Jeselo O.

Gorme, RN, MN
Historical Perspectives of Nursing and the
Computer
Prior to the 1960s
 There were only a few experts who formed the cadre of
pioneers that attempted to adapt computers to health
care and nursing.
 Computers were initially used in health care facilities
for basic business functions.
 These early computers use punch cards to store data
and card readers to read computer programs, sort, and
prepare data for processing. They were linked together
and operated by paper tape and used teletypewriters
to print their output.
1960s
 Studies were conducted to determine how computer
technology could be utilized effectively in the health
care industry and what areas of nursing should be
automated.
 Cathode ray tube (CRT) terminals, online data
communication and real-time processing were
introduced.
 Hospital Information Systems (HISs) were developed
primarily to process financial transactions and serve as
billing and accounting systems.
1970s
 Nurses recognized the computer’s potential for
improving the documentation of nursing practice, the
quality of patient care, and the repetitive aspects of
managing patient care.
 They assisted in the design and development of
nursing applications for the HISs and other
environments where nurses functioned.
 Several mainframe HISs were designed and developed
as well as computer-based management information
systems (MISs)
1980s
 The field of informatics emerged in the health are
industry and nursing.
 NI became an accepted specialty and many nursing
experts entered the field.
 The nursing profession were faced with the challenge
not only to update its practice standards but also
determine its data standards, vocabularies, and
classification schemes that could be coded for the
computer-based patient records system (CPRSs).
 Many mainframe HISs emerged with nursing
subsystems. These systems documented several
aspects of the patient record; namely, order entry
emulating the Kardex, results reporting, vital signs,
and other systems that documented narrative nursing
notes via word-processing packages.
 Microcomputers or personal computers (PC) emerged.
 This technology made computers more accessible,
affordable, and usable by nurses and other health care
providers.
1990s
 In 1992, NI was approved by the American Nurses
Association (ANA) as a new nursing specialty.
 This period brought smaller and faster computers –
laptops and notebooks – to the bedside and all of the
point-of-care settings.
 Workstations and local area network (LAN) were
developed for hospital nursing units, wide area
networks (WAN) were developed for linking care
across health care facilities, and the Internet started to
be used for linking across the different systems.
 By 1995, the Internet had moved into the mainstream
social milieu with electronic mail (E-mail), file transfer
protocol (FTP), Gopher, Telnet, and WWW protocols,
which greatly enhanced its usability and user-
friendliness.
 The Internet began to be used for high performance
computing and communication (HPCC) or the
“information superhighway”.
 The “Web” became the means for communicating
online services and resources to the community.
 ASSIGNMENTS

Research about the history of FTPs, Gopher, Telnet and

their difference with WWW and HTTP protocols.
Post 2000
 Clinical information systems became individualized in
the electronic patient record (EPR) and patient
specific systems considered for the life long
longitudinal record or the electronic health record
(EHR).
 Information technologies continued to advance with
mobile technology such as with wireless tablet
computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and
smart cellular phones.
 Smart cards were also developed during this period.
 In the US, the health Insurance Portability Act of 1996
(HIPAA) was enacted to streamline health care
transactions and reduce costs.
 This legislation recommended health care providers
use a provider identification number (PIN) to
maintain privacy and security of patient information.
Nursing Practice
 Computer systems with nursing and patient care data,
nursing care plans are no longer separate subsystems
of the computerized HISs, but rather integrated into
one interdisciplinary patient health record in the EHR.
 Nursing practice data emerged with the introduction
of several nursing terminologies that were recognized
by the ANA as coded terminologies usable for the
EHR.
Nursing Administration
 Most policy and procedure manuals are accessed and
retrieved by computer.
 Workload measures, acuity systems, and other nursing
department systems are online and integrated with the
hospital or patient’s HER system or in separate nursing
department systems.
 The internet is being used by nurses to access digital
libraries, online resources, and research protocols at
the bedside.
Nursing Education
 Most universities and schools of nursing offer
enhanced courses, online courses, and/or distance
education.
 Campus-wide computer systems are available for
students to communicate via e-mail, transfer data files,
access the digital libraries, and retrieve online
resources of millions of Internet WWW sites.
 Interactive teleconferencing courses also bring live
classroom lectures via computer systems via digital
telephone lines or satelite communication to remote
sites.
Nursing Research
 It provides the impetus to use the computer for analyzing
nursing data.
 There is already advancement of computer technology
databases supporting nursing research, principally for
online searching and retrieving information from the
electronic bibliographic literature systems or other
databases that contain relevant health care content, such as
drug data.
