E Commerce

UNIT-2
Evaluating Internet Source
Because of the hodge-podge of information on the Internet, it is very important you

develop evaluation skills to assist you in identifying quality Web pages. There are
six (6) criteria that should be applied when evaluating any Web site: authority,
accuracy, objectivity, currency, coverage, and appearance. For each criteria,
there are several questions to be asked. The more questions you can answer "yes",
the more likely the Web site is one of quality.
The framework of this document (criteria and questions) was developed by Jan
Alexander and Marsha Tate and is available on their site Evaluate Web Pages.
Below is a chart listing key questions for each of the six criteria. By clicking on a
particular criteria, you will be given more explanation.
Authority
Is it clear who is responsible for the contents of the page?

Is there a way of verifying the legitimacy of the
organization, group, company or individual?
Is there any indication of the author's qualifications for
writing on a particular topic?
Is the information from sources known to be reliable?
Accuracy
Are the sources for factual information clearly listed so they

can be verified in another source?
Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, and other
typographical errors?
Objectivity Does the content appear to contain any evidence of bias?

Is there a link to a page describing the goals or purpose of
the sponsoring organization or company?
No Part of this document may be reproduced or introduced into retrieval system or transmitted
any form or by any means is strictly prohibited.
If there is any advertising on the page, is it clearly

differentiated from the informational content?
Currency
Are there dates on the page to indicate when the page was
written, when the page was first placed on the Web, or
when the page was last revised?
Coverage
Are these topics successfully addressed, with clearly

presented arguments and adequate support to substantiate
them?
Does the work update other sources, substantiate other
materials you have read, or add new information?
Is the target audience identified and appropriate for your
needs?
Appearance Does the site look well organized?

Do the links work?
Does the site appear well maintained?
1. Authority
a) Is it clear who is responsible for the contents of the page?
WHY IMPORTANT? - It is critical to relate the ideas you find at a site to
a particular author, organization, or business. In this way, there is a degree
of accountability for any of the ideas expressed. Once the individual or
organization responsible for the content is known, you can then begin to
look at other clues to help you ascertain credibility, such as credentials and
reputation. Be especially wary of sites in which the author or sponsoring
organization is not clearly stated.
Note, the sponsor of a site is often responsible for the content. You can
quickly determine a site's sponsor by looking for references at the top
and/or bottom of the page. In addition, the first part of the address of a
site, called the domain, contains information that allows you to get a
general idea of the sponsor. For example, having the domain name .edu
(e.g. http://www.nmu.edu) means the site is hosted by an educational
institution, .com means a commercial enterprise, .gov means a government

agency, and .org means an organization, such as the National Rifle
Association. It is important to note that some sponsors are not directly
responsible for the content on their site, such as personal pages hosted by
universities or commercial Internet Service Providers (e.g. AOL, UP.net,
etc.). You can identify these pages because they are often represented by a
tilde (~) in their address (e.g.
http:www.nmu.edu/~kmcdonou/home.html).
If you want to find out specifically who is hosting a site, you can remove
part of the address from your current page and go back to the root address.
For example, let's say you are looking at a site on the Renaissance, located
at http://www.learner.org/exhibits/renaissance/. If there is no indication
who is sponsoring this site you can go back to http://www.learner.org/.
Here you discover the Renaissance site is a project sponsored by the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting with funding from the Annenberg
School of Communications.
b) Is there a way of verifying the legitimacy of the organization, group,
company or individual? That is, is there a phone number or postal
address to contact for more information? (Simply an e-mail address is not
enough).
WHY IMPORTANT? - Anyone with an Internet Service Provider (AOL,
UP.net, NMU, etc.) can put up a Web page. As a result, you need to have
some idea whether the group claiming responsibility for the information
on the Web site is legitimate. A phone number or postal address allows
you to contact the group or company and ask for more information. Be
wary of sites that do not provide contact information. Because it is
difficult to verify the legitimacy of an individual, personal home pages
may be useful sources for personal opinion, but must be used with caution
when citing them as source for factual information.
c) Is there any indication of the author's qualifications (either an individua l
or an organization) for writing on a particular topic?
WHY IMPORTANT? - If you find an article describing the ecology of
black bears, you need to know if the author is qualified to speak
intelligently on this topic. Clues include an author's educational
background (e.g. PhD in Wildlife Ecology from the University of

Michigan), current position (Wildlife Biologist for the Department of
Natural Resources), or reputation (Nobel Laureate in Biology, member of
the National Academy of Sciences, etc.). If the content is provided by an
organization, you might want to consider if the organization known and
respected.
d) Is the information from sources known to be reliable?
WHY IMPORTANT? - Statements from established and reputable
organizations almost always have been seen and approved by several
people. As a result, this check and balance system helps prevent the
release of unsound information. Government sites (.gov) are very good
examples of organizations where information is disseminated through this
type of system. For other organizations, it can be difficult sometimes to
determine if they are established and reputable. Clues to look for include
the date an organization was founded, the number of members, their
mission, the types of publications they produce, whether they have annual
conferences, etc. Generally, established organizations have been around
for a while and have a good membership base.
You might want to check any information provided on the Web site
against that found in the Encyclopedia of Associations, located in Olson
Library (Ready Reference HS 17 .G334), in order to receive a more
objective view. Another way of determining the reputation of an
organization is to examine how it is referred to in newspaper or periodical
articles. You can use the library's subscription databases to search for
articles in newspapers and periodicals on a particular organization.
Other sources known for quality include online journals and magazines.
Most journals use a peer review process, whereby several individuals
evaluate and critique an article, allowing the author to make revisions
before an editor makes a final decision on whether it is published.
Popular magazines, although not having as stringent of a review process,
still have editors who evaluate articles before they are published. As a
result of this editorial process, these publications will tend to be more
reliable or trustworthy than information found on a personal Web site.
In regards to the quality of an information source, it is important to note

the difference between an unofficial comment made by an individual at an
organization and an official statement by the same organization. When
Bill Smith, employee of the National Weather Service, says on National
Public Radio "I believe this will be a bad year for hurricanes," this
information is based on his opinion and may be no more reliable than your
own. This is significantly different than a statement on the National
Weather Service's Web site, "This is going to be a bad year for
hurricanes." The employee is speaking for himself; whereas a statement in
the name of NWS represents the official position of NWS. An official
position will have been reviewed or edited before being released.
2. Accuracy
a) Are the sources for factual information clearly listed so they can be
verified in another source?
WHY IMPORTANT? - A source of information is known to be scholarly
when it provides references to the information presented. In this way, the
reader can confirm whether the information is accurate or the author's
conclusions reasonable. A page without references still may be useful as
an example of the ideas of an individual, organization, or business, but not
as source of factual information.
b) Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, and other typographical
errors?
WHY IMPORTANT? - Such errors not only indicate a lack of attention
and effort, but also can actually produce inaccuracies in information.
Whether the errors come from carelessness or ignorance, they both put the
information or writer in an unfavorable light.
3. Objectivity
a) Does the content appear to contain any evidence of bias?
WHY IMPORTANT? - If the content contains bias, only one point of

view is being presented. This may not be bad depending on your needs.
For example, in writing a position paper on gun control, you may want to
compare the extreme pro-gun position of the National Rifle Association,
with that of the anti-gun organization Cease Fire or a more balanced report
published by an independent think tank site (such as the Brookings
Institute). Regardless, you will want to know if the information is biased
or not in order to make appropriate decisions on how to use it.
One way of determining this is by relying on your own experience and
knowledge to determine if the information appears believable or
reasonable. In your experience, does the information make sense? If an
individual claims that one of every 3 Americans have an alcohol problem,
is it true that a third of all your friends and family members have a
drinking problem? Another way of detecting bias is assessing how true
the information appears relative to other reliable sources of information.
You should make sure you corroborate any position you find with other
positions published in other sources, such as periodicals or books. In this
way you can discover where a position appears on the continuum.
NOTE: the domain name (as mentioned under Authority) can help you
determine the possible slant or potential bias of the information contained
in a site. For example, the benefits of a new drug might be more objective
coming from a government web site (.gov), such as the Food and Drug
Administration, rather than those offered by its manufacturer, BristalMyers Squibb (.com).
Directly related to bias is the concept of fairness. Good information
sources will use a calm, reasoned tone to present information in a balanced
manner. Pay attention to the tone and be cautious of sites that contain
highly emotional writing. Writing that is overly critical, attacking, or
spiteful often indicates an irrational and unfair presentation rather than a
reasoned argument.
b) Is there a link to a page describing the goals or purpose of the sponsoring
organization or company?
WHY IMPORTANT? - The goals or purpose of a group, organization, or
company can help you assess for possible biasness. For example, let's say
you found an article in the online newspaper-The Truth at Last-stating

how black slaves enjoyed the idea of slavery. There is nothing in the title
of the newspaper that would necessarily lead you to believe this is a biased
perspective. However, upon looking at the page describing the goals of
this newspaper, you discover it is published by a group of individuals that
advocate the segregation of the white and black races. Thus, the article you
read could be suspect based on the extreme position of the sponsoring
group.
c) If there is any advertising on the page, is it clearly differentiated from the
informational content?
WHY IMPORTANT? - The intent of advertising is to sell a product or
idea. Sometimes advertising is woven into an article, where it is hard to
notice that the information presented is actually part of an advertisement.
An example in the print world would be a multi-page, special advertising
insert in Newsweek, paid for by a leading group of pharmaceutical
companies that discusses new developments in drug treatments for
arthritis. Although the article is very informative, it's intent is to promote
the products of particular companies. In the Web environment, it is
especially important to critically examine information presented on
commercial sites (.com).
4. Currency
Are there dates on the page to indicate when the page was written, when
the page was first placed on the Web,or when the page was last revised?
WHY IMPORTANT? - Some information is very time sensitive. For
example, a page talking about the top rate Web search engines in 1997 is
going to be horribly out of date in 2000. There have been incredible
changes in search engine technology and new developments appear almost
monthly. However, a page discussing the Civil War is likely still relevant
today even if the page was created in 1996 and has not been updated.
Regardless, a site should always provide some indication of when the
information was created or the site was last updated.
5. Coverage
a) Are these topics successfully addressed, with clearly presented arguments
and adequate support to substantiate them?
b) Does the work update other sources, substantiate other materials you have
read, or add new information? Does it extensively or marginally cover
your topic?
c) Is the target audience identified and appropriate for your needs?
WHY IMPORTANT? - Coverage is one of the most important factors to consider
before using the information in a Web page. If the information appears one sided,
it could be evidence of bias (see objectivity). You should explore enough sources
to obtain a variety of viewpoints and thereby determine where a particular view fits
on the continuum.
Also, you will want to see if a page is presenting a new perspective on the topic, or
just summarizing other sources. If it summarizes other sources, you will likely
want to get hold of the originals. If it is difficult to assess the topics covered in a
page or the arguments are not presented very clearly, you might reconsider before
referencing this site.
Finally, be aware of the target audience to whom a page is directed. The target
audience has a direct bearing on the coverage of a site. For example, if you find a
page dealing with evolution on a K-12 educational site, it is likely the material may
be too simplified for a college biology paper.
SERVICES OF INTERNET -E-mail, FTP, Telnet
ICT Applications
Email, discussion groups, long-distance computing, and file transfers are some of
the important services provided by the Internet. Email is the fastest means of
communication with email one can also send software and certain forms of
compressed digital image as an attachment. News groups or discussion groups
facilitate Internet user to join for various kinds of debate, discussion and news
sharing. Long-distance computing was an original inspiration for development of
Contents
1 (a) E-Mail (Electronic
Mail)
2 (b) FTP (File Transfer
Protocol)
3 (c) Telnet (Remote
Computing)
ARPANET and does still provide a very useful service on Internet. Programmers
can maintain accounts on distant, powerful computers, executive programs. File
transfer service allows Internet users to access remote machines and retrieve
programs, data or text.
(a) E-Mail (Electronic Mail)
E-mail or Electronic mail is a paperless method of sending messages, notes or
letters from one person to another or even many people at the same time via
Internet. E-mail is very fast compared to the normal post. E-mail messages usually
take only few seconds to arrive at their destination. One can send messages
anytime of the day or night, and, it will get delivered immediately. You need not to
wait for the post office to open and you dont have to get worried about holidays. It
works 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Whats more, the copy of the
message you have sent will be available whenever you want to look at it even in
the middle of the night. You have the privilege of sending something extra such as
a file, graphics, images etc. along with your e-mail. The biggest advantage of using
e-mail is that it is cheap, especially when sending messages to other states or
countries and at the same time it can be delivered to a number of people around the
world.
It allows you to compose note, get the address of the recipient and send it. Once
the mail is received and read, it can be forwarded replied. One can even store it for
later use, or delete. In e-mail even the sender can request for delivery receipt and
read receipt from the recipient.
(i) Features of E-mail:
One-to-one or one-to-many communications
Instant communications
Physical presence of recipient is not required
Most inexpensive mail services, 24-hours a day and seven days a week
Encourages informal communications
(ii) Components of an E-mail Address As in the case of normal mail system, email is also based upon the concept of a recipient address. The email address
provides all of the information required to get a message to the recipient from any
where in the world. Consider the e-mail ID.
abc@hotmail.com
In the above example john is the username of the person who will be
sending/receiving the email. Hotmail is the mail server where the username john
has been registered and com is the type of organization on the internet which is
hosting the mail/ server.
(b) FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
File Transfer Protocol, is an Internet utility software used to uploaded and

