UNIX Operating Systems - Essay Example

Computer Systems This paper is organized into two parts d part and part 2. Part one selects and discusses one aspect of computer systems (UNIX operating systems). Part 2 discusses the procedure for design of a network that connects 20 workstations in one room plus 15 workstations in another room to a central server that provides: high quality printer access, internet access as well as a database that contains customer information. Computer Systems Introduction UNIX systems have brought about great impact in the world of operating systems in entirety. The UNIX-based commercial organizations that write a number of drivers, utility programs and operating systems are charged with the distribution of the executable versions of the given software and the versions often allow for alterations. UNIX systems have existed for quite some time with many individuals remembering it being in place for the past decade. A number of IT professionals who came across a UNIX system in the past found the system somewhat uncompromising (Haldar & Aravind 2010). Despite the impressive power, the command line interface needed technical competence and the interface was rather unfriendly. At present, perceptions of this sort have been left only for historical interest. The remaining part of this section provides a review of the development of Linux systems to the current position, a review of the current state of the art of UNIX systems together with the expected new developments in the stated system. Part 1 Development of UNIX Systems to Current Position The development of the original UNIX was by Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson and other members of AT & T’s Bell Labs research center through a joint project carried out in mid-1960s. Basically, UNIX systems have witnessed rewriting and tinkering from the first publication in 1974 though fundamental changes have remained few. Come 1972, UNIX was rewritten in C Programming language (Srirengan 1999). This attempt to leave Assembly brought about more portable software that needed the replacement of just a small amount of machine dependent code if porting UNIX to other computing platforms. At the fall of 1970s and 1980s, UNIX systems developed into academia’s standard operating system. AT & T attempted commercializing the system by having the OS licensed to third-party vendors and this brought about to different commercial and academic variants of UNIX and finally UNIX wars amidst groups of vendors. In 1990, the UNIX-like systems had their popularity grow while BSD and Linux distributions were developed via collaboration by some worldwide network of programmers. In an effort aimed at attaining compatibility in 1999, multiple UNIX system vendors came to an agreement regarding SVR4’s Executable and Linkable Format becoming the standard for object and binary code files (Hancock 2001). This common format permits substantial binary compatibility in UNIX systems that operate on a similar CPU architecture. In the 2000s, a number of free operating systems are developed rapidly and successfully like FreeBSD and NetBSD (Liu, Yue & Guo 2011, p. 6). Besides, Sun Microsystems had its open-source Open Solar is released. Current State-of-the-art of UNIX Operating Systems In a number of installations that run on virtually all hardware platforms made, UNIX systems have earned reputation for scalability and stability. In the past years, suppliers of UNIX systems have been able to steadily assimilate newer technologies so as to make the present day UNIX systems capable of offering additional functionality just like the other operating systems (Cheeck 2002). The idea of building the support software to open standard and free-market demand placed on the suppliers producing the software are perhaps the two possible reasons behind the continued growth of the UNIX operating systems. The concept of open systems differs considerably with the idea of other operating environments locking their clients through a resultant high switching cost. On the other hand, a supplier of a UNIX system has to constantly offer the highest quality systems so as to have the customers retained. Individuals who get dissatisfied with a given implementation of a UNIX system retains the capability of shifting to another implementation of a UNIX system with ease. The continued success surrounding UNIX systems is not much of a surprise. Not even a single operating system does enjoy the support that comes from each major system supplier. A mention of the term UNIX systems makes IT specialists think about the concerned operating system along with the large set of application software that UNIX systems do support. Within the markets, it is UNIX systems that have been in the front end to sweep the changes that have left consumers sufficiently empowered to search for the best-of-breeds while caring less about the arbitrary constraints that different proprietary environments impose (Venkateshmurthy 2006). Thus, a UNIX system is an operating environment of choice for both users and suppliers. Besides, the systems are representative of superb collective efforts of the best refined standards within the public domain, ever-competing suppliers alongside a rock solid stability which has its basis on years of refinement, mission critical use as well as quality assurance testing. There are other events that have contributed to the market pull for UNIX systems. Introduction