INTEL's LIGHT PEAK

Intel in its developer form showed off a new technology called "Light Peak" which uses optical interconnects to deliver data at a speeds across devices.Apple reportedly approach Intel with the idea, and it could have many advantages over widely used technologies like USB, especially in small devices.

Light Peak is the code name for a high speed optical cable technology to connect electronic devices to each other, according to Intel.Its bandwidth starts from 10Gbps and it could scale to 100Gbps as it is developed over the next decade.By Autumn of 2010 Apple may be ready to introduce a line of Macs using Intel Peak.

Characteristics:

-> 10Gb/s over optical cable( up to 100 meters in length)
-> connect to multiple devices at the same time.
-> Multiple protocols
-> Bi-directional transfer.
-> Quality of service implementation.
-> Hot plug gable.
-> A full length blue ray movie can be transferred within 30seconds with a data rate of 10Gbps.
Even though this technology is expensive it taps the extraordinary capacity of the optical communications and could leap frog more conventional connections in the next few years.

Intel Xeon Processor X7460

* It is a Xeon 7400 Series xeon processor
* Clock Speed of 2.66GHz
* 16MB of Cache memory
* No of cores are 6
* 1066MHz of FSB Speed
* It is based on 45nm lithography
* Maximum TDP is 130W
* Halogens free options unavailable
* Instruction set of 64bit.
* No of transistors are 1900 million
* Price is $2729.00
* Sockets supported is PGA604
* The compatible Chipset is Intel 7300 Chipset

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor

It is a Quad core processor.Unbeatable multi-core value with AMD Phenom II processors. They deliver The Ultimate Visual Experience for high definition entertainment, advanced multitasking performance, and power-saving innovations for smaller, cooler machines that are energy efficient.




Features & Benefits

-> Smoother faster experience, even when running complex software application with native
->Operating modes 32 bit and 64 bit.
-> Speed 3 GHz.
-> Multi-Core Technology
-> Scaled performance to conserve PC power with Hyper Transport 3.0 Technology
-> Hear your music, not your PC with AMD Power Now Technology (Cool n Quiet Technology)
-> Prevent the spread of certain viruses and strengthen your network integrity with Enhanced Virus Protection (EVP)

Intel Core i7 Processor Extreme Edition

This is the fastest performing processor in the world of extreme gaming.It delivers an incredible breakthrough in the performance of gaming.The multitasking will be 25 percent faster whereas video encoding is 79 percent faster and up to 46 percent faster image rendering.This employs two technologies Intel Turbo Boost technology and Intel Hyper-Threading technology which are used for maximizing the speed of demanding applications and enabling the highly threaded applications to get the work done in parallel.



Features

processor number is i7-965
8 processing threads with Intel HT technology
3.20GHz core speed
Smart Cache of 8MB
3 channels of DDR3

Operators in C

C supports large set of operators.An operator is a symbol that tells the computer to perform certain mathematical or logical manipulations.Operators are used in the programs to manipulate the data and variables.C operators are classified into number of groups.They are

(a) Arithmetic Operators
(b) Relational Operators
(c) Logical Operators
(d) Assignment Operators
(e) Increment and Decrement Operators
(f) Conditional Operators
(g) Bit-wise Operators
(h) Special Operators

Arithmetic Operators:

C provides all basic arithmetic operators which include '+','-','*','/','%'.The operators +,-,* and / all work in the same way as in other languages i.e. they perform addition ,subtraction, multiplication and division respectively.These operators can operate on any built-in data types allowed in C.The unary minus operator, in effect, multiplies its single operand by -1.Therefore a number preceded by a minus sign changes it sign.

'+' means addition or unary plus
'-' means subtraction or unary minus
'*' means multiplication
'/' means division
'%' means modulo division.

Relation Operators:

Generally two quantities are often compared with each other and depending on their result certain decisions are taken.These comparisons can be done using relational operators.C supports six(6) relational operators in all.They are stated as follows:

'<' means is less than
'<=" means is less than or equal to
'>' means is greater than
'>=' means is greater than or equal to
'==' means is equal to
'!=' means is not equal to

Logical Operators:

C has the following logical operators.

&& ----> logical AND
| ------> logical OR
! ------> logical NOT

Assignment Operators:

Assignment operators are used to assign the result of an expression to a variable.The generally used assignment operator is '='.

