LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

MODEL HOME WORK: #1

Course Code: CSE102 Course Title: Exposure to Computer Disciplines

School: LSE Department: CSE/IT

Name of the faculty member: SAMITA

Class: B2001 Term: Spring Section: B2001

Batch: 2010-2011

Max. Marks: 5 Date of Allotment: 22/1/2011

Date of Submission: 4 feb 2011

Declaration:
I declare that this assignment is my individual work. I have not copied from any other
student’s work or from any other source except where due acknowledgment is made explicitly
in the text, nor has any part been written for me by another person.

Student’s Signature :

Himanshu Gupta

Submitted By:-

Himanshu Gupta

Roll no. A07

1. Brief The current Hard disk architecture used in Laptop and desktop computers and major Problems surrounding
them?
Dual-channel architecture describes a technology that theoretically doubles data throughput from the memory to
the memory controller. Dual-channel-enabled memory controllers utilize two 64-bit data channels.
Dual-channel architecture requires a dual-channel-capable motherboard and two or more DDR, DDR2 SDRAM, or DDR3
SDRAM memory modules. The memory modules are installed into matching banks, which are usually color coded on
the motherboard. These separate channels allow each memory module access to the memory controller, increasing
throughput bandwidth. It is not required that identical modules be used, but this is often recommended for best dual-
channel operation. It is possible to use a single-sided module of 512 MB and a double-sided module of 512 MB in dual-
channel configuration, but how fast and stable it is depends on the memory controller.
If the motherboard has two pairs of differently colored DIMM sockets (the colors indicate which bank they belong to, bank
0 or bank 1), then one can place a matched pair of memory modules in bank 0, but a different-capacity pair of modules in
bank 1, as long as they are of the same speed. Using this scheme, a pair of 1 GB memory modules in bank 0 and a pair of
matched 512 MB modules in bank 1 would be acceptable for dual-channel operation.
Dual-channel architecture is a technology implemented on motherboards by the motherboard manufacturer and does not
apply to memory modules. Theoretically
any matched pair of memory modules may be used in either single- or dual-channel operation, provided the motherboard
supports this architecture.
TRIPLE CHANNEL ARCHITECTURE
DDR3 triple-channel architecture is used in the Intel Core i7-900 series (the Intel Core i7-800 series only support up to
dual-channel), which are used on the LGA 1366 platform (e.g., Intel X58). AMDSocket AM3 processors do not use the
DDR3 triple-channel architecture but instead use dual-channel DDR3 memory. The same applies to the Intel Core i3,  Core
i5 and Core i7-800 series, which are used on the LGA 1156 platforms (e.g., Intel P55). According to Intel, a Core i7 with
DDR3 operating at 1066 MHz will offer peak data transfer rates of 25.6 GB/s when operating in triple-
channelinterleaved mode. This, Intel claims, leads to faster system performance as well as higher performance per watt. [1]
When operating in triple-channel mode, memory latency is reduced due to interleaving, meaning that each module is
accessed sequentially for smaller bits of data rather than completely filling up one module before accessing the next one.
Data is spread amongst the modules in an alternating pattern, potentially tripling
available memory bandwidth for the same amount of data over storing it all on one module.
Page fault
A page fault is a trap to the software raised by the hardware when a program accesses a page that is mapped in the
virtual address space, but not loaded in physical memory.
The hardware that detects this situation is the memory management unit in a processor. The exception handling software
that handles the page fault is generally part of an operating system. The operating system tries to handle the page fault by
making the required page accessible at a location in physical memory or kills the program in case it is an illegal access.
Contrary to what their name might suggest, page faults are not errors and are common and necessary to increase the
amount of memory available to programs in any operating system that utilizesvirtual memory, including Microsoft
Windows, most modern Unix-like systems (including Mac OS X, Linux, *BSD, Solaris, AIX, and HP-UX), and z/OS. Note that
Microsoft uses the term hard fault in its Resource Monitor to mean 'page fault' [

