors

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Impact of Miniaturization and Integration on Performance



Faster and more powerful processors



Integrated circuit an entire electronic circuit is embedded on a single piece of silicon called a chip Miniaturization and integration reduce power consumption and increase the power of circuits

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Other Approaches for Improving Performance



Improved instruction set



RISC vs. CISC ASIC (application specific integrated circuits) DSP (digital signal processor) A task is divided into smaller tasks that are processed simultaneously by different processors in the same computer
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Specialized processor
 

Parallel processing


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Data Input: Capturing Data

 

Keyboards and pointing devices Optical character recognition (OCR)



Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR)

Capturing pictures, sounds, and video

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Storing and Retrieving Data

    

Paper and micrographics Magnetic tapes and disks Optical disks Flash memory Smart cards

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Data Output: Displaying Data

  

Screen outputs Paper outputs Audio outputs

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