INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

  • Information technology has become the key area for business and government sectors in recent times. Computers  and communication not only perform routine tasks like connecting cell phones, but with internet access they give access to the world’s digital info and the means to process
  • Computer – A computer is an electronic device which is capable of receiving the inputs, storing it for a desired period of time, manipulating it according to the set of instructions and producing the output in desired
  • Charles Babbage is the father of the

4.2 GENERATION OF COMPUTERS

First generation (1940 – 1956):

  • First generation computers used vacuum tubes which occupied huge space and consumed lot of electricity and relied on machine language to perform all computations. They could solve only one problem at a time.

Second generation (1956 – 1963):

  • Second generation computers used transistors which allowed computers to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy efficient and reliable. These computers used Assembly language.

Third generation (1964 – 1971):

  • Transistors were replaced by Integrated circuit chips which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers. These computers could handle multiple programs and applications at

Fourth generation (1971 – Present):

  • Integrated circuits were replaced by microprocessors, which could be linked together to form networks which eventually led to the development of Internet. This generation saw the development of GUIs, mouse and handheld devices.

www.iasgatewayy.com

Fifth generation (present and beyond):

  • Fifth generation is about Artificial intelligence  in Alan Turing and John McCarthy are the fathers of Artificial intelligence. Voice recognition, Quantum computers and molecular Nano technology will change the face of computers in the years to come.

4.3 NETWORKS – INTERNET, ARPANET

  • Internet – Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide.
  • ARPANET – Advanced Research Projects Agency Network was the world’s first operational packet switching network.

4.4 TYPES OF COMPUTER

  • Computers can be classified based on the following
  • Principle of operation
  • Configuration (size, speed, storage capacity)

Based on the principle of operation, computers can be classified into three types as follows:

  • Analog
  • Digital
  • Hybrid
  • Analog Computers – Work on continuous range of values and provides approximate E.g.   voltage,   pressure, temperature, speeds etc.
  • Digital Computers – Solve problems by performing calculations and by dealing with each number digit by digit. It uses binary system which uses only 0 or 1. These computers are used for solving complex problems in engineering and technology.
  • Hybrid computers – Combines the desirable features of analog and digital computers. It is mostly used for automatic operations of complicated physical processes and machines.

Based  on  configuration, computers can be classified into four types as follows:

  • Super computers
  • Mainframe computers
  • Mini computers
  • Micro computers
  • Super computers – Super computers are employed for specialized applications that require immense amount of mathematical calculations. They are the best in terms of processing capacity but are very expensive. They are used for
  • Weather forecasting
  • Animated graphics
  • Fluid dynamic calculations
  • Nuclear energy research
  • Petroleum exploration
  • Climate modelling
    • Some of the companies which produce super computers are Cray, IBM & Hewlett-Packard.
  • As of November 2015, China’s Tianhe in the fastest super computer in the world. It could perform at a speed of 33.86 PFLOPS
  • India’s super computer program started in late 1980s and PARAM 8000 was India’s first super computer. PARAM stands for Parallel machine and it was developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) in 1991 with a rating of 1 The power of super computer is measured by how many floating point operations per second or flops/sec.
  • 1 Gigaflop – 1 billion flops
  • 1 Teraflop – 1 trillion flops
  • 1 petaflop – 1000 trillion flops
  • 1 exaflop – 1 quintillion flops

As of November 2012, India has 8 super computers in the Top 500 list ranking.

RankSiteNameRmax (TFlop/s)
82Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation-303.9
127Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISROSAGA - 220188.7
186Computational Research LaboratoriesEKA132.8
199Semiconductor Company-129.2
200Semiconductor Company-129.2
288IT Services Provider-104.2
364Indian Institute of Technology, MadrasVirgo91.1
386IT Services Provider-88.5

India’s notable super computers

  • SAGA 220 – built by ISRO with a capacity of 220
  • EKA – built by Computational research laboratories with technical assistance and hardware provided by HP. It is capable of performing 132
  • Pridhvi – built by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (Pune) which is being used for climate research and operational forecasting. It is capable of performing 70.2
  • PARAM Yuva – belongs to the PARAM series of super computer developed by the Centre for development of Advanced Computing. It is capable of performing at 38.1
  • As of November 2015 China’s Tianhe-2 is the fastest super computer with a capacity of

33.86 petaflops.