 The internet also provides online access to the millions of
Web resources around the world which have increased the
capabilities and expanded the field of nursing research.
Electronic Health Record from a Historical
Perspective
Introduction to Davies
 The Computer-based Patient Record Institute (CPRI)
is a non-profit membership organization representing
all stakeholders in healthcare, focusing on clinical
applications of information technology.
 CPRI was among the first nationally based
organizations to initiate and coordinate activities to
promote routine use of computer-based patient
records (CPRs).
Davies Program
 This national program is intended to award and bring
to national attention excellence in the implementation
of computerized medical records.
 The program is founded in the belief that healthcare
organizations benefit when collective experiences and
lessons learned are shared.
 Today the program is under the consolidation of CPRI-
HOST with Healthcare Information and Management
Systems Society (HIMSS)
Computer Hardware
 A computer is a machine that uses electronic
components and instructions to the components to
perform calculations and repetitive and complex
procedures, process text, and manipulate data and
signals.
 Computer hardware is defined as all of the physical
components of the machine itself.
 Typically, computer systems are composed of many
different component parts that enable the user to
communicate with the computer, and with other
computers to produce work.
 The group of required and optional hardware items
that are linked together to make up a computer system
is called its configuration.
 Many of the key components are placed inside a rigid
plastic housing or case, which is called the box.
The Box
Motherboard
 It is a thin, flat sheet made of a firm, non-conducting
material on which the internal components – printed
circuits, chips, and so on – of the computer are
mounted.
 It is made of a dielectric or non-conducting plastic
material, and the electric conductions are etched or
soldered onto the bottom of the board.
 The specific design of the components -especially the
CPU and other microprocessors- is called the
computer’s architecture.
Central Processing Unit
 The CPU is the “brains” of the computer.
 It consists of:
1. Arithmetic and logic unit
2. Control unit
3. Memory
 The arithmetic and logic units control mathematical
functions such as addition and subtraction and functions
that test logic conditions.
 The control unit carries out the machine language
functions called fetch, execute, decode, and store
cycles.
 For example, when a command is given to add two
numbers, the control unit “fetches” the instruction
and numbers from their storage locations and
“decodes” the instruction so that proper operations
can be performed. Then the control unit “executes”
the command by sending the instruction to the
arithmetic and logic unit. Then the control unit
“stores” the result of the instruction in a memory
location.
 Memory consists of registers (a small number of very
high-speed memory locations), random access
memory (RAM), which is the main storage area in
which the computer places the programs and data it is
working on; and cache (a small memory storage area
holding recently accessed data).
Memory
 2 types of memory in the computer:
1. Read Only Memory (ROM)
 It is a form of permanent storage.
 This generally contains the programs, called
firmware, used by the control unit of the CPU to
oversee computer functions.
 The data and programs stored can only be read and
cannot be erased or altered.
 2 types of memory in the computer:
1. Random Access Memory (RAM)
 It refers to working memory used for primary storage.
 It is volatile and used as a temporary storage.
 It contains data and instructions that are stored and
processed by computer programs called application
programs.
 It is also the work area available to the CPU for all
processing applications.
Input and Output
 Input and output devices are wired to a controller
that is plugged into the slots or circuit boards of the
computer.
 Some devices functions as both input and output
devices.
 Examples are disk drives and CD and the USB disk.
Input devices
 These allow the computer to receive information from
the outside world.
 Most common are the mouse and keyboard.
 Other include touch screens, light pen, voice and
scanner.
 Touch screens allow the computer to sense when a
particular part of the screen is pressed or touched.
 A light pen is a device that has special software that
allows the computer sense when the light pen is
focused on a particular part of the screen.
 Voice systems allow the nurse to speak into a
microphone to record data.
 Some devices are used for security and can detect
user’s fingerprints, retinal prints, voiceprints, or other
personally unique physical characteristics that identify
users who have clearance to the system.
 In healthcare another input device are the electrodes
placed on a patient’s body that provides input into the
computerized physiologic monitors.
Light pen
Fingerprint scanner
Retinal Print Scanner
Output devices
 Hard drive
 It is a peripheral that has a very high speed and high
density.
 That is, it has a very fast means of storing and retrieving
data as well as having a large storage capacity in
comparison to other types of storage.
 Diskettes
 These are round magnetic disks encased in a flexible or
rigid case.
 It allows the user to transport data and programs from
one computer site to another.
