Chapter One

Introduction to Information and Communication Technologies

 Chapter Objectives
• At the end of this chapter the student will be able to:
• Describe the history of computers.
• Explain the fundamentals of the new trends and future direction of IT, ICT
• Develop awareness of the roles of ICT in a real world
• Conceptualize the terms data, information and data processing.
• Identify components of Information Technology
• Identify different types of computers
 Introduction
 The goal of this chapter is to familiarize the learner with the history,
generations of computer, types of computer, disciplines of Information
Communication Technologies and Information Technology.
• Man used different computing ways at early time. Some of the important
ones are:-
• Abucus in ancient Egypt and china Used for adding, subtracting, division
and multiplication.
• An abacus consists of row of beds strung on wires set in rectangular frame.
• The beads are used to represent “place values” such as units, tens,
hundreds, and so on.
Con’d
 Con’d
• In 1642 the first mechanical adding machine developed by Blaise
pascal used for adding.
• After 50 years Germany mathematician Gottfried Liebnitz introduced
the first mechanical calculator, Capable of add and subtract.
• An important fortune of modern computer was the difference engine
by Charles Babbage in the early 1800. The device was capable of
performing calculations and print the result.
Generation of computers
• The history of digital computers start in the 1940s where the first electronic
general purpose digital computer was manufactured.
• Subsequent improvements in technology led to second, third and fourth
generation computer.
• The major characteristics that distinguish the various generations were the
following:-
• Dominant type of electronic circuit element used
• Major secondary storage media used
• Computer language used
• Type or characteristics of operating system used
• Memory access time(speed)
First Generation - 1940-1956
• The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry .
• magnetic drums(magnetic tapes) were used for memory.
• Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was
displayed on printouts.
• They were very expensive to operate and they use a great deal of
space and electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the
cause of malfunctions.
• First generation computers relied on machine language and Assembly
language to perform operations, and they could only solve one
problem at a time.
Cont..
• UNIVAC and ENIAC are examples of first-generation computing devices.

 ENIAC had a mean

breakdown interval of
12 minutes. Moreover,
it weighs 30 tones and
covers 20,000 square
feet of area.

• The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S.
Census Bureau in 1951.
Second Generation - 1956-1963

• Transistors replaced vacuum.

