Fundamentals of Information Technology

Unit 1

Unit 1
Structure: 1.0 1.1 1.2 Introduction Objectives

History of Information Technology

History of Computers Generation of Computers First Generation (1940-1956): Vacuum Tubes Second Generation (1956-1963): Transistors Third Generation (1965-1971): Integrated Circuits Fourth Generation (1971- Present): Microprocessors Fifth Generation Computer

1.3

Classification of Computers Personal Computers Minicomputers Mainframes computers Super computers Laptop/Palmtop Computers

1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7

The Impact of Information Technology on Work and Society Summary Terminal Questions Answers to Terminal Questions

1.0 Introduction
We use the term information technology or IT to refer to an entire industry. In actuality, information technology is the use of computers and software to manage information. In some companies, this is referred to as Management Information Services (or MIS) or simply Information Services (or IS). The information technology department of a large company would be responsible for storing, protecting, processing and transmitting the information as necessary, and later retrieving it whenever necessary.

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Objectives: After studying this unit, you will be able to: Trace the history of Computers Explain the classification of Computers Describe the impact of Information Technology on society

1.1 History of Computers

The first computers were people! That is, electronic computers (and the earlier mechanical computers) were given this name because they performed the work that had previously been assigned to people. "Computer" was originally a job title: it was used to describe those human beings (predominantly women) whose job was to perform the repetitive calculations required to compute such things as navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for astronomical almanacs. Imagine you had a job where hour after hour, day after day, you were to do nothing but compute multiplications. Boredom would quickly set in, leading to carelessness, which results in mistakes. And even on your best days, you wouldn't be producing answers very fast. Therefore, inventors have been searching for hundreds of years for a way to mechanize (that is, find a mechanism that can perform) this task.

This picture shows what were known as "counting tables" [photo courtesy IBM] Sikkim Manipal University DDE Page No. 2

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A typical computer operation back when computers were people

The abacus was an early aid for mathematical computations. Its only value is that it aids the memory of the human performing the calculation. A skilled abacus operator can work on addition and subtraction problems at the speed of a person equipped with a hand calculator (multiplication and division are slower). The abacus is often wrongly attributed to China. In fact, the oldest surviving abacus was used in 300 B.C. by the Babylonians. The abacus is still in use today, principally in the Far East. A modern abacus consists of rings that slide over rods, but the older one pictured below dates from the time when pebbles were used for counting (the word "calculus" comes from the Latin word for pebble).

A very old abacus Sikkim Manipal University DDE Page No. 3

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A more modern abacus

Note: The abacus is really just a representation of the human fingers: the 5 lower rings on each rod represent the 5 fingers and the 2 upper rings represent the 2 hands. In 1617, an eccentric (some say mad) Scotsman named John Napier invented logarithms, which are a technology that allows multiplication to be performed via addition. The magic ingredient is the logarithm of each operand, which was originally obtained from a printed table. But Napier also invented an alternative to tables, where the logarithm values were carved on ivory sticks which are now called Napier's Bones.

An original set of Napier's Bones

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A more modern set of Napiers Bones

Napier's invention led directly to the slide rule, first built in England in 1632 and still in use in the 1960's by the NASA engineers of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs which landed men on the moon.

A slide rule

The first gear-driven calculating machine to actually be built was probably the calculating clock, so named by its inventor, the German professor Wilhelm Schickard in 1623. This device got little publicity because Schickard died soon afterwards in the bubonic plague.

Schickards Calculating Clock

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In 1642 Blaise Pascal, at age 19, invented the Pascaline as an aid for his father who was a tax collector. Pascal built 50 of this gear-driven onefunction calculator (it could only add) but couldn't sell many because of their exorbitant cost and because they really weren't that accurate (at that time it was not possible to fabricate gears with the required precision). Up until the present age when car dashboards went digital, the odometer portion of a car's speedometer used the very same mechanism as the Pascaline to increment the next wheel after each full revolution of the prior wheel. Pascal was a child prodigy. At the age of 12, he was discovered doing his version of Euclid's thirty-second proposition on the kitchen floor. Pascal went on to invent probability theory, the hydraulic press, and the syringe. Shown below is an 8 digit version of the Pascaline, and two views of a 6 digit version:

Pascals Pascaline [photo 2002 IEEE]

A 6 digit model for those who couldnt afford the 8 digit model

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A Pascaline opened up so that you can observe the gears and cylinders which rotated to display the numerical result

Just a few years after Pascal, the German Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (coinventor with Newton of calculus) managed to build a four-function (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) calculator that he called the stepped reckoner because, instead of gears, it employed fluted drums having ten flutes arranged around their circumference in a stair-step fashion. Although the stepped reckoner employed the decimal number system (each drum had 10 flutes), Leibniz was the first to advocate use of the binary number system which is fundamental to the operation of modern computers. Leibniz is considered one of the greatest of the philosophers but he died poor and alone.

