Answers 6

1. Define system software and identify the two types of system software.

• System software is computer software designed to operate the computer hardware and to provide a platform for running application software.

The types of system software are: The computer BIOS and device firmware, which provide basic functionality to operate and control the hardware connected to or built into the computer.

2. Briefly describe various server operating systems: Windows Server, UNIX,Linux, Solaris, and NetWare.

• Windows Server is a brand name for a group of server operating systems released by Microsoft Corporation.
• UNIX operating systems are widely used in servers, workstations, and mobile devices.
• Linux refers to the family of Unix-like computer operating systems using the Linux kernel. Linux can be installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from mobile phones, tablet computers, routers and video game consoles, to desktop computers, mainframes and supercomputers.
• Solaris is a UNIX operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Solaris supports SPARC-based and x86-based workstations and servers from Sun and other vendors.
• NetWare is a network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, with network protocols based on the archetypal Xerox Network Systems stack.

3. Summarize the features of several embedded operating systems: Windows Embedded CE, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, iPhone OS, BlackBerry, Google Android, Embedded Linux, and Symbian OS.

1. Windows CE (now officially known as Windows Embedded Compact and previously also known as Windows Embedded CE) is a distinct operating system rather than a trimmed-down version of desktop Windows. Windows CE is optimized for devices that have minimal storage—a Windows CE kernel may run in under a megabyte of memory.

2.      Windows Mobile for Pocket PC has these standard features:

• Today screen shows the current date, owner information, upcoming appointments, e-mail messages, and tasks.

·        The taskbar shows the current time and the audio volume.

·        Office mobile, a suite of Mobile versions of Microsoft office application, including outlook mobile.

3. Palm OS is designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface.

·        Simple, single-tasking environment to allow launching of full screen applications  with a basic, common GUI set

·        Monochrome or color screens with resolutions up to 480x320 pixel

4. iOS (known as iPhone OS before June 2010) is apple's mobile operating system.

4. Explain the purpose of several utility programs: file manager, search utility, image viewer, uninstaller, disk cleanup, disk defragmenter, backup and
restore utilities, screen saver, personal firewall, antivirus programs, spyware and adware removers, Internet filters, file compression, media player, disc burning, and personal computer maintenance.

AnSWERS!!! 7

1. Discuss the components required for successful communications.

Computer communications describes a process in which two or more computers or devices transfer data, instructions, and information. Successful communications requires a sending device that initiates a transmission instruction, a communications device that connects the sending device to a communications channel, a communications channel on which the data travels, a communications device that connects the communications channel to a receiving device, and a receiving device that accepts the transmission of data, instructions, or information.

2. Identify various sending and receiving devices.

A sending device initiates the transmission of data, instructions, and information while a receiving device accepts the items transmitted.

All types of computers and mobile devices serve as sending and receiving devices in a communications system. This includes mainframe computers, servers, desktop computers, notebook computers, Tablet PCs, smart phones, portable media players, and GPS receivers.

3. Describe uses of computer communications.

Computer and Communications networks are key infrastructures of the information society with high socio-economic value as they contribute to the correct operations of many critical services (from healthcare to finance and transportation).

4. List advantages of using a network.

• Speed. Sharing and transferring files within Networks are very rapid. Thus saving time, while maintaining the integrity of the files.
• Cost. Individually licensed copies of many popular software programs can be costly. Networkable versions are available at considerable savings.
• Security. Sensitive files and programs on a network are passwords protected or designated as "copy inhibit," so that you do not have to worry about illegal copying of programs.
• Centralized Software Management. Software can be loaded on one computer (the file server) eliminating that need to spend time and energy installing updates and tracking files on independent computers throughout the building.
• Resource Sharing. Resource such as, printer, fax machines and modems can be shared.
• Electronic Mail. E-mail aids in personal and professional communication Electronic mail on a LAN can enable staff to communicate within the building having to leave their desk.
• Flexible Access. Access their files from computers throughout the firm.
• Workgroup Computing. Workgroup software (such as Microsoft BackOffice) allows many users to work on a document or project concurrently.

5. Differentiate among client/server, peer-to-peer, and P2P networks.

On a client/server network, one or more computers acts as a server, sometimes called a host computer, which controls access to network resources and provides a centralized storage area, while the other computers on the network are clients that rely on the server for resources.

6. Describe the various network communications standards.

 Network communication standards are certain rules and specifications framed by standard organizations for manufacturing network hardware and developing network software.

A network standard defines guidelines that specify the way computers access a medium, the type(s) of medium, the speeds on different types of networks, and the type of physical cable or wireless technology used.

7. Explain the purpose of communications software.

• Communications software helps users establish a connection to another computer or network; manages the transmission of data, instructions, and information; and provides an interface for users to communicate with one another.

8. Describe various types of lines for communications over the telephone network.

The telephone network uses dial-up lines or dedicated lines.

·         A dial-up line is a temporary connection that uses one or more analog telephone lines for communications.

·         A dedicated line is an always-on connection established between two communications devices.

9. Describe commonly used communications devices.

• A communications device is hardware capable of transmitting data between a sending device and a receiving device.

