DATA – organized facts that needed to be
Modern Printing Press – 1st
process; tentative or assumption
INFORMATION - Knowledge obtained from
investigation, study, or instruction;
organized or classified data; processed data
decisions and actions are based
o Timely − available when required
o Accuracy – accurate
o Completeness − be complete.
TECHNOLOGY - The practical application of
knowledge especially in a particular area
(IrDA- Infrarred Data Association, old
cellphone)
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
-development, maintenance, and use of
computer systems, software, and networks
for the processing and distribution of data
Basic Computer Periods
Pre-Mechanical Age (3000 B.C.-1450 A.D.)
o use language to make simple pictures
o petroglyphs - story, map their terrain,
or keep accounts
a. Papyrus – Egyptian
b. Abacus – China
c. Napiers Bone – John Napier,
calculating device
Mechanical Age (1450 – 1840)
o current technology and its ancestors.
a. Pascaline - mechanical computer
capable of adding, subtracting,
multiplying, and dividing two
numbers (Blaise Pascal)
b. Slide Ruler - analog computer
used for multiplying and dividing
(William Oughtred)
c.
general purpose computer
(Johannes Gutenberg)
Electromechanical Age (1840 – 1940)
o beginnings of telecommunications
a. Morse Code – beep sound, war
b. Telephone, radio
c. Mark 1 (1944)– Automatic
sequence controlled calculator;
electromechanical computer used
during WWII; Manhattan Project to
simulate the feasibility of an
implosion to detonate an atomic
bomb
Electronic Age (1940-present)
o used electronic switches, in the form
of vacuum tubes, instead of the
electromechanical; more reliable,
since they would have no moving
parts that would wear out, but the
technology was still new at that time
and the tubes were comparable to
relays in reliability; could ‘open’ and
‘close’ thousands of times faster
than relays.
Generation of Computers
1st Generation (1945-1959)
o vacuum tubes as circuitry and
magnetic drums for memory;
enormous, inefficient materials
which generated a lot of heat,
sucked huge electricity
o machine language - most basic
programming language that can be
understood by computers; limited to
solving one problem at a time. Input
 was based on punched cards and
paper tape. Output came out on
print-outs.
o UNIVAC – Universal Automatic
Computer; first every commercial
computer which was purchased in
1951 by a business
o ENIAC – Electronic Numeric
Integrated and Calculator
2nd Generation (1960-1964)
o Transistors; smaller, faster, cheaper
and less heavy on electricity use;
relied on punched card for
input/printouts.
o cryptic binary language to symbolic
(assembly) languages; create
instructions in words
o COBOL and FORTRAN
o Transistor-driven machines - first
computers to store instructions into
their memories – moving from
magnetic drum to magnetic core
technology
o atomic energy industry
3rd Generation (1964-1971)
o silicon chips – semiconductors
(absorb heat); massive increase in
speed and efficiency; cheaper and
smaller
o keyboards and monitors which
interfaced with an operating system
o run several applications at once using
a central program which functioned
to monitor memory.
4th Generation (1972-2010)
o Intel – 4004; positioned all computer
components (CPU, memory,
input/output controls) onto a single
chip; thousands of integrated circuits.
o IBM – first ever computer home use;
1984 MacIntosh introduced by Apple.
Microprocessors even
o could be linked, creating networks;
Internet
o Graphical user interface (GUI), the
mouse and lap-top capability and
hand-held devices.
o Network topologies (ring topology) -
arrangement of the elements of a
communication network
5th Generation (2010-present)
o artificial intelligence: voice
recognition; reality made possible by
using parallel processing and
superconductors.
o quantum computation, molecular
and nanotechnology.
o create machines which can process
and respond to natural language, and
have capability to learn and organize
themselves.