Increment & Decrement Operators:

The useful operators that are not found in other languages are the increment and decrement operators.The operators are '++' and '--'.
The operator '++' adds 1 to the operand whereas '--' subtracts 1 from the operand.There are two forms that is taken by these operators.They are post & pre increment and decrement operators.Both perform same operation to an operand but they differ when they are assigned to a variable as a statement.The post increment and pre increment of an operand 'm' is

m++;----post increment
++m; --- pre increment

m--;---- post decrement
--m; pre decrement.

x=m++;
This statement assign the value of m to x and later increments the value of 'm'.
x=++m;
This statement initially increments the value of m and later assigns that value to the 'x' variable.

Conditional Operators:

A operator pair "?:" is available in C to construct conditional expressions.The general form of conditional expression is

exp1?exp2:exp3;

The operator pair ?: works as follows
-Initially it evaluates the exp1.
-If exp1 is true then exp2 is executed.
-If exp1 is false then exp3 is executed.

Bit-wise Operators:

C has special operators for manipulation of data at bit level known as bit wise operators.The various bit wise operators present are

&------bit wise AND
|-------bit wise OR
^------bit wise exclusive OR
<<-----shift left
>>-----shift right
~-------One's complement

Special Operators:

C supports special operators such as comma operator,sizeof operator,pointer selection operators(& and *) and member selection operators(. and ->).
The comma operator is used to link the related expressions together.
sizeof operator is a compile time operator and when used with an operand, it returns the number of bytes the operand occupies.The operand may be a variable, a constant or a data type qualifier.pointer operator * is used to access the memory locations value that is stored in the pointer.

DATA TYPES IN C

C language is rich in data types.The various types of data types supported by ANSI C are
-> Primary( or fundamental) data types.
-> User-defined data types
-> Derived data types
-> Empty data set

Primary Data Types:

All C compilers support four fundamental data types,namely integer(int), character(char),floating point(float), and double-precision floating point(double).The extended data types offered by the above data types are long int and long double.All are divided into two categories they are signed and unsigned.The size and range of basic data types are

-----------------------------------------------
DATA TYPE|||||Range of values
-----------------------------------------------
char ---------> -128 to 127
int ---------> -32768 to 32767
float ---------> 3.4e-38 to 3.4e+38
double ---------> 1.7e-308 to 1.7e+308
------------------------------------------------

User Defined Data Types:

C supports a feature known as "type definition" that allows users to define an identifier that would represent the existing data type.The general form is
typedef type identifier;
where type refers to an existing data type which can be any of the data types i.e.primary or user defined etc...
identifier refers to the new name given to the data types which is declared in the statement.As said ';' indicates the end of the statement.

Derived data types:

Derived data types are nothing but the combination of the different data types that are present inbuilt or user defined.The examples of derived data types are arrays,functions,structures and pointers.

Sample C program

main()
{
/*.......................printing begins............*/
printf(" sample program");
/*.......................printing ends.............*/
}

The main() is a special function used by C to tell the computer where the program starts.Every program must have exactly one main function.If we use more than one main function, the compiler cannot tell which one marks the beginning of the program.The empty parentheses immediately after main indicates that the function main has no arguments(or parameters).

The opening brace '{' indicates beginning of main and the closing brace '}' indicates the end of the function.All the statements between the opening brace and ending brace indicate the function body.The function body contains a set of instructions to perform the given task.

The lines beginning with /* and ending with */ are known as comment lines which are used to enhance the readability and understanding of a program.Comment lines are not executable statements and therefore these lines are ignored by the compiler while executing a program.

The printf is the only executable in the given program.printf is a predefined function in the standard C library.For printing in the next line or start printing in a new line the printf statements should be appended with /n before the statement to start line and after the statement to start from the next line after the statement that is stated in the printf statement.

The general format of simple C program is
main() <--------------------------- function name { <----------------------------------- start of program ............ ............<============== program statements ............ } <----------------------------------- end of program

Rules to C Programs

The rules that are applicable to all C programs :

(a) Each instruction in a C program is written as a separate statement.Therefore a C program consists of a series of statements.

(b) The statements in the program should appear in the order in which we wish them to be executed; exceptionable to the ' jump' or transfer control statement.This means that C program executes sequentially.

(c) Blank spaces can be inserted between two words to improve the reliability of the statement, but no blank spaces are allowed within a variable,constant or keyword.

