ITP 101
Intro to Information
Technology
Information Technology
Overview
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Information Systems
People
Software
Hardware
Data
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Information System
•  Group of all networks, computers, and persons
involved in the collection, processing, storage,
analysis, and dissemination of data and
information within a particular environment
–  Definition is pieced together from various resources
•  "Computers are everywhere"
•  A computer is an electronic device that processes
data, converting it into information that is useful to
people
•  Any computer is controlled by programmed
instructions
–  Gives the machine a purpose and tells it what to do
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Information System
•  5 components to Information Systems
–  People
–  Procedures
–  Software
–  Hardware
–  Data
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People
•  Most common point of failure J
•  Two types of people:
–  End Users
–  Everyone else
•  System Designers
•  Administrators
•  Auditors
•  Management
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System Software
•  Operating System – controls all the hardware
functionality and provides a platform for executing
applications
•  Personal Computers:
–  Windows, MacOS, Unix/Linux
•  Real-Time Operating Systems/Embedded OS
–  LynxOS, Windows CE
–  Used for satellites, Laser Printers, etc.
•  Cell phones:
–  Palm OS/webOS, BlackBerry (RIM),
Windows Mobile, Symbian,
Android, and iPhone OS
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Application Software
•  Everything you “double-click” on the desktop
•  Web Browsers
•  Email Software:
–  Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora
•  Productivity Software:
–  Examples: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint
•  Multimedia Software:
–  Examples: Adobe Creative Suite
•  Games
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Software
“Shrink-wrapped” software
Custom Applications
•  Written for a variety of
platforms
•  MS Windows
•  MS Office, Adobe Creative
Suite
•  Video Games
•  Typically written for a very
customized platform, with
very specific hardware
requirements
•  Electronic Medical Records
software (EMR)
•  Enterprise resource
planning software (ERP)
•  Database back-ends
•  Are digital downloads killing
software outlets?
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Software
•  Web Applications
–  Facebook, MySpace
–  Google Mail, Calendar, Docs
–  All run through the web
browser
•  Is the web browser the new application platform?
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Computers – Server Class
Supercomputers
Mainframes
•  “Most powerful type of
computer”
•  All custom built
•  Specialized Tasks
•  A powerful multi-user computer
capable of supporting many
hundreds or thousands of
users simultaneously
•  Are prebuilt and customized
•  Used for processing a lot of
data
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Weather forecasting
Quantum physics modeling
Nuclear physics modeling
Cryptanalysis
Playing chess
–  Payroll for McDonalds
corporation
–  Insurance claims for AAA
•  http://www.top500.org/
•  Over 90% of market belongs to
IBM
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Supercomputer Example – Watson
•  Artificial intelligence computer system capable of
answering questions posed in natural language
•  Built by IBM
•  Can process 500 gigabytes, the
equivalent of a million books per second
•  With 80 TeraFLOPs, it is currently
98th on the Top 500 Supercomputers list
•  In 2011, Watson competed on the quiz show
Jeopardy!
–  Watson beat Brad Rutter, the
biggest all-time money winner,
and Ken Jennings, the record
holder for the longest
championship streak
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Computers
•  Minicomputer – A multi-user computer
capable of supporting from 10 to 100s
of users simultaneously
–  Now dead
•  Workstation – A powerful, single-user
computer
•  Personal computer – A small, single-user
computer based on a microprocessor that also has
a keyboard for entering data, a monitor for
displaying information, and a storage device for
saving data
–  Desktops
–  Laptops, notebooks
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More Computers
•  Hand-held devices
–  Smartphones – Blackberry, HTC,
Samsung, Intel, Motorola, iPhone
–  Personal Desktop Assistant (PDA), Tablet
–  Game Boy, Nintendo DS,
PlayStation Portable (PSP)
•  Video game consoles
–  Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, PS3
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Hardware
•  Electronic components that make computers
do wonderful things for us J
•  Brief breakdown (to be discussed in depth
later)
–  “System Unit” – contains processor and memory
–  Input/Output (I/O) devices
–  Secondary Storage – hard drives,
floppy, CD/DVD, etc.
–  Communication devices – modem,
network interface card (NIC)
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Files
•  Contain information
•  “Unprocessed data” becomes processed when
opened by a particular program
•  Typical types of files
–  Documents - .txt .doc .docx .pdf
–  Worksheets - .xls .xlsx .csv
–  Database files - .mdb .accdb
–  Presentations - .key .ppt .pptx
–  Image files - .gif .jpg .tiff .png
–  Audio files - .wav .mp3
–  Video files - .mpeg .divx .avi
–  Web files - .htm .html .css
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Unprocessed vs. Processed Files
Google
Google
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History of Computers
•  Timeline of Computer History
–  http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/
•  Illustrated History of Computers
–  http://www.computersciencelab.com/
ComputerHistory/History.htm
•  Triumph of the Nerds
–  http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/
•  History of Computing Hardware
–  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
History_of_computing_hardware
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