  • Mainframe computers – Mainframe computers process data at very high speed. i.e. hundreds of million instructions per second (MIPS). MF computers can host multiple OS and operate a number of virtual machines. MF computers are used for highly critical applications such as
  • Banking
  • Airline booking
  • Railway booking
  • Enterprise resource planning

Advantages:

  • MF can perform large scale transaction processing (1000s of transaction/sec)
  • Supports 1000s of users and application programs concurrently
  • Manage terabytes of information in database
  • Handle large bandwidth communication
  • Microcomputer – A computer with a microprocessor and it CPU is known as a microcomputer. When supplemented with a keyboard and mouse, micro computers can be called as personal computers. Micro computers can be classified into
    • Desktop
  • Laptop
  • PDA
  • Tablets
  • Mini computers – Mini computers lie in between Mainframe and microcomputer in terms of size and processing capacity. They are also known as mid-range systems or work stations.

4.5 STORAGE DEVICES

  • Computer data storage often called storage refers to computer components and recording media that retain digital

Internal memory

  • RAM – Random Access Memory

– stores the code and data that is being actively processed by CPU. Temporary information can be stored and erased in RAM. RAM can be categorised as static RAM and dynamic RAM.

  • Static RAM – holds data as long as current flows through the circuit. SRAM is faster and less volatile than DRAM but requires more power and is less expensive.
  • Dynamic RAM – needs high or low voltage applied at regular intervals every 2 milliseconds or so. DRAM is cheaper when compared to
  • ROM – Read only memory. Data once written cannot be

Secondary storage devices

  • HDD – Hard or fixed disk device is a device for storing digital information. It consists of one or more rapidly rotating discs coated with magnetic material and with magnetic heads arranged to write data to the surfaces and read it from
  • SSD – Solid state drive or disk is a data storage device that uses solid state memory that stores persistent data with the intention of providing access in the same manner as HDD. But the difference is SSD is an electromagnetic device containing  spinning  disks  and movable read/write heads.
  • RAID array controller – Redundant array of Independent disks is a device to manage several internal or external hard disks and optionally some peripherals in-order to achieve performance or reliability improvement.
  • Floppy disc – is an outdated storage media used for reading and storing text files and simple formats. Storage capacity of 3.5’ FD is 1.44 Mb.
  • Compact Disc – is an optical disc used to store digital data. CD is an evolution of Laser disc technology. Data in the CD is read by passing infra-red laser through the bottom of the CD. CDs have a normal storage capacity of 700mb. Different types of CDs are used for different purposes as mentioned below.
  • Data storage (CD-R)
  • Rewritable media (CD-RW)
  • Video compact disc (VCD)
  • DVD – Digital video disk or versatile disk is also an optical storage device that looks the same as CD but is able to hold about 15 times as much information and transfer it to the computer about 20 times as fast as CD-ROM. A single sided DVD can store 4.7 Gb of data whereas a double sided and two layered DVD can store up to 17 Gb data. DVD provides better graphics, greater resolution and increased storage capacity. DVD supports two
    • DVD Video (for home movie entertainment)
    • DVD ROM (interactive games, video file storage, photographic storage)
    • DVD RAM (record data)
    • DVD R (Recordable)
  • Blu ray disc – is the name of the next generation optical disc format. This format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of HD video, as well as storing large amounts   of   data.   The   format offers   more   than   5   times   the storage   capacity   of   traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25 Gb on a single layer disc and 50 Gb on  a  dual  layer  disc.  This  disc uses  blue  violet  laser  instead  of red and hence the name Blu ray.
  • HD DVD – this standard was jointly developed by Toshiba & NEC and supported by Microsoft. HD DVD has a single layer capacity of 15 Gb and dual layer capacity of 30 Gb. Capacity of HD-DVD RAM single layers is 20 Gb and dual layer is 40
  • USB Flash drive – is a typically small, lightweight, removable and rewritable flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB interface. Their capacity varies from hundreds of Mb to tens of
  • Memory card – Memory cards are typically used on mobile devices. They are thinner, smaller and lighter than USB Flash drives. Common types of memory cards are given below.

