What business professionals need to know about:
Computer hardware
Software
Impact of new hardware on competitive strategies
Open-source software as a viable alternative
Differences between native and web applications
Importance of mobile systems
Challenges of personal mobile devices at work
Definition: Use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange electronic data.
Five-Component Framework:
Hardware
Software
Data
Procedures
People
Hardware: Physical devices of a computer system.
Software: Instructions executed by hardware to perform tasks.
Matching computers to tasks enhances productivity and reduces frustration.
Examples of tasks:
Simple Tasks: Transaction processing, word processing.
Complex Tasks: Presentations, audio/video editing, multi-tasking.
Thin Client vs. Thick Client:
Thin Client: 1.0 GHz, 32-bit, 0.5-1 GB memory, $300-$500.
Thick Client: 1.5 GHz, 64-bit, 2-16 GB memory, $400-$2,000.
Transistor Counts:
Apple's M2 Ultra: 134 billion transistors.
iPhone 15: >24 billion transistors.
Intel’s target: 1 trillion transistors per chip by 2030.
Historical progression from punch cards to modern supercomputers.
Impact of the number of transistors on processor capabilities.
Personal/Business Computers:
Types: Smartphone, laptop, desktop, microcontroller, mainframe, supercomputer.
China’s Tianhe-2:
Cores: 3,120,000
Linpack Performance: 33,862.7 TFlop/s
Memory: 1,024,000 GB
Requires 1,300 scientists for support.
Definition: A network of servers providing computing services via the Internet.
Accessing videos online involves cloud resources rather than direct server identification.
Volatile vs. Nonvolatile Memory:
Volatile: Cache and main memory (RAM).
Nonvolatile: ROM, flash memory, hard disks.
Kilobyte (KB), Megabyte (MB), Gigabyte (GB), Terabyte (TB), Petabyte (PB), Exabyte (EB), Zettabyte (ZB): definitions and equivalences.
Input devices: Keyboard, mouse, scanner.
Output devices: Monitor, printer, speakers.
Processing units: CPU, main memory.
Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR) defined with examples.
Discussion of self-driving cars and IoT's role in strategic innovation.
Typical server characteristics and server farm importance in processing requests.
Overview of laptops, watches, and mobile devices with specific component analysis.
Distinction between operating systems, utility software, application software, and open-source vs. closed-source software.
Quantum computing and artificial intelligence's impact on future computing environments and strategies.