Being a data processing system, it becomes important to have an in-depth knowledge of whatever is involved in processing the data. But before looking into that, we require to define some of the terms associated with it.

DATA: It is a raw set of facts and figures associated with an individual, an entity, or an event.

Example:

Age of person               23

Price of a share          Rs. 50/-

Name of a person          Vijay

Data can be represented in various forms i.e. in figures, characters, symbols etc.

INSTRUCTION: It specifies how the data is to be manipulated.

Example:

2+3-4 (Here 2, 3 and 4 is the data, and the process to be carried out is to first take out the sum of 2 and 3, and from the result of the summing process subtract the value of 4).

OUTPUT: The result obtained from the process is called as an output.

Example:

In the above example stated for process (2+3-4), the output is 1.

INFORMATION: Meaningful output is information.

Example:

The average performance of a class is derived as an output from the process of summing up all the marks of the class, and dividing it by the number of students. This output would be meaningful to the class teacher, but maybe not to the peon of the school. The output derived is information for the class teacher but not to the peon.

After going through the different components of the Data processing cycle, we are in a better position to deal with the concept of Data processing cycle, more commonly termed as Input-Process-Output Cycle (I-P-O cycle).

• The Input-Process-Output Cycle

	DATA & INSTRUCTIONS				PROCESSING OF DATA AS PER THE NSTRUCTION   SUPPLIED				OUTPUT

 

Note: Processing of data does not just involve arithmetical operation, but it also involves data comparison and decision-making.

The I-P-O cycle is the cycle begins with providing and storing the data and instructions. Further processing of the data as per the instruction provided in a logical sequence, one by one, give an outcome commonly called an ‘output’. This output which is the outcome of the outcome of the process, can be further fed as an input along with the instructions required, to a second process and so on.

Processing could take any one of the following forms:

• Data processing
• Text processing
• Graphical processing
• Arithmetical processing
• Decision-making etc.

Garbage in Garbage out (GIGO) i.e. any wrong input fed a process results in a wrong output.

EDP: - EDP (electronic data processing), an infrequently used term for what is today usually called "IS" (information services or systems) or "MIS" (management information services or systems), is the processing of data by a computer and its programs in an environment involving electronic communication. EDP evolved from "DP" (data processing), a term that was created when most computing input was physically put into the computer in punched card form and output as punched cards or paper reports.