    SD – Secure digital is a non- volatile memory card

    MS – Memory stick is a removable flash memory card format

  • Tape drives – read and write data on a magnetic tape and are used for long term storage and backups.

4.6 COMPUTING PARADIGMS

  • Parallel Computing
    • Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously based on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently. The various types of parallel computing are
  • Bit level
  • Instruction level
  • Data level
  • Task level

4.6.2   Grid computing

  • Grid computers or computational grids enable the selection, sharing and aggregation of a wide variety of geographically distributed computational resources such as super computers, complete clusters, storage systems, data sources, instruments & people and  present them as a single unified resource for solving large scale computer and data intensive applications. E.g. molecular modelling for drug design, brain activity analysis and high energy physics.
  • AFAIK is the world’s largest grid project used in CERN which is being used for 2 years for the processing of data from Large hadron Collider enabling unprecedently fast delivery of scientific
  • GARUDA is India’s Grid computing initiative connecting 17 cities across the country, which includes all the IITs and CDAC centres.

4.6.3   Quantum Computing

Quantum computer is a computation device that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomenon such as superposition and entanglement to perform operations on data. Quantum computers use qubits to perform complex computations which is the quantum analog of digital bit.

4.6.4   Cloud computing

  • Cloud computing is a comprehensive solution that delivers IT as a

Types:

  • Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
  • Platform as a service (PaaS)
  • Software as a service (SaaS)
  • Security as a service (SECaaS)
  • Storage as a service (STaaS)
  • Data as a service (DaaS)
  • Test environment as a service (TEaaS)
  • Desktop as a service (DaaS)
  • API as a service (Apia as)

Advantages:

  • Reduced cost
  • Reduced use of personnel
  • Robust scalability
  • Availability
  • Lower infrastructure costs
  • Mobility
  • Risk reduction
  • COMMUNICATIONS DTH – Direct to Home TV

  • DTH can reach remote or rural areas. It offers digital quality signals which do not degrade the picture or sound quality. It also offers interactive channels and program guides with customers having the choice to block out programming which they consider
  • The service providers in India are sun DTH, Tata sky, Dish TV, MTNL IPTV, Aortal DTH, Videocon DTH. IPTV – is a real- time broadcasting system for delivering TV programs to households through a broadband connection using IPs or systems. IPTV offers triple play
  • Video on demand (VOD)
  • VoIP
  • Web access

Internet telephony

Internet telephony refers to communication services – voice, fax, SMS voice messaging applications that are transported via internet rather than PSTN (Public switched telephone network).

  • VoIP – refers to communication protocols, technologies, methodologies and transmission techniques involved in the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over IP networks such as

4.8 WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES

  • Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short- wavelength radio transmissions in the ISM band from 2400– 2480 MHz) from fixed and

mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs) with high levels of security. It is a wireless personal area network.

  • Wi-Fi or wireless fidelity is a technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data wirelessly using radio waves over a computer network including high speed internet connections.
  • EDGE – Enhanced data rate for GSM Evolution or enhanced GPRS is a digital mobile phone technology that allows improved transmission rates as a backward extension of GSM. Supports data transfer speeds up to 384 kbps. It is also known as 2.75G
  • UMTS – Universal Mobile Tele system is a 3rd generation broadband, packet based transmission of text, digitized voice, video and multimedia with data rates up to 2Mbps based on the GSM
  • HSPA – High Speed Packet Access is an amalgamation of 2 mobile telephony protocols HS Downlink Packet Access and HS Uplink packet Access that extends and improves the performance of existing 3rdgeneration mobile telecommunication networks utilizing WCDMA
  • EVDO – Evolution data only or data optimized is one of the several major 3G wireless data standards. Mobile devices that use EVDO technology can upload and download quickly and the technology is always on whenever there is a signal from the wireless tower. Unlike a Wi-Fi connection, a device with EVDO does not need to be near a wireless hot spot; instead the cellphone can itself become a hotspot and share its internet connection with other devices. Frequency band 450 MHz
  • Long Term Evolution – Long term evolution is a mobile network 3G technology that is being deployed by mobile operations on both GSM and CDMA technology paths. LTE networks can deliver fast speed up to 100 Mbps in the downlink and 50 Mbps in the
  • LTE Advanced – 4G technology. Enhanced data rate of 1 Gbps using higher order MIMO.