 CD-ROM
 It is a rigid disk that holds a much higher density of
information than a diskette and has much higher speed.
 CD-RW
 A newer version of CD (compact disk) wherein the
stored memory can be edited by the user.
 USB Disk
 It is a form of small, removable hard drive that is
inserted into the USB port of the computer.
 It is also known as pen drive, thistle drive and pocket
disks.
Computer Power
 The term bits or bytes refer to how the machine
stores information at the lowest level.
 Computer do not process information as words or
numbers. They handle information in bytes.
 A byte is made up of 8 bits.
 A “bit” (binary digit) is a unit of data in the binary
numbering system.
 Binary means two, so a bit can assume on of two
positions. The “on” position or switch is equal to 1 and
the “off” position or switch is equal to 0.
 Bits are grouped into a collection of 8, which then
function as a unit.
 That unit describes a single character, like a number 3
or letter A, in the computer and is called as byte.
A byte
 There are 255 different combinations of 0 and 1 in an
8-character (or 1-byte) unit.
Storage Size Terms
Computer Speed
 The basic operations of the CPU are called cycles
(fetch, decode, execute and store cycles).
 It takes time for the computer to perform each of these
cycles/functions.
 The CPU speed is measured in cycles per second
which are called the clock speed of the computer.
 One million per second is called megahertz (MHz).
 For example, in 1990s, Intel Corporation introduced its
Pentium III processor, which had clock speeds of 550
MHz.
 Today PC speed is measured in billions of cycles per
second or gigahertz (GHz).
 The computer is generally described in terms of several
major characteristics – automatic, electronic, and
general purpose as well as in terms of speed, reliability,
and storage capacity.
 The computer is automatic because it is self-
instructed (it automatically process data using
computer programs)
 The computer is electronic because it uses
microelectronic components etched in silicon chips for
its circuitry.
 The computers are general purpose machines,
because the user can program them to process all types
of problems and can solve any problem that can be
broken down into a set of logical sequential
instructions.
 The computer is also characterized by its speed and
split-second processing of large amounts of data, its
reliability due to silicon circuitry, and its ability to
store large amounts of data that can be retrieved
quickly.
 Architecture refers to the design of the individual
hardware components and to the microprocessor used.
 The first true digital computer, called the Colossus
Mark I, was built in 1943 used in airplane design and
other complex engineering applications.
 The prototype computer were big and took up an
entire room but with less much power than today’s PC.
Essentially, they were giant mathematical calculators
and were difficult to program.
 Eckert and Mauchly produced the first vacuum tube
computer, the electronic numerical integrator and
computer (ENIAC).
 In 1950, the Remington Rand Corporation brought
Eckert and Mauchly’s company and 1 year later began
to market the first large scale commercial computer
system called the UNIVAC-I.
 The first generation computers used vacuum tubes in
their design.
 Those computers ran hot easily and thus required a
great deal of cooling because when they got hot, they
failed regularly.
 Main memory was less than 10K of storage and their
speed is measured in thousandths of a second
(millisecond).
 Second generation computers were introduced in the
late 1950s.
 This include the IBM (International Business
Machines) 1401 and 1620.
 They used transistors instead of vacuum tubes. This
meant less heat, improved reliability, and much
greater speeds.
 Their access speeds were measured in millionths per
second (microsecond).
 Third generation computers were introduced in the
mid-1960s.
 These used micro-miniature, solid state components.
 Their access speeds were measured in billionths of a
second (nanosecond).
 Examples are the IBM 360 and 370.
 They had about 110 K of main memory.
 It was in this generation, that hard disk drives were
introduced.
 These disk drives were not encased in protective
plastic case so they were vulnerable to dust.
 That is why people when they go inside the computer
room wear surgical type garb.
The rise of the Modern Personal
Computer
 In November 1972, Intel Corporation introduced the
first commercial microprocessor – Intel 8008.
 This invention made the microcomputer or PC
possible.
 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak bought a 25$
microprocessor and built a very simple computer they
called the “Apple”.
 They failed to interest Wozniak’s employer, Hewlett-
Packard (HP) Corporation.
 In May of 1976, they introduced their first computer at
a meeting of the Hombrew Computer Club.
 The Apple company and the first PC was born.
 In 1999, Steve Jobs was chairman of Pixar, the
computer animation studio that won an Academy
Award for its work –motion picture, “Toy Story”.
 At the same time on 1970s, IBM introduced the first
fourth generation mainframe, the IBM 370.
 The computer was so fast that the old measurement
was deemed unsuitable.