• Transistors control flow of electricity in the computer.
• They enable computers to become smaller, 10X faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient
and more reliable than their first-generation predecessors.
• Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for
output.
• Second-generation computers moved from machine language to symbolic, or assembly,
languages.
• High-level programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as
early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN.
• They moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology(magnetic disk).
• The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.
Third Generation - 1964-1971
• The development of the integrated circuit was the characteristic of the third generation of
computers.
• Third-generation computers were smaller, more powerful, more dependable, less expensive, and
100 times faster than previous models.
• Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which
drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.
• Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers
through keyboards and monitors.
• It is in this generation that users started to interact to the computer through operating systems.
This allowed the computer to run many different applications at one time with a central program
that monitored the memory. This enables computers to run different applications at one time.
• Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller
and cheaper than their predecessors.
Fourth Generation – 1971 - Present
• The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as
thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip.
• What in the first generation filled an entire room could now fit in the palm
of the hand.
• In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984
Apple introduced the Macintosh.
• As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked
together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the
Internet.
• Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse
and handheld devices.
Fifth Generation - Present and Beyond
• Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence,
are still in development, though there are some applications, such as
voice recognition, that are being used today.
• The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make
artificial intelligence a reality.
• Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will
radically change the face of computers in years to come.
• The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that
respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and
self-organization.
Cont..
• Computer technology is still under continuous development and the
general trend from earlier generation to latest generation:
• Are getting lesser in volume size
• Are getting cheaper in price
• Have larger memory capacity
• Have better execution speed
• Consume less power
• …
What is Information Technology?
• Information Technology is the use of modern technology to support the
capture, processing, storage, retrieval, and communication of information,
whether in the form of numerical data, text, sound, or image.
• It can also be defined as the study of information handling and its use in
society by means of modern technology.
• This includes the acquisition, processing, storage and communication of
information in any form by appropriate means.
• It is more about the use of computers to solve human/business problems
Intro …
What is Information and Communications Technology?
• Information and Communications Technology usually called ICT, is often used as a
synonym for information technology (IT) but is usually a more general term that
stresses the role of communications (telephone lines and wireless signals) in
modern information technology.
• ICT consists of all technical means used to handle information and aid
communication, including computer and network hardware as well as necessary
software.
• ICT consists of IT as well as telephony, broadcast media, and all types of audio and
video processing and transmission.
• ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive
information electronically in a digital form.
• For example, personal computers, digital television, E-mail, robots
Data and Information
• "Data" comes from a singular Latin word, datum, which originally meant
"something given."
• Data is raw, unorganized facts that need to be processed.
• Data is without a context and can give no meaning by itself
• Data comes in many forms - numbers, words, symbols.
• For Example: Each student's test score is one piece of data.
• Information is data that has been processed in such a way as to be
meaningful to the person who receives it.
• For Example: The average score of a class or of the entire school is information
• Information is the processed data on which decisions and actions are based
• Information is a data with a context
Components of ICT
• Information technology has three primary components. These are
• Computers,
• Communications networks, and
• Know-how.
Computers
• Any calculating device or machine, which is electronic, mechanical or
electromechanical, can be called a Computer.
• A computer is an electronic device that performs mathematical and
non-mathematical operations with the help of instructions to process
the information in order to achieve desired results.
• The name computer comes from a Latin word compute, meaning “to
reckon” or “to compute” and can be applied to abacus or any adding
machine as to the modern computer.
• However, the term “Computer” has come to mean a special electronic
device having certain definite characteristics.
 Communications networks
• A communications network is the connection of stations at different
locations through a medium that enables people to send and receive
data and information.
• Telephone wires and cables are common communication media.
• An integral part of Information and communication Technology is the
ability to communicate: to send and receive data and information
over a communication network.
 Know-how
• Therefore, Information and communication Technology requires or
implies know-how, knowing how to do something well.
• It include:-
• Familiarity with the tools of Information Technology.
• The skills needed to use these tools.
• Understanding when to use Information Technology to solve a
problem.
Types of Computer
• Any computing device can be called a computer. Considering this
definition, computers can be classified into different categories based
on different characteristics.
• Based on type of data they process
• Based on Size and Capacity
• Based on their purpose
1. Based on type of data they process
Analog
 Analog computers operate by measuring physical properties.
 They deal with continuous variables; they don’t compute
directly with numbers, rather, they operate by measuring
physical magnitude such as pressure, temperature, voltage,
current etc.
Examples: Thermometer, Voltmeter, Speedometer
• Digital
Digital computers deal with discrete variables; they
operate by counting rather than measuring.
They operate directly up on numbers (or digits) that
represent numbers, letters, or other special symbols.
Examples: Abacus, Desk & pocket calculators,
general purpose computers
Hybrid
 Hybrid computers inherit the best features of both analog and
digital computers.
 Usually the Input is continuous data (analog). Since Digital
Processing is more accurate, processing takes place digitally. The
processed information – the output – could be either digital or
analog, depending on the user preference or the type of
application.
Examples: digital camera, health monitoring machines
2. Based on Size and Capacity
Supercomputer
 The term supercomputer has been coined to describe a category of
extremely powerful computer designed for high-speed processing.
 A supercomputer is generally characterized as being the fastest,
most powerful, and most expensive computer.
Generally, Supercomputers are:
• The largest and the most efficient computers
• Very expensive
• very fast and
• Supports hundreds of users at different
locations
• Mainframe computer
 Mainframe computers are large, powerful computers that
are physically larger and usually have processors with faster
instruction processing speeds.
 For example, they may be able to process from 10 to 200
million instructions per second (MIPS).
 Mainframe computers also support multiple users and are
expensive.
• Minicomputer
 Minicomputers are midrange computers that are larger and more
powerful than most microcomputers but are smaller and less
powerful than mainframe computer systems.
 Minicomputers are being used for a large number of business and
scientific applications.
 They are popularly used in scientific laboratories, research centers,
universities and colleges, engineering firms, industrial process
monitoring and control, etc.
• Microcomputers
 The smallest computers ever produced in the history of computers
are microcomputers.
 Since they are designed to be used by a single user, they have the
least capacity as compared to the other types of computers.
 They are also the least expensive of all types.
 There two different types of microcomputers are desktop
computers and portable computers (laptops, notebook computers
and palmtops)
 3. Based on their purpose

• Special Purpose
• They are designed to solve a single type of problem
• E.g the public telephone box, traffic control system, ticket machines

• General Purpose
• They are designed to solve variety of problems through the use of “stored
program concept”.
• E.g. microcomputer, minicomputer
Characteristics of Computers
• The characteristics of a computer show the capabilities and the
potentials of the computer for processing data.
• Computers have seven basic characteristics:
• Speed –
• The most important characteristic of a computer is its speed.
• Computers perform their operations step by step.
• Their speed is measured by the amount of time it took to perform or carry out a basic
operation.
• Computer speed measured in terms of microsecond (10-6 one millionths), nanosecond
(10-9 one billionths), and Pico second (10-12 one trillionths).
Characteristics of Computers
(continued)
• Storage –
• You can imagine how much space data of a census on papers need. Not only
the space, also the time it took to get or retrieve specific information from
such vast amount of data is not negligible.
• But a computer can store such amount of information in a few numbers of
disks. And the time it took to retrieve or process single information is not
more than a micro or nanoseconds.
• In general a computer has a capacity to store a very large amount of
information in organized manner so that accessing information is very fast.
Characteristics of Computers
(continued)
• Accuracy–
• Nowadays computers are being used for surgical purposes, which need
almost a hundred percent accuracy.
• From this we can understand that computers are accurate and consistent.
• Unless there is an error in the input data or unreliable program the computer
processes with a very high accuracy.
Characteristics of Computers
(continued)
• Automatic –
• Once necessary information and program is fed, the computer performs
processing without human intervention.
• Versatility –
• Computers have the potential to perform or solve varieties of tasks and
problems, as long as the problem or the task can be put or reduced in the
form of logical steps.
Characteristics of Computers (continued)

• Reliability:
• Is the measure of performance of computer to work without failure.
• Diligent
• computers, being a machine, don’t suffer from the human traits of tiredness and lack of
concentration.
Thank You