RADU LIXANDROIU- INFORMATICA ECONOMICA http://econ.unitbv.ro http://portal.unitbv.

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CHAPTER I INFORMATION SYSTEMS

1.1.INFORMATION 1.2.INFORMATION ECONOMY 1.3. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE 1.4. STORAGE DEVICES 1.5. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

 An information system (IS) is the system of persons, data records and activities that process the data and information in a given organisation, including manual process or auto.  ....

 The computer-based information systems are the field of study for inf. Technologies (IT): however these should hardly be treated apart from the bigger inf. System that is always involved in. In computer security, an information system is described by next objects:  Structure  Behaviour STRUCTURE Repositories, which hold data permanent or temporaly, such as buffers, RAM , hard disks, cache etc. Interfaces, which exchange inf. with the non-digital world, such as keyboards, speakers,scanners, printers etc. Channels, which connect repositories, such as buses, cables, wireless links etc. A Network is a set of logical or physical channels. BEHAVIOUR Services, which provide value to users of to other services via message interchange.

Messages, which carries a meaning to users or services.

In telecommunication, an inf. system is any telecommunications and/or computer related equipment or interconnected system or subsystems of equipment that is used in the acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission or reception of voice and/or data and includes software, firmware and hardware. The study of int. systems, originated as a sub-discipline of computer science, in an attempt to understand and rationalize the management of technology within organizations. It has matured into a major field of management, that is increasingly being emphasized as an important area of research in management studies. The biggest asset of companies today is their inf, , represented in people, experience, knowhow, innovations( patents, copyrights, trade secrets). Inf. Systems has a number of different areas of work :  Inf. Systems Strategy  Inf. Systems Management  Inf. Systems Development 1.1. INFORMATION

Between Claude Shannons Theory of information and Anthony Smiths Politics of inf. there needs to be a very long bridge. When combined with knowledge, intelligence, communications, systems, and design we are set for the max. amount of confusion possible. Data is the plural of datum A thing given or garanted, something known or assumed as fact and made the basis of reasoning or calculation an assumption or premise from wich inferences are drawn. There appers a general sense that data isnew information orinformation without context, information isdata with context ordata with meaning. Galliers for ex. definesinformation as that collection of data, which, when presented in a particular manner and at an appropiate time, improves the knowledge of the person receving it in such a way that he/she is better able to undertake a particular activity or make a particular decision. Peter Druckers says Information is data endowed with relevance and purpose. Converting data into information requires knowledge.

NUMBERS Numbers are possibly the most primitive of primitives we have. From the first me, you, they, or one, too many, or the marks in the sand, counting seems to reach back into the earliest of that we know about human information. The base two 1 and 0, and its relationship with on and off or true or false.

Information technology So far we havent had much to say about what computers and telephones have done to inf. If the first inf revolution was the developement of the ability to speak in something approching a language, the second wast the coding of sound into graphic representations. The third was movable type which enabled the same message to exist in many different places at the same time. The 4th is the links of computing and telecommunications which has yet again changed the spatial and temporal relship of human communication. 1.2.Information economy Most writings on the inf economy or an economy of inf are concerned with the effect on prices of inf., and the need for perfect inf for a market to function efficiently. Information and networks We have to first of all say, that these are receivers and transmitters.weve got the idea of receivers and transmitters, telephones, television, faxes, all the authors and readers , theyve all producers of inf and consumers of inf. their activities all have determinancy about them, and they , can be at home , they can be at work , they can be on the move, theyre at it anytime and in many places. Secondly , we are concerned with the question of channels. So one is receivers and transmitters, two is the question of channels. The first layer of these channels seems to be to the traditional hard wiring , copper wires and probably optical fibers. Thirdly, we have the question of switches. Now the switches are what is going to link together these different categories of channels, and the switches have to understand, firstly, where something is going. 1.3.Information architecture

Architecture is concerned with the spaces among objects in which human engage in social activities, and in the materials and their properties with which these spaces are bounded and defined.

Inf systems are concerned with the social practices of people involved in processing inf. It is therefore logical for us to consider the machines which are used as the major definers of the spaces and theirboundaries for it is the range of machines which determines the possible. The most common form of the capture device remains the keyboard. If the vast bulk of inf is still on paper, the most common input device remains the keyboard, but it is far from the only. Catching up is OCR. Optical character recohnition is a process whereby a light source moves across a page, line by line, and converts every ref;lected point of light into a bit either on or off. 0 or 1, according to whether in meets a specific level of light density. The granularity of the scanning will be determined by the sensitivity of the pixel packing frequency of the specific device- the number of ons and offs it makes per inch or millimetre, 300 per inch is a standard for example. Touch screen- one special type of membrance is that which fits over the screen of the terminal device itself, a touch screen, so that input may be made directly. As with the tablet , parts of the screen will be coded so that the signal achieves meaning within the driving device. A third range of devices concerns to conversation of inf in an analogue form into digital, the process of digitisation. Sound such as the human voice, a video picture, or a remotely sensed infra red image, will be captured as a signal and converted into a set of 0s and 1s by a combination of the input device and its associated software. 1.4. Storage devices Most inf in most systems remains stored on paper, in files. Hard disks are the next most common. Data is stored on a disk on sectors and tracks which are written onto the disk by the disk, formatting software of the processor. It is this process which makes disks machine dependant, but also capable of fast reading and writing. Magnetic tape was available as a storage medium before the disk. Because inf is stored serially on tape is takes much longer to find the bits you want. The newest medium is optical, where the data is written by a laser onto an disc. CD-ROMs look exactly like the audio CD, require a player, and store about 700Mb. An optical device which does not require this lever of complesity is a WORM a write once, read many , optical disk. This is capable of holding and requires a dedicated device to write and read. Now emerging are rewritable optical disks which lose the advantage of security , but gain in economy. 1.5. Information managament

The concept of the project might be a useful starting point. There is a vast literature on project management. A project is a general relation between resources and goals. The

definition of the goal is the definition of the units of measurement by which the attainment will be realized. Some projects are simple: make a cup of coffe! The goal is simple : a cup of coffe. The resources are simple : time, coffe, water, heat. There exist a number of techniques, which might be enhanced with the title methods, for enabling the management of more complex projects, such as PERT, GANTT. Risk analysis, and many of these have been written into software such that the primitives and protocols are encoded.

CHAPTER 2- INFORMATION ENTROPY

The concept of inf entropy was introduces by Claude Shannon in his 1948 paper A Mathematical Theory of Communication. In inf theory , the Shannon entropy or inf entropy is a measure of the uncertainly associated with a random variable Entropy quantifies inf in a piece of data. Inf theory is a discipline in applied mathematies involving the quantification of data with the goal of enabling as much data is possible to be reliably stored on a medium or communicated over a channel. The measure of inf, known as inf entropy is usually expressed by the average number of bits needed for storage or communication. Entropy is a also the shortest average message lenght, in bits, that can be sent to communicate the true value of the random variable to a recipient. This represents a fundamental mathematical limit on the possible losslesss data compression of any communication the shortest average bumber of bits that can be sent to communicate one message out of all possibilities is the Shannon entropy.