 The new computer CPU’s speed was measured by the
speed with which it could process instructions; in
millions of instructions per second (MIPS).
 STEVE JOBS
1955 – 2011

Innovation
distinguishes between
a leader and a follower.
 Supercomputers
 The first supercomputer was developed by a computer
engineer named Seymour Cray.
 He joined the company – Control Data Corporation
(CDC) and his work culminated in the production of
CDC 7600, a computer ten times more powerful than
the CDC 6600, often called the first supercomputer.
 He later founded his own company called – Cray
Research and its first product was Cray-I
supercomputer.
 Most consider the Cray-I to be the first supercomputer
since its architecture was of magnitude greater than
anything before into it.
 At the end of cold war, supercomputers have had
decrease in demand.
 He was called the Father of Supercomputing.
3 Broad Classes of Computers
1. Analog Computer
 It operates on continuous physical or electrical
magnitudes, measuring ongoing continuous analog
quantities such as voltage, current, temperature, and
pressure.
 Examples of these are heart monitors and fetal
monitors.
 It handles data in continuously variable quantities
rather tan breaking the data down into discrete digital
representations.
2. Digital Computer
 It operates on discrete discontinuous numerical digits
using the binary numbering system.
 Its data are represented by numbers, letters, and
symbols, rather than waveforms.
 Most of the computers used in the health care
industry for charting and decision support are digital
computers.
3. Hybrid Computers
 It contains features of both the analog and the digital
computer.
 It is used for complex signal processing and other
engineering-oriented applications.
 It is also found in some monitoring equipment that
converts analog signals to digital ones for data
processing.
 Examples are ECG, EEG and so forth.
Supercomputers
 It is the largest type of computer.
 It is a computational-oriented computer specially
designed for scientific applications requiring gigantic
amounts of calculations.
 It is designed primarily for analysis of scientific and
engineering problems and for tasks requiring millions
or billions of computational operations and
calculations.
 It is found primarily in areas such as defense and
weaponry, weather forecasting, and scientific research.
Mainframes
 It is the fastest, largest, and most expensive type of
computer used in corporate America for processing,
storing and retrieving data.
 It is a large multiuser central computer that meets the
computing the needs – especially the large amount of
repetitive calculations of bills, payroll, and the like – of
a large organization.
 It can serve a large number (hundreds) of users at the
same time.
 It has also an extremely large memory capacity and fast
operating and processing time at one time.
Microcomputers (PC)
 It can serve as stand-alone workstations and can be
linked to a network system to increase their
capabilities.
 Hospital nursing departments are using PCs to process
specific applications such as patient classification,
nurse staffing and scheduling, and personnel
management applications.
Handheld Computers
 A handheld PC, or H/PC for short, is a computer built
around a form factor which is smaller than any
standard laptop computer. It is sometimes referred to as
a palmtop.
 These are small, special function computers.
 They are limited in their expansion possibilities, their
ability to serve as full participants in the office network,
and the peripherals they can support.
 More popular are the palm-sized computers, including
personal digital assistants (PDA).
 PDA is a very small special function handheld computer
which provides calendar, contacts, and note-taking
functions, and may provide word processing, spread sheet,
and a variety of other functions.
 Handheld PC is distinct from its more recent
counterparts such as the Palm-Size PC, Pocket PC,
or smartphone in that the specification provides for
larger screen sizes as well as a keyboard; and it
operates in greater speed than the latter.
Keyboard
 It is the most common input device.
 Sections/Keys:
1. Typewriter keys
2. Function keys
3. Numeric keypad
4. Cursor keys
5. Toggle keys
6. Special operation keys
 The typewriter key section is the largest and contains
keys that follow the standard QWERTY arrangement
of keys of a standard typewriter (the term represents
the first 6 letters in the first alphabetic rows).
 The function keys (F1-F12) are software-specific; that
is, they are programmable, since their function is
dependent on the software program being processed.
 Three other keys – Shift, Ctrl, and Alt expand the
function keys by being used in combination with them
to carry out their commands.
 Assignment!!!
 Research regarding the different combinations of the
keys on a keyboard and their specific functions
(Windows 7 – Microsoft Office 2007).

 Example Shift + F3 = word capitalization

 The numeric keypad is a second set of numeric keys
that are placed differently on the keyboard than the
alphabetic keys.
 It is a separate rectangle-shaped calculator type
section that enables the user to enter numeric data
more efficiently.
