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Lecture Slides of Week 4

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5 views

Lecture Slides of Week 4

Uploaded by

Ayeaha Saddiqa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lecture Slides of Week 4


Information Communication Technology
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Overview

o Optical storage
Software Brings the Machine to Life
o System Software
o Application Software
Computer Data
Computer Users
User Less Computers
o Machine Learning and its applications in software
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Optical Storage

Optical storage-devices that use lasers to read data from or write data to the reflective
surface of an optical disc.
The CD-ROM drive is the most common type of optical storage device. Compact
dises (CDs) are a type of optical storage, identical to audio CDs. Until re-cently, a
standard CD could store about 74 minutes of audio or 650 MB of data. The type used
in computers is called Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM). As the name
implies, you cannot change the information on the disc, just as you cannot record
over an audio CD.
A CD-Recordable (CD-R) drive can write data to and read data from a compact
disc. To record data with a CD-R drive, you must use a special CD-R disc, which can
be written on only once, or a CD-ReWritable (CD-RW) disc, which can be written
to multiple times, like a floppy disk.
DVDs can hold a minimum of 4.7 GB of data and as much as 17 GB. Future DVD
technologies promise much higher storage capacities on a single disc. DVD drives
also can locate data on the disc much faster than standard CD-ROM drives.
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Software Brings the Machine to Life

The ingredient that enables a computer to perform a specific task is software,


which consists of instructions. A set of instructions that drive a computer to
perform specific tasks is called a program.
System Software
System software is any program that controls the computer's hardware or that
can be used to maintain the computer in some way so that it runs more
efficiently. There are three basic types of system software:
» An operating system tells the computer how to use its own com-ponents.
Examples of operating systems include Windows, the Macintosh Operating
System, and Linux. An operating system is essential for any computer,
because it acts as an interpreter between the hardware, application programs,
and the user.
» A utility is a program that makes the computer system easier to use or
performs highly specialized functions
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Software Brings the Machine to Life

Application Software
Application software tells the computer how to accomplish specific tasks,
such as word processing or drawing, for the user. Thousands of
applications are available for many purposes and for people of all ages.
Some of the major categories of these applications include
» Word processing software for creating text-based documents such as
newsletters assignment.
» Spreadsheets for creating numeric-based documents such as budgets or
balance sheets.
» Graphics programs for designing illustrations or manipulating
photographs, movies, or animation
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Computer Data

You have already seen that, to a computer, data is any piece of information or fact
that, raken by itself, may not make sense to a person. For example, you might think
of the letters of the alphabet as data. Taken individually, they do not mean a lot.
But when grouped into words and sentences, they make sense; that is, they become
information, Similarly, basic geometric shapes may not have much meaning by
themselves, but when they are grouped into a blueprint or a chart, they become useful
information.
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Computer User

Personal computers, which are the focus of this book, are designed to work with a
human user. In fact, the user is a critical part of a complete computer system,
especially when a personal computer is involved.
The User's Role:
Setting up the System: Have you ever bought a new PC? When you got it home, you
probably had to unpack it, set it up, and make sure it worked as expected. If you want
to change something about the system (a process called configuration), you will
likely do it yourself, whether you want to add a new hardware device, change the way
programs look on your screen, or customize the way a program functions.
» Installing Software:
Although your new computer probably came with an operating system and some
applications installed, you need to install any other programs you want to use. This
may involve loading software from a disk or downloading it from a Web site. Either
way, it is usually the user's responsibility to install programs.
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The User's Role

Running Programs. Whenever your computer is on, there are several programs
running in the background, such as the software that runs your mouse and printer.

Managing Files: If you write a letter to a friend, you can save it as a file, making it
available to open and use again later. Pictures, songs, and other kinds of data are
stored as files. But it is the user's job to manage these files.
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"Userless" Computers

Of course, there are many kinds of computers that require no human interaction, once
they have been programmed, installed, and started up. For example, if you own a car
that was built within the last decade, it almost certainly has an on-board computer
that controls and monitors engine functions. Many new home appli-ances, such as
washers and dryers, have built-in computers that monitor water usage, drying times,
balance, and other operations.
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Machine Learning

It is a field of study that gives computers capability to learn without being explicity
programmer.

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