Computer Software

Software - is the general term applied to on a ROM chip on the motherboard.

the instructions that direct the The software on the BIOS chip
computer’s hardware to perform work. is the first part of the computer to
- It is distinguished from function when the system is turned
hardware by its conceptual on.
rather than physical nature. It first searches for an
Software is needed for 2 purposes: Operating System (OS) and loads it
First, computers do not directly into the RAM.
understand human language, Programs on chips are often called
and software is needed to firmware, because they straddle the
translate instructions created line between hardware and software.
in human language into Operating System
machine language. - is the overall controller of the
Second, packaged or stored work of the computer.
software is needed to make the - is software loaded from the
computer an economical work hard drive into RAM as soon as
tool. the computer is turned on.
- can be upgraded or entirely
Software is supplied as organized changed through software.
instruction sets called programs, or - It handle the connection
more typically as a set of related between the CPU and
programs called a package. peripherals.
Programs - translate operations the The connection between the CPU and a
user needs into language and peripheral or a user is called an
instructions that the computer can interface.
understand. Utility Software
Computer hardware - is merely a - consists of programs designed
collection of printed circuits, plastic, to support and optimize the
metal, and wires. functioning of the computer
Without software, hardware performs system itself.
no functions. Utility programs - include programs
Categories of Software designed to keep the computer system
1. System Software operating efficiently.
2. Utility Software 6 Categories of Utility Software
3. Application Software 1. Security Software
System Software 2. Disk Management Utilities
System software - “boots up” (starts up 3. Backup Utilities
and initializes) the computer system; 4. Screen Savers
controls input, output, and storage; 5. Archival Software
and controls the operations of the 6. Programming environment
application software. support system
- helps speed up the
computer’s processing, expands the Security software
power of the computer by creating - including primarily antivirus,
cache memory, reduces the amount of firewall, and encryption
confusion when multiple programs are programs
running together, “cleans up” the hard - protect the computer and its
drive so that storage is managed data from attacks that can
efficiently. destroy programs and data.
Basic Input/Output System Anti-virus Utilities
The first level of system control - serve primarily to guard
is handled by the basic input/output against malicious program
system (BIOS) stored inadvertently accessed,
 usually through email or Packing
downloads from the Internet. Zipping
Compressing
Archiving

Firewalls
- type of security program that as well as:
makes it much harder for unpacking
unauthorized persons or unzipping
systems to enter the computer de-archiving
and hijack or damage programs extraction
or data on the computer. Programming environment support
Firewalls can include both additional programs
hardware and utility software. - are used by program developers
Encryption Software to support their programming
- encodes the data so that it work or to run their programs.
cannot be read until it is decoded. The COMPILER - the program that
HTTPS letters on a Webpage address performs the translation.
indicate that the If a programmer wishes to translate a
site encrypts data sent through that machine language program into a
site. higher level language a human can
- is sufficiently high level that it understand the programmer uses a
cannot be decoded without a DECOMPILER PROGRAM.
program at the receiver site. Programming - is difficult because not
Disk Management Utilities only does the programmer have to
- designed to help the user keep detail complex logic, but the
hard disk space clean and commands that comprise the program
efficient. must be written in a specific syntax.
- They do this by analyzing use Syntax - refers to a set of very specific
of disk space, defragmenting rules about words, word usage, and
the drive and deleting duplicate word order in order of a computer
files if the user do commands. language.
The defragmenter moves data around - It must be exactly correct for a
on the disk so that small empty spaces computer to correctly interpret the
are eliminated and data and programs code and run the program.
are relocated to better use the Problems with either the logic or
available space. syntax will cause the program to fail,
Backup Utilities or perform incorrectly. These kinds of
- Serve to help the users back up problems are called “BUGS” and
their data. correcting them is called
Screen Savers “DEBUGGING” a program.
- are computer programs that Utility programs designed to help a
either blank the monitor screen programmer debug a program are
or fill it with constantly moving called DEBUGGING PROGRAMS.
images. Applications Software
Archival Software - Includes all the various
- usually performs atleast two programs people use to do
functions. work, process data, play
 First, it compresses games, communicate with
information In files to be others.
archived, and then stores them Application programs - are written in a
in a compressed form in some particular programming language.
long-term storage device. Then the program is “compiled” (or
Terms used to describe the data translated) into machine language.
compression performed by archival
software include: INFORMATION SCIENCE
 - an interdisciplinary field Programming Languages
primarily concerned with the - is a means of communicating
analysis, collection, with the computer.
classification, manipulation,
storage, retrieval, movement,