WiMax       –      Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access.WiMax provides

  • Portable and high speed of broadband service
  • Wireless – so less expensive than cable or DSL and much easier to extend to suburban and rural areas.
  • Broad coverage like cell phone network instead of small Wi-Fi hotspots.
  • Provides data, telecom (VoIP), IPTV services (triple play)
  • Data speed up to 3-40 Mbps and up to 1Gbps for fixed

4.9 DIGITAL CONVERGENCE

  • Convergence is a confluence of computers, telephone and TV into a single system to provide Information, Communication and Entertainment (ICE). Such a cyber confluence is expected to be implemented in current decade for which Government is contemplating a new regulation known as communication (carriage and content) bill, which will facilitate the rapid growth and

4.10 INFO SUPER HIGHWAY

  • Information Super Highway is a phrase that indicates the convergence of technology of Computer, TV phone into single system providing high speed, high capacity data communication conduct that would allow exchange of multimedia data across the continent enabling applications like video conferencing, transfer of images, sound etc. across continents. G8 countries have developed this plan for linking all of them initially and later on extending it to

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

  1. What is artificial intelligence? What is its current scenario and what are its prospects? (About 250 words) (01/II/3a/40)
  2. What do the following stand for? (92/II/8c(C)/3)
    • PUFA (ii) VHRR

(iii) HDTV

  1. What is an E-lamp? What are its main advantages? (93/II/8a(C)/3)
  1. What is virtual reality? What is it used for? (96/II/7b/20)
  2. What do the following stand for: (96/II/8c(C)/3)
    • C-DOT (ii) CGCRI

(iii) INMAS

  1. What do the following stand for? (97/II/8d(C)/3)
    • TIFR
    • GRDO (iii) NEERI
  2. What are optical fibres? What are their advantages? (98/II/7c/20)
  3. State the importance of Antrix corporation. (98/II/8b(C)/3)
  4. Why is Website getting popular? (98/II/8c(C)/3)
  • What do the following stand for: (98/II/8d(C)/3)
    • C-DAC (ii) ICMR

(iii) TRAI

  1. What is the difference between E- mail and Fax? (98/II/8f(C)/3)
  2. What are the major provisions of the New Telecom Policy approved by the Government? What has been the decision of the Delhi High Court in this respect? (99/I/6c/10)
  3. What do the NISSAT stand for? (99/II/10d(i)/1)
  1. What is fibre optics? What advantages does it offer in telecommunications? Elaborate. (01/II/11a/15)
  2. Write about E-commerce in 20 words. (01/I/13b/2)
  3. Discuss in detail “The Internet Telephony as an alternative.” (02/II/10b/30)
  4. What is interactive television? What special advantages are derived by using VOD services? What are the components of a typical VOD system? Which feature film was generated first entirely on computers and in which year? (03/II/10b/30)
  • Discuss the utility of e- governance in the Indian context. (04/I/11c/10)
  1. Write note on Use of Information Technology in health management in India. (in 125 words) (05/I/12c/10)
  2. What is digital convergence? Examine its implications for modern society. (About 250 words) (05/II/10b/30)
  3. Write short notes on PACE. (07/I/13b/2)
  1. Explain: Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) (150 words) (08/II/11a/15)
  2. Explain: Wifi. (150 words) (08/II/11c/15)
  3. Write brief note on TIFAC in 20 words. (08/II/12b/2)
  4. Define ‘optical frequency comb’. Suggest at least three applications. (09/II/9d/10)
  5. Trace the significant steps in the evolution of Television in the country. (09/I/9a/15)
  • The Telecommunications Ministry’s proposed Spectrum Management (2011/I/7e/5)

