468.6 pp02

© 2011, Educational Institute

Chapter 2Hospitality Technology

Components

Managing Technology in the Hospitality Industry

Sixth Edition

(468TXT or 468CIN)

© 2011, Educational Institute 2

Competencies forHospitality Technology Components1. Identify and describe system input components.

2. Identify and describe system output components.

3. Explain the function of a system’s central processing unit and distinguish read-only memory from random access memory.

4. Identify and describe common external storage devices.

5. Explain how the processing capability and speed of a system are measured.

(continued)


Competencies forHospitality Technology Components

6. Identify and describe components or devices commonly added on to a system.

7. Explain computer hardware configurations and interface connections.

8. Define two broad categories of software and explain the function of an operating system.

9. Discuss types of computer networks.

10. Identify and describe components fundamental to Internet operations.0

(continued)


Hospitality Technology Components

• Hardware

• Software

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Hardware

• They are visible, moveable and easy to identify.

• Has three (3) components: – Input/Output (I/O)– Central Processing Unit

(CPU) and; – External Storage Device

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Input ComponentsKeyboards

• Function keys

• Alphabet keys

• Cursor control keys

• Numeric keys


Touch screen Terminals

• Can employ a grid of tiny beams of light over a display screen.

• Effective as devices for food service, self-check in kiosks and navigational screens.

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Other Input Components

• Computer Mouse– Small pointing device that’s designed to fit

comfortable under a users hand.– Conntected to the processor by a serial cable or

a wireless infrared sensor.

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• Scanners– Capable of translating a page of text or graphic

image into a machine readable format. – Digitizes information to be recognized by the

computer– Flatbed scanners, hand held scanners are

examples of this.

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• Voice Recognition– Instructions spoken using a human voice. – Also known as Automated Speech Recognition

(ASR)– Converts spoken data into electronic form.

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• Handheld devices (mobile phone, palmtop PC, personal digital assistant (PDA))

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Monitors • Color graphics adapter

(CGA)– Low-end display RGB

• Enhanced graphics adapter (EGA)– Uses Digital signals.– Clearer and has better

quality of resolution compared to CGA


Monitors • Video graphics array (VGA)

– Best for desktop publishing. Uses Analog Signals

• Super video graphics array (SVGA)– Uses both digital and analog signals (VGA and

DVI)


Monitors • Liquid crystal display (LCD)

– Blue or Black letters on a grayish white background (found on handheld units)

• Gas Plasma (GP)– Orange letters on a black screen


Printers • Impact printers

– Movement of a print head or paper feeding mechanism to place data on the page.

• Dot matrix printers– Form characters by firing

a vertical line of pins through an inked ribbon onto the paper.


Printers• Non Impact Printers

– Print positioning is achieved using electrical signals.

– Techniques to print the image on paper include: Laser techniques, Inkjet sprays Xerographic processes Electrostatic methods and Electrothermal methods

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Printers

• Thermal printers– Also known as electro-thermal printers. – Works by burning a protective layer off

specially treated paper to reveal ink– Restricted to point-of-sale Printer applications

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Printers

• Ink jet printers– Sprays a minute and finely controlled jet of ink

onto a paper.

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Printers

• Laser printers– Quiet, highly efficient and more expensive

than ink jet printers.– Uses laser technology to print documents.– Electronically controlled laser beam traces out

the desired character to be printed.

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I/O Components in the Hotel Industry

• Most have adopted touch screen and hand-held units.

• CRT units.

• Common equipment include: POS, Kitchen Monitors and Specialty handheld devices.

• They also produce soft copies and hard copies of output.

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The Central Processing Unit

• The most important hardware component found within an automated system.

• Also called the brain of the system. Responsible for controlling most other system components.

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• Arithmetic and Logical Unit– Responsible for all mathematical, sorting, ranking

and processing functions of the CPU

• Control Unit– Determines which peripheral device in the system

can be accessed by the CPU.– Determines what unit is capable of interacting

directly with the CPU.– Online and Offline status of peripherals

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• Operating System– Orchestrates the hardware and the software within

the system.– Establishes the systems priorities and directs its

resources to accomplish desired tasks.