Definition The inf entropy of a discrete random variable X, that can take on possible values {xl,...,xn}is: H(X)=E(I(X))=

Where:

I(X) is the inf content or self-information of X, which is itself a random variable and p(xi)=Pr(X=xi) is the probability mass function of x.

Example y The entropy of the unknow result of the next toss of the coin is maximised if the coin is fair( that is, if heads and tails both have equal probability ). This is the situation of maximum uncertainly as it is most difficult to predict the outcome of the next toss; the result of each toss of the coin delivers a full 1 bit of information. y However, if we know the coin is not fair, there is less uncertainly. Every time, one side is more likely to come up than the other. The reduced uncertainty is quantified in a lower entropy: on average each loss of the coin delivers less than a full 1 bit of information. y The extreme case is that of a double-headed coin which never comes up tails. Then there is no uncertainty. The entropy is zero each toss of the coin delivers no information.

Bits You are watching a set of independent random samples of X You see that X has four possible values P(X=A)=1/4 P(X=B)=1/4 P(X=C)=1/4 P(X=D)=1/4 So you might see: BAACBADCDADDDA You transmit data over a binary serial link. You can encode eac reading with two bits(e.g. A=00, B=01, C=10, D=11). 010000100100111......

Fewer bits Someone tells you that the probabilities are not equal P(X=A)=1/2 P(X=B)=1/4 P(X=C)=1/8 P(X=D)=1/8 Its posisible... ...to invent a coding for your transmission that only uses 1.75 bits on average per symbol. How? Suppose there are are three equally likely values...

P(X=A)=1/3 P(X=B)=1/3 P(X=C)=1/3 Heres a naive coding, costing 2 bits per symbol A B C oo 01 10

Can you think of a coding that would need only 1.6 bits

CHAPTER 3- COMPUTER FILE

A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing inf, that is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished. Computer files can be considered as the modern counterpart of paper documents which traditionally were kept inoffices and libraries files, which are the source of the term. File contents As far as the operating system is concerned, a file is just a sequence of binary digits. At a higher level, where the content of the file is being considered, these binary digits may represent integer values or text characters or anything else. It is up to the program using the file to understand the meaning and internal layout of inf in the file and present it to a user as more meaningful inf (like text, images, sounds). An operating system(OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. An operating system processes raw system data and user input, and reponds by allocating and managing tasks and internal system resources as a service to users and programs of the system. At any instant in time, a file might have a size, normally expressed in bytes, that indicates how much storage is associated with the file. In most modern operating systems the size can be any whole number up to a system limit. However, the general definition of a file does not contain its instant size as having any real meaning, unless tha data within the file happens to correspond to data within a pool of persistent storage.

In computer science a byte is a unit of measurement of information storage, most often consisting of eight bits. In many computer architectures it is a unit of memory addressing. 8bit= 1 byte 1024bytes=1KB 1024KB=1MB 1024MB=1GB 1024GB=1TB

Orinally, a byte was a small group of bits of a size convenient for data such as a single character from a Western character set. Its size was generally determined by the number of possible characters in the supported character set and was chosen to be a submultiple of the computers word size; historically, bytes have ranged form five to twelve bits. The popularity of IBMs System/360 architecture starting in the 1960s and the explosion of microprocessors based on 8-bit microprocessors in the 1980s has made eight bits by far the most common size for a byte. The term octet is widely used as a more precise synonym where ambiguity is undersirable( for ex, in protocol definitions). Information in a computer file can consist of smaller packets of in(often called records or lines) that are individually different but share some trait in common. A text file may contain lines of text, corresponding to printed lines on a piece of paper. Alternatively, a file may contain an arbitrary binary image or it may contain an executable. An executable file or executable file, in computer science, is a file whose contents are meant to be interpreted as a program by a computer. Most often, it contains the binary representation of machine instructions of a specific processor. Whether a file is an executable is mostly a matter of convention: some operating systems designate executable files by specific naming convention(such as the name ending in a filename extension.bin or.exe). Most computer files are used by computer programs. These programs create, modify and delete files for their own use on asneeded basis. The programmers who create the programs decide what files are needed, how they are to be used and (often) their names. Files on a computer can be created, moved, modified and deleted. In most cases, computer programs that are executed on the computer handle these operations, but the user of a computer can also manipulate files if necessary.

For instance, Microsoft Word files are normally created and modified by the Microsoft Word program in response to user commands, but the user can also move, rename, or delete these files directly by using a file manager program such as Windows Explorer (on Windows computers). In modern computer systems, files are typically accessed using names (filenames). In some operating systems, the name is associated with the file itself. In others, the file is anonymous, and is pointed to by links that have names. In the latter case, a user can identify the name of the link with the file itself, but this is a false analogue, especially where there exists more than one link to the same file. Files (or links to files) can be located in directories. However, more generally, a directory can contain either a list of files or a list of links to files. Within this definition, it is of paramount importance that the term file includes directories. This permits the existence of directory hierarchies: directories containing subdirectories. A name that refers to a file within a directory must be unique. In other words, there must be no identical names within a directory. However, in some operating systems, a name may include a specification of type that means a directory can contain an identical name for more than one type of object such as a directory and a file. In environments in which a file is named, a files name and the path to the files directory must uniquely identify it among all other files in the computer system- no two files can have the same name and path. Where a file is anonymous, named references to it will exist within a namespace. Most computers organize files into hierarchies using folders, directories, or catalogs. Each folder can contain an arbitrary number of files, and it can also contain other folders. These other folders are referred to as subfolders. Subfolders can contain still more files and folders and so on. Thus building a tree-like structure in which onemaster folder(or root folder- the name varies from one operating system to another) can contain any nr of levels of other folders and files. When a computer allows the use of folders, each file and folder has not only a name of its own, but also a path, which identifies the folder or folders in which a file or folder resides. In the path, some sort of special character- such as a slash- is used to separate the file and folder names. For ex, the path: /Payroll/Salaries/Managers.doc uniquely identifies a file called Managers.doc in a folder called Salaries, which in turn is contained in a folder called Payroll. The folder and file names are separated by slashes in this example: the topmost or root folder has no name, and so the path begins with a slash( if the root folder had a name, it would precede this first slash).