(d) All statements sin C program are entered in small case letters.

(e) It doesn't have specific rules for the position at which statements are to be written.

(f) Each statement in C must be ended with a ';' which acts as a statement terminator.

Character Set of C

The characters that can be used to form words,numbers and expressions depend upon the computer on which program is run.The characters in C are grouped into the following categories:
1. Letters
2. Digits
3. Special Characters
4. White Spaces
The compiler ignores white spaces unless they are a part of string constant.White spaces may be used to separate words, but are prohibited between the characters of keywords and identifiers.

Alphabets A,B,...................,Y,Z.
a,b,.....................,y,z.
Digits 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.
Special symbols ~`!@#%^&*()_-+=\{}[]:;"'<>,.?/

Constants,Variables and Keywords:

The alphabets,numbers and special symbols when properly combined forms constants,variables and keywords.
- A constant is an entity that doesn't change whereas variable is an entity that may change.
- C constants are divided into two major categories:
(a) Primary Constants.
(b) Secondary Constants.
- Primary constants are further categorized as integer,real and character constants.
- Secondary constants are categorized as array,pointer,structure,union,Enum etc....

Rules for Constructing Integer Constants:

- An integer constant must have at least one digit.
- It should not have decimal point.
- can be either positive or negative.
- If no sign precedes an integer constant it is assumed to be positive.
- no commas or blanks are allowed within an integer constant.
- allowable range of integer constants are -32768 to 32767.

The range of the integer constants depend upon the type of compiler.

Ex: 426,+782,-8000 etc.....

Rules for Constructing Real Constants:

- It should contain at least one digit.
- must have a decimal digit.
- could be either positive or negative.
- Default sign is positive(+).
- no commas or blanks are allowed within an integer constant.

Ex: +325.34,426.0,-32.76 etc........

Rules for Constructing Character Constants:

- It is a single alphabet, a single digit or a single special symbol enclosed within single inverted commas.Both the inverted commas should be left(i.e. ' ' ).For example, 'A' is a valid character whereas `A' is not.
- maximum length of a character constant can be 1 character.
Ex: 'A' 'I' '5' '='.

Variables:
An entity that may vary during the program is called a variable.

Rules for Constructing Variable Names:

- A variable name is any combination of 1 to 31 alphabets,digits or underscores.
- The first character of variable name must be an alphabet or underscore.
- No commas or variables are allowed within a variable name.
- No special symbols other than underscore( _ ) can be used in a variable name.

Ex: si_int, m_hra,tot_class etc...............

C Keywords:

- Keywords are the words whose meaning has already been explained to the C compiler.There are 32 keywords available in C.The list of keywords present in are as follows:

auto
double
int
struct
break
else
long
switch
case
enum
register
typedef
char
extern
return
union
const
float
short
unsigned
continue
for
signed
void
default
goto
sizeof
volatile
do
if
static
while.

Compile vendors (like Microsoft, Borland etc....) provide their own keywords apart from the mentioned above.

Introduction to C

Introduction:

The name 'C' seems to be strange for a programming language.But this sounding language is one of the most popular computer languages today. C was an offspring of the 'Basic Combined Programming Language(BCPL)' called B, developed in the 1960s at Cambridge University. 'B' language was modified by Dennis Ritchie and was implemented at Bell Laboratories in 1972.The new language was named C.Since it was developed along with the UNIX operating system, it is strongly associated with UNIX.This operating system which was also developed at Bell Laboratories, was coded almost entirely in C.

Importance of C:

The increasing popularity of C is probably due to its many desirable qualities.It is a robust language whose rich set of built-in functions and operators can be used to write any complex program.The C compiler combines the capabilities of an assembly language with the features of a high level language and therefore it is well suited for writing both system software and business packages. In fact, many of the C compilers available in the market are written in C.
Programs written in C are efficient and fast.This is due to its variety of data types and powerful operators.It is many times faster than BASIC.There are only 32 keywords and it strength lies in its inbuilt functions.Several standard functions are available which can be used for developing programs. C is highly portable.This means that C programs written for one computer can be run on another with small or no modification.Portability is important if we plan to use a new computer with a different operating system.C language is well suited for structured programming,thus requiring the user to think of a problem in terms of function modules or blocks.Another important feature of C is its ability to extend itself.With the availability of large functions, the programming task becomes simple.