Leibnizs Stepped Reckoner (have you ever heard calculating referred to as reckoning?) Sikkim Manipal University DDE Page No. 7

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In 1801, the Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a power loom that could base its weave (and hence the design on the fabric) upon a pattern automatically read from punched wooden cards, held together in a long row by rope. Descendents of these punched cards have been in use ever since (remember the "hanging chad" from the Florida presidential ballots of the year 2000?).

Jacquards Loom showing the threads and the punched cards

Jacquard's technology was a real boon to mill-owners, but put many loom operators out of work. Angry mobs smashed Jacquard looms and once attacked Jacquard himself. History is full of examples of labor unrest following technological innovation yet most studies show that, overall, technology has actually increased the number of jobs. By 1822, the English mathematician Charles Babbage was proposing a steam driven calculating machine the size of a room, which he called the Difference Engine. This machine would be able to compute tables of numbers, such as logarithm tables. He obtained government funding for this project due to the importance of numeric tables in ocean navigation. By promoting their commercial and military navies, the British government had managed to become the earth's greatest empire. But in that time frame the British government was publishing a seven volume set of navigation tables which came with a companion volume of corrections which showed that the
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set had over 1000 numerical errors. It was hoped that Babbage's machine could eliminate errors in these types of tables. But construction of Babbage's Difference Engine proved exceedingly difficult and the project soon became the most expensive government-funded project upto that point in English history. Ten years later, the device was still nowhere near complete, acrimony abounded between all involved, and funding dried up. The device was never finished.

A small section of the type of mechanism employed in Babbages Difference Engine

Lady Ada Lovelace is considered as the first lady Computer Programmer as she has developed the concept of writing systematic operational instructions for the analytical engine. In 1850, George Boole an English mathematician proposed logic theory of using the binary (two) number system. This number system had only two numbers 0 and 1. In this procedures all the quantities are represented in terms of o and 1. For example, 9 is represented as 00001001. Bool proposed a logic popularly known as Boolean algebra. Computer processors are designed on this system of logic.

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A statistician Dr. Herman Hollerith, developed a punched card that would contain data coded in the form of punched holes.

1.2 Generation of Computers

Evolution of modern computer is commonly considered in terms of Generation of Computers. 1.2.1 First Generation (1940-1956): Vacuum Tubes

The computers of this generation were made up of vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory. This made computers bulky and heavy. Punched cards were used to feed the information. Magnetic tapes were used as external storage devices. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat and occupied a large amount of space. These machines used machine and assembly level language. The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. 1.2.2 Second Generation (1956-1963): Transistors

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The computers of this generation made up of transistors replacing vacuum tubes. These were small in size so the machines occupied a less amount of space. The use transistors made the computers work much faster. The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first generation predecessors. Though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output. The development of higher-level languages like FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC was possible. 1.2.3 Third Generation (1965-1971): Integrated Circuits

The computers of these generations were made up of IC (Integrated Circuits). Integrated circuits mean incorporation of hundreds of transistors on a single silicon chip. These were still smaller than the computers of second-generation machines. Heat generated was also less and they occupied less space. Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.
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1.2.4 Fourth Generation (1971- Present): Microprocessors

Fourth Generation computers are the modern day computers. The size started to go down with the improvement in the integrated circuits. Very Large Scale (VLSI) and Ultra Large scale (ULSI) ensured that millions of components could be fit into a small chip. It reduced the size and price of the computers at the same time increasing power, efficiency and reliability. "The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, took the integrated circuit one step further by locating all the components of a computer (central processing unit, memory, and input and output controls) on a minuscule chip." Due to the reduction of cost and the availability of the computers power at a small place allowed everyday user to benefit. First came the minicomputers, which offered users different applications, the most famous of these, the word processors and spreadsheets, which could be used by non-technical users. Video game systems like Atari 2600 generated the interest of general populace in the computers. In 1981, IBM introduced personal computers for home and office use. "The number of personal computers in use more than doubled from 2 million in 1981 to 5.5 million in 1982. Ten years later, 65 million PCs were being used." Computer size kept on getting reduced during the years. It went down from Desktop to Laptops to Palmtops. Macintosh introduced Graphic User Interface in which the users didnt have to type instructions but could use Mouse for the purpose.

