Summary

Information and Communications Technology - or technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes all technologies for the manipulation and communication of information. ICT is not to be confused with Information System (IS). Information systems are systems involved in the gathering, processing, distribution and use of information and as such support human activity systems. Components of IS are: people, hardware, software, data and procedures.

A mainframe is a high-performance computer used for large-scale computing purposes that require greater availability and security than a smaller-scale machine can offer. A microcomputer is a complete computer on a smaller scale and is designed for an individual. Mini computers are used by business organization and they can support the simultaneous working of up to 100 users and is usually maintained in business organizations for the maintenance of accounts and finances. A supercomputer is typically used for scientific and engineering applications that must handle very large databases or do a great amount of computation (or both).

Hardware devices for input include keyboards and the mouse, scanner, touch screen and joystick. Hardware for processing includes the CPU chip such as the Intel Pentium II. Storage devices include the hard drive, CD, DVD, RAID, and optical disc. The output devices can be the screen, the printer and the speaker. Communication devices include modem, network interface cards, wireless network interface cards and network access point transceiver.

Summary

External peripherals are connected to a computer through cables using connectors called communication ports. Parallel ports are mainly used for connecting printer. Serial ports are used to connect PC to various types of peripherals, such as mouse, scanner, modem, external units.

The Internet is a computer network made up of thousands of networks worldwide. The World Wide Web (WWW) is a system of Internet servers that supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single interface.