Introduction To Information Technology 83611

Introduction to
Information Technology
Learning Outcomes:
• Be able to learn the definition of Information Technology

• To know the evolution of Information Technology
designed to provide the basic foundation, skills, and
knowledge for computer networking, applications, and
support, along with an introduction to programming.
• In the early days of Information technology data is
mainly meant numbers and text.
• Now, computers also process image, audio, and video
data.
• Thus, we need to understand how to acquire all these
types of data, as well as how to organize, store, process,
and disseminate them.
• quantitative collection of information.
• facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.
• information in digital form that can be transmitted or processed.
• information output by a sensing device or organ that includes both
useful and irrelevant or redundant information and must be processed to
be meaningful.
The term Information Technology (IT) has different
interpretations. For example, Macmillan Dictionary of
Information Technology defines as "the acquisition, processing,
storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and
numerical information by a micro-electronics-based combination
of computing and telecommunications".
• the science of information handling, particularly by
computers.
• used to support the communication of knowledge
in scientific, technical, economic and social fields.
what is a computer?
what is a computer?
• an electronic device that is programmed to
accept data, process data into useful
information and store it for later use.
• it consists of hardware and a software

software
• a set of instructions that tells a computer what to do.
hardware
• is the physical part of the computer. (e.g.
keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.)
types of computers:
analog computers
• an analog computer recognizes data as a continuous measurement of
physical property.
• it has no state and its output is usually on a meter or a graphs. (e.g.
analog clock, speed of car, thermometer, etc.)
types of computers:
digital computers
• works with numbers and breaks all types of information into tiny units and
use the numbers to represent those piece of information.
• it describes in two states ( e.g. either ON (1) or OFF(0) ).
Generations of Computers:
six generation of computers:
• mechanical era (1623 - 1900)
• first generation electronic computers( 1937 - 1953)
• second generation (1954 - 1962)
• third generation (1963 -1972)
• fourth generation (1972 - 1984)
• fifth generation (1984 - 1990)
• sixth generation ( 1990 - present)
Mechanical Era (1623 – 1900):
Abacus (3000 BC)
• it was used to perform addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.
• it consists of wooden beads and calculations were performed by moving
these beads properly.

Napier's bone (17th century)

• it was a cupboard multiplication calculator invented by John Napier.
• used to perform difficult multiplication operations to simple addition of
entries in a table.
Pascaline ( 17th century)
• it was invented by Blaise Pascal.
• it was the first mechanical adding machine.
• it had a series of wheels with teeth which could be turned using hands.
Punch cards(1890)
• they were able to read information which have been punched into the cards
automatically.
first generation electronic computers (1937 -1953)
• first generation were used during 1942 -1955
• they were based on a Vacuum tube which was a glass (tube) that
controlled and amplified the electronic signals.
• consume more power with limited performance.
• high cost.
• uses assembly language to prepare programs which were translated into machine
level language for execution.
• fixed point arithmetic was used.
• 100 to 1000 fold increase in speed relative to the earlier mechanical and relay
based electromechanical technology.
• punched cards and paper tape were invented to feed programs and data to get
results.
• magnetic tape / magnetic drum were used as secondary memory
• mainly used for scientific computations ( e.g. UNIVAC, Havard Mark1, ENIAC,
etc.)
second generation (1954 -1962):
• Bell Lab- invented the transistor function: like vacuum tubes but smaller, lower
power consumption, more reliable.
• transistor which is a small device that transfer electronic signals across resistor.
• lower cost.
• magnetic cost memory were used as a main memory which is a random-access
non-volatile memory.
• magnetic tapes and magnetic disks were used as secondary memory.

• hardware for floating point arithmetic operations was develop.
• index registers were introduced which increased flexibility of programming.
• high level languages such as FORTRAN, COBOL, etc. were used.
• compilers were developed to translate the high-level program into
corresponding assembly language program which was then translated into
machine langue.
• developed separate I/O processors that could operate in parallel.
• punched cards were continued during this period.
• 1000 folds increase in speed. (e.g. TRADIC, IBM 704, LARC, etc.)
third generation ( 1963 - 1972)
• Jack Kilby develop integrated circuit (IC)
• an IC combined several electronic computers on a small silicon chip.
• IBM introduced:
System/360 - a highly configurable, highly backward compatible, mainframe
computer system.
• small and medium scale integration technology were implemented in CPU,
I/O processor etc.
• smaller and better performance.
• comparatively lesser cost
• faster processors.
• in the beginning magnetic core memories were used. later they were replaced
by semiconductor memories (RAM and ROM)
• introduced microprogramming
• Microprogramming, parallel processing ( pipelining, multi-user system, etc.),
• multiprogramming, multi-user system (time shared system) were introduced.
• operating system software, cache and virtual memories were introduced.
• High level languages were standardized by ANSI, e.g. ANSI fortran, ANSI
cobol, etc.
• Database management, multi-user application, online system like closed loop
process control, airline reservation, interactive query systems, automatic
industrial control, etc. were emerged. (INTEL 4004, iBM SYSTEN/ 360,
etc.).
fourth generation (1972 - 1984)
• microprocessors were introduced as CPU- Complete processor and
large section of main memory that were implemented in a single
chip
• tens of thousands of transistors can be placed in a single chip
(VLSI design implemented)
• CRT screen, laser & ink jet printers, scanners, etc) were developed
• semi conductor memory chips were used as the main memory.
• secondary memory was composed of hard disks:
- floppy disks and magnetic tapes were used for backup memory.
fourth generation (1972 - 1984)
• parallelism, pipelining cache memory and virtual memory were applied in a
better way
• LAN and WANS were developed (where desktop work stations interconnected)
• introduced C language and Unix OS
• introduced GUI
• less power consumption
• high performance, lower cost and very compact
• much increase in the speed of operation ( Apple Macintosh, IBM PC, etc.)
fifth generation (1984 - 1990)
• computers based on artificial intelligence are available
• computers use extensive parallel processing, multiple pipelines, multiple
processors, etc.
• massive parallel machines and extensively distributed system connected by
communication networks fall in this category.
• introduced ULSI (ultra large scale integration) technology - Intel's Pentium 4
microprocessor contains 55 million transistors millions of components on a single
IC chip.
• superscalar processors, vector processors, SIMD processors, 32 bit micro
controllers and embedded processors, digital signal processors (DSP) etc. have
been developed.
• Memory chips up to 1 GB, hard disk drives up to 180 GB and optical disks up to
27 GB are available.
• object oriented programming language are available suitable for internet (JAVA,
C++, etc.) -portable notebook computers were introduced.
• portable notebook computers were introduced.

• storage technology advanced - large main memory and disk storage available.
• introduced WWW. (existing application like e-mails, eCommerce, Virtual
libraries/ classrooms, multimedia apps, etc.)
• new operating systems were developed (windows 95/98/XP/..., linux).

• got hot pluggable features which enable a failed component to be replaced
with a new one without the need to shutdown the system, allowing the
uptime of the system to be very high.
sixth generation computers (1990 - present)
• some inventions of the time are WWW, HTML, HTTP, Web TV,
java, DVD, iPod, Youtube,etc.)

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Introduction to

• Be able to learn the definition of Information Technology

• facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.

• information in digital form that can be transmitted or processed.

• information output by a sensing device or organ that includes both

useful and irrelevant or redundant information and must be processed to

• it consists of hardware and a software

• it consists of wooden beads and calculations were performed by moving

these beads properly.

Napier's bone (17th century)

• magnetic tapes and magnetic disks were used as secondary memory.

• portable notebook computers were introduced.

• new operating systems were developed (windows 95/98/XP/..., linux).

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