Software and Hardware Components of an Information System Flashcards
What is hardware?
Something you can touch. The physical components that make up the computer.
What is software?
Software is the programming code that makes the computer work.
What are the two main types of software?
System software (operating system) and applications (Such as word processors).
What is standardisation?
A set of standards between manufacturers. There is a set of standards that both software and hardware must adhere to if it is to be recognised by certain bodies.
NOTE: Computers purchased 3/4 years ago may not be able to use new processors, RAM or graphics cards…
This is because the standard has moved on.
NOTE: A lack of standardisation among web browsers means that…
You may not see the page as the designer intended.
Describe a problem with one company taking over another.
There are likely to be incompatibilities with the computer systems used. The two companies might have standardised with themselves, but a lack of global standardisations may cause problems.
A takeover can have the following negative impacts:
No communication between systems, new equipment needed, staff needing to be trained on new systems and lack of technical support on the new systems.
What is an input device?
A device that takes information from outside the computer and puts it into it. Such as a mouse, keyboard, scanner, graphics tablet.
Name 5 types of scanners.
Bar code, optical mark read (OMR), magnetic card reader, flatbed scanner and magnetic ink character recognition (MICR).
What is a bar code scanner?
This reads the bar codes and translates the bars into numbers. Bar codes are used to identify an item, for example, in supermarkets so stock and price can be analysed.
What is an optical mark reader?
This detects the presence or absence of a mark in a predefined area on a page and translates it into a value, such as on a multiple choice question form.
What is a magnetic card reader?
This can take the information on a magnetic stripe and convert it into usable data, such as on credit cards.
What is a flatbed scanner?
This digitises an image so that it can be processed later as a picture, or if you use optical character recognition (OCR), as editable text.
What is magnetic ink character recognition?
This detects magnetic ink marks and turns them into numbers. They are used to read bank details on cheques.
What is a digitiser?
This is any device that converts analogue data to digital data. You can get USB record players that do this. A scanner is another type of digitiser.
What is an output device?
Output devices are used to display the result of processing to the user. For example, a monitor, a printer or a plotter.
Name 3 types of printers.
Dot matrix, ink jet and laser.
What is a dot matrix printer?
These are impact printers meaning there is physical contact between the print head and the paper through an inked ribbon. They can print in colour and black and white. They will print on multi-part stationery.
What is an ink jet printer?
These spray ink onto the paper and are quiet. They print in black and white and colour. Relatively cheap to run as the only replaceable component is the cartridge. Used in homes and offices.
What is a laser printer?
High res, non impact printers. They are reliable and produce excellent quality in colour and black and white. Used where high quality fast output is required. They are becoming cheaper to buy and are seen in more homes.
How does a laser printer work?
They use a rotating mirror to reflect laser beams onto a photosensitive drum, where the image of the page is converted into an electrostatic charge that attracts and holds the ink.
What is a plotter?
A plotter is a mechanical device which produces printouts using vector or coordinate graphics. They draw accurate line diagrams such as maps and building plans.