dissemination and use of

information Generations and Levels of
- It is concerned with Programming Languages
technologies, strategies, and Programming languages- are divided into
methodologies for getting the five generations, or sometimes into
right information to people three levels. The term level refers to
when it is needed. how close the language is to the actual
Key themes in information science machine.
analysis include(Luenberger,2006): THE FIRST LEVEL INCLUDES THE
 optimality FIRST TWO GENERATIONS OF
 performance PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES:
 complexity Machine language
 structure Assembly language
Optimality Machine Language
- varies with the situation, but - Is the true language of the
generally refers to achieving an computer.
optimum value for some desired - consists only of the binary
outcome. numbers 1and 0,representing
- Refer to almost any variable the ON and OFF electrical
That is measured on a numerical impulses. All data—numbers,
scale, such as cost, time, workload. letters, and symbols—are
Performance represented by combinations of
- is typically considered in the binary digits.
context of average performance Assembler Language
of the information system over - is far more like the English
a series of communication language, but it is still very
instances. close to machine language.
Averages - are better representations of Assembler language instructions- have a
performance than long lists of single one-to-one correspondence with a
instance performance. machine language instruction.
Complexity - is still used a great deal by
- is a reality with the enormous system programmers and
masses of data and information whenever application
generated, collected, stored,and programmers wish to
retrieved. manipulate functions at the
Structure machine level.
- means developing a system for THIRD-GENERATION LANGUAGES
ordering and cataloging the - include the procedural
data and information, language sand were the
particularly in a database. beginning of the second level in
Information science is a rapidly growing programming languages.
field, and much of the progress is Procedural languages – require the
based on development and testing of programmer to specify both what the
mathematical algorithms related to computer is to do and the procedure
information management tasks, such for
as storage and retrieval, database how to do it.
structure, measuring the value of
information.
 - Are far more English-like than increasing anymore”
assembler and machine (Markov,2014). Another
languages. strategy was needed to improve
The style and sequence of a language speed. The solution has been to
are called its syntax. add more CPU processors ,and
FORTRAN and COBOL are examples of this solution is called
Early third-generation languages. multiprocessing which
involves multiple processors
working in parallel
(parallelism).

A third-generation language written Program languages designed to take

specifically for use in healthcare advantage of multiple processors are
settings was MUMPS (Massachusetts called CONCURRENT LANGUAGES.
General Hospital Utility Multi- Concurrent languages - are designed
Programming System). for programs that use multiple
Today, the most popular computer processors in parallel,rather than
Language for writing new Oss and running the program sequentially on a
other system programs is called C. (It single processor.
was name after an earlier prototype - C++ is an example of a
program called simply B.) programming language
Two important late third-generation designed as a concurrent
Languages are increasing in language.
importance as the importance of the Closely associated with the need to
Internet grows. They include the visual run multiple parts of a program at the
programming languages and Java. same time is the need to accommodate
Java multiple users at the same time. This
- was developed by Sun is called multithreading (Intel,2003).
Microsystems to be a relatively FOURTH-GENERATION
simple language that would LANGUAGES
provide the portability a cross - Are specialized application
differing computer platforms. programs that require more
Java programming skills - are critical for involvement of the user in
any serious Web developer. directing the program to do the
Visual Programming Languages necessary work.
 As the popularity of GUI An important Fourth Generation
technology grew, several language is SQL (Structured Query
languages were developed to Language).
facilitate program development SQL - is a language designed for
in graphics-based management and query operations on
environments. a relational database.
Microsoft Corporation has marketed - It does far more than simply
two very popular such programs: allow users to query a
 Visual BASIC (Beginners’ database.
Allpurpose Symbolic - It also supports data insert,
Instruction Code) data definition, database
 Visual C++ schema creation, update and
Concurrent and Distributed Languages delete, and data modification.
 Another way to categorize - It is not particularly user
programs is whether they were friendly for nonprogrammers,
designed to work sequentially but it is an extremely powerful
or concurrently. language for information
 According to Igor Markov, retrieval.
“Computer speed is not FIFTH-GENERATION LANGUAGES
 - Or third level languages are Security programs - are also an
called natural languages. In important market product.
these types of programs,the SOFTWARE PACKAGE OWNERSHIP
user tells the machine what to RIGHTS
do in the user’s own natural  Protecting ownership rights in
language. software has presented a
To prepare a translation program for a challenge to the computer
natural language requires several software industry. A program
levels of analysis. sold to one customer can be
First, the sentences need to be installed on a very large
broken down to identify the subject’s number of machines.
words and relate them to the
underlying constituents of speech.