Many(but not all) computer systems use extensions in file names to help identify what they contain, also known as the file type. On Windows computers, extensions consist of a dot( period) at the end of a file name, followed by a few letters to identify the type of file. An extension of .txt identifes a text file: a .doc extension identifies any type of document or documentation, commonly in the Microsoft Word file format: and so on. Protecting files Many modern computer systems provide methods for protecting files against accidental and deliberate damage. Computers that allow acces for multiple users implement file permissions to control who may or may not modify, delete or create files and folders. A given user may be granted only permission to modify a file or folder, but not to delete it : or a user may be given permission to create files or folders, but not to delete them. Permissions may also be used to allow only certain users to see the contents of a file or folder. A given user may be granted only permissions protect against unauthorized destruction of information in files, and keep private information confidential by preventing unauthorized users from seeing certain files. A given user may be granted only Another protection mechanism implemented in many computers is a read-only flag. When this flag is turned on for a file (which can be accomplished by a computer program or by a human user), the file can be examined, but it cannot be modified. This flag is useful for critical information that must not be modified or erased, such as special files that are used only by internal parts of the computer system. Some systems also include a hidden flag to make certain files invisible: this flag is used by the computer system to hide essential system files that users should not alter. Hard discs are the most used form of nonvolatile storage at the start of the 21st century. Where files contain only temporary information, they may be stored in RAM. Computer files may be stored on magnetic tape. Files can also be stored on other media in some cases, such as writeable compact discs. Digital Versatile Discs, Zip drives, USB flash drives etc. Backing up files When computer files contain information that is extremely important, a back-up process is used to protect against disasters that might destroy the files. Backing up files simply means making copies of the files in a separate location so that they can be restored if something happens to the computer, or if they are deleted accidentally.

There are many ways to back up files. Most computer systems provide utility programs to assist in the back-up process, which can become very time-consuming if there are many files to safeguard. Files are often copied to removable media such as writable CDs. Copying files to another hard disk in the same computer protects against failure of one disk, but if it is necessary to protect against failure or destruction of the entire computer, then copies of the files must be made on other media that can be taken away from the computer and stored in a safe distant location. File systems and file managers The way a computer organizes, names, stores and manipulates files is globally referred to as its file system. Most computers have at least one file system. Some computers allow the use of several different file systems. For instance, on newer MS Windows computers, the older FAT-type file systems of MSDOS and old versions of Windows are supported, in addition to the NTFS file system that is the normal file system for recent versions of Windows. Each system has its own advantages and disadvantages. Standard FAT allow only eight-character file names( plus a three-character extension) with no spaces. You can call a file Payroll records in NTFS, but in FAT you would be restricted to something like payroll.dat (unless you were using VFAT, a FAT extension allowing long file names). File-manager programs are utility programs that allow you to manipulate files directly. They allow you to move, create, delete and rename files and folders, although they do not actually allow you to read the contents of a file or store information in it. Every computer system provides at least one file-manager program for its native file system. Under Windows, the most commonly used file manager program is Windows Explorer. Directory In computing, a directory, catalog or folder is an entity in a file system which contains a group of files and/or other directories. A typical file system may contain thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of directories. Files are kept organized by storing related files in the same directory. A directory contained inside another directory is called a subdirectory of that directory. Togheter, the directories form a hierarchy or tree structure. The term directory is used in a computer software context to refer to what appears to the user to be a container or folder that can hold files and other directories. A file is named collection of related data that appears to the user as a single, contiguous block of information and that is retained in storage. Storage refers to computer devices or media

which can retain data for relatively long periods of time(e.g. years or decades), such as hard disk drives(HDDs), CDROMs and magnetic tape. Directories play a key role in hierarchical filesystems, which are fundamental to modern computer operating systems, by allowing the grouping of directories and files in order to organize the filesystem into a modular hierarchy. This gives the filesystem structure flexibility and depth: it also facilitates searching for data and adds to the robustness of data storage. Filename extension File extensions are usually three or four letter codes on the end of file names that tell operating system(MS-DOS, Windows 95/98/ME/2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Unix, Linux etc) what kind of file they are dealing with (which application can automaticaly open the file or which program can edit the file etc.). A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to show its format. It is commonly used to offer information about what sort of data might be stored in the file. The Windows platform allowed multiple applications to be associated with a given file type, and different fileactions defined for opening, editing, viewing and so-forth by means of a context menu. File managers such as Windows Explorer can have applications assigned for almost every file name extension. For ex. , a text editor for .txt, a word processor for doc or .odt, a web browser for .htm or .html. PDF viewer or editor for .pdf, a graphics program for .png, .gif or .jpg, a spreadsheet program for .xls or .ods, etc. Under Microsofts operating systems DOS and Windows, some extensions, including .exe, .com, . bat and .cmd, indicate that a file is an executable program.

Block( data storage) In computing (data trasmission and data storage), block is a sequence of bytes or bits, having a normal length( ablock size). The process of putting data into blocks is called blocking. Blocking is used to facilitate the handling of the data-stream by the computer program receveing the data. Blocked data is normally read a whole block at a time. Most file systems are based on a block device, which is a level of abstraction for the hardware responsible for storing and retrieving specified blocks of data, though the block size in file systems block may be multiple of the physical block size. In classical file systems, a single block may only contain a part of of a single file. This leads to space inefficiency due to internal fragmentation since file lengths are often not multiples of block size, and thus the last block of files will remain half-empty.

Record 1) In computer data processing, a record is a collection of data items arranged for processing by a program. Multiple records are contained in a file or data set. The organization of data in the record is usually prescribed by the programming language that defines the records organization and/or by the application that processes it Typically, records can be of fixed-length or be of variable length with the length information contained within the record. In a database , a record(sometimes called a row) is a group of fields within a table that are relevant to a specific entity. For example: in a table called customer contact information, a row would likely contain fields such as : ID number, name, street address, city, telephone, number and so on.

File format A file format is a particular way to encode information for storage in a computer file. Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. Some file formats are designed to store very particular sorts of data: the JPEG format, for example : is designed only to store static photographic images. Other file formats, however, are designed for storage of several different types of data. 2nd ex : the GIF format supports storage of both still images and simple animations, and the Quick Time format can act as a container for many different types of multimedia. Some file formats, such as HTML, or the source code of some particular programming language, are in fact also text files, but adhere to more specific rules which allow them to be used for specific purposes. It is sometimes possible to cause a program to read a file encoded in one format as if it were encoded in another format. For ex. , one can play a Microsoft Word document as if it were a song by using a music-playing program that deals inheaderlessaudio files. The result does not sound very musical, however. This is so because a sensible arranegement of bits in one format is almost always nonsensical in another. Many file formats, including some of the most well-known file formats, have a published specification document( often with a reference implementation) that describes exactly how the data is to be encoded, and which can be used to determine whether or not a particular program treats a particular file format correctly. There are, however, two reasons why this is not always the case. First, some file format developers view their specification documents as trade secrets, and therefore do not release them to the public. Second, some file format delevopers never spend time writing

a separate specification document, rather, the format is defined only implicity, through the program(s) that manipulate data in the format. Computer program In practical terms, a computer program might include anywhere from a dozen instructions to many milions of instructions for something like a word processor or a web browser. Errors in computer programs are called bugs. Sometimes bugs are benign and do not affect the usefulness of the program, in other cases they might cause the program to completely be unresponsive.

