Computer hardware refers to computing devices and the equipment attached to them. These may include personal computers (PCs), medium range servers, legacy mainframes (large computers that were predominant up to the 1990’s), storage devices, visual presentation devices, Internet/communication equipment, imaging/printing devices, power supply management and personal identification equipment.
Computer hardware evolves very quickly offering increasing capacity and lower acquisition cost. As a general trend, tasks earlier done by mainframes and medium range servers are gradually being done by smaller but powerful PCs.
The use of computer hardware by electoral management bodies (EMBs) follows the practices of other private and public sectors. This means using generic, affordable and ever more powerful PCs and mid-range servers with standardized features. These computers are connected to institutional networks and to the Internet, which improves their affordability, controls maintenance costs and enables the development of powerful applications that assist EMBs in the fulfilment of their tasks and mandates
Personal Data Assistants (PDAs) possess powerful computing and communication capabilities—including mobile telephony—and offer great potential to EMBs. However, PDAs are still evolving and their use by EMBs was still experimental in 2006.
Computer Software refers to the instructions and commands needed to run computer hardware and to perform expected services. There are many classifications of software products, but they usually fall in two main categories: System software and Application software. System software is usually the low level software required to manage computer resources and support the execution of application programs. Application software is software that performs specific functions needed directly by the end users.
System software products include operating systems, network operating systems, data base management software, programming languages software and other software development tools. Application development products include end-user applications, office automation software and various utilities. Some software products may fall into more than one of these categories.
Operating systems control the functioning of computer hardware and enable users to perform expected actions. From a software development perspective, operating systems are very complex. The number of actions that must be flawlessly performed is very high, and the number of conditions under which these actions are performed is also high.
As a result, operating system designers must anticipate an extended variety of operational scenarios/cases as they design the software. Given this complexity, operating systems are generally created, improved and replaced at a relatively slow pace. Windows, UNIX and LINUX are probably the best known operating systems, but there are other highly specific operating systems targeted to smaller markets.
Network operating systems are a subset of operating systems. Their role is to start-up, perform and monitor communications equipment and networks. Most of these systems are proprietary but perform services defined by standards such as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), which are a suite of communications protocols used to connect computers on the Internet.
Database management software (DBMS) defines structures and tools to enable and control storage, modification, access and retrieval of data stored in a computer data base. Once exclusively proprietary, open source DBMS such as My SQL are increasingly used to create large-scale EMB applications
Programming languages software allows users to give instructions to the computer through a set of predefined scripts that define a program. Examples of programming languages are COBOL, Fortran, Pascal, C, C++, Perl, PHP, Python and Java among many others.
Software development tools include products used to assist in the main phases of development of software solutions namely design, programming and implementation.
Programming aids include Integrated Development Environments (IDE) that orchestrate the simultaneous use of program editors to write, review and edit programs; debuggers to execute and test programs that look for errors or “bugs”; and version control aids that are mandatory in multi-person software development. Almost every step in software development can be helped by special purpose programming aids—error detection, testing, operation monitoring, software usage statistics, etc.
End-user applications can be classified broadly as commercially, institutionally or custom developed. Some end user applications may include a mix of these. Commercially developed applications are bought and expected to be used with minimal or no customization. Application software developed upon request of a given institution usually requires the assistance of a third party. Samples of commercial application software are supply-chain (procurement) management, accounting software, personnel/payroll management and others that perform similar administrative services. Samples of institutionally developed software are applications unique enough that no commercial vendor has a ready made offering. Due largely to their very specific legal frameworks and national requirements, most EMBs have and use this type of software in their mandated activities.
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