I

NFORMATION

ECHNOLOGY

Kuppusamy K S
Lecturer
Department of Computer Science
Ramanujan School of Mathematics and Computer Science
Pondicherry University

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Information Technology
Contents
UNIT I
Lesson 1: Introduction to Information Technology
1.1 Information Technology The definition
1.2 Data Vs Information
1.3 Information Technology - Scope
1.3.1 Computer Science
1.3.2 Communications
1.4 Introduction to the World of Computers
1.4.1 The Hardware and Software
1.4.2 Operations of a Computer
1.4.2.1 Input
1.4.2.2 Processing
1.4.2.3 Output
1.4.2.4 Storage
1.4.3 Common terms in Computers
1.4.4 Making your computer faster
1.4.5 Computer Trends
1.4.5.1 Smaller
1.4.5.2 Faster
1.4.5.3 Cheaper

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1.5 The communications

1.5.1 Simplex Communication
1.5.2 Half-Duplex Communication
1.5.3 Full-duplex Communication
1.6 Computers and Communications
1.6.1 Mobility
1.6.2 Customization
1.6.3 Integrated Services
1.7 Information Technology Usage
1.7.1 Banking Domain
1.7.2 E-learning
1.7.3 On-line reservation Systems
1.7.4 E-governance
1.7.5 E-Commerce
1.7.6 Videoconferencing
1.7.7 Usage of Information technology in Entertainment
1.7.8 Global Positioning Systems

Lesson 2: Information Systems

2.1 Information Classification
2.2 Types of Information systems
2.2.1 Transaction Processing Systems
2.2.2 Management Information Systems
2.2.3 Decision Support Systems
2.2.4 Executive Information Systems
2.2.5 Office Automation System
2.3 Information Systems Development Cycle
2.3.1 Planning
2.3.2 Analysis

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2.3.3 Designing
2.3.3.1 Preliminary Design
2.3.3.2 Detailed Design
2.3.4 Development
2.3.5 Implementation
2.3.6 Maintenance

UNIT II
Lesson 3: The Hardware
3.1 Different architectures of Computers
3.1.1 Getting familiar with terminology
3.1.2 Personal Computer
3.1.3 Workstations
3.1.4 Minicomputers
3.1.5 Mainframes
3.1.6 Supercomputers
3.2 Real Time Systems
3.3 Transaction Processing Systems
3.4 Laptop
3.5 Palmtop
3.6 Client Server and multi-tier Architecture
3.7 Input Devices
3.7.1 Character Input Devices
3.7.2 Pointing Devices
3.7.3 Multimedia Input Devices
3.8 Secondary Storage
3.8.1 Floppy Disks
3.8.2 Hard disks
3.8.3 Compact Disks

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3.8.4 Magnetic Tapes

3.8.5 Flash Memory
3.9. Output Devices
3.9.1 Softcopy Output devices
3.9.1.1 CRT displays
3.9.1.2 Flat-panel Displays
3.9.2 Characteristics of Display Devices
3.9.3 Hardcopy output
3.9.3.1 Impact printers
3.9.3.2 Non-Impact Printers
3.9.3.2.1 Ink-Jet Printer
3.9.3.2.2 Laser Printers
3.9.3.2.3 Thermal Printers
3.9.3.3 Plotters

Lesson 4 : Introduction To Computer Networks

4.1 Benefits of Computer Networks
4.1.1 Sharing critical peripheral devices
4.1.2 Easier communication
4.1.3 Software sharing
4.1.4 Searchability of data
4.1.5 Protection of Data
4.1.6 Remote and Grid Computing features
4.2 Types of Networks
4.2.1 Local Area Network (LAN)
4.2.2 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
4.2.3 Wide Area Network
4.3 Network Components
4.4 Network Topology

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4.5 Network Protocols

UNIT III
Lesson 5 : The Software
5.1 Characteristics of Software
5.2 Classification
5.2.1 Application Software
5.2.1.1 Classification of Application Software
5.2.1.1.1 Horizontal Market Applications
5.2.1.1.2 Vertical Market Applications
5.2.1.1.3 Custom Applications
5.2.1.1.4 Shareware and freeware
5.2.2 System Software
5.2.3 Utilities
5.3 Operating System
5.3.1 Basic Functions of operating system
5.3.1.1 Process Management
5.3.1.2 Memory Management
5.3.1.3 Input / Output Management
5.3.1.4 Disk and File System Management
5.3.1.5 Security
5.3.2 Classifications of Operating Systems
5.3.2.1 Task Count
5.3.2.1.1 Single Tasked Operating system
5.3.2.1.2 Multi Tasked Operating System
5.3.2.2 User Count
5.3.2.2.1 Single User operating systems
5.3.2.2.2 Multi User operating systems
5.3.2.3 Portability

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5.3.2.4 Machine Type

5.3.2.4.1 Desktop Operating Systems
5.3.2.4.2 Server Operating Systems
5.3.2.4.3 Mainframe Operating Systems
5.3.2.4.4 Embedded Operating Systems

Lesson 6: Programming Languages and Packages

6.1 Programming Language The Definition
6.2 Generations of Programming Languages
6.2.1 First Generation Language (1 GL)
6.2.2 Second Generation Language (2 GL)
6.2.3 Third Generation Language
6.2.4 Fourth Generation Languages
6.2.5 Fifth Generation Languages
6.3 Packages
6.3.1 Spreadsheets
6.3.1.1 Structure of Spreadsheet
6.3.1.2 Applications of spreadsheet
6.3.2 Desktop Publishing Tools (DTP)
6.3.3 Presentation Tools
6.4 Application Areas of Software
6.4.1 Scientific Applications of Software
6.4.1.1 Software Applications in Medicine
6.4.1.2 Software Applications in Engineering and
Research

6.4.2 Commercial Applications

6.4.3 Real Time Applications

UNIT IV
Lesson 7 : Introduction to Internet

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7.1 The Birth of Internet

7.2 Internet Communication Methodology
7.3 Internet Service Providers
7.4 Internet = World Wide Web?
7.5 IP Address
7.6 Internet Naming and Addressing
7.6.1 Domain Name Systems
7.6.2 Components of a URL
7.6.3 Domain Types
7.6.4 Secure URLs
7.7 Browsers
7.7.1 Popularly used Browsers
7.7.2 Rendering Engines
7.7.3 Internet Explorer
7.7.4 Mozilla Firefox
7.7.5 Safari
7.7.6 Opera
7.7.7 Netscape Navigator
7.7.8 Google Chrome
7.7.9 So, which is the best browser?
7.8 Electronic Mail
7.8.1 E-mail requirements
7.8.2 E-mail Services
7.8.3 Your e-mail address
7.8.4 An e-mail account for you
7.8.5 How to send an e-mail?
7.8.6 Security with e-mail
7.8.7 Other e-mail Services
7.9 File Transfer

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7.9.1 FTP data transfer

7.9.2 FTP demerits
7.10 Bulletin Board System (BBS)
7.11 Introduction to Intranet and Extranet
7.11.1 Setting up Intranet
7.11.2 Advantages of Intranet
7.11.3 Disadvantages
7.11.4 Extranet
7.12 HTML
7.12.1 Structure of a HTML document
7.12.2 Steps for creation of first HTML file
7.12.3 Parts of an HTML document
7.12.4 HTML output
7.12.5 Widely Used HTML tags
7.12.5.1 Title Tag
7.12.5.2 Paragraph tag
7.12.5.3 Bold, Italic and Underline
7.12.5.4 Starting a new line
7.12.5.5 Inserting a horizontal Line
7.12.5.6 Linking to other page
7.12.5.7 Inserting Images
7.12.5.8 Creating Tables
7.12.5.9 Listing Tags
7.12.5.10 Marquee tag
7.12.6 HTML vs. XHTML

Lesson 8: Multimedia
8.1 Multimedia - definition

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8.2 Components of multimedia

8.2.1 Text
8.2.2 Graphics
8.2.2.1 Gif format
8.2.2.2 Joint photographic expert group (jpeg)
8.2.3 Animation
8.2.4 Audio
8.2.5 Video
8.3 Multimedia requirements
8.4 Multimedia applications
8.4.1 Education
8.4.2 Telemedicine
8.4.3 Entertainment industry
8.4.4 Virtual reality
8.5 Multimedia challenges

UNIT V
Lesson 9: Object Oriented Systems
9.1 History of Object Oriented Systems
9.2 Object Oriented Vs Object based languages
9.3 Object Oriented programming concepts
9.3.1 Objects
9.3.2 Classes
9.3.3 Encapsulation
9.3.4 Inheritance
9.3.4.1 Single level inheritance or simple inheritance
9.3.4.2 Multi level inheritance
9.3.4.3 Hierarchical inheritance
9.3.4.4 Multiple inheritance

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9.3.4.5 Hybrid Inheritance

9.3.5 Polymorphism
9.3.6 Instance
9.3.7 Access Modifiers
9.3.8 Constructors
9.3.9 Destructors
9.3.10 Abstract Classes
9.3.11 Static members
9.3.12 Friend functions
9.4 Object Oriented Database Management Systems
9.5 Object oriented design process
9.6 Advantages of Object Oriented Systems over traditional systems
9.7 Issues with Object oriented systems

Lesson 10 Enterprise Computing and Mobile Computing

10.1 Enterprise Resource Planning
10.1.1 What does ERP means?
10.1.2 ERP and various departments of the organization
10.1.3 Why ERP?
10.1.4 What ERP is not?
10.1.5 ERP is costlier
10.1.6 ERP activities or steps
10.1.7 Extending ERP
10.1.8 ERP critical factors
10.1.9 ERP advantages and disadvantages
10.2 Mobile Computing
10.2.1 Major components
10.2.1.1 Mobile devices
10.2.1.2 Wireless networks

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10.2.2 Cellular network

10.2.2.1 Technologies associated with Mobile networks
10.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of Mobile computing

Lesson 1: Introduction to Information Technology

Introduction

Information technology has made tremendous impacts in the day

today life of every human being.

Knowingly or unknowingly everyone is using Information

technology in one way or another.

This lesson would provide an introduction to this fascinating field

called Information Technology.

Objectives
The objectives of this lesson are as listed below:
1. Defining the term information technology
2. Differentiating Data and Information
3. Providing an insight in to scope of Information technology.
4. Introducing two important components of computers (software,
hardware)
5. Explaining various operations of computer (input, processing,
output, storage )
6. Proving some useful tips to make your computer faster.
7. Explaining various trends in design of computers
8. Providing an insight into the various types of communications

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9. Highlighting the advantages of integrating computer science and

communications
10.

Explaining the applications of Information technology in various

works of life.

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1.1 Information Technology The definition

The term information technology can be defined as follows:
Information technology is a common term that includes any technology
that is used to store, retrieve, delete and communicate information.
In other words it is the technology used to manipulate information.
Today we are living in a world which is overflowed with information. So there
is a need for technology that would handle this information in an effective
manner. Information technology is the solution to the above problem.

1.2 Data Vs Information

At this point you may have a question about the difference between data
and information. The following lines define data and information.

Data is a raw fact. Data doesn't associate any specific meaning with it.
For example New Delhi may be considered as data by which you
dont get any meaning.

Information is the result of data processing. In other words, processed

data is called information. If you consider the same example which is
quoted for data then New Delhi is the capital of our country is the
information. This information has got an associated meaning.
So before proceeding any further you should remember the basic fact

that information and data are not interchangeable terms. So information

technology focuses at information rather than simply data.

1.3 Information Technology - Scope

Information Technology is not a single stand alone technology. Indeed it
is a combination of more than one technology. Two important components of
Information technology are

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Computers

Communications

1.3.1 Computer Science

As stated earlier information technology needs inputs from the external
world. The computers are used to accept data and process them into meaningful
information.
So the process of conversion from data to information happens at
computers. The raw data many not be used effectively. To make the effective
use of it, data has to be processed in to information.
The growth in computer technology is a must for the growth in
information technology. Faster the information processed at the computer, lesser
the delay in making it available to the user.
1.3.2 Communications
Information technology is not only computer science. One more critical
component is the communication technology.
While defining information technology it was stated that communication
of information is also a role of IT. To transfer information from one place to
another you need communication technology. The communication technology
has reduced importance of the physical distance. Nowadays it is not important
that how far away you are from the person whom you want to contact, provided
that you have the technology.
Internet has really made the world as global village. So the role of
communications in information technology is crucial.

1.4 Introduction to the World of Computers

Computers are playing a key role today in all fields of work. So it
becomes ultimately necessary to get an insight into the world of computers.

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Computers are general purpose machines which can be adopted for your
usage by installing specialized hardware and software. Computers are based on
digital technologies.
This section would highlight on the important concepts in computer
science.
1.4.1 The Hardware and Software
The two important components of computers are hardware and software.
To make the computers efficient, proper hardware and software has to be
identified and installed.
The electrical, mechanical, electronic components of computer is called
hardware i.e. all the hardware are physical entities. Examples for hardware are
as listed below:

Keyboard

Mouse

Microprocessor

Motherboard etc

Software is logical component of the computer. Without installing the

right software your computer would become idle. Examples of software as listed
below:

Operating systems

Packages

Utility programs etc

In the case of software there exist different types of it. The general
classification is as listed below:

Application Software

System Software

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Application software is used to solve a particular problem. For example

software used in the banking domain is an example for application software.
At the same time system software are used to make the effective use of
computers. For example operating systems are systems software. No one buys a
computer to simply work with operating systems but it is the operating systems
which make the usage of computers smoother.
Today you can't even think of a computer without an operating system.
Because operating systems provides you such a level of abstraction so that the
users need not to worry about any internal working principles of the computer.
The computers used in various fields have certain components in
common. At the same time they have specialized components also. For example
a computer used with retail shops would have a barcode reader connected to it.
1.4.2 Operations of a Computer
Though the computers used in different fields have different purposes,
there are certain operations which are common across all these domains. These
operations are as listed below:

Input

Processing

Output

Storage

1.4.2.1 Input
Input is the operation of feeding data in to a computer. Input is the
starting point in operations of computers. There exist various kinds of devices
used to provide input. They are

Keyboard

Mouse

Scanner

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Webcam etc

Input can be text, image, audio, video etc. For example Keyboard is the
device used to provide text input. Similarly scanner is a device for image input.
These input devices are discussed (in terms of their usage, working
principle etc) in detail in later portions of this text.
Generally input devices are called peripheral devices because they are
connected to the computer through various ports like serial port, USB etc.
1.4.2.2 Processing
The core part of computing is the processing. To perform this processing
task you have the Microprocessors. Microprocessor is a smaller sized chip
containing large number of electronic circuitry inside.
In fact the microprocessor is the Central Processing Unit (CPU). At
times the cabinet is mistakenly called as CPU but it is not.
The speed of CPU is measured in terms of Hertz. As of today (October
2008), the commonly used processors have a speed of 3 GHz (Giga Hertz) or
similar.
Using multiple CPUs for a desktop computer is becoming popular
nowadays. You would have heard of CPUs with label Dual core, Quad Core etc.
Dual core has two processors in them where as Quad core has four processors.
Usage of more number of processors would definitely speed up the computers
because of the fact that tasks can be shared among those processors. (Another
point to remember here is speed of computer does not only depend upon the
speed of microprocessor but upon various factors like amount of main memory
etc).
There is a component in computer which is called the Motherboard. It
is the motherboard which is holding the entire components together. The CPU,
the main memory and all other components are installed on mother board. The
mother board can be compared with the central nervous system of the human

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body. (In terms of their role in establishing communication and coordination

between various parts of the system they are similar).
1.4.2.3 Output
The result of processing has to be given to users which is the ultimately
purpose of using computers. The output unit performs this task. There exist
various output units available as listed below:

Monitor: It is the primary output device associated with the

computers. The CPU sends the signals to an electronic circuit called
Video Card. It is the video card which acts as the interface
between monitor and the CPU. The display quality depends on the
quality of video card as well. There exist various types of monitors.

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

Flat panel display etc

Printers: Printers are used to produce the hardcopy output. There

exist various types of printers as listed below:

Impact Printers

Non-impact printers

Audio output: To produce audio output speakers are connected to the

system. In case of audio output also you have a hardware called
Sound Card. This sound card acts as an interface between speakers
and the CPU. The quality of audio depends both on the quality of
speakers and the sound cards quality.

1.4.2.4 Storage
Another important component of a computer is the storage. Primarily
there are two types of storage. They are

Volatile Storage: When the power is disconnected the contents

would be erased.

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Non-Volatile

Storage: Even after the

power

supply is

disconnected the contents would be retained.

The capacity of storage is measured in terms of a unit called bytes. The
below list gives various hierarchies in the storage unit:

8 bits

- 1 Byte

1024 bytes

- 1 Kilo Byte (KB)

1024 KB

- 1Mega Byte (MB)

1024 MB

- 1 Giga Byte (GB)

1024 GB

- 1 Terra Byte (TB)

The above list is not complete. The unit goes beyond TB also. But those
are not commonly used in general purpose computers.
In the case of non-volatile storage, there exist various types of
technologies as listed below:

Magnetic Storage: Based on the magnetic principles. Examples

for such devices includes

Hard Disks

Floppy Disks etc

Optical Storage: Based on the optical principles. Examples for

such devices includes

Compact Disk (CD)

DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) etc

Semi-conductor memory: Here electronic circuits are used to store

the contents. Examples for such devices include pen drives etc.
They are based on EEPROM technology.

In this section various units are outlined. The detailed explanations of

individual units are given in later portions of this text. But the above
introduction would be an eye-opener to understand the concepts in detail given
in later portions.

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1.4.3 Common terms in Computers

There exist certain common terms in computers. This section would
throw light on those common terms.

BIOS: The Basic Input Output System is called BIOS. It is the BIOS
which holds the all the settings associated with the computer
components. BIOS is the fundamental unit of a computer (IBM PC
and clones). Through BIOS you can make certain crucial changes
which would improve the system performance. At the same time
care should be taken while interacting with BIOS because wrong
settings would create some critical flaws.

Ports: To connect any peripheral devices the ports are used. There
exist many types of ports as listed below:

Serial Port

Parallel port

USB port.

Formatting: It is the process of making a storage device ready to

use. A file system would be created during formatting. Formatting
would erase all the data in that partition.

Defragmentation: To make the disk access faster, all the used

portions would be aligned together. So that free memory would be
aligned separately. This process is called defragmentation. It is
advisable to perform defragmentation at regular intervals so that
your computer speed would improve.

Installation: Installation is another term which is repeatedly used in

computers. Installation is the process of incorporating software into
the computer. Installation is different from copying. If you simply
copy, most of the software wont work.

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1.4.4 Making your computer faster

Every one wants their computer to work faster. How can you make your
computer to work at its optimal speed? Below given is a list of tips for doing
that.

Do not install any unnecessary software in to your computer. This

would definitely save your hard disk space. Many software may be
doing some operations in the background i.e., with out the
knowledge of the user. If you have such software in your system
which you are not using but they are occupying your memory and
processor, certainly the system would become slower. So it becomes
vital not to install any unnecessary software in to your system.

Defragmentation of disk at regular intervals would make the disk

access faster, thereby improving the overall performance.

Higher rpm disks would be faster. For example the speed of 7200
rpm (revolutions per minute) would be far better than the 3000 rpm
disk. So choose a disk with higher rpm.

Protect the system from virus attacks. Though the antivirus program
can make your system little bit slower but the benefits you get from
those programs are huge.

Usage of good amount of RAM (Random Access Memory) is

another way to make your system faster. Most of the software
nowadays requires higher amount of RAM i.e., main memory. If you
want to use those types of software then you have to provide
adequate amount of RAM to your system.

Choice of motherboard and processor should be appropriate. If you

choose otherwise, the system speed would become lesser. Especially
motherboard selection is a vital process. If you choose an
inappropriate motherboard then what ever may be the quality of
other components, the performance would be lesser.

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Installation of an operating system depends on your needs and the

hardware configuration of your system. There is no compulsion that
you should always use high end operating systems. The choice of
operating system is major factor for the speed of your computer.

By keeping the above factors in mind you can certainly make your
computer faster. From the above list you would have understood a fact that the
speed depends upon both hardware as well as software. While trying to make
your computer faster equal attention has to be given to both the components.
A computer with a good hardware configuration can also be slower due
to the above mentioned software reason. The vice-versa is also true i.e., a
properly built software would also work slower if optimal hardware is not used.
The speed of microprocessor is many folds faster than the peripheral
devices like disk. So the bottleneck is at the place of disk access. This disk
access bottleneck can be addressed by following the points mentioned above
(using a higher rpm disk, increasing the amount of RAM (main memory))
Turning on all the graphical features (like animation options, shadows
etc) can make your system slower if adequate amount of main memory is not
there. So never turn-on this features when your system configuration is lesser to
support that.
1.4.5 Computer Trends
In designing the computers the trend that is adopted is three fold. They
are

Smaller

Faster

Cheaper

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1.4.5.1 Smaller
Computers were very huge in size in the past. The first generation
computers were largest in size. With each generation the size of the computer is
getting reduced. The reason for this is the improvements in the electronics field.
Many advanced technologies were developed to fabricate huge electronic
circuits in smaller size.
Nowadays the concept of invisible computers (!) is also getting popular.
Invisible in the sense they are hidden within other equipments. For example the
washing machines that you use may have microprocessors inside. The smaller
size of computers is a factor which has made this possible to implant them inside
other equipments.
1.4.5.2 Faster
In contrasting with the size the speed is constantly increasing with each
generation. Nowadays the speed is measured in Giga Hertz (GHz). Even the
desktop PCs today are comparatively faster. Indeed the boundary between the
PCs and workstations is blurred nowadays.
1.4.5.3 Cheaper
One of the critical factors that have made computers so popular is the
reduction in their cost. When the computers were introduced no one thought of
using computers to this level of personal purposes. The reduction of cost factor
has made the computers to reach every corner of the globe. Constant efforts are
going on to make them even cheaper so that everyone can afford to use the
computes personally.
The above given paragraphs characterizes the trend in the computer
world.

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1.5 The communications

As we stated earlier another component of IT is the communication.
Now the communication has gone to the level so that the distance doesn't matter
anymore.
In communications there are basically two modes on the basis of
connection type. They are

Wired Communication

Wireless Communication

In the case of wired communication a physical connection would exist.

In case of wireless communication the physical connection is not there. Wireless
communication is well suited for mobile devices. More on this is given in the
later portions of this text.
The communication can also be classified in to three types on the basis
of direction of communication. They are

Simplex Communication

Half-duplex Communication

Full-duplex Communication

1.5.1 Simplex Communication

In the case of simplex communication, the mode of communication is
only one way. A well known example for this type of communication is the
radio. In radio the broadcasting station would send the signals so that the radio
set that you have would receive these signals. Your radio set will not have the
capability to communicate with the radio station. In other words it cant send
data back to the sender. This type of communication is called simplex
communication.

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1.5.2 Half-Duplex Communication

Half-Duplex is an improvement over the simplex communication. In
half-duplex communication both the parties involved in the communication
process can send and receive but not at the same time.
For example the communication devices that you would have seen with a
traffic police are examples for half-duplex communication. In that device you
can receive signals as well as send signals. But he/she can't do both the things at
the same time.
1.5.3 Full-duplex Communication
In the case of full-duplex communication sending and receiving signals
at the same time is possible. It is the advancement over half-duplex
communication.
For example the telephones are an example for full-duplex
communication. In telephone both the parties can send and receive signals at the
same time.
Full duplex communication is technically better than other two modes.
The modes of communication have to be selected in accordance with the need.
1.6 Computers and Communications
To link computers with the public telecommunication network there is a
need for a specialized device. Because both these operate using different
technologies i.e., digital and analog.
The device which acts as an interface between these two is called
Modem. The role of the modem is to convert the digital signals into analog and
vice versa.
A modem can be either internal or external. When the modem is placed
inside the cabinet itself, it is called internal modem. When you have modem as a
separate unit it is called external modem. Nowadays many of the motherboard

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has an on-board modem. An on-board modem would be an integral part of the

motherboard itself.
There are three important developments when the computer and
communication industry merges together. They are as listed below:

Mobility

Customization

Integrated Services

1.6.1 Mobility
Mobile plays a key role in the success of information technology. The
ability to access the services on the move is an important development. The
mobility has become a reality because of the developments in both computer
industry and communication field. The size of the computers becoming smaller
has encouraged mobility. With respect to communication, the advancement in
wireless communication like cellular networks has contributed largely to this.
1.6.2 Customization
The services provided have become customizable. You can select the
services according to your needs. For example in the mobile phone industry,
various providers are providing services that you can select according to your
need. There would be various packages among which you can select one
suitable to your needs.
1.6.3 Integrated Services
Another important development is the integrated services. Many services
are available on a single channel. For example the devices like PDA (Personal
Digital Assistants) have the capability to act as a computer, mobile phone etc.
So by using such a single device you can compute, access internet, make calls as
you wish.

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1.7 Information Technology Usage

Information technology has got its usage all fields of life. It is now hard
to identify any single field where application of Information Technology is not
there. It has got its massive applications in all fields. This section would discuss
prominent uses of information technology. Providing a complete reference of all
the usages of Information Technology is out of scope of current text.
1.7.1 Banking Domain
Banking is certainly one such domain where IT has made tremendous
impacts. Following is a list of usages that IT has got in the banking domain:
The facility of Core Banking has become possible because of
Information Technology. Core banking enables the account holder to operate
his/her account from any branch. The account holder is not required to go to the
specific branch where he/she is holding the account.
Core banking has become possible because of the improvements in both
Communication industry as well as computer industry. Communication industry
has helped in terms of establishing the networking between all the core banking
enabled branches.
The network that would be established here should be much safer
because all the transactions involved are personal. The data flowing through this
network should not get hacked by others.
The computer industry has helped in terms of providing powerful servers
and clients. In the case of banking domain all the sensitive data would be stored
in the server. These servers would be maintained by specialist in the field of
information security.
These servers have to be guaranteed for maximum uptime (the accessible
time). Apart from these powerful servers, there are other equipments which are
used in the banking domain.

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For example there would be certain specially designed printers to print

certain items. Apart from Core banking, now many of the banks provides
services like

Mobile banking

Net banking

In the case of mobile banking you would be able to access your account
from your mobile device. To provide security passwords would be provided.
Almost all the banks provide the facility to access your account over
World Wide Web. By using this facility the account holder can operate his/her
account from anywhere in the world.
Using the net banking facility you can provide payment to many other
services.
One of the crucial things that you have to take care while using the
facilities like mobile banking, net banking etc is that you should keep the
password to access these services safer.
It is a good practice to change the passwords at regular intervals of time
so that the possibility of the password breaking would be reduced.
1.7.2 E-learning
E-learning is another massive application of Information technology.
Most of the institutions provide e-learning facility nowadays. There exist many
advantages of e-learning.
E-learning is the process of using information technology to make the
teaching-learning process an effective one.
E-learning can provide a web based interface. In such a case the scope or
area of coverage becomes huge. Because using such a web based interface has
very minimal requirement on the client side.
The advantages of e-learning are as listed:

Learning materials are accessible from anywhere.

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Incorporation of multimedia into e-learning makes the teachinglearning process effective.

The learning is not restricted to particular time. In case of traditional

learning you have to be present at the lecture hall at the specified time
to attend the lecture. In the case of e-learning you can select your own
convenient time. This would be very helpful in case of people who are
in a job.

E-learning in combination with Distant Learning would make the

distant learning more interactive. In addition with physical books the econtents can also be given to the learners.

Interactivity can be incorporated easily in to e-learning. The

interactivity is possible by means of forums, chat, blog etc.

Improvements in the communication industry have made e-learning

smoother. In other words nowadays the bandwidth provided for internet
access is generally sufficient enough to access these e-learning
materials with multimedia content.

E-learning is a global scale phenomenon.

If the learner has got a web browser in his/her system that would be

sufficient enough to access the e-learning materials provided through World

Wide Web.
Nowadays there exist facilities to access these e-learning materials from
devices like mobile phones etc.
The provisions can also be made to download the contents to their local
machine so that the learner would be able to go through the content even when
internet connection is not there.
All these facts have made e-learning an effective method of providing
knowledge to the learner.

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1.7.3 On-line reservation Systems

On-line reservation systems are another important usage of information
technology. The term on-line is generally associated with internet. If a particular
service is accessible through internet it is called on-line.
There exists various on-line reservation systems exists today. Few of
them are listed below:

Railway Reservation Systems: The railway reservation system has

become very popular nowadays. There is no need to wait in the long
queues for booking your tickets. You can do that simply sitting in
front of your computer with internet connectivity.

Hotel Room reservation systems: Many hotels provide the facility to

book the rooms in advance through internet. By using this facility
the trip can be planned very easily.

Airline reservation systems: These systems are very similar to the

railway reservation systems.

All these reservation systems involve some sort of money transactions.

These transactions can be done through more than one method as listed below:

Payment using net banking facilities

Payment through credit cards

While you pay the money through the net banking facility the bank
would be contacted before making you the allocation. The credit card processing
also involves very similar techniques.
These on-line reservation systems are very effective to plan your
activities earlier itself.

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1.7.4 E-governance
In a country like ours where the population is huge, the government
offices would be accessed by large number of people. To make the services
easily available the e-governance concept can be used.
E-governance is the process of using information technology to provide
the services rendered by a government to the citizens effectively. There are
many areas which the e-governance covers. Below given is the list of few
services:

Applying nativity / residence certificates etc.

During the purchase of a property like land, the details can be easily
accessed if they are computerized.

Paying tax through on-line facilities.

E-governance provides various advantages as listed below:

Services can be accessed easily

The delay in getting the service is reduced.

The services rendered can be made transparent.

Record of services rendered can be maintained effectively so that

when the need arises at a later point in time they can be easily
retrieved.

The services are not time bound. (You can access the services at any
time provided the server in which the service is hosted is up and
running)

In case of documents where the scanned copy is available they can

be retained forever. The physical documents would be easily
damaged as the time progresses. But the scanned documents would
not get damaged as the time progresses. They can be easily printed
in to hardcopy through printers at any time.

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The above given are the advantages of services provided by egovernance. At the same time there are certain challenges also. The services
which are sensitive in nature have to be made much secure.
1.7.5 E-Commerce
E-commerce has changed the way in which people purchase and sell
items. The customer can access the e-commerce service with the help of a web
browser and internet connectivity.
E-commerce is the process of using information technology to carry out
commercial activities. E-commerce provides various advantages as listed below:

E-commerce is a global scale phenomenon. So the market base of

the company is out of bounds of any single nation. To perform the
same otherwise is very difficult and costlier.

When number of e-commerce services are there, you can easily

compare the products from various sellers before buying. Through
this a product can be purchased at a minimum possible cost.

You can directly purchase items from world class sellers. For
example in case of book and other materials there are various
popular e-commerce services exist. So whenever a particular book or
material is not available in your geographical location you can use
these e-commerce services to get them from any part of the world.

E-commerce employs many secure technologies. So nowadays it has

become comparatively secure.

You can easily track your orders. Many e-commerce sites provide
this option of tracking your order i.e. you can easily find out the
current stage of your order.

E-commerce is getting applied in more and more number of fields.

Starting with very cheap items to costliest items are now available through ecommerce. It is the e-commerce which has added the commercial touch to

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World Wide Web which is one of the important reasons for such a mammoth
growth of World Wide Web.
1.7.6 Videoconferencing
With the help of videoconferencing you can communicate with a person
independent of his/her geographical location, as if he/she is sitting in front of
you.
Videoconferencing involves multiple media of data like audio, video etc.
The videoconferencing is also called teleconferencing. There exist many
advantages of videoconferencing. Some of them are listed below

In the case of telephonic communication you cannot see the facial

expressions and gestures made where as it is possible in
videoconferencing.

No physical movement is required. If a conference involves experts

from far away locations then the distance to be traveled would be
very huge. But in the case of videoconferencing these travel time is
therefore saved.

Since the videoconferencing involves real-time transfer of video from

one location to another it would require higher bandwidth.
Primarily there are two types of videoconferencing based on the number
of participants. They are

Point-to-point videoconferencing which involves only two persons.

In the case of multipoint videoconferencing more than two

participants can involve in the conferencing process.

Nowadays a recent trend which is coming up is called webminars. A

webminar is nothing but web based seminars. In a web based seminar

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(webminar) participants can be from any part of the globe provided they have a
system with internet connectivity.
1.7.7 Usage of Information technology in Entertainment
Apart from the serious usages of information technology, it has got of
many applications in the entertainment fields also.
Usage of Information technology in movies is well-known. In movies
many special effects are made by the application of information technology
concepts like graphics and animation.
Apart from these special effects there are movies which are totally
created with the help of animation features. To perform these kinds of tasks
there are specialized software. That software would have options for drawing,
adding effects etc.
Not only the visual effects, there are applications associated with music
or sound also. There are many music synthesizers and other concepts to add
special effects to music.
Other than movies the application of information technology in sports is
also tremendous. For example in sports like cricket there are multi-folded
applications of Information technology. Some of them are as follows: tracking
the movement of balls, complete analysis through statistics, ball speed
measurements etc are well-known examples of information technology in
cricket.
It is not only cricket but there exist many other sports like tennis,
football, baseball etc where the information technology has introduced many
techniques which has made those sports more attractive and entertaining.
Information technology is also be used in many sports training sessions.
It is used to analyze the actions of players so that the problems identified can be
rectified in the later games.

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Information technology has really raised the quality of the final product
both in movies as well as in sports. Information technology has introduced many
new concepts in those fields as well as enriched many existing processes. For
example many of the existing processes which were time consuming have
become faster with the application of information technology.
1.7.8 Global Positioning Systems
Global positioning system (GPS) is one of the popular applications of
information technology. GPS has got its application in various fields. Popular
among them are listed below:

GPS can be used to track vehicles. Their position can be tracked from a
central location. This vehicle tracking facility has got application in
ambulance tracking, fire engine tracking etc.

