Technical Aspects

What is Analog Computer?





Analog computer as well as the digital computer is actually type or you may say form of currently known device as computer. Physical phenomenas continuously changeable aspects are used by analog computer to work properly such as hydraulic, mechanical or electrical quantities just with intention to solve the problems. In digital computers, the change in the numerical values represents actually the variation in incrimination of quantities in terms of contrast.

It is interesting fact to know about mechanical analog computer that gun fire control was being done through this computer type during the famously known Korean War and also in the World War II as it was the era when this computer type was being developed or manufactured in significant numbers. Transistors development actually worked in particular to make practical this computer type.
Analog computers were in full demand and were being manufactured in large numbers as were commonly in used before the development of digital computers in different industries and science projects. Wide range of complexity or you may say difficulty can be having through analog computers. Nomographs as well as slide rules types of analog computers can be categorized under simplest computers.

On the other hand large hybrid as well as gunfire control computers those were in use during the famously known Korean War and also in the World War II were considered the most difficult or you may say complicated models of this computer type. Scale factor was required to set up any model of this computer type along with the starting values which were known being the initial conditions of these computer models.


What is Proxy Server?



Proxy server, which actually can be either an application program or a physical computer system, is defined in the computer networks world being a server which actually works or you may say functions on behalf of those clients, being an intermediary source, that seek some resources from different servers. Just like a client, sends request through a proxy server, to retrieve a file, web page, connection or any other available resource over the specific server, is the best example of proxy server usage.

Filtering rules of a proxy server actually helps this intermediary source to evaluate the request received from a client which is actually for a different server on a different network. For example, the traffic can be or may be filtered by the proxy server by protocol as well as by IP address.

If the clients request (received by this intermediary source) passes the filtering rules, then the relevant server is connected by this proxy (on the clients request or you may say clients behalf) just in intention to fulfill the requirements includes in the clients request. Optionally the clients request may also be altered by the proxy as well as the servers response may also be altered by this intermediary source.

Even sometimes the request is reverted back to the client by this intermediary source without touching or sending request to the relevant server. But in this case, responses are cashed by this intermediary source, that are received from the relevant or you may say remote server and then subsequent requests are returned directly with the same contents.

What is Fibre Channel?
Fibre Channel is commonly recognized or you may say known being an excellently used storage networking technology in the computer world and this technology type is also recognized and discussed with its short name i.e. . Primarily or main this network technology which is also recognized being a gigabit-speed technology is being brought into usage in computer world for storage networking data.

T11 Technical Committee actually standardized this technology which is well-known with the name Fibre Channel and this committee works under the jurisdiction of InterNational Committee for Inofrmation Technology Standards which is also widely or you may say commonly recognized in the computer world with the short name or abbreviated name INCITS. This INCITS is actually working for the American National Standards Institute, also known famously with abbreviated or short name ANSI.

Primarily or you may say majorly or mainly usage in the early ages of this Fibre Channel technology was made in the field of computers that are known as Super Computers. But these days, this storage networking technology is commonly used in storage area network (also known commonly with its abbreviated name in computer world i.e. SAN) being the standard connection type especially in the enterprise storage world.

Though the name is Fibre Channel but this technology may also run on copper wire known as twister pair in addition to the main fiber-optic cable. FCP, which is also abbreviated or defined as Fibre Channel Protocol, is actually brought into usage in order to transports commands known as SCSI commands predominantly over the networks of Fibre Channel. This FCP is absolutely similar or work in the same way as TCP works in the popular form of networking known as IP networking.

Fibre Channel is a high-speed robust protocol for managing the transfer of information in storage area networks (SANs). It supports data rates from 1 through 10 Gbps. At 10 Gbps, it leverages much of the technology used by Ethernet, making use of XGMII and XAUI interfaces, for example. Fibre Channel can help with design of large-scale, storage-intensive systems. It can also provide a solution that allows rapid storage and retrieval of information, while simplifying the interconnection of different components in the system. Figure 1 shows the Fibre Channel topography.


Figure 1. Fibre Channel Topology




Figure 1. Fibre Channel Topology

Altera® devices can implement 1-, 2-, 4-, 8-, and 10-Gbps versions of Fibre Channel. The cores are highly configurable, allowing you to customize the operation of the core without engaging in a separate engineering customization project. The Altera solutions cover the FC-1 and FC-2 layers of the Fibre Channel stack.

The high-speed Arria® II, Stratix® V (GX and GT), Stratix IV (GX and GT), Stratix II GX, and Stratix GX FPGAs and HardCopy® IV GX ASICs provide the kind of performance that allows implementation of 1- and 2-Gbps Fibre Channel in lower-speed-grade devices, while still supporting leading-edge development of 4-Gbps, 8-Gbps, and 10-Gigabit implementations. These devices are equipped with built-in transceivers that provide a dedicated mode for implementing the XAUI interface that is available for 10-Gigabit Fibre Channel. This allows for more efficient implementation of the entire interface in a single device. Embedded within this transceiver are dedicated rate-matching FIFO buffers, 8B/10B encoding and decoding functions, and word-alignment functions. Each group of four channels also has built-in channel alignment circuitry to minimize skew across the interface. The Stratix V GT and Stratix IV GT devices, with integrated transceivers supporting a 10-Gbps data rate, allow for implementation of the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol. Stratix V GT devices with an integrated 64B/66B encoder/decoder provide a more efficient implementation of this protocol.

What is NRAM?



NRAM is actually an abbreviated word which is described as Nano RAM. It is defined as the type of proprietary technology of digital computers memory and a company is working behind its development which is known as Nantero. This computer memory is also categorized by the company among the list of non-volatile RAMs (Random Access Memory).

This type of computer memory is being prepared on a concept of carbon nanotubes that are mechanically positioned on the substrate of chip-like device. As per the theory behind the production of this memory type, it is said by its creating organization that high density of storage memories is provided with the usage of small-sized nanotubes to make this memory. NRAM is actually the short name of this memory type which has been given to it by its creating organization Nantero.

Carbon nanotubes well-known effect is actually behind the main concept of developing this latest technology by the Nantero Company where flat surface is used to slightly separating or touching the crossed nanotubes in the vertical direction which is quite as same as to the substrate. Some nanotubes are used in a single cell of NRAM in this latest technology developing by Nantero.

It is said as per the theory of its creator that the same density is being carried by their project as it is shown or generated by the DRAM. There are several capacitors that exist in the memory known as DRAM. Power is not required by the Nano-RAM to refresh itself as it is a compulsory requirement in DRAM.

What is Flash Memory?




Flash memory is commonly known as the type of computer storage technology which falls under the category of non-volatile memories. This type of memory can be erased electronically very easily as well as can be reprogrammed in the same way. Most common usage of this type of memory is done in USB flash drives, memory cards and in drives that are known as solid-state drives.

Flash memory is commonly used not only to store data but it is also used to transfer data from one computer to other computer and in any other digital device or product. This memory is also known as one of the types of EEPROM and therefore it can be reprogrammed and erased by the users themselves as many times as they want. When it was in its early stages, whole chip of flash memory would be erased if it was necessary to erase or reprogram it.
It is said that the cost of flash memory is far less as compare to the other type of EEPROM which is known as byte-programmable memory. It is the only reason that this type of EEPROM has become the more usable memory all over the world and currently dominating in this memory type in order to save the data in large amount whenever non-volatile memory is required for the purpose.

Flash memory is commonly used by the users all over the world in digital audio players, laptop computers, PDAs that are also known as the personal digital assistants, mobile phones and in digital cameras. These days this memory type is also commonly used in many video games consoles.