CHAPTER 4: MEMORY MEASUREMENT

Computer storage ,computer memory and often casually memory refer to computer components, devices and recording media that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time. Computer storage provides one of the core functions of the modern computer, that of information retemtion. It is one of the fundamental components of all modern computers, and coupled with a central processing unit(CPU, a processor), implements the basic computer model used since the 1940s. A digital computer represents information using the binary numeral system. Text, numbers, pictures, audio and nearly any other form of information can be converted into a string of bits, or binary digits, . each of which has a value of 1 or 0. The most common unit of storage is the byte, equal to 8 bits. A piece of information can be handled by any computer whose storage space is large enough to accommodate the binary representation of the piece of information or simply data. For ex. , using eight milions bits, or about one megabyte, a typical computer could store a small novel. The bit A bit is a binary digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1. For ex., the number 10010111 is 8 bits long, or in most cases, one modern PC byte. Binary digits are a basic unit of information storage and communication in digital computing and digital information theory. The bit is also a unit of inf. , the information capacity of one binary digit. The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, is a numeral system that represents numeric values using two symbols, usually 0 and 1.

Bits can be represented in many forms. For ex., in most computing devices, bits are represented as electrical levels. For some devices, a 1(true value) is represented by a positive voltage, while a 0(false value) is represented by a negative voltage. For other devices, zero volts is used to represent 0(false value). On CD-ROMs, this is represented as pits or grounds. Pits, as the name implies, refers to a small groove on the CD,which reflects away the laser that reads it. Ground, on the other hand, refers basically to the flat reflective surface. The light of the reading laser is reflected back into the laser, which then picks up that light with a sensor. The transition between a pit and a ground means a 1, and a short period of time on the same level is a 0. Bits can also be represented magnetically, such as in magnetic tapes and cassettes. A byte is a collection of bits, originally variable in size but now almost always eight bits. Eight-bit bytes, also known as octets. The byte In computer science a byte is a unit of measurement of inf storage, most often consisting of eight bits. In many computer architectures it is a unit of memory addressing. A memory address identifies a physical location in computer memory, somewhat similar to a street address in a town. The address points to the location where data is stored, just like your address points to where you live. A In the analogy of a persons address, the address space would be an area of locations, such as a neighborhood, town, city or country. Originally, a byte was a small group of bits of a size convenient for data such as a single character form a Western character set. Its size was generally determined by the number of possible characters in the supported character set and was chosen to be a submultiple of the computers word size, historically, bytes have ranged from 5 to 12 bits. The popularity of IBMs System/360 architecture starting in the 1960s and the explosion of microprocessors based on 8-bit microprocessors in the 1980s has made eight bits by far the most common size for a byte.

The word(in computing) In computing,word is a term for the natural unit of data used by a particular computer design. A word is simply a fixed-sized group of bits that are handled together by the machine. The number of bits in a word( the word size or word length) is an important characteristic of a computer architecture.

The size of a word is reflected in many aspects of a computers structure and operation. The majority of the registers in the computer are usually word-sized. The typical numeric value manipulated by the computer is probably word sized. Modern computers usually have a word size of 16, 32 or 64 bits. Many other sizes have been used in the past, including 8, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 39, 40, 48 and 60 bits. Word size choice When a computer architecture is designed, the choice of a word size is of substantial importance. There are design considerations which encourage particular bit-group sizes for particular uses(e.g. for addresses), and these considerations point to different sizes for different uses. Character size is one of the influences on a choice of word size. Before the mid-1960s, characters were most often stored in six bits; this allowed no more than 64 characters, so alphabetics were limited to upper case. After the introduction of the IBM System/360 design which used eight-bit characters and supported lower-case letters, the standard size of a character (or more accurately, a byte) became eight bits. Word sizes thereafter were naturally multiples of eight bits, with 16, 32, and 64 bits being commonly used. The memory model of an architecture is strongly influenced by the word size. In particular, the resolution of a memory address, that is, the smallest unit that can be designated by an address, has often been chosen to be the word.

CHAPTER 5- HISTORY OF COMPUTING

Originally, the termcomputerreferred to a person who performed numerical calculations( a human computer), often with the aid of a mechanical calculating device. Examples of early mechanical computing devices included the abacus, the slide rule and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism(which dates from about 150-100 BC). The end of the Middle Ages saw a reinvigoration of European mathematics and engineering, and Wilhelm Schickards 1623 device was the first of a number of mechanical calculators constructed by European engineers. However, none of these devices fit the modern definition of a computer because they could not be programmed. In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the textile

loom that used a series of punched paper cards as a template to allow his loom to weave intricate patterns automatically. The resulting Jacquard loom was an important step in the development of computers because the use of punched cards as a form of programmability. In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable mechanical computer that he calledThe Analytical Engine. Due to limited finance, Babbage never actually built his Analytical Engine. Large-scale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the U.S. Census in 1890 by tabulating machines designed by Herman Hollerith and manufactured by the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation, which later became IBM. By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later prove useful in the realization of practical computers had begun to appear the punched card. Boolean algebra, the vacuum tube( thermionie valve) and the teleprinter. History of computing-short presentation Ancient-1940s Devices to make calculation easier have existed for thousands of years.

1940s-1960s The roots of the electronic digital stored- program computer began in the 1940s with projects like ENIAC and the Manchester Baby.

By the late 1950s some machines built with transistors instead of vacuum tubes became the powerfulgiant brains used in US government and scientific research settings. 1960s-1980s By the 1960s computers were becoming common in many different environments. Large businesses used mainframes for data processing, while smaller businesses, universities and factories used minicomputers. Demanding scientific users spared no expense to get the fastestsupercomputers optimized for solving complex mathematical problems. 1970s-1990s During the 1970s, computers moved into the home in the form of microprocessor-based personal computers and game systems. The introduction of the IBM PC in 1981 was the most important event of that decade, creating a standard that is still in use today. More user-friendly machines such as the Apple Macintosh(based on the Xerox Alto), combined with more sophisticated software, resulted in computers that were inexpensive and powerful, yet easy to use.

Chapter 6- computer architecture Am de scris...... A general purpose computer has four main sections: The arithmetic and logic unit(ALU) The control unit The memory And the input and output devices

These parts are interconnected by busses, often made of of groups of wires.