In the field of geology, GPS is used to identify small changes in the

earth surface for further analysis.

GPS is also used to track animals. By using this technology their

position can be identified easily.

Satellite imaging facility is used in locating the areas where fishes are
available in abundance. This information would be very much helpful
for fisherman.

GPS has got applications in military also.

The complete description of working principle of GPS is out of scope of

this text. But in an outline, GPS requires number of satellites and many ground
stations. These satellites and ground stations will communicate with each other
so that the required information is tracked.
The above list of applications of GPS is not complete. Apart from the
above given applications there are many applications of GPS in various fields.
Though the fields change the fundamental technology remains the same.

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Summary

Information technology refers to group of technologies that deal with

handling of information.

Data refers to simple fact; Information refers to processing data.

Information has a meaning associated with it.

Information technology consists of two major fields called computer

science and communications.

Computers are general purchase machines that are used in all the fields.

Various operations of computers include input, process, output, storage

etc

Software refers to the logical entities of the computer system.

Hardware refers to the mechanical, electrical and electronic

components of computer system.

Speed of computers can be increased by various measures like

installing only the necessary software, using hard disks with higher
revolutions per minute (rpm) etc

The trends of computer design are three folds: smaller, faster and
cheaper

Communication can be either wireless or wired.

Communication can happen in three modes: simplex, half-duplex and

full-duplex.

The combination of computer and communication gives us various

advantages: customization, mobility and integrated services.

The applications of information technology are in most of the fields.

For

example

banking,

e-learning,

e-commerce,

e-governance,

entertainment industry, geographical positioning systems etc.

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Self-assessment Questions
Part I (Multiple Choice Questions)
1. Processing of data gives
(a) database
(b) information
(c) security
(d)All of the above
(e) None of the above
2. Which of the following is used in first generation computers?
(a) Flash memory
(b) USB ports
(c) Vacuum tubes
(d)All of the above
(e) None of the above
3. Which of the following is not a wireless communication technique?
(a) Bluetooth
(b) Infrared
(c) Wi-Fi
(d) Blue rays
(e) None of the above
4. The characteristics of mobile computers includes
(a) battery mode operations
(b) Wireless communication technology
(c) hand-held devices
(d) all of the above
(e) none of the above

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5. rpm stands for

(a) revolutions per minute
(b) rate per movement
(c) rank past mobiles
(d) all of the above
(e) none of the above
6. Interface between CPU and display is called
(a) display channel
(b) video channel
(c) video card
(d) all above the above
(e) none of the above
7. Identify the odd item
(a) USB
(b) Serial
(c) Parallel
(d) EEPROM
(e) DMA
8. Which of the following is not an e-payment method?
(a) Credit card
(b) Net banking
(c) master banking
(d) all of the above
(e) none of the above
9. GPS stands for

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(a) Global Positioning System

(b) Graphical Processing System
(c) General Pricing System'
(d) All of the above
(e) None of the above
10.

The advantage(s) of e-commerce is/are

(a) global scale

(b) easier to access
(c) wide range of options
(d) all of the above
(e) none of the above
Part II (Short Questions)
11.

Write short notes on data and information.

12.

List out modes of communications.

13.

List out any 4 input devices

14.

How hard disk is impacts speed of the computer?

15.

What you mean by integrated services?

16.

What is core banking?

17.

List out the advantages of e-governance?

18.

What are all the advantages of e-learning

Part III (Detailed Answer questions)

19.

Explain in detail about the advantages of computers and communication

technologies?
20.

Elaborate on various usage of Information technology.

- 40 -

Answer Key
Part I
1. b

2. c

3. d

4. d

5. a

6. c

7. d

8. c

9.a

10. d
Part II

11.

Data is simple fact. Data doesn't possess any meaning. The processed

data is called information. Information has a meaning associated with it.

12.

In terms of medium of communication it can be classified in to wired

and wireless communication. In terms of the direction of communication it

can be categorized in to simplex, half-duplex and full-duplex communication.
13.

There exist many inputs devices. Four of them are listed here:
a) Keyboard
b) Mouse
c) Webcam
d) Touchpad

14.

The rpm (revolutions per minute) of the hard disk decides how fast the

hard disk will work. Since the hard disks are considerably slower than the
CPU, an higher rpm hard disk can make the speed of the computer faster.
15.

As a result of merging the computer and communication industry

together you can get various benefits. One of those benefits is the integrated
services. Many services can be accessed using a single channel or device.
This process is referred as integrated services. For example the mobile

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phones can be used for voice communication as well as for surfing the
internet.
16.

Core banking refers to the ability to access bank account from any of the

branches of that bank. Core banking is one of the major advantages that
banking industry has got from information technology.
17.

The advantages of e-governance include the following

a) The services can be obtained without much delay.
b) The process becomes transparent comparatively.
c) Since the transactions are recorded in the electronic form they would
not get affected by the time factor (traditional documents would get
damaged as the time progress).

18.

The advantages of e-learning are as listed below

a) e-learning is a global level phenomenon
b) E-learning is not time restricted.
c) Usage of multimedia is e-learning is easier and effective

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Lesson 2: Information Systems

Introduction

All the application areas of Information technology discussed in the

previous lesson deals with whole lot of information.

Nowadays Information Systems have become an integral part of any

organization because no organization can function without information.

Information systems make the organization to function effectively by

handling information in an efficient manner.

Starting with a simple retail shop to a multinational organization,

Information is everywhere. Of course quantity of information may vary
but the usage of information is certain.

Information systems are used to provide necessary information to the

organization so that effective decisions can be taken.

Objectives

Introducing various types of information.

Explaining various information systems like transaction processing

system, management information system, decision support systems,
executive information systems etc.

Providing details about System Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

Explaining each stage of system development life cycle in detail.

2.1 Information Classification

The information associated with an organization can be classified in to
various categories. Those categories are as listed below:

Operational Information: The type of information which is needed

for an organization in a day-to-day manner so that it can function
effectively. For example the retail billing associated with a general
store is operational information. Operational information doesn't

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need any complex processing to obtain. At the same time the volume
of operational information would be larger in nature because they
are collected in a day-to-day basis.

Tactical Information: This type of information is helpful during

short-term decisions. For example in a retail store, the speed of sales
of each item is tactical information. Tactical information is not
straightforward. To obtain tactical information, you need operational
information. This tactical information is a kind of summary that is
generated on top of operational information.

Strategic Information: Strategic information is helpful during long

term decisions. The strategic information is very less in volume.
They require lot of processing to obtain. Strategic information is
handled by the top level management.

Each category of information would be handled by specific level of

management. For example operational information is handled by low level
management, tactical information by middle level management and strategic
information is handled by the top level management. Apart from these there is
certain type of information which would be handled by all across the
organization. For example the office automation systems would be handled by
every one in the organization.

2.2 Types of Information systems

In parallel with the type of information there exist various types of
information systems. Each information system has a specific purpose and they
would be handled by specific levels of management.
Various Information Systems are as listed below:

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

Management Information Systems (MIS)

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Decision Support Systems (DSS)

Executive Information Systems (ESS)

Office Automation Systems (OAS)

Let us discuss each type of information systems in detail.

2.2.1 Transaction Processing Systems
A transaction processing system is for handling the transactions of an
organization. Transactions are nothing but routine business activities. These
transactions have to be recorded.
For example in a retail store, each sale can be considered as a
transaction. This sales information has to be tracked for further processing.
Transaction processing systems primarily handle the data associated with any
organization but they would not produce any complex information from those
data. They primarily take care of the operational data associated with an
organization.
A transaction processing system is an Information system which is used
to record all the day-to-day transactions of an organization.
The following list is a set of characteristics of a Transaction Processing
System.

The Transaction Processing System has well defined input and

output. For example in a retail store the point of sale (POS) would
gather data about each sale. It has to produce the output in the form
of bills.

Transaction processing systems consumes large amount of data.

Transaction processing systems are taken care by the low level
management.

In an organization each department can have their own individual

transaction processing systems. For example purchase department
can maintain a TPS; finance can maintain their own TPS etc.

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The Transaction processing systems provide input to the other

information systems like decision support systems etc.

Transaction processing systems are very much necessary for smoother

operation of an organization in a day-to-day manner.
2.2.2 Management Information Systems
Management Information systems occupy the next level hierarchy to the
Transaction Processing Systems.
A Management Information System gets the input from the transaction
processing system and they produce reports which can be used by the managers
to carry out various types of activities.
Management information systems involve more processing than the
transaction processing systems. The management information systems'
characteristics are as listed below:

Management information system would be used by the middle level

managers in general.

Contrasting to transaction processing system, the management

information systems cover various departments of the organization.

As stated earlier management information system's input is from the

transaction processing system.

The output of the management information system is in the form of

reports. These reports would be used by the middle level
management to carry out the business effectively.

Management information system produces various kinds of reports

which are as listed below:

Periodical reports: These reports would be generated at

regular intervals. For example the daily, weekly,

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monthly and annual reports are examples for periodical

reports.

Summary reports: Summary reports would be helpful in

finding out various patterns across the data.

Exception reports: These exception reports which

provide information about things that are not happening
comparing to a normal scenario.

So these management information systems play an important role in the

success of an organization. At one end they have links with the low level
management as input and they provide useful information for the middle level
management for better performance.
2.2.3 Decision Support Systems
One of the widely used information systems is the decision support
systems.
The decision support systems provide the facility for an organization to
find out the possible future course of events and carry out activities based on
these analyses.
The below given list characterizes a decision support system:

The decision support systems are used by the middle level

management.

What a manager gets from a management information system is the

summary of data but the decision support systems provide analysis
of the data which is more important than simply the summary.

At the highest level decision support systems would become very

similar to an AI (Artificial Intelligence) based agent.

- 47 -

To establish decision support system an organization should have

well established transaction processing system and management
information system.

Decision support systems are based on mathematical models. Using

these mathematical models the managers can simulate certain
activities. By that they can check out various different parameters
and their relationships. Another benefit would be that the managers
can prepare themselves for actions when the same future occurs
which they tried out during simulation.

Decision support system receives input from most part of the

organization. At the same time they receive inputs from external
world also. For example the current market trend, the laws
introduced by the government etc because all these items can affect
the future course of actions of the organization.

Nowadays there exist decision support systems with advanced

features. These decision support systems are called Online
Analytical Processing (OLAP) systems. The usage of OLAP systems
are in the field of data-mining. (Data mining is a study of finding out
patterns across a large volume of data so that any business sensitive
information can be obtained).

So the above characteristics confirm that decision support systems would

help the organization in a greater extent for its growth. But decision support
systems need well designed transaction processing system and management
information systems because input would be taken from those systems directly
or indirectly.

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2.2.4 Executive Information Systems

As the name indicates Executive Information Systems are primarily for
top level management.
The executive information systems are used to make strategic decisions.
Every department of the organization may provide data in their own version. But
what the top level management wants is the crisp, easy to access data which can
be directly used to make strategic decisions.
The below given list characterizes the Executive Information Systems;

EIS doesn't require much training to use them.

EIS would normally receive input from both inside and outside of
the organization.

EIS would provide options for viewing the same data from different
dimensions which the top level management prefers to have.

Access to EIS would be restricted in organizations because they

provide business sensitive information which would cause serious
damage to the organization when leaked out.

Executive Information System is a handy tool for the top level

management because it makes the top level management to get deeper insight in
to the current status and the predicted future trends.
2.2.5 Office Automation System
The systems that are explained above are for the managements. The
major portion of the organization is workers or non-managers. Information
technology has to assist these workers so that the productivity increases. It is the
workers who carry out the regular activities of the organization. If the benefits of
information technology dont reach these workers then it would be certainly a
major factor which would affect the organization's growth.

- 49 -

Office automation systems are a kind of information systems which

would be used by every employee of the organization.
Office automation systems provide a rich set of tools for increasing the
productivity of the organization.
Below given list is a set of characteristics of office automation systems:

The office automation systems are not restricted among employees. It

can be used by anyone in the organization.

Office automation systems provide various technologies to reduce the

human time required to carry out the operations.

Office automation systems would improve the accuracy of work carried

out because they are well tested before their implementation.

Office automation systems are used to make better cooperation among

various teams of the organization so that redundancy of work can be
reduced. (Otherwise without their knowledge there is a possibility that
same work would have been carried out in a redundant manner).
Office automation systems involve various components in general. These

components are as listed below:

There exists a need for creation of various types of documents in an

organization. For example sending letters etc. The Word processing
system which is a component of office automation system can certainly
reduce the redundancy of work carried out. For example if same letter
(with simple data modifications like name, id etc) has to be sent to
hundreds of customers then word processing systems would help to do
this very effectively. Otherwise this work would require comparatively
longer human time which affects the productivity.

Apart from word processing systems office automation systems provides

tools like spreadsheets which are used to perform financial calculations.

- 50 -

The presentation tools are other important components of office

automation systems.

Simple image processing tools are also part of office automation

systems. They can be used to perform the simple image processing tasks
associated with documents creation.

These office automation systems can be used for scheduling of tasks

also.

In addition to the above, there are facilities like videoconferencing which

would be very useful in communication. If the organization is located at
various places then these videoconferencing facilities are very much
useful to save time.
So these office automation tools would definitely improve the

productivity of the organization by reducing the time taken to carry out repeated
tasks as explained above.

2.3 Information Systems Development Cycle

In the previous section various information systems were explained in
detail. This section would provide the steps involved in the development of
information systems. Of course these steps are not only for information systems
development but for any kind of software.
The system development process is called System Development Life
Cycle (SDLC). The system development life cycle involves various steps as
listed below:

Planning

Analysis

Designing

Development

Implementation

Maintenance

- 51 -

As stated earlier this process is a cycle. So these steps would be

repeatedly performed to make the systems powerful as well as bug free. The
user requirements also changes as the time progress. So these changes need to be
incorporated in to the system. Because of these factors development life cycle
becomes a continuous process.
Let us discuss in detail about each and every stage of the system
development life cycle.
2.3.1 Planning
Planning is a crucial phase not only in software development life cycle
but in any activity that we carry out. When the target system is large in nature
then planning becomes more crucial. There are various internal stages in
planning.
The very first task in the planning stage is to find out the objectives of
the systems that you are going to develop. These objectives have to be defined
in a well formatted manner so that there would not be any expectation mismatch
at the end of system development.
At this stage itself the scope of the system would be defined clearly.
These objectives would be arrived at after having various levels of discussions
with the user.
Once the objectives are stated out clearly, the next step is to look for
possible set of solutions for that problem. This becomes very important because
at this stage you are free to look for various solutions in terms of their
advantages and disadvantages. This would prove very useful at later stages.
Among the various alternate solutions looked at, the cost and benefits of
those solutions has to be calculated. This step would prove useful for
management because they can find a trade-off between the cost of the project
and the benefits.

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After all the above mentioned steps are carried out a report has to be
prepared. This report would include various factors that you have identified so
far. This report has to be submitted to the top level management. The top-level
management would decide upon the further actions to be carried out based on
the report that you have prepared.
2.3.2 Analysis
After going through the report that you have submitted in planning phase
the management would provide you the directions in which you have to
progress. At the worst case the management can even decide to the wrap up the
development process by looking at the cost benefit analysis.
A thorough study of the existing system has to be carried out in the
analysis phase. This is crucial because it is only to rectify the problems in the
existing system a new system is developed. In order to rectify problem, first you
have to understand clearly what the problems are. Then only you can think of
solving those problems.
The analysis stage would also indicate about the nature of changes that
would be introduced in to the organization by the implementation of the
proposed system.
Analysis phase involves various steps. These activities are as listed
below:

By using various techniques like interviews, questionnaires and

observation, you have to gather data from the user. The quantity and
quality of the data that you gather would play an important role in
the success of the system.

After gathering the data it has to be analyzed. During this analysis

process various modeling tools can be used. For example data flow
diagram (DFD) is one such modeling tool which is widely used in
system development life cycle. Apart from those modeling tools

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there are various other techniques that can be used. One such
technique is called CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering).
Using these tools you can analyze various parameters of the system
so that they can be tweaked for better performance.

A report has to be prepared at the end of analysis. This report would

include various components like

Explanation about the existing system

Problems in the existing system

The proposed system description

The future course of actions

Analysis phase is where you exactly find out what is the flaw in the
existing system. So the most important point that has to be remembered here is
that the proposed system should not have these flaws again. The proposed
system should ensure better performance than the existing system.
There is one more point worth noting here which is called Paralysis by
analysis. Though analysis is important you should not stuck-up with too much
of analysis. The boundary and scope of analysis has to be clearly defined.
2.3.3 Designing
It is only in the designing stage the proposed system's creation starts. The
designing phase itself can be divided in to two more sub-phases. They are called

Preliminary design

Detailed Design

2.3.3.1 Preliminary Design

Preliminary design would outline the capabilities of the proposed system.
It is only in the preliminary design stage when the overall sketch of the proposed
system is developed.

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In preliminary design another important component is the development

of prototype system. Prototype is the miniature working model of the system. In
prototype whole system is not miniaturized but few components are
miniaturized.
The reasons for developing prototype are to get an insight into the new
system that is under development. Developing prototype should not take much
longer time because prototype is not the final product the organization is going
to use. Rather the purpose of prototype is to give the user a feel about the
proposed system by providing certain graphical user interface components etc.
2.3.3.2 Detailed Design
Detailed design would elaborate the concepts that have been discussed in
the preliminary design stage. Here the capabilities of the proposed system would
be described in detail.
The detailed design specification includes various components. These
components are as listed below:

Input requirement specifications

Output requirement specifications

Processing requirement specifications

Storage requirement specifications

Backup specifications

The components in the above list would be explained clearly in the

detailed design specification. For example the input and output specification
would throw light on how the proposed system handles the input and output.
Similarly the storage specification explains the storage details about the
proposed system.

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After all these tasks have been carried out a report has to be prepared.
This report would include all the above mentioned specifications. It is the design
phase where the proposed system's behaviors are clearly explained.
2.3.4 Development
After the designing stage the next step is development. In the
development stage the actual system development takes place. Appropriate
techniques should be used during system development so that the delays can be
avoided to a maximum level.
The development stage has to clearly adopt the specifications given by
the planning phase. Any unnecessary deviations from the specifications would
give rise to conflicts. So these deviations have to be avoided.
Since the development includes a team of programmers, proper
arrangements like code version management, coding standards etc have to be
made. This would result in better and faster system development.
An unplanned development stage would make the implementation and
maintenance phase hectic. So it is the development phase where the actual
system is built.
During this development it is not necessary that all components have to
be developed from scratch. Where-ever feasible, the necessary third party
components can also be used. The choice of selection of third party component
can be based on various factors as listed below:

Cost advantages of the component: Since the development of a

component in-house would require cost, the comparisons have to be
made between the cost of developing the component from the scratch
and getting the component from third parties.

Compatibility of the component: The component that you acquire from

third party should be compatible with your code. If that component is

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totally different from your user interface specifications then it would

not be encouraged to go for such components.

Quality: The component that you acquire from third party has to be
well tested one. Otherwise it can cause some serious problems during
the maintenance phase.
In addition to software, the hardware that is needed for the system has to

be acquired at this stage. An improper hardware configuration would drastically

reduce the performance of your system. So care has to be taken while selecting
the proper hardware.
Apart from the above activities there is one more activity called testing
which decides whether the final system is going to be a success or failure.
Because if the system is delivered to the user without proper testing then it can
create wrong impressions about the new system at the earlier stages. Once the
users got such an impression it would be very hard to make the system popular
among the users.
There exist various different types of testing methodologies. The
complete description about testing is out of scope of this text. But here the
important things about testing would be highlighted.
Associated with any system there are two types of testing. They are as
listed below:

Unit Testing: In the case of unit testing individual modules of the

system would be tested for proper functioning. Unit testing objective
is to rectify as many bugs as possible with respect to that individual
module.

Integrated testing or System testing: Though all the modules are

tested for their functionalities individually they have to be tested as a
whole. This becomes necessary because when various modules
interact with each other there is a possibility of errors out of this.

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These errors would be rectified in the system testing stage. The

system testing objective is to remove all possible bugs in the system.
Apart from the above mentioned testing methodologies there exist
various other techniques also. Some of them are listed below:

White Box Testing

Black Box Testing

User Acceptance testing

Load testing etc

In the case of load testing the system would be tested for the amount of
load it is capable of handling. In load testing large amount of data would be
supplied and the behavior of the system would be tracked in response to this
load. The system has to cross a particular load level. If the system breaks within
such a load level then there is some flaw in the system development. Those
flaws have to be identified and they have to be rectified.
Once the system is well tested and certified for no major bugs it becomes
ready for the actual implementation process.
2.3.5 Implementation
After the testing process the system has to be implemented for the actual
use. Since the system that is going to be implemented is relatively newer, the
users of this system have to be trained.
Proper level of training has to be given to the users who are going to use
this newly developed system. If the training is not proper even the best systems
can get negative reactions from the users. So it becomes the responsibility of the
training team to make the users feel comfortable with the system.
There exist different types of implementation. Few of the popular
implementation types are as listed below:

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Parallel Implementation: In the case of parallel implementation both

the old and new systems would be used for certain period of time. Once
the new systems become reliable the old system would be discontinued.
This methodology is called parallel run. When both the systems are
in execution the following approaches can be followed with respect to
data entry:

You can ask the users to enter data in both new and old
systems manually. This would raise objections because it
increases the work load drastically.

Another approach is to create programs that would

automatically migrate the data that is been entered in to the
new system in to old system. This would be welcomed by the
users because there is no additional workload for them. But
from the development teams point of view, they have to
develop these migration tools which would require additional
development time.

Phased Implementation: The new system would become usable in

stages. Initially one module would be made available to the user.
After some time, when it becomes stable the next module would be
given to the users. This methodology would require a longer period
of time for implementation.

Pilot Implementation: In pilot implementation the complete system

would be released but it would be used only by a portion of
employees. One of the problems with this approach is that when the
system is released for entire set of users, they may give different
opinions than the group of employees who used the pilot
implementation.

Direct Implementation: It is the easiest implementation method. At

the same time the riskiest method also. In this method from a

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particular day onwards the organization stops using the old system
and it totally shifts to the new system. If the new system behaves as
planned then there will not be any problem. But if the new system
fails then the entire functioning of the organization would become
risky.
So the proper implementation method has to be identified after detailed
discussion with both top level management and various levels of users who are
going to use the system.
2.3.6 Maintenance
Not only the information systems but any product requires maintenance.
Maintenance involves two important components. They are as listed below:

Making sure that the implemented system is functioning smoothly.

When there is an additional or modified need for the user these

changes are also incorporated into the system.

The first component would involve activities like backup etc. If the
system requires networking then the network should also be maintained for
proper functioning.
The second component involves additions or modifications in to the
actual code. When incorporating any new requirement or modifying an existing
option, it has to be made sure that it will not affect other components of the
system.
At one point in time the cost of maintaining the system would go beyond
a particular level. At that time again the System Development Life cycle has to
start. Other reasons for starting it again may be like shifting to latest
technologies etc.
An information system which has been developed by properly following
the instructions given above would be beneficial for the organization.

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Summary

Information systems are used to handle the information associated with

an organization.

There exist various types of information like operational, tactical and

strategic information.

There are various types of information systems like transaction

processing system, management information system, decision support
systems, executive information system and office automation systems.

Transaction processing system takes care of the operational

information. It is mainly related to day-to-day business transactions.

Management information systems are for middle level management.

They are used to generate summary information by taking the input
from transaction processing systems.

Decision support systems are also used by middle level management.

The decision support systems provide analysis of information received
from various departments.

Executive information systems are for top level management. They

would provide high level view of data associated with the organization.

Office automation systems would be used by everyone in the

organization. They include components like word processing,
videoconferencing etc.

SDLC stands for system development life cycle. It denotes various

stages of system development.

Planning is the first stage of SDLC where the initial investigation

would be performed.

Analysis is the phase where the existing system analysis is done by

gathering data through various sources.

Designing phase involves both preliminary design and detailed design

Development phase is where the actual system development happens

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Implementation phase can be done in various ways like direct

implementation, parallel implementation etc.

During maintenance phase smoother working of the system would be

guaranteed and new requirements from the user would be incorporated
into the system.

Self Assessment Questions

Part I (Multiple Choice Questions)

IS stands for

Information Submission

Information Selection

Information Systems

All of the above

None of the above

Operational information characteristics are/is

Large volume in nature

Relates to day-to-day transactions

Doesn't require complex processing

All of the above

None of the above

CASE is

Computer Aided Software Engineering

Computer Aided System Estimation

Computer Applied Solution Evaluation

All of the above

None of the above

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Information system that helps the top-level management is/are

Management Information System

Executive Information System

Decision Support Systems

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is/are testing method(s)

White Box Testing

Black Box Testing

User Acceptance Testing

All of the above

None of the above

Part II (Short Questions)

Write short notes on operational information?

List out various types of information systems.

How does Decision support system differ from Management Information

Systems?

What are all various methods of implementation?

List out various phases of SDLC.

What are all the two sub-phases of designing?

What is the importance of training?

List out the activities in maintenance.

Part III

Explain in detail about various types of Information Systems.

Elaborate on System Development Life Cycle.

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Answer Key
Part I
1. c

2. d

3. a

4. b

5. d
Part II

Operational information relates to the day-to-day transactions of the

organization. Operational information is huge volume in nature. They dont
require any complex processing.

Various types of information systems are as listed below:

Transaction Processing Systems

Management Information Systems

Decision Support Systems

Executive Information Systems

Office Automation Systems.

The major difference between management information system and decision

support system is as follows: management information system provide
summary of information but the decision support system provide analysis of
the information which requires complex processing,

Various methods of implementation are listed below;

Parallel Implementation

Phased Implementation

Direct implementation

Pilot Implementation

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Various phases of SDLC are

Planning

Analysis

Designing

Development

Implementation

Maintenance

There exist two sub phases in designing. They are preliminary design and
detailed design.

Training becomes an important process because without proper training the

users of the system would feel uncomfortable with the newly developed
system. So it is the responsibility of the training team to make the users feel
comfortable with the newly developed system.

There exist two major activities in maintenance. One is to keep the system
working smoother. Another is to incorporate any new changes given by the
user. While incorporating changes the integrity of the system should be given
importance.

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Lesson 3: The Hardware

Introduction

Nowadays there exists an array of hardware devices that are either

integral part of the computer or they can be attached as peripheral
devices.

It becomes very much essential to have better understanding of

hardware to feel comfortable with computers.

Different specialized devices exist to perform various tasks. As a

student of information technology, you should enrich your
knowledge base regarding these devices.

Objectives

Introducing various types of hardware architecture of computers

(personal computers, workstations, supercomputers etc).

Explaining the working principle, advantages of various input

devices like keyboard, mouse etc.

Providing detailed information about various types of display

devices like CRT, flat panel devices.

Explaining the concepts about various types of printers like impact

printers, non-impact printers etc. The types of plotters would also be
explained.

Discussing the details about various storage devices like hard disk,
compact disk etc.

3.1 Different architectures of Computers

Computer hardware has undergone drastic changes over a period of time.
This section would provide descriptions about various types of computers based
on their architecture and purpose.

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3.1.1 Getting familiar with terminology

It becomes necessary to have fundamental understanding of terminology
used with computer architectures to get a clear picture about different kinds of
architecture. Here you can get an insight into various terminologies specific to
computer architecture.

Vacuum tubes: These were the units that constituted the first generation
of computers. Vacuum tubes are nothing electronic tubes with a glowing
filament in them. A good example for computer that used these vacuum
tubes is ENIAC. The primary problem with vacuum tubes is their failure
rate. Another problem is their big size.

Transistors: Transistor is one of the ground breaking inventions in the

field of electronics. A transistor is basically an electronically operable
switch. These transistors have got the capability to switch on and off
huge number of times in a second. Transistors are very less in size
comparing the vacuum tubes. The biggest advantage is that they
consumed very less power for their operation. The reliability of
transistors is comparatively more than that of vacuum tubes. Transistors
played key role in reducing the size of computer.

Integrated circuits: Next to transistor is integrated circuit or simply

called an IC. An IC can be considered as circuit in a chip. The
development of ICs reduced the size of computer further down. Recent
developments in IC include LSI (Large Scale Integrated Circuits) and
VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits).

All the elements of the above lists reduced the size and increased the power
of computers to a greater extent. There is a famous law in computer science
related to this which is called Moores Law. It states that
The density of transistors on chip would double once every eighteen
months

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The Moores law was developed by Gordon Moore in the year 1965.
Moores law is true till date. This is to say that the size of transistors is reducing
according to above specified Moores Law.
There exist different types of computers. They are as listed below:

Personal Computers

Workstations

Mini Computers

Mainframe Computers

Super Computers

3.1.2 Personal Computers

A personal computer is simply called PC. The computer that most of
you use for your daily use is called personal computer. Personal computers have
following characteristics:

Personal computers are relatively inexpensive.

Personal computer can accommodate maximum of one user at a time.

Personal computer generally has one microprocessor (Recently there is a

variation to this feature. Nowadays personal computers can hold more
than more microprocessor)

Personal computers are generally used for word processing, DTP,

spreadsheets, games and surfing internet.

Personal computers were introduced during the year 1977 by Apple. This
personal computer was called Apple II. This became very much popular during
those days.
During the early 1980s IBM launched their version of personal computer
called IBM-PC. Later to this, the term PC was used to refer IBM-PC. IBM-PC
changed the attitude of users towards computers. After the advent of IBM-PC
computers were getting more popularity among the general public.

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In personal computers there are two types based on the assembling or

arrangement of components. They are

Desktop Model: In desktop model PCs the monitor would sit on top of
the CPU. This model would require only very small space because there
is no need for additional space for CPU.

Tower Model: Tower model PCs are also called Mini Tower PC. In the
case of tower type the components inside the cabinet would be stacked
on top of each other i.e. Hard disk, Floppy disk drive, CD Drive and
other components would be placed on top of one another. The advantage
of tower model is that if you want to add any more components like
additional storage etc it would be relatively easy comparing to Desktop
model.

One more point worth noting here is that recently the gap between the highend PC and the workstation is blurred. In other words nowadays you can find
PCs that has advanced computing facilities like more than one microprocessor,
good amount of main memory etc.
3.1.3 Workstations
Workstations are more powerful comparing to personal computers.
Workstations have got powerful microprocessors. The display associated with
workstation will also be powerful than that of personal computers.
Since the power of workstations is more they are used for applications
like CAD / CAM, complicated software development process etc. Workstations
would generally have built in network support i.e. they can be easily connected
to a network. (Sometimes any computer connected to a network is called
workstation though they may be personal computers)
Workstations are ideal choice for graphical applications like Digital
Image Processing etc because this task requires higher computing power and
increased amount of RAM.

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Workstations would have mass storage devices. There is an exception to

this where mass storage will not be there. Such types of workstations are called
diskless workstations.
The operating systems that are used with workstations are generally
UNIX, Linux or Windows NT (Windows New Technology).
3.1.4 Minicomputers
Minicomputers are more powerful than workstation. Mini computers can
support hundreds of users at a time. (This is the primary difference between a
workstation and minicomputer. A workstation is a single user computer)
Therefore to a minicomputer hundreds of terminals can be connected.
These terminals can be operated simultaneously.
Mini computers do have large sized storage and RAM because all the
terminals connected to minicomputer would use the resources of minicomputer.
So it has to possess good amount of resources to support smoother functioning.
3.1.5 Mainframe Computers
You can think of mainframes as power enriched minicomputers.
Mainframe computers can support thousands of users simultaneously
(minicomputer can support hundreds of users at a time).
In order to support thousands of users at a time mainframes have to
possess huge amount resources like computing facility, storage and main
memory.
All the terminals connected to a mainframe can submit different types of
tasks to the mainframe. Mainframe has to distribute its resource among all these
tasks. So in the case of mainframe task management and memory management
has to done much effectively. To perform this there exist specialized operating
systems available for mainframe computers.

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Generally the terminals connected to mainframe are called dumb

terminals. They have the capability of simply input and output. At the same
time they submit all the processing to the mainframe.
Mainframe computers are mostly used for bulk data processing tasks.
For example in an organization like bank there would be lots of tasks which
would be process intensive. These tasks can be assigned to mainframe to get
output faster as well as with good accuracy.
After the advent of Client-Server technology the popularity of
mainframes got reduced. More on Client-Server technology would be discussed
in later portions of this text.
3.1.6 Supercomputers
Supercomputers are fastest computer systems. Supercomputers were
introduced during 1960s. Generally supercomputers are a combination of many
computers working together. The primary difference between supercomputers
and mainframe is as follows: A mainframe computer distributes its processing
capacity among solving many problems at the same time. At the same time
supercomputers use all of their resources to solve a single problem as fast as
possible.
The applications of supercomputers are in domains like weather
forecasting, nuclear energy research etc. In general any problem which would
require processing time in terms of hours, days, month etc can be submitted to
supercomputers to get the result as early as possible.
Our country has got indigenously developed supercomputers called
PARAM. It stands for PARallel Accessing Machines. Other popular examples
includes IBM Blue Gene (Which is considered one among the fastest list) etc.
The processing speed of Supercomputers are measured in units of
FLOPS (Floating point operations per second). For supercomputers the
processing speed would be in terms of Terra FLOPS.

