Global Information
Technology
Session 1
Presented
by
Dr Allen Brown
Modern Computer Systems
Evolution of Computer Systems
• Developments taking place after WW2
• Mainframe computers in the 1970 - IBM
• This is how you programmed main frames.
• Each card was one line of code.
• The microprocessor was a huge advancement.
• The introduction of the IBM Personal Computer in
the 1980s
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• The big breakthrough was people writing
software for other people to use.
• This led to the emergence of the software market
which had hitherto not existed.
• We also saw the PET personal computer
• An integrated system with screen, tape drive and
keyboard.
• Also the IEEE 488 interface
• Enabled the connection of laboratory instruments
for data collection.
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Input, output and storage technologies
• Known as the teletype, the were two inputs, the
QWERTY keyboard and the paper tape feeder on
the left – consumed a lot of paper.
• The Digital VT100 replaced the teletype.
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• Faster and more efficient, data entry using the
numerical keypad on the right.
• Early printers were based on the matrix head
• This printer would come with the IBM100
mainframe.
• When it came to the PC, Epson produced a very
early dot matrix printer
• The paper had perforations on the left and right
margins with a tractor drive.
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• Traditionally memory was always expensive.
• The very early memory comprised magnetic cores
• Each magnetic core was one bit, either 0 or 1.
• Next innovation was magnetic tape.
• The Facom 603 Magnetic Tape-Unit
• When it came to personal computing the floppy
disk drive was paramount.
• Various formats became common place
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• Technology was changing rapidly and the 1.44
Mbyte disc lasted for many years.
• Hard drives became cheaper and higher density.
• The fundamental design remains the same today.
• Several platters with read/write heads which
transverse the surface of the platters.
• Today hard drives have capacities of multi-Tbyes.
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• Also the emergence of the Solid State Drive (SSD).
• Relatively low capacity but very fast – uses the
same technology as USB memory stick.
• Over the past 20 years technologies have come
and gone especially in the PC market.
o Desktop PCs - gone except for offices and
gaming.
o CD drives – gone, replaced by USB memory
sticks.
o Dot matrix printers – gone, replaced by colour
inject printers, laser printers and multi-
function printers.
o Printer and serial ports – gone, replaced by
USB which is now USB-3 (coloured blue).
o VGA port – gone, replaced by HDMI.
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o PC peripheral interface cards – gone, all
peripherals are now USB connected
• Thousands of these were manufactured to
tailor a PC for a specific task.
• Graphics cards – almost all gone, the
graphics processing is performed by the CPU
with ICs on the motherboard.
• Today the only cards made for a PC are
graphics gaming cards.
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• Here is an example, the 128bit GTX750TI
• You will observe two DVI connectors used to feed
one high resolution monitor (4K).
• Some graphics cards are water cooled.
• This is the Asus Ares II graphics card.
• Very high performance microprocessors
• High performance graphics processors
Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q
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• Today’s computer peripherals
Multi-function laser Epson Expression XP-750
printer with scanner A3 photo-printer with
scanner
Polycom Eagle Eye IV for Ergonomic Smart Card
video conferencing Reader keyboard
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Computer Monitors Dell Graphics drawing tablet
U2417H 24” 16:9
HP Designjet T830 Multifunction A0 Printer,
scanner and copier
• The A0 printer is particularly useful for copying
blue-prints for designs.
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Computer Assisted Control and Automation
Sensors and transducers
Acceleration Temperature Rotation
Fluid flow Length Pressure
Strain Weight Light
Actuators
Stepper motors Linear motors Solenoid valves
Relays
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• A typical control system will have components
similar to this basic core.
• Many sensors these days have URLs and a central
computer interrogates.
• Enter the domain of machine health monitoring.
• Wind turbines are becoming an important
component in renewable energy.
• Knowledge of the health of each turbine is
essential.
• Cannot afford one of these to fail – costly to
replace it – if showing ware – shut it off.
• Question: how do you communicate with these
if they are out at sea?
