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Chapter - 2-Hardware-and-Software

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20 views9 pages

Chapter - 2-Hardware-and-Software

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nihtweaung.ytu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Chapter - 2

Hardware and Software


Mainframe computers and
Supercomputers
Mainframe computers
• Mainframe computers are often referred to simply as
mainframes.
• They are used mainly by large organisations for bulk data-
processing applications such as censuses, industry and
consumer statistics, and transaction processing.
• In the early days of computers, the central processing unit was
very large compared to modern-day computers and used to be
housed in a steel cabinet.
• This was often referred to as the ‘main frame’ and sometimes
as the ‘big iron’.
Mainframe computers
• A mainframe computer can have hundreds of processor cores
and can process a large number of small tasks at the same time
very quickly.
• A mainframe is a multitasking, multi-user computer, meaning it
is designed so that many different people can work on many
different problems, all at the same time.
• Mainframe computers have almost total reliability, being very
resistant to viruses and Trojan horses.
Mainframe computers
• The most advanced mainframe
computer at the time of publication was
the IBM z15.
• The cabinet itself is taller than the
average person.
• The IBM z15 with up to 190 cores and
its predecessor, the Z14 with 170 cores,
are used by large banking
organisations, government departments
and large insurance organisations.
Supercomputers
• Even more powerful are modern
supercomputers, which can have in
excess of 100 000 processing cores.
• A supercomputer can multiply different
hourly wage rates from a master file by a
list of hours in a transaction file for
hundreds of workers in roughly the same
time that it would take a personal
computer to calculate the wages of just
one employee.
Summit Supercomputers
• The Oak Ridge National Laboratory in
the USA launched its Summit
supercomputer in 2018.
• It claimed, ‘if every person on Earth
completed one calculation per second, it
would take the world population 305
days to do what Summit can do in 1
second’.
• The Summit supercomputer, however,
fills a room the size of two tennis courts.
Cray XC40 Supercomputers
• Cray XC40 supercomputer can have
up to172,000 processor cores.
• Several countries have one of these
and they use them in the fields of
weather forecasting and scientific
research, such as the study
of astrophysics and mathematical
and computational modelling.
Characteristics of Mainframe Computers and Supercomputers

• Longevity
• RAS
• Reliability
• Availability
• Serviceability
• Security
• Performance metrics
• Volume of input, output and throughput
• Fault tolerance
• Operating system
• Type of processor
• Heat maintenance

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