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3.2 Real Time Systems

Real Time Systems are simply called RTC. They operate under specific
time a constraint i.e. there is a predefined limit with in which the system has to
produce its output. There exist two types of real time systems. They are as listed
below

Hard Real Time System: In hard real time system the fixed deadline
is very important. Output delivered after this limit would be useless.
There are plenty of examples for hard real time systems. A system
that is controlling the airplane is an example for hard real time
system. If such a system doesnt deliver the output with in the
deadline it would have certain chaotic effects.

Soft Real Time System: In soft real time system if the deadline is
missed then the output can still be usable but the quality would be
affected. A system that is controlling a game can be considered as
soft real time systems. At the same time the difference between the
expected time and actual time should not become very high. In such
a case the output would become lower in terms of quality and would
become useless.

Real Time Systems are not same as high performance systems. It is not
necessary that real time system should be produce output immediately but they
have to produce the output within the fixed time limit.

3.3 Transaction Processing Systems

Transaction processing system would be operating on the basis of
Transactions. A transaction may consist of n number of tasks. These task has
to be carried out in full or nothing manner.

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For example consider the following scenario: You have to transfer some
amount from account A to B. You would encounter following steps:

Step 1: A_Balance = A_Balance Amount

Step 2 : B_Balance = B_Balance + Amount

If the system fails after the first step then the amount would have been
subtracted from As account. At the same time Bs balance would not have
updated. In this scenario all the above mentioned steps has to be carried out in
full or no step should be carried out.
These transaction processing systems should follow the atomicity
principle i.e. each transaction has to be considered as a single unit. It should not
be divided further.
If these systems dont follow atomicity principle then the integrity of the
system would become a question mark.

3.4 Laptop
Laptop computers are portable computers. They are now becoming
equivalent to their personal computer counterparts in their processing speed and
memory capacity.
Being portable requires many features:

Laptops are less in weight. This makes porting from one place to another
easier.

Power requirements of the laptops are very less. They operate on a

battery (Though you can operate even by connecting it to main power
supply). To achieve this less power requirement flat-panel displays are
used.

Laptops are nowadays called notebook computers. Since they have become
ultra slim and looks like a notebook (even you can carry it like a notebook) this
name is used.

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Since the notebook computer uses advanced technologies to assemble all the
components in much lesser space the cost of note book computers are higher. (If
you consider a desktop PC and note book with similar processing capacities the
cost of later would be much higher).

3.5 Palmtop
Hand-held computers are called palmtop. The name palmtop is given
because it can sit easily with in your palms. These palmtops are ultra portable
than the notebook computers.
The purpose of notebook computer and palmtop varies. Notebook
computer can hold majority of the applications that is possible in desktop PCs.
But in the case of palmtop application types would be limited.
Palmtops are otherwise called PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). They
are a combination of mobile phone + portable computers. These palmtop
computers would have wireless networking features. They can be easily linked
with a Wi-Fi network.
PDA has got certain advanced features like voice recognition, hand
writing recognition etc. If voice recognition feature is there in a PDA then you
can control such a PDA through voice commands.

3.6 Client Server and multi-tier Architecture

Client server architecture has totally revolutionized the computing
paradigm. With the advent of client-server computing less powerful machines
can be attached to a powerful machine and carry out the operations so that
maximum throughput would be achieved.
Client is the computer or software program which request for certain
services. At the same time server is a computer or software program that reacts
and responds to the client requests.

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There is a possibility that client and server can reside even on the same
machine (if both of them are software programs). The power of client server
computing can be understood by the fact that the internet works on the client
server architecture.
The web browser that you use in your machine is the client program.
These client programs communicates with server i.e. web servers to get the
required web page or web service. In order to communicate they follow certain
standard protocols.
There are basically two types of clients. They are thin client and rich
client. In the case of thin client everything has to be carried out at the server
side. The client machine would only receive input from the user and display the
output back to the user.
In the case of rich client some of the processing would be carried out in
client side itself. If the client machine is having reasonably good hardware
configuration then the resources at client can be harnessed. By this the load on
the server would be reduced. One thing to remember is that to implement rich
client architecture the client machine should have reasonably good hardware
configuration.
The general client server architecture can be as simple as two tire
architecture i.e. client is one layer (tier) and server is another layer. In the case
of n-tier architecture multiple layers are introduced in between.
For example a separate database server can be introduced for taking care
of database related operations. In general many applications are designed in
three tier architecture. One tier for presentation, another for business logic and
another would be for data or storage.
The n-tier architecture makes the maintenance of the applications easier
because the bugs (errors) can be easily identified and rectified. It also provides
modularity i.e. if the performance at one layer is not good you can even think of
totally replacing it with new one without making modifications in other layers.

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3.7 Input Devices

A computer may not be able to perform its role if the input data is not
supplied. The input devices are the peripheral devices that are connected to the
computer to receive the input from the user and transmit it to the central
processing unit. There are certain input devices which are used frequently and
others which are used rarely. This section would elaborate on different types of
input devices, their usage and functionality.
In general input devices can be classified in to three broad categories on
the basis which type of data they handle. This classification is as shown below
in Figure 3.1
Figure 3.1: Input Device Categories

3.7.1 Character Input Devices

Associated with any computer you would have seen a device called
keyboard. Keyboard is a character input device. Through character input devices
you can enter alphabets, numerals, special characters and few control characters
like Alt, Ctrl, and Shift etc.
Keyboards can be classified into two types. They are as listed below:

Mechanical Keyboard: In a mechanical keyboard each key has a

mechanical setup which facilitates the communication between
the keyboard and the underlying circuitry.

Membrane Keyboard: In membrane keyboard instead of the

mechanical setup a membrane would be used. Normally these
types of keyboards are cheaper than the mechanical keyboard. At
the same time mechanical keyboards has got longer durability
than the membrane keyboards.

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Associated with any keyboard there is a circuitry inside the keyboard.

You have a key matrix which is used to convert the key presses in to actual key
codes which the computer can understand. Keyboards are modeled on the basis
of their predecessors i.e. the typewriters. The keyboard layout generally
followed is called QUERTY. It represents the first six keys present on the top
alphabet row.
Apart from these general keyboards there are certain specially designed
keyboards. Few of them are listed below:

Projection Keyboards: Projection keyboard is one of the recent

innovations related to character input devices. In this type of keyboard
the key layout would be projected on any flat surface. And the user can
use it just like the normal keyboard. Based on the movement of fingers
the key strokes would be recognized.

ATMs and POS terminals: These are specially designed for a particular
purpose. The ATM key pads would have only the required keys that are
necessary to perform your transactions. Same is the case with POS (Point
Of Sale) Keyboards.

Another important thing that you would notice with respect to keyboards is
the key count. The number of keys may vary depending on the model and
manufacture of the keyboard. Generally you would find 104 or 108 keys in the
desktop machines. In the case of laptops the number of key would be little bit
lesser (85 approx). As said above the number of keys may vary based on various
factors.
In one word we can say that, keyboards are the most used peripheral device
associated with a computer system.

3.7.2 Pointing Devices

Another category of input devices are the pointing devices. After the
advent of graphical user interface operating systems there was a need for

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pointing devices. Pointing devices are used to locate the cursor on a particular
location on the screen and execute the command by clicking etc. There exists an
array of pointing devices available today.

Mouse: Mouse is a generally used pointing device. It has the capability

to recognize the movement both in terms of X and Y axis. Bill English
invented the ball mouse in the year 1972. The number of buttons in a
mouse may vary from one to three. But the normal one is two button
mice. These buttons are used to perform right click and left click (called
click). Apart from these buttons there can be a scrolling wheel in the
mouse. In addition to click actions you can also perform an action called
drag with the mouse. In drag action you would be moving the mouse
by holding any one of the mouse buttons. In mouse itself you have two
variations they are

Mechanical Mouse: This category of mouse would have a

circular ball beneath them. When the user moves the mouse the
ball rotates accordingly. Based on the rotations of ball, signals
would be sent to the system so that proper actions can be taken.
One of the major problems with mechanical mouse is that it can
accumulate dust around the ball which would disturb the free
flow of the mouse.

Optical Mouse: In the case of optical mouse the mechanical ball

is replaced with light source. This light source and the sensors
inside the mouse would recognize the movements of the mouse.
The problem that we specified with mechanical mouse is not
there in the case of optical mouse. But optical mouse do have a
drawback that they may not be able to recognize movement in
certain glassy surfaces. Comparatively optical mouse is more
flexible than the mechanical mouse.

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Trackball: Trackball may be considered as the upside-down version of

the mouse. Trackball consists of a ball located on top. This ball can be
controlled by using the finger. The advantage of using trackball is that it
provides higher precision. This higher precision would be very much
helpful in applications like CAD.

Touchpad: You would find the touchpad in laptops. Touchpad would

consist of an area in which you can slide your fingers to control the
movement of cursor. The click action would be performed by tapping
your finger on the touchpad area. There are buttons available in touchpad
which you can use for the click and double click etc.

Joystick: Joysticks are specialized input devices which are mostly used
with computer games. But apart from computer games it has its uses in
other domains like wheel chair controlling etc. In larger cranes and
trucks also joysticks are used to achieve finer control.

Touch screen: Touch screens acts as both output as well as input devices.
Touch screens are sensitive to pressing. The advantage of touch screen is
that you can directly touch on the displayed item for selection. This
would be very much useful in places like kiosks, information rendering
terminals and ATM etc. Touch screens are very much user friendly i.e.
they are self-explanatory.

Digitizers: Digitizers are pen like devices which can be operated on a

specialized board. This would be useful for artists because drawing with
the help of mouse or other pointing devices is not easier. When the
digitizers are used they provide the feel of directly operating with the
normal pen. Digitizers are available both in wired as well as wireless
forms. The wireless digitizers would be very much flexible for the users.

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3.7.3 Multimedia Input Devices

Modern day computer supports various types of media like sound,
image, video etc. So there is a need for input devices which has the capability to
capture all these above mentioned media. This section would illustrate various
multimedia based input devices.

Scanners: When you want to input an image into computer scanners

would be very much helpful. The purpose of scanners is to transform the
physical images (for that matter text or scribbling) into digital format.
There exist various types of scanners. For example scanner having
capability to support multicolor, single color etc. Important attribute of
any scanner device is called the dpi (dots per inch). This dpi actually
decides the quality of images. More the dpi higher the quality of image.
At the same time large dpi images would be much bigger in size. They
would also require longer time to scan the document. All the scanners
allow the users to select the dpi they want. It would provide a list of
resolutions (dpi) from which user can select one according to his/her
need. Scanners are widely used in the desktop publishing industry
(DTP).

Character Recognition Devices: There exist many types of character

recognition devices. Most popularly used ones listed below:

Optical Character Recognition: Reads pre printed

characters. But these characters are written using
predefined styles

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition: Used to recognize

characters written using magnetic inks. Normally used
with bank checks.

Optical mark Recognition: Used to recognize pencil

marks at predefined locations. Normally used for
answering multiple choice type questions.

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Barcode Readers: These devices are used to convert the barcodes printed
on a physical object to electronic form. Barcode readers extract data
from the barcode.

Audio input devices: To input audio in to the system generally

microphones are used. The associated software recognizes the signals
from microphone and converts those signals to digital form. Once the
audio has been received by the system it can be saved in plenty of
formats like wav, mp3, ra etc. In combination with these audio input
devices now you have specialized software called voice recognition
systems. These voice recognition systems can transform voice in to text.
The accuracy of recognition depends on the training and the quality of
the software used to recognize.

Video input devices: To capture the video into the computer you can use
the video input devices. Webcam (Web camera) is one of the popularly
used to video input device. These cameras can be attached to the USB
port of the computer. The quality of the video again depends on the
resolution that your camera supports. Higher the resolution larger the
video size. In addition to webcams the digital cameras can also be
connected to the computer system to transfer the captured videos.

Apart from the above mentioned input devices there exist certain bio-metric
devices. For example the finger print reader is one such example for bio-metric
readers. Nowadays there are finger print readers are available in laptops itself
for additional security. Iris pattern recognition systems are used to recognize
particular person by scanning patterns inside the eyes.
Recent developments into these kinds of recognition devices are RFID
(Radio Frequency Identification). Small RFID tags can be attached to objects
which can be recognized later. The RFID is getting highly popular in retail
shops industry and Library domain.

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3.8 Secondary Storage

The primary memory is volatile in nature i.e. when it get disconnected
from the power supply the contents stored in it would be erased. So there is a
need for storage which is non-volatile. Secondary storage would exactly perform
the same.
A comparison between primary and secondary storage would be
interesting. Primary storage is faster comparing to secondary storage. At the
same time the size of primary storage is very less.
There exists variety of secondary storage devices. This section would
provide detailed content regarding the usage and working principle of these
secondary storage devices. The below given is the list of secondary storage
devices that you would study in this section:

Floppy disk

Hard disk

Compact Disk

Magnetic Tapes

Flash memory

3.8.1 Floppy Disks

Floppy disk is a portable secondary storage device. Normally floppy
disks are called diskette. Floppy disks are available in various sizes:

8 Inches

5.25 Inches

3.5 Inches

In fact 8 and 5.25 inch disks are not in use today. Normally used ones are
3.25 inches disk.

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Data are stored into floppy disk by magnetic principles (in a circular plate
which is located inside the floppy disk). To read the data from floppy disk you
should have floppy disk drives. In line with the size of the floppy disk there are
different kinds of floppy disk drives also exists.
The floppy disk drives are normally located in the cabinet itself. There
exist external floppy disk drives also. You can find these with very compact
laptops where there is no space to place the floppy disk drives. In such case you
can connect the floppy disk drive through USB port or similar.
Floppy disks drives have the capacity to read and write the data into a floppy
disk. At the same time a floppy disk can be made read-only by using the writeprotect notch. The write protection mechanism is not the same in 5.25 and 3.5
inches floppy disks. In 3.5 inch floppy write protection would be enabled if the
write protection window is open. In the case of 5.25 inches when the opening for
write protection is closed write protection would be enabled.
Storage area of floppy disk is logically divided into tracks and sectors.
Tracks are the concentric circular areas of the disk. Each track is divided into
many sectors. Sectors are wedge-shaped. These sectors are invisible in nature.
Inside the floppy disk drive there is a mechanism called head. The head is
responsible for reading and writing data to and from the disk. The circular plate
inside the floppy disk which holds the data would rotate and the head would also
make movements so that the specified track and sector can be located.
The size of the 3.5 inches floppy disk is 1.44 MB. Before using any floppy
disk it has to be formatted. Generally formatting is a process which is applicable
to all the secondary storage devices so that these devices would become usable.
Apart from the traditional floppy disks there are certain specialized floppy
disk called Zip disks and super disk etc. Zip disk would be in capacity of 100 or
250 Mega Bytes (Iomega Zip disks). The super disks are of size 120 Mega
Bytes. This is called LS-120 diskette.

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Though the floppy disk has the advantage of portability they have few
disadvantages. They are as follows: The data stored in the floppy disk are
sensitive to magnetic materials. So there is a possibility that the data would get
corrupted easily if it comes in contact with magnetic substances.
After the advent of other storage devices like CD and Thumb drives the
usage of floppy disks are getting reduced. The reason is the increased storage
space in the later devices. Roughly if you compare the amount of storage in
Floppy (1.44 MB) and a typical compact disk (700 MB) then you can realize
how much the later devices are huge in capacity. This is the primary reason for
diminishing popularity of floppy disk these days.

3.8.2 Hard disks

Hard disk is a fixed secondary storage device. Floppy disk are easily
removable and hard disk are not so. Hard disks are some time called Winchester
disks. Hard disks are much larger in size. As of today a typical hard disk is
around 80 to 160 GB. But you can find hard disk with much higher storage
space also.
In the case of floppy disk there is a separate device called floppy disk
drive but with hard disk the disk and drive are tightly packaged. Whatever you
see externally as hard disk is in fact a combination of both hard disk and hard
disk drive or simply called HDD.
In combination with hard disk there is unit called hard disk controllers.
The role of hard disk controller is acting as a interface between the hard disk and
the computer. The hard disk controllers are off various types. Popularly used
ones are as listed below:

SCSI

- Small Computer System Interface

IDE

- Integrated Drive Electronics

EIDE

- Enhanced Drive Electronics

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With the help of SCSI up to 8 HDD can be controlled where as in the case of
ATA the maximum is 4. So the selection of SCSI or ATA depends on the usage
of the hard disk.
A typical hard disk is packaged with many platters inside. These platters are
made up of glass ceramic or aluminum disks. These platters are coated with
magnetic materials. As specified for floppy disks, hard disks too have tracks and
sectors. Hard disk additionally has a unit called cylinder. Data would be stored
on these platters as magnetized spots.
In hard disk there would be read/write head. This read/write head doesnt
make physical contact with the platters. There would be micro gap between the
actual head and the platters. If the head touches the platters then it could cause
some damage to the data on the hard disk. Even micro sized dust can cause this
damage. In order to avoid this, hard disks are packaged in an air tight manner.
So it advised not to open the external box or cover of hard disk because it can
cause the above mentioned damage.
Another factor to consider with hard disk is rpm. It stands for
revolutions per minute. Higher the revolution of the hard disk more the speed of
data retrieval. A typical hard disk today has an rpm of 7200 i.e. the platters
rotates 7200 times per minute.
As you have already understood the fact that capacity of the hard disks
are very huge, they are partitioned into many logical drives. This is for the
following purpose:

Better Organization: Each partition can be allocated for a

specified task so that the data can be organized in a better
manner.

Increased Speed: The size of the logical drives would be

comparatively lesser than the actual size of the hard disk so it
becomes very easy to locate data in these partitions. By this the
speed of data retrieval actually increases.

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Though it has been mentioned that hard disks are fixed storage devices,
there exist removable hard disks also. These devices are called External hard
disks; these external hard disks are connected to the computer through USB
ports.
Another category of hard disk exist which are called RAID (Redundant
Array Independent Disks). RAID is sometimes called Redundant Array of
Inexpensive Disks. In RAID there exist multiple hard disks connected together.
This combination may provide many benefits like security of data, improved
performance in terms of speed. There exist many levels of RAID exists called
RAID 0, RAID 1 etc.

3.8.3 Compact Disks

Both floppy and hard disk store data based on the magnetic principle.
There exists another class of storage devices which store and retrieve data with
optical principle i.e. with the help of light, to be specific laser light. So the
compact disks are called optical disks.
The diameter of a standard compact disk is 4.75 inches. Of course
nowadays miniature versions are also available. Similar to floppy disk drive
there exist Compact Disk Drives for reading data from Compact Disk. Compact
disks are generally mentioned as CD or CD ROM.
The working principle of CD ROM is as listed below:

Write Operation: To write data in to CD ROM high power laser

beams are used. These laser beams create small pits on the
surface area of the disk. .

Read operation: To read data from CD ROM low intensity laser

beams are used. Based on whether it is a pit or normal surface it
would be recognized as 1 and 0.

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The speed of CD ROM drives are mentioned in multiples of X. The value

of X stands for 150 kilobytes per second. So if the speed is mentioned as 40 X
then it stands for 40 x 150 (= 6000) kilobytes per second. There exist many
variations of CD as listed below:

CD-R: These CDs follow the Write Once Read Many time principle.
CD-R stands for Compact Disk Recordable.

CD-RW: The data recorded on this CD-RW can be erased, rewritten.

CD-RW stands for Compact Disk Rewritable.

There is another type of optical disk which is called DVD. DVD stands for
Digital Versatile Disks. The size of a DVD is in terms of GB. Normally it ranges
from 4.7 GB (Giga Bytes) to 17 GB. So DVDs have much larger storage space
then CD-ROM. The reason for increased size of DVD is that, here the pits
created are off much smaller size than the CD. In addition to this, there exist
more layers on which pits can be created. This also provides increased space for
data storage. Another important fact is that the wavelength of laser used in DVD
is lesser than that of laser used with CD.
To read DVD you have to use DVD drives. Now there exist drives which
can read both DVD and CD. These drives are called combo drives. Generally
combo drives can perform read operation on DVD and Read/Write operation on
CD.

3.8.4 Magnetic Tapes

Magnetic tapes are not generally used with personal computers now.
They are almost outdated. Only purposes for which magnetic tapes are used
today are for backup.
Magnetic tape consists of plastic tapes rolled in a circular form. Plastic
tapes are very thin in nature. These plastic tapes are coated with magnetic
materials. In these magnetic coating only the data is written or read back.

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Access speed of these magnetic tapes is very slow. So they can be used
in places where the speed of data retrieval is not a primary concern. As specified
earlier primary purpose of these tape drives are archival.
The magnetic tapes resemble the audio cassette. These are called tape
cartridges. Normally used types of tape drives are DAT. DAT stands for Digital
Audio tapes.

3.8.5 Flash Memory

The floppy disk and hard disk comes under the classification magnetic
memory. The CD and DVD come under the category called optical memory.
Both these types of includes mechanical components which may lead to easier
damage.
There is another classification of memory which is called semi conductor
memory. The RAM (Random Access Memory) that you use for primary
memory for the computer is also semi-conductor memory. But RAM is volatile
in nature. Flash memory is semiconductor memory as well as non-volatile.
Flash memory belongs to EEPROM. It stands for Electronically Erasable
Programmable Read Only Memory. So EEPROM supports all the following
operations: Read, Write and Erase.
Nowadays flash memories are getting more popular among the users
because of its ease of use and portability. Also the cost of flash memory has
become very cheaper.
Flash memories are used not only with computer but with various other
electronic devices like digital cameras, mobile phones etc. The smaller size of
flash memory makes it convenient to use it into all of the above mentioned
devices.

3.9. Output Devices

Can you think of a computer that doesnt has any output device? In the
case of personal computers the answer is absolutely No. This question

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emphasizes the importance of output devices. Like the input devices which have
direct communication with the user, output devices also has close contact with
the user.
The computers dont know anything more than 0 and 1. Imagine the
output as simply a sequence of 0s and 1s. This would make the computers
almost unusable. The output devices provide a solution this problem. These
devices provide the output in the human readable form.
Generally the output devices can be broadly categorized into two types.
They are depicted in the following figure 3.2.
Figure 3.2 Output Device Categories

Softcopy Output: Softcopy output devices do not create any permanent

record of the output. For example an output device like monitor is an
example for softcopy output.

Hardcopy output: Hardcopy output devices create permanent record of

the output. For example an output device like printer is an example for
hardcopy output device.

This section would elaborate on both of the above mentioned types output
devices. Their usage, functionality is described in this section.
Before explaining the output devices in detail it would be better to
understand few fundamental concepts of output. Any output device has got an
attribute called resolution. Resolution refers to the quality of the output.
Resolution of the output device is generally specified like 800 x 600, 1024 x 768
etc. This indicates the number of pixels across both X and Y axes. The
multiplication of these two values would give the total number of pixels in that
output device.

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You would come across one more term related to output devices which is
called pixel. Pixels are relevant to softcopy output devices. Pixel is the
smallest individual addressing element of an output device.
In the case of hardcopy output devices the same is measured in terms of
dpi. It refers to dots per inch.

3.9.1 Softcopy Output devices

As stated earlier softcopy output devices dont create any permanent
trace of the output. In other words you can say these outputs are intangible in
nature.
There exist two broad types of softcopy output devices. They are as
listed below:

CRT displays

Flat panel displays

3.9.1.1 CRT displays

CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube. These CRTs are popularly used from
the days of televisions. There is one important difference between the CRT used
in TVs and CRT used in computers. The resolution of CRT used in computers is
much higher than the counterparts in Televisions. CRT is available in both
monochrome as well as multicolor versions.
CRT is basically a vacuum tube. In side the CRT there is a unit called
electron gun. It emits electrons. These electrons are then deflected by the yoke.
Finally when the beam hits the screen which is coated with phosphor it
illuminates. Number of pixels may be turned on or off by this process. This pixel
illumination actually creates the output on the screen. The CRT devices are also
called raster display devices. Here the electron gun creates the images as lines
drawn from left edge of the screen to right edge of the screen.

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In the case of multicolor display each pixel is made up of three dots.

These dots are of colors red, green and blue. Any color that you see in the
monitor is created with the combination of these three colors.
The primary advantage of CRT display is that they are cheaper in cost.
The demerits of CRT displays are as listed below:

CRT displays are not easily portable. They are very heavy in nature.
They occupy much larger space.

CRT displays are not power conscious i.e. they consume much higher
power.

3.9.1.2 Flat-panel Displays

Flat panel displays are getting highly popular these days. These flat panel
displays consume very less power comparing with CRT displays. They occupy
only very less space hence they become portable.
One of the major constraints in portable computers like laptops is the
power consumption. Hence these flat panel displays consumes very little power
they become ideal choice for portable computers like laptops etc.
There exist many types of flat-panel display devices. They are listed
below:

Liquid Crystal Display: The types of display devices are most popular in
nature. Here liquid crystals are used in between LCD panels. In LCD
devices there would be grid on which you can apply voltage to activate
particular intersection positions. In LCD device there are again two
categories. They are :

Active matrix LCD: This active matrix LCD uses TFT. TFT
stands for Thin Film Transistor. TFT displays can be viewed
from any angle.

Passive matrix LCD: Passive matrix LCD includes twisted

nematic LCD (TN-LCD) and super twisted nematic LCD (STN-

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LCD). These display in these devices can be viewed perfectly

only from the perpendicular angle. This is one problem with
passive matrix technology which is solved in active matrix
technology.

Plasma displays: Instead of liquid crystals in plasma panels light

emitting gases are used. These gases would be used to generate ultra
violet rays. These ultra violet rays would stimulate green, red, blue
phosphors.

3.9.2 Characteristics of Display Devices

Display device has got certain characteristics on which you can decide
the quality of the display device. This section lists out various characteristics of
display devices:

Refresh Rate: The number of times the display is redrawn per second
indicates the refresh rate of the device. If the refresh rate is very less then
you would find the display flicker. The refresh rate of a display device is
measured in terms of a unit called Hertz. Most of the display devices
provide the choice to adjust the refresh rate to the user.

Dot pitch: Dot pitch refers to the space between pixels. If the space is
much lesser then the display would look good. The dot pitch is generally
referred as dp.

The quality of the display doesnt only depend on the actual display device
but it also depends on another important unit called display adapters. There
exist various types of display adapters. This display adapter acts as the interface
between the system and the display device. This is shown in the Figure 3.3. So
these display adapters provides input to the display devices. There exist many
types of display adapters like SVGA, XGA etc. The resolution of the display
device is also dependent on the kind of adapter that is used.

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Figure 3.3: Display Card as Interface between CPU and Display device

3.9.3 Hardcopy output

Hardcopy output devices create a permanent record for the output. The
softcopy output alone may not be sufficient for many purposes. So there is a
need for a device which transfers the output generated by the computer into a
physical medium like paper, film etc. Printers provide solution to the above
mentioned problem.
There are many types of printers exist. On the basis of characters they
print at a time, printers can be classified into two types. They are character
printer and line printer. Character printer prints one character at time where is in
line printers all the characters in a line would be printed at a time.
On the basis of the type of contact with the paper printers can be
classified into two types. They are as given in Figure 3.4:

Figure 3.4: Classification of printers

3.9.3.1 Impact printers
As the name indicates impact printers makes physical contact with the
paper to print. Popularly used impact printer is the dot-matrix printer. In dotmatrix printer there would a print head which consists of small pins. These pins
will be projected forward to formulate characters (even images).
Then these pins will punch on the carbon ribbon located in front of them.
These impressions would be transferred to the paper beneath the ribbons. The
number of pins on the print head decides the quality of the printed output.
Higher the pin count greater is the quality.
The primary advantages of dot-matrix printer are as listed below:

They are cost-effective in nature. This is achieved by the reduction of

recurring cost for printing.

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Many other printers can print only on good quality paper where as dotmatrix printers may even print on low quality papers.

Dot-matrix printers can print on more than one paper at the same time
by using carbons.
The demerits of dot-matrix printers are as listed below:

The speed of the printer is slower when compared to other printers.

The resolution of the printed output also is not best.

3.9.3.2 Non-Impact Printers

As the name indicates non-impact printers do not make physical contact
with paper for printing. There are many popularly used non-impact printers.
They are:

Ink-Jet Printer

Laser Pinter

Thermal Printer

3.9.3.2.1 Ink-Jet Printer

Ink-Jet printer prints by spraying droplets of ink on to the paper. These
droplets are electrically charged. The ink-jet printer has got many nozzles. These
nozzles are the micro level openings. Through these openings only ink would be
sprayed on the paper.
In the case of color ink-jet printers there would be individual tanks for
primary colors. By combining these primary colors the image would be formed
on the screen.
There are plenty of advantages for ink-jet printer. They are as listed
below:

The quality of output generated by ink-jet printers is very high.

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Ink-jet printers dont produce any noise during printing (In the case of
dot-matrix printers noise would be generated during printing)

On the other hand ink-jet printers do have certain drawbacks. They are as
listed below:
2. Recurring cost of ink-jet printers are higher. (i.e. cost per page for
printing would be higher)
3. Hence the ink-jet printer consists of micro sized nozzles they are very
sensitive to dust. The dust on these nozzles can easily make the output
quality to very low.

3.9.3.2.2 Laser Printers

Another type of non-impact printers is laser printers. Laser printers are
getting more popular nowadays because of continuous reduction in cost of laser
printers.
The working procedure of laser printer can be outlined as follows: Laser
printers create an electrical image of the document to be printed on a drum i.e.
dots on the drums would be charged with the respective image of the document
to be printed. These charged portions of the drum attract the specialized particles
called toners. Then by applying heat toner would be made permanent on the
paper.
There are plenty of advantages for Laser printer. They are as listed
below:

Laser printer can produce both good quality image and text output.

Laser printers print much faster. (A typical laser printer can print 8-10
pages per minute)

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The output can be printed on materials other than paper like polymer
sheets. This polymer sheet printing is widely in the Desktop Publishing
industry.

Laser printers have become optimal choice for home and office uses. There
exists an array of laser printers available in the market today. Based on the
requirements a proper model can be easily selected.
In the case of color laser printers the cost of printing is still higher. One of
the problems that you would encounter with laser printer is that, by some how if
a scratch is formed on the cylinder then it would have impact on all the
consequent pages to be printed.
Among the types of printers that exist today you can easily say that the laser
printers are certainly better than other types of printers.
3.9.3.2.3 Thermal Printers
Thermal printers are one of the rarely used types of printers. In thermal
printers waxes are used to print. Head would be applied on these waxes to create
the actual output. Thermal printers are costlier in nature. You can select thermal
printer if you want to have highest quality of output.
Apart from these printers there are certain special category printers as
listed below:
11. Multifunction printers: These devices perform more tasks than printing
like fax, scan, photocopying etc.
12. Label printers: These printers are designed to print only the labels. They
are inexpensive in nature.

3.9.3.3 Plotters
Plotters are specialized hardcopy output devices. Plotters are generally
used to plot architectural drawings or engineering designs. The dimensions of

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output generated on plotters in terms of feet. Generally plotters are used in those
circumstances when the size of the output is very large so that they can not be
printed on normal printers effectively.
There are many types of plotters. The following list illustrates various
types of plotters:
19. Pen plotter: The pen plotters create output by using many colored pens.
The number of colors may go up to eight. These pens can draw on the
paper or any other suitable medium. The output here is formed by
combination of lines not by the combination of dots as in other printing
devices.
20. Electrostatic plotter: Electrostatic plotters work similar to photocopiers.
In electrostatic plotters toners are used (similar to laser printers). These
electrostatic plotters are costlier and require regular maintenance to
ensure proper functioning.
21. Ink-jet plotters: Ink-jet plotters are comparatively cheaper. They
consume large quantities of ink. You have to wait until this ink dries.
Otherwise there is a possibility of smear.
22. Thermal Plotters: Thermal plotters require special paper. They can print
only with two colors. At the same time thermal plotters are faster.
Summary
1. There exist various types of hardware architecture like personal
computers, workstations, mainframe, supercomputers etc.
2. Mainframe computers utilize their power in handling many users at a
time.
3. Supercomputers utilize their power in solving a particular problem
in a faster manner.
4. There exist portable computers like laptop, palmtop etc. They all
have the capability to work on battery power.

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5. Real-time systems have to produce output within the particular

deadline.
6. There exist two types of real-time systems: hard real-time systems,
soft real-time systems.
7. Transaction processing system handles each transaction as an atomic
unit.
8. There exist two types of client namely thin client and rich client.
9. Keyboard is a character input device used. There exist two types of
keyboard called mechanical keyboard and membrane keyboard.
10.

The mouse is a pointing device. The two types of mouse are ball

mouse and optical mouse. The number of buttons on the mouse may
vary. A scroll wheel can also be there in mouse.
11.

Touch pad is also a pointing device primarily associated with

laptop computers.
12.

Track ball is the upside down version of mouse. The ball can be

controlled by fingers directly.

13.

Storage devices are of two types. They are primary storage and

secondary storage.
14.

Primary storage is volatile in nature. The contents would be

erased if the power is switched off.

15.

Secondary storage retains the contents permanently. (They are

non-volatile in nature)
16.

There exist many secondary storage devices like hard disk,

compact disk, magnetic tape etc.

17.

Secondary storage can use different technologies like magnetic

memory, semiconductor memory, optical memory etc.

18.

Inside the hard disk there is a unit called head which is used to

read and write the contents.

19.

The storage area is divided into tracks and sectors.

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20.

You need to install a file system before using the storage device.

There exist many types of file systems like FAT32, NTFS, EXT 3
etc.
21.

Hard disk uses different technologies like SCSI, ATA etc.

22.

Floppy disk is available in various sizes. The capacity of 3.5

inches floppy disk is 1.44 MB. (Only the 3.5 inches floppy disks are
used today. Generally the usage of floppy disk is diminished).
23.

In the case of compact disk laser light is used to read and write

the contents.
24.

