“Understanding Computers”

Intro to GIS

Fall 2004

Tools of the Trade

• Right tool for the Right job

• What’s inside the box?

• How do they do what they do?

• Aren’t all computers (PC’s) the same?

• Why won’t my programs do what they are supposed to do?

• What is a “Network”?

Tools of the Trade Cont’d.• Operating Systems• Drivers• Components

– CPU’s (Processors)• CISC• RISC• FPGA

– Hard Drives (configurations)– Motherboards (configurations)

• BUS Speeds– RAM (Random Access Memory)

• RAMBUS• DDR• SIMMS DIMMS DRAM SDRAM & EIEIO

– Video Cards• AGP• PCI Express• Video RAM

Operating Systems

• Windows

• MacOS

• Unix

• Linux

• IBM OS2

Operating Systems Cont’d.

• Windows– DOS– 3.11– 95– 98– Me– NT4 – XP– 2000

Operating Systems Cont’d.

• MacOS

– Apple/ II / llE / Mac / G3 / G4 / Ipod

• OS1 – OS9

• OSX (Jaguar)

Ultimately will integrate with some flavor of Unix

Operating Systems Cont’d

• Unix– Berkeley– Solaris– X Windows– Gave rise to Linux

Operating Systems

• Linux

– 1st Open source OS

– Created by Linus Torvold

– Developed by Users

– Number 1 OS used by Servers as of 2002

– Free OS

– Multiple flavors

• SuSe

• Red Hat

• Mandrake

• Others

Drivers

• Drivers are executable programs that contain the operating instructions for that particular component.

• Drivers are usually updated to reflect either new OS’s or some innovation in the hardware.

• Note * The newest driver is not always the best

• Drivers will often have the extension .dll (dynamic link library), older drivers may have the extension .drv

CPU’s

• CISC

– Complex Instruction Set Chip

– Intel / AMD Processors / Silicon Graphics (SGI)

• RISC

– Reduced Instruction Set Chip

– Motorola / Mac / Sun Microsystems / Silicon Graphics (SGI)

– Transmeta Carusoe

• FPGA

– Fully Programmable Gated Array

CPU’s

• Speed

– Clock cycles measured in Hertz

– 1 Hz = 1 clock cycle

– 1 kHz = 1000 clock cycles (Kilo) (thousand)

– 1 MHz = 1,000,000 clock cycles (Mega) (million)

– 1 GHz = 1,000,000,000 clock cycles (Giga) (billion)

– 1 THz = 1,000,000,000,000 clock cycles (Terra) (trillion)

– 1 PHz = 1,000,000,000,000,000 clock cycles (Pieta) (quadrillion)

Fastest computer “today” built by NEC for Japan 37 TFLOPS (Terra FLOPS) (FLOPS=floating operations per second=cycle)

CPU’s

• Chipsets

– Configuration of CPU

– Will tell you what type of RAM/Motherboards the CPU is compatible with

• Intel 845E vs. Intel 850PG

• Athlon vs. Duron

• Celeron vs. Pentium

• P4 vs. Xeon

• Opteron vs. FX 51/53

Hard Drives

• 4 Factors to consider– Classification

• DMA / UDMA / ATA / SCSI

– Size• Bit Vs. Byte

– 8 bits = 1 byte

– Binary = base2

– Working drives

– Total Drive Space

– Speed• Bus Speed (data transfer rate listed in MHz)• Spin Rate (listed in rpm’s)

– Configuration (multiple HD’s)• RAID - Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks• Various configurations

Motherboards

• Various Makes and Models• BIOS / ROM / PROM / EPROM• Must be compatible with CPU Type and RAM Type• Various Slots

– ISA– PCI– AGP– AGM– USB 1, 2– IEEE1394 Firewire– PS/2– EIDE BUS Connections– RAM Pin configurations– CPU Slot configurations– Onboard Sound– Onboard Network Interface– RAID connectors

RAM (Random Access Memory)

• Simms (Single Inline Memory Modules)

• Dimms (Dual Inline Memory Modules)

• RDRAM (RAMBUS)

– PC400 / PC800 / PC1036

– Only for Intel chipsets

– Very Expensive (price has come down)

• DDR (Double Data Rate)

– DDR133 / DDR266 / DDR333 / DDR400

– Started as an inexpensive alternative to RAMBUS

– Was exclusively AMD however, now there are specific Intel chipsets that will allow the use of DDR RAM

Video Cards

• AGP – 1X / 2X / 4X / 8X/PCI Express 16x

• Video Memory (video RAM)– DDR– Onboard processors– Bandwidth / Throughput– 16bit / 32bit/ 64bit /128bit / 256bit – Compatibility with Intended software Use– Most Important Decision when building a Workstation

Various Video Card Manufacturers

Nvida / Radeon / 3dLabs / Cheap Cheesy Crap!

Tools of the Trade Cont’d.

• Slots

– ISA

– PCI / PCI32 / PCIX

– AGP 4x / 8x

• Cooling Systems

• Power Supply

• NIC Cards

Tools of the Trade Cont’d.

• Peripherals

– Monitors• Size• Resolution

– Printers/Plotters

– Keyboards• Ergo?• Hotkeys

– Mice• Trackballs• Castrated Mouse

Tools of the Trade Cont’d

• Care and Feeding of the Computer

– Cleaning

– Location

– Maintenance