W 1 Introduction

Introduction to Information Technology BBA-III IMS University of Peshawar

Course Objectives Computer is one of the most advanced and fast growing technologies of the world. Each and every day a lot of improvement is emerging in both Software and Hardware of the computer. In response to this trend this course has been designed. It focuses on brief Introduction to Computers History and Types of computer, the Basics Concepts of Computer Software, Hardware and Input/Output Device. Basic aspect of Information Technology, Social Impacts of Information Technology and Policies.

Week-1 Introduction Introduction to IT Computer Organization of Computer Brief History/Generations

Information Technology First you have to understand the differences between science, engineering & technology. Science is a systematic & specialized way of thinking. A scientist thinks & makes principles & hypothesis . Engineering means the practical implementation of principles & hypothesis for the welfare of human beings with the help of machines. At first he makes drawings on the basis of principles, and then take it to real world for use. Technology always deals with OPTIMIZATION (MAXIMUM GAIN WITH MINIMUM EFFORTS) with the help of newer supports like computers & transfer machines. The aim of IT is to make our information more profitable by making it recently & attractive.

Information Technology is the application of Computers towards organizing and efficient retrieval/reporting of information. Information Technology (Cont’d) Information Technology refers to the creation, gathering, processing, storing, protecting, presenting and dissemination of information using , hardware, software and telecommunication technology.

Computer The word computer comes from the Latin word “computa” which means “to calculate”. A computer is normally considered as calculating machine that can perform arithmetic operation at a very high speed. It is not only a machine which perform different functions on numeric data but today more than 80% work perform by computer is non numeric in nature. Nowadays computer is used for multiple purposes. An electronic device which is capable of performing series of arithmetic and logical operations at a very high speed is called computer.

Computer ( Cont’d ) So what will be the more elaborate definition of computer?? All computer processing requires data , which is a collection of raw facts, figures and symbols, such as numbers, words, images, video and sound, given to the computer during the input phase. Computers manipulate data to create information with the help of CPU. Information is data that is organized, meaningful, and useful. Computer is an electronic device which takes certain input (Data) , manipulate that input (Process) , store it in memory or storage devices and then gives the desired results (Output).

Computer ( Cont’d ) Memory is an area of computer which holds data that is Waiting to be processed, Storing or output The information can also be put in computer storage for future use. During the output Phase, the information that has been created is put into some form, at output devices.

History of Computer The history of computer is very old, long and fascinating. Many books exist that detail the history of computers in many more details that what we can do in this course We’re going to proceed in “generations” Nobody is in perfect agreement about these generations But they are a convenient way to organize the history of computers People disagree about the “first computer” as well

Generation 0: Mechanical Calculators The first computer was developed approximatly 3000 BC. It was named as Abacus . Available in many cultures (China, Japan, Greece, Rome, etc) It was used for calculations. In 1642, Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical calculator called the Pascaline Additions, subtractions Survived in some shape or form until the early 20th century The numbers (0 – 9) were marked on circumference of small wheels which were connected by gears.

Generation 0: Mechanical Calculators In 1671, Gottfried von Leibniz extended the Pascaline to do multiplications, divisions, square roots: None of these machines had memory, and they required human intervention at each step. In 1822 Charles Babbage , sometimes called the “Father of Computing” built the Difference Engine Machine designed to automate the computation of polynomial functions (which are known to be good approximations of many useful functions) Implements some storage All internal and temporary, the user doesn’t store anything.

Generation 0: Babbage In 1833, Babbage designed the Analytical Engine It was much more general than the difference engine, and could in theory perform “ any ” mathematical operation This is really the first machine that somewhat resembles our computers An arithmetic processing unit A memory Input/output devices (punched metal cards) In 1886 the American William introduced the first commercially successful mechanical adding machine.

Generation of a Computer System (Cont’d) In 1930, Analog computer were introduced. In 1944, H. Aiken at Harward University USA, developed Mark-1. It was the first digital computer from IBM. Which spanned 51 feet in length and 8 feet in height. 500 meters of wiring were required to connect each component. If we consider the Generation 0 of computers till 1944, then computer were mainly special purposes. They were usually designed to do calculation work. After 1944, people concentrated on the development of general purpose computers which could be used for multiple tasks which are discussed as follow.

