Computer Systems Revision

Computer Systems Revision

1. What is a computer system?

   • Has a input, output, process and storage
     • Input, output, process and storage
       • Input
       • Output
       • Process
       • Storage
   • A collection of software and hardware that work together to achieve a set task

2. Professional standards

   • Reliability
   • Software standards
     • How to allocate staff to teams
     • How to keep track of changes
     • How to code programs
     • How to test
     • How to document the whole system
     • Benifits
       • Efficency
         • Any member of a software team can understand it without adapting to a new program
       • Fewer errors and debugging
         • Standards result in more accurate coding
       • Easy to maintain
         • Any programmer can find it relatively easy to look through the code and make changes
   • Standards for coding programs
     • Put comments in the code
     • Variable names
       • Naming convention
     • Formatting code
     • Version names and numbers

3. Ethical, environmental and legal considerations

   • Data protection act
     • Rules
       • The data must be accurate and up to date
       • You have a right to see what data is held about you
       • The data must be protected from unauthorised access
     • Personal data is held in hundreds of computers
     • We would like to be confident that this data is accurate and held for a specific purpose
     • A lot of this data is private and should not be available for anyone else to look at
     • It should also be kept safe from people who want to use it for criminal purposes
   • Computer misuse act
     • Rules
       • Developers should not create any programs that help hackers

4. Computer systems in the modern world

   • Uses
     • Retail
     • Shops
     • Schools
     • Emergency Services
     • Travel
     • Politcs
   • Big part of everyone's daily life
     • Mobile Phones
     • GPS
     • MP3 player
     • PCs
     • Digital Radio