information System

MicroComputer System

Are personal computer that provides computing power at a relative low cost?

Two uses of MicroComputer

Work station : Supports mathematical computer and graohics display command

Network Servers : More powerful than workstations, supports small networks, Internet and intranet websites.

Midrange computer

Is high-end network servers that handle large scale

Two uses of Midrange conputer

Large Internet websites

Corporate intranet and extranet

Mainframe Computer

Is large, fast, powerful, computer system

Two uses of Mainframe Computer?

Large client and server networks

Handles complex computations

Super computer

Extremely powerful systems designed for scientific, engineering, and business applications

Two uses of supercomputers

Used for business applications

Massive numeric computation

Throughput

Is the ability to perform useful computations or data processing assignments during given period

Peripherals

Is a generic name for all input, output and secondary storage devices

Online devices

Are devices which are separated form the CPU but electronically connected to and controlled by it

Offline devices

Are devices whic are separated from the CPU and not under the control of CPU

Bit and Byte

Bit : Short for binary digit and is the smallest element of data

Byte : is a group of 8 bits that represents only one character

Direct or Random Access

Is a directly stored and retrieved, and each storage location has a unique address

Sequential Access

Is when data is stored and retrieving it sequentially and accessing it in sequence by searching through prior data

Semiconductor Memory and thier Adva/dissadvantage

Are primary storage used memory

Advantage : small size, fast, shock, and temperature resistant.

Dissadvantage: Volatile, requires uninterrupted power or it loses data

Two types of Semiconductor memory

Ram : widely used, Volatile Memory, Read and write memory

Rom: Permanent storage, can be read but overwritten, called firmware

flash drive and it’s characteristics

Referred as jump drive

Uses small chips containing thousands of Transistors

Easily transported and highly durable

Can store data for virtually periods withiut power