Generation of a Computer System ( Cont’d ) First Generation (1946-59) Second Generation(1957-64) Third Generation(1965-70) Fourth Generation(1970-90) Fifth Generation(1990 till date)

First Generation The first general purpose computer of this generation was constructed in 1946, at the Moore School of Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania, USA by Prof: Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. The name of that computer was ENIAC. Work on ENAIC started in 1943 and the project was completed in 1946. In this computer system Vacuum tubes were used. These tubes were very large in size, due to which the size of computer of that generation was large. A device to amplify, switch, or modify a signal (by controlling the movements of electrons)

First Generation ( Cont’d ) ENIAC Specs Containing 17,468 vacuum tubes Occupying 1800 sq ft Weight 30 tons Consuming 174 kilowatt of power 1,000-bit memory Punched card It was faster than any of the previous special purpose computers. It could do nuclear physics calculations (in two hours) which it would have taken 100 engineers a year to do by hand.

First Generation ( Cont’d ) ENAIC was decimal rather than binary. i.e. number were represented in decimal system rather then binary system. Arithmetic operations were also performed in decimal form. Its memory consist of 20 accumulator (registers). Each accumulator was capable of holding ten digit numbers. Each number was represented in ten vacuum tubes. The second computer of this generation was EDSAC prepared by Prof: Maurice Wilks in 1949. Those computers were the fastest calculating device of that time, but the size of those computers were large because of electronic tubes.

Needs for ENAIC United States Army Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) was responsible to develop range and trajectory tables for new weapons. They were facing difficulty in supplying these tables accurately and timely. John Mauchly and John Eckert proposed the idea of ENAIC to meet the requirements of BRL for the development of new weapons. Second World War (WWII) ended before its completion. It helped BRL in determining the feasibility of Hydrogen-Bomb (Atomic Bomb) by solving complex equations. It was used by BRL for the first time in 1955.

Second Generation In second generation a new device was discovered, which is called transistor. Transistor is a small electronic device used in computers, radios, televisions, etc for controlling an electronic current as it passes along a circuit. Transistor were prepared by a British Scientist William Shockly. These transistor were able to move an electronic charge. Lower power consumption, smaller, more reliable, cheaper, much lower heat dissipation During this generation two programming languages were prepared. i.e. FORTRAN which prepared in 1956 by an American Scientist John Backus. COBOL which was prepared by an American women Grace Hopper in 1959. Computer of second generation are smaller in size then 1 st generation computer.

Second Generation ( Cont’d ) IBM IBM7094: For scientific application (1962) IBM1401: For business applications (1959) In 2 nd generation, Increase the performance and capacity was found Lowered cost Speed increase as well All this improvement was the result of use of transistor in place of vacuum tubes.

Third Generation In this generation microelectronics were introduced which was the invention of Integrated Circuits (IC’s). The 3 rd generation was based on IC technology. IC is a small Microchip that contains a large number of electrical connections and performs the same function as a larger circuit made from separate parts. IC was an advance electronic technology, when a large number of circuit elements are integrated into a very small surface of silicon known as “Chip” then it is called an IC. IBM System/360 were the first computers to be built entirely with ICs.

Third Generation ( Cont’d ) Computer of 3 rd generation is smaller in size as compared to previous generation computer. Maintenance cost was low because the chance of hardware failure was minimum in those computers. The disadvantage of 3 rd generation computer was, a very costly technology required for the manufacturing of IC chip. Cray-1: $8.8 million, 160 million instructions per seconds and 8 Mbytes of memory

Forth Generation Improvements to IC technology made it possible to integrate more and more transistors in a single chip In 1970’s SSI, MSI, LSI and VLSI circuits were used at the place of IC’s. They are also a single silicon chips. SSI (Small Scale Integration): 10-100 MSI (Medium Scale Integration): 100-1,000 LSI (Large Scale Integration): 1,000-10,000 VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration): >10,00 0 The important point is that with VLSI it became possible to have a full CPU on a single chip, also called a microprocessor The first microprocessor was created by Intel in 1971

Forth Generation ( Cont’d ) So 4 th generation computers are those which uses LSI technology, due to this technology the size of computers becomes very small but highly costly technology is required for the manufacturing of LSI chips. With the advent of microprocessors it became possible to build “personal computers” 1977: Apple II 1981: IBM PC

Fifth Generation The computers that used today belongs to the fifth generation computers which performs parallel processing, multi-tasking simultaneously. Voice Recognition Artificial Intelligence Natural Languages Simulation A computer simulation is an attempt to model a real-life situation on a computer so that it can be studied to see how the system works. Computers of fifth generation are nearly capable to behave like human beings. These machine are usually equipped with a large main memory. Software and hardware components have become cheaper The size of computer in 5 th generation has become surprisingly small.

W 1 Introduction

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W 1 Introduction