OSI Reference Model

Introduction:

The OSI model is the basic model and the old model of the networking.This model is based on a proposal developed by the International Standards Organization(ISO) as a first step toward international standardization of the protocols used in the various layers.It was proposed by Day&Zimmermann in 1983.The principle is divide and conquer.

Guidelines:

The OSI model has seven layers.The principles that were applied to arrive at the seven layers can be briefly summarized as follows:

- A layer should be created where a different level of abstraction is needed.
- Each layer should perform a well defined function.
- The function of each layer should be chosen with an eye toward defining internationally standardized protocols.
- The layer boundaries should be chosen to minimize the information flow across the interfaces.
- The number of layers should be large enough that distinct functions need not be thrown together in the same layer out of necessity and small enough that the architecture does not become unwieldy.

The different layers that are present in OSI reference model are
- Physical Layer
- Data Link Layer
- Network Layer
- Transport Layer
- Session Layer
- Presentation Layer
- Application Layer

The services provided by each layer are as follows

Physical Layer

- Raw bit transmission
- communication medium(twisted pair/coaxial cable)
- mode of communication(simplex/half duplex/full duplex)
- type of transmission(base band/broad band)
- voltage levels.
- Bit periods.

Data Link Layer

- Framing
- Error Control
- Frame Control

Network Layer

- Packet Routing
- Packet Congestion
- Inter Networking problems
- Billing

Transport Layer

-Packet & message creation
- Crash recovery
- multiplexing

Session Layer

- session creation
- token management
- synchronization

Presentation Layer

- data compression
- cryptography
- mismatch of representation

Application Layer

- email
- directory server
- File transfer
- Domain Name Server(DNS)
- WWW

OSI - Open System Interconnection
ISO - International Standards Organization

Computer Network

Definition:
The process of interconnecting autonomous computers to have a reliable communication among themselves is called computer networking and resultant system is called computer network.

autonomous means independent systems.
reliable communication refers to
- information should reach the destination.
- information should reach in order-no disordering.
- information should reach without error.
- information should reach destination in full.
- information should reach in time.
- information should reach correct destination.
- information should not get repeated like duplication, triplication etc....

The goals of computer network are
- Resource sharing
- Reliability
- Cost effectiveness

The applications of computer network are
- Reservation of tickets
- email
- world wide web(WWW)
- teleconferencing
- automated news
- online shopping and surgery and many more...........
The basic reference model used in computer network is ISO/OSI reference model.

Memory

A memory unit is a device to which binary information is transferred for storage and from which information is available when needed for processing.When data processing takes place, information from the memory is transferred to selected registers in the processing unit.Intermediate and final results obtained in the processing unit are transferred back to be stored in memory.A memory unit is a collection of cells capable of storing a large quantity of binary information.There are two types of memories that are used in digital systems
i)RAM (Random Access Memory)
ii)ROM(Read Only Memory)

Random Access Memory(RAM):

A memory unit is a collection of storage cells together with associated circuits needed to transfer information in and out of the device.The time it takes to transfer information to or from any desired random location is always same,hence the name random access memory named RAM.
Both read and write operations can be performed on the RAM. Whenever a PC starts the basic files are loaded from ROM to RAM for the turning ON of the computer so that the PC starts.There are two types of RAM that are majorly manufactured.They are SRAM & DRAM.
RAM of different sizes like 128MB,256MB,512MB,1GB,2GB etc are available in the market.The various manufacturers of RAM are Intel, Rambus etc....

Read Only Memory(ROM)

A read only memory is essentially a memory device in which permanent binary information is stored.The binary information must be specified by the designer.The input to ROM is address location whereas the output is data located in the specified address which means that only READ operation can be performed in ROM.ROM is used to store the permanent data and it is considered as the code memory in which the instructions to the microprocessor are stored.Generally ROM consists of the instructions to be specified to the processors and in microcontrollers ROM contains the program to be executed written by the programmer and the memory is erasable.The different types of ROM are ROM,PROM or EPROM,EEPROM,ROM (flash type).The ROM can be programmed and it can be erased by many means through UV light, electricity etc,.........
Hence RAM and ROM provide efficient working of the processor

Types of Micro Processors-III

Digital Signal Processors:

DSP's are specially designed to process signals.They receive digitized signal information, perform some mathematical operations on the information and give the result to an output device.Many companies produce DSP chips.
Examples are Texas Instruments,Motorola,National,Fujitsu etc..