• As you can imagine huge amounts of data are
generated.
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Airbus A320 – fly by wire
• Fly by wire – the computer system runs the
plane.
Digitally Controlled Car engines
• In the old days the spark for the ignition for the
petrol vapour was produced by the distributor.
• As it rotated it would provide the spark to each
cylinder in turn.
• Today’s cars have an Engine Management System
(EMS) or Engine Control Unit
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• Numerous sensors are positioned all over the
vehicle and information is fed to the EMS
which responds accordingly to the needs of the
current conditions.
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• As you can see in this photo there are several
PCBs on which are found the electronics in a
modern car.
• Such a car is very much an information
processing system including integrated
SATNAV
• This is a SATNAV from a Jaguar XF – touch
sensitive screen: the storage of the map
information is found on a CD unit which is in
the boot of the vehicle.
• As an exercise, what additional electronics will
be found in future vehicles?
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Computer Controlled Biometric/RFID based Access
Control
Biometric
Relating to or involving the application of
statistical analysis to biological data
• Computers now have fast processing abilities and
are able to process large amounts of data very
quickly.
• Statistical calculations can be performed very
quickly.
• People have biometric identifiers: fingerprints,
palm veins, face recognition, DNA, palm print, iris,
retina and voice recognition.
• Performing these measurements is
computationally intensive.
• Radio frequency identification (RFID) uses
electromagnetic fields to identify and track tags
attached to objects and people.
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• Active tags have their own battery and transmits its
ID signal.
• A passive tag can also have its own battery but is
only activated when close to a RFID reader.
• A RFID tag will have its own micro-electronics to
process information.
• Also receive and transmit data on modulated RF
signals.
• Very useful to implement restricted access to
authorised people only. Also to track where they
are within a building.
• Active RFID:
o Primary frequency 433MHz
o Range 30 – 100 metres
o Used for: vehicle tracking, asset tracking
• Passive RFID:
o Primary frequency 860 – 960 MHz
o Range up to 25 metres
o Used for: Supply chain tracking, electronic
tolling.
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Contemporary hardware and software platforms
• The laptop and mobile are the choice of most
people for accessing information.
Microsoft Surface Go 10”
touch screen, 8 GB
memory and 128 GB
storage
• No hard drive as it depends on the Microsoft Cloud for
data storage.
• Emphasis on visual impact – the screen and the speed of
refresh: resolution 1800 x 1200 full HD.
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, 10 hours usage on a charge.
• Has all the features of a tablet PC – touch sensitive
screen.
• Tablet PCs have become very popular, very similar to
the Microsoft Surface without the keyboard.
• One universal software app is Microsoft Office 365
which has the following components.
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o Outlook: emails
o Word: word processor
o Excel: spreadsheet
o PowerPoint: presentation slides
o Access: Database engine
o OneDrive: Cloud memory, this is why today’s
laptops have SSD memory – quick access time, but
small 128 GB.
• Requires a monthly payment to use these apps.
• Adobe make a huge range of apps for the creative
industries. Far too many to mention.
• Notable exceptions:
o Acrobat: for making PDFs (like this one)
o PhotoShop: for editing photos
o InDesign: for books and magazines
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o Premiere Pro: for video editing
• Each profession has its own apps specifically
designed for that profession.
• Computer science has a huge number of software
development languages, notable: C++, Python, Java,
HTML, MATLAB.
• FORTRAN 2018: mainframe and supercomputer
programming, large scale modelling – calculations
using matrices.
Example Application: Graphics Design
Computer: Microsoft
Surface Studio
Stylus and graphics
tablet: Xp-pen Star03
V2 12 inch
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Camera: Nikon D600
with appropriate lens.
Fast SD-card. USB
interface
Storage: you pay for
the amount of
memory you need.
Monitor calibrator: X-
Rite i1 Display PRO,
getting colours the
same.
Software: Adobe
Creative Cloud, 20+
desktop apps, you
choose what you want
for the task in hand.
