Computer Based System

 ·       computer-based system as A set or arrangement of elements that are organized to accomplish some predefined goal by processing information.

·          The goal may be to support some business function or to develop a product that can be sold to generate business revenue.

·          To accomplish the goal, a computer-based system makes use of a variety of system elements:

·         1. Software. Computer programs, data structures, and related documentation that serve to effect the logical method, procedure, or control that is required.

·         2. Hardware. Electronic devices that provide computing capability, the interconnectivity devices (e.g., network switches, telecommunications devices) that enable the flow of data, and electromechanical devices (e.g., sensors, motors, pumps) that provide external world function.

·         3. People. Users and operators of hardware and software.

·         4. Database. A large, organized collection of information that is accessed via software.

·         5. Documentation. Descriptive information (e.g., hardcopy manuals, on-line help files, Web sites) that portrays the use and/or operation of the system.

·         6. Procedures. The steps that define the specific use of each system element or the procedural context in which the system resides.

·          The elements combine in a variety of ways to transform information. For example, a marketing department transforms raw sales data into a profile of the typical purchaser of a product; a robot transforms a command file containing specific instructions into a set of control signals that cause some specific physical action.

·          Creating an information system to assist the marketing department and control software to support the robot both require system engineering.

·         One complicating characteristic of computer-based systems is that the elements constituting one system may also represent one macro element of a still larger system. The macro element is a computer-based system that is one part of a larger computer-based system.

·          As an example, we consider a "factory automation system" that is essentially a hierarchy of systems. At the lowest level of the hierarchy we have a numerical control machine, robots, and data entry devices.

·          Each is a computer based system in its own right. The elements of the numerical control machine include electronic and electromechanical hardware (e.g., processor and memory, motors, sensors), software (for communications, machine control, interpolation), people (the machine operator), a database (the stored NC program), documentation, and procedures.

·          A similar decomposition could be applied to the robot and data entry device. Each is a computer-based system.

·          At the next level in the hierarchy, a manufacturing cell is defined. The manufacturing cell is a computer-based system that may have elements of its own (e.g., computers, mechanical fixtures) and also integrates the macro elements that we have called numerical control machine, robot, and data entry device.