The improvement over compact disk is the Digital Versatile Disk

(DVD). DVD has higher capacity than the compact disk.

25.

Magnetic tape is primarily used for backup purposes nowadays.

26.

Flash memory has become the de-facto standard for portable

memory today.
27.

There exist two types of display devices like Cathode Ray Tubes

and Flat panel.

28.

Cathode Ray Tube consumes higher power than the flat panel

displays.
29.

In flat panel display, there are various types like LCD, plasma

display etc.
30.

Printers are the hardcopy output devices. There are two types of

printers. They are impact printers and non-impact printers.

31.

Dot-matrix printer is an example for impact printer. The

operational cost of dot matrix printer is lesser. They are slower in

printing.
32.

Laser printers are widely used nowadays. Tonners are used in

laser printers for printing.

33.

There are different types of plotters like pen plotters, electrostatic

printers etc.

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Self Assessment Questions

19.

FLOPS stands for

a) Floating Point Operations Per Second
b) Floating Operators Service
c) Flying object services
d) All of the above
e) None of the above

20.

Real time systems

a) Works in off-line mode.
b) Have to adhere the deadline.
c) No memory is required
d) All of the above.
e) None of the above.

21.

The display associated with Laptop is/are

a) Flat panel display.
b) Cathode display.
c) Paper display.
d) All of the above
e) None of the above

22.

Which of the following is not a type of keyboard

a) membrane keyboard
b) mechanical keyboard
c) raster keyboard
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

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23.

Which of the following is/are pointing device(s)

a) mouse
b) touch pad
c) track ball
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

24.

Which of the following is an upside down version of mouse

a) track ball
b) touch pad
c) tablets
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

25.

SCSI stands for

a) Small Computer System Interface
b) Simple Computer Software Interface
c) System Controlled Software Identification
d) All of the above
e) None of the above

26.

Compact Disk is based on

a) magnetic principles
b) optical principles
c) semiconductor principles
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

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27.

Which of the following is used in laser printers

a) carbon papers
b) ink
c) tonners
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

28.

Which of the following is not plotter type

a) Electro static plotters
b) Thermal plotters
c) optometric plotters
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
Part II (Short Questions)

What are hard real time systems?

Write short notes on palmtops.
Write short notes on track ball.
What are two types of keyboards?
Write short notes on dot-matrix printers.
Explain in short about CRT.
List out various types of plotters.
Write short notes on flash memory.
Part III (Long Answer Questions)
19.

Explain various architectures of computers.

20.

Elaborate on various types of storage devices.

21.

Define hardcopy. Explain various types of printers in detail.

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Answer Key
Part I
1. a

2. b

3. a

4. c

5. d

6. a

7. a

8. b

9. c

10. c
Part II

11.

Hard real-time system is a type of real-time system where the task must

be finished within the deadline. If the deadline is not adhered the output
would have no meaning. For example a system controlling the air traffic.
Here the deadline is vital.
12.

Palmtops are portable computers. They are smaller than the laptops. As

the name indicates you can have them in your palm to operate. Palmtops can
connect to internet in Wi-Fi mode. (Since a wired connection is not helpful in
palmtops)
13.

Track balls are upside down versions of mouse. They are pointing

devices. Track balls used to situation where the finer control is required.
14.

Keyboards are character input devices. There exist two types of

keyboards. They are called mechanical keyboard and membrane keyboard.

15.

Dot-matrix printers belong to impact type. The running cost of dot-

matrix printers are very less (The cost per page is less). Dot-matrix printers
are comparatively slower.

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16.

CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube. CRT consumes higher power than

other devices like flat panel. At the same time the image quality of the CRT
display is finer.
17.

There exist many types of plotters. They are thermal plotters, electro-

static plotters, pen plotters, ink-jet plotters.

18.

Flash memory is used with many devices today like mobile phones,

digital camera etc. Flash memory belongs to EEPROM type. The flash
memory is a semiconductor based memory.

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Lesson 4: Introduction to Computer Networks

Introduction

Every one of us uses the computer networks in our daily affairs,

knowingly or unknowingly.

Known examples are booking of a railway ticket reservation, ATM

for banking transactions etc.

So it is no wonder that computer networks forms the major and

critical portion of Information technology world.

This lesson would elaborate on the computer networks

Objectives

Explaining the benefits of computer Networks

Introducing various types of Computer Networks

Highlighting the network components

Explaining various types of network topologies

Introducing Network protocols

A Computer network can be defined as the collection of interconnected

computers that can communicate with each other.
A computer network consists of collection of computers that are
interconnected with each other. It is not always necessary that all the
interconnected computers are of same type i.e. a network can consist of
computers that belongs to various configurations. Another point to consider here
is that the computers that are connected to the network may be located
geographically far away.

4.1 Benefits of Computer Networks

Computer networks provide us various benefits. This section would
elaborate on various benefits of computer networks. The major benefits of
computer networks are as listed below:

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Sharing of critical peripheral devices

Easier communication

Software sharing

Search-ability of data

Remote and Grid Computing features

Protection of data

4.1.1 Sharing of critical peripheral devices

The primary advantage of computer networks is sharing of critical
peripheral devices. Let us consider the following scenario: An organization is
having more than thousand computers. It would become very costly to attach a
resource like laser printer to each system. In such a case network connectivity
would be very helpful. To manage this situation what you can do is attaching a
printer to the network and providing the access to this printer to authorized users
connected to the network.
Apart from reducing the cost this solution provides another important
advantage that now the resource can be controlled for valid access. The access
rights can be set for the printer so that the users who are having access rights can
access this printer.
The resource sharing can be applied for many of the costlier resources
like high resolution scanners, high capacity disk drives etc. By this strategy the
maintenance of these resources also becomes easier. For example you can easily
generate the access log for all the users who have used printer. You can also find
out information like which file they have taken printout or scanned etc.
On the other hand you are maximizing the usage of particular resource
i.e. if there exits individual peripherals there is a possibility that they would be
idle for majority of time. So the networks also make the optimal usage of
peripheral devices.

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4.1.2 Easier communication

Communication between the systems connected to a network would
become easier. Consider the following scenario: If you want to copy a file from
one machine to another machine and if there is no network exists then you have
to depend on the removable storage medium like CD ROM or Floppy or USB
drives. If the size of the files that you want to copy is huge then this solution
would become much difficult. At the same time if those systems are networked
it becomes much easier to transfer the file from one system to another.
In a typical organization there would be lot of announcements or
circulars running around. If the organizations computers are networked then
these information can be easily transmitted to the required users. One of the
most popular communication techniques that is been used all across the globe is
e-mail (Electronic Mail). Through this e-mail you can transfer information from
any part of the globe to any other part within seconds provided both the
computers are having the access to internet.
4.1.3 Software sharing
In an organization major portions of employees may require similar
software. If you want install software in individual machines that would again
become costlier. To manage this you can make the software sharable. This
sharing is tightly linked with the sharing of data.
If everyone is having their own copy of data there is a possibility of
integrity failures meaning in one system data would have been updated and
another system may not have updated the data. In such a case if decisions are
taken with the old data it can certainly affect the business.
4.1.4 Search-ability of data
Today we are living in a world which is overloaded with lots of data.
Though much data is available it would be waste if you cannot access the

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desired information or data. The networks provide an avenue using which you
can easily search the data. Though the network itself doesnt has the facility to
search data but it certainly acts as the platform on which search applications can
be easily developed. In other words if there is no network then search engines
would not make any sense. So this Search-ability (search + capability) of
networks is another important benefit of networks.
4.1.5 Protection of Data
Without networks the data would reside on individual systems or
desktops. The data residing in these types of machines have only limited
protection. If you have business sensitive data then you cant afford to take the
risk of simply putting them on a desktop PC with limited security.
If you introduce network in this scenario then you can place the business
critical data in to servers which have enriched security mechanisms. By this
your data becomes protected.
One more advantage of having network is the ability to take backups
easily. Another factor is that you can place critical information in more than one
server which may be located geographically faraway. The advantage of this is
the protection from natural calamities like flood, fire, earthquake etc.
4.1.6 Remote and Grid Computing features
If you have a task which requires high speed computing and if you dont
have computer with matching capacity then you can rely upon the technologies
like remote computing and grid computing etc. Using these technologies the
powerful computing facilities located faraway can be harnessed for executing
your tasks. Of course for this you should come to an agreement with the owner
of that remote machine. These facilities have become possible only because of
networks. If no computer network exists then you cant even think of these
features.

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For example grid computing brings the ideas of how the electricity is
been distributed with the help of power grids, to the computer science paradigm.
Here you may not be aware of the fact that from where the computing power is
coming from, very similar to the fact that you normally dont care from which
resource the electricity is coming from. In coming years this grid computing can
really the change the way in which the computer resources are perceived today.

4.2 Types of Networks

On the basis of geographical coverage computer networks are classified
in to three types. They are as listed below:

Local Area Network (LAN)

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

Wide Area Network (WAN)

4.2.1 Local Area Network (LAN)

Local Area Network (LAN) generally covers a small geographical range
like one building or one office or a campus. These types of networks are
popularly used in many of the organizations for above said benefits.
LAN doesnt require the public telephone lines. Since the coverage is
very less you can use your own private cabling system to connect the computers
together in a LAN.
The LAN can also use wireless technology. In such a scenario it is called
Wireless LAN or WLAN. Both the Wired and Wireless have their own merits
and demerits. It is the role of the network manager to decide whether to go for
the wired LAN or Wireless LAN. Wired LAN can use twisted pair cabling or
co-axial cable or even fiber-optic cables. In the case of Wireless you can use
Bluetooth or infrared or Wi-Fi.
Though there are variety of software to manage LAN, Netware from
Novell is one of the popular software to manage LANs.

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Normally the LAN connections are faster. The reason for this is the
usage of private cabling system to interconnect computers in a LAN. If a public
telecommunication line is used there is possibility of disturbances in the line
which is not there in the case of LAN.
When a LAN is very small in size, simply connecting two machines and
a printer for example, it would be called Tiny Area Network (TAN). These
TANs would be very much helpful in the case of home networking where the
number of computers and peripheral are normally very less in number.
4.2.2 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) spans across a city. Consider the
following scenario: An organization is having ten branches across a city and it
wants to connect all the branches together. In this case you cannot use LAN
because of the larger geographical coverage but to use MAN.
MAN would normally use Fiber-optic for its communication. Another
mode of communication is the wireless communication in MAN. The fiber-optic
communication would be reliable than the wireless communication. But it would
be a tedious process to setup the fiber-optic cables initially. Once the initial
setup is over fiber-optic communication can be very effective.
If you plan to use Wireless communication in MAN then you cannot use
similar technologies which are used in LAN like Bluetooth etc because of the
larger geographical coverage. In this situation you can go for the microwave or
radio communication across various units of MAN.
4.2.3 Wide Area Network
Wide Area Network (WAN) covers a larger geographical area such as a
country or the world. In the case of WAN the primary mode of communication
would be Satellite communication. Since the coverage may span across many
countries if not continents, satellite mode of communication seems to be very

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effective with the Wide Area Networks. WAN normally uses the combination of
more than one communication technique like fiber-optics and satellite etc.
In the case of WAN the public telecommunication systems are used
because it would become much costlier to establish a private communication
link across the country.
Routing plays a crucial role in WAN. Since the geographical area is
much larger it requires specialized techniques to transmit a packet (a data unit)
from the source computer to the destination computer.

4.3 Network Components

To get a clear understanding about networks it becomes necessary that
you should have an idea about various components of computer networks. This
section would provide an introduction to these components. They are as listed
below:

Connecting Media: The primary purpose of network is communication.

To establish the communication you require a medium. This medium can
be wired or Wireless. For example Fiber-optics, coaxial cables, twistedpair cables are wired communication media. Bluetooth, Infra-red, Wi-Fi
are example of wireless medium. The choice of medium depends on the
scenario.

Network Interface Cards (NIC): If you want to link a computer to a

network (wired) you would require a specialized hardware called
Network Interface Card (NIC). These NIC are normally inserted in to
extension slots of mother board. The external NIC are also available
which are not popularly used.

Network Management Software: To manage a network you would

require specialized software. There exist a special category of operating
systems called NOS (Networking operating Systems). The network
monitoring tools can be used to monitor the behavior of the network.

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Networking devices like Bridges, Gateways, Routers, Modems and

Wireless access points: If you would to link more than one network
together bridges are required. Bridges are used as an interface between
same types of networks. Gateway is also an interface which would link
different kinds of networks. Routers are used to direct the data packets so
that they can reach the proper destination. Modems are specialized
hardware that performs the tasks of modulation and demodulation. They
are used to convert analog signals to digital and vice-versa. Wireless
access points are used to wireless networks to provide access points to
the systems connected with that network.

4.4 Network Topology

Topology of a network can be defined as the layout of the network i.e.
the logical shape that the connection between various nodes forms. Selection of
topology of a network is also a critical factor in the proper functioning of
network. There exist various network topologies. They are as listed below:

Bus Topology: In the case bus topology there would be one

communication channel running common across all the nodes. If
this common channel breaks then the connectivity of the network
would not be proper. This is illustrated in the Figure 4.1
Figure 4.1: Bus topology

Star topology: In star topology there would be a central node to

which all other nodes are connected as shown in the Figure 4.2.
The advantage of star network is that if one connection breaks
then it doesnt affects other nodes.
Figure 4.2: Star topology

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Ring Topology: Here all the nodes are connected in a manner so

that it forms a loop or circular connection. In ring topology itself
you have single ring and dual ring network. Double ring or dual
ring topology allows connections in both the directions. Example
for single ring and dual ring topologies are shown in Figure 4.3
and Figure 4.4 respectively. (N1, N2, N3 stands for Node 1 ,
Node 2 etc )

Figure 4.3: Ring (single) topology

Figure 4.4: Ring (Dual) topology

Mesh topology: Mesh topology connects each node in the

network to every other node. So there exists a direct link between
any two nodes in the network. Mesh topology is very strong
because of the fact that there is a direct connection between any
two pair of nodes. Simplest of mesh topology is a triangular
shaped network which is shown in the Figure 4.5. The mesh
topology shown in the figure may look simple but when the
number of nodes increases the count of connections increase in a
rapid manner. So it is complicated to construct the mesh
topology.

Figure 4.5: Mesh topology with 3 nodes

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4.5 Network Protocols

Protocols are the set of rules that are to be followed in a network
communication. In other words we represent a protocol as language of networks.
There exists variety of protocols available for networks. A survey of all such
protocols would be out of scope of this text. So here you will find a simple
introduction to protocols that are widely used in networking paradigm.
Why do we actually need protocols? This is an interesting question. The
answer for this question is as follows: Each computer connected to the network
may be using different operating system or their hardware configuration may be
entirely different. If they want to establish connection among them, then they
have to follow certain commonly accepted rules. These commonly accepted
rules are nothing but the protocols. This term protocol you would have heard in
domains other than computer science. Every where it defines a set of agreed
upon rules which have to be followed while making interactions.
The below given is a list of popularly used protocols in the computer
network paradigm:

TCP

- Transmission Control Protocol

IP

- Internet Protocol

SNMP

- Simple Network Management Protocol

SMTP

- Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

FTP

- File Transfer Protocol

IMAP

- Internet Mail Access Protocol

HTTP

- Hyper Text Transfer Protocol

From the name of the protocol itself you can get an idea about the role of
that protocol. Apart from the protocols given in the above list there exist various
other protocols.

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Summary

A computer network consists of more than one computer connected

together.

Computer networks provide various advantages like sharing of

devices, communication, data security etc.

There exist many types of networks. For example LAN, WAN,

MAN.

LAN stands for Local Area Network. The scope is limited to within
a building. Generally the coverage is shorter.

MAN is Metropolitan Area Network. It would cover an entire city.

When an organization has many branches across a city MAN would
be used to link the various branches.

WAN is Wide Area network. The coverage is across a country or

continent.

There exists one more type of network which is called internet.

Internet is a global scale network.

There exist various components in a network. For example

connecting media, network management software, bridges, gateways
etc.

Bridge is used to establish connection between similar type of

network.

Gateway is used to establish connection between different types of

networks.

Topology refers to the structure of a network. There exist many

different types of topologies.

In bus topology all nodes are linked to a common bus.

In star topology there would be a central computer to which all other

computers would be linked.

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In ring topology the computers are connected in a circular manner.

There exists a variation of ring topology which is called dual ring.
Self Assessment Questions
Part I (Multiple Choice Questions)

Network benefits includes

Sharing of devices

Easier communication

Remote access capability

All of the above

None of the above

LAN stands for

Local Area Network

Legal Access Network

Local Access Nodes

All of the above

None of the above

If the network has to cover an entire country then which of the following
is/are the correct choice(s)

Local Area Network

Wide Area Network

Global Area Network

All of the above

None of the above

The topology where all the nodes would be connected to a central computer
is called

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Ring topology

Centre topology

Star topology

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is/are not network protocol(s)

HTTP

FTP

SMTP

All of the above

None of the above

A topology in which direct connection between any two nodes exist is called

Mesh Topology

Star Topology

Bus Topology

All of the above

None of the above

NIC stands for

Node Integral Centre

Network Integral Centre

Network Interface Card

All of the above

None of the above

Internet is

a global scale network

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network of networks

uses protocols like http, ftp etc

all of the above

none of the above

Part II (Short Answer Questions)

Define computer networks.

Write short notes on LAN.

What do you mean by protocol?

Write short notes on star topology.

Explain about NIC.

Write short notes on WAN.

Part III (Long Answer Questions)

Explain various benefits of computer networks.

Explain in detail about LAN, WAN, MAN.

Define Topology. Explain different types of topologies.

Answer Key
Part I

1. d

2. a

3. b

4. c

5. d

6. a

7. c

8. d

Part II

Computer network is collection of interconnected computers. Network

provides various advantages like sharing of resources, communication etc.

LAN stands for Local Area Network. LAN boundary is limited to a smaller
geographical area. It is within only a building or an organization.

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Star topology is an arrangement where all the nodes are linked to a central
computer. All the nodes would have the direct connection with the central
computer.

NIC stands for Network Interface Card. If you have to connect your system
to a wired network then your system should have NIC. The network cable
would be inserted in to the port provided in NIC.

WAN stands for Wide Area Network. WAN can covers a large geographical
area like a country or continent. WAN network generally uses the existing
telecommunication lines for connectivity.

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Lesson 5: Software
Introduction:

Software is the key component of any computer system.

It is the software which makes computers useful.

Software can be defined as a set of instructions that tells the computer

what to do.

Without the software a computer cannot serve any useful purpose for
which it is been intended for.

The software instructs the computers about how to perform a particular

task in a very detailed manner.

In real time, combinations of software are sometime used to achieve the

goal.

Objectives

Introducing the characteristics of software.

Explaining various classifications of software.

Introducing operating systems.

Explaining about various types of operating systems.

5.1 Characteristics of Software

The instructions provided by the software to the computer possess
certain characteristics. These instructions are

Unambiguous in nature

Able to perform only the tasks for which they are intended for.

May require certain pre-requisites to be satisfied before execution.

In todays scenario almost everybody knows about the term software in

one or other means. Nowadays the buzzword in any industry is automation

which refers to the process of application of computers to do the work in an
enriched way which was done earlier with much of human efforts. Software

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facilitates this task. Knowingly or unknowingly, software plays a role in every

individuals life, living in the modern era.

5.2 Classification
Software is generally classified in to two types. They are

Application software

System software

Utility programs
Let it be any kind of software, it posses the characteristics explained in

the earlier section. In this section we will elaborate in to the details of all these
classes of software.
5.2.1 Application Software:
Application software is a class of software which is used to solve the
problems specific to a particular domain. In other words these are the software
that are developed to accomplish certain kind of activities like mathematical
calculations, drawing graphics, document drafting and printing etc., We can
define application software as follows:
Application software is a class of software that is used to accomplish
specific tasks not related to the computer itself.
To elaborate more, this software is used to perform a task that is specific
to a particular domain.
5.2.1.1 Classification of Application Software
Application software is classified in to following categories. They are

Horizontal Market applications

Vertical Market applications

Custom Applications

Shareware and freeware

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5.2.1.1.1 Horizontal Market Applications

Horizontal market Application software is not specific to a particular
industry. For example we can consider a spreadsheet application (like Microsoft
Excel) which is not specific to a particular industry. But its been built for
mathematical calculation based activities. Based on this we can use the designed
application software to cater the needs of the end-user (End-user is a class of
users who does not know about the internal happenings of the computer systems
but mainly concerned about the tasks in hand to be completed).
Like this any word processing application is an example of application
software. A word processing application is a generic application to draft, format
and print documents. The usage of horizontal market applications is dependent
on the end-user who is using it.
5.2.1.1.2 Vertical Market Applications
Vertical market applications are specific to a particular industry. For
example software designed to mix the paints to get a particular color can be only
used in that industry.
Another example for vertical market application is quality tracking in
textile industry. The idea of automation that is specified previously mostly
belongs to the Vertical market application class.
5.2.1.1.3 Custom Applications
Custom applications are tailored for a particular organization. These
kinds of applications addresses the issues related to the particular organization.
Custom applications have certain pros and corns.
The merits of custom applications are

Addresses specific issues

Optimized to produce results faster and accurate.

Cost effective

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The demerits of custom applications are

Lengthier development time

Increased cost of application

An example for custom application is the online train ticket reservation

system which is very specific to the railways. It is one of the applications which
is been used widely in our country today.
5.2.1.1.4 Shareware and freeware
Shareware are software that you can try before you buy. The shareware
are initially distributed freely. If the users who are using it are satisfied with this
they have to pay. Normally in many shareware applications certain features are
either not available or available only for a limited duration of time. After that
particular duration (or number of uses) it becomes unusable fully or partly.
Freeware is the short form of free software. Freeware are
software that is completely free of cost to use. In contrast to shareware, freeware
are absolutely free.
5.2.2 System Software
The next class of software is System software. In contrast to application
software, system software is mainly used as an intermediate layer between the
application programs whatever we install and the hardware of the computer. One
of the well known examples for system software is Operating system which
would be discussed in detail in the later section. System software can be defined
as follows:
System software is a class of software that is used to accomplish specific
tasks related to the computer itself. System software manages and controls the
hardware so that application software can perform their designated task.
In other words system software can be characterized as application
independent software i.e. system software is not specific to any of the

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application programs. At the same time system software ensures the

functionality of other application software.
System software directly interacts with the hardware of the computer.
Most of the times, system software is more complex than application software.
Any bug in the system software has increased possibility of making the system
unresponsive. Most of the computer users would have experienced this when the
operating system suddenly throws a fatal error and the system stops functioning.
If the system software is directly stored in the chip itself (usually by the
manufacturer) then it is termed as firmware. Well known example for firmware
is the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) found in the IBM compatible personal
computers.
5.2.3 Utilities
Utility programs are another class of software. An utility program can be
defined as follows
Utility programs are a class of software that is used to accomplish
frequently performed tasks that may be common to many applications or to do
with the system functions such as performance tuning etc.,
So by this nature the utility programs can be helping programs for
application software or system software. So here we have made them a separate
classification.
Examples for applications related services provided by utilities are copying,
sorting, merging etc
Examples for system related services provided by utilities are file recovery,
formatting, disk diagnosis etc
Utility programs come in handy when we want to perform some tasks
frequently but they are not provided by the operating system itself. By this,
utility programs support the operating system by providing some additional
services.

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Utility program differs from general application software in some

characteristics like size, complexity and function. For example, we cannot term
a general word processing application as utility software because they are huge
in size and more over they have certain features which are complex to perform.
The utility program extends capabilities of both system software and
application software. If we have specific utility software available for
performing a particular task then it would be very easy for the user to perform
that task.
Utility programs can be proprietary, shareware or freeware. Utilities
which are freeware or shareware are easily downloadable from internet. The
proprietary utilities need to be bought from the companies who have originally
developed these utilities
Nowadays we have utilities to perform wide variety of tasks like data
recovery etc.

5.3 Operating System

Operating system belongs to the system software classification. It plays
an important role in the functionality of any computer system. Operating system
can be defined as follows:
Operating system can be defined as software that manages the computer
system. It also acts as an interface between the user and computer hardware.
All the modern day computers have an operating system. This implies
that, in the early stages of computers there were systems which doesnt had a
well defined operating system. In such cases the users of those computers
needed to perform a whole lot of supporting tasks in order to complete the task
that he/she wanted to do. After the development of operating system the user can
concentrate completely on the task which he/she wants to do.
An operating system can be compared (roughly) with the government.
The role of a government is to manage the resources in the country so that the

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resources can be utilized optimally. Similarly an operating system shares the

resources available to each of the process that are running in the system. On the
basis of managing the resources operating system can be compared to
government.
Another important responsibility of operating system is to behave as an
interface between user and computer hardware. As we all know computers can
understand only binary (0 and 1) language. This binary language can not be
understood by humans. Instead we use high level languages like English. So it is
the responsibility of operating system to translate the instructions provided by
user in high level language to machine language and again covert the machine
language result to the human understandable language. This is the ultimate task
that any operating system has to perform.
Fig 5.1: Operating System as an interface between user and computer
Operating system acts as a translator between the user and the computer.
It translates from user language to machine language and vice versa. Apart from
this translation operating system performs a wide variety of tasks which are
explained in the next section.
5.3.1 Basic Functions of operating system
Operating system performs a wide variety of functions. In this section we
would elaborate on these functions which are performed by any operating
system. They are listed below

Process Management

Memory Management

I/O Management

Disk & File system Management

Security

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Networking services

5.3.1.1 Process Management

A process is nothing but a program in execution. Being a manager of
computer system operating system has to manage these processes. Any
computer which has a single CPU would be able to execute only one process at
a time. But we all know that almost all the modern day computers are capable of
executing many processes at the same time. How this becomes possible?
The basic fact that a processor can execute only one process at a time
cannot be modified. It is the operating system which makes us feel like many
processes are simultaneously running in the system. This becomes possible by
the process management capability of operating system.
The operating system allocates each process some units of processor
time so that they can perform their task. There exists a wide collection of
algorithms for selecting the processes.
Almost all the modern day operating systems have this capability of
scheduling multiple processes. During the process management operating
system has to take care of certain criteria like no process should indefinitely wait
for execution.
Operating systems also provide priority based process scheduling
because at times we want certain processes not be interrupted or to be given
higher priorities.
5.3.1.2 Memory Management
Another important role of operating system is the memory management.
A process cannot be executed unless until it is provided the required memory
i.e., if only the processor is allocated to a process without required amount of
memory then the execution is not possible.

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Memory refers to a generic term which includes many types ranging

from the register memory to secondary memory devices. Memory manager
according to the condition allocates the required type of memory to the
processes (By swapping the contents from one type of memory to another).
Most of the modern day operating system supports the concept of virtual
memory i.e. the memory that does not exist as it is but logically available for the
process for its execution. In such a scenario operating system has to manage the
virtual address also. It requires mapping it with the physical address etc. In order
to manipulate virtual memory the operating system uses some sort structures
like page tables.
5.3.1.3 Input / Output Management
User can not interact with the computer unless until he/she has the input
and output devices. Input devices include keyboard, mouse, digital pen, touch
screen etc. Similarly output devices includes screen, printer etc.
First and foremost thing in input / output management is that any device
that is connected to the system should be recognized by the operating system in
order to either receive input from it or sending output to that device.
Operating system has to keep track of what devices are being connected
to the system. On top of this it has to also monitor whether these devices are
active and accessible. In order to cope with the device from many manufactures
corresponding device drivers are loaded to facilitate proper functionality.
5.3.1.4 Disk and File System Management
Since the primary memory is limited in size and it is volatile we need
Disks. The disk memory usually called as secondary memory is non-volatile in
nature and also comparatively huge in size.
Operating system has to manage these secondary storage devices i.e.
disks also. Unlike the primary memory i.e., RAM, disks need to be formatted

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before being used. Many operating systems provide utilities to perform this
formatting task (otherwise third-party tools have to be used).
Operating system also needs to manage the free space in the disk so that
while allocating storage for future request it can choose the best available
locations. There exists a wide variety of algorithms for this like first fit, best fit
etc.
To handle the disks operating systems maintains the file allocation table
normally called FAT. The operating systems provide support for variety of file
systems like FAT32, NTFS, and HFS+ etc.
Since the disks are very slower when compared to the speed of
processor, the operating system needs to manage these disks in an efficient
manner so that delays can be reduced to a maximum possible extent.
5.3.1.5 Security
Security is the buzzword in todays IT industry. Security gets more focus
because security and accessibility are inversely proportional. A computers
primary task is to provide access but only to the authenticated persons.
Many operating systems provide security in one form or other. The
resources need to be secured from both the internal as well as external access.
A process which is executing inside the system itself is restricted only to
access certain resources and not to all. For example no process is permitted to
overlap the memory where operating system resides. This is also a form of
security.
Similarly, operating system also provides some security mechanism to
protect the unauthorized access of resources from outside the computer system.
Many of the modern days operating systems include specially designated
software for this purpose called Firewall (in a network scenario).

5.3.2 Classifications of Operating Systems

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Operating systems can be classified on the basis of many of the

characteristics. So it becomes mandatory that we need to discuss these factors
before actually entering into the actual classification itself.
Below given are some of the critical factors that can be considered while
doing the classification.

Task count

User count

Portability

Machine Type

5.3.2.1 Task Count

Task count is the most important factor used to classify the operating
systems. Task count refers to the number of tasks that can be handled by the
operating systems at a particular instance of time. On the basis of task count we
can classify operating system in to following types. They are

Single Tasked operating systems

Multi tasked operating systems

5.3.2.1.1 Single Tasked Operating system

A single tasked operating system can handle at the maximum of only one
task at a time. In other words, we can execute only one task at a time. Olden day
operating systems mostly belonged to the single tasked category.
Well known example for single tasked operating system is the Disk
Operating System (DOS) released by Microsoft.
5.3.2.1.2 Multi Tasked Operating System
In contrast to the single tasked operating system, multitasked operating
systems can handle more than one task at a moment i.e. we can have multiple

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processes running in the system at the same time. Many of the modern days
operating systems belong to the multi tasked category.
In multitasking we have further sub-categories. They are
1. Preemptive Multi tasking
2. Cooperative Multi tasking
In the case of preemptive multitasking operating system slices the
processor time to each of the processes running in the system. In this case it is
possible that the operating system can forcefully pause (even stop permanently)
a process before it completes its execution Examples for this type of operating
systems are OS/2, Windows 95 etc.
In the case of cooperative multitasking, each program can control the
CPU as long as it wishes. At the same time if the process is not using the CPU
then it can allow some other process to utilize the processor. Examples for this
kind of operating system are Windows 3.x and MultiFinder for Macintosh
computers.

5.3.2.2 User Count

User count refers to the number of concurrent users allowed to access the
system. On the basis of user count, operating systems are classified as follows

Single User operating system

Multi user operating systems

5.3.2.2.1 Single User operating systems

Single user operating systems allows at a maximum of only one user at a
time to access. But it is not mandatory that the user can execute only one process
i.e. a single user operating system need not be single tasked. For example the
Windows 98 operating system is a single user operating system because it can
allow only one user maximum at a time.

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5.3.2.2.2 Multi User operating systems

Multi-user operating systems can allow n (n >=1) number of users at a
time to access the system. The UNIX operating system is a well known example
for multi-user operating system. Here we have the option for rights to different
users. Rights refer to the permissions available to the users to perform a task.
Operating system would have control over all such rights. So whenever there is
a request for an operation, the operating system checks against these rights. If
and only if the user has got that particular right then only he/ she is permitted to
perform the task.
Apart from the normal users the system would also maintain some
system level users to perform system related tasks.

5.3.2.3 Portability
An operating system is said to be portable if it is independent of the
hardware. There are certain operating systems which are hardware dependent
and they are called non-portable operating system.
For example the MVS of IBM is an example for non-portable operating
system.

5.3.2.4 Machine Type

On the basis of which type of machines the operating system controls we
can classify the operating system in to following categories:

Desktop Operating Systems

Server Operating Systems

Mainframe Operating System

Embedded Operating System

5.3.2.4.1 Desktop Operating Systems

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There are certain operating systems which are totally designed for
personal computers. These Desktop operating systems are normally used in
many of the machines where we dont need a greater extent of security.
Microsofts PC DOS is an example for one such system.
5.3.2.4.2 Server Operating Systems
On the other hand we cant deploy desktop operating systems in a
powerful server where we would require greater amount of security and
enhanced process management techniques. There exist certain operating systems
specially designated for such a purpose. Windows NT (NT is not network
technology but New Technology) is one such server operating system. We have
many variations of Linux which are widely used with servers.
5.3.2.4.3 Mainframe Operating Systems
As the name indicates these operating system are used to work with main
frame computers. Popular example for this kind of operating system was MVS
which is used in IBM main frame computers. These main frame operating
systems are comparatively secure and powerful.

5.3.2.4.4 Embedded Operating Systems

Many of the devices that we use in our day-to-day life have a built-in
microprocessor attached with it. For example washing machines have their own
processor to control the operations. In order to handle this microprocessor we
have a built in operating system which is called embedded operating system.
These operating systems need not have all the capabilities of a modern day
operating system but it would have the features necessary to work with that
particular system. Microsofts embedded DOS is an example for this kind of
operating system

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Summary

Software is the logical component of computer system.

Software provides set of instructions for the computer to accomplish

a task.

Software possess certain characteristics like unambiguous in nature

etc.

Software can be classified into various types like application

software, system software etc.

Application software is used to solve particular type of problem.

There exist many types of application software like horizontal market
application software, vertical market application software etc.

Freeware refers to the software which can be used without paying

any money.