Handling illegal accesses and invalid page faults

Illegal accesses and invalid page faults can result in a program crash, segmentation error, bus error or core
dump depending on the semantics of the operating system environment. Frequently these problems are the manifestation of
software bugs, but the hardware memory errors frequently caused by overclocking may corrupt pointers causing even
correct software to fail.
Operating systems such as Windows and UNIX (and other UNIX-like systems) provide differing mechanisms for reporting
errors caused by page faults. Windows uses structured exception handling to report page fault-based invalid accesses
as access violation exceptions, and UNIX (and UNIX-like) systems typically use signals, such as SIGSEGV, to report these
error conditions to programs.
2. “Power management is implemented in the latest motherboard”. Delineate the key idea behind this statement

Ans: The idea behind power management is a good one to reduce the power use of systems when someone walks away from
their PC or stops using it after a period of time, by sending the hardware into a sleep mode of sorts. Several components include
support for power management features, including motherboards processors, hard disks and monitors. Power management
can save you a reasonable amount of money if your system is left on a lot. Unfortunately, power management also causes a lot
of problems ,The reason is that too many hardware and software components are not fully compatible with power
management, and they do not deal gracefully with the hardware suddenly "disappearing" when the system decides to put the
system into reduced-power mode, or with having to wait for a hardware device to get back up to speed. Power management is
getting better in this respect, but it is still said that it is not ready to be implemented. Hard disks are subject to reduced life due
to the effects of thermal stress, when they are allowed to spin up and spin down repeatedly.
Q3 Suppose we have a Pentium 5 and we want to enjoy the features of Core i3 for graphics. What are the considerations to be
taken to upgrade a motherboard?

Ans:  If we wish to install a new i3 or i5 processor we would have to install a new motherboard for the i3/i5 series, which can
be very troubling. If we want to change the motherboard, we must consider a few things before confirming if we want to go
this route. First of all, this kind of upgrade can exceed the cost of just buying a new computer. But if we wish to upgrade, you
must find out if our computer can even accommodate the new system board. We may need to replace the ram, depending on
the requirements of the new i3 or i5 intel processor. We will also need to reinstall the operating system from a CD since our
current installation is compatible with only the existing hardware. And we must install the new device driver specific to the
motherboard. 

4)Write the SCSI features and the major areas the SCSI support the CPU, chipsets,
memory, drives, plug and play support, power management, USB, parallel port and so on.

Ans. Features of SCSI are:-

Bus Width: The width of the bus for this SCSI type, either narrow (8-bit) or wide (16-bit).
Signaling Method: What combination of single-ended (SE), differential (HVD) and low voltage
differential (LVD) signaling is used by this type of SCSI. Note that HVD has been withdrawn
from the SCSI standard, but some HVD hardware is still "out there" and will of course still work
with HVD host adapters.
Signaling Speed and Bus Throughput: The speed that this SCSI bus runs at, and the data
throughput in MB/s.
Number of Devices Supported: The number of devices that can be put on a single SCSI chain.
This is the total number of devices; remember that the host adapter counts as one device.
Termination: The type of SCSI bus termination required or normally used.
Cabling and Maximum Cable Length: The type of cables supported, and the maximum length of
the SCSI chain supported, in meters. Some types of SCSI support different cable lengths
depending on the signaling method. Oh, for you folks still stuck in the land of Imperial measure,
1 meter is about 3.28 feet.

Q5--The 40X speed improvement is specific to the bus. What this literally means, is that the bus is no longer the bottleneck in
performance. The actual performance improvement for a given product is dependent on how fast that product can run. Over
time, you should see product vendors improving their products to take advantage of the 40X bus.
6. Write down the role of Platters, Cylinders and Sectors with a data organization on a HARD Diskl drive and typical layout of
Hard drive sector.

Ans. A cylinder comprises the same track number on each platter, spanning all such tracks across each platter surface that is
able to store data (without regard to whether or not the track is "bad"). Thus, it is a three-dimensional structure. Any track
comprising part of a specific cylinder can be written to and read from while the actuator assembly remains stationary, and one
way in which hard drive manufacturers have increased drive access speed has been by increasing the number of platters
which can be read at the same time.

Data is recorded on disk in form of concentric circular bands called tracks The tracks on a disk are similar to grooves on a
phonograph record. Each track is divided into pie shaped wedges called sectors.

The Disk Platter is the component of the hard disk drive where all the data or the information is stored over. The disk platter is
usually a magnetic material that is used for the storage of the data.