Module 5 Living in The IT Era

 

Course Code Course Title

: :

GEEL 1  LIVING IN THE IT ERA  

MIDTEM PERIODIC COVERAGE MODULE No. TITLE:

05 CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTERS  

INTRODUCTION

Computers differ based on their data processing abilities. They are classified according to purpose, data handling and functionality. According to purpose, computers are either general purpose or specific purpose. General purpose computers are designed to perform a range of tasks. They have the ability to store numerous programs, programs, but lack in speed and efficiency. Specific purpose computers are designed to handle a specific problem or to perform a specific task. A set of instructions is built into the machine. According to data handling, computers are analog, digital or hybrid. Analog computers work on the principle of measuring, in which the measurements obtained are translated into data. Modern analog computers usually employ electrical parameters, such as voltages, resistances or currents, to represent the quantities being manipulated. Such computers do not deal directly with the numbers. They measure continuous physical magnitudes. Digital computers are those that operate with information, numerical or otherwise, represented in a digital form. Such computers process data into a digital value (in 0s and 1s). They give the results with more accuracy and at a faster rate. Hybrid computers incorporate incorpora te the measuring feature of an analog computer and counting feature of a digital computer. For computational purposes, these computers use analog components and for

LEARNING OUTCOMES LEARNING OBJECTIVES

storage, digital memories are used. ➢  Describe the classification of computers according to purpose, type of data handled and capacity or size. 1. Identify the main types of computers, including supercomputer, supercomp uter, mainframe, microcomputer, etc. 2. Identify types of computers, how they process information and how individual computers interact with other computing systems and devices

 

Discussion/Situationa Discussion /Situational l analysis/Content analysis/Content Etc.: Type

Specifications

PC (Personal Computer) or MicroComputers

It is a single user computer system having a moderately moderatel y powerful microprocessor. It is termed as a computer that is equipped microprocessor as its CPU.

Workstation

It is also a single user computer system, similar to the personal computer, however, has a more powerful microprocessor.

Mini-Computer Mini-Compu ter

It is a multi-user computer system, capable of supporting supportin g hundreds of users simultaneously.

Main Frame

It is a multi-user computer system, capable of supporting hundreds of users simultaneously. Software technology technology is different d ifferent from minicomputer. minicomputer.

Super-Computer Super-Comp uter

It is an extremely fast computer, which can execute hundreds of millions of instructions per second.

PC (Personal Computer)

A PC can be defined as a small, relatively inexpensive computer designed for an individual user. PCs are based on the microprocessor microprocessor technology that enables manufacturers to put an entire CPU on one chip. Businesses use personal computers for word processing, accounting, desktop publishing, and for running spreadsheet and database management applications. At home, the most popular use for personal computers is playing games and surfing the Internet. Although personal computers computers are designed as single-user systems, these systems are normally linked together to form a network. In terms of power, nowadays high-end models of the Macintosh and PC offer the same computing power and graphics capability as low-end workstations by Sun Microsystems, HewlettPackard, and Dell.

 

  Workstation

The workstation is a computer used for engineering applications (CAD/CAM), desktop publishing, software development, and other such types of applications which require a moderate amount of computing power and relatively high-quality graphics capabilities. Workstations generally come with a large, high-resolution graphics screen, a large amount of RAM, inbuilt network support, and a graphical user interface. Most workstations also have mass storage device such as a disk drive, but a special type of workstation, called diskless workstations, comes without withou t a disk drive. Common operating systems for workstations are UNIX and Windows NT. Like PC, workstations are also single-user computers like PC but are typically linked together to form a local area network, although they can also be used as standstand alone systems. Minicomputer

It is a midsize multi-processing system capable of supporting up to 250 users simultaneously.

 

Mainframe

The mainframe is very large in size and is an expensive computer capable of supporting hundreds or even thousands of users simultaneously. Mainframe executes many programs concurrently and supports much simultaneous execution of programs.

Supercomputer

Supercomputers are one of the fastest computers currently available. Supercomputers Supercompu ters are very expensive and are employed for specialize s pecialized d applications that require an immense amount of mathematical calculations calculations (number-crunching).