Shareware is similar to freeware with many restrictions like usage till

a particular time, with limited features etc.

Operating system is system software that acts an interface between

user and the system.

Operating systems can be classified into many types based on various

factors. For example user count, process count etc.

In the case of multi tasked operating systems there are two types.
They are preemptive multitasking, cooperative multitasking.

Operating systems have two types of user interfaces. They are

character user interface, graphical user interface.

Operating system performs various tasks like process management,

memory management etc.

Operating systems used with hand held devices are called embedded
operating systems. There exist many embedded operating systems.

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Self Assessment Questions

Part I (Multiple Choice Questions)

Which of the following is not a classification of software

System software

Application software

Tech software

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is not an application software

Banking software

Railway reservation system

Operating system

All of the above

None of the above

The software which you can access for limited time period or with
limited features without paying any money is called

Shareware

Partware

Miniware

All of the above

None of the above

Quality tracking software used in textile industry belongs to

Horizontal market application

System software

Vertical market application

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All of the above

None of the above

Disk formatting tool is an example for

Utility software

Ambiguous software

Miniware

All of the above

None of the above

The system software that acts as an interface between user and computer
is called

Linker

Loader

Operating system

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is not a type of operating system?

Embedded OS

Multi user OS

Set OS

All of the above

None of the above

The Operating system which can be installed in portable devices is called

Embedded OS

Port OS

Micro OS

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All of the above

None of the above

Macintosh OS is an example for

Character User Interface

Graphical User Interface

Open Source

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is not a file system

FAT 32

NTFS

EXT 3

All of the above

None of the above

Part II (Short Questions)

Write short notes on software.

Explain in short about custom applications.

What do you mean by utility programs?

Define operating system.

On the basis of task count how operating system can be classified?

Differentiate freeware and shareware.

What do you mean by memory management?

What are two types of multitasking?

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Part III (Long Answer Questions)

Explain various classifications of software in detail.

Elaborate various functions of operating systems.

Explain the classifications of operating systems with clear examples.

Answer Key
Part I

1. c

2. c

3. a

4. c

5. a

6. c

7. c

8. a

9. b

10. e
Part II (Short Questions)

11. Software is the logical component of computer system. Software instructs

the computer what to do. Software makes the computer usable.
12. When an organization develops an application from scratch to meet the
needs then it is called custom application. Custom application is costlier in
nature.
13. Utility programs are a class of software that is used to accomplish frequently
performed tasks that may be common to many applications or to do with the
system functions such as performance tuning etc.,
14. Operating system can be defined as an interface between user and the
system. It is the operating system which makes the user to work with the
computer efficiently and easily.

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15. On the basis of task count, operating system can be classified into two types.
They are single tasked and multi tasked. Multi tasking itself can be further
classified into cooperative and preemptive multitasking.
16. Freeware refers to the class of software which can be used with out paying
any money. Shareware can be used freely but for a limited period of time or with
limited set of features.
17. Operating system has to manage the memory among the processes running
in the system. To manage memory there are many techniques like virtual
memory etc.
18. Multitasking refers the capability of handling multiple processes at the same
time. There are two types of multi tasking. They are preemptive and cooperative
multitasking.

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Lesson 6 : Programming Languages and Packages

Introduction

A language is nothing but a tool for communication.

We, human beings use the natural languages like English, Hindi etc
to communicate with others.

Similarly there is a need for a tool to communicate with the

computer. Such a tool or language to communicate with the
computer is called programming language.

As we have already seen, a program is nothing but a set of

instructions written to complete a particular task. These instructions
are written in a language called programming language.

Package is defined as software that performs some well defined

functions.

In order to use the package the user need not be a programmer. So

the target audience of the package is generally non-programming
users.

Objectives

Introducing the paradigm of programming languages

Explaining various generations of programming languages in terms

of their advantages, disadvantages and usage.

Explaining about various tools associated with programming

languages, like assembler, compiler and interpreter.

Introducing the concept of packages.

Highlighting the spread sheet applications, their components and

usage.

Introducing the presentation tools.

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Introducing the Desktop Publishing Tools (DTP)

Elaborating various applications areas of software. For example

commercial, scientific and real time etc.

6.1 Programming Language The Definition

So a programming language can be defined as follows:
A programming language is defined as a standardized tool for
communication with a computer.
There exist plenty of programming languages available. Each and every
programming language has its own specialized areas where they can be
effectively applied. Programming languages went through a well structured
growth in parallel with the growth in computer hardware.
In parallel to the grammar of our natural languages computer languages
do have a set of rules. These rules define the syntax of the programming
language. In fact these rules are much strict than the rules of human language.
Even though we make some mistake in the grammar of human language we are
able to understand but the computer will not be able to understand the language
even if a small syntax error is there.
In the next section we would elaborate about various generations of
programming languages and their usage.
6.2 Generations of Programming Languages
Programming languages are grouped into generations. The languages
belonging to the same generation would have some common factors among
them. In addition to this always the next generation language would have more
advanced options than the current generation language.
We have following generations of programming language.

First generation language

Second generation language

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Third generation languages

Fourth generation language

Fifth generation languages

Let us elaborate the features of each of the generations of programming

language. We would also look through the advancement that had been made in
each generation of language.
6.2.1 First Generation Language (1 GL)
First generation language was very closest to the computer. They are
called machine language. Machine language consisted of only two symbols.
They are 0 and 1. So the programs written using machine language would have
only these two symbols at the maximum.
The most important advantage of machine language is that the programs
written in machine language would execute fastest. The primary reason for this
is that the processor can understand the language directly.
At the same time the problem with first generation language is that
human understanding of these languages is next to nothing. It would be easy to
solve the most complex puzzle than understanding the program written in this
language.
For example let us have a sample program to add two numbers. If we
want to write the program performing this task in machine language then we
have to do the following things:
Step 1: Identify the instructions available to load two numbers
Step 2: Identify the instructions for addition
Step 3: Find out the binary equivalent for these instructions
The entity that makes the machine language hard to handle is the
italicized term binary equivalent. Yes, we have to find out the binary equivalent
of these instructions.

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Once after the program is developed in machine language it is very hard

to maintain this. The maintenance becomes very hectic because readability of
the code is very poor.
Even though we have wide collection of programming languages today,
computers can still understand only machine language. So whatever may be the
language we use there should be a translation mechanism to convert this code to
the machine language.
6.2.2 Second Generation Language (2 GL)
Since the machine language programs are hard to write and maintain
there was a need for an enhanced language which would increase the readability
of the code and also it would be easy for the programmer to develop the
program. All these efforts lead to the development of second generation
language that is the assembly language.
Assembly language is an improvement over machine language. In
assembly language we need not code in binary i.e. 0 and 1. Instead we can use
some sort of mnemonics. Mnemonic codes are nothing but the small words that
represent the instruction. The word is chosen such that it would make sense.
For example the mnemonic code for the addition operation can be ADD.
This would be much better to understand instead of writing 0000 0001 1000
0010 which may represent the binary for addition.
The programs written in assembly language are called ALP i.e.
Assembly Language Programs. These assembly language programs would be
comparatively easier to understand than the machine language.
One of the important drawbacks of ALP is that, an ALP program is
dependent on the microprocessor for which the program is written. There would
be separate instruction sets for each of the microprocessor. So we cannot use (as
it is) the code written for one microprocessor for another microprocessor.

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Even today certain programs are coded into ALP when speed is the
primary criterion. Even some of the high level languages like C have provisions
for inclusion of Assembly language instructions inside their own program.
As we have already specified the computers can still understand only the
machine language we should use a translator to convert from assembly language
to machine language. For this purpose we have a translator called assembler.
So an assembler can be defined as follows:
An assembler is a translator which would translate the assembly
language programs in to machine language programs.
This procedure is depicted in the following figure 6.1.
Fig 6.1: Role of Assembler
We can do the ALP coding in more than one ways. One is through the
microprocessor kits where we have to supply the hexadecimal op-codes for each
instruction. Another way to perform this is through the debug mode in the
command prompt of MS DOS. There we can directly type the ALP coding.
Today we have some of the simulators available to work with the ALP. These
simulators would provide a better editor and an inbuilt assembler simulation
tools.
Apart from machine dependence assembly language programs are quite
handy in situation where we can not directly apply any high level language.
6.2.3 Third Generation Language
Even though the ALP is much better than the machine language we
cannot use them directly in all commercial application development. Primary
reasons are machine dependence and the development time. It is practically
impossible to develop the different source codes for different hardware.

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All these factors lead to the development of third generation languages

which are called high level languages. The primary advantages of third
generation languages are
1. Hardware independence
2. Increased readability
Since these languages are independent of the hardware there is no need
to develop an individual version of program for each hardware variation in
consideration.
One more fact is that the readability of these programs is much better
than the assembly language programs. In fact one of the important factors that
were considered during the development of these languages is that they should
be closer towards the natural languages.
Even though, there has been lot many high level languages only few of
them are more popularly used. The below given table summarizes a few of
popularly used high level languages and their usage
Language

Purpose

ForTran

Engineering applications

COBOL

Business oriented applications

Pascal

Academic purpose (like explaining data structures)

BASIC

Introduction to programming languages

System programming

C++

Object orientation

Delphi

Commercial application development

Visual Basic

Commercial application development

Java

Internet programming; OS independent software development

Table: High level languages and their usage

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Apart from the languages given in the above table there exist a wide
collection of languages which are used for plenty of other purposes.
Hence the machines cannot understand any of the languages other than
machine language; we need some translators to translate from high level
language to a form that can be used for execution.
We have two different types of translators available for this purpose.
They are

Compiler

Interpreter
A compiler is a translator that would scan the complete source program

written in a high level language and produce the object code output which would
be stored for later execution. This is depicted in the following figure 6.2.
Fig 6.2 : Role of compiler
Well known examples for compiler oriented languages are C, C++, and
COBOL etc.
An interpreter would scan the program line by line and translate it for
execution. The primary difference between compiler and interpreter is that,
compiler stores its output file in the disk, where interpreter doesnt produce any
intermediate files at all.
The interpreters mode of operation is depicted in the following figure
6.3.
Fig 6.3 : Role of interpreter
Well known example for interpreter oriented language is BASIC. The
important point to note about interpreter is that it does not produce any
intermediate file. Its output is direct execution of the high level program.

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Both compiler and interpreter have advantages as well as disadvantages.

The primary advantage in compiler is the speed of program execution. The
advantage with interpreter is lesser disk space usage. Now the disadvantages
becomes obvious i.e. compiler would require additional disk space and
interpreter programs would be slower in execution.
Some of the modern day languages use a mixture of compiler and
interpreter approach. For example Java where the source code is compiled to an
intermediate form and then an interpreter would be used to execute that code.
6.2.4 Fourth Generation Languages
Fourth generation languages are closer towards human languages. Fourth
generation languages are mostly used with database querying operation. The
ultimate aim of fourth generation language is that learning these languages
would be much simpler than the high level languages.
The code written in fourth generation languages would concentrate more
on what to do? They would not have much detail about how to do that task. For
example a statement in fourth generation language would be similar to this.
Fetch all students whose total mark is greater than 1100
Here the implementation details are hidden. It does not explicitly explain
how to perform this task. But anybody looking at this code would get a fair idea
of what this statement would do.
6.2.5 Fifth Generation Languages
Fifth generation languages are mostly used with Artificial Intelligence
and Neural Networks. The primary difference between fifth generation language
and other languages is that, here we use constraints given to solve a problem,
instead of using direct algorithm.

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Well known example for fifth generation languages are Prolog, OPS5
and Mercury.
When the development of fifth generation languages started there were
much expectations regarding this. Still the development in these areas is in
progress. May be in the near future we can expect some awesome results from
these fifth generation languages.

6.3 Packages
Package is defined as software that performs some well defined
functions. In order to use the package the user need not be a programmer. So the
target audience of the package is generally non-programming users.
Most percentage of the users of computers is non-programmers. They
have plenty of tasks to perform. Some tasks may be common across a wide
group of users. In such cases the software companies releases their software in a
package. Package would be accompanied with a well defined documentation.
The common benefits of using packages are plenty. Normally any
package would be well tested before their actual release. So the probability of
bugs (errors in the software) would be lesser.
Because the documentation is provided with any package it would be
easy for the user of these packages to get fair idea about working procedure with
these packages.
Moreover sometimes these packages are bundled together. In such cases
they are called package suite or application suite.
In this section we would explore many of commonly used package types.
The structure of these packages and also their commercial usages would be
described.
The following are some of the commonly used types of packages

Spreadsheets

Desk Top Publishing (DTP) tools

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Presentation tools
Let us explore each of these in detail.

6.3.1 Spreadsheets
Almost every user of the computer would have known about this
spreadsheet applications. We can easily say that spreadsheets are one of the
most popular applications in the industry.
In this section we would explore about the principles of spreadsheet and
their applications.

6.3.1.1 Structure of Spreadsheet

The following figure is a screen shot of a spreadsheet from Microsofts
Excel spreadsheet application.
Fig 6.4: Spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel)
In general spreadsheet is a rectangular arrangement of cells. In contrast
to a normal documenting application we cannot enter the text anywhere in a
spreadsheet; rather we can enter text only in the cells.
Cell
The smallest addressable unit of a spreadsheet is called cell (Refer fig).
Each and every cell has an address associated with it. It is called cell address. A
cell address normally would be a combination of row number and column
numbers.
For example the darkened cell in the above figure 6.4 is cell D5. Her D
indicates the column number and 5' indicate the row number.

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Number of cells is a spreadsheet is normally huge. Only a portion of the

spreadsheet would be displayed in the screen at a moment in time. We can view
the other cells by scrolling through the spreadsheet.
Formulae
The most important advantage of spreadsheet is the usage of formulae.
Formula can be defined as follows
A formula in spreadsheet is a rule to derive the content of that cell.
The result of the formula would be displayed in the cell. The result of the
formula in a normal situation can be either numeric or text. In some abnormal
conditions the result of the formula can be error also. The reason for this can be
either a direct error in the formula or one of the supplied values for the formula
may be missing or incorrect.
In all the spreadsheet applications there would be some distinctions
between the normal cell contents and the formula. For example an = sign can
placed in front of the cell contents to indicate that it is a formula.
Fig 6.5 : Spread sheet with a formula in the cell
The above figure 6.5 depicts the spreadsheet with formula in the cell.
The following figure 6.6 depicts the same scenario with result of the formula in
the cell.
Fig 6.6: Spreadsheet showing the result of the formula in the cell

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There are formulae available to perform variety of operations. Since the

spreadsheets are primarily used with mathematical calculations more
concentration is given to the mathematical formulae.
6.3.1.2 Applications of spreadsheet
Mainly spreadsheets are used to perform mathematical and financial
calculations. The primary advantage with spreadsheets is that the effects of a
changing a particular number can be made automatically bubble through all the
places wherever that particular cell is referenced. This is the major advantage of
using the spreadsheets.
This feature makes us to simulate many of the what if scenarios i.e. by
changing a particular number we can identify the effects that would be caused
by this change.
This would be very much useful in budgeting kind of applications where
all the numbers are interrelated. In such conditions we can immediately identify
the effects of the change which is not quite easily possible if we use some other
kind of applications.

Format Conditionally
Unlike the normal word processing applications, in spreadsheets we can
format the cells according a particular condition. For example we can make the
contents bold if the value is greater than 6500. This is depicted in the following
figure 6.7.
In this example the cells having the value greater than 6500 are made
bold. If we change the cell contents then the formats would be applied according
to the condition. No additional effort is needed to make the formats to be applied
accordingly

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Fig 6.7 conditional formatting

Filtering
We can also filter the sheet contents on the basis of some conditions.
This can be made without much effort. It would be very much useful if we want
to display only the rows that satisfy a particular condition.
For example while declaring results of an exam if we want to display on
the students records whose mark is greater than 35, we can do this by using the
filter options available in the spreadsheet.
The following figure depicts the filtering example, where the rows with
values 7000 are filtered.
Fig 6.8: Filtering applied to the spreadsheet
Charts
Chart is one of the most useful tools available to portrait the complex
data in more readable form. Spreadsheets have plenty of charting capabilities.
We can produce multiple types of charts for the given data. The type of chart
can also be modified instantly after making the chart.
The following figures (figure 6.9 and figure 6.10) depicts various types
of charts created using spreadsheet application. The data used for the chart is
same as the data that is used in previous examples.
The chart in the figure 6.9 is the bar chart where the names are plotted
along the x axis and salary is plotted along y axis. The next one, figure 6.10 is
the pie chart plotted for the same data.
It should also be noted that we cannot simply draw any chart for any type
of data. Certain type of charts requires data to be in a particular format. These
things are to be noted while plotting chart using the spreadsheet applications.

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Fig 6.9: Bar chart created using spreadsheet application

Fig 6.10: Pie chart using spreadsheet application
6.3.2 Desktop Publishing Tools (DTP)
Desktop Publishing Tools are the tools which are used to create wide
variety of documents which may range from a normal text document to an
highly complex document consisting of many components other than text, like
images, symbols etc.,
At this moment, you may have a question regarding the difference
between word processing application and desktop publishing tool. In early days
the word processing applications were built in keeping the document editing as
primary feature than the document designing. But the recent word processing
tools have almost many of the features available in a DTP tool. So nowadays
features in both types of tools overlap each other.
Functions
The key function of a DTP tools is document layout and design. The
power of a DTP tool depends on the features available in that tool which eases
the design process of the document. As we have already stated these documents
may have a rich mixture of text and other elements. So there should be easier
ways to locate and format these elements in a document.
There is an add-on complexity with images i.e., the source of an image
may be from many sources. To be precise the text is normally entered only
through a standard keyboard. But images can be imported from external sources
or they scanned through scanner or created in the system itself using graphics
manipulation tools. So DTP tools have the provisions to perform all these kinds
of tasks.

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In the commercial environment a normal DTP operator will use more

than one tool to perform the above mentioned operations. For example to
manipulate images he/she can use a specific tool where as for creating integrated
document another tool can be used.
Almost all the present day DTP tools have the support to create the
documents with multiple columns. This makes the process of the creating news
magazines kind of documents, an easier one.
Incorporation of Tables in to the document is also a standard facility
available in a DTP tool.
Screen Vs Printer
In the beginning the target for DTP tools were only printers i.e., the final
output is going to be distributed not only in a printed format. But nowadays we
have many documents which are distributed in an electronic format.
The document needs to be designed keeping in mind the final target i.e.
printed form or electronic format. Because if the final format is electronic, then
lot of additional features can be added like simple animations etc., which doesnt
makes sense with printed format.
Having said this we should also remember that, if we want to convert a
document designed for electronic format to printed format, total work should not
be repeated. So the format conversion features are also incorporated in to DTP
tools.
We also have Portable Document Format (PDF) which is widely used to
distribute documents without affecting their layout and design. To view these
documents there are certain tools like Acrobat Reader etc. These tools are
available for all the major operating systems. PDF documents can be viewed
exactly as they were created without any modifications in their format or layout.

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Tools
To perform the above mentioned operations there are plenty of tools
available in the industry. An enhanced survey of these tools is out of scope for
this text. So what we have listed here is a sample collection of tools. The reader
is encouraged to find out similar tools.
To perform document layout and design, tools like PageMaker are used.
To handle images, tools like CorelDraw or Photoshop comes handy. For
animation related tasks tools like Flash are used.
6.3.3 Presentation Tools
There are plenty of places where presentations are used like business
project presentations, academic presentations etc. In the early days these
presentations were done only through some special printed documents like OHP
etc., But after the development of electronic presentation tools the scope of these
presentations have become huge.
Components
Normally a presentation consists of number of slides. Each slide may
consist of number of elements. There is a primary difference between a normal
document and presentation.
A good feature of a presentation is that we should not have clumsy text
in the slide. Usually slides are prepared as bullet points.
Presentation tools support animations also. The slide animations and the
animations of components in the slide are also used to make the slide powerful.
Tools
There exist lots of presentation tools available in the industry. For
example PowerPoint from Microsoft, Impress from OpenOffice etc.,

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All these tools have some basic features like slide insertion, Component
insertion, Formatting, Adding animations etc. The features of these tools are
very easy to understand.
All these presentation tools have many of the features of word
processing tools like fonts, coloring and themes etc. Covering all the features of
a presentation tool itself is topic of a complete text. So here you would find the
important features of a typical presentation tool.
The screenshots shown in this section are taken with Microsoft
PowerPoint tool. The following screenshot shows the startup screen of
Microsoft PowerPoint tool.
There you can notice three panes in the screen. The first pane shows you
the thumbnail images of all the slides in the current presentation. The middle
pane is the work area where you can actually place your contents. The last pane
indicates various slide layout options. Using these options you can change the
location and types of contents that you are going to place in your presentation.
Figure 6.11: Initial Screen in PowerPoint Presentation
Figure 6.12 : Procedure to insert a new Slide

Figure 6.13 : Slide Sorter View

Figure 6.14 : Predefined Designs for Slides

PowerPoint gives you options to change the design of your slides easily.
There exist many pre-defined designs which you can easily apply by clicking on
them.
Normally a presentation would contain more than one slide. The
procedure to insert a new slide is to right click on the Left pane and select the

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New Slide option. This is shown in the screenshot. PowerPoint provides

various views. One of the views that is mostly used is the slide sorter view.
Using this Slide sorter view you can easily move around through your slides.
You can easily change the ordering of slides by simply dragging the slides to
whatever position you wish. This is shown in the screenshot
The most important feature of any presentation tool is the ability to add
animation to your slide. Animations enrich your slides. At the same time they
are also used to catch the users attention.
Figure 6.15: Adding Animation to your slides
Once you right-click on any object and select custom animation option,
PowerPoint will provide you various pre-defined animations. It also provides
good control over the animation that you apply i.e. you can control the
animation speed, animation start time, start sequence etc.
Figure 6.16: Applying animation to objects
Apart from the presentation contents you can also have other contents
like notes and handouts which are specifically useful for the presenter.

Figure 6.17 : Outline View in Presentation

While printing PowerPoint provides various features like, number of
slides to print in a page, whether to print slide contents or slide notes etc. This is
shown in the following screenshot.
Figure 6.18: Printer Options in presentation tools
Figure 6.19: Grids for Proper Alignments

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If you want to design a professional quality presentation PowerPoint

provides options to do that also. One of the important attribute of a good quality
presentation is the alignment of contents. To align the contents accurately grids
would help you. To display the grid you can select View:: Grid And Guides.
Though the screenshots here are taken with MS PowerPoint, very similar
options are available in all other presentation tools like OpenOffice, Star Office
etc. Once you get an insight of any one these tools, it would very easy for you to
get familiar with other tools.
There exist many different versions of presentation tools exist i.e. in
PowerPoint itself you have plenty of versions like 2000, XP, 2008, Mac Version
etc. Normally there would be backward compatibility in these tools i.e. a
presentation created with PowerPoint 2003 can be opened with 2008 but the
vice-versa is not true. For example PowerPoint 2007 presentations would have
an extension pptx which would not open in previous versions. But you can
solve this problem by following any one of below given two ways:

While saving the presentation in 2007 version select the Save

As option by saying compatible with previous versions i.e. you
are now using 2007 but format you are saving would be off
previous versions.

Using a Viewer in the target system where you would use your
presentation. This method is little-bit difficult because of the fact
that it requires the presence of viewer in target system which you
cannot assure. So it would be better to go with the first option.

Normally all the presentation tools are designed by keeping the Look
And Feel concept in mind i.e. you may not require an extensive training to
work these presentation tools. If you have fundamental know-how of computers
then you will feel very comfortable with presentation tools with very little
training, if not nothing.

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6.4 Application Areas of Software

It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to locate an area or field
where software has got nothing to do. As of today you cannot find out any such
area because software has become an omnipresent element.
This section would provide you an insight in to the application areas of
software. The application areas are being classified in to three sections. They are

Scientific Applications

Commercial Applications

Real Time Applications

Let us elaborate each area of applications in detail.

6.4.1 Scientific Applications of Software
Scientific domain has been benefited by software hugely. Starting from
basic sciences like Physics, Chemistry etc to applied scientific areas like
aeronautics has got its own applications of software.
In the scientific applications itself, you have lots of domains like
medicine, engineering etc which have got revolutionized by software. The below
list provides few application areas within the scientific domain:

Software Applications in Medicine

Software Applications in Engineering and Research

6.4.1.1 Software Applications in Medicine

In the field of Medicine software is playing a vital role now. Initially
software application in the field of medicine started with the computerization of
patient database. Computerizing the patient database has got lots of advantages:

Easy retrieval of Patient Data: In a hospital where the number of

patients is large it would be very difficult to retrieve the data of a patient
if it is maintained using the traditional ledgers. But if the patient data is
computerized it can be easily retrieved with the help of software.

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Complete view of Patient History Data: By applying software in patient

history maintenance it would be easy to get the complete picture of
patient history information. For example consider a scenario where a
hospital has got various branches across the country and if all the
branches are networked then retrieving the treatment details of a patient
at any branch of the hospital becomes very easy.
Apart from this patient data maintenance software has got many roles to

play in the field of Medicine. One such application is the CT Scan or

(Computer Tomography) which is used to scan the internal organs of the
human body. This CT scan facility has made the diagnosis of many of the
problems easier and effective.
Another application which is catching up in medicine is the idea of
Telemedicine. Telemedicine makes the communication between patient and a
physician much easier and simpler. Inaccessibility due to geographical distances
has now been removed. A patient can communicate with the physician anywhere
in the world through the help of telemedicine. The biggest advantage of this
technology is that the rural areas will get much benefit. In a country like ours
where majority of the population still lives in the villages it becomes ultimately
necessary to provide those people the latest technologies. Another related field is
called Tele-radiology where the digitized images of X-Rays would be
transmitted over wire or air to reach the expert physician anywhere in the world.
All the surgical monitoring equipments are now computerized. If you
look at any surgery you would find equipment which keeps on reading the heart
beat, another for reading the blood pressure etc. All these equipments are
controlled through the help of software. The advantage of this process is the
accuracy of information and control. If something goes wrong during the
surgical process the surgeon would get accurate alert messages with the help of
these software controlled equipments. Robot controlled surgical process is also
another important software application in the field of medicine.

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There exist other cutting-edge software technologies which has given

new dimensions to the diagnosis and treatment procedure. For example
researchers have developed various implantable chips. With the help of these
implantable chips the physician would get the real time data about the
happenings of patient body. With the help of these data doctors can take actions
as early as possible.
With the help of internet and World Wide Web now the patients have
access to state-of-art developments in the field of medicine. The benefit of this is
the better understanding about the diseases. It has also improved the coordination between the doctor and the patient.
Another interesting field of study is bio-informatics. Application of
information technology to biology is called bio-informatics. Application to
biology implies the application to medicine. The speed with which the process
can be completed is totally been improved by the software application.
The above discussion is an outline about the applications of software in
the field of medicine. To summarize the major benefits are listed below:

Efficient Maintenance of patient data with software

Telemedicine and Tele-radiology

Surgical monitoring equipments

Software controlled implantable chips

Accessibility to state-of-art developments in medicine through WWW

Bio-Informatics advancements

6.4.1.2 Software Applications in Engineering and Research

Engineering is another field where software has introduced remarkable
changes. To name a few:

Computer Aided Designing (CAD): Software has improved the quality

and speed of the designing process. Design processes are normally
iterative in nature. Manual iterations are tough to do because every time

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you have to start from the scratch where as software application has
drastically reduced the time taken for this process. There exist many
CAD tools available today in the market. To name a few: OpenCAD,
AutoCAD from Autodesk etc.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS): GIS are very much helpful for
navigation purposes. GIS in mobile phones has totally modified the
approach towards travel to a new place. In GIS satellite controlled
information would be provided to the user so that he/she would get a
complete picture about the particular geographical location.

Simulation Process: Certain experiments would be costlier in nature

which you cannot repeatedly carryout because of various restrictions.
These experiments can be carried out through the help of simulation
process. If something goes wrong you can identify it during the
simulation process itself. For example, a car can be tested for various
conditions with the help of simulation process before the actual
manufacturing starts. If some shortcomings are found they can be
corrected during this simulation stage itself. If no simulation is carried
out then the actual problem would be observed after the manufacturing
process which would be costly to correct.

Collaboratory: Collaboratory stands for Collaborative + Laboratory.

This is among the recent trend which is getting the attraction from
scientists all across the globe. The basic idea of Collaboratory is as
follows: It is an internet enabled laboratory which the scientist from
various registered institutions can access. By which the findings of
various scientist can be shared by which the quality and speed of
research would be increased.

Industrial Process Control: Processing controlling in the industry is

widely improved by software application. Any industrial process would
have a workflow. This workflow may be controlled with the help of the

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software applications. Another dimension of industrial process control is

the quality assurance or (QA). This QA plays a vital role in deciding the
final products quality. The QA can be guaranteed for improved accuracy
through the help of software applications.

Astronomical applications: Software applications in astronomy are also

huge. The field of astronomy is full of complex mathematical
calculations. If these calculations have to be carried out manually you
cannot guarantee the accuracy of final output. Apart from the accuracy
factor, time delay is also a critical criterion. All these calculations are
now computerized and automated. This makes the human-time available
for other complicated tasks rather wasting in to these repetitive
mathematical calculations.

Others:

Apart from the above specified applications there exist

applications of software in many other fields. The software applications

in the archaeological research are also phenomenal. In the field of
chemistry the software applications include chemical reaction
simulation etc. Taxonomy based approach is followed in many fields
like biology, chemistry etc. In all these fields the taxonomy management
is effectively carried out with the help of software.

6.4.2 Commercial Applications

Software has got equal impact in commercial applications also. This
section would list out various important commercial applications of software:

Banking Technology: Banking is one of the areas where software is

playing a role from a lengthier period of time. Banking usually includes
many routine processes. These routine processes have to be carried out
with greater accuracy. Software has provided the platform to perform all
these tasks effectively as well as accurately. Another important factor to
note down in this domain is the Security. All the banking transaction

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data to be secure in nature i.e. only the authorized people should access
these data. Software has provided solutions to this security problems aswell. The popular usage of ATM all across the globe is the gift of
Information Technology to the humanity.

Sales and Marketing: Sales and marketing are the two areas where the
right information at right time to right people can directly be translated in
to money. Sales and marketing usually includes huge data. Finding the
patterns across these data is a challenging task. There is a detailed study
in the computer science field which is called Data Mining and
Warehousing. Roughly this data mining and warehousing is application
of software to a huge collection of data to find out some patterns across
these data. Once you find out these patterns they can be effectively used
to promote the sales and marketing.

E-Commerce: E-commerce has a phenomenal impact on the way in

which we buy and sell products. With the help of e-commerce you can
purchase products on-line i.e. through internet and World Wide Web. Ecommerce has modified the retailing industry to a greater extent. In ECommerce also security becomes a critical thing to monitor. Now we
have various security mechanisms that can be applied with the help of
software.

Stocks: Stocks trading is now performed largely with the help of internet
and World Wide Web. This facilitates the quick transactions and recent
information.

6.4.3 Real Time Applications

A real time application requires the output to be delivered within the
specified time limit. The output after the specified time limit would have very
less impact if not nothing. The following are examples real time applications.

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Air traffic control: Air traffic control is a time sensitive application. The
software has to provide the information within the exact time boundary.
If the information is not delivered within the specified boundary it can
result chaotic sequences of events.

Surgery monitoring tools: As indicated previously in the applications of

software in the medicine section, there exist many software controlled
equipments for monitoring the surgical process. These tools have to
provide results in real time. If they dont provide the results with in the
time limit they would become unusable because a tool which gives you
the warning after the actual problem would be not usable.
These are all the various applications of software in domains like

scientific, commercial and real time application.

Summary

Programming language is a tool for providing instructions to the

computer.

There exist five generations of programming lanuguages. Each

generation of language has got improvement over previous generation.

First generation language was very close the computer. They were hard
to understand for the humans.

Second generation language used the nemonic codes. They would be

translated by a special tool called assembler.

Third generation languages are portable. The program written in one

machine can be easily ported to other machines.

Fourth generation languages don't require the how to do. They

require only the what to do.

Fifth generation languages are primarily associated with artificial

intelligence and related concepts.

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Packages are predefined tools which can be used to perform some

useful tasks. Packages dont require programming knowledge.

Spreadsheet is a type of package which is used to perform

mathematical calculations.

Desktop publishing includes tools for designing. DTP tools are used in
the printing industry prominently.

Presentation tools enable the user to compile number of slides in to one

presentation. User can add animation and sound effects to these slides.

There exist various applications areas of software. For example

scientific

application,

commercial

applications

and

real

time

applications.

Scientific application includes the application of software in medical

field and various engineering and research applications.

Commercial applications of software are in to various fields like

banking domains, e-commerce etc.

Real time applications have to follow the deadline factor. For example
software controlling the movements of a vehicle has to strictly adhere
the time boundary.

Self Assessment Questions

Part I (Multiple Choice Questions)

Assemblers were used in

First generation language

Second generation language

Third generation language

All of the above

None of the above

Visual basic is primarily used for

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System programming

Internet programming

Rapid Application development

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following language(s) is/are compiler based language

Java

COBOL

All of the above

None of the above

Packages are

Predefined tools

Well tested

Doesn't require programming knowledge

All of the above

None of the above

The spreadsheet is madeup of

pages

cells

lines

All of the above

None of the above

Desktop publishing involves tools like

Pagemaker

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Coreldraw

Photoshop

All of the above

None of the above

CAD stands for

Computer Aided Designing

Computer Application Domain

Computer Aided Data

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is an example for real time application

air traffic control

surgery monitoring tools

fuel control systems

All of the above

None of the above

A Presentation is generally made up of

Cells

Slides

Documents

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is/are tool(s) used with programming languages

Assembler

Compiler

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Interpreter

All of the above

None of the above

Part II (Short Questions)

11.