download files. It gives access to directories or folders on remote computers and
allows software, data and text files to be transfer between different kinds of
computers. FTP works on the basis of same principle as that of Client/ Server. FTP
Client is a program running on your computer that enables you to communicate
with remote computers. The FTP client takes FTP command and sends these as
requests for information from the remote computer known as FTP servers. To
access remote FTP server it is required, but not necessary to have an account in the
FTP server. When the FTP client gets connected, FTP server asks for the
identification in terms of User Login name and password of the FTP client (Fig.
3.1). If one does not have an account in the remote FTP server, still he can connect
to the server using anonymous login.
Using anonymous login anyone can login in to a FTP server and can access public
archives; anywhere in the world, without having an account. One can easily Login
to the FTP site with the username anonymous and e-mail address as password.
(i) Objectives of FTP : Provide flexibility and promote sharing of computer
programs, files and data
Transfer data reliably and more efficiently over network
Encourage implicit or indirect use of remote computers using Internet
Shield a user from variations in storage systems among hosts.
(ii) The basic steps in an FTP session Start up your FTP client, by typing ftp on
your systems command line/C> prompt (or, if you are in a Windows, doubleclick on the FTP icon).
Give the FTP client an address to connect. This is the FTP server address to
which the FTP client will get connected
Identify yourself to the FTP remote site by giving the Login Name
Give the remote site a password
Remote site will verify the Login Name/Password to allow the FTP client to
access its files
Look directory for files in FTP server
Change Directories if requird
Set the transfer mode (optional);
Get the file(s) you want, and
Quit.
(c) Telnet (Remote Computing)
Telnet or remote computing is telecommunication utility software, which uses
available telecommunication facility and allows you become a user on a remote
computer. Once you gain access to remote computer, you can use it for the
intended purpose. The TELNET works in a very step by step procedure. The
commands typed on the client computer are sent to the local Internet Service
Provider (ISP), and then from the ISP to the remote computer that you have gained
access. Most of the ISP provides facility to TELENET into your own account from
another city and check your e-mail while you are traveling or away on business.
The following steps are required for a TELNET session
Start up the TELNET program
Give the TELNET program an address to connect (some really nifty TELNET
packages allow you to combine steps 1 and 2 into one simple step)
Make a note of what the escape character is
Log in to the remote computer,
Set the terminal emulation
Play around on the remote computer, and
Quit.
Internet:
Internet is a clustered system of interrelated computer networks that uses a
standard Internet protocol (IP) or transmission control protocol (TCP) network. It
is a global network of millions of private, public and organizational network. It
carries a massive range of informational resources and data in form of HTTP
(Hypertext Markup language) documents and applications through World Wide
Web (WWW). Common functions of sharing are: email, file sharing, telephony
and p2p networks. Internet has totally reshaped the entire professions of the world.
TV channels, cellular companies, newspapers, books, retailer are using website
technology to expend their services. Nothing is impossible today. All kinds of
verbal communication, social networking, online shopping and financial services
are being performed through Internet. The extranet and intranet also rely on the
internet. First it was the time period when landline was used as a means for
accessing the internet but now with the evaluation in technology, Wi-Fi and other
wireless broadband services have been also stepped into the market. It is now the
global world of the unlimited network of networks that comprises the millions of
users across the globe from public, private, business and other sectors. It carries
and extensive range of data and information that is then distributed across the
globe through the system of World Wide Web, file sharing, cloud sharing,
telephony, UseNet newsgroups, etc. However, work on the internet was started in
the late 80s but it started to get popular in the world in early 90s. At present, the
one-third population of the world is using the internet directly or indirectly. Today
it is being used in almost every aspect of luge either it is Ebanking, online
shopping, financial services, entertainment, education or anything else. There are

seven continents in the world and now the internet is also considered as the eighth
continent of the world. There is no central governing body of the internet and it
comprises the various autonomous networks that operate as a medium of
interconnection.
Intranet:
Intranet is a computer network system in which a specific organizational systems
share information, computing services and operational systems with each other by
using an Internet (IP) technology. This term basically refers to the network of a
specific organization. You can also says it a private network. Authenticated users
of the organization can access the database system, search engines, directory and
can distribute documents and workflow. Employees can makes interactive
communication in shape of chatting, audio and videoconferencing, groupware and
teleconferencing. The benefits of Intranet is that low development and maintenance
cost arises on this setup. It is also a means of friendly environment and speedily
sharing of secret information on time. It is also the type of internet that is restricted
to the internal environment of an organisation only. The internal IT system of an
organisation is the best example of the intranet. In thats way, the intranet has very
limited functionalities in term of the geographical area. The company where
intranet is being used on its own creates the main point for internal communication
and collaboration system that can be accessed by the authorized persons only. It
although utilizes the technologies of wide area networks and local area networks
but still the employees of an organisation remain its only users. Intranet started to
grow across the world after the internet when some large organisations started to
develop their own internal internet system that was later on named as an intranet.
The main aim of the intranet is to ensure the secure collaboration, communication
and team working in any organisation. Unlike the internet that is maintained by the
autonomous network providers, the intranet is managed and maintained by the

CIO, HR or communication department of an organisation. According to the
research of the Intranet Design Annual, the users of the intranet are gradually
increasing as it provides the more security and privacy to the large enterprises as
compared to the open public internet.
Extranet:
The term Extranet is linked with Intranet. Extranet is a kind of computer network
that allows the outside users to access the Intranet of organization. This network
system is basically used for business to business (B2B) purposes. This system
basically allows the outside users of an organization, like partners, suppliers,
vendors and other stakeholders to remain in touch with the activities of
organization. Information and data access performed through a proper account or
link system. This is a best network system to keep in touch with market position
and share a large amount of data to partners in a timely manner. Moreover,
conducting new training programs and discussing the products catalogs with
partners can be easily done without bearing too much cost of travelling. Extranet is
the next stage in the intranet. It has also very restricted users but as compared to
intranet it has a more opened environment. When the usage of the internet remains
restricted to the internal environment of an organisation only it is called as intranet
but when the customers and other outsiders like the stakeholders of an organisation
also join this system then this system becomes the extranet. The users in case of
extranet also remain very limited but in this system, there remains the some
involvement of the outsiders that are directly connected with any business. After
setting the extranet, the users can then send private messages by using the public
network system through the most enhanced encryption and security technologies.
The information in all way is accessible through the intranet of an organization. If
intranet is derivate from the internet then extranet is derivate from the intranet. At
first, this term was used as a channel of communication between two organisations
only. After that authorized vendors and suppliers started to join this system after
their permission of the respective organizations. It has its own data transfer system
named Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) that provides the system of exchanging
the large volume of data.
Difference:
Following are the differences between Internet, Intranet and Extranet.
First difference between all is a matter of availability. Internet is a global
network system and is available to all while Intranet and Extranet are
available to limited inside and outside users of the organization.
Intranet and Extranet are more secure than Internet because having Intranet
or Extranet network system means organization has created a firewall
against outsiders. Accessing any information on Internet is not much
difficult today.
General public is the user of Internet so it can be called as public network
while business persons and organization are the users of Intranet and
Extranet and can be called as private networks.
Internet can be access through without having user account. While user
account is the first important condition in case of Intranet and Extranet.
Internet has no hard and fast policies while there is a complete organization
policy behind the setup of Intranet and Extranet.
Both intranet and extranet or more secure as compared to the internet
because these are based according to the policies of the organisations. The
business of their own decided to grant access to the others in case of intranet
and extranet.
The business and organisations are the only users of intranet and extranet
while the internet is the global communication system.
The Internet is managed by the autonomous networks while extranet and

intranet are managed and maintained by the CIO, HR or communication
department of an organisation.
The Internet is economical as compared to the intranet and extranet because
these two requires special set up the cost. Both of this required special
software, hardware and employees training cost to be familiar with the
special IT environment.
If intranet is derivate from the internet then extranet is derivate from the
intranet.
The Internet works as a channel of communication and collaboration in the
internal environment of an organisation only while extranet work as a
channel of communication and collaboration in both internal and external
environment of an organisation.
An intranet is more secure as compared to internet and extranet because both
of these involve the more number of users.
Both intranet and extranet depend on the internet.
COMPUTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
INTRODUCTION
The world of business has changed dramatically since the introduction of the
first modern multipurpose computer over 50 years ago. The ENIAC (Electronic
Numerical Integrator and Computer), designed by Drs. Mauchly and Eckert, two
American engineers, was set up at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. This 30ton machine occupied a thirty-by-thirty room, contained 18,000 vacuum tubes
linked by 500 miles of wiring, and could perform 100,000 operations per second. It
consumed so much electricity that it dimmed the lights in the section of
Philadelphia where it was housed. Thanks to the development of the integrated
chip, the computer has evolved into a far smaller, more powerful, and less
expensive machine. Todays microcomputer is 3,000 times lighter than the
ENIAC, performs 4000 times faster, and costs several million dollars less. Other
innovations have made the computer easy enough for a child to use and versatile
enough for applications ranging from astrophysics to arcade-style games. As a
consequence of their decreasing size and cost, computers can be found today in
virtually every corner of American society, from research facilities and corporate
headquarters, to schools and homes.
You need only look around a business office to see evidence of the computer
revolution. In a large office you might find a variety of computers, ranging in size
from a mainframe computer housed in a room of its own, to a palm-sized personal
assistant tucked into an executives briefcase. A growing number of professions
rely on computers, and accounting is one of them. This introduction will provide
you with the fundamentals of computer hardware and software to help you prepare
for the material presented in the text.
TYPES OF COMPUTERS
Computers can be grouped into categories in numerous ways. Table 1 below
classifies the main types of computers according to their physical size, processing
speed, cost, and number of users. A microcomputer, or personal computer (PC),
might cost a few thousand dollars. It is a small computer that can fit on a desktop,
and is appropriate for a single user. The next larger computer is the minicomputer.
A minicomputer might cost tens of thousands of dollars. It is about the size of a
refrigerator and, when combined with various peripherals, might fill a small room.
Minicomputers often have several hundred users. Large businesses often have
mainframe computers. These machines are housed in large rooms or even entire
building floors. They cost up to several million dollars, and thousands of users can
access the computer simultaneously. In a networked environment, minicomputers
and mainframes are both frequently called servers. The largest and most expensive
computer, the supercomputer, is often used in research settings and other
environments that require a computer with extraordinary computing power. Some
supercomputers are capable of performing several billion instructions per second.
Table 1: Types of Computers
Type
Physical Size Processing
Cost
Speed*
Users
Microcomput Fits in hand,