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The continued improvement allowed the networking of computers for the sharing of data. Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN), were potential benefits, in that they could be implemented in corporations and everybody could share data over it. Soon, the internet and World Wide Web appeared on the computer scene and fermented the Hi-Tech revolution of 90's. 1.2.5 Fifth Generation Computer This is an anticipated new type of computer based on emerging microelectronic technologies with high computing speeds and parallel processing. The development of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) technology, which can put many more circuits onto an integrated circuit (chip) than is currently possible, and developments in computer hardware and software design may produce computers far more powerful than those in current use.

It has been predicted that such a computer will be able to communicate in natural spoken language with its user; store vast knowledge databases; search rapidly through these databases, making intelligent inferences and drawing logical conclusions; and process images and see objects in the way that humans do. In 1981, Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry launched a tenyear project to build the first fifth Generation computer, the parallel inference machine, consisting of over a thousand microprocessors
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operating in parallel with each other. By 1992, however, the project was behind schedule and had only produced 256-processor modules. It has since been suggested that research into other technologies, such as neural networks, may present more promising approaches to artificial intelligence, compared to earlier computer generations.

1.3 Classification of Computers

Computers are available in different shapes, sizes and weights. Due to these different shapes and sizes, they perform different sorts of jobs from one another. They can also be classified in different ways. All the computers are designed by the qualified computer architectures that design these machines as their requirements. A computer that is used in a home differs in size and shape from the computer being used in a hospital. Computers act as a server in large buildings, while the computer also differs in size and shape performing its job as a weather forecaster. A students laptop is different in shape and size from all the computers mentioned above. 1.3.1 Personal Computers:

A microcomputer is the smallest general purpose processing system. Functionally, it is similar to any other large system. Microcomputers are selfcontained units and usually designed for use by one person at a time.
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1.3.2 Minicomputers:

A minicomputer is medium sized computer that is more powerful than a microcomputer. An important distinction between a microcomputer and a minicomputer is that a minicomputer is used usually to serve multiple users simultaneously. 1.3.3 Mainframe computers:

Computers with large storage capacities and very high speed of processing are known as mainframes. They support a large number of terminals for simultaneous use by a number of users. 1.3.4 Super computers:

These have extremely large storage area and computing speeds, which are many times faster than earlier discussed machines. While the speed of
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earlier discussed computer is measured in turns of million instructions per second, in supercomputers it is measured as tens of millions of operations per second; an operation is made of many instruction. These have more than one processor in it and the processing is carried out in parallel. The super computers used in applications include large scale numerical problems in scientific and engineering disciplines like weather forecasting, atomic research, space research etc. 1.3.5 Laptop/ Palmtop Computers:

Laptop

Palmtop

These are the computers, which are small in size and weigh a few kgs. These computers can be carried from one place to another easily. The people who are always on the move mostly use these. This has all the capabilities of a Personal Computer. It has an LCD screen and has rechargeable batteries. Now you can even get computers which can be placed on your palm, hence the name Palmtop Computers.

1.4 The Impact of Information Technology on Work and Society

Every day, people use computers in new ways. Computers are increasingly affordable; they continue to be more powerful as information-processing tools as well as easier to use. Computers in Business: One of the first and largest applications of computers is keeping and managing business and financial records. Most
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large companies keep the employment records of all their workers in large databases that are managed by computer programs. Similar programs and databases are used in such business functions as billing customers; tracking payments received and payments to be made; and tracking supplies needed and items produced, stored, shipped, and sold. In fact, practically, all the information companies need to do business involves the use of computers and information technology. On a smaller scale, many businesses have replaced cash registers with point-of-sale (POS) terminals. These POS terminals not only print a sales receipt for the customer but also send information to a computer database when each item is sold to maintain an inventory of items on hand and items to be ordered. Computers have also become very important in modern factories. Computer-controlled robots now do tasks that are hot, heavy, or hazardous. Robots are also used to do routine, repetitive tasks in which boredom or fatigue can lead to poor quality work. Computers in Medicine: Information technology plays an important role in medicine. For example, a scanner takes a series of pictures of the body by means of Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) or Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI). A computer then combines the pictures to produce detailed three-dimensional images of the body's organs. In addition, the MRI produces images that show changes in body chemistry and blood flow. Computers in Science and Engineering: Using supercomputers, meteorologists predict future weather by using a combination of observations of weather conditions from many sources, a mathematical representation of the behavior of the atmosphere, and geographic data. Computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing programs, often called CAD/CAM, have led to improved products in many fields, especially where designs tend to be very detailed. Computer programs make it
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possible for engineers to analyze designs of complex structures such as power plants and space stations. Integrated Information Systems: With today's sophisticated hardware, software, and communications technologies, it is often difficult to classify a system as belonging uniquely to one specific application program. Organizations increasingly are consolidating their information needs into a single, integrated information system. One example is SAP, a German software package that runs on mainframe computers and provides an enterprise-wide solution for information technologies. It is a powerful database that enables companies to organize all their data into a single database, then choose only the program modules or tables they want. The freestanding modules are customized to fit each customer's needs. Information technology has become part and parcel of our day to day life. 1. Governments How has the development of information