Define the term programming language.

Write short notes on Assembler.

Explain the advantages of third generation languages.

Write short notes on spreadsheet applications.

List out various application areas of software.

Write short notes on real time applications.

Write short notes on presentation tools.

Part III (Long Answer Questions)

Explain in detail about various generations of programming lanuguages.

Explain in details about spreadsheet and presentation tools.

Elaborate on various application areas of software.

Answer Key
1. b

2. c

3. d

4. d

5. b

6. d

7. a

8. d

9. b

10. d
Part II

Programming languages are tools for communication with computer. They

are used to provide instructions to the computer. There exist five generations
of programming languages.

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Assembler is a translator used with Assembly Language Programming. It is

used to convert assembly language program in to machine language.

Third generation languages are called high level languages. The program
written in third generation languages is portable in nature. They are more
readable also.

Spreadsheet applications are generally used with applications involving

numeric calculations. There exist many spreadsheet tools. For example
Microsoft Excel.

There exist various application areas of software. They include scientific

applications, commercial applications and real time applications.

Applications where time is the critical factor are called real-time applications.
There exist two types of real-time applications. They are soft real-time and
hard-real time applications.

Presentation tools are helpful to convey concepts. They are used for
demonstrations purposes also. There exist many presentation tools exists.
One of the popular examples is Microsoft PowerPoint. There exist
opensource presentation tools also. One of the examples is the presentation
tools used with OpenOffice.

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Lesson 7: Introduction to Internet

Introduction

Internet is the largest network. Internet is global scale network.

Internet can be called as network of networks or Global Area

Network.

Internet has totally modified the way people communicate and share
information to a greater extent.

After the advent of internet, world has become global village.

Internet has made communication easier and effective.

This lesson would elaborate on various aspects of internet.

Objectives
1. Providing the brief history of internet
2. Explaining the internet communication methodology
3. Providing information about Internet Service Providers
4. Explaining the concept of IP addresses
5. Discussing about the functionalities of Domain Name Systems
6. Introducing various web browsers and explaining their merits and
demerits
7. Elaborating about the e-mails
8. Discussing about the file transfer protocols
9. Outlining the purpose of HTML and introducing simple tags in
HTML.
10.

Providing information about BBS

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7.1 The Birth of Internet

The traditional networks like LAN, MAN etc were easily breakable i.e.
you can make the network inefficient by breaking very less number of
connections if not one. There was need for a network which can not be broken
easily i.e. you can not isolate a computer from such a network by simply
breaking one connection. The result was internet.
It all began with ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency
Network) in USA. The primary purpose of ARPANET was to provide a network
which is stronger in terms of connectivity. ARPANET was established during
late 1960s. Initially ARPANET was connecting only four locations.
ARPANET was primarily for defense purposes. Following this NSF
(National Science Foundation) created a network called CSnet. The purpose of
CSnet was to link universities (especially researchers in the field of computer
science) in US. This happened during 1980s.
Following this a very fast internet backbone was created. Organizations
linked to this backbone to establish connection to internet. Up to this point
internet was primarily viewed as a communication medium for research.
In the mid 90s internet became the network of general public. Following
this a new way of business flourished called e-commerce which leads to the
fascinating growth of internet. This is how internet came into existence.
Today we all use internet for variety of purposes. Various applications of
internet are discussed in detail in later portions of this text.

7.2 Internet Communication Methodology

Internet primarily uses the public telecommunication lines for its
connection establishment. The telephone lines are primarily used to transfer
voice signals. Computers work on the basis of digital signals. In order to use the

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public telecommunication system the digital data has to be converted in to

analog data and vice-versa. There is a device for doing this called Modem.
The purpose modem is modulation + demodulation. Conversion of
digital signals to analog and vice-versa is the role of modem. This is illustrated
in the Figure 7.1.
Figure 7.1: Modem connecting computers and Telephone networks

There are various ways of connecting to internet. Most popular among them are
listed below:

Dial-up Connection: For dial-up you would be using your telephone in your
home for dialing a particular number to contact the Internet Service Provider.
Dial-up connections are slow in nature. Their speed of communication would
be very few kbps (kilo bits per second, 4 kbps refers 4000 bits per second)

Broad band connection: Broad band connections are faster. They are faster
than dial-up by many folds. You can use broad band connection if your
internet access involves multiple media of data. The speed of broadband
connection would be in terms of Mbps (Mega bits per second, for example
eight Mbps refers to eight million bits per second)
Apart from these two there are other techniques like ISDN (Integrated

Services Digital Network), Satellite way of communication etc. But only the
dial-up and broad band are used in a massive scale for connecting to internet.

7.3 Internet Service Providers

Internet Service Providers or simply ISPs are the organization from
which you get internet connection. The above mentioned ways of connecting to
internet has to be provided by these ISPs.

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In our country there exist many Internet Service Providers. For example
BSNL (Bharath Sanchar Nigam Limited) is public sector ISP providing internet
connectivity all across the country.
Each ISP would provide various different packages for internet
connectivity just like your telephone connections. You can choose one
according to your needs and usage. The billing for internet would be generally
on the basis of time in case of dial-up connections. And in the case of broadband
the amount of data transferred would be taken into consideration for billing. In
case of dial-up apart from the internet time charges you may also required to pay
the billing for telephone separately.
Nowadays ISPs are providing attractive plans like pay a constant amount
and use unlimited internet. Again the choice of particular scheme selection and
for that matter ISP selection also purely depends on your usage.
Apart from wired internet connectivity nowadays ISPs provide wireless
internet also. To access wireless internet, ISPs provide a device which you can
attach to your USB port. By using this device you can easily access internet on
the move.
The local access point that ISPs provide for you is called POP or Point of
Presence. The connection from your system would first lead to this POP. Then
from this POP, Network Access Points (NAP) are used to further travel through
the network.
Nowadays many ISPs networks are not copper wire networks. They are
all optical-fiber networks. By using optical-fiber the speed of connectivity again
increases and also the loss of data is reduced.

7.4 Internet = World Wide Web?

Many of you may be having an opinion that internet and WWW are the
same. Are they really same? The surprising answer for this question is NO.
Internet and World Wide Web are not the same.

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Then you may ask the question that what is the difference between
internet and World Wide Web? The answer for this question is as follows:
Internet is actually the underlying network and World Wide Web is one of the
services running on internet.
What does this actually means? Internet refers to the physical network.
On top this physical network many services are running like e-mail, ftp (file
transfer protocol) etc. World Wide Web is simply another service running on
internet. Since World Wide Web is used in massive scale many people
interchangeably use the terms World Wide Web and Internet. Ideally speaking
they cannot be interchanged for one another.

7.5 IP Address
The World Wide Web primarily uses two protocols. They are
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP). These two
protocols make the WWW access easier and efficient.
IP address refers to Internet Protocol Address. Any computer linked to
the internet has an IP address. A typical IP address would have four components
or four octets. For example it would look like 172.16.0.25. There are two types
of IP address assigning. They are

Dynamic IP address: This type of IP addresses would change every time you
connect to the internet. So they are called dynamic. For example if you are
using a dial-up connection for accessing internet, every time you connect to
the internet you would be given an IP address. This IP address is only for that
session. If you connect at a later point you can notice that the IP address has
changed.

Static IP address: As the name indicate static IP addresses doesnt change

frequently. As your computer is having an IP address so is server computer.
If the IP address of the server is changing for every connection that it would

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become impossible to locate a web server. (Web servers hold the web pages
in them. A single web server can host multiple web pages).
At this point in time you may have a question in your mind that how to
identify the IP address. There is a simple way to do this. If you are using
Windows operating system go to the command prompt and execute the
command ipconfig. The result would give the IP details of your computer.
If you are using a Linux based machine then go to the terminal and type the
command ifconfig and press enter. It will give you the IP address details. (In
Linux there are certain permission issues to execute this ifconfig command).
This IP addresses are not only used in internet connectivity but they can be
used with in your organization network also. If your organization is having
hundred computers networked together then you can identify each single
computer by using the IP address. More over you can organize computer into
different groups by providing a particular range of IP address. For doing this
concepts like subnet masks are used.

7.6 Internet Naming and Addressing

Now you have learned that each computer connected to the internet is
having a unique IP address. So you can access a particular machine provided
that you know the IP address. But there is a problem with this kind of approach.
The problem is the number of computers connected to the internet is in terms of
billions. So it would not be possible for a normal human being to remember
specific IP addresses for specific machines or server.
The solution to this problem is to use names instead of numbers because
human brain is comfortable in remembering names than the numbers. So you
can easily access a specific web site by typing the name (called URL Uniform
Resource Locator)

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7.6.1 Domain Name Systems

As specified above you would be using URL for accessing a particular
web site. So there is a need for a translator which would translate the human
readable URLs into IP addresses. These systems are called Domain Name
Systems or DNS. The role of DNS is as depicted below:
Figure 7.2: DNS between URL and IP address
At first sight you may be feel that the role of DNS is very simple but it is
not so. DNS is the invisible part of internet to the end-user. If the DNS shut
downs for a fraction of time then the total World Wide Web would become
unusable because no one remembers the IP address.
The factors that make the DNS critical and complicated are as listed
below:

The number of IP addresses is very huge. So DNS conversion can not happen
at a single machine for the whole World Wide Web. This makes the DNS
distributed. Actually DNS is the largest distributed database.

There are millions of changes happening each day. So the DNS has to
accommodate all these changes.

The DNS has to perform this conversion in real time i.e. the conversion
should happen within the specified time limit. (In fact DNS is a good
example for soft real time system which is explained previously in this text)

7.6.2 Components of a URL

A typical URL has various components. For example consider the
following URL:
http://www.pondiuni.edu.in/departments/computerscience.php
Where
http://www

- Protocol

pondiuni.edu.in

- Domain Name

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departments

- Internal Directory in the domain

computerscience.php

- actual web page

So when you type the above mentioned URL in a browser following list
of events happens

Convert the domain name into IP address by using DNS

Locate that IP address (By using routers)

Locate the directory departments within that server

Fetch the page computerscience.php

Send the page to your computer to render it in your browser.

The above sequence is not only applied for this URL but this is the generic

procedure which is applied for any URL.

7.6.3 Domain Types
There exist different types of domains. Domain classification is done on
the basis of type of content that particular web site holds. If your recall the
previous example there pondiuni.edu.in was mentioned as domain name. This
domain itself can contain many components. In this particular domain name you
can find three components. They are

pondiuni

- Refers to the organizations name (Pondicherry University)

edu

- Refers to the type of organization (Educational)

in

- Refers to the country (India)

All the countries are assigned a two letter short form to make it easy to
include in the URL. For example (in for India, sg for Singapore etc)
Generally there are certain top level domains. They are as listed below:

.com

- Commercial Purpose

.mil

- Military purpose

.org

- Non profit organization

.gov

- Government

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.net

- Network

.edu

- educational

Immediately by looking at a URL you can find out the location (country) of
the organization and purpose of the organization.
In a particular domain no two URLs can be same. But if the top level domain
changes then you can have the same name. For example it is valid to have the
following two URLs:

www.pondiuni.org

www.pondiuni.edu.in
These URLs are valid because the top level domain in first URL is org

whereas in second URL it is edu.in. You may notice that in the first URL no
country name component present. It is not mandatory to have the country name
component. But if the URL includes country name component then you can
easily identify the location. Two URLs can differ in country name component
also. For example:

www.google.co.in

www.google.co.fr

The above two URLs are valid because they differ in the country name
component. Another point that you would have noted is that here the protocol
name http is not used. Most of the time even you miss the http:// you would be
able to access that web site.

7.6.4 Secure URLs

If a particular site is providing facilities involving financial transactions
then there is need for security. To facilitate such security there is a variation to
http protocol. (http is hyper text transfer protocol)

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The secure variation of http is called https. https stands for Hyper
Text Transfer Protocol Secure. You could have noticed the presence of https in
sites providing facilities like net banking etc.
If you enter a URL which is using https protocol then your browser itself
indicates this by changing the address bar background to yellowish color. (This
happens in browsers like Mozilla Firefox)
https is not only for financial transaction sites but it can be used for
any URL that need to be secure. For example the mail service provided by
Google i.e GMail normally uses the https version. This indicates that the
particular page is more secure and you can rely on that service.

7.7 Browsers
The tools that enable you to access World Wide Web are the browsers.
Today you have lot of options to choose the browser of your interest. This
section would describe about various popular browsers and their specialty and
drawbacks. A web browser can be defined as follows:
Web browser is software that enables you to access the World Wide
Web
Browsers have the following attributes:

All the web browsers primarily use the HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)

Web browsers have the capability to handle multiple forms of data like text,
images, audio, video etc.

Browsers would be able to identify any page by means of URL

7.7.1 Popularly used Browsers

The list of all web browsers available today is very long. We will not be
presenting all those browsers. This section gives you a list of browsers which are
commonly used by the general public. They are as follows:

Internet Explorer

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Mozilla Firefox

Opera

Safari

Netscape Navigator

Chrome
(The elements in the above list are not sorted in terms of their popularity)
Let us look in detail about each of the above browsers in the above list

both in terms of advantages and short-comings.

7.7.2 Rendering Engines
Before studying the browsers it becomes necessary that you should get
an insight about an underlying concept regarding web browsers. They are
rendering engines. A rendering engine is the core component of any web
browser that takes care of how to display or render the pages. So it is the
rendering engine which actually defines the behavior of web browsers to a
greater extent. Popularly used rendering engines are:

Trident

Gecko

Webkit

Presto etc
A deeper study of these rendering engines would be out of scope of our

current text.
7.7.3 Internet Explorer
Internet explorer is the default web browser in Microsoft Windows
operating systems. Details about IE are listed below:

Internet Explorer is developed by Microsoft

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Internet Explorer is made available as a part of OS with Windows (95 or

later)

IE supports tabbed browsing

Zone based security is possible with IE

Complete support for COM (Component Object Model) is there in IE

Internet Explorer uses the Trident Rendering Engine

Major criticism of IE is regarding its security.

7.7.4 Mozilla Firefox

Firefox is certainly a forerunner in terms of browser usage apart from
Internet Explorer. Firefox has got its wide acceptance among the developer
community if not everybody. The facts about Firefox are as below:

Firefox is developed by Mozilla

First version of Firefox is released during November 2004.

Firefox is a cross platform Web browser. Firefox versions are available for all
the major operating systems.

Firefox is based on Gecko Rendering engine

Source code of Firefox is available

Supports tabbed browsing

Provision for Incremental search is there.

One of the major advantages of Firefox is the ability to extend. There exist
many Firefox extensions available. Recently there is huge interest in
developing extensions for Firefox among the developer community all over.

Integrated Download manager is an added feature of Firefox. By using this

you can easily manage your downloads.

Major criticism about Firefox is the delay in loading the browser. It takes few
seconds to make the browser up. It also takes up a considerable amount of
memory.

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7.7.5 Safari
Safari is the default browser with Macintosh operating system (i.e. Apple
computers). Facts about Safari are as listed below:

Safari Browser is a product of Apple.

First version of Safari was released during 2003.

Safari uses the Webkit rendering engine

Complete support for CSS (Cascaded Style Sheets) is the important feature of
Safari browser.

Safari browser loads the pages comparatively faster by using various

techniques.

Tabbed browsing is also supported in Safari

Elegant User Interface of Safari makes your browser session smoother.

Safari supports RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

7.7.6 Opera
Opera is another popularly used browser among the web users. Facts
about Opera are as listed below:

Opera is a cross platform Web browser. (Versions exist for all the major
operating systems)

Opera versions exist for mobile phones and PDA. Miniature version of Opera
is called Opera Mini.

Opera is based on Presto rendering engine.

Thumbnail preview of pages are provided in Opera.

Opera supports various Widgets (Utility tools)

Opera also supports mouse gestures i.e. apart from click, double click, drag
you can perform events by moving your mouse in a specified patterns.

Content blocker facility is there in Opera

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7.7.7 Netscape Navigator

Netscape has played a critical role in making the browsers popular
among the web users during the early stages of World Wide Web.
The facts about Netscape Navigator are as listed below;

Navigator was released during 1994 (as beta version).

Netscape Navigator versions are available for Windows, Mac etc.

Criticism about Netscape Navigator is the poor support for CSS and XML.
(Many of the above specified browsers have got a good support in handling
XML).

7.7.8 Google Chrome

Chrome is the recent addition to the browser family. The facts about
chrome are as listed below:

Chrome is a product of Google.

Chrome is still in Beta release ( As of November 2008)

Chrome is based on Webkit rendering engine (same engine is used with safari
also).

Chrome supports tabbed browsing. Here the advantage is that each tab would
be considered as a separate process so problem in one tab would not affect
others.

Chrome has introduced a new JavaScript handler called V8.

Chrome has many developer friendly features like JavaScript debugging,

elements inspection etc.

Since Chrome is still in beta few of the web pages seems to be rendered in
chrome with broken manner. There is a good chance that these errors would
be rectified in the complete release.

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7.7.9 So, which is the best browser?

After reading all the facts about various browsers, now you may have a
question in your mind that which is the best web browser. There is no single
answer is there for this question. The choice of browser can be made on the
basis of following factors:

The hardware that you use is an important factor. For example if you
are using a mobile phone or PDA then Opera is a good choice.

The platform in which you work also has the major role to play in
browser selection. For example Safari being the default browser in Mac OS
(Of course here you can go for other browsers also but the default browser
would have been tailor made for that particular Operating System).

The type of content or type of web application that you use is also a
factor in selecting an ideal browser for your purpose.
Since browser is the interface through which you are accessing the

World Wide Web, a proper browser should be selected for your purpose based
on the above listed factors.

7.8 Electronic Mail

Electronic Mail or simply e-mail has become the commonest way of
communication. E-mail has certain distinct advantages comparing other ways of
communication as listed below:

E-mail communication is much faster than traditional communication

methods

E-mail is a global scale communication technology. (e-mail doesnt insists

any geographical boundaries)

Apart from text other media of data like image, audio etc can be attached
with e-mail.

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7.8.1 E-mail requirements

To use e-mail you need certain requirements. These requirements are as listed
below:

Internet connectivity

An e-mail account

An e-mail client. (e-mail client is optional because there exist many web
based interfaces for e-mail like Gmail or Yahoo etc).
There are many popular e-mail clients like Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft

Outlook express etc. Some of them are open source and others are proprietary.
Similar to web browser, selection of e-mail client selection should also be done
with great care by taking your hardware and usage into consideration.
7.8.2 E-mail Services
Nowadays you have plenty of choices in selecting the e-mail services.
Many free services also exist. Popular among the e-mail services are as listed
below:

Gmail

Yahoo mail

hotmail

rediffmail etc
All the above specified e-mail services are free. You can create an

account with them freely. Some of the e-mail services provide multiple types
services like free services and the premium services.
7.8.3 Your e-mail address
A typical e-mail address has the following format:
user_id@provider_domain
For example
pucsc@gmail.com

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Where
Pucsc

User

Id

(Pondicherry

University Computer Science)

gmail

- The e-mail service provider name.

The '@' symbol is used to separate the user_id and provider domain. The

user_id with in any single domain should be unique.

Some of the e-mail addresses also include the country specification as
part of their domain. For example
pucsc@yahoo.co.in
Here in indicate the country India. Apart from these general e-mail service
providers many organizations has their own specific e-mail service. For example
Pondicherry University e-mail id's would like as given below:
user_id@pondiuni.edu.in
For example:
csc@pondiuni.edu.in
Where
csc

- Computer Science

pondiuni

- Pondicherry University

edu

- Educational institutions

in

- denotes the country India.

These organization specific e-mails are primarily uesd for official

communication purposes.
7.8.4 An e-mail account for you
To proceed with e-mail first of all you should have an e-mail address.
This section would elaborate on the process of creation of an e-mail account.
The procedure is as listed below:

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By typing the e-mail service providers address in to a browser you can land
on the home page of that e-mail service. For example mail.google.com is the
address for launching the Google Mail (Gmail)

At this point there are two choices. If you have an e-mail address you can
enter there and login. If you don't have the e-mail id click on the sign up
now or similar option.

This would lead you to a page where you have to enter certain data. First of
them would be your e-mail id.

After entering your e-mail id it would be checked for duplicates. If no such id

exists it would be allowed otherwise you would be asked to enter a different
user-id. This check is made because an e-mail id is unique i.e. No two user
would be given the same id.

Apart from the user-id it would ask details like your name, contact address,
other e-mails (if you have any) and your preferences etc.

After entering all these information you can submit the form to create an email account for you.
Other than this mode of creation there exists other ways also. For

example if you are working in an organization then the organization itself may
provide you an e-mail id.
One more method of getting e-mail id is from the ISPs (Internet Service
Providers) itself. Some of the ISPs would provide you an e-mail address when
you purchase an internet account from them.
7.8.5 How to send an e-mail?
Let us assume that you are using web based e-mail. You have to follow
the steps given below to send an e-mail:

Login into the e-mail site. While creating an e-mail account they would ask
for an e-mail id and password. By typing this e-mail id and password you can
log-in into your e-mail account.

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After login by default most of the e-mail services would display your inbox
where you can find your incoming mails.

To send an e-mail click on the compose option.

After clicking compose option you would get a screen where you have to
enter the to address. This indicates the user to whom you wish to send the
e-mail.

Apart from to address you can also enter cc. It indicates the carbon copy.
Same mail would be sent to these users also.

One more type of address that you can enter is called bcc. It denotes blind
carbon copy. The mail would be sent to these recipients also without the
knowledge of other recipients.

In the above specified addresses it is not mandatory to enter all of them. All
other addresses are optional.

After entering these addresses you have to enter the actual message body in
the message area.

Once you have entered the message then click on the send option to send
the message.

If the message is successfully sent then you would be given a message similar
to Your e-mail sent etc. If the message is failed because of address error or
any other error you would receive an e-mail from the provider indicating the
failure of message. In such cases you can check the e-mail address for proper
spelling.
Apart from the above specified steps there is another option called

attachments. Attachments are very much useful in case you want to send some
additional files along with your e-mail. In such a case you can choose the file
that is to be sent as attachment before clicking the send button.
While selecting the attachments you have to consider the following facts.

The size of the file should not be big. Optimal size is in terms of KB or one
or two MB.

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The files that you attach would be scanned for virus. In cases where your file
is infected with virus many providers deny the attachments.

The number of attachments can be more than one also. In case where you are
sending a big file it is better that you can split that file into two to three pieces
and then send them as individual attachment. This becomes helpful in
scenarios where the internet speeds in very less. A big file can fail to upload
or download. In such cases these small files can help you.
Most of the viruses send with e-mail are sent as attachments. So it is a

good practice that not to open the attachments from unidentified sources.
7.8.6 Security with e-mail
One of the major problems among the e-mail users today is the security.
There is a category of e-mail called spam mail. These mails are product of
malicious users. service. These mails are unsolicited in nature. These mails
would greatly disturb in accessing your regular mails.
At times these mails can have viruses also. Your computer would get
affected by these viruses if you simply view or download these mails. The
question that you can ask now is how can I protect my system from these
viruses? It can be done if you follow the below given steps:

Never open an e-mail which you believe as a spam. Otherwise if you have
got an e-mail from unidentified sources never open them. Simply delete those
mails without carrying out any further action.

You can also use spam filter options provided by many email services. For
that matter many e-mail services provide free spam filters. For example
Spaminator.

Once you identify an email as spams do not reply to that mail. By replying to
the spam mail you are actually increasing the possibility of further attacks.
Because now the spam sender has got the information that your e-mail is
active.

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Apart from the above mentioned step you can also take a precautionary
action. Never enter your email id in forms where you feel the authenticity of
the site is not genuine. Because from these sites all the collected e-mails may
be provided to persons or organizations who/which are sending the spam.

You have to think twice before entering your e-mail password in any other
site. Because by providing both your Id and password you are giving the
complete control of your e-mail account to a third person which may lead to
critical problems.

7.8.7 Other e-mail Services

Apart from providing the facility to send and receive e-mail many
providers provides additional services like Instant Messaging. This instant
messaging service is simply called IM.
IM allows you to chat in real time. There exist many popular IM
services. Few of them are as listed below:

Gmail Chat (A chat option available within your mail page itself)

Yahoo Messenger

MSN Messenger

AOL Messenger
Many of the messengers provide you a client side tool which you can

download to your system. Then you can install and configure with your e-mail
id according to your need. You can use this chat facility when the person with
whom you want to chat is also online.
All the e-mail services have the facility of address book. In this address
book you can store the e-mail details about persons with whom you have regular
contact.
The primary advantage of this address book is that you don't need to
remember the e-mail address. Another advantage is that it helps to avoid spell
mistakes i.e., when you type the e-mail address yourself there is a possibility of

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typing it with spell mistakes. But when you select from address book where it is
stored correctly there is no possibility of spell mistakes.
Another point in organizing your e-mails is to properly store them in
folders. Instead of keeping all the mails in the Inbox you can create many
folders according to your choice and move the mails to corresponding folders.
Apart from Individual e-mails there exits group mails also which are
primarily used to share information among people with a common interest.
There exist many such popular e-mail discussion groups are available in
internet.

7.9 File Transfer

Transferring files from one location to another in a network is a common
phenomenon. To accomplish this file transfer there is a protocol called File
transfer protocol or simply FTP.
Facts about FTP are as listed below:

FTP is an open standard protocol i.e., it is not proprietary in nature

FTP by default uses the port number 21.

FTP can be used to transfer files in networks which support TCP/IP

FTP is not restricted to any single Operating system.

FTP removes the file systems barriers i.e., the user need not worry about the
kind of file system that the server is using.
To establish connections in FTP you need two programs. They are called

FTP client and FTP server. FTP client program would communicate the FTP
server program to perform operations like reading the file content, writing,
renaming etc.
There are three modes of in FTP. They are active mode, passive mode,
extended passive mode. Each mode has got its own method of operation.
FTP can be used in cases where ever there is a need to transfer files from
one location to another. It is been widely used to share some content over

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internet. You share files through e-mail as attachments but there is a restriction
to that, in terms of file size. If the size of the file to be transferred is high then
FTP can be used instead of e-mails. FTP allows to you to transfer files of bigger
sizes also over internet.
There are many FTP client programs available today. Few of them are
also available freely. Most of the browsers do have the facility to support FTP.
While accessing FTP sites the protocol ftp or ftps (FTP over SSL) should be
used instead of http. For example an ftp URL may look like ftp://pucsc/it.pdf.
FTP access can be either based on a user name, password mode or it can
be also be in anonymous mode. In the case of anonymous mode there is no need
for providing the username and password. This anonymous mode is used in sites
where contents can be downloaded by anyone who visits that FTP site.
7.9.1 FTP data transfer
FTP data transfer can happen in two modes. They are ASCII (American
Standard Code for Information Interchange) and Binary format.
ASCII would be used while transferring plain text. Here the character by
character ASCII would be transferred over the network and the receiving
computer would covert it back to character.
ASCII mode would be helpful only for text based data transfer. When
the data to be transferred is in the form of non-text like images, other file
formats etc, the binary mode would be used. Here the bit stream wise data
transfer would take place.
If ASCII mode or text mode is used for above mentioned usage then it
has the possibility to corrupt the files that are transferred.
7.9.2 FTP demerits
Though FTP helps to transfer files from one location to another it do
have certain problems. They are as listed below:

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FTP protocol doesnt follow any encryption techniques. So it becomes

relatively insecure to transfer data through FTP.

The latency (delay) associated with FTP is high.

FTP doesn't checks for the correctness of data. Many data transfer methods
follow the error checking procedure where as in FTP there is no error
checking is available.

FTP data can be easily sniffed by other in the same network.

There is a version of FTP which is called FTPS (FTP over SSL; SSL

stands for Secure Socket Layer) which is more secure than the FTP. Though
FTP has got above mentioned problems, it is still a widely used protocol to
transfer files over internet. Many popular sites provide FTP support, if there is a
need for transferring files from the users or to the user.

7.10 Bulletin Board System (BBS)

Bulletin Board System or simply BBS were very popular during 1980s.
Their popularity diminished after the massive growth of World Wide Web. This
section would provide details about Bulletin Board Systems.
Bulletin Board Systems are primarily used to share data. You can
connect to a BBS by dialing up a specific number. Once the connection is
established you can download data or even software from BBS.
Some of BBS were free i.e., there is no need to pay anything to them for
using their service. But there were other kind of BBS where you have to pay
them money for accessing their services.
Primarily data that was exchanged through BBS were images etc. Apart
from images there were textual data like articles.
BBS can be considered as ancestors of todays social networking sites.
(Though today, social networking sites provide far better facilities than the BBS
of olden days).

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One of the popular BBS used during those times was called FidoNet.
FidoNet was very popular based on the type of services it provided. There were
many other BBS which were very similar to FidoNet (in fact they all used the
same software and techniques that were used with FidoNet). All those networks
were called FidoNet Technology Network (FTNs).
BBS were unreliable in nature because they were not operated from a
high quality server centre or similar. Many users hosted BBS in their own
machines. So connectivity was not that much reliable.
BBS acted as discussion forums as well where users with a specific
interest can share their views by posting information on these BBS.

7.11 Introduction to Intranet and Extranet

The standards and protocols that are used with internet are well-defined.
So there was a thought among IT people why these techniques should not be
used for internal network. The result was intranet. Intranet has the following
attributes.

Intranet is based on standards that are used with Internet

Intranet scope is limited to the organization level. In other words intranet can
be accessed only with in an organization.

Intranet is primarily used to share the information among the employees of an

organization.

Intranet can be considered as private internet with only the relevant data.

7.11.1 Setting up Intranet

The question that you may have in your mind would be how to setup an
intranet. Since intranet is based on internet standards you would be having many
of the requirements of internet as follows:

Your network should have the support for TCP/IP.

If you wish to have file sharing then FTP support should be enabled.

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The servers have to be established. These servers would host the information
that would be requested by the users. There can be individual servers for
database, application etc.

Since the intranet is based on internet standards the clients for accessing the
intranet are nothing but the web browsers. Here the selection of web browser
can be made by keeping the organization's need in mind because here the
boundary is restricted to an organization.

A network monitoring tool can also be used to monitor the functions or load
of the intranet to facilitate better access.

Since the intranet is well defined i.e. you know the number of users, the
servers can be tweaked for performance keeping in mind the number of
concurrent users.

7.11.2 Advantages of Intranet

Intranet has got the following advantages:

Since the intranet is limited to an organizational boundary it can be made

more secure than the open internet.

Information can be distributed across organization easily and effectively.

During information distribution proper access rights can be set so that right
information reaches right people at right time.

Intranet is platform independent i.e., part of an organization may be working

with windows operating system and another part may be working with Linux
operating systems. Still they would be able to access the intranet application
because all the standards used with intranet is platform independent.

Intranet would improve collaboration between various teams working in an

organization.

Through intranet a common standard can be shared across all the teams of an
organization.

Delay in accessing information through intranet is very less.

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7.11.3 Disadvantages
The following list gives you list of all factors that to be considered while
setting up an intranet (in terms of disadvantages)

Need for expertise to manage the intranet.

Controlling the information overflow on intranet.

Finding the trade-off between rights given to the users and administrative
restrictions.

A problem in the intranet server would degrade the performance of all the
departments of the organization.

In addition to intranet, if internet access is given to the users then it become

additional responsibility of the administrator to safe guard the sensitive data
of the organization.

7.11.4 Extranet
Extranet is similar to intranet except with a variation that the boundary is
not strictly limited to the organization but authorized people outside the
organization can also access the extranet.
For example an organization may like to give access to some parts of its
system to users like customers, vendors etc who reside outside the organization.
In such a case you cannot use intranet. Here extranet can be successfully
implemented.
Access to the network would be on the basis of authorization. The users
would be given user id and password which can be applied to access the
resources.
Apart from these user id and password based authorization there can be
other methods of authorization like IP based authorization etc. In IP based
authorization users would be checked for their IP. If the IP falls with in the
specified list or specified range then access would be given. Otherwise access
would be denied.

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7.12 HTML
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) can be considered as a corner
stone of World Wide Web. The pages of World Wide Web are constructed with
HTML.
HTML is a markup language. Markup languages are used to represent
the form and structure of a document. Markup languages don't support any
logical commands like programming languages. So, HTML also doesn't support
any logical commands. The point you have to remember here is that HTML is
not a programming language; it is only a markup language.
HTML and all other markup languages are derived from SGML
(Standard Generalized Markup Language). Many of the markup languages like
XML etc are derivatives of this SGML.

7.12.1 Structure of a HTML document

A HTML document is made up tags. A HTML tag would have the
following syntax:
<tag_name> data </tag_name>
For example
<b> Pondicherry University </b>.
Here
<b>

the opening tag and

</b>

the closing tag

The data in between opening tag and closing tag would be applied the
particular style provided by the tag. A HTML document has the following
structure

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<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
{contents}
</body>
</html>
Any HTML document has to start with the tag <HTML> and the same
need to be closed at the end. The next tag would be <body> and it would be
closed before the </HTML> tag.
For example
<html>
<body>
Welcome to Pondicherry University
</body>
</html>
The HTML listing and the output is as shown in the figure 7.3
Figure 7.3 Simple HTML listing with its output
7.12.2 Steps for creation of first HTML file
Following the steps given below to create a simple html page:

Open any text editor any type the above given code and save the by giving
any name and .html extension.

Launch any web browser and open the html file to view the output.

7.12.3 Parts of an HTML document

A html document has two sections. They are as listed below:
13.

Head Section

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14.