er or
on lap, or on
Personal
desktop
Computer
(PC)
Up to 400
MIPS
$1,000 to
$4,000
Minicompute
r
Up to 1000
MIPS
$5,000 to
$200,000
Small
cabinet; may
Number of
One standalone or
many may
access it
through a
network
Up to several
hundred
fill a small
room with
accompanyin
g peripherals
Mainframe
Computer
requires a
partial room;
may occupy
several
rooms with
accompanyin
g peripherals
Supercomput Entire room
er
of equipment
Up to several
thousand
MIPS
$250,000 to
$3,000,000
Hundreds to
thousands
Up to 10,000
MIPS
Several
Hundreds to
million
thousands
dollars and
up
*Processing speed is commonly measured in millions of instructions per second
(MIPS). One instruction is a basic task, e.g., adding two 10-digit numbers or
storing the result in specific location. For comparison, the human brain is estimated
to be capable of 100 million MIPS.
Computer systems can also be categorized as having either an open
architecture or a closed architecture. An open architecture allows third-party
vendors to develop and sell hardware and software that is compatible with the
system. These vendors produce products that enhance the computer system. The
IBM-compatible microcomputers are based on the open architecture design. In a
closed architecture system, only one vendor makes all or nearly all of the support
systems and does not allow other vendors into the market.
WHAT IS A COMPUTER?
When we think of a computer, we generally picture computer hardware: the
monitor, the keyboard, and the electronic circuitry contained within the rectangular
case. There is more to a computer than this, however. The missing element is
softwarethe instructions that tell the computer how to operate the hardware. All
computers must have these two components to function. However, it is software
that gives the computer one of its most distinguishing characteristicsthe ability
to program a single machine to perform many different functions.
In general terms, a computer is a machine operating under the control of
instructions stored in its own memory. These operations and instructions enable the
computer to receive data from a user (input), transform and manipulate the data
according to specified rules (process), produce results (output). Additionally, data,
instructions, and information are stored (storage) for future retrieval and use.
Many computers are also capable of another task: communicating directly with
other machines.
The user performs the input task with a device such as a keyboard, mouse, or
digital scanner. These devices allow the user to enter data and instructions into the
computer. A secondary storage system stores and retrieves additional data and
instructions that may also be used in the input and processing stages. This system
might include magnetic or optical devices, such as CD-ROMs, hard disks, floppy
disks, and tapes. The central processing system, which manipulates the data, is
perhaps the most important part of the computer. This system is the brain of the
computer in that it enables the computer to transform unorganized inputs into
useful information. The central processing system includes the central processing
unit (CPU) and the primary memory. The computers output system displays the
results of the data manipulation. The output system might include a monitor, a
printer, a plotter, a voice output device, or microfilm/microfiche equipment. A
final element of a computer is the communication system, which passes
information from computer to computer over communication media. Each of these
systems is discussed in more detail below.
As noted above, computers come in many types. It would be difficult to
adequately cover the variations in the components of these different computer
types in a brief introduction. Therefore, we will confine the following discussion to
personal computers (PCs). However, most of the discussion, especially as relating
to basic computer operations, is easily transferable to other computer types.
HARDWARE
The term hardware refers to the tangible parts of a computer system, that is,
the physical equipment of the computer. A keyboard, disk drive, and monitor are
examples of computer hardware. (Software is discussed later.) Understanding the

various physical components of a computer system will help you understand how
the system works as a whole. As described above, the general model of a computer
consists of an input system, storage system, process system, and output system.
Our discussion of computer hardware will, therefore, be organized around these
systems, along with communications as an additional function of which some
computers are capable.
INPUT SYSTEM
An input system comprises one or more devices that the user employs to
enter data or instructions into the memory of the computer so that the CPU can
subsequently process them. Data, as discussed above, are unorganized facts that
can become useful output by being transformed into information. Instructions may
be input as programs (instructions that direct the performance of the computer),
commands (instructions direct a program), and user responses (instructions from
the user created by replying to a question posed by the computer). Input devices
come in many forms. Some of the more common devices are described next.
Keyboard. The keyboard is one of the most common input devices. In
addition to keys that represent letters, numbers, and special characters, keyboards
often contain function keys, to which the user can assign personalized commands,
and special-purpose keys, such as the enter key. Some keyboards contain a
numeric keypad (a set of keys in the form of a calculator keypad) that is used for
entering numbers conveniently and easily. Keyboards may also have Internet keys,
CD/DVD controls, and multimedia keys. While most keyboards are connected to
the computer by a cable, there are wireless keyboards that transmit their input by
means of infrared signals.
Mouse. Connected to many modern microcomputers is a hand-sized input
device called a mouse, or pointing device. A mechanical mouse contains a ball that
rolls along a flat surface, moving a cursor (pointer) on the computer screen. An
optical mouse uses light signals to detect the movement of the mouse and thereby
move the pointer on the screen. Through the use of one to four buttons on top of
the mouse (and a wheel on some versions of the mouse), the user can select and
manipulate objects represented on the screen as icons (symbols). The mouse is a
convenient and effective way to interact with the graphical user interfaces (GUIs)
that dominate the current computer environment.
Touchpad. This input device is a small rectangular surface that operates by
means of pressure and motion, and allows the user to perform all of the functions
of a mouse by touch. Moving the fingertip across the touch pad moves the cursor
across the screen. Tapping the touch pad acts as clicks and double-clicks.
Touchpads are most commonly found on laptop computers.
Pointing Stick. Like the touchpad, this pressure-sensitive input device fills
the role of the mouse in some laptops. It is shaped like a pencil eraser and fits
between keys in the keyboard. Moving the pointing stick moves the cursor. This
device is mostly found on laptop computers.
Trackball. The trackball is basically an upside-down mouse. Instead of
rolling the ball on a surface as with the mouse, the user rotates the trackball with
the hand directly to position the cursor on the screen.
Touch Screen. This input device is often used in public places, such as
shopping centers, hotels, and airports, where users may not have much experience
working with computers. The user simply touches the screen for the desired menu
item.
Light Pen. This light-sensitive device is used for entering data by writing on
a computer screen. Engineers, designers, and architects use light pens to draw and
modify shapes on the screen.
Graphics Tablet. A graphics tablet is a flat rectangular board used to input
drawings or other graphical data. The user draws on the graphics tablet with an
electronic pen or a mouse-like device (called a puck). The drawing movements are
converted into digital signals that are sent to the computer as input. Architects and
mapmakers commonly use this input device.
Speech Recognition Devices. These devices recognize the words spoken by
users. Sample voice patterns are analyzed, digitized, and stored in a database.
Later, during operations, actual voice inputs are compared with the stored voice
pattern. Speech or voice recognition technology is best suited to structured input
applications in work environments where the users hands are occupied. For
example, a receiving clerk may enter data about items received with the following
phrases:
Invoice 998810
Item 56213
Quantity 100
Condition Good
From these inputs, the speech recognition system will create a record of items
received by a receiving clerk.
Audio Input Devices. In addition to speech recognition devices, sound may
be entered into computers with audio input devices. These devices allow music,
speech, and other sound effects to be used as input. Sound may be entered through
a microphone, electronic piano keyboard, tape player, and CD player. For high
quality sound recording, a sound card needs to be installed in the computer. For
some electronic input devices a special serial port, called a musical instrument
digital interface (MIDI), is required.
Video Input Devices and Digital Cameras. Video input devices and digital
cameras allow optical and graphical images to be entered into the computer for
storage and processing. Digital cameras allow the user to store still-pictures as
digital files (for example, .jpgs and .gifs) that can be used by the computer like
other graphic images. They may be edited, e-mailed, printed, faxed, inserted into
documents, and displayed on the monitor. Video input devices enable the user to
store and process full-motion images generated from camcorders and VCRs.
Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs). ATMs have revolutionized banking
by extending bankers hours to 24 hours a day. ATM users can borrow cash,
transfer funds, and make deposits at their convenience. Most ATM devices employ
some sort of card input that contains information about the user. The user inserts
the card and is prompted to enter a personal identification number (PIN) to
authorize access. If the user fails to enter the correct PIN after three attempts, the
ATM will assume an unauthorized person is attempting an illegal access. It will
then implement a predetermined action. This may be to lock the user out of the
system or have the ATM destroy or confiscate the access card. In any case, the user
will need to appear in person at the bank and reestablish access authority.
Point-of-Sale (POS) Devices. POS terminals are found in many kinds of
retail businesses; for example, grocery stores. Most POS terminals use some type
of optical scanning device, usually involving laser beams, for reading the product
code on an item. The product code, sometimes called a bar code, is the primary
key for retrieving the price and description data from the database.
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) Devices. MICR devices
read characters printed in magnetized ink on documents. The banking industry, in
particular, has made extensive use of MICR for reading and processing checks and
deposit slips.
Optical Scanning Devices. Optical scanning is the process of digitizing
textual or graphic images. The scanner is a light-sensing device that converts an
image into an analog signal that in turn is converted into a digital signal for
computer storage and processing. The resulting file is called a bitmap (.bmp files).
Optical scanning is a popular technique for capturing photographs for computer
usage but it may also be effectively used with printed and handwritten text.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Devices. OCR devices convert

typed and, in some cases, handwritten data into electronic input. This allows paper
source documents to be converted to electronic form without rekeying. Although
OCR devices can recognize handwritten characters and a variety of fonts and
typefaces, this technology is not perfectly reliable. In spite of high error rates, OCR
is a cost-effective means of converting large volumes of source documents that
otherwise would need to be keyed manually.
Optical Mark Recognition. This input device is able to read the handdrawn marks and darkened in fields placed on surveys, tests, and questionnaires.
One notable aspect of input devices is the degree to which a device
eliminates the need for manual data entry. Manual data entry is a common source
of error. Some input devices require fully manual data entry; e.g., keyboards.
Others have done away with manual entry completely; e.g., optical scanners.
STORAGE SYSTEM
Inputs are sent to either memory or storage, waiting subsequent processing
by the computer. With regards to computers, there is a commonly accepted
distinction between the terms memory (or primary memory) and storage (or
secondary storage). Memory refers to the instructions, information, and data
waiting for immediate processing. For this reason, memory is also referred to as
working memory. Memory is saved electronically on memory chips. Storage,
information and instructions are saved on magnetic or optical media. It is faster to
access data and instructions from primary memory than from secondary storage
media, but the information in memory is usually volatile; i.e., it disappears when
the computers power is turned off. (Actually, the situation is a bit more
complicated because there are also some types of memory that are nonvolatile.
These will be discussed in the "Central Processing System" section below.) The
information saved in storage media is nonvolatile and remains in the computer
even when power is off. In general, data and instructions are kept in secondary
storage when not needed for processing. When required for processing by the
CPU, they are retrieved from storage, sent to memory, where kept until processed.
Storage systems have two components: the storage medium (e.g., a disk or a
tape) that contains the saved information and the storage device or drive that reads
from and writes onto the storage medium. Permanent, non-volatile storage media
include floppy diskettes, installed hard disks, compact disks (CDs), magnetic tape
cartridges, removable hard disks, and superfloppies. Storage and memory are
usually measured in bytes, which consist of 8 bits (binary digits of 0 or 1). A
single byte is used to encode a single character (letter or number). One thousand
bytes are a kilobyte (KB). One million bytes are a megabyte (MB). One billion
bytes are a gigabyte (GB). One trillion bytes are a terabyte (TB). For comparison,
the average book contains about 1 MB of information and the storage capacity of
human memory is about 10 TB (or 1 million books).
Floppy diskettes employ magnetic storage technology. The disks are 3.5inches in diameter and are easily portable. A single floppy can hold 1.44 MB.
Hard disks are also magnetic-based storage media. Both the hard drive and
the hard disks are usually installed inside the computer. Portable external hard
drives are connected to the computer by a cable. Current PC hard disks typically
have a capacity from 2 to 50 GB. Hard drives have a faster data access time than
floppy disks. Data access time is the time required to locate a piece of stored
information in storage and retrieve it into primary memory or the CPU.
Compact disks are optical storage media that employ laser technology. CDs
are 4.75 inches in diameter and can hold up to 680 MB (the equivalent of 450
floppies). CDs are often read-only, although many PCs are now equipped with CD
drives that allow the user to record information on the CD. Some writable CDs can
be recorded on only once. These are designated as CD-R (compact discrecordable). Others CDs can be recorded on multiple times and are designate as
CD-RW (compact disc-rewritable). Video data (e.g., movies) can be stored on a

specialize type of CD called CDDVDs (digital video discs). As with CDs, there
is recordable variation of DVDs (DVD-R) that allows the user to record video data
from his or her computer, provided that the computer is equipped with a DVD
writer.
Magnetic tape cartridges use magnetically treated plastic ribbon to store
information. Tape cartridges can hold large amounts of information, up to 80 GB.
One disadvantage of tape storage is that information must be accessed sequentially.
For example, to retrieve information storage in the middle of the tape, the entire
first half of the tape must be run. Disks, on the other hand, allow for direct (or
random) access, which means that a piece of information may be located
immediately. Magnetic tape cartridges, of course, require magnetic tape drives.
Removable hard disks are magnetic-based hard disks that can be removed
from the hard disk drive and easily transported. The disk drive that reads from and
writes onto the removable hard disk is either installed in the computer or attached
to the computer by a port. The portable hard disk is encased in a plastic or medal
container for protection. The disks typically can store up to 2 GB. The Jaz
disk
by Iomega is a popular example.
Superfloppy diskettes are magnetic-based high-capacity floppy diskettes.

The disks are about the same size as the standard 3.5-inch disk, but require special
disk drives for reading from and writing to the disks. Disk drives may be
permanently built-in the computer or externally connected to the computer through
a port. Three popular superfloppies are the Iomega Zip
to 250 MB, the Sony HiFD
disk, which can store up
disk, with a capacity of 200 MB, and the Imitation
SuperDisk , which can hold 120 MB.