1. Control unit The control unit(often called a control system or central controller) directs the various components of a computer. It reads and interprets(decodes) instructions in the program one by one. The control system decodes each instruction and turns it into a series of control signals that operate the the other parts of the computer. Control sytems in advanced computers may change the order of some instructions so as to improve performance. A key component common to all CPUs is the program counter, a special memory cell( a register) that keeps track of which location in memory the next instruction is to read from. The control systems function is as follows- note that this a simplified description and some of these steps may be performed concurently or in a different order depending on the type of CPU: 1. Read the code for the next instruction from the cell indicated by the program counter. 2. Decode the numerical code for the instruction into a set of commands or signals for each of the other systems. 3. Increment the program counter so it points to the next instruction. 4. Read whatever data the instruction requires from cells in memory(or perhaps from an input device). The location of this required data is typically stored within the instruction code. 5. Provide the necessary data to an ALU or register. 6. If the instruction requires an ALU or specialized hardware to complete, instruct the hardware to perform the requested operation. 7. Write the result from the ALU back to a memory location or to a register or perhaps an output device. 8. Jump back to step(1).

Since the program counter is(conceptually) just another set of memory cells, it can be changed by calculations done in the ALU. Adding 100 to the program counter would cause the next instruction to be read from a place 100 locations further down the program. Instructions that modify the program counter are often known asjumps and allow for loops(instructions that are repeated by the computer) and often conditional instruction execution(both examples of control flow). It is noticeable that the sequence of operations that the control unit goes through to process an instruction is in itself like a short computer program- and indeed, in some more complex CPU designs, there is another yet smaller computer called a microsequencer that runs a microcode program that causes all of these events to happen. 2. Arithmetic/logic unit (ALU) The ALU is capable of performing two classes of operations: arithmetic and logic. The set of arithmetic operations that a particular ALU supports may be limited to adding and subtracting or might include multiplying or dividing, trigonometry functions(sine, cosine etc.) However, any computer that is capable of performing just the simplest operations can be programmed to break down the more complex operations into simple steps that it can perform. Therefore, any computer can be programmed to perform any arithmetic operationalthough it will take more time to do so if its ALU does not directly support the operation. An ALU may also compare numbers and return boolean truth values(true or false) depending on whether one is equal to, greater than or less than the other(is 64 greater than 65?). Logic operations involve Boolen logic: AND,OR, XOR and NOT. These can be useful both for creating complicated conditional statements and processing boolean logic. 3. Memory

A computers memory can be viewed as a list of cells intro which numbers can be placed or read. Each cell has a numberedaddress and can store a single number. The computer can be instructed to put the number 123 into the cell numbered 1357 or to add the number that is in cell 1357 to the number that is in cell 2468 and put the answer into cell 1595.

The information stored in memory may represent practically anything. Letters, numbers, even computer instructions can be placed into memory with equal ease. Since the CPU does not differentiate between different types of information, it is up to the software to give significance to what the memory sees as nothing but a series of numbers. In almost all modern computers, each memory cell is set up to store binary numbers in groups of eight bits( called a byte). To store larger numbers, several consecutive bytes may be used(typically, two, four or eight). A computer can store any kinf of information in memory as long as it can be somehow represented in numerical form. Modern computers have bilions or even trillions of bytes of memory. Computer main memory comes in two principal varieties: random access memory or RAM and read-only memory or ROM. RAM can be read and written to anytime the CPU commands it, but ROM is preloaded with data and software that never changes, so the CPU can only read from it. ROM is typically used to store the computers initial start-up instructions. In general, the contents of RAM is erased when the power to the computer is turned off while ROM retains its data indefinitely. In a PC, the ROM contains a specialized program called the BIOS that orchestrates loading the computers operating system from the hard disk drive into RAM whenever the computer is turned on or reset. software that is stored in ROM is often called firmware because it is notionally more like hardware than software. Flash memory blurs the distinction between ROM and RAM by retaining data when turned off but being rewritable like RAM. However, flash memory is typically much slower than conventional ROM and RAM so its use is restricted to applications where high speeds are not requiered. Input/output(I/O)

I/O is the means by which a computer receives information from the outside world and sends results back. Devices that provide input or output to the computer are called peripherals. On a typical personal computer, peripherals include input devices like the keyboard and mouse, and output devices such as the display and printer. Hard disks, floppy disks and optical discs serve as both input and output devices. Computer networking is another form of I/O. Often, I/O devices are complex computers in their own right with their own CPU and memory. Modern desktop computers contain many smaller computers that assist the main CPU in performing I/O.

Typical pc hardware A typical Personal computer consists of a case or chassis in a tower shape(desktop) and the following parts: 1. 2. 3. 4. Motherboard Power supply Storage controler 4.Video display controler

5.Removable media writer 6.Internal storage 3. Sound card 4. Networking 5. Other peripherals Input Output 1. Motherboard The mother board is the heart of the computer, through which all other components interface: 1.1.Central proceesing unit(CPU)- performs most of the calculations which enable a computer to function. 1.2. Computer fan- used to lower the temperature of the computer; a fan is almost always attached to the CPU, and the computer case will generally have several fans to maintain a contant airflow.

1.3. Random Access Memory(RAM)- fast-access memory that is cleared when the computer is powered-down. RAM attaches directly to the motherboard, and is used to store programs that are currently running. 1.4.Firmware is loaded from the Read only memory ROM run from the Basic Input-Output System(BIOS) or in newer systems Extensible Firmware Interface(EFI). 1.5. Internal Buses- connections various internal components. 1.6.External Bus Controllers- used to connect to external peripherals, such as printers and input devices. These ports may also be based upon expansion cards, attached to the internal buses. Parallel port Serial port USB Firewire 2. Power supply Power supply is a case that holds a transformer, voltage control, and (usually) a cooling fan, and supplies power to the rest of the computer. 3. Storage controllers Controllers for hard disk, CD-ROM and other drivers like internal Zip conventionally for a PC are IDE/ATA; the controllers sit directly on the motherboard(on-board) or on expansion cards, such a Disk array controller. 4. Video display controller Produces the output for the computer display. This will either be built into the motherboard or attached in its own separate slot ( PCI, PCI-E or AGP), in the form of a Graphics Card. 5. Removable media writer CD- the most common type of removable media, inexpensive but has a short lifespan. o CD-ROM Drive o CD Writer DVD DVD- ROM Drive DVD Writer Floppy disk(outdated Zip drive(outdated) USB flash drive- a portable form of storage Tape drive- mainly for backup and long-term storage

A compact disc or CD is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio.

