DECISION MAKING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

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IT Infrastructure : Hardware

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR MANAGERS

Types of Computers
Supercomputers Mainframe Computers Workstations

Microcomputers

Midrange Computers

A-2

 Minicomputers Mid-range computers that handle the computing needs of smaller organizations

Mainframe Computer systems designed to handle large processing jobs in larger organizations

Airlines, Banks, etc.

Supercomputer Computer used to solve complex scientific and military problems

NASA, National Weather Service, US Dept of Energy, etc.

 IBMs Roadrunner (2009)

Fastest supercomputer today Hybrid combo of IBM and AMD processors 1 quadrillion calculations per second (1.105 petaflops) 1015 FLOPS Runs Red Hat Linux operating system
IBM Roadrunner Wikipedia IBM Roadrunner CNET Article - June 2009

IBM Sequoia (2011) Sequoia Article 20 quadrillion calculations per second - the equivalent of more than 2 million laptops!! Department of Energy

 Server Primary task is storing and retrieving large quantities of data (network) Workstation High end-computer running a variant of UNIX designed to be used by one person Embedded Computer System General CPUs that run single programs; embedded in consumer devices such as automobiles, microwave ovens, DVD players, electric toothbrushes.

Motherboard primary circuit board inside of computer; used to connect components together Registers - special, high-capability storage locations used by the CPU to store data Cache - high-speed memory usually on the CPU chip; small, but quite effective. Increases computers performance. Used for most commonly used instructions. Level 1 usually on CPU chip and Level 2 usually on chip near CPU. L3 used for multi-core CPUs. Example: Level 1(L1) or Level 2 (L2) Expansion Slots - represent additional connecting places to an internal bus, allowing connections for future components (example: network card, video card, sound card, fax/modem card) Power Supply supplies power to computer; converts AC to DC for use by the components

power supply

drive bays

processor

memory ports

sound card

network card

modem card

video card

adapter cards processor chip

memory chips

memory slots
Expansion slots for adapter cards

motherboard
Image: Shelly Cashman Vermaat 2004

 Intel Core 2 Duo AMD Opteron (server)

AMD Athlon (desktop)

AMD Turion 64 X2 (mobile) AMD Phenom II (2009) Intel Xeon (server /

workstation) (8 core)
Intel Core 2 Quad (2007) Intel Core i7 (mobile - 2010)

 Intel Core

i7 Processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache, 1333MHz FSB)

TM

Quad Core technology - offers better multitasking capability due to 4 processing cores on one CPU

Gaming, multimedia software

Operating system and applications need to recognize dual processors (multi-thread aware or capable of running multiple tasks) Intel Multi-core

 1.6 GHz speed of system clock The pace by which the computer moves from process to process. System clock emits pulses at regular intervals enabling computers activities to be synchronized Rate of speed:
Gigahertz one billion clock ticks per second Megahertz one million clock ticks per second

1333 MHz Speed of Frontside Bus System bus circuitry (path) which runs between memory and CPU Hertz cycles per second

 Cache - high-speed memory usually on the CPU

chip; small, but quite effective. Used for most commonly used instructions Level 1 (L1) - sample size 32KB (SRAM) Level 2 (L2) sample size 2 MB Level 3 (L3) sample size 6 MB Demo machine: 6MB Level 3 cache (Good!)

Image: Shelly Cashman Vermaat 2004

Computer Hardware and Information Technology Infrastructure

Computer Processing
Parallel processing

Multiple CPUs work simultaneously on same

problem
More than one instruction processed at a time Massively parallel computers: use hundreds,

thousands of processing chips

Sequential and parallel processing Computer Hardware and Information Technology

Storage, Input, and Output Technology Computer Hardware and Information Technology Infrastructure
Secondary Storage Technology
Used for relatively long-term storage of data outside CPU

Magnetic disk: floppies, hard disks, RAID

Optical disk: CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD Storage networking: direct-attached storage; network-

attached storage; storage area networks

Computer Hardware and Information Technology Infrastructure

A storage area network (SAN)

Storage, Input, and Output Technology Computer Hardware and Information Technology Infrastructure
Input Devices
Keyboard and mouse Touch screen

Optical character recognition

Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) Pen-based input Digital scanner

Audio input
Sensors Radio-frequency identification (RFID)

Categories of Computers and Computer Systems

Client/server computing

Figure 6-6

Fastest

Faster

Fast

Processing Central Processing Unit

Moores Law (1970s) Dr. Gordon Moore from Intel hypothesized that processing performance would double every 18 months

A-22

Contemporary Hardware Trends

Integration of computing and telecommunications platforms Edge computing Autonomic computing

Edge Computing

Edge computing (think at the edge of the system near the user) is a multi-tier, load-balancing scheme for Web-based applications in which significant parts of Web site content, logic, and processing are performed by smaller, less expensive servers located nearby the user.

Autonomic Computing
Autonomic computing is an industry-wide effort to develop systems that can configure, optimize, tune, heal, and protect themselves from outside intruders and self-destruction.

Utility Computing
Utility computing is the model of computing in which companies pay only for the information technology resources they actually use during a specified time.

Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is Internet ("cloud") based development and use of computer technology ("computing"). It is a business information management style of computing in which typically real-time scalable resources are provided as a service over the Internet to users who need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure ("in the cloud") that supports them.

Your Views Please - Assignment

Services offered by India based companies under Cloud Computing; Take one or two services and explain in simple terms as per your understanding