PROCESSING SYSTEM
Once data has been input into the computer and stored, the computer must
be able to retrieve and manipulate it in useful ways. This task is handled by the
hardware that makes up the central processing system, which includes the primary
memory, the central processing unit (CPU), expansion cards, ports, buses, and
connectors. The various parts of the computer system are connected through a
printed circuit board called the system board or motherboard. The system board
contains the primary memory, the CPU, the system clock, expansion slots, and
expansion ports. In a PC, the central processing system is housed a box-like case
called the system case or system unit.
MEMORY. As discussed above, instructions and data needed for immediate
processing are usually placed in memory. A computer has two types of memory:
volatile and nonvolatile. They are used for the long- and short-term retention of
information, respectively. RAM and cache are examples of volatile memorythe
primary memory. ROM and CMOS are examples of nonvolatile memory.
Random-access memory (RAM) temporarily holds data, the operating
system (instructions that control the computers operation), and application
software (instructions that manipulate data). The operating system resides in RAM
only while the computer is turned on. The application software remains in RAM
only while it is being used. Unless there is enough RAM to hold the application
software for more than one program at a time, when new application software is
retrieved from secondary storage, it is loaded into RAM, replacing the application
software that was previously residing there. Most current computers have enough
RAM to run several applications simultaneously, a process called multitasking.
Data and instructions about to be processed are in RAM, as are the output of the
processes. Recall that the data and instructions in working memory (i.e., RAM) are
electronically stored, as opposed to being magnetically or optically stored. Thus,
when the computer is shut down, all instructions and data in RAM are lost because
the flow of electricity ceases. In RAM, any address can be randomly accessed at
any time; hence the name random-access memory.
Cache memory is very fast RAM. It is used to store frequently used

instructions. Computers that have cache memory process data faster than
computers without it because data travels faster from cache to the CPU than from
RAM to the CPU. Some cache is built directly in the processor chip, while other
cache is in a chip external to the processor chip.
Read-only memory (ROM) contains instructions that the computer uses to
operate various aspects of the hardware. Unlike RAM, the information stored in
the ROM chip is not lost when the computer is turned off. However, this
information is written in the factory and cannot be altered by the user. ROM, for
example, contains the instructions the computer follows to load the operating
system when first turned on.
Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS), like ROM, is also
nonvolatile memory. Unlike ROM, the user can change CMOS. For example,
CMOS contains date and time information that the user can update.
CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU). The CPU consists of two
componentsan arithmetic/logic unit (ALU) and a control unit. The ALU
performs arithmetic calculations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
division), comparisons (greater than, less than, and equal to), and logical
operations (and, or, and not). All transformations of "meaningless" data into
"useful" information ultimately are the result of these three functions. The control
unit retrieves instructions and data from primary memory and determines which
instructions the ALU will carry out. The CPU also contains registers, which are
temporary holding areas where data resides before an instruction is executed. Note
the multiple layers of information retention required by the computer: storage
(where information is kept long-term), memory (where information is kept shortterm), and registers (where information is kept during processing). In a PC, the
CPU is usually contained in one chip, called the microprocessor or simply,
processor; e.g., the Intel Pentium
III and the AMD Athlon . In larger computers,
several chips are required.

The processing or transformation of data into information is called the
Processing or Machine cycle. The Machine cycle consists of two subsidiary cycles
called the Instruction cycle and the Execution cycle, each performing two
processes, for a total of four stages. The ALU, primary memory, and the control
unit are involved in these cycles. In the Instruction cycle, the control unit first (1)
fetchesthe technical terminstructions from the registers, where the data to be
processed is also being kept. The control unit next (2) decodes the instruction and
sends it to the ALU, the thinking part of the processor. Now the Execution cycle
begins. The ALU (3) executes the instructions by performing an arithmetic,
comparison, or logical operation on the data in the registers. The result is then (4)
stored or written to the registers where it will eventually be displayed and saved in
memory or storage. The time to complete the both the Instruction cycle and
Execution cycle is called machine time.
One measurement of the capacity of a computer system is how much RAM
can be addressed. This depends on the number of bits in an address. In the 1970s,
microcomputers had a 16-bit address, or 65,536 bytes of addressable memory.
Todays microcomputers have a 32-bit address, which is over four billion bytes of
addressable memory.
A RAM address location stores either data or instructions. The size of the
addressthat is, the number of bits at a specific address locationis called the
word size. A computer address can have a word size of 8, 16, 32, or 64 bits. The
CPU chip is considered to be an 8-, 16-, 32-, or 64-bit CPU, according to its
capacity to receive data from RAM. The larger the word size, the more data the
control unit can fetch from RAM.
SYSTEM CLOCK. The system clock, a vibrating quartz crystal chip that
emits pulses, synchronizes the operations of the CPU. The frequency of these
pulses is the CPUs clock speed, which is measured in megahertz (MHz). (One
megahertz equals one million cycles per second.) A CPU requires a fixed number
of clock cycles to execute an instruction. Thus, the faster the clock speed, the faster
the computer can process instructions. The newest Intel Pentium
AMD Athlon
III and the
microprocessors have clock speeds over 1000 MHz (or 1 GHz).
Another way to describe the CPUs speed is by how many instructions it can
process per second. This measurement is given in millions of instructions per
second (MIPS). Megahertz is a better benchmark than MIPS because a computers
system clock is constant, whereas instructions vary in their difficulty and thus in
the number of cycles required for their completion. A computer performing simple
instructions would be faster in terms of MIPS than the same computer performing
more complex instructions. For such reasons, IBM no longer advertises the MIPS
capability of its computers.
In addition to increasing clock speed, processing may also be enhanced by
pipelining, coprocessing, and parallel processing. Traditionally, the entire
Machine cycle (fetch, decode, execute, and store) has to be completed before the
next one can start. Pipelining allows the CPU to begin a second Machine cycle
before the first cycle is complete. With full pipelining, up to four cycles may be
processed in a CPU simultaneously. Coprocessors increase computer performance
by the use of a specialized chip that handles specific tasks, thereby freeing up the
main processor to do other work. Common examples are graphics coprocessors for
displaying images on the monitor and floating-point coprocessors for handling

arithmetic calculations. Parallel processing enables a computer to use multiple
processors to solve a single problem. Special software divides the problem in to
several parts, assigns the parts to different processors where that parts are solve
simultaneously, resembles the partial solutions, and completes any remaining
problem solving. Not all problems can be solved by this method and it is not
usually found in PCs.
EXPANSION SLOTS. Peripheral devices, such as keyboards, disk drives,
and monitors, are connected to the computer through expansion circuit boards (also
called expansion cards, adapter cards, add-ins, add-ons, and interface cards)
plugged into the expansion slots provided on the motherboard. Types of expansion
cards include:
A disk controller card connecting a disk drive

An accelerator card increasing CPU speed
A video graphic card connecting a monitor
A fax/modem card connecting a telephone line
A memory card for adding memory
A PC-TV card for connecting to a television
A sound card connecting external speakers
A game card connecting a joystick
An interface card connecting peripherals such as mouse devices

and scanners
A local area network card connecting other computers
Laptops and notebooks have a special type of expansion card called a PC

card. Unlike desktop-type expansion cards, you can add or change a PC card
without opening the system case of the computer. The PC card is simply plugged
into the appropriate opening in the laptop or notebook. PC cards can be used to add
memory, fax/modem, disk drives, and sound capabilities. Most PC cards follow
standards developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International
Association (PCMCIA). Following the PCMCIA standards allow various PC cards
to be interchanged between laptops and notebooks produced by different
manufacturers.
BUSES. Data in the form of electric on-off signals (bits) travel along
pathways called buses that connect the various parts of the computer. There are
two types of buses: system buses and expansion buses. The system bus connects
the CPU to primary memory, allowing instructions and data to be exchanged.
Expansion buses connect the CPU to peripheral devices, allowing data to travel
from the CPU to the expansion slots and out through the expansion cards to the
peripheral devices attached to the computer.

Buses consist of sets of parallel wires or lines. Each line carries one bit.
(Eight bits equal one byte.) Thus, a bus is measured by how many bits it can carry
simultaneously. The wider the bus, the more information it can carry. Most current
computers have either 32-bit or 64-bit bus width. Another measure of buses is their
clock speed, measured in MHz. Like the processor, the bus clock speed determines
how fast the bus functions. Bus speeds are typically less than 200 MHz, much less
than current processor clock speeds.
Expansion buses are usually slower at transferring information than system
buses. The expansion buses also determine the types of expansion cards that can be
added to the computer. Three of the most common expansion buses, listed in order
of speed, are:
Industry Standard Architecture (ISA). This bus is the slowest and

most common expansion bus. It is used to connect mouse devices,
modems, sound cards, and some network cards.
Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP). This expansion bus is faster than

the ISA, and is used to connect video cards and memory.
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI). A high-speed expansion

bus used to connect hard disks, video cards, and network cards.
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) uses a new approach to connecting

peripheral devices to the computer. It does away with the need to install new
expansion cards for each new device. Instead, USB-capable devices are connected
to each other in a daisy chain, and only one device is actually connected to the
computer through a cable attached to the USB port. The USB port feeds into the
USB, which in turn connects to the PCI, and then on to the motherboard.
BUFFERS AND CHANNELS. Peripheral devices are very slow compared
to the speed of the CPU. To keep the computer running efficiently, data traveling
to and from peripheral devices are placed in a buffer. A buffer is a storage area
where data reside before being processed.
Microcomputers have buffers in RAM and in peripheral devices such as
printers. The CPU coordinates data being transferred to and from peripheral
devices by using buffers. When the buffer is empty, the CPU is interrupted and a
special request is made to fill the buffer with more data.
On mainframe computers, channels are used to send data to and from
peripheral devices. Channels are small computers that control the flow of data to
and from peripheral devices. Buffers hold the data while the channels coordinate
the sending of the data. Together, channels and buffers adjust for the differences
in speed of peripheral devices. As a result, they increase throughput, which is the
time a computer system requires to complete tasks.