10. Discuss different ways to set up a home network.

·         With computers getting cheaper and cheaper these days, it is not uncommon for a household to have more than one PC

·         A home network connects multiple computers and devices in a home. An Ethernet Anetwork connects each computer to a hub with a physical cable.

11. Identify various physical and wireless transmission media.

Transmission media consist of materials or substances capable of carrying one or more signals.

• Physical transmission media use tangible materials to send communications signals. Twisted-pair cable consists of one or more twisted-pair wires bundled together. Coaxial cable consists of a single copper wire surrounded by at least three layers: an insulating material, a woven or braided metal, and a plastic outer coating. Fiber-optic cable consists of thin strands of glass or plastic that use light to transmit signals.
• Wireless transmission media send communications signals through the air or space. Infrared (IR) sends signals using infrared light waves.

QUIZ 7!!!

Communications and Networks

1. Discuss the components required for successful communications.

2. Identify various sending and receiving devices.

3. Describe uses of computer communications.

4. List advantages of using a network.

5. Differentiate among client/server, peer-to-peer, and P2P networks.

6. Describe the various network communications standards.

7. Explain the purpose of communications software.

8. Describe various types of lines for communications over the telephone network.

9. Describe commonly used communications devices.

10. Discuss different ways to set up a home network.

11. Identify various physical and wireless transmission media.

ANSWERS!!! 5

1. Differentiate between storage devices and storage media.

    A storage device is a hardware device capable of storing information. There are two storage devices used in computers; a primary storage device such as computer RAM and a secondary storage device such as a computer hard disk drive. In the picture to the right, is an example of a Drobo, an external secondary storage device.

    In computers, a storage media is any technology (including devices and materials) used to place, keep, and retrieve data. A medium is an element used in communicating a message; on a storage medium, the "messages" - in the form of data - are suspended for use when needed. The plural form of this term is storage media. Although the term storage includes both primary storage (memory), a storage medium.

2. Identify the uses of tape, magnetic stripe cards, smart cards, microfilm and microfiche, and enterprise storage.

• Tape, one of the first storage media used with mainframe computers, is a magnetically-coated ribbon of plastic capable of storing large amounts of data and information at low cost.
• A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing data by magnifying the magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material on the card.
• A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC), is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits. Contains volatile memory card and microprocessor components. Made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes acrylonitrile but adiene styrene or polycarbonate.
• A microfilm and microfiche are publishing formats. They allow us to keep newspapers and other bulky publications in a compact, stable form.

3. Describe the various types of flash memory storage: solid state drives, memory cards, USB flash drives, and Express Card modules.

• A solid-state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data with the intention of providing access in the same manner of a traditional block i/o hard disk drive. SSDs are distinguished from traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), which are electromechanical devices containing spinning disks and movable read/write heads.
• A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles.
• A USB flash drive consists of a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk Express Card is an interface to allow peripheral devices to be connected to a computer, usually a laptop computer. Formerly called NEWCARD, the Express Card standard specifies the design of slots built into the computer and of cards which can be inserted into Express Card slots. The cards contain electronic circuitry and connectors to which external devices can be connected. The Express Card standard replaces the PC Card (also known as PCMCIA) standards.
  4. Differentiate among various types of optical discs: CDs, archive discs and Picture CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs.

  
  

  
  

  • The Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage (CD-ROM), write-once audio and data storage (CD-R), rewritable media (CD-RW), Video Compact Discs (VCD), Super Video Compact Discs (SVCD), Photo CD, Picture CD, CD-i, and Enhanced CD. The product is aimed at consumers. Software to view and perform simple edits to images is included on the CD.DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995.
  • Blu-ray Disc
    
    
    (official abbreviation BD) is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The disc diameter is 120 mm and disc thickness 1.2 mm plastic optical disc, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB (23.31 GiB) per layer, with dual layer discs (50 GB), the norm for feature-length video discs.

  5. Summarize the characteristics of ink-jet printers, photo printers, laser printers, multifunction peripherals, thermal printers, mobile printers, label and postage printers, and plotters and large-format printers.
  

  • An inkjet printer is a type of computer printer that creates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used type of printer and range from small inexpensive consumer models to very large professional machines that can cost up to thousands of dollars.
    
  • A thermal printer (or direct thermal printer) produces a printed image by selectively heating coated thermochromic paper, or thermal paper as it is commonly known, when the paper passes over the thermal print head. The coating turns black in the areas where it is heated, producing an image. Two-color direct thermal printers can print both black and an additional color (often red) by applying heat at two different temperatures.
  
  
  • An MFP (Multi Function Product/ Printer/ Peripheral), multifunctional, all-in-one (AIO), or Multifunction Device (MFD), is an office machine which incorporates the functionality of multiple devices in one, so as to have a smaller footprint in a home or small business setting (the SOHO market segment), or to provide centralized document management/distribution/production in a large-office setting.
• A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers (MFPs), laser printers employ a xerographic printing process, but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer's photoreceptor.

QUIZ 6!!!!