NECuPD7281 is specially designed for image processing applications.It was manufactured by Texas Instruments.It can also be used to implement FFT or numeric processing.
Intel also developed a DSP chip, Intel 2920.It was earlier DSP chip.Later many designed improved chips.

Symbolic Processors:

These are designed for expert system, machine intelligence, knowledge-based system,pattern recognition etc.Basic operations performed for artificial intelligence are logic interference,search,pattern matching,filtering etc..Symbolic processors are also called PROLOG processors or LISP processors.

Bit-Slice Processors:
Customized processors are built using basic building blocks.Processor of desired word length were developed using building blocks and the basic building block is bit-slice.Examples of bit slice processors are AMD-2900 series,AMD 2909,AMD 29300 series etc........

Transputers:

Specially designed microprocessor to operate as a component processor in a multiprocessor system was called transputer.It was build on VLSI chip and contained a processor,memory and communication links.link is to provide a point to point communication between the transputers. Transputers contains FPU,on chip RAM, high speed serial link etc...Examples of transputers are INMOS T414,INMOS T800 etc.

Graphic Processors:

For graphics also special processors are designed which are nothing but graphic processors.Intel has developed Intel 740-3D graphics chip which is optimized for Pentium II computers.These provide applications in multimedia games and movies.Examples for graphic processors are
Intel 82786,IBM 8514/A,Texas TMS34010 etc.....

For array processor click here

For RISC and CISC processors click here

Types of Micro Processors-II

RISC & CISC Processors:

RISC means Reduced Instruction Set Computer.
CISC means Complex Instruction Set Computer.
The classification is based on the type of instruction set.In RISC the instruction set is simple and have the limited number of the instructions (under 100 instructions) where as CISC has instruction set larger and complex.RISC processors are faster than the CISC processors.Each instruction in RISC is executed in one clock cycle and most RISC instructions are register to register operations.Memory access is limited only to load and store instructions.In CISC, to execute an instruction a number of micro operations are performed.To perform each micro operation a micro instruction is executed.For each instruction there is a micro code.It is based on micro programming approach which makes CISC slower when compared to RISC processor.

Examples of RISC processors are DECs Alpha 21064,21164 and 21264processors,Power PC processors etc..
Examples of CISC processors are Intel 386,486,Pentium, Pentium Pro,Pentium II, Pentium III,Pentium 4;Motorola's 68000,68020,68030,68040 etc...

For Array Processors click here

For DSP Processors click here

Types of Micro Processors-I

The different types of microprocessors are

• Vector Processors
• Array Processors
• Scalar & Super scalar Processors
• RISC & CISC Processors
• Digital Signal Processors
• Symbolic Processors
• Bit-Slice Processors
• Transputers
• Graphic Processors

Vector Processors:

A vector processor is designed to make vector computations.A vector is defined as a array of operands of same type.Let us consider the following vectors
Vector 1 (a1,a2,a3,....................,an)
Vector 2 (b1,b2,b3,...................,bn)
Vector 3= Vector 1 + Vector 2
=C(c1,c2,c3,.................,cn) , where ci is given as ci= ai +bi for all i=1,2,3,..............,n
A vector processor adds all the elements of vector 1 and 2 using a single vector instruction using hardware approach.Vector processors are often used in a multipipelined super computers.

Array Processors:

Array Processors also known as SIMD processors.These processors are designed for vector computations. Difference between vector and array processor is that a vector processor uses multiple vector pipelines whereas an array processor employs a number of processing elements to operate in parallel.The array processors works under the control of control processor which is a scalar processor.An array processor consists of multiple number of ALUs each having a local memory.The ALU with local memory is called as Processing element(PE).An array processor is a Single Instruction Multiple Data(SIMD) type processor.

Scalar & Super scalar Processors

A processor which executes scalar data is called scalar processor.The simplest scalar processor makes processing of only integer instruction using fixed point operands. A powerful scalar processor can process both integer and floating point numbers.It contains integer ALU and floating point unit(FPU). It can be either RISC or CISC processor.Examples are Intel 386,486(CISC), Intel i860(CISC).

A super scalar processor contains multiple pipelines and executes more than one instruction per clock cycle.Examples are Pentium,Pentium Pro,Pentium II,III,Power PC etc.

For RISC and CISC processors click here

For DSP and other processors click here