PORTS. Peripheral devices, such as keyboards, monitors, printers, and
mouse devices, must be connected to the PC system case. This connection is made
by attaching a cable from the device to an interface point called a port. Most ports
and cables have connectors that either male, with exposed pins, or female, with
matching holes for the exposed pins. The number of holes and pins ranges from 5
to 36.
There are three main types of ports. Serial ports transmit and receive data
one bit at a time. One wire in the cable is used to send a single bit stream of data,
while another wire receives a single bit stream of data. Serial ports are the slowest
of the three types of ports for data transmission. Parallel ports are capable of
transmitting and receiving more than one bit at a time. Most parallel ports are able
to send and receive streams of 8 bits (1 byte) data simultaneously. These ports
achieve this higher transfer rate by having 8 wires dedicated for sending data and 8
wires dedicated for receiving data. Parallel ports are much faster than serial ports.
Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports can connect up to 127 different external devices
at a once with a single connector by means of a daisy chaining the devices
together.
There are also several types of special purpose ports. Three of the most
popular are:
Musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) ports for connecting musical
instruments, such as an electronic keyboard
Small computer system interface (SCSI) ports for connecting peripheral
devices that require high-speed data transfer; e.g., printers and disk drives.
SCSI-equipped devices can also be daisy chained together, similar to USBcapable devices.
Infrared Data Association (IrDA) ports for connecting external devices
without cables by means of infrared transmission of data
OUTPUT SYSTEM
Like the input system, the output system provides an interface through
which computers and humans can interact with one another. However, now the
human is on the receiving end of the process. Output devices are used to display
input data that has been processed by the computer into useful output information.
Through its output system, the computer presents the data it contains in a form that
the user can understand. The presentation is typically in one of four forms:
graphics (e.g., charts and photographs), text (e.g., words and numbers), video (e.g.,
photographic images in motion), or audio (e.g., music and speech). Probably the
most common output devices are monitors for producing temporary displays (soft
copies) and printers for producing paper copies of documents (hard copies).
MONITORS. A monitor, or screen, can display graphics, text, and video
output. To display video in the monitor, the computer needs a video card (or
graphics card) for converting the digital signal (i.e., data in the form of 0s and 1s)
from the processor to an analog signal (i.e., data in the form of a continuous
electrical wave) that the monitor can interpret.
Monitors are described in two ways. The first is by the number of colors that
the screen can display. This can range from 4 to 65,536. The second is by the
quality, or resolution, of the screen, which is measured in picture elements (pixels).
Pixels are tiny dots of light that combine to form images on the screen. Typical
screens have 320 220 pixels, 640 480 pixels, or 1,024 768 pixels. The more
pixels a screen has, the greater its resolution. Both color and resolution are
important for determining the performance and quality of a computer monitor.
The IBM-compatible color/graphic monitors have evolved from the Color
Graphic Adapter (CGA) technology, which featured 4 colors and a resolution of
320 220, through the Enhanced Graphic Adapter (EGA) and the Video Graphics
Array (VGA) technologies. The current state-of-the-art for the personal computer
is the Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA); for these monitors, the number of
colors varies from 256 to 65,536, and the resolution varies from 800 600 to 1,600
1,200.
Monitors come in three main varieties: cathode-ray tubes (CRT), flat-screen
liquid-crystal displays (LCD), and gas-plasma displays. All of these are now
capable of either monochrome (black-and-white) or color displays. Desktop PCs
usually come with CRTs, although flat-screen LCDs are becoming more common.
Flat-screen LCDs are generally used in notebooks and laptops. The common
desktop CRT sizes range from 15 to 21 inches. Laptop LCDs sizes are commonly
14.1 to 15.1 inches. Gas-plasma displays are capable of larger displays with good
resolution and can be in excess of 42 inches.
PRINTERS. It was once thought that as computers became more common in
business and in the home, we would move toward a paperless society. That is, all
data would be circulated and used in electronic form, eliminating the need for
printed material. This vision has yet to be realized. In businesses, homes, and most
settings where computers are found, users still produce hard copy (information in
printed form). For most applications, soft copy (information in electronic form) is
not adequate.
To produce hard copy, a computer must be connected to a printer. This is
typically done through a parallel port, which enables the computer to communicate
with the printer one byte at a time. Microcomputers may have one or more parallel
ports.
When microcomputers first invaded the workplace, the most popular type of
printer was the dot-matrix printer, which can still be found in service today. These
inexpensive printers are appropriate for tasks that do not require high-quality
images. As its name implies, the dot-matrix printer produces a series of dots in a
matrix to form both characters and images. A print head containing 9, 18, or 24
tiny pins strikes an inked ribbon to create the dots that make up the image on
paper. The number of pins determines the quality of the output; the greater the
number, the smoother the output.
In the 1980s, business people who wanted better-quality output than a dotmatrix printer could provide began to use daisy-wheel printers. The printing
element of this type of printer is a round plastic disk that resembles a daisy, with
petals protruding from the center. The petals each contain a letter, number, or
other character. When printing, the daisy wheel rotates to bring the desired
character into position, and a hammer strikes the wheel, forcing the character to
press against an inked ribbon and mark the paper. Daisy-wheel printers do not
produce graphic images.
Thanks to its decreasing cost and very high image quality, the laser printer
has become the printer of choice for most microcomputer applications. The laser
printer can produce both characters of any size and high-quality graphic images. A
laser beam draws the desired image on the printers metal drum. The drum attracts
toner (powdered ink) where the light strikes it, and the image is transferred from
the drum to the paper using heat.
A fourth type of printer used with microcomputers is the ink-jet printer,
which produces letter-quality images by spraying droplets of ink onto the surface
of the paper. It has many of the advantages of the laser printer, including highquality output and the ability to produce both characters and graphic images. In
addition, ink-jet printers are often less expensive than laser printers and can
produce color images of very good quality.
The resolution quality of both laser printers and ink-jet printers is measured
in the number of dots per inch (dpi) the printer is able to produce when generating
characters: the higher the dpi, the greater the resolution of the characters. The
average PC printer today provides 300 to 600 dpi. High-quality laser printers go up
to 1200 dpi, while high-quality ink-jet printers range up to 1440 dpi.
Chain printers are often used with mainframe computers. Chain printers are
extremely fast, producing up to 3,000 lines per minute. A chain with characters on
it revolves in front of the paper; when the desired character passes by, the hammer
in that position presses the paper and inked ribbon against the chain.
OTHER OUTPUT DEVICES. Plotters are used in some settings to produce

architectural drawings, bar charts, and high-quality graphic images. They often use
paper that is larger than most printers can handle. There are three types of plotters.
Pen plotters use colored pens positioned so that a mechanical arm can access them.
The mechanical arm draws the graphic image with one colored pen, then selects
another, repeating the process until the image is complete. Pen plotters are widely
used and produce very high quality images. Electrostatic plotters use electrostatic
charges to create images on specially treated paper. This paper must then be
developed like a photograph to produce high-resolution images. Direct-image
plotters, also called thermal plotters, create images on heat sensitive paper. This
process is limited to two-color output.
Speakers and headsets are the two most common devices used for audio
output. A voice output device produces voice commands by imitating phonic
sounds. These prerecorded phonic sounds produce synthetic-sounding words.
Some telephone companies use voice output to automate directory assistance, and
some automobiles contain voice output devices that remind drivers to fasten their
seat belts.
Projectors are used to display graphics, text, video output from a computer.
In the case of projectors, the output is displayed onto a screen for an audience to
view instead of into a monitor for a single user's viewing. Like monitors,
projectors are attached to the computer through a parallel port. Projector
technology varies widely, but the two most common types are LCDs projectors and
digital light processing (DLP) projectors.
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
It is sometimes helpful to link two or more computers together so that they
can communicate with one another directly without a human intermediary. To
accomplish this task, a computer draws on its communication system.
Communications is, thus, the third main function of which computers are capable,
the other two being data storage and data processing.
In order for two or more computers to communicate, specialized hardware is
required. First, the multiple computers must be connected together through
transmission media over which the data are transmitted. Second, there must be
communication processors that put the data in a form that can be transmitted
through the transmission media and convert the received signals into a form the
computers can use. (Networks are a distinct and highly important aspect of
computer communications but will not be covered in this appendix. Chapter 12
gives an overview of networks.)
Transmission media can either be physical or wireless. The three most
common types of physical transmission media are discussed next.

Twisted-pair cable is the type of wiring used in telephone systems, and
transmits data as electric signals. This is the least expensive media but is the
most prone to interference that can distort the signal.
Coaxial cable, the type used in cable TV systems, is less likely to distort the
signal being transmitted, but is more expensive. Data is transmitted in
electric form.
Fiber optic cable transmits a signal in the form of light. Fiber optic
technology is much faster, can transmit data at higher rates, and is less prone
to interference. However, it is not widely available and is more expensive.
The two most common types of wireless media are radio signals and
microwave signals. These signals differ in the frequency ranges they cover
(referred to as bandwidth), with microwaves going above 1 GHz and radio signals
covering below 1 GHz. Both types of signals are limited to being line-of-sight
(LOS). Because of the curvature of the earth, this limits signal transmission to a
range of approximately 30 miles. To overcome the LOS problem, repeaters are
used to retransmit a signal. Repeaters can either be towers or satellites.
The transmission media have a wide range of transmission speeds (or
transfer rates). Table 2 provides the upper end speeds of the media discussed
above. These high-end transfer rates may not be achievable in practice because of
the particular technologies in use for transmitting, receiving, and processing
signals.
Table 2: Transfer Rates of Selected Transmission Media
Transmission Medium
Twisted-pair
Upper-end of Transfer Rate
telephone 128 Mbps
lines
Coaxial cable TV lines
200 Mbps
Fiber optics lines
2 Gbps
Radio waves
2 Mbps
Microwave
45 Mbps
Mbps (megabits per second) refers to a transfer rate of millions of bits per
second and Gbps (gigabits per second) refers to a transfer rate of billions
of bits per second.
Communications processors for PCs are generally referred to as modems
(from the term modulator-demodulator). Most communication systems operate by
having the sending computers modem convert (or modulate) the computers
digital information into analog format (continuous wave), which is then sent over
the transmission medium. The receiving computers modem changes the analog
signal back into digital form (demodulation). Some more current modems do not
translate the digital information into analog form. Keeping the information digital
throughout the entire communications process can vastly increase the transmission
speed. For example, telephone modems use twisted-pair telephone lines and
operate by digital-to-analog modulation. They typically have a maximum
transmission speed of 56 Kbps (kilobits per second; i.e., thousands of bits per
second). Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modems, which still use ordinary
telephone line, remain digital throughout the communications cycle and have a
typical transmission speed of 512 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps. On the other hand, cable
modems, using TV coaxial cable as the transmission medium and advanced digitalto-analog technology, achieve typical transmission speed of 2.5 Mbps.
Modems can be either internal (built-in) or connected externally. An internal
modem can be installed on an expansion card in the computer. An external modem
is connected to the computer either through a serial port, or a communication port,
through which the computer communicates with the modem one bit at a time.
SOFTWARE
A computer system needs more than the hardware described above in order
to function. The hardware by itself, even when powered-up, is incapable of
producing useful output. It must be instructed how to direct its operations in order
to transform input into output of value to the user. This is the role of software; i.e.,
to provide the detailed instructions that control the operation of a computer system.
Just as hardware comprises the tangible side of the computer, so software is the
intangible side of the computer. If the CPU is the physical brain of the computer,
then software is its mind.
Software instructions are programmed in a computer language, translated
into machine language, and executed by the computer. Between the user and the
hardware (specifically, the memory), generally stand two layers of software:
system software and application software.
SYSTEM SOFTWARE
System software directly controls the computers hardware, whereas
application software is one level removed from hardware. System software
manages the computers resources, enables the various components of the
computer to communicate, runs application software, and makes the hardware
respond to the users needs. When the system software operates efficiently, the
difficult operations of controlling the hardware are transparent to the user. System
software includes four main types:
The operating system provides an interface between the computer hardware
and the user or the application software. Because of its central importance,
the operating system will be discussed in more detail below.
Language translators convert application programs and any other software

programs into the machine language (discussed below) that actually controls
the computer's operations.
Network and communications software operates the communications
hardware in a computer so that it can transmit and receive information from
other computers. Network and communications software requires two types
of software: software for the PC operating system and software for the
network operating system. In some cases, the latter comes built-in the
former.
Utility programs perform various specialized "housekeeping" tasks, such as
file management, virus protection, disk defragmentation, program
installation and uninstallation, file and disk back up, disk formatting, and
providing screen saver programs. This list is far from exhaustive. The user
directly controls most utility programs, although some utility programs can
be set to run automatically (e.g.; screen savers and anti-virus scanning).
Computers of all types require system software to coordinate their resources.
The system software for a single-user PC is not nearly as complex as the system
software for a multiuser mainframe computer. However, as the PCs system
capacity has increased, the sophistication of its system software also has increased.
Many of the features once found only in mainframe and minicomputer systems
have been incorporated into PCs.
OPERATING SYSTEMS.
The operating system has two primary
functions. First, it manages the computer's resourcesthe computer's hardware

and any external devices. For example, the operating system controls the CPU,
accesses RAM, executes programs, receives input from the keyboard or other input
device, retrieves and saves data to and from secondary storage devices, displays
data on the monitor, and controls the printer. Second, the operating system contains
instructions for running application software.
The operating system contains two types of instructions. System-resident
commands are active in primary memory at all times to coordinate input/output
requests and execute programs. This core of the operating system, critical to the
functioning of the computer, is called the kernel and is the first set of instructions
to be loaded (booted) from secondary storage in the hard disk on to primary
memory in RAM when the computer is first turned-on. Disk-resident commands
reside in secondary storage until a request is made to execute special-purpose
programs, at which type they are loaded into working memory.
To make microcomputer systems easy to use, the interface (link) between
the user and the hardware has become simpler and more intuitive. Particularly
important for the development of user-friendly computers is the graphical user