technology influenced the way Governments operate? The "government" of a nation will be comprised of many varied institutions. However, developments in information technology has helped governments to improve their "service" to their citizens. Advances in Database technology, for example, have enabled the governments of various countries to collate and monitor statistical information that they can use to combat fraud, manage the economy in a more informed way. Information technology has also had a major impact on the defence capabilities of governments. This covers both a government's capability to wage war and their intelligence gathering capability. Advances in weapons technology and weapons design has increased the

effectiveness of various governments' armed forces. For example, it would have been impossible to design aeroplanes such as the B2
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Bomber if it were not for the advances made in information technology. The B2 bomber relies on a "continuous curvature" design to minimise radar signature. It would have been impossible to design or build this machine without the development of computer modelling techniques. Information technology has also had a major impact on a government's intelligence agencies. Encryption of sensitive information has enabled governments to obtain added security. However, attempting to decrypt information is also a major area of work for those employed by the government. 2. Commercial Businesses How has the development of information technology influenced commercial businesses? The advances in information technology have heavily influenced commercial businesses in several ways. The most important role of information technology in a commercial business, however, is to provide a commercial advantage. Advances such as computer-aided design, relational database technologies, spreadsheets, and word processing software all provide a commercial benefit to the business, as does automation of manufacturing processes (as Sara-Lee did in 1964). It is beyond the scope of this unit to go into detail about how the various software developments can be used to provide a commercial advantage, other than increasing the productivity and innovation of the workforce. It is interesting to note, however, that as different businesses compete with each other, the commercial advantage one can have over another may depend primarily on its use of information technologies. For example, being able to extract information as to what the customer really wants and how to provide for that want can provide a significant advantage. This extraction of information is facilitated and indeed made possible by the technology used to store and manipulate this
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information. As the hardware and software mechanisms used to store and manipulate the information become more sophisticated and quicker the business can utilise its stored information to maximise its commercial advantage. The use of information technology to monitor a businesss performance can also enable the business to highlight areas where they are not making the most use of their resources. The use of information technologies can also increase the businesss income through advertising in the various available forums. Advances in information technology over the last thirty years have lead to the television, for example, being more widely used today than thirty years ago (e.g. the introduction of transistor based televisions reduced costs while increasing reliability). 3. News & Media organisations How has the development of information technology influenced the way news and media organisations deliver content? Due to the nature of news and media organisations, the information technologies have particular relevance to them. As noted earlier, "Information technology is the technology used to store, manipulate, distribute or create information". News and media organisations are intimately acquainted with each of these elements of information technology. Developments such as the Internet and satellite television have created new medium and audiences through which and to which these organisations can disseminate their information. Given the situation thirty years ago, the developments that we have seen have enabled the news and media organisations access to more people, they have a wider audience. The audience, however, now has a
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wider, global choice. News reports can be received which highlight many different sides of an international conflict, for example, than was possible before. The relative cheapness of being able to publish information on the Internet, for example, means that virtually anyone can publish information accessible anywhere in the world. 4. Educational organisations How has the development of information technology influenced the way educational resources are provided? As information technology has developed over the last thirty years, educational establishments have been influenced in various ways. The most obvious example has been the introduction of information technology related courses. These courses are introduced to try to satisfy the demand that society has for qualified people to develop these information technologies. The developments that have occurred in information technology have also had other influences on educational establishments. As was discussed earlier about news and media organisations, educational organisations also have a goal to distribute information from a source (lecture, books, on-line resources etc.) to the student. The processes by which educational establishments distribute information have become increasingly diverse, and the effectiveness of the process has also improved. The distribution of information is not the only concern of educational establishments. For example, one of the aims of Universities is to create information. This "creation" is done by research. Information

