Health Informatics
PHTR 498
Spring 2014
Lecture #3
Introduction to Information Technology
Amar Hijazi, Majed Alameel, Mona Almohaid
What is a computer?
• A machine that can be programmed
• A machine that accepts input, processes
that input, and produces output
What is a network?
• Two or more computers connected
together using communications equipment.
The computers can be geographically
located anywhere
All together
“online” which means using a computer to access information
from another computer through the use of a network.
• The Internet
• E-mail
• Applications
• Social Media
• E-business
• EHR
• E-government
• E-learning
Type of Computers
1. Supercomputers
2. Mainframes
3. Workstations
4. Microcomputers
5. Embedded Computers
Supercomputers
• Extremely Fast computer
• Up to 350 million dollars
• Consists of thousands of
processors and can carry out
several trillion calculations per
second.
• Used for scientific and
engineering problems
–
–
–
–
computer simulations
tracking hurricanes
biological contamination
understanding ocean currents.
JAPAN'S K SUPERCOMPUTER
As of 2013
• 80K 2.0 GHz 8-core SPARC64 VIIIfx processors
• Contained in 864 cabinets
• Consumes 10 MW of power – the equivalent of
almost 10,000 suburban homes
• A performance of 8.162 petaflops = one million
linked desktop computers
• Annual running costs are estimated at
US$10 million
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_computer
Mainframes
• Up to 5 million dollars
• Used by corporate and large
organizations such as banks,
airlines, insurance companies,
colleges.
• Processes billions of
instructions per second.
• Used for transaction
processing
• Very high stabile and reliabile
Workstations
• Usually used for complex
scientific, mathematical,
and engineering
calculations and for
computer-aided design
• Example: designing
airplanes, special effects in
movies
Microcomputer
• Personal Computer (PC)
– Desktop PC
– Laptop / Notebook
• Mac
– Apple Mac
• SmartPhones
Embedded Computers
• Small
• Specialized
• Exist in:
– Home Appliances
– Cars
– ATM
Clients and Servers
• Server: A central computer that holds collections of
data & running programs to serve the request of
clients
• Clients: PCs, workstations, & other devices typically
connect to a server thru a network
• Server + Clients linked together to form a clientserver architecture
How Computers Work
The purpose of a computer is to process data
into information.
• Data (Input)
• Information (Output)
Data
Raw facts such as an employee’s name and number of
hours worked in a week, inventory part numbers or sales
orders.
Information
A collection of facts organized in such a way that they
have additional value beyond the value of the facts
themselves.
Information
Data
$35,000 1 Units
$12,000 ALI Western
Region $100,000
5 Units 7 Units
Data
Processing
Salesperson: ALI
Sales Territory:
Western Region
Current Sales: 147K
Units = 13
Main components of Computers
• Hardware
– The hardware components of a computer system are the
electronic and mechanical parts.
• Software
– The software components of a computer system are the
data and the computer programs.
Basic operations that a computer can
perform
Input devices
Output devices
Processing
– Computer box has:
• The processor chip (CPU – Central
Processing Unit)
• Memory chips (RAM – Random Access
Memory)
• Motherboard with power supply
• Video card
• Etc. …..
CPU speed
CPU speed is measured in
gigahertz
equal to 109 hertz.
Symbol: GHz
Storage devices
Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
Storage devices
Solid-State Drive (SSD)
Any differences?
SSD Vs HDD Comparison
Attribute
SSD (Solid State Drive)
HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
Power Draw / Battery
Life
Less power draw, averages 2 – 3 watts,
resulting in 30+ minute battery boost
More power draw, averages 6 – 7 watts and
therefore uses more battery
Cost
Expensive, $1.00 per gigabyte (based on
buying a 240GB drive)
Only around $0.075 per gigabyte, very cheap
(buying a 4TB model)
Capacity
Typically not larger than 512GB for notebook
size drives
Typically 500GB – 2TB for notebook size drives
Operating System Boot
Time
Around 22 seconds average bootup time
Around 40 seconds average bootup time
Noise
There are no moving parts and as such no
sound
Audible clicks and spinning can be heard
Vibration
No vibration as there are no moving parts
The spinning of the platters can sometimes result in
vibration
Storage capacity is measured in:
• 1 byte - 1 character is represented using 1 byte.
• 1 kilobyte - 1,024 characters. 210
• 1 megabyte - 1,048,576 characters. 220
• 1 gigabyte – 1,073,741,824 characters. 230
• 1 terabyte - more than 1 trillion characters. 240
Software
• System software
– is computer software designed to operate and
control the computer hardware and to provide a
platform for running application software
• Application Software
– is computer software that causes a computer to
perform useful tasks beyond the running of the
computer itself
System software
•
•
•
•
Microsoft Windows
Linux
Mac OS
Unix
Application software
• Microsoft Office
• Adobe Acrobat
• Adobe Photoshop
Computer Network
• A computer network consists of a collection of
computers, printers and other equipment that
is connected together so that they can
communicate with each other
LAN, MAN, and WAN
• Local Area Network (LAN) is Network in small
geographical Area (Room, Building or a
Campus)
• Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is Network
in a City
• Wide Area Network (WAN) is Network spread
geographically (Country or across Globe)
Components of Network
•
•
•
•
A minimum of at least 2 computers
A network interface card (NIC) on each computer
Cables that connect the computers to each other
A Switch used to connect various network devices
together, like computers, to allow communication
between those devices.
• Network operating system
Network Interface Card (NIC)
• is also known as a network card.
• It connects the computer to the network
cabling
• Each computer on a network must have a
network card.
• Most modern network cards are 10/100/1000
NICs and can operate at either 10Mbps,
100Mbps, or 1Gbps
Switches
• Switches is ‘boxes’ to which computers,
printers, and other networking devices are
connected to.
Wireless Networks
• Refers to two or more computers
communicating without the use of cabling to
connect the devices together
• The computers use wireless radio signals to
send information from one to the other
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
• Consists of two major components:
– Wireless Access Point (AP)
– Wireless Network Card (wNIC)
WLAN Advantages and Disadvantages
• Advantages
– Allows mobility and availability
– Increases productivity
– No need for any more wires or cables
• Disadvantages
– Less than cable’s bandwidth
– Less efficient and reliable
– Security
Cloud Computing
What is it?
• provide a variety of computing resources ,
from servers and storage to enterprise
applications such as email, security, backup,
voice (VOIP), all delivered over the Internet
Cloud Flavors?
•
•
•
•
SaaS – Software as a Service
IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
PaaS – Platform as a Service
DaaS – Desktop as a Service
What is Software as a Service? (SaaS)
• SaaS is a software delivery methodology
that provides licensed multi-tenant access
to software and its functions remotely as a
Web-based service.
– Usually billed based on usage
– Usually multi tenant environment
– Highly scalable architecture
• Multi-tenancy is an architecture in which a
single instance of a software application
serves multiple customers
Virtualization
What is virtualization?
• Virtualization allows one computer to do the
job of multiple computers.
• Virtual environments let one computer host
multiple operating systems at the same time
How it works?