For example, weather forecasting, forecasting, scientific simulations, (animated)graphics, (animated)graphics, fluid dynamic calculations, nuclear energy research, electronic design, and analysis of geological data (e.g. in petrochemical prospecting). The computer systems can be classified on the following basis:

1.  On the basis of size. 2.  On the basis of functionali functionality. ty. 3.  On the basis of data handling.

 

Classification Classifica tion on the basis of Size: 1.  Super computers: The super computers are the highest performing system. A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance compared to a general-purpose computer. The actual Performance of a supercomputer is measured in FLOPS instead of MIPS. All of the world’s fastest 500 supercomputers run Linux-based operating systems. Additional research

is being conducted China, the US,and the more EU, Taiwan and Japan superior to build even faster, more in high performing technologically supercomputers. Supercomputers actually play an important role in the field of computation, and are used for intensive computation tasks in various fields, including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling, and physical simulations. Throughout the history, supercomputers have been essential in the field of the cryptanalysis. MIPS

MIPs (million instructions per second) is the general measurement or benchmark of how many instructions a processor can handle in a single second. Despite how useful this idea might seem; it is not commonly used anymore because there is no proper way of measuring MIPs. In general, a MIPs rating was only used as a basic rule of thumb for computer performance, performance, since a higher number did not mean much for most real-world situations. In the business world, however, being able to calculate a MIPs rating allowed businesses to know the cost of computing from the servers they were using. FLOPS

The clock speed of a processor is measured in megahertz and gigahertz, but that by itself is not an accurate way to gauge computer performance. FLOPs (floating-point operations per second) is yet another necessary factor needed to help measure the performance of a processor as shown in Figure 1. A floating-point number is a number that has floating decimal points, such as 0.008. A FLOPs benchmark only measures the floating-point operations and not the integers, which means it too cannot solely gauge computer performance either. It makes more sense to measure today's processor performance in FLOPs because clock speed frequencies do not truly measure raw performance. A FLOPs measurement most accurately represents computer performance since floating point math is standard in a variety of programs or processes that we use today. It is especially useful for scientific and real-time applications, applications, such as gaming or image processing. Characteristics Characteri stics of Supercomputer Supercomputer ➢ 

They can support more than a hundred users at a time.

 

➢ 

These machines are capable of handling the massive amount of calculations that are beyond the human capabilities, i.e., the human is unable to solve such extensive calculations. ➢  Many individuals can access supercomputers at the same time. Features of Supercomputer ➢ 

They haveons more thanit1can CPUinterpret (Centralinstructions Processing and Unit) whicharithmetic contains instructions instructi so that execute and logical operations. ➢  The supercomputer supercomputer can s support upport extremely high computation speed of CPUs. ➢  They can operate on pairs of lists of numbers instead of pairs of numbers. ➢  They were used initially in applications related to national security, nuclear weapon design, and cryptography. But nowadays they are also employed by the aerospace, automotive and petroleum industries.

Uses of Supercomputers Supercomputers

Because of their superiority, supercomputers are not intended for your everyday tasks. They handle exhaustive scientific applications that require complex and real-time processing. ➢ 

➢ 

➢ 

➢  ➢  ➢  ➢ 

➢ 

In the field of science, researchers use these machines to compute and model properties of biological compounds like protein and human blood. They are also used to interpret new diseases and strains, and predict illness behavior and treatment. The military use supercomputers supercomputers to test new aircraft, tanks, and a host of weaponry and camouflage. They also use them to understand the effects they will have on soldiers and wars. These machines are also used to help encrypt and decrypt sensitive data. In entertainment, entertainment, supercomputers are used to help make a flawless online gaming experience. Games like World of Warcraft demand intense processing. When thousands of gamers around the world are playing, supercomputers supercompu ters help stabilize the game performance. Meteorologists Meteorolog ists use them to simulate weather behavior. They can also be used to predict earthquakes. Scientists use them to simulate and test the effects of nuclear weapon detonation. Scientists also use them to simulate the events of the Big Bang and other space related projects. Hollywood uses supercomputers to create realistic animations. animations. The famous supercomputers Deep Blue and Watson defeated chess Grandmaster Grandmaste r Gary Kasparov and quiz expert Ken Jennings respectively.