interface (GUI). The GUI allows the user to interact with the computer through
icons (graphic symbols) on the screen. These icons can represent a variety of
things, including computer disks, folders, documents, and software programs. The
user instructs the computer to perform particular tasks by pointing to and
manipulating the appropriate icons with a mouse. Operating systems not GUIcapable, e.g., UNIX, require the user to input commands by typing in words or
pressing specially defined keys. This set-up is called a command-line interface.
The computers operating system defines the family of additional software
primarily applicationsthat the computer can use. For this reason the operating
system software is frequently called the software platform. Most application
software is written for one particular operating system. For example, the user of an
IBM-compatible PC with a DOS operating system must select programs from the
available software written for that operating system. The user of an IBMcompatible PC with an OS/2 operating system must select from a different set of
software. (DOS and OS/2 will be discussed below.) Some applications, however,
are capable of running on multiple operating systems and are referred to as crossplatform applications.
Application programs can be very large. They might take up many millions
of bytes on a secondary storage device. For this reason, the operating system does
not load all of a large application program into RAM at one time. Instead, it loads
only a portion of the application program; when the program requires other code, it
accesses that code from secondary storage. The operating systems ability to divide
the computer program into variable-length portions and to store only a small
portion at a time in primary memory (RAM) is called virtual storage. Some
operating systems also have virtual memory, which enables a small portion of the
hard disk to function as additional RAM by storing the portions of the program not
being used in the RAM on the hard disk but in such a fashion that they can be very
quickly accessed (a process called paging).
In addition to managing memory and application programs, operating
systems also perform functions relating to the peripheral devices connected to the
computer. For example, the operating system handles the requests for print jobs
sent to the printer. When more print requests are sent to the printer than can be
handled at once, the operating system assigns them an order and places them in a
buffer, an area of memory, awaiting printing. This process is called spooling.
Another important function of the operating system is that of configuring the
external devices. Each device must communicate to the computer, a process
requiring a device to have its own program, referred to as the device driver. The
operating system coordinates the installation of this software and ensures its proper
functioning. These procedures are often done manually but in some cases the
process is automatically perform by the operating system (called Plug and Play).
Operating systems that allow only one user to run one program at a time are
called single user or single tasking operating systems. Most current operating
systems and computers have moved beyond this stage to multitasking. In
multitasking, the operating system allows more than one task or program to be
executed at a time in a single-user computer. Operating systems that address more
memory can run several tasks simultaneously. A computers multitasking
capability is also limited by the amount of RAM it contains.
With the advent of networks, much focus has been placed on the multiuser
capabilities of operating systems, although the multiuser environment has long
been present in supercomputers, mainframes and minicomputers. With a
mainframe, for example, a thousand or more users may need to access the
computer simultaneously. In all of these architectures, the operating system must
coordinate system requests from many users. The operating system manages these
requests by allocating to each user a portion of primary memory where the
programs reside and executing the programs when an input is received or an output
is requested. Because the processors in supercomputers, mainframes and
minicomputers are extremely fast compared to the speed of input and output, the
operating system can handle many programs in RAM simultaneously. The
processor handles a portion of each program in series, coordinated by the operating
system. This is called multiprogramming.
Another feature of the operating systems in supercomputers, mainframes and
minicomputers, called timesharing, assigns to each user a fraction of the
processors time. An efficient operating system controls the multiuser environment
in such a way that the user feels as though he or she is the only person using the
computer.
Computers, especially mainframe and minicomputer systems, can also
employ multiprocessing. In this process, the operating system uses more than one
processor or CPU to execute the commands of a single program. The operating
system sends instructions to several processors in parallel, which results in the
faster processing of instructions.
There are numerous operating systems. Several of the most popular are
discussed below:
DOS (Disk Operating System) is for single-user IBM-compatible computers.
Microsoft Corporation sells this product under the name MS-DOS
(Microsoft Disk Operating System) and licenses another version, called PC-
DOS, to IBM for use in its personal computers. DOS was written for the
microcomputer technology of the early 1980s. An enormous number of
microcomputers still run under DOS. Even though there have been
numerous improvements to the software since its introduction, limitations
still exist. It is not GUI-capable. Nor can it take full advantage of today's 32bit processors (e.g., Intel's Pentium
series). That is, application programs
running on DOS computers have direct access to only 640,000 bytes of

primary memory.
Macintosh Operating Systems (Mac OS) was introduced in the 1984 and was
the first commercial GUI platform. The latest version supports multitasking,
includes multiple Web browsers, and has built-in networking capability. It
also is able to open, edit, and save files created in DOS and Windows
platforms.
Microsoft Windows 95 and 98 are GUI-capable, multitasking operating
systems. Unlike the earlier Windows 3.x series, Windows 95 and 98 are true
operating systems, and do not require DOS to run. Windows 95 and 98 have
broken the 640,000-byte barrier, providing direct access to millions of bytes
of memory. These operating systems take advantage of todays more
powerful microprocessor chips, such as the Intel Pentium , which address
more memory and run faster than the older microprocessors. Windows 98 is
an upgraded version of Windows 95. Windows 98 is user-friendlier than
Windows 95 and has more Internet features; e.g., Windows 98 includes
Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Microsoft Windows NT is designed for client-server networks (discussed in
chapter 12). It provides the user with the other features of Windows 98.
Linux is an interesting operating system because it is not proprietary
software. Its code has been made publicly available (called open-source
software). This allows users to customize the software to meet their personal
needs and to share improvements made with others. Applications that run on
Linux are commercially available; for example, from Red Hat Software and
Corel Corporation.
UNIX was developed by Bell Laboratories in the 1970's, and is one of the
few small-scale operating systems that is both multiuser and multiprocessing
capable. This allows computers running on UNIX to process a high volume
of inputs from multiple users by using multiple CPUs simultaneously.
APPLICATION SOFTWARE
Application software enables the user to direct the computers processing
system in the tasks of manipulating and transforming input data into useful output
information. Furthermore, it allows the user to alter the information generated by
the processing system; e.g., how the information is presented. This is the type of
software with which most users interact. It is the usual interface between user and
computer. Rarely do users directly manipulate systems software, especially the
operating systems software.
Application software can be written for a specific users application (custom
software), or it can be mass-produced for general use (commercial or packaged
software). Naturally, custom software is usually far more expensive than
commercial software. An accounting package written for a specific company might
cost many thousands of dollars, whereas a commercial accounting package might
cost only a few hundred dollars at a retail store. The advantage of custom software
is that it is tailored to the users specific needs and can be seamlessly integrated
into the users existing software. Not only is commercial software less costly, it is
also available immediately, and the package can be evaluated before being
purchased.
Application software comes in an incredible variety. It is available for
business, personal, educational, communication, and graphic design purposesto
name the more usual categories. There is almost certainly a software package
somewhere available to suit any need. If not, there are programmers ready to be
hired to build it. For our purposes, we will limit our discussion to the four types of
application software most likely to be useful to accounting and business students:
word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation graphics. These four
applications are frequently sold together in a single software package. Three of the
most popular packages are Corel WordPerfect Suite, Microsoft Office 2000, and
Lotus SmartSuite. In addition to the four "standard" applications, these packages
usually include email, Internet, video processing, and desktop publishing
applications.
Word processing programs allow the user to quickly and easily create and
revise texts on the computer screen. By using word processing applications, the
user can format documents with ease, changing font size, margins, color, etc.
Different types of documentse.g., letters, memos, and reportsare often
preformatted in the application. PC-based word processing software is so capable
and inexpensive that, in most businesses, it has become the usual tool for creating
documents, even when more powerful mainframes and minicomputers are
available.
Spreadsheet programs are especially useful in business and accounting. The
electronic spreadsheet consists of rows and columns of data, which the user can
easily edit, copy, move, or print. Using numeric data entered in the spreadsheet, the
computer can perform numerous mathematical calculations automatically, many of
impressive sophistication (e.g., statistical, logical, and engineering functions). One
of the spreadsheet programs most powerful features for business purposes is that it
enables the user to do what-if analyses on existing data and to input different
data for various scenarios. Non-numeric data (e.g., names and dates) may also be
entered in a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets can perform some non-mathematical
operations (e.g., sorting and filtering) on this data, although this type of analysis is
not a spreadsheet's strength.
Database software allows the user to enter, store, maintain, retrieve, and
manipulate data. In some ways, databases pickup where spreadsheets leave off,
although a fairer assessment is probably that the relationship between the two types
of software is reciprocal. Database software is certainly more efficient and
effective at handling non-numeric data than is spreadsheet software. Conversely,
numeric data is usually easier to manipulate in a spreadsheet. In most databases,
data is entered to tables of rows and columns, similar to spreadsheets. Unlike
spreadsheets, these tables can be connected into relationships that allow users
incredible versatility in what they can do with that data. For example, databoth
numeric and non-numericfrom several individual tables may be retrieved and
used together in calculations, with the results presented in a business-style report.

Presentation graphics software enable users to design professional-quality
presentations for business and educational purposes. The presentations usually
consist of formatted slides for projecting onto a screen from a computer projector
or overhead projector, or for display on a large monitor. These presentations may
also be used for online meetings and Web broadcasts. The slides can be designed
to include backgrounds, graphic images, charts, clipart, shading, animation, and
audio effectsand, of course, text, which can sometimes get lost in all of the
embellishments.
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE TRANSLATORS
Computer programmers use artificial languages, known as programming
languages, to write the instructions that tell computers what to do. Programming
languages have evolved over time to become more like the natural languages that
human beings speak. This section traces the evolution from machine language to
fifth-generation language.
MACHINE LANGUAGE. Programs for the first computers were written in
strings of binary digits ("bits," consisting of 0s and 1s). Thus, this first
programming language is often referred to as the first-generation language (or
1GL). It is also called the machine language because computerspast and

presentrequire this type of instruction in order to perform their operations as
machines. Instructions (and data) are represented ultimately as bits because these
strings of 0s and 1s correspond to the actual binary on-off flow of electrical current
through the computer's circuitry. Because machine language is so far removed
from natural language, it has a number of inherent problems as a programming
language. It is time-consuming and tedious for humans to work in machine
language, and errors in machine-language programs are difficult to find.
ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE. Assembly language (also referred to as the
second-generation language or 2GL) was the next step in the evolution of
programming languages. In assembly language, commands are written with
mnemonic codes rather than numerical codes. These commands are translated from
the source language (the programmers code) into an object module (machine
language). The translation process can be done in two ways. Either an interpreter
converts the program line by line as it is being run, or a compiler converts the
entire program at one time before it is run. Interpreters are often used with
beginning programmers who are learning a language for the first time. Compilers
are used in professional settings where speed and security are important.
Interpreters and compilers are operating system programs that fall under the
general category of language translators. Each programming language requires a

specific language translator to convert it to machine language.
Assembly languages are specific to a particular processor and give the
programmer control over the lower-level operations of the computer. Compared to
third-generation languages, discussed next, assembly language requires more detail
in programming.
THIRD-GENERATION LANGUAGES. The evolution of programming
languages toward user-friendliness continued with the development of thirdgeneration languages (3GL). Third-generation languages, such as FORTRAN,
COBOL, Pascal, Java, PL/1, and C, are procedural languages. Program instructions
are executed in a precise sequence to accomplish a task. These languages use
recognizable statements like PRINT, INPUT, SORT, and IF, which must be
compiled into detailed machine language instructions. The linkage editor inserts
pre-written routines called library programs after compilation to produce an
executable program called the load module.
Some of the most common third-generation programming languages are
described next.
BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was designed as
a programming language for novices. The language uses an interpreter that
evaluates each line for syntax errors, which helps beginning programmers. The
language became very popular for microcomputer use in the late 1970s and early
1980s.
FORTRAN (Formula Translation) was developed in 1956 to provide
scientists, engineers, and mathematicians a programming language that is rich in
scientific and mathematical operations.
COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) was designed for such
business applications as inputting records from a data file and manipulating,
storing, and printing them. A tremendous number of programs have been written in
COBOL since its inception in the early 1960s. COBOL still maintains a significant
presence. Each business day, billions of lines of COBOL code are executed.
IBM developed PL/1 (Programming Language 1) in 1964. This language
combines the mathematical features found in FORTRAN with the recordprocessing features found in COBOL.
Pascal was written to take advantage of the programming technique called
structured programming, in which programs are divided into modules that are
controlled by a main module. The language was very popular in the 1980s for
teaching structured programming and advanced programming techniques in
computer science courses.
In the 1970s, AT&T Bell Labs developed a programming language called C

that could be run on various types of computers. Source code written for a
microcomputer could thus easily be converted into source code for a mainframe.
Java was developed in the mid 1990s by Sun Microsystems. It is based on a
new programming technique called object-oriented programming. Object-oriented
programming allows the programmer to define not only the characteristics of data
but also the data's associated procedures. This type of programming is especially
beneficial in a networked environment because it allows computers to quickly
transmit computations to each other, not just data requiring subsequent
computation.
FOURTH-GENERATION LANGUAGES. The development of applications
written in third-generation languages takes a considerable amount of time, often
several months to several years. Increasingly users need software that allows them
to develop simple applications quickly. Fourth-generation languages (4GL) were
developed to meet this need. They are declarative, not procedural, languages. With
the earlier generations of procedural languages, the user/programmer had to
delineate the step-by-step procedures for the computer to follow to achieve a
certain result. With fourth-generation language, however, the user simply tells the
computer what end result is desired and the computer to decides the steps needed
to achieve that goal. Also, fourth generation languages have been designed to be
easy to learn and use. In addition, they relieve professional programmers from
increasing demands to develop new programs and maintain existing ones.
Fourth-generation languages are found in a variety of applications, including
statistical packages, data base management systems, and graphical packages.
Statistical packages perform a full range of statistical analyses and enable the user
to produce reports of the results. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
and Statistical Analysis System (SAS) are examples of powerful statistical
packages that are available on mainframe computers, minicomputers, and
microcomputers.
Data base management systems usually contain a 4GL query language that
allows the user to retrieve data from and store data to the database. Relational data
base management systems have been standardized on a query language called
Structured Query Language (SQL). By using either a menu-driven interface or
simple commands, the end user can develop advanced queries to the database
without a programmers assistance.
FIFTH-GENERATION LANGUAGES. Fifth-generation languages (5GL)
are attempting to make the task of programming even user-friendlier than did the
4GLs. This is achieved by removing most of the verbal aspects from programming.
Instead, 5GLs use a visual or graphical environment that allows the user to design
the program with minimal use of programming words. For example, visual
programming allows the user to drag icons together in a windows environment in
order to assemble a program component. The 5GL development interface then
automatically creates the source language that is typically compiled with a 3GL or
4GL language compiler. Enabling users to design something as complex as a
computer program by means of graphical symbols is a difficult undertaking. Not
all attempts at developing a workable 5GL have been successful. Currently,
however, Microsoft, Borland and IBM make 5GL visual programming products for
developing Java applications that appear successful. The amazing evolution of
computer languages from strings of 0s and 1s to graphical icons says a lot about
the ability of computers to inspire us with creativity and genius.
1997. Google.com is registered as a domain on September 15. The namea play

on the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number represented by the
numeral 1 followed by 100 zerosreflects Larry and Sergey's mission to organize
a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.
Google
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the company. For the search engine, see Google Search. For
other uses, see Google (disambiguation).
"Google Inc." redirects here. For the parent company, see Alphabet Inc.
Not to be confused with Goggle or Googol.
Google Inc.
Googleplex corporate headquarters in 2014

