Fundamentals of Computer Systems Objectives: You should be able to define what a computer system is To be able to describe why computer systems are important and need to be reliable To understand the need for professional standard, ethical, legal and environmental considerations

What is a computer system? TASK: Write (or type) your definition of a computer system? A system is a collection of parts that work together for a common purpose. Why are computer systems so commonly used? Versatile Cheap Small

Computer Systems Fill in the gaps on the diagram: Systems have many inputs and outputs They often interact with other systems They can be made up of many sub-systems A system boundary separates what is in a system and what is not – these can sometimes be hard to define! INPUTS PROCESSES OUTPUTS

Dedicated or General Purpose? A dedicated system has a fixed purpose A general purpose computer system has more than one use TASK: Come up with an example of each Software works in the same way (what is software?) Another word for dedicated computer systems are embedded systems

Why are computer systems important? TASK: Copy the table and fill out 2 examples of how computer systems can help the areas in humans lives. What it helps with? How it can help Security Hospitals monitoring patients Travel Business Retail Entertainment Communication Education Politics and Government Science

Reliability THINK PAIR SHARE Of an example of when a computer system has crashed/broken/wouldn’t work PAIR Share your example with a partner SHARE Share your example with the rest of the class

Reliability Computer systems are important and are involved in most human activities: Safety Travel Business Entertainment Education Science Given our dependence on them, it is vital we are able to trust in the reliability of these systems.

Internet Research Use the internet to research the consequences of unreliable computer systems. Collect your data and produce a PowerPoint slide to explain The business/system that was in place What went wrong What the consequence were You will be sharing your story with the class

How do we make systems more reliable? There are several ways of doing this One of them is to make all systems stick to the same conventions and rules, known as Standards There are various categories of standards. In computing, standards exist for programming languages, operating systems, data formats, communications protocols electrical interfaces.

Testing Why is testing important? What is testing? What is it not? What do testers try to do?

Standards What are “ de facto” standards? What are the two models which help to break down the process of the design and creation of a system? What are the steps of the second one?

Standards in Coding What do de facto standards involve the use of? What else does it stop? What is Open Source Code?

Standards in Documentation Having standards in the documentation of the system being developed can allow:

Standards in Health and Safety De facto standards are not enough when considering the health of people. Therefore the developers also need to follow the ….. When they are developing the system they also need to consider the….

Ethical Considerations Define what ethical considerations are and why they are important Give three examples of ethical considerations

Environmental Considerations Define what environmental considerations are and why they are important Give three examples of ethical considerations

Legal Considerations What are the three laws that need to be followed You need to include key points about what they are and how they differ from the others

Exam Style Questions Define a system Explain the difference between proprietary standards and open standards Explain how de facto standards have helped the development of easy to use computers Define the term ‘Embedded system’ State two reasons why new IT systems can fail to deliver what was intended