COMPUTER

  1. What is a “Computer Virus”? What are its effects? Its there a remedy? (89/II/8e(C)/4)
  1. Explain the meaning of the term ‘quantum jump’. (90/II/8d(C)/3)
  1. What is a supercomputer? Give an account of supercomputer development in (93/II/3a/4c)
  1. What is a CD-ROM Describes its main advantages as a vehicle for information (93/II/7c/20)
  1. What are     encilitest? (94/II/8a(C)3)
  1. What do the following stand for? (94/II/8d(C)/3)
    • C-DAC (ii) SROSS
    • INSDOC
  1. What do the following stand for: (95/II/8d(C)/3)
    • IRDEA (ii) APPLE

(iii) INMAS

  1. What is E-mail? (97/II/8c(C)/3)
  1. Describe the development of super-computer in India. (98/II/7a/20)
  • What is a modem? What is it used for? (99/II/10a/3)
  1. What is a computer virus? How does it infect systems? (99/II/10c/2)
  1. Answer the following about 20 words each: (00/II/12/2 each)
  • What does the clock speed’ of

a computer signify?

  • What do the following stand for? (00/II/12/2 each)
    • http (ii) CPU

(iii) ROM  (iv) BIOS

  • What is a modem and what is it used for?
  • What is spamming?
  • How does a computer virus destroy data?
  1. Answer the following in about 20 words each:
  • What is ‘handshake’ in

computer language?

  • What is ‘ethernet’ and what is

it used for?

  • What is ‘digital signature’ and

what is it used for?

  • What do the following stand for?
    • DRAM (ii) JPEG (iii)

ASCII (iv) IMAP

  • What is  a  WAP  –enabled phone? (01/II/12/2 each)
  1. Answer the following in about 20 words each: (02/II/12/2 each)
  • What is a digital camera?
  • What is firewall in computer Language?
  • What is multimedia?
  • What do the following stand for?
    • HTML (ii) FTB

(iii) MELOPS   (iv) PLANIT

  • What is Piracy? (02/II/12/2 each)
  1. Answer the following (in about

20 words  each):  (03/II/12/2 each)

  • What is   ‘Sympathetic Haptics’?
  • What are special featuresj of

‘Linux’?

  • What is an operating system? List the basic services provided by an operating system
  • What is an Ínternet Worm’?

Explain DDoS.

  • What do the following stand for?
    • POSIX (ii)  EPROM

(iii) MODEM   (iv) COBOL

  1. Answer the following (in about

20   words  each):  (04/II/12/2 each)

  • What do you understand by E-governance?
  • What is a URL?
  • What do the following stand for?
    • CD-ROM (ii) USB

(iii) ITES  (iv) FORTRAN (d)What do you understand by

MP3?

(e) What are cyber-crimes? How are these protected?

  1. Write about the following: (05/II/6i/2)
  • Answer the following (in about 20 words each) (05/II/12/2 each)
  • What is an Exabyte?
  • What is VIRUS?
  • What do the following stand for?
    • XML (ii) MASER

(iii) SECAM (iv) TIPS (d)What is avatar?

(e) What is Wikipedia?

  1. What do you understand by optical computing? Why is optical computing envisaged to have much better performance than that of electronic computing? (in about (150 words) (06/II/11a/15)
  1. Answer all the five (in about 20 words each). (06/II/12/2 each)
  • What do you understand by a

‘search engine’ in computing?

  • Expand the following:
    • CAD (ii) CAM

(iii) CIM

  • Explain what  is  thin  Film Memory in
  • Write a   short note on Ártificial
  • Who are called ‘Hackers’in

computer world?

  1. Answer all the five (in about 20 words each) (07/II/12/10)
  • What is firewall?
  • What is malware?
  • What do the following stand for?
    • MPEG (ii) ISP

(iii) HTML   (iv) ASCII

  • What is Root kit?
  • What is   computer architecture?
  1. Explain: Components of Robots. (08/II/11d/15)
  1. Write about ‘bhuvan’

(09/II/4a/3)

  1. Bring out the applications of computer models in studying climate changes, with special reference to the Community Earth System Model (CESM). (10/II/5a/12)
  1. Explain and differentiate among ‘Plasma’, ‘LCD’ and ‘LED’ television (10/II/5c/12)
  1. What is “cloud computing”? Bring out its essential features and list its advantages and limitations. (10/II/5d/12)
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