Data Processing/Information Processing

Data are raw, unorganized or unprocessed facts that need to be processed. Data can be something simple and seemingly random and useless until it is organised. TYPES OF DATA Qualitative data  i.e descriptive information Quantitative data  i.e  numeric information   SUBDIVISION OF QUANTITATIVE DATA Continuous data: this can take any value. It is also known

ICT has turned this world to a global village. Apart from communication, that is, reaching people both far and near; it has also made the work easier and better. Better productivity, salaries, health care and even farming and education. SECTORS WHERE ICT HAS PLAYED MAJOR ROLE Education Banking Industry Commerce EDUCATION ICT is applied in

COMPONENTS OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM A computer system consists of three main parts otherwise called components. They are : Hardware Software People ware   HARDWARE COMPONENT The computer hardware could be defined as the physical parts of the computer that we see, feel and handle. It consists of device for input, processing, storage, output and

Digitalization is the process of converting information into digital format. This information may represent an object, image, sound, document or a signal (usually an analog signal) organized into discrete set of its points or samples. This is the binary data that computers and many devices with computing capacity (such as digital camera and digital hearing

SUPER COMPUTER These are the largest, fastest and most expensive computers. The cost is several millions of dollars and the speed is between 600 million to 900 million instructions per second (MIP). Another name for super computer is MONSTER. Scientists in weather forecasting, exploration make use of super computers. It can also be used for

DIGITAL COMPUTER This is the most common type of computer today. It measures physical quantities by counting. Examples are calculator, digital wrist watches, digital fuel dispenser etc.   ANALOGUE COMPUTER This type of computer is used to measure and process continuous data such as speed, temperature, heartbeat etc. Examples are speedometer, thermometer etc.   HYBRID

Consider the table below: Generations Of computers Year of development The Technology Used Characteristics Software Instruction Storage Capacity First 1951-1958     Vacuum tube Very big and slow in operation Machine language Small internal storage Second 1959-1964 Transistor Less heat generation High level & Assembly Core storage Third 1965-1975 100-1000 Chips Introduction of integrated circuit

FIRST GENERATION OF COMPUTERS Electronic machine which was distinct from mechanical computers evolved about 1945. UNIVAC is a good example of this generation of computers. Computers of this generation were characterized by: They used Vacuum tubes. They were very large and expensive. They were very bulky. They had a low retentive memory. They generated a

EARLY MECHANICAL COUNTING/CALCULATING DEVICES Abacus Slide rule   EARLY ELECTRO-MECHANICAL COUNTING DEVICES John Napier bone Blaize Pascal machine Gottfried Leitbnitz machine Joseph Jacquard Loom Charles Babbage analytical machine   EARLY ELECTRONIC COUNTING DEVICES Herman Hollerith punch card John Von Neumann machine   Man has put in every effort to have better methods of calculations. As

Crash recovery is the process by which the database is moved back to a consistent and usable state. This is done by rolling back incomplete transactions and completing committed transactions that were still in memory when the crash occurred. When the database is in a consistent and usable state, it has attained what is known

DEFINITION OF DATA SECURITY Data security is the practice of keeping data protected from corruption and unauthorized access. The focus behind data security is to ensure privacy while protecting personal or corporate data.   It is a means of putting in place the different form of information security controls to protect database against compromise of

Maintenance is highly essential in order to prolong its contributing functionality. SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE The maintenance of programs inside the computer system such as virus, a spyware removal, back up software and a registry removal, cleaner. Every PC should be installed with an anti virus, a spyware removal application back up and a registry cleanser. Some

Maintenance of computer hardware is a way of taking care, repairing and replacing broken and failing computer hardware. Maintenance is necessary on computer to avoid hardware failure or loosing valuable information and most times, hardware breaks without notice. Excess heat accelerates the deterioration of the delicate circuits in the system. Dust and dirt are the

DENSE INDEX This is said to be dense if it contains (at least) one data entry for every search key value that appears in a record in the indexed file. In a dense index, index record appears for every search key value in the file or table. That is every search key in the index

An Index is a copy of database table that has been reduced to certain fields and the copy is always in sorted form. The index also contains a pointer to the corresponding record of the actual table so that the fields not contained in the index can also be read. Index contains a value and

DEFINITION OF DATA MODEL Is the process of structuring and organizing data.   TYPES OF DATA MODELS (1) Flat (2) Hierarchical (3) Network (4) Relational (5) Object-Relational and (6)Star Schema   SIGNIFICANCE OF DATA MODEL (1) A well-developed data model can foster improved understanding of the organization (2) Data model helps in structuring and organizing