The CD, available on the market since late 1982, remains the standard playback medium for commercial audio recordings to the present day. An audio CD consits of one or more stereo tracks stored using 16-bit PCM coding at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. Standard CDs have a diameter of 120mm and can hold approximately 80 min of audio. The technology was later adapted for use as a data storage device, known as a CD-ROM, and to include record-once and re-writable media(CD-R and CD-RW respectively). DVD(also known asDigital Versatile Disc andDigital Video Disc) is a popular optical disc storage media format used for data storage. Its main uses are for movies, software, and data archiving. Most DVDs are of the same dimensions as compact discs(CDs) but store more than 6 times the data. The term DVD is used in describing three ways that data is stored on the disks- DVD ROM has data which can only be read and not written, DVD-R can be written once and then functions as a DVD-ROM, and DVD-RAM holds data that can be re-written multiple times. A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a thin disk, flexible magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD. Invented by IBM, floppy disks in 8, 5.25 and 3.5 formats enjoyed many years as a popular form of data storage and exchange, from the middle 1970s to the late 1990s. The Zip drive is a medium-capacity removable disk storage system, introduced by Iomega in late 1994. Originally it had a capacity of 100 MB, but later versions increased this to first 250 MB and then 750 MB. It has been quickly changed by flash drive systems as well as rewritable CDs and DVDs, and is practically not in use anymore. USB flash drives are data storage devices integrated with a USB( universal serial bus) interface. They are typically small, lightweight, removable and rewritable. USB flash drives offer potential advantages over other portable storage devices, particularly the floppy disk. They are more compact, faster, hold more data and are more reliable due to their lack of moving parts and more durable design. Additionally, it has become increasingly common for computers to ship without floppy disk drives, USB ports, on the other hand, appear on almost every current mainstream PC and laptop.

A tape drive, also known as a streamer, is a data storage device that reads and writes data stored on a magnetic tape. It is typically used for archival storage of data stored on hard drives. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and long archival stability. 6. Internal storage Hardware that keeps data inside the computer for later use and remains persistent even when the computer has no power. 1. Hard disk- for medium-term storage of data 2. Solid state drive- similar in use to a hard disk, but using more recent technology. 3. Disk array controller- a device to manage several hard disks, for ex to archive performance improvement. A hard disk drive(HDD), commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk or fixed disk drive, is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. Strictly speakingdrive refers to a device distinct from its medium, such as a tape drive and its tape, or a floppy disk drive and its floppy disk. A solid state drive(SSD), or solid state disk, is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data, SSD emulates conventional hard disk drive, thus easily replacing it in any application. With no moving parts, a solid state drive largely eliminates seek time, latency and other electro-mechanical delays and failures associated with a rconventional hard disk drive. 7. Sound card Sound card enables the computer to output sound to audio devices, as well as accept input from a microphone. Most modern computers have sound cards builtin to the motherboard, through it is common for a user to install a separate sound card as an upgrade. 8. Networking Connects the computer to the Internet and/or other computers. Modem- for dial-up connections Network card- for DSL/Cable internet, and/or connecting to other computers. 9. Other peripherals In addition, hardware can include external components of a computer system. The following are either standard or very common. Includes various input and output devices, usually external to the computer system.

Input

Text input devices- keyboard Pointing devices- mouse, trackball Gaming devices- joystick, gamepad, game controller Image, video input devices- image scanner, webcam Audio input devices- microphone

Output y Image, video output devices Printer- peripheral device that produces a hard copy of a document. Monitor device that displays a video signal, similar to a television, to provide the user with information and an interface with which to interact. y Audio output devices Speakers- a device that converts analog audio signals into the equivalent air vibrations in order to make audible sound. Headset- a device similar in functionality to computer speakers used mainly to not disturb others nearby.

Trackball A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball housed in a socket containing sensors to detect rotation of the ball about two axes- like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Image scanner In computing, a scanner is a device that analyzes images, printed text or handwriting or an object(such as an ornament)and converts it to a digital image. Remember about OCR. Webcam A web camera(or webcam) is a real-time camera(usually, though not always, a video camera) whose images can be accessed using the World Wide Web, instant messaging, or a PC video calling application. y y y y Web- accessible cameras typically involve a digital camera which uploads images to a web server, either continuously or at regular intervals. This may be archieved by a camera attached to a PC, or by dedicated hardware. Videoconferencing cameras typically take the form of a small camera connected directly to a PC. Analog cameras are also sometimes used(often of the sort used for closedcircuit television), connected to a video capture card and then directly or indirectly to the internet.

Computer printer A computer printer, or more commonly a printer, produces a hard copy(permanent humanreadable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic form. Other printers, commonly known as network printers, have built-in network interfaces(typically wireless or Ethernet), and can serve as a hardcopy device for any user on the network. In addition, many modern printers can directly interface to electronic media such as memory sticks or memory cards, or to image capture devices such as digital cameras, scanners and/or fax machines in a single unit.

CHAPTER 7- OPERATING SYSTEM

An operating system(OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. An operating system processes raw system data and user input, and responds by allocating and managing tasks and internal system resources as a service to users and programs of the sytem. At the foundation of all system software, an operating system performs basic tasks such as controlling and allocating memory, prioritizing system requests, controlling input and output devices, facilitating networking and managing file systems. Most operating systems come with an application that provides a user interface for managing the operating system, such as a command line interpreter or graphical user interface. The operating system forms a platform for other system software and for application software. Linux and Mac OS are popular UNIX-like operating systems. Windows takes a different approach to operating systems, derived upon a historic single-user model. Process management Every program running on a computer, be it a service or an application, is a process. As long as a von Neumann architecture is used to build computers, only one process per CPU can be run at a time. Older microcomputer Oses such as MS-DOS did not attempt to bypass this limit, with the exception of interrupt processing, and only one process could be run under them.

Mainframe operating systems have had multitasking capabilities since the early 1960s. Modern operating systems enable concurrent execution of many processes at once via multitasking even with one CPU. Process management is an operating systems way of dealing with running multiple processes. Since most computers contain one processor with one core, multitasking is done by simply switching processes quickly. Process management involves computing and distributing CPU time as well as other resources. Most operating systems allow a process to be assigned a priority which affects its allocation of CPU time. Interactive operating systems also employ some level of feedback in which the task with which the user is working receives higher priority. Interrupt driven processes will normally run at a very high priority. In many systems there is a background process, such as the System Idle Process in Windows, which will run when no other process is waiting for the CPU. Disk and file systems All operating systems include support for a variety of file systems. Modern file systems comprise a hierarchy of directories. While the idea is conceptually similar across all general-purpose file systems, some differences in implementation exist. Unix demarcates its path components with a slash /, a convention followed by operating systems that emulated it or at least its concept of hierarchical directories, such as Linux, Amiga OS and Mac OS X. MS- DOS also emulated this feature, but had already also adopted the CP/M convention of using slashes for additional options to commands, so instead used the back slash \ as its component separator. Microsoft Windows continues with this convention: Japanese editions of Windows use Y, and Korean editions use W. Versions of Mac OS prior to OS X use a colon(: ) for a path separator, RISC OS uses a period (.). Unix and Unix-like operating systems allow for any character in file names other than the slash(including line feed (LF) and other control characters). Unix file names are case sensitive, which allows multiple files to be created with names that differ only in case. By contrast, Microsoft Windows file names are not case sensitive by default. Windows also has a larger set of punctuation characters that are not allowed in file names. File system may provide journaling, which provides safe recovery in file event of a system crash. A journaled file system writes information twice: first to the journal, which is a log of file system operations, then to its proper place in the ordinary file system.