 Just by turning on the Num Lock key, this section can
be converted to represent other keys, including
moving the cursor in four directions.
 The four cursor keys are used to direct the position of
the pointer on the display monitor.
 They control the movement: up, down, right, and left
over the display screen.
 The toggle keys are those that have a dual purpose.
 When a toggle key is pressed once, the function is on,
and when pressed a second time, it is off.
 The major toggle keys are Num Lock, Caps Lock,
Scroll Lock, and Insert/Typeover.
 The special operation keys examples are:
 Home and End keys which bring the cursor to the
beginning or end of a line.
 Print Screen prints the screen display or saves it to the
clipboard as a snapshot.
 Esc (escape) interrupts or cancels a function
 Tab moves the cursor to the predetermined set tabs
 Del deletes text
 Space bar inserts blank spaces in a line
 Enter performs a variety of function depending on the
context of the program. It sends in information to the
computer, such as during sign-on procedures, in word
processing it creates a new paragraph, and it can be used
to create blank section in a document.
Monitor
 It is a display screen component of a terminal that
allows the user to see images, programs, commands
the user sends to the computer, and results of the
computer’s work (output).
 The resolution or clarity of the monitor screen is
related to the number of dots, pixels, on the screen.
Mouse & Trackball
 It is a hand-controlled mechanical device that
electronically instructs the cursor to move across the
video display screen.
 It is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-
dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface.
Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under
one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons.
 The mouse has at least two buttons and sometimes a roller
at the top.
 Left button functions include:
 Select the icon
 Activate a process
 Implement a function to be performed
 The right button is a special function button, and its
function is dependent on the program.
 The trackball has the ball on top, and movement of the
cursor is controlled by the fingers rolling the ball in place.
 The mouse is associated with carpal tunnel syndrome and
wrist fatigue.
Floppy Disks, CD-ROMs & USB Flash
Drives
 The floppy disk, commonly called a diskette, the
CD-ROMs/CD-RW, USBs are forms of auxiliary
memory.
 They serve as both input and output media.
 Floppy disks are rarely seen nowadays.
 Diskettes can store up to 2.0 MB of data.
 Disk formatting is the process of preparing a data
storage device such as a hard disk drive, solid-state
drive, floppy disk or USB flash drive for initial use.
 The CD-ROM can store around 640 MB of data.
 A USB flash drive is a data storage device that includes
flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial
Bus (USB) interface. USB flash drives are typically
removable and rewritable, and physically much
smaller than an optical disc.
 Most weigh less than 30 grams. As of January 2013,
drives of up to 512 gigabytes (GB) are available. A one-
terabyte (TB) drive was unveiled at the 2013 Consumer
Electronics Show.
Touch Pad and Mouse Button
 It is a flat, rectangular depression on the keyboard that
senses pressure and movement of the user’s fingers.
 The user simply drags the finger around the touch pad
to move the cursor in the screen.
Light pen/Touch screen
 A light pen is a photosensitive device that responds to
light images when placed against a monitor screen.
 Touch screens involve the use of a special filter on a
monitor screen that allows the screen to sense the
pressure of the user’s finger on a particular position on
the screen.
Optical Character Recognition
(OCR)
 It is a specialized computer input medium that allows
data to be read directly from a form or document.
 An electronic optical scanning device, a wand reader,
or a bar code reader reads special marks, bar codes,
number, letters, or characters.
 The bar codes are called universal product code
symbols (zebra-striped bars).
 Ten bars about 1 inch long, signify different numbers
to code groceries or medical supplies.
Magnetic-Ink Character Recognition
(MICR)
 It is another medium of reading characters by
computer wherein the characters are made of
magnetized particles printed on paper.
 A MICR reader can examine the shape of the
magnetic-ink characters and convert them into binary
code for computer input.
Voice Synthesizer
 It allows user to input data into the computer by
speaking into a connected microphone.
 It is also known as a speech synthesizer.
 It digitizes the sound for processing by the CPU.
Imaging
 Examples in the medical field are computerized axial
tomography scan (CT/CAT) and magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI).
Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)
 The original name was digital video disk but it is now
more correctly referred to as digital versqa
 The technology was developed to support high
resolution and dense applications such as placement
of motion pictures on CDs.
Printers
 It is the most important output device.
 It converts information produced by the computer
system into printed form, rendering data in the binary
code into readable English.
 Types of printed output include:
 Printed hard copy (paper)
 Microfilm (microfiche)
 Photographs
 Graphic Copy
 Hard copy is output produced on paper.
