How to measure Data

Data inside the computer is represented in form of electrical pulses, when high voltage is often denoted by 1 (or on) and low voltage is denoted by 0 (or off). Because we are using only two digits, 0 and 1, for data representation we are actually using the binary number system, where 0 and 1 are often referred to as binary digits. The abbreviation of binary digit!, bit, is accepted as a basic unit when we measure amounts of information. "ll #eys on the are coded with the combination of 0s and 1s. $hen you press any #ey, a corresponding se%uence of 0s and 1s is sent to the memory inside the computer (see an e&ample of what happens when a user presses #eys on a #eyboard). $hen a computer gets the se%uence of binary digits, how can it #now when the first character stops and the ne&t one starts' The easiest solution was to ma#e all characters to consist of the same number of digits. But how many digits' (irst how many character do we need to code' )* upper case letters, )* lower case letters, 10 decimal digits, punctuation and lots of special characters. "ltogether to cover all these characters and all #eys on the #eyboard we need )+* codes. $ith one digit we can code two characters only. $ith two one digit we can code two characters only. $ith two digits we can code )) , - characters. .f we proceed this way, we/ll get following table of powers of )0

21 = 2 22 = 2 23 = 8 24 = 16

25 = 32 26 = 64 27 = 128 28 = 256

(rom the table we can see than to represent )+* characters we need digits. $hat to do if the binary representation of a character is less than 1 digits' (or e&ample, upper case letter " .s coded as *+ using decimal system which is 1000001in binary. There are only 2 digits here. 3lace leading 0 ( 4ero) and you get 1 digits without changing the actual value of the number (li#e in decimal system +,0+ or 00+ will have the same value). 5o every character occupies 1 bits of memory or 1 bits of secondary storage. The word 67889! consists of * characters(+ letters and one full stop) and occupies *:1,-1 bits. The word computer! consists of 1 characters and occupies 1:1,*- bits. $hatever amount of information you measure in bits, you will always get a multiple of 1. That is why another unit of measure, called byte, was introduced. ;o to top of page " group of 1 bits is called a byte. "s amounts of data being processed #eep growing, other units of measure were created.

1 #ilobyte , 10)- bytes. 9utside computing, a #ilo means 10000. 6owever, in computer environment, all measures should be powers of ) and closest to 1000 which is )10 . <ilobyte is often abbreviated as < or < byte. Today computer memory is measured in thousands of #ilobytes or =egabytes and secondary storage is measured in millions of #ilobytes or ;igabytes. " =egabyte is often represented as = byte or =. " ;igabyte is abbreviated as ;. 1 =egabyte , 10)- < , 10)-) bytes 1 ;igabyte , 10)- = , 10)-) < , 10)-> bytes 1 Terabyte , 10)- ; , 10)-) = , 10)-> < , 10)-- bytes .n programming languages, a variable is named memory location created to #eep data. But what amount of data' This depends on the type of the variable. .f a variable is of type character, it will occupy only 1 byte of memory. " variable of type integer on a personal computer in most programming environments will occupy ) bytes of memory. (or e&ample, if variable named ?umber is of type character and holds the value of @-/ it will occupy only one byte. But if it is of type integer with the value -, it will occupy ) bytes.

Factors that In !uence "ersona! #om$uters "er ormance

1. The A3B 6igh performance, copatibility and up gradability are features that are important. The higher the generation, the better. (or e&ample, because of high performance new features, 3entium 2+ (fifth generation with the cloc# rate 2+ =64) $ill out perform 10-1*DC100( which is the fourth generation A3B with the cloc# rate 100=h4).