In the event of a crash, the system can recover to a consistent state by replaying a portion of the journal. In contrast, non-journaled file systems typically need to be examined in their entirety by a utility such as fsck or chkdsk. The system utility fsck(for file system check or file system consistency check) is a tool for checking the consistency of a file system in the Unix system. CHKDSK command- shortening of Checkdisk is a command in DOS and Microsoft Windows systems which verifies a hard disk or a floppy disk for file system integrity. It is similar to the fsck command in Unix. Soft updates is an alternative to journalling that avoids the redundant writes by carefully ordering the update operations. Log-structered file systems differ from traditional journaled file systems in that they avoid inconsistencies by always writing new copies of the data. Most current operating systems are capable of using the TCP/IP networking protocols. This means that one system can apper on a network of the other and share resources such as files, printers, and scanners using either wired or wireless connections. Security Many operating systems include some level of security. Security is based on the two ideas that: 1. The operating system provides access to a number of resources, directly or indirectly, such as files on a local disk, privileged systems calls, personal information about users, and the services offered by the program running on the system. 2. The operating system is capable of distinguishing between some requesters of these resources who are authorized(allowed) to access the resource, and others who are not authorized(forbidden). While some systems may simply distinguish betweenprivileged and non-privileged, systems commonly have a form of requester indentity, such as a user name. Requesters, in turn, divide into two categories: a) Internal security: an already running program. On some systems, a program once it is running has no limitations, but commonly the program has an identity which it keeps and is used to check all of its requests for resources. b) External security: a new request from outside the computer, such as a login at a connected console or some kind of network connection. To establish identity there may be a process of authentification. Often a username must be quoted and each username may have a password.

Other methods of authentification, such as magnetic cards or biometric data, might be used instead. In some cases, especially connections from the network, resources may be accessed with no authentification at all. In addition to the allow/disallow model of security, a system with a high level of security will also offer auditing options. These would allow tracking of requests for access to resources(such as,who has been reading this file?). Security of operating systems has long been a concern because of highly sensitive data held on computers, both of a commercial and military nature. The USA Government Department of Defernse(DoD) created the Trusted Computer Systems Evaluation Criteria(TCSEC). Internal security Internal security protect the computers resources from the programs concurrently running on the system. Most operating systems set programs running natively on the computers processor, so the problem arises of how to stop these programs doing the same task and having the same privileges as the operating system. Processors used for general purpose operating systems generally have a hardware concept of privilege. Generally less privileged programs are automatically blocked from using certain hardware instructions, such as those to read or write from external devices like disks. Instead, they have to ask the privileged program(operating system kernel) to read or write. The operating system therefore gets the chance to check the programs identity and allow or refuse the request. Internal security is especially relevant for multi-user systems: it allows each user of the system to have private files that the other users cannot modify or read. External security Typically an operating system offers(or hosts) various services to other network computers and users. These services are usually provided through ports or numbered access points beyond the operating systems network address. Services include offerings such as file sharing, print services, email, web sites and file transfer protocols(FTP), most of which can have compromised security. At the front line of security are hardware devices known as firewalls or intrustion detection/prevention systems. At the operating system level, there are a number of software firewalls available, as well as intrusion detection/prevention systems.

Most modern operating systems include a software firewall, which is enabled by default. A software firewall can be configured to allow or deny network traffic to or from a service or application running on the operating system. Therefore, one can install and be running an insecure service, such as Telnet or FTP, and not have to be threatened by a security breach because the firewall would deny all traffic trying to connect to the service on that port. Graphical user interfaces Today, most modern operating systems contain Graphical User Interfaces(GUIs pronounced goo-eez). A few older operating systems fightly integrated the GUI to the kernel- for ex., the original implementations of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. The graphical subsystem was actually part of the operating system. Modern operating systems or modular subsystem from the Kernel(OS is now done in Linux and Mac OS X) so that the graphics subsystem is not part of the OS at all. Device drivers A device driver is a specific type of computer software developed to allow interaction with hardware devices. Typically this constitutes an interface for communicating with the device through the specific computer bus or communications susbsystem that the hardware is connected to providing commands to and/or receiving data from the device, and on the other end, the requisite interfaces to the operating system and software applications. It is a specified hardware-dependent computer program which is also operating system specific that enables another program typically an operating system or applications software package or computer program running-under to operating system Kernel, to interact transparently with a hardware device and usually provides the requisite interrupt handling necessary for any necessary asynchronous time-dependent hardware interfacing needs. Types of operating systems Within the broad family of operating systems there are generally 4 types, categories based on the types of computers they control and the sort of applications they support. The broad categories are: A. Real-time operating systems They are used to control machinery, scientific isntruments and industrial systems. An RTOS typically has very little user-interface capability and no end-user utilities.

A very important part of an RTOS is managing the resources of the computer so that a particular operation executes in precisely the same amount of time every time it occurs. B. Single-user, single-tasking operating system As the name implies, this operating system is designed to manage the computer so that one user can effectively do one thing at a time. The Palm OS for Palm hancheld computers is a good example the modern single-user. C. Single-user, multi-tasking operating system This is the type of operating system most people use on their desktop and laptop computers today. Windows 98, XP and the Mac OS are both examples of an operating system that will let a single user has several programs in operation at the same time. For ex its entirely possible for a Windows user to be writing a note in a word processor while downloading a file from the Internet while printing the text of an email message. D. Multi-user operating systems A multi-user operating system allows many different users to take advantage of the computers resources simultaneously. The operating system must make sure that the requirements of the various users are soloneed and that each of the programs they are using has sufficient on separate resources so that a problem with one users doesnt affect the entire community of users. It is important to differentiate here between multi-user operating systems and singleuser operating systems that support networking. Windows 2000 and Novell Netware can each support hundreds or thousands of networked users but the operating systems themselves arent true multi-user operating systems. The system administrator is the only user for Windows 2000 or Netware. The network support and the entire remote user logins the network enables are, in the overall plan of the operating system, a program being run by the administrative user.

CHAPTER 8- COMPUTER NETWORK

Computer Network is an interconnection of a group of computers. Networks may be classified by what is called the network layer at which they operate according to basic reference models considered as strandards in the industry such as the four-layer Internet Protocol Suite model.