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• Typical application: childrens’ book illustrator,
always a big demand
for childrens’ books.
• Most childrens’ books
are thin !
• You may think you
cannot draw, you can
learn how to draw.
Several on-line drawing
courses (udemy).
Open Source
• Many apps are free and are referred to as Open
Source, where you are able to add features
yourself.
• The source code is available, you make changes
and recompile the code to make your version of
the app.
• Open Office from
Apache is an example
of an alternative to
Microsoft Office 365.
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• Here is a statement from Apache,
The world's largest Open Source foundation is home to dozens of
freely-available (no cost), enterprise-grade Apache projects that serve
as the backbone for some of the most visible and widely used
applications. The ubiquity of Apache software is undeniable, with
Apache projects managing exabytes of data, executing teraflops of
operations, and storing billions of objects in virtually every industry.
Apache software is an integral part of nearly every end user
computing device, from laptops to tablets to phones.
• Linux is an open source operating
system for servers, mainframes,
mobile devices and embedded
devices.
• Works on x86, ARM and SPARC hardware.
• Many laptops use
Linux.
• The PC shown
here is the
ThinkPad X1
th
Carbon 6 Gen
• Processor: Intel Core i5; Memory: 8 GB; Storage: 256 GB SSD; Display: 14" LED
1920 x 1080; Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620; Input Device: TrackPoint;
Webcam; Networking: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1; Battery: Up to 19.3
hours
• Unlike Windows, system developers can access
Linus and make changes for their own systems.
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• Android is derived from Linux – the most
commonly used operating system for mobiles.
• Each mobile manufacturer uses their own version
of Android.
• Functions of an operating system
Storage of Data Resources
• Cloud storage comprise
data farms where
thousands of hard-
drives store data from a
huge number of
sources.
• There is data duplication in case one storage facility is
unable to provide the requested data, the data is then
accessed from a different location.
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• Distributed resources although they appear a single
resource.
• Robust owing to the degree of distribution.
• You only pay for the memory you use. Unlike a personal
hard-drive most of it is unused yet you have paid for all
of it.
• Reduction in energy consumption as a company does
not have many spinning hard-drives.
• High level of data protection: a company need not
worry about this, the cloud provider does.
• No need to worry about addition memory storage – just
rent it from the cloud provider.
• Three back-ups of data.
• Data security: there are four concerns:
o Data stored in several locations, risk of
unauthorised physical access.
o Too many people accessing data can possibly
compromise it.
o As the number of channels over which the data
increases, the cloud requires a WAN.
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o When sharing data and networks with customers,
the effect of errors can compromise the data.
• Before sending data to the cloud you could encrypt the
data yourself. If you want others to access the
encrypted data you need to give them the decryption
key.
• Potential problems with cloud storage
o The cloud provider could be bought by another
company who have different rules because they are
from a different country.
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o The cloud provider could go bankrupt.
o Cannot prevent government security agencies
accessing your data.
• When sharing database information, there must be in
place protocols for the use of semaphores – two or
more clients cannot access the same data at the same
time.
• Problem with cloud data farms, they are
environmentally unfriendly as they consume a lot of
energy.
• Rotating hard-drives and keeping them cool.
Data Resource Management
• The Data Management Association defines.
Data Resource Management
The development and execution of
architectures, policies, practices and
procedure that properly manages the full
data lifecycle needs of an enterprise.
• All about the management of a company’s
data resources.
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• Applicable to information systems which are
needed by commerce.
• Data is in the form of spreadsheets and
databases – needs to be shared between
disparate systems.
• Therefore quality and compatibility is required.
• Data is a critical resource within any large
organisation.
• Rigorous management of data is paramount
for a successful company.
• Quality is a measure of the ability of a
company to manage its current data but also
its future data demands.
• Need to have a common data architecture
which are business driven.
• What happens when a company buys up
another company? Need to make the acquired
company’s data architecture the same as the
parent company.