Quiz 6 - Operating Systems and Utility Programs

1.Define system software and identify the two types of system software.
2.Briefly describe various server operating systems: Windows Server, UNIX,Linux, Solaris, and NetWare.
3.Summarize the features of several embedded operating systems: Windows Embedded CE, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, iPhone OS, BlackBerry, Google Android, Embedded Linux, and Symbian OS.
4.Explain the purpose of several utility programs: file manager, search utility, image viewer, uninstaller, disk cleanup, disk defragmenter, backup and
restore utilities, screen saver, personal firewall, antivirus programs, spyware and adware removers, Internet filters, file compression, media player, disc burning, and personal computer maintenance.

Quiz 5!!!

Quiz 5 - Storage

1. Differentiate between storage devices and storage media.
2. Identify the uses of tape, magnetic stripe cards, smart cards, microfilm and microfiche, and enterprise storage.
3. Describe the various types of flash memory storage: solid state drives, memory cards, USB flash drives, and ExpressCard modules.
4. Differentiate among various types of optical discs: CDs, archive discs and Picture CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs.
5. Summarize the characteristics of ink-jet printers, photo printers, laser printers, multifunction peripherals, thermal printers, mobile printers, label and postage printers, and plotters and large-format printers

ANSWERS!!! 3

ANSWERS!!!

     1. Describe the four categories of output.

•  Text consists of characters (letters, numbers, punctuation marks, or any other symbol requiring one byte of computer storage space) that are used to create words, sentences, and paragraphs. 
•    Graphics are digital representations of nontext information such as drawings, charts, photographs, and animation (a series of still images in rapid sequence that gives the illusion of motion). 
• Audio is music, speech, or any other sound. 
• Video consists of images played back at speeds to provide the appearance of full motion.

An output device is any computer component capable of conveying information to a user.


2. The characteristics of LCD monitors, LCD screens, plasma monitors, and HDTV’s.

       

        LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display, referring to the technology behind these popular flat panel monitors.

     

         An LCD monitor is distinguishable from a traditional CRT monitor as the latter has a bulky footprint with a depth of several inches and a weight of 30 - 50 pounds (13 - 23 kilograms) or more, while LCDs are commonly 1 - 3 inches (2.5 - 7.5 cm) thick and weigh less than 10 pounds (4.5 k).

     

          Plasma Monitor. A type of flat-panel display that works by sandwiching a neon/xenon gas mixture between two sealed glass plates with parallel electrodes deposited on their surfaces. The plates are sealed so that the electrodes form right angles, creating pixels.

     3.What are the components inside the system units?

     

4. The components of a processor and how they complete a machine cycle.
      
           A machine cycle consists of a sequence of three steps that is performed continuously and at a rate of millions per second while a computer is in operation. They are fetch, decode and execute. There also is a fourth step, store, in which input and output from the other three phases is stored in memory for later use; however, no actual processing is performed during this step.

5. Define a bit and describe how a series of bits represents data.

        A bit (a contraction of binary digit) is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states. These may be the two stable states of a flip-flop, two positions of an electrical switch, two distinct voltage or current levels allowed by a circuit, two distinct levels of light intensity, two directions of magnetization or polarization, etc.

6.    6. Identify the categories of application software.

1. Personal productivity applications

2. Multimedia and Graphics applications

3. Communications applications

4. Home and educational

 

7. Identify the key features of widely used business programs.

8. What are the advantages of using application software on the Web.

Using web authoring software can help build web pages faster, an advantage if you are facing a deadline or a large project. There are several different types of web authoring software you can use to make great web pages without having to know all of the ins and outs of web page creation.

9. History of internet.

The history of the Internet starts in the 1950s and 1960s with the development of computers. This began with point-to-point communication between mainframe computers and terminals, expanded to point-to-point connections between computers and then early research into packet switching. Packet switched networks such as ARPANET, Mark I at NPL in the UK, CYCLADES, Merit Network, Tymnet, and Telenet, were developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s using a variety of protocols. The ARPANET in particular led to the development of protocols for internetworking, where multiple separate networks could be joined together into a network of networks.

In 1982 the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) was standardized and the concept of a world-wide network of fully interconnected TCP/IP networks called the Internet was introduced. Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) developed the Computer Science NetworkNSFNET provided access to supercomputer sites in the United States from research and education organizations. The ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990. Commercial internet service providers (ISPs) began to emerge in the late 1980s and 1990s and the Internet was commercialized in 1995 when NSFNET was decommissioned, removing the last restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic. (CSNET) and again in 1986 when

Since the mid-1990s the Internet has had a drastic impact on culture and commerce, including the rise of near instant communication by electronic mail, instant messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) "phone calls", two-way interactive video calls, and the World Wide Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social networking, and online shopping sites. The research and education community continues to use advanced networks such as NSF's very high speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) and Internet2. Increasing amounts of data are transmitted at higher and higher speeds over fiber optic networks operating at 1-Gbit/s, 10-Gbit/s, or more.

10. Different storage devices:

• Hard drive
  
• External Hard Drives
  
• network Attached Storage
  
• Optical Media Storage
  
• Flash Drives