MBA KMB 108 (Computer Applications and Management Information System) Lecture 4

MBA

SUBJECT NAME: Computer Applications and Management Information System

Subject Code: RMB 108

UNIT 1(conceptual frame work)

Software

Software is a set of programs, which is designed to perform a well-defined function. A program is a sequence of instructions written to solve a particular problem.

or

Software is set of Programs or instructions. use to perform some specific task by computer. There are two types of software.

There are two types of software −

• System Software
• Application Software

System Software

The system software is a collection of programs designed to operate, control, and extend the processing capabilities of the computer itself. System software is generally prepared by the computer manufacturers. These software products comprise of programs written in low-level languages, which interact with the hardware at a very basic level. System software serves as the interface between the hardware and the end users.

Some examples of system software are Operating System, Compilers, Interpreter, Assemblers, etc.

Or

 System software directly interact with hardware. Few examples of system software are Operating system, compilers, utility programs, device drivers etc. System Software is responsible for managing hardware component, Generally System software are written in C language.

Or

The system software is also known as background software as most of them run at the background to support the foreground process. It acts as an interface between a computer user, computer hardware and application software. There are four types of system software as follow.

 a) Operating System
 b) Utilities
 c) Device drivers
 d) Language translators.

 

Here is a list of some of the most prominent features of system software −

• Close to the system
• Fast in speed
• Difficult to design
• Difficult to understand
• Less interactive
• Smaller in size
• Difficult to manipulate
• Generally written in low-level language

Application Software

Application software products are designed to satisfy a particular need of a particular environment. All software applications prepared in the computer lab can come under the category of Application software.

Application software may consist of a single program, such as Microsoft's notepad for writing and editing a simple text. It may also consist of a collection of programs, often called a software package, which work together to accomplish a task, such as a spreadsheet package.

Or

These software are used to perform user specific task and runs over the system software, Following are the example of Application software: Browsers, Media players gaming applications etc

Or

 Application software is also known as end-user software as this software used by end users to complete their task. There are two types of application software as follows.

 a) Basic application software
 b) Specialized application software

These are some types of software which we can use in our pc for work. Also if you are creating your own software you can easily Sell software online on e commerce websites.

Examples of Application software are the following −

• Payroll Software
• Student Record Software
• Inventory Management Software
• Income Tax Software
• Railways Reservation Software
• Microsoft Office Suite Software
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint

Features of application software are as follows −

• Close to the user
• Easy to design
• More interactive
• Slow in speed
• Generally written in high-level language
• Easy to understand
• Easy to manipulate and use
• Bigger in size and requires large storage space

MBA KMB 108 (Computer Applications and Management Information System) Lecture 3

MBA

SUBJECT NAME: Computer Applications and Management Information System

Subject Code: RMB 108

UNIT 1(conceptual frame work)

Hardware:

Storage Devices

Data storage is a critical component of any computer system. Magnetic storage is one of the most affordable ways to store large amounts of data and has been implemented using magnetic tape, floppy disks and hard disk drives.

Introduction (Magnetic Storage Devices)

Computer systems need to store data in digital format. One of the most widely used types of digital data storage is magnetic storage. This refers to any type of data storage using a magnetized medium. Digital data consists of binary information, which is data in the form of zero and ones. There are two types of magnetic polarities, each one used to represent either zero or one.

Several types of magnetized media are used in computer systems, including magnetic tape, floppy disks and hard disk drives. The basic approach to magnetic data storage, however, is very similar for the different types of media. A read-write head moves very close to the magnetic surface - the distance is often no more than tens of nanometers. The head is able to detect and modify the magnetization of the material. The magnetic surface is divided into very small regions, each of which has a mostly uniform magnetization. As the head moves relative to the surface, the changes in magnetization from region to region are detected and recorded as zeros and ones. Different technologies vary in how the head moves relative to the surface of the media and how the regions on the media are organized, but the basic principle is the same.

Magnetic storage is a form of non-volatile storage. This means that the data is not lost when the storage device is not powered. This is in contrast to volatile storage, which is typically used for the main memory of a computer system. Volatile storage requires a constant power supply - when a computer system is turned off, the data is lost.

Magnetic storage is widely used because it is relatively cheap in comparison with other storage technologies. Magnetic storage is read-write, which makes it possible to re-use the storage capacity over and over again by deleting older data. The storage capacity is also very large, making it attractive for storing very large amounts of data. The major limitation of magnetic storage is that accessing the data can be quite slow. As a result, most computer systems use magnetic storage for non-volatile storage of large amounts of data (typically in a form of a hard-disk drive) but a different type of storage for system memory, such as read-only memory (RAM), which is much smaller but can be accessed much faster.

Types of Magnetic Storage Devices

Magnetic tape is one of the older types of magnetic storage media. The magnetic tape recorder was invented in 1928 and was primarily used for analog audio recordings. Before music CDs were introduced in the 1980s, portable music devices used magnetic tape in the form of music cassettes. Early computers adapted this technology to store digital information. One of the major weaknesses is that information on a tape can only be accessed in a very sequential fashion. This is fine if you want to listen to a whole music album in sequence, but computer systems typically need to access data in a non-sequential manner. For magnetic tape, this means you may need to fast forward through a lot of tape to get to a specific piece of data. While magnetic tape is a very cheap way to store data, the very slow access to the data meant that it was primarily used for creating backups of data in case older forms of storage failed. Tape backup systems are still in use today, but their importance has greatly declined with the advance of cheap, large capacity hard-disk drives.

Magnetic tape data storage system

Types of Magnetic Storage Devices

There are several different ways of storing information on the computer. One of the longest used systems for storing information have been with magnetic storage devices. Magnetic storage devices have improved in capacity and speed since they were first used. Smaller devices can now hold much more information. Even though other types of storage are becoming more popular, there are still many uses for magnetic storage devices.

These are the most commonly known magnetic storage devices.

Hard Drive

Inside the hard drive is a magnetic platter that stores all your information.

Most computer hard drives are magnetic, even today in 2010. The hard drive is where the computer's operating system and programs are stored. Without the hard drive, the computer would have to run off a disk that held not only the operating system, but any other programs that were needed. Running everything from a disk other than the hard drive will slow the entire system down.

Floppy Disk

The original floppy disk was floppy and flimsy in texture. During the evolution of the floppy disk, they went from 80 kilobytes of storage up to 2880 kilobytes of storage (2.88 megabytes). The most known floppy drives are the 5 1/4-inch 720 kilobyte disk and the 3 1/2-inch 1.44 megabyte disk.

Tape

Magnetic tape drives have been in use longer than floppies. Primarily used for back up storage, the tape drive has been a must in the corporate world. Tape drives are now capable of backing up up to 3 terabytes of information.

Flash Memory- A kind of memory that retains data in the absence of a power supply.

"The diagnostics are kept in flash memory"

Flash memory is widely used with car radios, cell phones, digital cameras, PDAs, solid-state drives, and printers. The picture is an example of a MicroSD flash memory 

Alternatively referred to as flash storage, flash memory is non-volatile computer memory. It was first invented by Fujio Masuoka in the early 1980s while at Toshiba and introduced it to the market in 1984. It was also later developed by Intel. Flash memory is an integrated circuitthat does not need continuous power to retain data, but is a bit more expensive than magnetic storage. Today, flash memory is very popular and solid-state drives are a practical replacement for large hard drives if you have the extra money.

Flash memory is widely used with car radios, cell phones, digital cameras, PDAs, solid-state drives, and printers. The picture is an example of a MicroSD flash memory card. For additional information and examples, see our flash memory card page.