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Introduction to DBMS
• This is used to define, manipulate, retrieve and
manage data in a database.
• A database defines data formats, field names,
record structure, file structure and validation
methods for the data.
• There is a requirement
for the database to be
accessed by multiple
users in a controlled
manner – use of
semaphores for users who change the data.
• There are four types of databases
o Relational Database: Data is collected into
separate tables. Data in two or more tables can
be cross referenced to establish links between
them – referred to as referential integrity.
o Flat Database: Data is arranged in a record with
a fixed number of fields.
o Object Oriented Database: the concept follows
that of OOP.
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o Hierarchical Database: Data arranged with
hierarchical relationships.
• Here is an example of a physical flat database.
• Simple card index.
• Data is stored on the cards.
• They are sorted alphabetically.
• Difficult to make changes.
• Prone to human error, wrong
dates and wrong numbers.
Benefits of DBMS over traditional file system
• Think of the card index as a traditional file system.
• Scale it up to have
thousands of records.
• A computerised version is
obviously faster.
• Cannot relate the data on
one card to another card –
no relational features.
• Difficult for several users to access a single card
index box.
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• Cards cannot be removed, have to copy data
manually.
• Only a few people are charged with updating the
information on the cards.
• Typical task, transferring card indexed data into
Microsoft Access database.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbtoCktlX1Y
Structure Query Language
• Method used to communicate with databases.
• Used when interrogating relational databases such
as MS-Access, ORACLE and others.
• Ask questions of your database records; how
many members have ages < 48 and > 52.
• This is an example of SQL Query handling – you
have to learn the SQL language.
• Making changes is achieved with SQL.
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Concept of Data Warehouses and Data Marts
• As previously mentioned, these are places where
there are banks of storage hard-drives on 24/7.
• Three phases for storing data.
o Extraction – getting the data
o Transformation - making the data useful
o Loading – save to the warehouse.
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• Data Marts – these are subset of the DW
• Star: Typical data attached to the sales of a
named product.
• Create a warehouse by combining stars.
• If a Mart requires yearly sales figures, cannot go
to the original sales database; this database is
accustomed to single transactions; yearly sales
figures requires knowledge may requires millions
of transactions.
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Storage Technologies and Architecture (NAS, SAN)
• Network attached storage (NAS)
• A NAS is a network attached storage device.
• It is a server connected to a network with the
purpose of providing storage.
• These devices often use a RAID configuration.
Promise Technology Atlas S8+, 64TB 8-bay NAS
• A NAS has its own operating system, this allows the
management of the NAS.
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• The NAS will perform automatic backup of all the data
in the network.
• Using RAID, if one of the drives fails, the data can be
recovered from the other drives.
• The NAS will allow appropriate share folders.
• Every computer engineer needs to have good
knowledge of NAS as every company will have a NAS.
• The Storage Area Network (SAN) is just a separate
storage facility which is part of the network.
• A SAN does not have its own intelligence, it’s just
storage for data.
• As the demand grows, just add more hard-drives to
the SAN.
Dealing with storage crisis
• How to recover from data loss due to failing
technology.
• The advantages of Redundant Array of Independent
Discs (RAID) is critical when there is a disc failure.
• Data is copied on multiple discs.
• The are several RAID configurations,
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o RAID 0 : Striping, data is spread across two
separate discs and is not fault tolerant – very
fast writing.
o RAID 1: Mirroring, the same data is copied to
two or more discs, if one fails, the data is
recovered from the other.
o RAID 5: Striping with parity, three or more disc
and data is spread (not copied) over all the discs.
Also has Parity which allows you to rebuild lost
data.
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o RAID 10: 1 + 0, this is a combination of RAID 0
and RAID 1.
o Need a minimum of 4 discs.
o They are mirrored in pairs.
o They have the same fault tolerance as the RAID
1 and the speed of RAID 0.
o Disadvantage only 50% of the capacity is used to
store original data.
This completes Session 1
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