Body Section.
Head section would hold certain specialized tags like <title>, <meta>

etc. In the body section the actual document layout would be created. Body
section is the core section of any html document because only here the actual
content of the document is given. Head section in html is optional.
7.12.4 HTML output
The output of a HTML listing depends on various factors. Most
important factors are as listed below:
23.

The browser with which you are viewing the document has a major role

in deciding the actual display because it is only the browsers which interprets
the html code and display the output.
24.

The operating system that you use would also play a major role in

displaying the page.

25.

The display resolution (like 800 x 600 etc) would have an impact on the

actual page display.

It is always to better to keep in mind the target users and design the
pages with those features which would be rendered in a best manner. For
example in many web sites you would have a message similar to This page
would be rendered optimally in IE version 5.0 or above. This indicates that the
target users of that site has to use the Internet Explorer version 5.0 and above to
get the exact output as the designer has created.
7.12.5 Widely Used HTML tags
It would be out of scope of current text to describe about all the html tags
in detail because the number of html tags is very huge in nature. This section
would provide introduction to widely used html tags.

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7.12.5.1 Title Tag

Title tag is used to specify a title to the document. Title has to reflect the
summary of content of that html document. Title would be displayed on the title
bar of the browser window.
Figure 7.4 Title Tag
The title tag has to be specified in the head section. Some of the tags that
are specified in head section would have certain control features. For example
the meta tag can be used to specify keywords to the search engines and to
specify the interval in which the page has to be reloaded.
7.12.5.2 Paragraph tag
To start a new paragraph you can use the <p> tag. For example:
Figure 7.5 Paragraph Tag
You can look at the third <p> tag in which an attribute align has been
specified to align the paragraph to right. You can notice the output where the
third paragraph is aligned to right.
HTML attributes are used to specify properties of the tag. HTML
attribute values are given with in quotes. However these quotes are not
mandatory.
7.12.5.3 Bold, Italic and Underline
Bold, Italic and underline are used to emphasis particular phrase or
portions of a document. HTML provides three different tags for doing the same.
<b> and </b> for Bold, <i> and </i> for italic, <u> and </u> for
underlining.

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For example
<b> This is bold text </b>
<u> this is underlined text </u>
<i> this is italicized text </i>
7.12.5.4 Starting a new line
To start a new line html provides a tag called <br>. <br> refers to break.
<br> is a pair less tag i.e. There is no closing tag for <br>. Few tags in html are
without closing tags.
For example:
<body>
This is line one <br> this line two <br> line 3
</body>
7.12.5.5 Inserting a horizontal Line
To insert a horizontal line the <hr> tag can be used. For example
<body>
This is group 1
<hr>
This is group 2
</body>
The above html listing would provide the output where there is a
horizontal rule is provided in between the two lines.
7.12.5.6 Linking to other page
Most important attribute of html document is the ability to link from one
document to another. To provide this facility html has got the link tag <a> </a>.
In addition to liking other documents portions of same document can also be
given as target for anchor tag.

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For example
<body>
<a href=www.podiuni.edu.in> Pondicherry University </a>
<a href=www.mkuniversity.org> M.K. University </a>
</body>
The above listing would produce an output consisting two hyperlinks. By
clicking the hyperlinks your browser would land on to the corresponding URL
given for those links.
7.12.5.7 Inserting Images
HTML is not only for text data. It has the capability to handle various
forms of data like image, audio etc. To insert an image in to an html document
<img> tag is used. For example:
<body>
Taj Mahal <img src=tajmahal.jpg width=100 height=100>
Himalayas <img src=himalayas.jpg width=100 height=200>

</body>
The output of above listing would be a page containing images of
tajmahal and himalayas. Also the text Taj Mahal , Himalayas would be
displayed. The width and height attributes specifies the width and height of the
images.
7.12.5.8 Creating Tables
Many times it is required to give the data in a tabular format. HTML
provides table tag to create tables. Table creation involves various tags. They are
as listed below:
<table>

- To specifiy table beginning and ending

<th>

- To specifiy table header

<tr>

- To specifiy beginning of a new row

<td>

- To specifiy a cell

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For example
Figure 7.6 Table Tag
There are various attributes that you can use with in a table definition.
Few of them are listed below:
21.

border

- To specify the thickness of table borders

22.

width, height - To specify width and height of the table.

23.

Cellspacing

24.

Cellpadding

25.

Rowspan

- To indicate number of rows to span

26.

Colspan

- To indicate number of columns to span.

- Space between two cells

- Space between the cell content and cell border

Apart from creation of tables, the table tag has got an important usage.
Another usage of table tag is to align the contents. HTML doesn't provide any
coordinate based positioning. So to properly create the layout of pages table tag
is used. In these cases the border property of table tag would be set to zero so
that the table will not be visible to the end user.
7.12.5.9 Listing Tags
To create list html provides listing tags like ordered listing and
unordered listing. An example for unordered list is given below:
<body>
<ol>
<li> CPU </li>
<li> Mother Board </li>
<li> RAM </li>
</ol>
</body>

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The above example would display a list with three items in it. Each item
would be displayed in a separate line. They would be preceded with symbols
(like bullets) to identify them as individual item. These bullets are also
customizable.
In case of ordered list instead of <ol> the tag <ul> would be used. And
the output would have numbers instead of bullets.
7.12.5.10 Marquee tag
Marquee tag is used to scroll text on the display to get attention from the
user. For example:
<body>
<marquee>
This text would be rolling
</marquee>
</body>
The direction and speed of rolling can be controlled with the help of
various parameters.

7.12.6 HTML vs. XHTML

XHTML is a variation of html based on XML. The important variations
between HTML and XHTML are as listed below:
29.

HTML tags dont make it mandatory to close the tags where as in

XHTML it is mandatory to close all the tags. If the closing tag does not exist
then also there is a special mechanism. For example <br> would be used in
XHTML as <br />
30.

The attribute values in XHTML must be given within quotes where as in

html it is optional.

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31.

The nesting of tags in XHTML should be proper otherwise it would

through a error message. In HTML proper nesting is not mandatory. HTML

allows to close the tags in improper nesting manner also.
All the above steps are taken to insist the proper output of HTML in all
the browsers and in all the platforms. So XHTML is now becoming the de-facto
standard for web development. XHTML is not entirely a new markup language
rather it is a variation of HTML where rules have become tougher.
Though html is widely used there is a general criticism of html. It is
given as follows: HTML clubs the presentation with data too much. So if you
want to change the layout at a later point it becomes very difficult.
In order to solve the above problem there is a technique introduced
called CSS (Cascaded Style Sheets). In CSS the style alone would be defined.
Later this style would be attached to html. By this html becomes more modular.
By the integration of CSS with HTML, the pages would become easily
modifiable for their style. So this HTML and CSS combination has become a
great success in the World Wide Web development.

Summary
Internet is the global network. Internet is called network of
networks.
The history internet began with ARPANET.
There are various modes of connecting to internet: dial-up,
broadband access etc.
The organization which provides you the access to internet is called
Internet Service Providers (ISP). For example BSNL.
Modem is the device used to convert analog signals to digital and
vice-versa.

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There are various protocols associated with internet: TCP/IP, HTTP,

FTP etc.
IP stands for Internet Protocol. Every computer connected to internet
would have an internet protocol address. IP can be static or dynamic
in nature.
Domain name systems are used to convert the URLs into IP address
for fetching the content associated with them. Domain name system
is one of the largest distributed databases.
The software that is used to access the World Wide Web are called
as Web browsers. For example Internet Explorer, FireFox etc.
Internet and World Wide Web are not interchangible terms. Internet
is the underlying network and WWW is one of the applications
running on internet.
E-mail is used to communicate message among users. To access the
email facility an e-mail account is needed. The e-mails can be
accessed either through the e-mail client or web based interfaces.
Popular examples for e-mail services are Gmail, Yahoo mail etc.
FTP stands for File Transfer protocol. It is used to transfer files from
one system to another system provided they are connected with
internet and the FTP support is provided. Generally FTP is not
secure but the FTPS version is comparatively securer than FTP.
Bulletin Board Systems were very popular during 80s and early 90s.
After the large scale growth in World Wide Web, the bulletin board
systems have become less popular.
Intranet is a local network which uses the standards and technologies
of internet. Intranet would be accessible only with the organization.
Extranet is an extension to intranet. Extranet can be accessed by
authenticated people outside the organization also.

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Self Assessment Questions

Part I (Multiple Choice Questions)
22.

The birth of internet is associated with

1. ARPANET
2. Google
3. Netscape
4. All of the above
5. None of the above
23.

IP stands for

1. Internal Programming
2. Internet Permissions
3. Internet Protocol
4. All of the above
5. None of the above
24.

Which of the following is not a web browser?

1. Internet Explorer
2. Chrome
3. iBrowse
4. All of the above
5. None of the above
25.

Safari is the browser associated with

1. Macintosh
2. Unix
3. DOS
4. All of the above

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5. None of the above

26.

Firefox versions are available for

1. Windows
2. Linux
3. Macintosh
4. All of the above
5. None of the above
27.

Which of the following is not a markup language?

1. HTML
2. XML
3. PHP
4. All of the above
5. None of the above
28.

The tag in html which is used to insert a new line is

1. <nl>
2. <br>
3. <enter>
4. All of the above
5. None of the above
29.

The html tag used to draw horizontal ruler is

1. <hr>
2. <hrule>
3. <hori_ruler>
4. All of the above
5. None of the above

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30.

HTTPS stands for

1. HTTP secure
2. HTTP simple
3. HTTP synchronous
4. All of the above
5. None of the above
31.

Gecko is the rendering engine for

1. Firefox
2. Internet explorer
3. Safari
4. All of the above
5. None of the above
Part II (Short Questions)
19.

Explain the function of modem.

20.

What do you mean up dial-up connection?

21.

List out four internet protocols?

22.

Differentiate internet and WWW.

23.

List out the names of popular web browsers.

24.

What do you mean by DNS?

25.

Write short notes on intranet.

26.

List out any three e-mail client programs.

Part III (Descriptive type Questions)

19.

Compare and Contrast various Web browsers.

20.

Explain in detail about e-mail services.

21.

Explain the importance of HTML with clear examples.

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Answer Key
Part I
1. a

2. c

3. c

4. a

5. d

6. c

7. b

8. a

9. a

10. a
Part II

11.

Modem is used to establish the link between a computer and

telecommunication network. The role of modem is to convert the analog

signals into digital and vice-versa.
12.

There are many ways of accessing internet. One such way is called dial-

up connection. In dial up the ISP will provide a number to dial using which
the connection would be established. The dial-up connections are normally
slower in nature.
13.

A protocol is a set of rules to be followed while making communications

in networks. Some of the popular internet protocols are as listed below:

(a) TCP /IP
(b)HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)
(c) FTP (File transfer protocol)
(d)IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol
14.

The terms www and internet are not synonyms. Internet refers the

underlying the network and www is only application running on internet.

15.

A web browser is software used to access the World Wide Web. There

exists an array of web browsers today. Some of them are listed below:

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(a) Mozilla Firefox

(b) Internet Explorer
(c) Google Chrome
(d) Safari
16.

DNS stands for Domain name systems. The name systems role is to

convert the user entered URL into IP address. If domain name systems were
not there users have to remember the IP addresses which is very difficult to
practice.
17.

Intranet is a local network which is based on the standards and

technologies of internet. The boundary of intranet is only within an

organization. When the authorized users outside the organization are allowed
to access then it becomes extranet.
18.

The e-mails can be accessed either through World Wide Web or e-mail

clients. E-mail clients are software which you can install in your machine to
access your e-mail account. Popular e-mail clients are
(a) Mozilla Thunderbird
(b) Outlook Express
(c) Evolution

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Lesson 8: Multimedia
Introduction

Today we are all living in the information technology world. The role of
computers in human life has become inevitable. One of the major causes
for computers becoming part-and-parcel of everybodys life is because
of the simplicity of its usage. Gone are the days when computers were
only for technology oriented people.

Nowadays usages of computers have become very common across

people who are not basically technical. Major reason behind this change
is that computers have become user-friendly.

Can we now imagine a computer that does not has the capability to
display images? It may sound very uncommon today. The power of
computers lies in their ease of use. The factor behind the ease of use is
that the computers now have the capability to handle multiple media.

This lesson would focus on various aspects of multimedia.

Objectives

Defining the term multimedia

Explaining various components of multimedia

Introducing various file formats

Explaining the multimedia requirements

Elaborating the challenges associated with multimedia

8.1 Multimedia - definition

The term multimedia is derived from two Latin words. They are multum
+ media. Multum means many. Media refers to a form of communication. In
general we can define multimedia as the combination of more than one form of
content forms.

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A computer is said to be multimedia enabled if and only if it has the

capability to handle multiple content forms like text, graphics, audio, video etc.
Before exploring the inner details of multimedia we need to first get
acquaintance with the various types of media stated above. The next section
would focus on various components of multimedia

8.2 Components of multimedia

Various components of multimedia have been listed below:

Text

Graphics (still images)

Animation

Audio

Video
The fig 8.1 illustrates various components (content forms) of multimedia.

8.2.1 Text
The text component consists of only the alphabets, numerals and
special characters. This is the most preliminary content form. The text
component itself has various effects associated with it. They are as follows:

Font face

Font size

Character spacing

Other effects like bold, italic, underline etc.

The usage of text medium in a multimedia content becomes very crucial.

At the same time the amount of text that would be used in the multimedia
presentation should also be under control. We should not overuse the text
content in a multimedia presentation.

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Fig 8.1: various content forms of multimedia

8.2.2 Graphics
Graphics refers to still images. An image is nothing but a matrix of
pixels (pixels refers to the picture cells). With the help of image we make the
content to be more effective because an image is worth more than thousand
words. There exist various kinds of images that can be used in a multimedia
presentation. The following table 8.1 lists out various image file formats and
their explanations.
Image format

Meaning

Bmp

Bitmap image.

Jpeg

Joint photographic experts group

Png

Portable network graphics

Tiff

Tagged image file format

Gif

Graphics interchange format

Table 8.1: various graphics file formats and their meanings

While selecting an image we need to find the trade-off between the

memory requirements and quality of the image.
Bitmap (bmp) is the uncompressed image file format. It is widely used
with Microsoft windows operating systems. Bitmap uses 24 bits per pixel. The
total number of colors possible with bmp format is around 16 millions.
Tiff file provides better quality images. But the size of tiff images is very
high. It also uses 24 bits per pixel.
Among the above given list of file formats gif and jpeg formats are
widely used in World Wide Web. The reason for their usage is that the file size

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is smaller, so it is easy to transfer these file over internet because they consume
very less storage space. Let us have a glance on these two file formats.

8.2.2.1 Gif format

Gif stands for graphics interchange format. Facts about gif are given in
the following list:

Gif is a compressed file format.

The algorithm used for compression in gif is LZW.

Gif uses 8 bits per pixel. So the maximum number of colors with gif image is
256

The compression ratio of gif image is around 1:10.

The gif format is supported by most of the web browsers. This makes gif a
good choice for World Wide Web.

8.2.2.2 Joint photographic expert group (jpeg)

Another image format that is widely in internet is the jpeg. The facts
about jpeg are listed in the following list:

This jpeg format has been introduced by a group of experts.

Jpeg format works very well with multi color images.

Jpeg compression is a loosy compression method but still human eyes are not
capable of identifying those lose.

Most of the image processing tools provide various levels of compression for
jpeg. As the compression increases image size is reduced at the same time
quality of the image is also reduced.
Generally for compression of images various algorithms are used. They

fall under the techniques like run length encoding (RLE), statistical compression
etc.

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8.2.3 Animation
Any object in a multimedia presentation that has movement associated
with it, is called animated. The fundamental usage of animation is that they can
be used for some illustration purpose.
An animation is again a sequence of continuous still images arranged in
a specific order so that it creates the illusion of movement. So to create an
animation sequence we need to create the required still images first. Then we
can combine these still images using specific tools to create the animation.
Smoothening of images edges to improve the look of the image is called
anti-aliasing.

8.2.4 Audio
Audio component adds the real richness to any multimedia presentation.
The audio can range from human voice to special effects sound. In order to
handle audio in a presentation we need to first capture the audio. Then we
should integrate the audio in proper place in to the presentation. There exist
various kinds of file formats for audio. Some of them are listed below:

Wav (wave file)

Mp3

Wma (windows media audio)

Ra (real audio)

8.2.5 Video
Animations are artificially created sequence of events where as video
refers to captured sequence of real events. The usage of video in a multimedia
presentation lies where we need to integrate some clips of recorded events. To
handle video we have specific file formats like dat, mpeg4 etc.

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Interactivity is also considered another important aspect of multimedia.

Any multimedia presentation would be more effective if it has provisions for
human interactions.

8.3 Multimedia requirements

In order to handle multimedia we have certain requirements to be
satisfied. This section would illustrate both the hardware and software
requirements for handling multimedia.
Hardware requirements of multimedia includes a good quality video
display, speaker system with microphone to capture audio, an high amount of
main memory and hard disk space. With respect to software the requirements
include various authoring tools for all kinds of media.
There exist certain popular multimedia tools. For still image related tasks
we can use adobe Photoshop. There are other alternatives like gimp (gnu image
manipulation program) etc. In combination with this CorelDraw is also very
useful.
To create animations we have plenty of tools like Corel rave,
macromedia flash. Using macromedia flash we can create powerful two
dimensional animation sequences. To create three dimensional animation
sequences we can use Maya, the most popular tool in the multimedia world.
Using Maya we can create virtual characters with certain behaviors. The
names of tools specified above are only representative. We have a large
collection of tools available for multimedia purposes. A complete illustration of
all the tools would be out of scope of this text. The next section would focus on
various applications of multimedia.

8.4 Multimedia applications

The applications of multimedia are widespread. We would explore few
of the important applications in this section.

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8.4.1 Education
The applications of multimedia in the field of education are many. Elearning itself, has become a vast field. Multimedia based presentations have
become common teaching tool in institutes of higher learning. The important
benefits of this method includes

Students can visualize the concepts in a much easier way.

Comparing to the traditional black board based teaching you can speed up the
learning process.

Lecture sessions can be made more interactive with the help of multimedia
tools.

Particularly to the students of distance learning, multimedia presentations

would be very useful in-addition to the traditional paper based study
materials.

8.4.2 Telemedicine
The effectiveness of telemedicine is primarily due to faster
communication links and multimedia. The telemedicine would not have been
successful to this extent without the help of multimedia.
The multimedia applications in telemedicine include video transmission
of patient diagnosis or surgery. The sound is also transmitted live to facilitate
communication between patient and doctor, doctor and doctor communication.
There exists few telemedicine software commercially available in the
industry. They all incorporate excellent multimedia capabilities.

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8.4.3 Entertainment industry

One of the prominent industries which got benefited by multimedia is the
entertainment industry. The application of computer animation sequences in
movies is one the well known examples for multimedia applications.
Application of multimedia enriches the quality and reach y of the movie
to a greater extent.

8.4.4 Virtual reality

The latest development in the field of multimedia is virtual reality.
Virtual reality is the creation of illusion of an environment through the help of
multimedia. With the help of virtual reality the user can mentally be transferred
to any environment though he/she may be physically present in some other
environment.
For example with the help of virtual reality we can provide virtual
laboratories to the students where in they can perform the experiments virtually.
Another example could be to create the simulation of vehicle control for drivers.
With this technology the trainee drivers can get an experience of controlling the
vehicle without even entering in to it. This method greatly reduces the cost. We
can certainly ensure the prevalence of virtual reality in many fields in near
future.

8.5 Multimedia challenges

Although multimedia provides lots of advantages we need to face certain
challenges while using multimedia. First of all the requirements stated earlier
should be satisfied. One of the important facts to consider about multimedia is
that all the content forms except text would require a huge storage space. The
solution to this problem is compression i.e. All the content forms can be
converted to a format where they require much lesser memory than their original
form.

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For each content form there exists a specific compression standard. For
example to compress audio the recent technique is mp3. The popularity of mp3
is well known to all. With the help of mp3 we can reduce an audio file of size 70
mega bytes to 4 mega bytes.
Another important reason for compression is that when the multimedia
content travels through a network they require huge band-width without
compression. If we compress the multimedia content, then it would occupy
comparatively very less band-width.

Summary

Multimedia refers to various content forms of data.

Various of forms of data includes text, image, audio, video

The compressed file formats like GIF and JPEG are widely used on
internet.

There exist many specialized multimedia software.

Applications of multimedia are there in various fields. For education,

telemedicine, entertainment, virtual reality etc.

Multimedia data requires a high bandwidth network for faster transfer.

Self Assessment Questions

Part I (Multiple Choice Questions)
1. Which of the following is not a compressed image file format?

Bmp

Jpeg

Gif

All of the above

None of the above

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Smoothening of image edges to make them look better is called

Shading

Sliding

Anti-aliasing

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is/are image processing software?

GIMP

Photoshop

Corel draw

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is/are audio file format(s)

.mp3

.wav

.ra

All of the above

None of the above

GIF image is best suited for

Large images

Gray scale images

Multi-color images

All of the above

None of the above

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Part II (Short Question)

Define multimedia

List out various content forms of multimedia.

Write short notes on virtual reality.

What do you mean by anti-aliasing?

Write short notes on JPEG

Part III (Descriptive type Questions)

Explain the applications of multimedia in various fields

Elaborate on various components of multimedia.

Answer Key
Part I
1. a

2. c

3. d

4. d

5. b
Part II
6. Multimedia refers to the integrated usage of more than one media
together. Multimedia requires certain specialized hardware and software for
efficient performance.
7. Multimedia includes various content forms. They are as listed below:

Text

Graphics

Animation

Audio

Video

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8. With the help of virtual reality you can provide the user a feel that the
movements are happening in the real world. For example you can provide a
walk-through inside a building as if user is walking through the building.
9. Smoothening of image edges so that the image would look better is called
anti-aliasing. It is used to increase the quality of the image.
10. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. It is an image format
well suited for multi colored images. JPEG images provide a good level of
compression.

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Lesson 9: Object Oriented Systems

Introduction

There exist many paradigms of programming. Object Oriented System is

one of the approaches towards software development.

Object Oriented Systems provide various advantages over other systems.

This lesson would elaborate on object oriented systems covering details

like their origin, fundamental concepts, comparison with other systems
etc.

Objectives

Providing an introduction to Object Oriented Systems

Explaining various concepts of Object oriented Systems

Explaining advantages of Object Oriented systems.

9.1 History of Object Oriented Systems

Object oriented System came in to existence a long time back. During
1960s itself, there were talks about object oriented systems. During that time
only few languages were there to support object oriented systems. But nowadays
you have an array of programming languages which either supports object
oriented programming concepts completely or partially.
Simula language was the first language which incorporated into object
oriented programming concepts. Simula was developed as superset of Algol.
Simula was developed during 60s. Simula supported many object oriented
programming concepts like Classes, objects, virtual methods etc.
The next language to rise in the object oriented arena was Smalltalk.
Smalltalk was introduced during the 70's. Smalltalk was based on Simula.
Smalltalk supported many more features than Simula. It is only the after the

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raise of Smalltalk the term Object Oriented Programming became popular

across the Information Technology world.
Many programming languages developed later supported concepts
introduced by Simula. C++ also has got greater impact of Simula. Now the list
of languages that support object oriented concepts is lengthier. Some of the
popular languages that support object orientation are listed below:

C++

Java

Small talk

PHP

Objective-C etc.
Though many languages were developed following Simula and

Smalltalk, it is only the C++ which attracted a larger mass of developers towards
object oriented programming. The object oriented programming attained much
popularity during 90's.
Once the concept of Graphical User Interface was introduced, the object
orientation techniques were suited optimally to them. Later most of the visual
programming languages supported the object oriented system concepts.
Nowadays object oriented system concepts are widely used in the Web
Scripting languages also (Both in client as well as in server side). For example
the recent version of server side scripting language PHP supports object
orientation to a greater extent. In the case of Client side scripting also JavaScript
provides support to object oriented concepts.
Most of the languages today are either completely object oriented or they
support object oriented concepts. The reasons for this support are explained in
later portions of this text.

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9.2 Object Oriented Vs Object based languages

There are certain languages which supports few object oriented concepts
but not all concepts. In this section the difference between Object oriented and
object based languages are discussed.
There exist certain languages where even the smallest program that you
can develop should also use object oriented concepts. These types of languages
would support most of the concepts of object oriented systems. These languages
are called strictly object oriented. For example

Smalltalk

Ruby etc.
There are certain other languages where you either follow object

orientation or omit them. For example in C++ language you can construct
program that doesnt touches any concepts of object orientation.
There are other languages which are based on the object orientation
concepts. For example in a language like Visual Basic you have the concept of
object, classes etc. But it is not object oriented programming language because it
doesnt support many object oriented concepts like inheritance etc. The choice
of language selection can be done on the basis of application that you are going
to develop and the target hardware.
9.3 Object Oriented programming concepts
A program in an Object oriented programming language would be
collection of objects and interactions between these objects. This section would
describe the fundamental concepts of object oriented programming. They are as
listed below:

Objects

Classes

Encapsulation

Polymorphism

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Inheritance

9.3.1 Objects
Objects are the fundamental units of Object Oriented programming.
From the term itself you can understand that these programming languages are
totally based on objects.
An object is an instance of a class. An object would hold the data and the
functions (that would operate the data together). An object would provide some
mechanisms in the form of functions using which the external world can access
the data members of objects.
9.3.2 Classes
A class is blueprint using which the objects are created. Class consists of
two components. They are member variables and member functions. These
member variables and functions would have various access modifiers like
private, public, protected. A Class can have relationship with other classes.
For example you can consider vehicle as a class. The class for defining
vehicle would have members like number of wheels, fuel type, color etc.
An object belonging to the class vehicle would have corresponding values for
these variables. For example you can consider Maruti-800 as object for this
class. Here the values would be filled for variables specified above. Number of
wheels would be filled with 4, color with blue etc.
Many such real world examples can be given. For example, animal is a
class and Lion is an object belonging to the class.
In general all the objects created using a particular class would have
most of the common properties. Here you have to remember one thing that the
values of properties can differ for each object. For example Animal class can
have property like type, the values can be different for this properties which
may include herbivorous, carnivorous etc.

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9.3.3 Encapsulation
Encapsulation is the process of binding many items together so that they
can be accessed easily as a single unit. You can visualize the concept of
encapsulation in terms of capsules. In capsules more than one type of
medicine is put together and given to the patient as a single unit. The consumers
of the capsule need not to know about the internal elements of medicines present
in the capsule. For him the capsule is a single unit.
Similarly in the case of Object oriented programming various units like
data and the functions to access those data are put together. The user is not
required to handle these pieces individually. They can be handled as single unit.
This process is called encapsulation.
The access points to the objects would be clearly defined. Generally
these access points are member functions. The data associated with an object is
not directly manipulated by external world. It is these functions which acts as
the interface to the data associated with the object. But there is an exception to
this phenomenon. When the data associated with object is declared as public
then it can be accessed directly.
In general encapsulation hides the internal operations to the external
world. It gives you the interfaces using which the associated data can be
manipulated safely.
9.3.4 Inheritance
The most important feature of Object Oriented programming is the
concept of inheritance. The inheritance of Object oriented programming can be
compared with human inheritance. A child would inherit traits (characteristics)
from the parents. In addition to that the child can have it's own special
characteristics.

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The inheritance in OOP is also the same. Here a class would inherit
properties and methods from another class. The reason for which inheritance is
getting popular is the concept of reusability.
Reusability provides you the advantage that every time you need not
start from the scratch. You can create new classes which would inherit from the
existing classes.
There exist many types of inheritance. They are as listed below:

Single level inheritance or simple inheritance

Multi level inheritance

Hierarchical inheritance

Multiple inheritance

Hybrid inheritance

9.3.4.1 Single level inheritance or simple inheritance

In the case of simple inheritance there is only one base class and one
derived class. Base class is the class which already exists. Derived class is one
which inherits the properties from the base class.
For example
Figure 9.1 Simple Inheritance

9.3.4.2 Multi level inheritance

In the case of multi-level inheritance classes would be derived from
other classes which are derived classes themselves. For example class B derives
Class A and Class C is derived from Class B then it is called multi level
inheritance.

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In other words in the case of multi level inheritance few classes are both
derived classes as well as base classes.
Figure 9.2: Multilevel Inheritance
9.3.4.3 Hierarchical inheritance
In the case of hierarchical inheritance more than one class would be
derived from a single class. For example if there are two classes Class B and
Class C which are derived from Class A then it is called hierarchical inheritance.

Figure 9.3: Hierarchical Inheritance

9.3.4.4 Multiple Inheritance

In the case of multiple inheritance a single class would have been
derived from more than one base class. For example if there is Class C which is
derived from both Class A and Class B then it is called multiple inheritance.

Figure 9.4: Multiple Inheritance

Multiple inheritance is not directly supported in some of the object

oriented languages like Java etc.
9.3.4.5 Hybrid Inheritance
When more than one type of inheritance is mixed together it becomes
hybrid inheritance. For example multi level and hierarchical inheritance can be

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clubbed together to form hybrid inheritance. You can select more than one type
of inheritance and use them in a combined manner then it becomes hybrid
inheritance.
Figure 9.5: Hybrid Inheritance

9.3.5 Polymorphism
The term polymorphism is combination of two terms viz., poly +
morphic many faces. In polymorphism the same entity would have different
meaning in different places.
There exits two types of polymorphism. They are

Compile type polymorphism

Run time polymorphism

In the case of compile type polymorphism the binding would happen at

compile time itself, where as in the case of runtime polymorphism the binding
would happen at run time.
Object oriented programming has concepts where the idea of
polymorphism is effectively used. For example:

Function overloading

Operator overloading

In the function overloading two functions would exist with the same
name. Which function is to be called would be decided based on many of the
factors as given below:

Number of parameters of the functions

Data type of parameters of the functions

For example if there are two functions with the same name say interest. Then
these versions should differ either in terms of number of arguments or data type
of the argument.

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Based on the calling location parameters the appropriate function would

be invoked. Function overloading is certainly one of the repeatedly used
concepts in object orientated programming.
Another concept is the operator overloading. In the case of operator
overloading, an operator is defined to be used differently at different places.
For example you can define the operator + to work with complex
number addition. (By default + would perform its operations on basic data
types like integer and float etc).
Important points to remember with operator overloading are as given
below:

The basic meaning of the operator is not changed i.e., the operator +
is not overloaded to perform the - operation.

There are certain operators which cannot be overloaded. For example

the scope resolution operator used with C++ language i.e., :: cannot
be overloaded.
Apart from the object mentioned concepts there exist some terminology

associated with object oriented programming. Some of them are described in the
following paragraphs:
9.3.6 Instance
An object created from a class is called an instance of the class. Each
instance of the class would occupy some amount of main memory. The values
associated with each instance may be different. (Except for static members; in
the case of static members value is shared across all the instances).
9.3.7 Access Modifiers
Access modifiers are used to define the scope of the variables used.
There exist three commonly used access modifiers. They are

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Public: The public variables can be accessed freely with the help of
objects. You can associate a public variable with the object name
and use them directly. For example object_name.variable_name is
the common syntax in most of the programming languages.

Private: Private variables are accessible only with in the class. They
cannot be used directly from outside the class.

Protected: Protected variable is accessible to the class holding it and

the immediate derived classes.

These access modifiers can be used effectively to protect the data from
unwanted access. Apart from variables the member functions can also be
assigned access modifiers.
9.3.8 Constructors
Constructors are the specialized member functions which would be
called automatically during the object creation. The constructors are generally
used to initialize values.
Constructors can also be overloaded i.e., you can have more than one
constructors. Corresponding constructors would be invoked based on the
number and type of parameters present.
Generally constructors have the same name as the name of the class. But
this is not the mandatory condition in some of the languages like PHP. (In PHP
you have specialized constructor called __construct).
Constructor themselves are not mandatory. If you wish then you can
include constructors. At the same time you can create classes with out
constructors also.
9.3.9 Destructors
Destructors are antonyms to constructors. Destructors would be called
when object has no more references. Destructors would also have the same

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name as the class (but proceeded with the symbol ~ in programming

languages like C++).
Destructors would be primarily used to free-up the memory occupied by
unwanted resources. In parallel with constructor, there is no need to call the
destructors also explicitly.
9.3.10 Abstract Classes
An abstract class is a class for which objects cannot be declared. Now
you may have a question that if objects are not going to be created then what is
the usage of creating such a class.
The answer for the above question is as follows: Abstract classes would
acts as base classes. For those derived classes objects would be created.
An abstract class would have method (member function) which is simply
declared and not defined. This function or method is called abstract function or
abstract method. This abstract method would be defined in the derived class of
this abstract class.
Abstract classes are very much useful when you require certain type of
functions in all the classes. In such a case you can create an abstract class and
make other classes as derivatives of this abstract class. Those functions can then
be defined according to the need.
9.3.11 Static members
When a member is declared as static then it is common across all the
instances of that class.
Generally all members of the class would be specific to each object i.e.,
the values would differ. But when the member is static then it would have the
same value for all the objects.
Static members can be accessed by directly using the class name instead
of object name. Generally member variables and functions would be accessed by

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using the object name. But the static members are directly accessed through the
class name itself.
Generic use of static member is to use them for counting purposes. Since
the values associated with static members would retain across all the instances it
would be easy to identify the number of objects created for that class using static
variables.
9.3.12 Friend functions
The functions which are declared as friend functions can use the
members of a class for which it has been declared as friend.
As we stated in the case of access modifiers, the members would have
strict access restrictions based on its type of access modifier. The friend
functions would get the freedom to access the members of a class which are not
accessible by others outside the class. The usage of friend functions has to be
proper; otherwise it may totally disturb the security associated with object
orientated programming.
9.4 Object Oriented Database Management Systems
Object Oriented Database Management Systems (OODBMS) are
relatively new technology in the world of databases.
Most of the commercial applications would require databases to store
values permanently and retrieve them effectively whenever required. Now the
programming is object oriented but the database is still based on the relational
model.
OODBMS is an effort to replace the Relational Database Management
Systems with object based technology. The concept of Object orientation would
be used in OODBMS to store and retrieve.