 Most printers sold today are either laser printers or jet
printers.
 The main difference between these two is that laser
printers utilizes electronic and chemical parts that
work together with optical processes to produce a high
quality and fast output while the inkjet printers (use
piezoelectric crystals that ionize the ink) and bubble-
jet printers (use special heating elements to prepare
the ink) fire small bursts of ink on the paper.
Modems
 It is a communication device used to connect a
terminal with a mainframe or another computer.
 A modem (modulating and demodulating device)
translates digital data into waves (analog) for
transmission over the communication lines to the
computer system and converts the waves back to their
original digital form for input into the computer.
 Modems are described by the rate of communication
transmission or line transfer called bits per second
(bps) rate.
 In 1990s, 57K is a common modem speed.
Basics of Computer Network
Hardware
 A network is a set of cooperative interconnected
computers for the purpose of information interchange.
 Examples are local area network (LAN), wide area
network (WAN), and the Internet which is a network
of networks.
 LAN usually supports computer that are
interconnected and are physically close to each other.
 WAN supports geographically dispersed facilities, such
as grocery stores in a national chain.
Network Hardware
 The role of hardware in a network is to provide an
interconnection between computers.
 For a computer to participate in a network, it must
have at least two pieces of hardware, namely:
1. Network adapter or network interface card
2. Communication modem (cabling)
Network adapter or Network Interface
Card
 A network interface card (NIC) is a computer circuit
board or card that is installed in a computer so that it
can be connected to a network.
 It provides a dedicated, full-time connection to a
network.
Communication medium (cabling)
 It is the means by which actual transfer of data from
one site to another takes place.
 Commonly used communication media include
twisted pair cable, coaxial cable, fiber optics,
telephone lines, satellites, and compressed video.
Telephone Line Communications
 Specialized phone lines called integrated services
digital network (ISDN) lines are used to carry
communications across phone lines.
 ISDN is a set of communication standards for optical
fibers that carry voice, digital and video signals across
phone lines.
 The bandwidth controls how fast the signals can be
transmitted across the phone lines in bits per second.
Cable Modems
 Cable modem uses the same cable connection cable
TV use.
 Cable TV uses very little of the bandwidth of a cable
connection, so the same cable can also be used to
bring high speed internet connection.
 A cable network can achieve speeds up to 30-40 Mbps
which is faster than the maximum speed of a
telephone modem connection.
Servers
 In a client/server approach, one computer is the core
or server computer that receives requests from the
client computer and fulfills those requests.
 In general, a server is a computer program that
provides services to other computer programs in the
same computer or in other computers on a network.
 The computer that runs the server program is also
frequently referred to as “the server”.
Architecture
 In informatics, it refers to overall physical structure,
peripherals, interconnections within the computer, and its
system software, especially the operating system.
 5 Fundamental components:
1. Input/output
2. Storage
3. Communication
4. Control
5. Processing
 These are called the computer’s subsystems
 In networks, architecture refers to how
communication among the various computers in the
network is accomplished.
 2 types of network architectures:
1. Broadcast – communication is done by transmitting
the same information to all the computers in the
network that are expected to respond to it. This is
typically used in LANs.
2. Point-to-point – The computer for which information
is intended is identified first, and the communication
is only to that particular computer. This is typically
used in dial-up connection.
Topology
 It defines how the network computers in a LAN are
interconnected within a physical area and describes
their physical interconnection.
 Types of topology include:
1. Bus – it is a network topology or circuit arrangement
in which all the node computers are directly attached
to a line. In this fashion, all computers are connected
in parallel to each other. The big advantage is that if
one computer fails, other computers still can access
the information. This structure is decentralized.
2. Star – This is a centralized structure where all
computers are connected through a central computer,
called the server. If this central computer fails,
information cannot be sent or received by any of the
computers connected to this server.
3. Ring – If one computer failed, none of the computers
could communicate and share resources. This
technology had been replace with token ring network
protocol. This works by having the server pass a
marker or token to the computer that is next in line to
communicate. No computer can send or receive data
unless it is the target of the token. Two types include:
a) Hub – a form of ring topology. A hub consists of a
“backbone”, or main circuit, attached to a number of
outgoing lines. Each of the outgoing lines can support
a number of ports to which devices can be attached.
Generally, they are used for a relatively small number
of connected workstations.
b) Arcnet – It uses what is called a “token-bus” system for
managing line sharing among all the users on the
network. It works well with LANs in which all the links
are physically near each other (each cable can go only
2,000 feet).