"nother important feature is word si4e measured in bits. 10>1* and 10-1* 3rocessors are >) bet whereas 3entiums are *- bit processors, thus 3entiums can transfer twice as much data at a time compared to third and fourth generation A3Bs. ). Aloc# rate. 5ince any step of processing can happen only on the tic#! 9f the cloc# (called Aloc# cycle), the faster the rate %uic#er the A3B wor#s. The -1* (T=) processor, for e&ample, is able to e&ecute many of its instructions in one cloc# cycle, while previous generations of .ntel microprocessors re%uire multiple cloc# cycles to e&ecute a single instructions per cloc# cycle due to the fact that the 3entium processor/s two pipelines can e&ecute two instructions simultaneously. .f other modules of the system re%uire more than one cloc# pulse, the A3B has to wait for them to #eep up. This is called a wait state. >. D"= .t does not ma#e much sense to have a fast processor if you don/t have fast D"= But note 0 faster D"= is more e&pensive. The amount of D"= is also important. Today, advanced operating systems re%uire at least - megabytes of memory Eust to boot up a computer. Bsing more than one application at a time re%uires at least 1 megabytes, and reasonable performance today calls for 1* megabytes or more. The benefits of adding more D"= include letting you open more applications at the same time, and wor#ing with large file or documents. =ore memory may also ma#e your machine run much faster. The %uality of DD"= chips used in a memory module is the must important component in determining the overall %uality and reliability of D"=. 5o which chips to consider' 7nhanced Data 9utput (7D9) DD"= provides faster data throughput. 5ystems using 7D9 DD"= will be faster than similar systems using regular DD"=. 7D9 DD"= provides even higher performance benefit when used with an 8) cache. Enhanced DD"= (7DD"=)can be thought of as D"= than carries its own cache on each module. .n an 7DD"=Fbased system, essentially entire system memory ban# is the cache. This can provide dramatic performance improvements. 6owever, at this time, 7DD"= is 5carce, very e&pensive and has not been adopted by many system vendors. -. Aache presence and si4e 81 Cache.

The bigger the onFchip cache si4e, the better since more instructions and data can be stored on the chip, reducing the number of times the processor has to access slower, offFchip memory areas to get data. (or e&ample, .ntel has doubled onFchip cache si4e to >)< on the .ntel 3entium processor with ==C technology. 8) Cache. 5ystem memories composed of dynamic D"= (DD"=) alone have not been able to #eep up with the dramatic increases in A3B speeds over the years. .n order to optimi4e the memory performance in these systems, designers are implementing architectures using cache memory, resulting in speed increases up to -+G. 7&panding secondary cache (e.g. from 1)1< to +1)<) can greatly improve the performance of some applications. .n a recent industry maga4ine test of noteboo# computers, a -1* machine with 8) cache outperformed a 3entiumH0 machine without 8) cache by >0G. +. Data bus type and si4e. The data bus is the highway than carries information between the processor and the memory subsystem. The wider the data bus, the more information it can transfer. Because of its e&ternal *-Fbit data bus, the 3entium processor can transfer data to and from memory at rates up to +)1 =bytesIsecond (five times faster than the transfer rate of the .ntel 1-1* (T=) DC)F**=64 microprocessor) The 3A. local bus greatly improves .I9 performance. .t can transfer data between the processor and the peripherals at up to 1>) =BIsecond, far faster Than the .5" bus rate of + =BI second. *. 6ard dis# capacity can see# time. 6ighFperformance hard drives have at least 1.) ; of capacity, provide an average 5ee# time of 1) milliseconds, a 1)1 to )+* < hard dis# buffer cache with both writeFcaching and readFcaching capabilities, and spin about -,+00 rotations per minute. (Jou may be familiar with using a dis# cache, such, such as =icrosoft 5mart Drive, which uses a small D"= buffer to speed up access to a large hard dis#.) 2. Kideocard. " fullFfeatured 3A.Fcompliant K;" card, with at least 1 to ) =B of video D"=, will further accelerate graphics performance. 1. ADFD9= drive speed. "t the time of writing of these notes the slowest ADFD9= drive available on the mar#et is %uad speed. .t may be enough, if you are not running applications from

ADFD9=, but only installing them. 9therwise loo# at octal or tenFspeed technologies. H. ==C processors Multimedia extensions processors (==C) is designed specifically to support mediaFrich software and communications applications. The 3entium processor with ==C technology will give a better, smoother and more realistic multimedia e&perience. These processors have got +2 powerful new instructions specifically designed to manipulate and process video, audio and graphical data efficiently. 6owever, your system will re%uire software designed for ==C technology (old software must be recompiled to ta#e advantage of new ==C features). %emember that the &ey measurement is how your so tware $er orms on a gi'en system 'ersus that system(s) ser'ice and warranty) re!iabi!ity and com$atibi!ity* 5o first decide what software you will need, loo# at the minimum hardware re%uirements for the software to run and then ma#e your decisions about what hardware you will need. To help you ma#e your decisions, following is the list of computerFintensive applications0 FDatabase pac#ages FAomputerFaided designIengineering F>FD modeling F8argeFscale financial analysis F6ighFthroughput clientIserver F?etwor# applications FKirtual reality FDich electronic mail