While the seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection(OSI) reference model is better kwnown in academia, the majorily of networks use the Internet Protocol Suite(IP) as their network model. 1. Network categories by scale The primary difference in the networks is the size. Computer networks may be classified according to the scale: y PERSONAL AREA NETWORK(PAN) y LOCAL AREA NETWORK(LAN) y CAMPUS AREA NETWORK(CAN) y METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK(MAN) y WIDE AREA NETWORK(WAN) As Ethernet increasingly is the standard interface to networks, these distinctions are more important to the network administrator than the end user. Network administrators may have to tune the network based on delay that derives from distance, to achieve the desired Quality of Service(QOS). A personal area network(PAN) is a computer network used for communication omang computer devices(including telephones and personal digital assitants) close to one person. The devices may or may not belong to the person in question. The reach of a PAN is typically a few meters. PANs can be used for communication omang the personal devices themselves, or for connecting to a higher level network and the Internet. A local area network(LAN) is a computer network covering a small geographic area like a home, office or group of buildings. The defining characteristics of LANs in contrast a Wide Area Network(WANs) include their much higher data transfer rates, smaller geographic range and lock of a need for leased telecommunication lines. Campus Area Network(CAN) is a computer network made up of an interconnection of local area networks(LANs) within a limited geographical area. It can be considered one form of a metropolitan area network, specific to an academic setting. Metropolitan Area Networks(MANs) are large computer networks usually spanning a city. They typically use wireless infrastructure or optical fiber connections to link their sites. Wide Area Network(WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area. Or, less formally, a network that uses routers and public communications links. 2. Network categories by connection method Computer networks may be classified according to the hardware technology that is used to connect the individual devices in the network area such as optical fiber, Ethernet,Wireless LAN, Home PNA or power line communication.

Optical fiber Optical fiber are widely in fiber-optic communcation which permits transmission over large distances and at higher data rates than other forms of communications. Fibers are used instead of metol wires because signals travel long term with less loss, and they are immune to electromagnetic interference. Optical fibers are also used to form sensors, and in a variety of other applications. Ethernet Ethernet is a family of frame-based computer networking technologies for local area networks(LANs). The name comes form the physical concept of the ether. It defines a number of wiring and signaling standards for the physical layer, through means of network accest at the Media Access Control(MAC)/Data Link Layer and a common addressing format. Wireless LAN A wireless LAN or WLAN is a wireless local area network which is the linking of two or more computers without using wires. WLAN utilized spread-spectrum or OFDM modulation technology based on radio moves to enable communication between devices in a limited area, also known as the basic service set. This gives users the mobility to move around within a broad coverage area and still be connected to the network. POWER LINE communication Power line communications can also be used to interconnect home computers, peripherals or other networked consumer peripherals, although at present there is no universal standard for this type of application. Standars for power line home networking have been developed by a nr of different companies within the framework of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and the Universal Powerline Association. 3. Network categories by functional relationship( Networking Architectures) Computer networks may be classified according to the functional relationships which exist between the elements of the network, for example: active networking, clientserver, peer-to-peer. Active networking is a communication pattern that allows packets flowing through a telecommunications network to dynamically modify the operation of the network. The active network architecture is composed of execution environments, a node operating system capable of supporting one or more execution environments.

It also consists of active hardware, capable of routing or switching as well as executing code within active packets. Network processors are one means of implementing active networking concepts. Active networks have also been implemented as overlay networks. Client-server is a computing architecture which separates a client from a server, and is almost always implemented over a computer network. Each client or server connected to a network can also be referred to as a node. The most basic type of client-server architecture employs only two types of nodes: clients and servers. It allows devices to share files and resources. Each instance of the client software can send data requests to one or more connected servers. In turn, the servers can accept these requests, process them and return the requested information to the client. These days, clients are most often web browsers, although that has not always been the case. Servers typically include web servers, database servers and mail servers. Online gaming is usually client-server too. A peer-to-peer(P2P) computer network exploits diverse connectivity between participants in a network. Peer-to-peer networks are typically used for connecting nodes via largely ad hoc connections. Such networks are useful for many purposes. Sharing contents files containing audio, video, data or anything in digital format is very common and realtime data, such as telephony traffic, is also passed using P2P technology. A pure peer-to-peer network does not have the notion of clients or servers, but only equal peer nodes that simultaneously function as bothclients andservers to the other nodes on the network. This model of network arrangement differs from the client-server model where communication is usually to and from a central server. A typical example for a non peer-to-peer file transfer is an FTP server where the client and server programs are quite distinct, and the clients initiate the download/uploads and the servers react to and satisfy these requests. 4. Network categories by topology Network Topology signifies the way in which intelligent devices in the network see their logical relations to one another. The use of the termlogical here is significant. That is, network topology is independent of thephysicallayout of the network. Computer networks may be classified according to the network topology upon which the network is based, such as: y Bus network y Star network y Ring network y Tree or Hierarchical topology network

A bus network topology is a network architecture in which a set of clients are connected via a shared communications line, called a bus. There are several common instances of the bus architecture, including one in the motherboard of most computers, and those in some versions of Ethernet networks. Bus networks are the simplest way to connect multiple clients, but often have problems when two clients want to transmit at the same time on the same bus. Thus systems which use bus network architecture normally have some scheme of collision handling or collision avoidance for communication on the bus, quite often using Carrier Sense Multiple Access or the presence of a bus master which controls access to the shared bus resource. Bus network topology

Star networks are one of the most common computer network topologies. In its simplest form, a star network consists of one central switch, hub or computer, which acts as a conduit to transmit messages. If the central node is passive, the originating node must be able to tolerate the reception of an echo of its own transmission, delayed by the two-way transmission time plus any delay generated in the central node. An active star network has an active central node that usually has the means to prevent echorelated problems. The star topology reduces the chance of network failure by connecting all of the systems to a central node. When applied to a bus-based network, this central hub rebroadcasts all transmissions received from any peripheral node to all peripheral nodes on the network, sometimes including the originating node. Star network topology

A ring network is a network topology in which each node connects to exactly two other nodes, forming a circular pathway for signals: a ring. Data travels from node to node, with each node handling every packet. Because a ring topology provides only one pathway between any two nodes, ring networks may be distrupted by the failure of a single link.

Ring network topology

Tree network consists of star-configured nodes connected to switches/concentrators, each connected to a linear bus backbone. Each hub/concentrator rebroadcasts all transmissions received form any peripheral node to all peripheral nodes on the network, sometimes including the originating node. All peripherals nodes may thus communicate with all others by transmitting to, and receiving from, the central node only. The failure of a transmission line linking any peripheral node to the central node will result in the isolation of that peripheral node from all others, but the rest of the systems will be unaffected.