of relational database management systems (RDBMS), availability of low cost UNIX system servers, the move towards client-server architecture have all set a platform for flourishing of business applications. Networking capabilities have particularly shined in client-server systems. Similarly, the standardized relational database engines that are delivered on high-performance low-cost UNIX system servers provided more significant cost savings in comparison with the other proprietary alternatives. Expected Changes in UNIX Operating Systems There exist a number of changes regarding UNIX operating systems. First, despite the shipment growth rate for Windows NT exceeding the rates associated with UNIX systems, the revenue growth rate for UNIX has remained high. Again, many of the IT specialists have foreseen the UNIX systems being more dominant than Windows NT. Second, changes have been predicted in a number of commands used by UNIX operating systems. Examples of such commands include list-only whose semantic might be extended in future and fast-line-mode whose exact behavior is anticipate to change in future versions. Finally, it is expected that a working knowledge concerning UNIX systems will be mandatory among the systems programmers in case they are to remain supportive of the mainframe. In a nutshell, this section of the paper reviewed the history of development of UNIX operating systems up to the present state, the current state of the art of UNIX operating systems as well as the expected future changes regarding this stated operating systems. From the review, it is evident that UNIX operating systems are under constant development and there are a number of expected changes with the IT specialist holding a common belief that the dominance of this operating system is set to exceed the level of dominance of Windows NT. Task 2 Network Design During the design of new computer networks, it is useful to weigh the desires and needs of the intended users of the network and the budget of the individuals who will make the payment for the design task (Maitland & Thomson 2011). Other issues that would need to be taken into account include possibilities of future growth, proper method of disaster recovery, need to cater for mobile Internet access and appropriate means of standardization of the software and hardware that is under use (Mccabe 2007). Some of the issues to be considered when designing this Local Area Network are Need Analysis: This refers to whatever users need from the network Technological design: This handles issues about the devices that will be required to offer proper support towards the demands that will be put on the network Cost Assessment: This handles issues on affordability. The method used in this context will be building blocks approach 1) It starts by identification of the applications and well as users followed by the definition of each as :- a) High Traffic This refers to a heavily used user or application which asserts a high traffic node inside a network. b) Typical Low traffic or volume from this node inside the network 2) Design a network that supports this 2 x 2 matrix A 2 x 2 Classification Table Application Typical High Traffic User Typical 100 100/1000 High Traffic 100/1000 ??? Classifying Applications After the classification table comes the classification of the applications. This exercise entails identification of the location for each application and identification of the software and hardware requirements (Serpanos & Wolf 2011). Classifying Users Under this activity, application systems that will help in accounting for the major part of the network traffic are mentioned. Besides, there is a need to assess the types and number of users that will generate or receive network traffic. After this, an assessment of the relative level of traffic that is generated in every segment will be done with respect to a rough assessment of the relative magnitude of the needs of the network that is under design (Comer 2005). For instance, high volume servers and users would need to be assigned advanced computers alongside a higher capacity or dedicated network segments. A Diagrammatic Representation of the Designed Network Wiring Closet Administrative services Technical services Cat5e Cat5e X12 X3 X4 Maintenance Room Bibliography CHEECK, M. (2002). Tru64 Unix system administratiors guide. Boston [etc.], Digital Press. COMER, D. E. (2005). Network systems design: using network processors : Intel IXP 2xxx version. Upper Saddle River, N.J., Pearson/Prentice Hall. HALDAR, S., & ARAVIND, A. A. (2010). Operating systems. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Pearson. HANCOCK, S. M. (2001). Tru64 Unix file system administration handbook. Boston, Digital Press. LIU, Y., YUE, Y., & GUO, L. (2011). UNIX operating system the development tutorial via UNIX kernel services. Beijing, Higher Education Press. MAITLAND, A., & THOMSON, P. (2011). Future work: how businesses can adapt and thrive in the new world of work. New York, NY, Palgrave Macmillan. MCCABE, J. D. (2007). Network analysis, architecture, and design. Amsterdan, Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. SERPANOS, D., & WOLF, T. (2011). Architecture of Network Systems. Burlington, Elsevier Science. SRIRENGAN, K. (1999). Understanding Unix. New Delhi, Prentice-Hall of India. VENKATESHMURTHY, M. (2006). Introduction to UNIX and shell programming. [New Delhi], Dorling Kindersley (India). Read More