• Internal (Primary) Memory

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ROM/RAMRead-only memory (ROM)

• “Reads” but cannot “write”

• Nonvolatile memory

• Does not require a constant power supply

Random access memory (RAM)

• Read/write memory

• Volatile memory

• Contents lost if power supply interrupted or turned off


External Storage Devices

Magnetic tapes

• Sequential access medium

Magnetic disks

• Formatting

• Random access medium

• Diskette/floppy disks

• Zip disks

Hard disks(continued)


External Storage Devices

USB drives

• High-speed, high-capacity

• Hot-swapping, hot-plugging

Optical disks

• Compact disc—read only (CD-R)

• Compact disc—read and write (CD-RW)

• DVD—optical storage device

(continued)


Measuring System Processing Capability and Speed

Microprocessor– The Central Processing Unit

CPU Speed—“Clock Rate” or “Clock Speed”

• Megahertz (one million cycles per second)

• Gigahertz (one billion cycles per second)

• Dual-core processing(continued)



Bus Input/Output System– BIOS– The electronic circuitry over which power, data,

address and other signals travel.– This is how signals get from one location to another– Data bus: transports data– Address bus: directs operations– Control bus: transports instructions

(continued)



System Architecture• Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)• Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA)• Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)

(continued)


Computer Add-Ons

• Components or devices that are added to a system to increase its storage capacity, modify its architecture or upgrade its performance.

• May require the insertion of a special circuit board or through an external access point.

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Common Computer Add-Ons• Expanded memory

– Memory that resides outside the computers basic memory.

– Can be accessed in revolving blocks – Available through add-on circuit boards inserted in

the expansion slots

• Extended memory– Built in to the system board.


Common Computer Add-Ons• Modem devices

– Telecommunications device that is used to transmit digital data over telephone lines

• Fax boards– Facsimile. Allows a computer to

send or receive images of documents


Common Computer Add-Ons

• Interface Boards– Composed of a series of

microchips on a circuit board containing an I/O port.

– Connects to the CPU and allows communications between the CPU and a remote device

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Common Computer Add-Ons

• Network Interface Cards– Also called the Network Adapter

Card (LAN)– Enables a computer to

communicate on a network. – It can send and receive data

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Hardware Configurations

• Client-Server model– Uses a powerful file server PC to hold software

application and all relevant data, communicates with the individuals PC workstations over the LAN.

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• Client-Server model– In hotels, 2 servers usually run:

• Hotel specific applications

• General Purpose Software

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• Remote-Server Model– Application Software is physically located

somewhere other than the actual property.– Workstations are connected to the server using

a Wide Area Network. – Cloud Computing is a new configuration using

this model.

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Hardware Configurations• Cloud Computing

– The emergence of the internet (cloud) as a way to implement a distant configuration over virtual private network.

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Hardware Configurations• Cloud Computing

– The server (cloud) is the internet with application software located at different websites.

– Allows users to access data and programs anywhere as long as there is an internet connection

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Software• The set of instructions

followed by the Hardware.

• This commands the automated system to perform useful tasks.

• These can direct data processing procedures through operations.

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Software

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Software

• Has two broad categories:– System Software

• Responsible for diagnostics and Maintenance of hardware components.

• Managed by System Suppliers

– Applications Software• Under the users control can be generic or industry

specific.

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Operating System• Controls interactions between

hardware components of an automated system and application software programs.

• Needed to carry out instructions generated by application software programs

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Operating System

• Manages routine computer functions while maintaining system priorities.

• Controls how the system receives, transfers and outputs information at the most fundamental levels.

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Operating System• Programs that control the

execution of programs.

• Relies on GUI for operation

• Has multi-tasking capabilities

• Designed to provide effective data processing, sharing storage and facilities.

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The Internet• A collection of diverse networks.

• It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies.

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Internet Components

• Bridge– Connects 2 or more

networks that use the same data

• Gateway– Means for two

incompatible networks to communicate


Internet Components• Routers

• Intranet– Internet Technology

Applied within a company and these pages are restricted to its employees.

– Normally password protected networks that utilizes firewalls.


Next Lecture can be seen at:

• http://prezi.com/vdtadasz8ter/reservation-systems/

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