technologies have enabled researchers to access a wider source of information than previously available through such technologies as the Internet (the original ArpaNet being set up primarily to assist research).
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The Internet and other related technologies such as electronic mail, also enable collaborative projects to be undertaken between geographically distant groups. 5. Work Processes How has the development of information technology influenced the interactions between institutions and individuals from the individual point of view? Developments in information technology in the last thirty years have led from institutions with large single computers being able to only accommodate one user at a time, to a point now where powerful computing power is available to individuals rather than an organisation. Thirty years ago, computers were much larger than now, often filling large rooms. The move from individuals in an organisation (whether commercial or academic) not having access to computing facilities to a position where users could have a link to computing facilities first began with Fernando Corbat's CTSS operating system (the first multi-user operating system), giving users the impression that they had possession of a computer. (In fact, their terminals were sharing time on the computer with other terminals). Further development in this area occurred with the introduction of several developments. These included developments such as massproduced mini-computers such as the PDP-8, which enabled more institutions to obtain computers at a lower cost than before. Later developments such as the personal computer, have brought computing power even closer to the individual in the organisation and as graphical user interfaces have evolved from the early experiments at Xerox PARC to the Windows operating system, the individuals in an organisation can even more easily harness computing power. This leads to an increase in the individuals ability to complete tasks quickly and efficiently.

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6. Social How has the development of information technology influenced the interactions between individuals? Interactions development between of individuals have been enhanced New by the of information technologies. channels

communication have been opened between people in the last thirty years. These developments have been assisted by such projects as the ArpaNet, the prototype to the Internet. The Arpanet was commissioned as an aid to research between various institutions. This institutional use was also accompanied by an unofficial use between individuals. The ArpaNet hosted mailing lists, some of which individuals used to communicate with each other on non-institutional business. As other developments occurred, such as the wide spread availability of modems and personal computers became more wide spread, the general population was integrated into what is known as the Internet. Individuals then have the ability to interact with other individuals through such developments as e-mail, chat-rooms and the Usenet. This proliferation of Internet technologies has enabled people with disabilities such as those who are blind or visually impaired, physical disabilities or others to be able to enjoy access to sources of information and ways of communicating they may not have had the opportunity to have used before. As Christopher Murphy wrote of greatest importance to disabled people, perhaps, is the ability of the computer and modem to immerse them into a world that might otherwise be off limits. A disabled person using a computer has access to vast amounts of information at his fingertips. People with disabilities can tap into practical disability-related information or converse with other disabled people. Not only that, they can also enter the mainstream. With the help of these computer devices and advanced software many disabled people can be just as competitive as anyone else.
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1.5 Summary
The first computers were people! That is, electronic computers (and the earlier mechanical computers) were given this name because they performed the work that had previously been assigned to people. The first gear-driven calculating machine to actually be built was probably the calculating clock, so named by its inventor, the German professor Wilhelm Schickard in 1623. In 1642, Blaise Pascal, at age 19, invented the Pascaline as an aid for his father who was a tax-collector. German Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (co-inventor with Newton of calculus) managed to build a four-function (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) calculator that he called the stepped reckoner because, instead of gears, it employed fluted drums having ten flutes arranged around their circumference in a stair-step fashion. First Generation (1940-1956): Vacuum Tubes: The computers of this generation were made up of vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory. Second Generation (1956-1963): Transistors The computers of this generation were made up of transistors replacing vacuum tubes. Third Generation (1965-1971): Integrated Circuits: The computers of these generations were made up of IC (Integrated Circuits). Integrated circuits mean incorporation of hundreds of transistors on a single silicon chip. Fourth Generation (1971-Present): Microprocessors Fourth Generation computers are the modern day computers. The size started to go down with the improvement in the integrated circuits. Very Large Scale (VLSI) and Ultra Large scale (ULSI) ensured that millions of components could be fit into a small chip.
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Fifth Generation Computer Anticipated new type of computer based on emerging microelectronic technologies with high computing speeds and parallel processing. Computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing programs, often called CAD/CAM, have led to improved products in many fields, especially where designs tend to be very detailed. Self Assessment Questions 1. ________ was an early aid for mathematical computations. 2. Who is considered as the first lady Computer Programmer? 3. First generation computer used___________ 4. CAT stands for ___________ Answers to Self Assessment Questions 1. Abacus 2. Lady Ada 3. Vacuum Tubes 4. Computerized Axial Tomography

1.6 Terminal Questions

1. What is the role of Fifth generation computer? 2. Briefly explain the advantages and disadvantages of Laptop Computers. 3. How computers are useful in data generation? 4. Briefly explain the classification of the computers.

1.7 Answers to Terminal Questions

1. Refer section 1.2.5 2. Refer section 1.3.5 3. Refer section 1.4 4. Refer section 1.3
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