Subsidiary
Type
Internet
Industry
Computer software
Founded
Founders
Headquarters
Coordinates
September 4, 1998; 17 years

ago
Menlo Park, California[1][2]
Larry Page
Sergey Brin
Googleplex, Mountain View,
California, U.S.[3]
37.422N
122.084058WCoordinates:
37.422N
122.084058W
Area served Worldwide
Key people Sundar Pichai (CEO)
Products
List of Google products
Number of
57,100 (Q2 2015)[4]
employees
Independent (19982015)
Parent
Alphabet Inc. (2015present)
Subsidiaries List of subsidiaries
Slogan
Don't be evil[5]
Website
www.google.com
Footnotes / references
[6]
Google is an American multinational technology company specializing in Internetrelated services and products. These include online advertising technologies,
search, cloud computing, and software.[7] Most of its profits are derived from
AdWords,[8][9] an online advertising service that places advertising near the list of
search results.
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D.
students at Stanford University. Together, they own about 14 percent of its shares
and control 56 percent of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock.
They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An
initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. Its mission statement from the
outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible
and useful,"[10] and its unofficial slogan was "Don't be evil".[11][12] In 2004, Google
moved to its new headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the
Googleplex.[13] In August 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its interests
as a holding company called Alphabet Inc. When this restructuring took place on
October 2, 2015, Google became Alphabet's leading subsidiary, as well as the
parent for Google's Internet interests. [14][15][16][17][18]
Rapid growth since incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions
and partnerships beyond Google's core search engine (Google Search). It offers
online productivity software (Google Docs) including email (Gmail), a cloud
storage service (Google Drive) and a social networking service (Google+).
Desktop products include applications for web browsing (Google Chrome),
organizing and editing photos (Google Photos), and instant messaging and video
chat (Hangouts). The company leads the development of the Android mobile
operating system and the browser-only Chrome OS [19] for a class of netbooks
known as Chromebooks and desktop PCs known as Chromeboxes. Google has
moved increasingly into communications hardware, partnering with major
electronics manufacturers [20] in the production of its "high-quality low-cost"[21]
Nexus devices.[22] In 2012, a fiber-optic infrastructure was installed in Kansas City
to facilitate a Google Fiber broadband service. [23]
The corporation has been estimated to run more than one million servers in data
centers around the world (as of 2007). [24] It processes over one billion search
requests [25] and about 24 petabytes of user-generated data each day (as of
2009).[26][27][28][29] In December 2013, Alexa listed google.com as the most visited
website in the world. Numerous Google sites in other languages figure in the top
one hundred, as do several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube and
Blogger.[30] Its market dominance has led to prominent media coverage, including
criticism of the company over issues such as aggressive tax avoidance,[31] search
neutrality, copyright, censorship, and privacy.[32][33]
History
Google's original homepage had a simple design because the company founders
were not experienced in HTML, the markup language used for designing web
pages.[34]
Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin
when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in Stanford,
California.[35]
While conventional search engines ranked results by counting how many times the
search terms appeared on the page, the two theorized about a better system that
analyzed the relationships between websites. [36] They called this new technology
PageRank; it determined a website's relevance by the number of pages, and the
importance of those pages, that linked back to the original site. [37][38]
Page and Brin originally nicknamed their new search engine "BackRub", because
the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site.[39][40][41]
Eventually, they changed the name to Google, originating from a misspelling of
the word "googol",[42][43] the number one followed by one hundred zeros, which
was picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large
quantities of information. [44] Originally, Google ran under Stanford University's
website, with the domains google.stanford.edu and z.stanford.edu.[45][46]
The domain name for Google was registered on September 15, 1997, [47] and the
company was incorporated on September 4, 1998. It was based in the garage of a
friend (Susan Wojcicki[35]) in Menlo Park, California. Craig Silverstein, a fellow
PhD student at Stanford, was hired as the first employee. [35][48][49]
In May 2011, the number of monthly unique visitors to Google surpassed one
billion for the first time, an 8.4 percent increase from May 2010 (931 million).[50]
In January 2013, Google announced it had earned US$50 billion in annual revenue
for the year of 2012. This marked the first time the company had reached this feat,
topping their 2011 total of $38 billion.[51]
The company has reported fourth quarter (Dec 2014) Earnings Per Share (EPS) of
$6.88 $0.20 under projections. Revenue came in at $14.5 billion (16.9% growth
year over year), also under expectations by $110 million.[52]
Financing, 1998 and initial public offering, 2004
Google's first production server. Google's production servers continue to be built
with inexpensive hardware. [53]
The first funding for Google was an August 1998 contribution of $100,000 from
Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, given before Google was
incorporated.[54] Early in 1999, while graduate students, Brin and Page decided that
the search engine they had developed was taking up too much time and distracting
their academic pursuits. They went to Excite CEO George Bell and offered to sell
it to him for $1 million. He rejected the offer and later criticized Vinod Khosla, one
of Excite's venture capitalists, after he negotiated Brin and Page down to $750,000.
On June 7, 1999, a $25 million round of funding was announced, [55] with major
investors including the venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and
Sequoia Capital.[54]
Google's initial public offering (IPO) took place five years later on August 19,
2004. At that time Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt agreed to work
together at Google for 20 years, until the year 2024.[56] The company offered
19,605,052 shares at a price of $85 per share. [57][58] Shares were sold in an online
auction format using a system built by Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse,
underwriters for the deal. [59][60] The sale of $1.67 bn (billion) gave Google a market
capitalization of more than $23bn.[61] By January 2014, its market capitalization
had grown to $397bn.[62] The vast majority of the 271 million shares remained
under the control of Google, and many Google employees became instant paper
millionaires. Yahoo!, a competitor of Google, also benefited because it owned
8.4 million shares of Google before the IPO took place. [63]
There were concerns that Google's IPO would lead to changes in company culture.
Reasons ranged from shareholder pressure for employee benefit reductions to the
fact that many company executives would become instant paper millionaires.[64] As
a reply to this concern, co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page promised in a
report to potential investors that the IPO would not change the company's
culture.[65] In 2005, articles in The New York Times and other sources began
suggesting that Google had lost its anti-corporate, no evil
philosophy.[66][67][68][69][excessive citation] In an effort to maintain the company's unique
culture, Google designated a Chief Culture Officer, who also serves as the Director
of Human Resources. The purpose of the Chief Culture Officer is to develop and
maintain the culture and work on ways to keep true to the core values that the
company was founded on: a flat organization with a collaborative environment. [70]
Google has also faced allegations of sexism and ageism from former
employees.[71][72] In 2013, a class action against several Silicon Valley companies,
including Google, was filed for alleged "no cold call" agreements which restrained
the recruitment of high-tech employees.[73]
The stock performed well after the IPO, with shares hitting $350 for the first time
on October 31, 2007,[74] primarily because of strong sales and earnings in the
online advertising market.[75] The surge in stock price was fueled mainly by
individual investors, as opposed to large institutional investors and mutual
funds.[75] GOOG shares split into GOOG Class C shares and GOOGL class A
shares.[76] The company is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker
symbols GOOGL and GOOG, and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the
ticker symbol GGQ1. These ticker symbols now refer to Alphabet Inc., Google's
holding company, since the fourth quarter of 2015. [77]
Growth
In March 1999, the company moved its offices to Palo Alto, California, which is
home to several prominent Silicon Valley technology start-ups.[78] The next year,
against Page and Brin's initial opposition toward an advertising-funded search
engine,[79] Google began selling advertisements associated with search
keywords.[35] In order to maintain an uncluttered page design and increase speed,
advertisements were solely text-based. Keywords were sold based on a
combination of price bids and click-throughs, with bidding starting at five cents per
click.[35]
This model of selling keyword advertising was first pioneered by Goto.com, an
Idealab spin-off created by Bill Gross.[80][81] When the company changed names to
Overture Services, it sued Google over alleged infringements of the company's
pay-per-click and bidding patents. Overture Services would later be bought by
Yahoo! and renamed Yahoo! Search Marketing. The case was then settled out of
court; Google agreed to issue shares of common stock to Yahoo! in exchange for a
perpetual license.[82]
In 2001, Google received a patent for its PageRank mechanism. [83] The patent was
officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.
In 2003, after outgrowing two other locations, the company leased an office
complex from Silicon Graphics at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View,
California.[84] The complex became known as the Googleplex, a play on the word
googolplex, the number one followed by a googol zeroes. The Googleplex interiors
were designed by Clive Wilkinson Architects. Three years later, Google bought the
property from SGI for $319 million.[85] By that time, the name "Google" had found
its way into everyday language, causing the verb "google" to be added to the
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary,
denoted as "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the
Internet".[86][87]
The immense popularity of the search engine has led its fans calling themselves
'Googlists' as they follow 'Googlism', the new religion. [88] Devotees of Google have
found a non-profit online organization The Church of Google, a website where
they worship the search engine giant. [89] The New York Times had discussed the
topic "Is Google God?" under its 'opinion' category. [90] On the Internet, there are
many blogs that even mention the reasons why Google is God.[91]
Screenshot of the Google homepage in 2015
2013 onward
Google announced the launch of a new company called Calico on September 19,
2013, which will be led by Apple chairman Arthur Levinson. In the official public
statement, Page explained that the "health and well-being" company will focus on
"the challenge of ageing and associated diseases". [92]
As of September 2013, Google operates 70 offices in more than 40 countries. [93]
Google celebrated its 15-year anniversary on September 27, 2013, although it has
used other dates for its official birthday. [94] The reason for the choice of September
27 remains unclear, and a dispute with rival search engine Yahoo! Search in 2005
has been suggested as the cause. [95][96]
The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) was launched in October 2013 and
Google is part of the coalition of public and private organisations that also includes
Facebook, Intel and Microsoft. Led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the A4AI seeks to
make Internet access more affordable so that access is broadened in the developing
world, where only 31% of people are online. Google will help to decrease Internet
access prices so that they fall below the UN Broadband Commission's worldwide
target of 5% of monthly income. [97]
The corporation's consolidated revenue for the third quarter of 2013 is reported in
mid-October 2013 as $14.89 billion, a 12 percent increase compared to the
previous quarter. Google's Internet business was responsible for $10.8 billion of
this total, with an increase in the number of users' clicks on advertisements. [98]
In November 2013, Google announced plans for a new 1-million-sq-ft (93,000 sq
m) office in London, which is due to open in 2016. The new premises will be able
to accommodate 4,500 employees and has been identified as one of the biggest
ever commercial property acquisitions in Britain. [99]
In October 2014, according to the Interbrand ranking, Google was the second most
valuable brand in the world (behind Apple) with a valuation of $107.4 billion. [100]
A Millward Brown report from the same year puts the Google brand ahead of
Apple's at #1.[101]
Acquisitions and partnerships