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By using OODBMS and OOP together, both the application and the
database would be based on object oriented technologies. So it may produce
better synchronization between application and the database.
But still the OOBDMS have not become that much popular comparing
with RDBMS. May be in the future these OOBDMS may occupy considerable
amount of space in the database paradigm.
9.5 Object oriented design process
If you want your application to be object oriented then certain steps or
actions has to be followed. This section highlights these actions.

Identification of Objects: The first in this process is to identify objects.

These objects would map the real world problem with the programming
domain. So you have to identify the objects properly.

Deciding on the members: Once the objects are identified you have to
finalize the members (both variables and functions) associated with the
object. During this step itself, you have to decide the scope of each
member i.e., whether they are public or private or protected.

Identifying the relationship: Identification of relationship among

classes is another process. If you carry out this process carefully proper
inheritance mechanisms can be used.

Collecting objects together: You can identify the objects that have
features in common. Then you can group them together.

Idea of common super class: This is related to the previous step. You
can create a common super class which would host many other classes.
In larger commercial frameworks you can find out that most of the
classes are derived from a common base class. By doing this, the
further programming process becomes much simpler.

Appropriate member type: The members inside a class may belong to

different types like static, abstract etc. This has to be decided well in

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advance so that proper communication can be established between

various components of the class hierarchy.
The above mentioned actions are involved in the process of object oriented
designing and development.
9.6 Advantages of Object Oriented Systems over Traditional Systems
At this point you may be having a clear idea about object oriented
systems. This section would focus on advantages of object oriented systems over
traditional systems:

Reusability: Reusability is one of the biggest advantages of Object

oriented systems. The ultimate aim of any software development
process would be to reduce the time required for that. If every
component has to be started from scratch then it would require
lengthier time. Contrasting to this if the code which is available
already is reused then it would shorten the development time. By
using the inheritance concept the development time would definitely
get reduced. So reusability becomes one of the major factors for
which object oriented systems have become this much popular.
Though you can reuse the procedures in traditional systems they are
not as effective as reusing the classes by extending them with
derived classes.

Abstraction: Object oriented systems provide higher level of

abstraction than the traditional systems. Once the classes are well
defined then they can be used without worrying about their internal
working mechanisms. This level of abstraction is not possible in
traditional systems. The idea of framework based developments is
the result of abstraction. Because once you define the frameworks
you can build your system on top of the framework which would
provided you readymade functions for performing repeated

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activities. For example Microsoft .NET framework provides you a

well defined class hierarchy which you can effectively use in your
programs.

Easier to modify: Object oriented systems comparatively easier to

modify than the traditional systems. Since all the functions and
variables are properly organized it becomes easy to modify the code
as and when the requirement arises. The same is not true with
traditional systems. Of course you can modify the traditional
systems also but they would require much effort and time.

Improved readability: The object oriented code is easy to read. The

reason for this is the similarity between the system and the real
world problem. Since the objects in the real world are modeled in to
the systems it becomes easier to read the code. The improved
understanding of the code would lead to better usage of existing
code there-by improving the concept of reusability. The modeling is
not only at the level of object but also the type of operations that an
object can perform is also there. By this you can easily understand
the nature and purpose of the code written (even by some unknown
programmer)

Easy to maintain: The software development cycle doesnt ends at

implementation. There is another crucial strep called maintenance. If
the software is not constructed properly then it would become nearly
impossible to maintain the code. During the maintenance phase there
would be minor changes arising. The system should be flexible
enough so that these changes would be incorporated in to the system
with out much effort. In the case of traditional systems the
maintenance is a tedious process because in a larger system there
may be many invisible links between various components. In the
case of Object oriented systems you can identify these links well in

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advance. So the ripple effects of modifying the code at one place

would be better understood than the traditional systems.

Easy to test and debug: Testing and debugging is relatively simpler

in the case of object oriented systems comparing to the traditional
systems. As mentioned in the previous step the traditional system
may have complex inter-connectivity among various components, it
becomes difficult to test the code. More over when an error occurs,
identification of location and cause of that error is complex in the
traditional systems comparing to the object oriented systems. This is
possible because object oriented systems have well defined class
hierarchy. So the exact reason, location of the error can be identified
easily.

Data security: The object oriented systems make the data more
secure. In the case of traditional system the security associated with
data is very less. But in the case of object oriented systems it clearly
specifies the accessibility of data. These access rights make the data
more secure because now the data would be handled only with in the
restricted set of functions (where the data is actually needed and they
are authorized to access these data).

Modular approach: The object oriented systems follow modular

approach. The tasks that have to be performed is clearly separated
among many well structured functions. Since the modular approach
is followed it gives you all other related benefits like extensibility
etc. You cannot expect the same in the traditional systems (to an
extent which the object oriented system provides)

Ability to extend: When the new features have to be incorporated

into the system, the object oriented programming approach would be
more helpful in doing that. The concept of modifiability is different
from extensibility. In the case of modifiability the existing code is

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changed to accommodate minor changes. In the case of extensibility

entirely new features can be incorporated into the system without
disturbing much of the existing code. The object oriented systems
are more extensible than the traditional systems. The reasons for this
extensibility are the clear separation of roles in the systems. So when
a roles changes or a new role comes-in they can be incorporated in
to the system easily.

Better memory management: Since the object oriented systems

support the concepts of constructors and destructors memory can be
managed in an effective manner. For example by using destructors
the memory occupied by unwanted resources can be freed up. In the
case of traditional system you cannot perform these tasks effectively.
This is one of the major advantages of object oriented systems. The
destructors for example would be automatically called when no
more reference exist. So the developer is freed from calling these
functions explicitly. Many object oriented programming languages
like Java has garbage collection mechanisms. (Garbage collection
mechanism is the process of freeing up memory from unwanted
resources. Garbage collection would make the applications faster
and effective because the memory freed by garbage collector from
unwanted resources can be effectively used for other productive
purposes).

Uniform approach: Since you have concepts like polymorphism in

object oriented systems you can follow a uniform approach
throughout the system. What does this means is same function
names can be used for similar operations on different data types etc.
By using the concept of operator overloading you apply the above
mentioned idea to operators also. So the uniformity of process can
be established. From the external prospective the same function

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name and same operator would be used but internally they may have
different implementations. The same is not possible in traditional
systems.
The above mentioned are the list of advantages that an object oriented
system gives you over the traditional systems. From both the user and developer
views object oriented systems are far better than the traditional systems
9.7 Issues with Object oriented systems
Though object oriented systems provide all the above mentioned
advantages, there are certain issues which need to be addressed with object
oriented systems. This section would provide you a view on those issues which
have to be looked up in the object oriented design and development process.

While defining members of an object proper care has to be given

in the access modifiers associated with members. If a member is
assigned an improper access modifier then it would seriously
block the process of dataflow across the system. This may be lead
to unwanted complications.

If the relationships among the classes are not identified properly

this may lead to performance degradation. If the relationships are
not identified properly then the concept of inheritance cannot be
used to the optimal level. This would certainly reduce the
advantage that we specified in the reusability section.

During the process of making the code simpler, the actual

objective of the application should not be sacrificed.

Unnecessary usage of concepts like runtime polymorphism may

be lead to unwanted complexities in your system. So their usage
has to be proper.

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While practicing object oriented approach it has been stated

already that OOPs can follow framework approach. (Generally
these frameworks would be created by programmers different
from the actual programmers who are creating the final system).
So if there is a flaw in the underlying framework it would become
very difficult to rectify those errors because whole system is
based on that framework.

The concept of multiple inheritance associated with object

oriented systems may lead to certain problems. In the case of
multiple inheritance a class would have been derived from more
than one base class. If both the bases classes has same member
then it can create unwanted results in the derived class. Because
of this factor object oriented programming languages like Java do
not support the concept of multiple inheritance directly. (But a
java programmer can achieve the same result with the usage of
ideas like interface etc). It is now generally advised to use
multiple inheritance in only those places where there exist no
other alternative way of doing the same.

Choice of a proper object oriented language is also an important

factor to be considered. For example if the development is for a
standalone application then languages like C++ can be selected. If
the target application is web oriented then languages like Java,
PHP etc can be selected. The level of object oriented concepts
support may vary from language to language. This factor should
also be considered. Because if your target application requires a
particular object oriented concept at multiple places then the
language selected has to support that feature strongly. For
example in the case of object based languages like Visual Basic
there is no idea of inheritance. If your design requires inheritance

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then the choice of Visual Basic as the development language may

lead to serious problems. A good object oriented language
selection would definitely make your development process easier
and smoother. So this selection of language should also be given
proper importance.
From all the above mentioned points it can be concluded that if object
oriented systems are not designed by properly utilizing the concepts provided, it
may be lead to system with lesser performance and increased complexity.
Summary

Simula is the first object oriented language.

Smalltalk is the language developed next to Simula. It has more object

oriented features than Simula.

Most of the languages today have support for object oriented concepts.

Object based languages has support for few of the object oriented
concepts but not all. For example visual basic (up to 6.0) is considered
as object based language.

Object oriented systems model the real world problem. So it becomes

easy to solve the problem.

A class is a template for creation of objects.

An object is an instance of a class.

Object has data members and member functions.

The access to the member can be controlled through access modifiers.

Inheritance is the process using the existing class functionality into new
classes. There are many types of inheritance like simple, multilevel,
multiple etc.

There are many polymorphism concepts like function overloading,

operator overloading etc.

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Constructors are the specialized functions which would be called

automatically when an object is created.

Abstract class is one to which objects are not created directly.

Static members are common across all the objects created. Static
members can be accessed with class name itself.

There exist many access modifiers like public, private and protected.

The object oriented systems provide advantages like abstraction,

extensibility etc.

Object oriented database management systems apply the OOP concepts

to database management systems.
Self Assessment Questions
Part I (Multiple Choice Questions)

Which of the following is not an object oriented language

C++

Java

ForTran

All of the above

None of the above

Constructors

have same name as class name

Would be automatically called during object creation.

Can be overloaded

All of the above

None of the above

Which of following provides reusability

inheritance

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abstraction

access modifiers

All of the above

None of the above

The inheritance where more than one base class is there

Single

Multiple

Hierarchical

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is/are polymorphism concepts

operator overloading

function overloaded

virtual function

all of the above

none of the above

Abstract class

can be used to create objects

cannot be used to create objects

Is not supported in OOP.

All of the above

none of the above

The members which can be accessed directly with class name is/are

private members

public members

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static members

all of the above

none of the above

Object oriented system advantage(s) include

reusability

extensibility

abstraction

all of the above

none of the above

The concept that is used to free up memory from unwanted resources is/are
called

destructors

constructors

operators

all of the above

none of the above

Which of the following is the oldest object orientated programming language

Simula

Smalltalk

C++

all of the above

none of the above

Part II (Short Questions)

Define object.

What is inheritance?

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Write short notes on constructors?

Write short notes on function overloading.

Explain static members.

What is multiple inheritance?

Explain any two advantages of object oriented programming.

List out any four object oriented programming languages.

Part III (Long Answer Questions)

Explain various types of inheritance in detail.

Explain the advantages of object oriented systems.

Answer Key
Part I

1. c

2. d

3. a

4. b

5. d

6. b

7. c

8. d

9. a

10. a
Part II

An object is an instance of a class. The class acts as a model using which the
objects are created.

Inheritance is the most important feature of object oriented systems.

Inheritance facilitates the reusability concept. Inheritance is the process of
reusing an existing class with additional features through a derived class.

Constructor is a member function which would be called automatically when

an object is created. Constructors are primarily used for initialization process.
Constructors generally have the name of the class.

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Function overloading is using a single function name for more than one
purposes. Multiple version of a function would be written. Each function
would differ in the count and type of parameters.

A static member function is common to all the objects. These members can
be accessed directly by using the class name. One generic usage of static
function is to use them as counters.

When a class is derived from more than one base class it is called multiple
inheritance.

Reusability is one of the prime advantages of object oriented programming.

Abstraction is another advantage of Object oriented systems. In abstraction
internal working of an object is hidden. Simply the functions can be invoked
and the corresponding action would be carried out.

There exist may object oriented programming languages. Some of them are
C++, Java, Smalltalk, PHP etc.

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Lesson 10: Enterprise Computing & Mobile Computing

Introduction

The term enterprise refers to larger organization.

The computing needs in an organization which is huge would be

certainly more than the requirements of a normal sized organization.

This lesson would elaborate on the topic of enterprise computing

including description of its various components, their requirements,
advantages, financial implications etc.

Objectives

Introducing Enterprise resource planning.

Explaining various steps involved in ERP.

Listing out the advantages and disadvantage of ERP.

Introducing mobile computing.

Explaining the components of mobile network.

Introducing the technologies associated with mobile computing.

Explaining various advantages and disadvantages of mobile computing.

10.1 Enterprise Resource Planning

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is one of the key terms in the
business paradigm. ERP refers to the system where an integrated approach is
followed among all the departments of the organization. In other words ERP
uses a single large database to hold the data of all the departments of the
organization.
ERP can be defined as a single largest software application which caters
the needs of all the departments of the organization. By this we mean that people
in finance department and people in production department would be using the

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same software but there would be access rights (i.e., only authorized users
would be allowed to access critical portions of the software).
Though ERP software has its scope across all the departments of an
organization it is not always mandatory that ERP should cover all the
departments. Even if one or two departments are missed then also the software
can be termed as Enterprise resource planning.

10.1.1 What does ERP means?

Let us look at the term ERP itself much closer. The E stands for
Enterprise which has been already indicated as a larger organization.
The R stands for resources of the organization. Normally resource
includes components like man, machine and materials. In other words R refers
to all the properties of the organization starting from a low cost device to
costliest equipment of the organization.
P stands for planning. Planning is the usage of above mentioned
resources in a better way. So in total ERP can be considered as a system which
enables the organization to use all of its resource in the optimal manner.

10.1.2 ERP and various departments of the organization

As it has been stated earlier, ERP covers most of the departments of the
enterprise. Now the scope of the ERP system would be described. The following
is a list of departments which would get benefited from ERP.

Production department: The production department would have various

functions which are as listed below:

Workflow management

Scheduling of Production

Quality control etc

Human Resources Department: Human resources (HR) department would

have functions as listed below:

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Staffing (recruitment)

Pay bill

Employee benefits management

Controlling the regularity of employee presence in the

organization

Other tasks like fixing up tour schedules incase of onsite work

etc.

Customer Relationship management: CRM department plays a critical role

because it is in direct contact with the customers of the organization who are
the backbone of organization. It has operations like:

Quality of service ensuring

Keeping track of customer information.

Finance Department: The revenue of the organization is taken care by the

finance department. It includes operations like

Cash management

Assets management

Account payable and account receivable etc

ERP would consist of modules for all of the above mentioned tasks. If
the ERP is not there then these departments has to use to individual software
which would again use separate databases. So it would become very tedious to
fetch the data which is required without much delay.

10.1.3 Why ERP?

When the standalone software itself is satisfying the need of the
department why ERP is required is another interesting question to consider. The
following facts may be provided as answer to this question:

Top level view of data: The top level management requires a bird's eye
view of data i.e. every unit in the organization may have different ways of
interpreting and presenting the data which would become very confusing

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and less useful for the organization. To provide that unified top level view
of data you require a system which has its scope in the entire above
mentioned departments. ERP is definitely such a system. So this becomes
the primary reason for implementation of ERP.

Better customer satisfaction: By implementing ERP the customers

requirements can be satisfied in an effective manner. This becomes
possible because by the implementation of ERP there is seamless
integration of data. So the customer information can be easily tracked.

Better employee satisfaction: At times it becomes important to concentrate

on employee satisfaction also. ERP helps to this by providing the up-todate information regarding employee's needs to the Human resource team.
By having this information employee's can be given good benefits.

Better Control over inventory: Since you have collaborative information

available by the implementation of ERP there is no need to overflow the
warehouse with many items because you now have the real time update of
inventory required. So the inventory can be managed in a better way.

Analysis of pattern across data: Because of the integration between data of

various departments it becomes easy to analyse various patterns among
those data. By finding out those patterns decision can be taken to either
reduce the cost or providing better service to the customers.

10.1.4 What ERP is not?

Many times the ERP software is confused with back office software. But
ERP is not back office software. Typical back office software would not have
any communication with the end-users or customers. But the ERP has modules
where it deals with customers, like Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
and Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) etc. So ERP is not back office
software (but it includes the functionality of back office software also).

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Generally ERP software is not developed by in-house experts. Well

defined ERP software would be purchased and during the implementation it can
be customized to satisfy the needs of the organization.

10.1.5 ERP is costlier

One of the major facts the organizations consider while implementing
the ERP software is the cost associated with it. The cost would include
following components:

Cost of the original ERP software

Cost of the hardware required to install the ERP

Cost incurred due to expert consultancies

Cost to train the internal employees to cope up with the newly

implemented ERP software.
The tangible financial benefits that the organization would get will

require some time delay i.e., immediately after the implementation of ERP you
cannot expect tangible financial benefits.
The cost incurred due to customization, cost of testing should also be
taken into consideration. Apart from all the above mentioned cost there is one
more important component called data migration.
The organization would have its operational data. Those data would be in
the individual software. So it becomes ultimately necessary to migrate all these
data from the standalone software to ERP system. To perform this migration
tasks specialized data migration tools would be used.
During the migration of data itself you have to consider various factors.
Some of them are listed below:

Deciding the tools for migration

Deciding which data to migrate and which not

Identifying the correlation between the data model of existing

systems and the newly implemented system.

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A clear decision about level and mode of backup should be decided.

All the above mentioned tasks may be directly equated with cost. The
entire above mentioned steps would have the operational cost associated with it.
The total cost of an ERP implementation would include all the above
mentioned factors. So before deciding to go for the ERP system the organization
has to clearly think about the merits and demerits in terms of financial
implications as well as workflow modifications.
In one word you can state that ERP software are costlier in nature at the
same time they are effective as well.

10.1.6 ERP activities or steps

Once the organization has decided to go for the ERP software it has to go
through the following list of activities:

Identifying the right product: The very first decision that the
organization has to take is the selection of best suited ERP product for
that organization. There exist many companies which produces ERP
software today. For example, PeopleSoft, Oracle etc. The selection of
correct product would play a major role in deciding the success or
failure of that particular ERP implementation.

Installation of optimal hardware: Not only the ERP software but any
software would function smoothly if and only if there is the optimal
hardware. Even the best software can produce worst results if they are
implemented on improper hardware.

Customization: Since ERP is the software that touches most of the

departments, it has to be customized for organization's need. The level
of customization has to be perfectly planned. There is an idea with ERP
software which is called Best practices i.e. which are well tested
methods of works. So you have to decide where the organization is

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going to adopt the ERP's way and where to customize the ERP
according to organization's workflow. This decision would play a vital
role in effectiveness of that ERP implementation.

Migration of data: As stated earlier the operational data that the

organization is currently using with its standalone software has to be
migrated to the ERP. These data cannot be simply copied and pasted
because the data model of their traditional software and ERP would be
certainly different. So proper migration tools has to be employed to
carry out this data migration task. The backup of old data may also
become useful at later point. So it becomes necessary to backup the
critical data to cope up with any flaws at a later stage.

Testing: Once the customization procedure is over the ERP software

has to be tested for correctness. This testing has to be conducted in a
rigorous way because once the ERP goes to production with critical
bugs it can have serious impacts on organization's performance. So the
testing has to be carried out properly.

Training of internal staff: In order to work with the ERP software the
employee's of the organization has to undergo proper training
procedure. Because it is those employees who are going to use the ERP
software on a day-to-day basis. They have to be made to feel
comfortable with the ERP software. (Initially there can be a level of
opposition from the employees because the ERP is going to replace the
tools in which they would have got expertise). It becomes the
responsibility of the training team to make the internal staff to feel
comfortable with the ERP software.

Maintenance: Once the ERP goes to production there can be needs

arising at a later time for smaller changes. These genuine needs have to
be incorporated in to the ERP software so that it produces the best
results.

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Once the above mentioned activities are performed then (up to training
of internal staff) then ERP can be applied for production purpose (i.e., for
actual use).
To make the ERP software more productive there can be one more
testing step after customization before the data migration. At this step the
correctness of the customization can be tested. The later testing i.e., after the
data migration it would be tested with original data from the standalone
software. This testing can identify more bugs because there can be certain bugs
which may be dependent on certain specific data patterns which can be missed
during the previous testing with test-data.

10.1.7 Extending ERP

If the ERP system has to be used by users outside organization like
customers then ERP software has to be made in a manner which would make the
end-users feel comfortable with ERP.
The internal staffs are given additional training so they can understand
the technical jargons used with ERP. But the customers may not be aware of
these technical jargons. So it has to be made simple.
If the ERP application has got interface where the customers would
directly transact with it, then it would be on the Web platform. Once a part of
ERP comes to web then you have to consider the following facts:

Security: Since the World Wide Web can lead to potential hackers
landing on your system, they have to be much secure.

Nonstop functionality: Once the web interface is there the system has to
be up and running for most of the time. If there is schedules for
upgrading your ERP system then proper measures has to be taken so
that the end users would not get affected drastically.

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But these features would make your ERP system more powerful. But
these components where customers have direct transaction through web have to
be made secure at the same time easier to use.
If the organization is of global scale then the concepts of
internationalization should also be taken into consideration because customers
can be from any part of the globe and they feel very comfortable if the interface
is supporting their own regional settings.
These features can increase the customer size of the organization because
now you are attracting customers from every part of the globe. (These features
may not be required to organization where its operational boundary is restricted
to lesser geographical boundary.

10.1.8 ERP critical factors

During implementation (and even after implementation) certain points
have to be given more attention. Some of them are listed below:

By the implementation of ERP, employees in the organization lose

their expertise that they have developed over a period of time with
the existing tools. So there would some strong protest from portions
of employees. The concerns raised by the employees should not be
neglected in total. Where ever the points raised by them are valid
they have to be incorporated.

The interfaces and functionalities ERP provide should be far better

than the functionalities and interfaces of traditional systems that the
organization is already using. If the ERP system is providing
lengthier procedures to perform tasks which can be performed easily
in their legacy software then there would be strong objections. So
the effectiveness and easiness of using ERP should be given higher
precedence.

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When a newer version of ERP software gets released the

organization may wish to update to the current version. If the current
implementation has been done with lots of customization then this
would not be an easier exercise. In such a stage the benefits that the
organization gets by the newer version has to be compared with the
effort that has to be put, to adopt the newer version for the
organization.

10.1.9 ERP advantages and disadvantages

Let us explore the advantages and disadvantages of ERP. To start with
advantages are given in the following list.

High-level view of data is possible.

Uniform interfaces and procedures would be adopted by all the

departments where the ERP system is implemented.

ERP systems would improve the customer satisfaction since all the
departments would get the real time update of data. This facilitates
quicker actions for customer queries.

ERP systems would provide you higher levels of security comparing

to the standalone systems. This would reduce the unauthorized
access of data to a greater extent.

Finer levels of access control can be implemented. This would

clearly define the boundaries of actions that an employee can
perform. This is an additional level of security.

Though ERP provides all the above mentioned advantages there exist
disadvantages also. They are as listed below:

ERP software is costlier in nature.

Though the ERP software can be customized for organization's need

the customization cannot be to maximum extent. So at places the

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organization has to adopt the work procedure provided by the ERP

software.

Major portions of employees lose their expertise gained over a

period time with the existing tools.

ERP

software

becomes

too

much

complicated

at

many

implementations. So it would become hard for the internal staff to

understand it completely during the initial stages.

The implementation schedule may become longer due to the levels

of customization required by the organization. This would delay the
production use of ERP in that organization.

ERP implementations can become rigid so it would it make it hard

for further modifications.

An ERP system would treat the whole organization as a single entity. So

it standardizes the operations across the organization. If the organization is big
and strong enough to balance the expenses incurred during ERP implementation
then ERP is certainly a powerful tool for the organization.

10.2 Mobile Computing

The desktop computers are becoming less popular nowadays. In place of
desktop computers people want to use laptop computers and similar
technologies. The primary reason for this shift is the ability to use computer on
the move. Simply having a computer on the move many not be able to satisfy
your need. Another important thing that you need is the network connectivity.
Without network connectivity the productive use of the computer would
become lesser. So it becomes ultimately necessary that network connectivity
should be there needed on the move.

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Mobile computing is the ability to use and exchange information

between devices on the move i.e. without a physical connection because
physical connection is not possible during the move.
This section would elaborate on various mobile computing concepts and
its advantages, challenges.
In the network paradigm there exist two types of communications. They
are

Wired Communication

Wireless Communication

In the case of wired communication a physical communication would be

established between the devices communicating with each other.
Mobile computing needs the wireless communication techniques. There
exist various techniques to perform wireless computing. Some of them are as
follows:

Infrared

Bluetooth

Wi-Fi

Microwave based communication.

Satellite communications.

In the above list the first three techniques can be applied only in a shorter
distance. But the mobile computing would require a communication
methodology that can cover a larger area.
So the last two techniques from the above list i.e., microwave based
communication and satellite communication can be used for longer distance
communication.
Among these two techniques satellite communication can be used to
cover very large areas. So in case where the connectivity is required at a global
scale the satellite communication mode would be very much useful.

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The effectiveness of the mobile computing requires a very good network

that supports it. So the mode of communication plays an important role here in
mobile computing.

10.2.1 Major components

Two major components of mobile computing are as listed below:

Mobile devices

Wireless network

10.2.1.1 Mobile devices

As stated in the beginning mobile computing requires devices which can
be used on the move. These devices range from laptop, PDA, Mobile phones
etc. The mobile devices should have ports through which it can access the
network.
Mobile devices are operated on a battery power. Most of the mobile
devices would have two modes of power supply i.e., connecting it to the main
power supply and operating them using battery power.
Normally the batteries used with mobile devices are rechargeable in
nature. They should be recharged at regular interval so that the life time of these
batteries would be optimal.
In combination with mobile devices there exist many types of software.
For example there is a version of windows specifically available for mobile
devices.
One of the popular operating systems used with mobile phones is the
Symbian operating system.
The software designed for mobile devices has certain special
characteristics. They are listed below:

The file size of these applications should be comparatively lesser.

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These applications have to utilize memory very much effectively

because mobile devices generally would have very less amount of
memory.

The display associated with mobile devices would be lesser in size.

So the user interface has to be designed in a way such that it can be
used effectively in the smaller available area.

There exist software versions specific to mobile devices. For example in

the case of Opera web browser there is a special version called Opera Mini
which is specific to mobile devices.
10.2.1.2 Wireless networks
The techniques associated with wireless networks are as illustrated in
previous sections.
There are certain special protocols associated with mobile computing.
One of the popular protocols is the WAP. It stands for Wireless Application
Protocol. When you access internet through mobile phones this wireless
application protocol would be very much useful.

10.2.2 Cellular network

The most popular network among the general public today is the cellular
networks. This cellular network is the backbone of all the mobile phones today.
The following components are involved in a cellular network.

Base stations: Each base station would cover certain area. These base
stations are transceivers. The base stations would be located in places
decided by the network administrator based on various factors.

Cell: The coverage area would be divided in to small chunks called

cells.

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Area: Collection of cells is called an area. These cells would be

adjacent in nature.

Mobile Switching Centre (MSC): The role of Mobile switching centre

is to route the calls from the caller to sender.

From this mobile network you would be able to access the public
switched telephone network (PSTN).

There is a phenomenon called hand over by which the connection is

retained though the communicating devices are moving from one cell to
another.

10.2.2.1 Technologies associated with Mobile networks

There exist many different technologies associated with mobile
networks. Some of them are as listed below:

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

Global System for Mobile (GSM)

Frequency division multiple Access (FDMA)

The complete description of all the above technique would be out of scope of
our current text.
10.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of Mobile computing
There exist many advantages of mobile computing as listed below:

Communication can be established independent of the location.

Mobile devices generally provides integrated services

Some of the disadvantages of mobile computing

The battery power used with mobile devices has to be recharged at

regularly intervals.

Security associated with mobile network is a serious problem.

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The network coverage is another issue with mobile computing.

Summary

ERP stands for Enterprise resource planning.

ERP would cater the needs of all the departments (majority of) of the
organization: Production, Finance, Human Resource Management etc.

ERP software is costlier in general.

ERP implementation involves various steps like choosing right vendor,

selection of proper hardware, testing etc.

By the implementation of ERP software the roles of people in the

organization would change. So proper training has to be given.

There are many advantages of ERP like high level view of data,
extended security etc. Proper access controls can be established through
ERP.

ERP also possess few disadvantages like costlier, the problem of

changing the routine activities of the employees with different
procedures etc.

ERP is not synonymous to back office software. ERP has larger scope
than the back office software.

Mobile computing refers to phenomenon of accessing network and

computing facilities on the move.

Mobile computing requires mobile devices, wire-less networks.

There exist many cellular network technologies like GSM, CDMA etc.

Mobile computing gives you the advantage of accessing the services

from any place where the network coverage is there.

Mobile devices require battery power. The battery power cannot

prolong beyond particular time boundaries. So they have to recharge in
proper intervals of time.

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Self Assessment Questions

Part I (Multiple Choice Questions)

ERP stands for

Extended Reliable Performance

Enterprise Resource Planning

Easier Recoverable Programs

All of the above

None of the above

ERP becomes costlier because of

Cost of hardware

Cost of training

Cost of software

All of the above

None of the above

ERP software

Covers many departments

Costlier in nature

Customizable

All of the above

None of the above

Advantages of ERP include

improved security

slower execution

non extensibility

All of the above

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None of the above

Wi-Fi stands for

Wireless Fidelity

Wired Findings

Windows Findings

All of the above

None of the above

TDMA is

Time Division Multiple Access

Total Data Mode Access

Time Division Major Access

All of the above

None of the above

Mobile computing requires

Hand-held devices

Wireless networks

Battery power

All of the above

None of the above

In cellular Networks an area is

A collection of points

A collection of cells

A collection of devices

All of the above

None of the above

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In cellular network, MSC stands for

Mobile Switching Centre

Mobile Sending Centre

Mobile Software Centre

All of the above

None of the above

Which of the following is/are mobile web browser(s)

mobile net

mobile com

opera mini

All of the above

None of the above

Part II (Short Questions)

Write short notes on ERP.

Why ERP is costlier?

What do you mean by data migration?

Write short notes on ERP advantages.

List out different technologies involved in mobile networks.

List out the disadvantages of mobile networks.

Part III (Long Answer)

Explain various steps in implementation of ERP in detail.

Explain the advantages and disadvantages of ERP.

Elaborate about Mobile Computing.

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Answer Key
Part I
1. b

2. d

3. d

4. a

5. a

6. a

7. d

8. b

9. a

10. c
Part II

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. ERP covers all the departments
of an organization. ERP maintains single database for storing data about all
the departments.

ERP is costlier is because of various factors

The cost of software

Cost of hardware

Cost of customization

Cost of training.

Data migration is the process of transferring data from existing system in to

ERP. The data models of both the systems would be different. So specialized
tools have to be developed for this migration process.

ERP gives various advantages like high level view of data, more security,
finer access controls, customization etc.

Various technologies used in mobile networks are GSM, TDMA, and CDMA
etc.

Mobile computing has disadvantages like dependence of battery power,

network coverage issues etc.

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List of Figures

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Figure 3.1: Input Device Categories

Figure 3.2 Output Device Categories

Figure 3.3: Display Card as Interface between CPU and Display device

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Figure 3.4: Classification of printers

Figure 4.1: Bus topology

Figure 4.2: Star topology

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Figure 4.3 : Ring (single) topology

Figure 4.4 : Ring (Dual) topology

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Figure 4.5 : Mesh topology with 3 nodes

Fig 5.1: Operating System as an interface between user and computer

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Fig 6.1: Role of Assembler

Fig 6.2 : Role of compiler

Fig 6.3 : Role of interpreter

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Fig 6.4 : Spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel)

Fig 6.5 : Spread sheet with a formula in the cell

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Fig 6.6 : Spreadsheet showing the result of the formula in the cell

Fig 6.7 conditional formatting

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Fig 6.8 : Filtering applied to the spreadsheet

Fig 6.9: Bar chart created using spreadsheet application

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Fig 6.10: Pie chart using spreadsheet application

Figure 6.11: Initial Screen in PowerPoint Presentation

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Figure 6.12 : Procedure to insert a new Slide

Figure 6.13 : Slide Sorter View

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Figure 6.14 : Predefined Designs for Slides

Figure 6.15: Adding Animation to your slides

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Figure 6.16: Applying animation to objects

Figure 6.17 : Outline View in Presentation

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Figure 6.18: Printer Options in presentation tools

Figure 6.19 : Grids for Proper Alignments

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Figure 7.1: Modem connection computers and Telephone networks

Figure 7.2: DNS between URL and IP address

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Figure 7.3 Simple HTML listing with its output

Figure 7.4 Title Tag

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Figure 7.5 Paragraph Tag

Fig 7.6 Table Tag

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Fig 8.1: various content forms of multimedia

Figure 9.1 Simple Inheritance

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Figure 9.2: Multilevel Inheritance

Figure 9.3: Hierarchical Inheritance

Figure 9.4: Multiple Inheritance

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Figure 9.5: Hybrid Inheritance

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