• 1. Information and informatics

What is information?The message enables to decide for one of the

choices of solution to the problem,message that has the sense for its recipient

Which were the milestones for spreading information? script, printing press – Johannes Guttenberg, capture of picture.

Compare definitions of information from different disciplines (philosophy, mathematics, and social sciences)philosophy-substance, consciousness, mind, knowledge,

space, time,Mathematics-a piece of knowledge that reduces or removesthe uncertainty about the existence of a

particular phenomenon out of the set of eventual phenomena

Information reception, value and meaning Information is every symbol expression that has a meaning both for the person who is communicating and the receiver.

Von Neumann’s architecture of computer-Hungarian-American mathematician.

One of the authors of American project of electronic computer ENIAC (1944). • In 1940s, he designed a new

concept of computing system – Von Neumann’scomputer architecture

Informatics as a discipline-Informatics is a scientific discipline that deals with the

structure, maintenance, storage, receiving, dissemination and transport of information.

It also studies the use of information in organizations, their use in human, organisation and information system

communication.

Compare these terms: information science, computer science and information technology-Information science – General processing of information (not only in computer),• Computer science– Study of computing and information process in hardware and software

aspects,• Information technology– Study of all work of computers from the technical point of view. The

name information resembles that computers operate only with

information.

2. Hardware and computer classification

Computing and computers today-Computer can be defined as an electronic appliance able to

receive input data, to process the data by the given programmeand to provide results of processing called information.“

Basic definition and structure of computer-

Hardware and software-Hardware is every physical component incomputer

• Software in computer is sets of instructionsthat make hardware work (all programs in the computer)

Data vs. information-Data are the raw materials in the productionof information• Information is data that have meaning in acontext

Information system-Information system (IS) are all components that work together to process data and produce information(Data,Hardware,Software,Telecomunications,People,Procedures)

Basic hardware components of the computer-Central processing unit (CPU)

Processes instructions and data.

• Internal memory Main memory located near CPU to temporary storage of data (RAM)

• External memory Magnetic, disk or optical memory to permanent storage of data (eg. Hard

drive, Flash disk, DVD) • Input devices To receive signals and transfer them into the computer(mouse, keyboard,

microphone, etc.) • Output devices To deliver information from computer to a person. (monitor, LCD, printer,)

Binary and hexadecimal numbers and their representation in decimal form-Decimal numeric systembase 10, ten digits from 0 to 9,Binary numeric system

base 2, two digits 0 and 1,Hexadecimal numeric system

Base 16, digits 0 and 9, letters A - F

ASCII, EBCDIC, UNICODE-EBCDIC-Developed by IBM for larger computers

 Also 8 bits per byte on one character  ASCII and EBCDIC must convert special characters like Japanese, Hebrew or Czech diacritic UNICODEConsists up to 32 bits per character (depends on the given Unicode standard) ≥ 107.000 characters! Possible to include English characters with many other within one document

Supported with current operating systems Win, Mac

Computer performance factors-Computer processing speed (CPU),Inner memory capacity (RAM)Supercomputers-Used in highly complex computations,Processing speed – million billion of instructions per second (tera flops) Mainframe computers-Connected to multiple PCs through

network,Memory – tens of GBs Midrange computers-Often used as servers in networks

of smaller computers – business environment mostly Microcomputers (PCs)-More powerful PC is workstation that serves for: Scientific applications Computer-aided design (CAD) and engineering (CAE)

• Lines between computer categories are still blurring – CPU’s price drop while performance grows Laptops Light, compact personal computer with rechargeable battery. Same components as in PC but

of smaller size.Netbooks-Used for web browsing and emailing, strongly rely on Internet access to web applications PDAs-Known as pocket computer or palmtop computer. Small mobile device controled through the touch screen with the stylus.Tablets-Mobile computer larger than PDA or smartphon Integrated flat touchscreen.