See also: List of mergers and acquisitions by Google
Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 2003
Since 2001, Google has acquired many companies, primarily small venture capitalfunded firms. In 2004, Google acquired Keyhole, Inc.[102] The start-up company
developed a product called Earth Viewer that gave a three-dimensional view of the
Earth. Google renamed the service to Google Earth in 2005. Google acquired
Urchin Software in April 2005, using their 'Urchin on Demand' product (along
with ideas from Adaptive Path's 'Measure Map') to create Google Analytics in
2006.
In October 2006, Google announced that it had acquired the video-sharing site
YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on
November 13, 2006.[103] Google does not provide detailed figures for YouTube's
running costs, and YouTube's revenues in 2007 were noted as "not material" in a
regulatory filing.[104] In June 2008, a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008
YouTube revenue at $200 million, noting progress in advertising sales. [105]
On April 13, 2007, Google reached an agreement to acquire DoubleClick for
$3.1 billion, giving Google valuable relationships that DoubleClick had with Web
publishers and advertising agencies. [106] Later that same year, Google purchased
GrandCentral for $50 million.[107] The site would later be changed over to Google
Voice. On August 5, 2009, Google bought out its first public company, purchasing
video software maker On2 Technologies for $106.5 million.[108] Google also
acquired Aardvark, a social network search engine, for $50 million, and
commented on its internal blog, "we're looking forward to collaborating to see
where we can take it".[109] In April 2010, Google announced it had acquired a
hardware startup, Agnilux. [110]
In addition to the many companies Google has purchased, the company has
partnered with other organizations for research, advertising, and other activities. In
2005, Google partnered with NASA Ames Research Center to build 1,000,000
square feet (93,000 m2) of offices.[111] The offices would be used for research
projects involving large-scale data management, nanotechnology, distributed
computing, and the entrepreneurial space industry. Google entered into a
partnership with Sun Microsystems in October 2005 to help share and distribute
each other's technologies. [112]
The company also partnered with AOL[113] to enhance each other's video search
services. Google's 2005 partnerships also included financing the new .mobi toplevel domain for mobile devices, along with other companies including Microsoft,
Nokia, and Ericsson.[114] Google would later launch "AdSense for Mobile", taking
advantage of the emerging mobile advertising market. [115] Increasing its advertising
reach even further, Google and Fox Interactive Media of News Corporation
entered into a $900 million agreement to provide search and advertising on the
then-popular social networking site MySpace.[116]
In 2007, Google began sponsoring NORAD Tracks Santa, displacing former
sponsor AOL. NORAD Tracks Santa purports to follow Santa Claus' progress on
Christmas Eve,[117] using Google Earth to "track Santa" in 3-D for the first time.[118]
Google-owned YouTube gave NORAD Tracks Santa its own channel. [119]
In 2008, Google developed a partnership with GeoEye to launch a satellite
providing Google with high-resolution (0.41 m monochrome, 1.65 m color)
imagery for Google Earth. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force
Base on September 6, 2008.[120] Google also announced in 2008 that it was hosting
an archive of Life Magazine's photographs. Some images in the archive were never
published in the magazine. [121] The photos were watermarked and originally had
copyright notices posted on all photos, regardless of public domain status.[122]
In 2010, Google Energy made its first investment in a renewable energy project,
putting $38.8 million into two wind farms in North Dakota. The company
announced the two locations will generate 169.5 megawatts of power, enough to
supply 55,000 homes. The farms, which were developed by NextEra Energy
Resources, will reduce fossil fuel use in the region and return profits. NextEra
Energy Resources sold Google a twenty-percent stake in the project to get funding
for its development.[123] In February 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission FERC granted Google an authorization to buy and sell energy at
market rates.[124] The order specifically states that Google Energya subsidiary of
Googleholds the rights "for the sale of energy, capacity, and ancillary services at
market-based rates", but acknowledges that neither Google Energy nor its affiliates
"own or control any generation or transmission" facilities. [125] The corporation
exercised this authorization in September 2013 when it announced that it will
purchase all the electricity produced by the not-yet-built 240-megawatt Happy
Hereford wind farm.[126]
Also in 2010, Google purchased Global IP Solutions, a Norway-based company

that provides web-based teleconferencing and other related services. This
acquisition enabled Google to add telephone-style services to its list of
products.[127] On May 27, 2010, Google announced it had also closed the
acquisition of the mobile ad network AdMob. This occurred days after the Federal
Trade Commission closed its investigation into the purchase.[128] Google acquired
the company for an undisclosed amount. [129] In July 2010, Google signed an
agreement with an Iowa wind farm to buy 114 megawatts of energy for 20
years.[130]
On April 4, 2011, The Globe and Mail reported that Google bid $900 million for
six thousand Nortel Networks patents.[131]
On August 15, 2011, Google made its largest-ever acquisition to-date when it
announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion[132][133] subject
to approval from regulators in the United States and Europe. In a post on Google's
blog, Google Chief Executive and co-founder Larry Page revealed that the
acquisition was a strategic move to strengthen Google's patent portfolio. The
company's Android operating system has come under fire in an industry-wide
patent battle, as Apple and Microsoft have sued Android device makers such as
HTC, Samsung, and Motorola. [134] The merger was completed on May 22, 2012,
after the approval of People's Republic of China.[135]
This purchase was made in part to help Google gain Motorola's considerable patent
portfolio on mobile phones and wireless technologies to help protect it in its
ongoing patent disputes with other companies, [136] mainly Apple and Microsoft,[134]
and to allow it to continue to freely offer Android.[137] After the acquisition closed,
Google began to restructure the Motorola business to fit Google's strategy. On
August 13, 2012, Google announced plans to lay off 4000 Motorola Mobility
employees.[138] On December 10, 2012, Google sold the manufacturing operations
of Motorola Mobility to Flextronics for $75 million.[139] As a part of the agreement,
Flextronics will manufacture undisclosed Android and other mobile devices. [140]
On December 19, 2012, Google sold the Motorola Home business division of
Motorola Mobility to Arris Group for $2.35 billion in a cash-and-stock transaction.
As a part of this deal, Google acquired a 15.7% stake in Arris Group valued at
$300 million.[141]
On June 5, 2012, Google announced it acquired Quickoffice, a company widely

known for their mobile productivity suite for both iOS and Android. Google plans
to integrate Quickoffice's technology into its own product suite. [142]
On February 6, 2013, Google announced it had acquired Channel Intelligence for
$125 million. Channel Intelligence, a technology company that helps customers
buy products online, is active globally in 31 different countries and works with
over 850 retailers. Google will use this technology to enhance its e-commerce
business.[143]
The official confirmation of Google's acquisition of the Israel-based startup Waze
occurred in June 2013. Waze is promoted as a "community-based traffic and
navigation app".[144]
Following the acquisition of Waze, Google submitted a "10-Q" filing with the
Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) that revealed that the corporation spent
$1.3 billion on acquisitions during the first half of 2013. The filing also revealed
that the Waze acquisition cost Google $966 million, instead of the $1.1 billion
figure that was initially presented in media sources. [144][145][146]
The 2012 acquisition of WIMM Labs, a company that previously made an
Android-powered smartwatch, was confirmed in August 2013. As of August 31,
2013, Google has not publicly commented on the news concerning WIMM
Labs.[147] The acquisition of Flutter, a creator of hand gesture recognition
technology, was confirmed by the corporation in early October 2013. The reported
price is $40 million and Google spokesperson stated: "We're really impressed by
the Flutter team's ability to design new technology based on cutting-edge
research." Flutter's technology allows users to enact hand gestures to control
navigation for apps such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Winamp. [148]
On January 26, 2014, Google Inc. announced it had agreed to acquire DeepMind
Technologies, a privately held artificial intelligence company from London.
DeepMind describes itself as having the ability to combine the best techniques
from machine learning and systems neuroscience to build general-purpose learning
algorithms. DeepMind's first commercial applications were used in simulations, ecommerce and games. As of December 2013, it was reported that DeepMind had
roughly 75 employees.[149] The technology news website Re/code reported that the
company was purchased for $400 million though it was not disclosed where the
information came from. A Google spokesman would not comment of the
price.[150][151] The purchase of DeepMind aids in Google's recent growth in the

artificial intelligence and robotics community. [152]
On January 29, 2014, Google announced it was selling its Motorola Mobility unit
to China-based Lenovo, for $2.91bn. The company kept the extensive patent
collection used to develop Android products, considered the most valuable part of
the original deal.[153] Nonetheless, the sale price was significantly less than the
$12.5 billion Google had bought Motorola Mobility for. The $2.91bn price tag
consisted of $660 million in cash, $750 million in Lenovo ordinary shares, and a
$1.5 billion 3-year promissory note. [154]
In March 2014, Google confirmed it had purchased the remnants of gaming
startup, Green Throttle Games, which developed a Bluetooth gaming controller for
Android.[155]
In May 2014, Google announced it had purchased Quest Visual, maker of the
augmented reality translator app Word Lens. [156]
In June 2014, Google purchased satellite imaging firm Skybox Imaging for $500
million.[157]
In July 2014, Google purchased the online music service Songza.[158]
On September 10, 2015, Google announced to form strategic partnership with
Mobvoi to bring Android Wear to mainland China. [159]
In October 2015, Google invested in a China-based artificial intelligence (AI)
company, Mobvoi. The funding will enable the Company to further enhance its
core AI technologies, and develop new consumer products empowered by AI. [160]
Google data centers
As of 2014, Google Inc. owned and operated six Google Data Centers across the
U.S., one in Chile, one in Finland, one in Ireland, one in Belgium, one in
Singapore and one on Taiwan. [161] In 2011, the company had announced plans to
build three data centers at a cost of more than $200 million in Asia (Singapore,
Hong Kong and Taiwan) and said they would be operational within two
years.[162][163] In December 2013, Google announced that it had scrapped the plan to
build a data center in Hong Kong. [164]
In October 2013, The Washington Post reported that the U.S. National Security
Agency intercepted communications between Google's data centers, as part of a
program named MUSCULAR.[165][166] This wiretapping was made possible because
Google did not encrypt data passed inside its own network. [167] Google began
encrypting data sent between data centers in 2013. [168]
Googles most efficient data center runs at 95 F (35 C) using only fresh air
cooling, requiring no electrically powered air conditioning; the servers run so hot
that humans cannot go near them for extended periods.[169]
Alphabet
On August 10, 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its various interests as
a holding company, Alphabet Inc., with Google as its leading subsidiary. Google
will continue to be the umbrella company for Alphabet's Internet interests. Upon
completion of the restructure, Sundar Pichai became CEO of Google

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UNIT-2

Evaluating Internet Source

Because of the hodge-podge of information on the Internet, it is very important you

Is it clear who is responsible for the contents of the page?

Are the sources for factual information clearly listed so they

Objectivity Does the content appear to contain any evidence of bias?

If there is any advertising on the page, is it clearly

Are these topics successfully addressed, with clearly

Appearance Does the site look well organized?

institution, .com means a commercial enterprise, .gov means a government

background (e.g. PhD in Wildlife Ecology from the University of

In regards to the quality of an information source, it is important to note

WHY IMPORTANT? - If the content contains bias, only one point of

you found an article in the online newspaper-The Truth at Last-stating

File Transfer Protocol, is an Internet utility software used to uploaded and

shopping, financial services, entertainment, education or anything else. There are

autonomous network providers, the intranet is managed and maintained by the

The Internet is managed by the autonomous networks while extranet and

Physical Size Processing

Microcomput Fits in hand,

examples of computer hardware. (Software is discussed later.) Understanding the

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Devices. OCR devices convert

CD-RW (compact disc-rewritable). Video data (e.g., movies) can be stored on a

by Iomega is a popular example.

Superfloppy diskettes are magnetic-based high-capacity floppy diskettes.

disk, which can store up

disk, with a capacity of 200 MB, and the Imitation

SuperDisk , which can hold 120 MB.

Cache memory is very fast RAM. It is used to store frequently used

III and the AMD Athlon . In larger computers,

several chips are required.

III and the

microprocessors have clock speeds over 1000 MHz (or 1 GHz).

displaying images on the monitor and floating-point coprocessors for handling

A disk controller card connecting a disk drive

A fax/modem card connecting a telephone line

A memory card for adding memory

A PC-TV card for connecting to a television

A sound card connecting external speakers

A game card connecting a joystick

An interface card connecting peripherals such as mouse devices

A local area network card connecting other computers

Laptops and notebooks have a special type of expansion card called a PC

peripheral devices attached to the computer.

Industry Standard Architecture (ISA). This bus is the slowest and

Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP). This expansion bus is faster than

Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI). A high-speed expansion

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) uses a new approach to connecting

time a computer system requires to complete tasks.

OTHER OUTPUT DEVICES. Plotters are used in some settings to produce

common types of physical transmission media are discussed next.

Upper-end of Transfer Rate

telephone 128 Mbps

Fiber optics lines

Language translators convert application programs and any other software

The operating system has two primary

functions. First, it manages the computer's resourcesthe computer's hardware

important for the development of user-friendly computers is the graphical user

series). That is, application programs

running on DOS computers have direct access to only 640,000 bytes of

used together in calculations, with the results presented in a business-style report.

1GL). It is also called the machine language because computerspast and

general category of language translators. Each programming language requires a