Top 10 fastest supercomputers in the world known for their supercomputing capabilities: 1. Fugaku was jointly developed by RIKEN and Fujitsu. Named after an alternative name for Mount Fuji, the supercomputer built with the

 

Fujitsu A64FX microprocessor. This CPU is based on the ARM version 8.2A processor architecture architecture and adopts the Scalable Vector Extensions for supercomputers. Installed at RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) in Kobe, Japan, Fugaku F ugaku is designed for applications applications that will address high-priority social and scientific issues. 2. Sierra Sierra, , one of o f the world’s fastest supercomputers, which is developed

for the Lawrence National Laboratory by the Advanced National Nuclear SecurityLivermore Administration (NNSA) as for theusesecond Technology System. The system provides computational resources that are vital for nuclear weapon scientists to fulfill the NNSA’s stockpile stewardship mission through simulation instead of underground testing. 3. Sunway TaihuLight, a Chinese supercomputer, which is ranked third in the TOP500 list, as of November 2018, with a LINPACK benchmark rating of 93 petaflops. The supercomputer uses a total of 40,960 Chinesedesigned SW26010 SW26010 manycore 64-bit RISC processors based on the Sunway architecture. 4. HPC5, also called High-Performance Computing Computing – layer 5, is a set of

parallel computing units with a peak processing power of 51.7 petaFlops. Combined with the supercomputing system in operation since 2018 (HPC4), the peak computational capacity of the infrastructure totals 70 petaFlops: that is, 70 million billion mathematical operations performed in a single second. Located inside Eni’s Green Data Center has a peak power of over 50 petaflops, HPC5 is the most powerful industrial supercomputer supercomputer in the world. 5. Tianhe-2 Tianhe-2, , a supercomputer developed by the China’s National University of Defense Technology, which processes at a great 33.9 petaflops, petaflops , nearly twice the performance of the Titan or Sequoia, and over 10 times the performance of Tianhe-1A. 6. Marconi100   supercomputer was developed by IBM using IBM POWER9 technology and NVIDIA V100 Tensor Core GPUs as the wo rld’s smartest AI supercomputer, the US Department of Energy’s Summit system, and according to measurements conducted by CINECA. This will equip them with additional computing resources to face socio-economic challenges such as climate change, renewable energy, en ergy, sustainable economics, and precision medicine. 7. Summit, a supercomputer developed by IBM for use at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is capable of 200 petaFLOPS, making it the fastest supercomputer supercomp uter in the world. Its I ts current LINPACK benchmark is clocked at 148.6 petaFLOPS. Summit provides scientists with incredible computing power to solve challenges in energy, AI, human health, and other research areas, that were impossible until now. Undeniably,

these discoveries will help shape the human understanding of the

 

universe, bolster US economic competitiveness, and contribute to a better future. 8. Piz Daint, a supercomputer in the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, has a computing power of 7.8 petaFlops, this means 7.8 quadrillion quadrilli on of mathematical mathematical operations per second. This supercomputer has the potential to compute in one day over a modern laptop that

could compute in 900 years. 9. The Trinity  supercomputer is aimed at providing an increased computational computati onal capability for the NNSA Nuclear Security Enterprise in support of ever-demanding workloads. Managed and operated by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories under the Alliance for Computing at Extreme Scale (ACES) partnership, this supercomputer’s capabilities are required for supporting the NNSA Stockpile Stewardship program’s certification and assessments to ensure that the nation’s nuclear stockpile is safe, reliable, and secure. 10.  Frontera   is the fastest academic supercomputer located at the University of Texas at Austin. The supercomputer is the joint

development developme nt of Dell EMC and Intel, funded by a US$60 million grant from the National Science Foundation that would replace Stampede2 at the University’s Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). Deployed in June 2019, Frontera is the 8th most powerful supercomputer in the world and the fastest supercomputer on a university campus. It has two computing subsystems, the primary computing system focused on double-precision performance and the second subsystem focused on single-precision single-pr ecision streaming-memory computing. Additionally, Frontera has multiple storage systems, along with interfaces interfaces to the cloud and archive systems, and a set of application nodes for hosting virtual servers. 2.  Mainframe computers: These are commonly called as big iron, they are usually used by big organizations for bulk data processing such as statics, census data processing, transaction processing and are widely used as the severs as these systems has a higher processing capability as compared to the other classes c lasses of computers, most of these mainframe architectures were established in 1960s, the research and development worked continuously continuously over the years and the mainframes of today are far more better than the earlier ones, in size, capacity and efficiency. Uses of Mainframes:

They are used in large organizations where thousands of clients have to access data simultaneously. For example:

 

➢ 

➢ 

➢  ➢  ➢  ➢ 

➢ 

Performing ATM cash withdrawals withdrawal s and deposits. During the process, communication communicatio n between the mainframe and remote computer will help accomplish the financial transactions transactions at hand. Business transactions transactions that use credit cards or pre-paid cards. Online electronic transactions. Cloud storage. Handling of patient records in major hospitals. Making reservati reservations and travel airline Manipulation andonstallying of schedules data for for census andcompanies. electoral purposes.

3.  Mini computers: A minicomputer is also known as mini. It is a class of small computers that was introduced introduced into the world in t the he mid-1960s. A minicomputer is a computer which has all the features of a large size computer, but its size is smaller than those. A minicomputer lies between the mainframe and the microcomp microcomputer uter because its size is smaller than the former one and larger than the latter one. A minicomputer is also called as a mid-range computer. Minicomputers are mainly multiusers systems where more than one user can work simultaneously. Mini computer examples: IBM’s AS/400e, Honeywell200, TI -990.

Minicomputer can support multi-users at a time or you can say that minicomputer minicompu ter is a multiprocessing system. Also, the power of processing of minicomputers is not larger than the power of mainframe and supercomputers. These minicomputers can do time-sharing, batch processing, processin g, and online processing. Size of Minicomputer

The size of minicomputers can range from 12 inches in width to less than 7. This small size is especially attractive to students because they can use it anywhere, they want. History of Minicomputer

The term minicomputer was come to know in the 1960s and through that time only the small computers are made by making the use of transistors transistor s and core memory technologies. The first minicomputer which was developed was known as Digital Equipment Corporation, which was made by using transistors and it costs from the US $16000. Types of minicomputer

The types of minicomputer are- tablet PC, Desktop minicomputers, cell phones, notebooks, notebooks, high-end mP3 players, etc. Uses of minicomputer

Each person using a minicomputer has their own terminal attached by wires or via a modem to the computer proper. (A ter minal isn’t a computer-it’s basically just a keyboard and a monitor) The minicomputer

 

spends a little bit of time on one person’s task, then moves on to the next, and so on, juggling the work based on which jobs it thinks are most important. If you’re the only one using a minicomputer, minicomputer, this can be one fast machine. But once many users (people) are “on” the system, the thing begins to slow down-you may type something and then wait for a minute or more before you see a response on the screen. Minicomputers used to be the only option for companies. Now, many firms are turning to networks of personal computers computers to accomplish a ccomplish the same thing faster and cheaper. They were used for three primary purposes: Process Control

Minicomputers are primarily used by the companies for the manufacturing Minicomputers manufacturing control of the process. Process Control has two primary functions- data acquisition acquisiti on and feedback. Example - factories make use of minicomputers to control the manufacturing process. If any problem appears in any part of the process, then it recognizes the change and made required adjustments. Data Management

Minicomputers that we use for the data management can do any task regarding data like it can take, restore or generate data. Communication

Minicomputers act as an interface between the human operator and a larger processor. The user can run operations such as error checking with the help of minicomputer and then can use the device for making adjustments adjustmen ts also. The other uses are as follows:

    o  o  o  o

o

They Used Used Used Used

are for for for for

also used for scientific scientific computations. business-transaction business-transaction processing. database management. file handling engineering computations.

Characteristics Character istics of a minicomputer minicomputer

  Its size is smaller than a mainframe or supercomputer. o  It is less expensive e xpensive than mainframe or supercomputer. o  It is less powerful than mainframe or supercomputer and more o

powerful than microcomputers microcomputers and workstations. workstations. o It can do several tasks at once.  