 The next level is called  As a result, copyright laws were

semantic analysis, where by extended to software so that
the grammar of each word in only the original purchaser was
the sentence is analyzed. It legally empowered to install the
attempts to recognize the program on his or her
action described and the object computer. Any other
of the action. installations were considered
 An exciting application of illegal copies, and such copies
natural language processing were called pirate copies.
(NLP) is called biomedical text COMMON SOFTWARE USEFUL TO
mining (BioNLP). NURSES
The purpose is to assist users to find Hospital Information System (HIS
Information topic in biomedical - A multipurpose program,
literature. designed to support many
DNorm applications in hospitals and
- Is a program that detects their associated clinics.
specific disease names in Electronic Medical Record
journal articles or other text - The components nurses use
documents. most for charting patient care.
- It also associates them with Admission-Discharge-Transfer(ADT)
search terms in MeSHterms Systems
inPubMed and terms in - that help with patient tracking
SNOMED-CT1. Medication Administration Record
COMMON SOFTWARE PACKAGES (MAR)software
FOR MICROCOMPUTERS - supplies inventory systems
The most common package sold with through which nurses charge
computers is a standard office package. IVs, dressings, and other
The standard office package includes: supplies used in patient care
 a word processing program Laboratory Systems
 a spreadsheet program, - that are used to order
 a presentation graphics laboratory tests and report the
program results.
The two most commonly used Some nursing applications include a
programs are the e-mail system and handy “dashboard,” which is an
the word processor. application that provides a sort of a
Another very common product is a menu of options from which the nurse
desktop publisher. can choose.
Most of these common programs have - Dashboards provide the nurse
to be written in two versions: a quick way to order common
 one for the IBM PC platform Output from certain(or all)
 one for the Mac. screens, or may provide some
 kind of alert that a task is due  star(also called multipoint;all
to be performed. communications go through a
COMPUTER SYSTEMS single hub computer)
 Every functioning computer is  bus (in which all computersare
a system; That is, it is a connected to asingleline)
complex entity, consisting of an  tree.
organized set of interconnected  For very large networks,
components or factors that backbone communication
function together as a unit to technology is increasingly used.
accomplish results that one The use of systems in computer
part alone could not. technology is based on system theory.

Computer system - may refer to a single

machine(and its peripherals and System theory and its subset,
software)that is unconnected to any network theory, provide the basis for
other computer. understanding how the power of
- consisting of multiple, individual computers has been greatly
interconnected computers that enhanced through the process of
function to facilitate the work linking multiple computers into a
of groups of providers and their Single system and multiple computer
support people in a system systems into networks.
called a NETWORK.
Common types of computer
networks are:
 point-to-point
 local area network (LAN)
 wide area network (WAN)
 metropolitan area network
(MAN)
Point-to-point network –is a very small
network in which all parts of the
system are directly connected via wires
or wireless (typically provided by a
router in asingle building).
LANs, WANs ,and MANs – are
sequentially larger and given the
number of users they require
communications architecture to
ensure all users on the network are
served.
Computer networks must allocate
time and memory space to many
users, and so must have a way to
organize usage of the network
resources so that all users are served.

There are a variety of allocation

strategies for high-level
communication in networks.
The most common are:
 token ring (developed byIBM)