 

  It can be used by many people at one time. o  It is used by small enterprises. o

Advantages Advantage s of minicomputer minicomputer • They are easy to use.   • They can fit anywhere.   • • • • • •

They a are smallto and very portable.   They re easy carry. As compared to their size, they are fast.   They hold a charge for a long time.   They did not require a carefully controlled operational environment.  They are more reliable.  

Disadvantages Disadvanta ges of minicomputer minicomputer • • • • •

Some minicomputers don’t have USB ports.   Minicomputers do not have any CD/DVD drive.   The user may not be familiar f amiliar with the operating system.  The keyboard can be small for fast typists.   In this, generally, there is not muc h storage on board.

• It can be too small s mall to do certain projects.  4.  Microcomputers:  Micro Computer is a small computer. Your personal computers are equivalent to the microcomputer. Mainframe and Mini Computer is ancestor of microcomputer. Integrated Circuit fabrication technology technolog y reduces the size of Mainframe and Minicomputer.

Technically, a microcomputer is a computer in which the CPU (central processing unit, the brains of the computer) is contained on one single chip, a microprocessor, input/output input/output devices and storage (memory) unit. All these components are important for a proper working of microcomputer. Classification Classifica tion on the basis of Functionality: 1.  Servers:  Servers are nothing but dedicated computers computers which are set-up to offer some services to the clients. They are named depending on the type of service they offered. Eg: security server, database server. 2.  Workstation:  Those are the computers designed to primarily to be used by single user at a time. They run multi-user operating systems. They are the ones which we use for our day to day personal / commercial work. 3.  Information Appliances: They are the portable devices which are designed to perform a limited set of tasks like basic calculations,

playing multimedia, browsing internet internet etc. They are generally referred

 

as the mobile devices. They have very limited memory and flexibility and generally run on “as-is” basis.  4.  Embedded computers: They are the computing devices which are used in other machines to serve limited set of requirements. They follow instructions from the non-volatile memory and they are not required to execute reboot or reset. The processing units used in such device

work to those basic requirements only and are different from the ones that are used in personal computers- better known as workstations. Classification Classifica tion on the basis of Data Handling: 1.  Analog:  An analog computer is a form of computer that uses the continuously-changeabl continuous ly-changeable e aspects of physical fact such as electrical, mechanical, mechanical , or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being b eing solved. Anything that is variable with respect to time and continuous can be claimed as analog just like an analog clock measures time by means of the distance traveled for the spokes of the clock around the circular dial. 2.  Digital: A computer that performs calculations and logical operations with quantities represented as digits, usually in the binary number system of “0” and “1”,   computer capable of solving problems by processing information expressed in discrete form from manipulation of the combinations of the binary digits, it can perform mathematical calculations, calculatio ns, organize and analyze data, control industrial and other processes, and simulate dynamic systems such as global weather patterns. 3.  Hybrid: A computer that processes both analog and digital data, Hybrid computer is a digital computer that accepts analog signals, converts them to digital and processes them in digital form.

 

Reference/s: https://ww https://www.tutorials w.tutorialspoint.com/c point.com/classification-of-compu lassification-of-computers ters    https://st https://study.com/aca udy.com/academy/lesson demy/lesson/using-mips-flops-as-c /using-mips-flops-as-computer-perfo omputer-performancermanceparameters.html   https://ww https://www.geeksforg w.geeksforgeeks.org/cl eeks.org/classification-of-comput assification-of-computers/ ers/    https://ecomputernote omputernotes.com/funda s.com/fundamental/introdu mental/introduction-to-computer/wr ction-to-computer/write-aite-ahttps://ec detailed-n detailed-note-on-class ification-of-computers mputers    https://wwote-on-classification-of-co https://www.analytics w.analyticsinsight.net insight.net/top-10-fastest-superc /top-10-fastest-supercomputers-worl omputers-world-watchd-watch2020/  2020/   https://ecomputernote s.com/fundamental/introdu mental/introduction-to-computer/mi ction-to-computer/microcomputer crocomputer    https://ecomputernotes.com/funda

Prepared by:

IT Instructors