Information Technology used traditional centralized computing framework for many years, where one server was connected to multiple clients and was responsible to fulfill the requests coming from them. This client-server architecture has its own limitations such as possibility of scaling to some extent only vertically, ability of the server to process only certain number of requests when all clients send requests at a time, and threat to functionality if the server fails. The shortfalls were overcome by Distributed computing and then further with Edge computing frameworks. This article briefly elaborates on each of the computing frameworks and the differences between ... Read More

Network is a collection of computers that connect each other or communicate with each other. By using the network we can share the files from one place to another place.For example − We have some movies or some pdf in our laptop. A friend wants the pdf or movie, and he is away from us at a distance of 10km.But if we click the send button, it transfers the files to our friend. Here, the network is useful to transfer the data from one place to another place.Network is useful for resource sharing. It increases the storage capacity if we ... Read More

Computer ArchitectureThe architecture defines those attributes of the system apparent to the programmer or those attributes that directly force the program’s logical execution. It manage with the functional behavior of the computer system view by the user.Computer Architecture manages with the system’s programming part, including the multiple bits can define the several data types, input-output methods, approaches for addressing memory, and the computer’s instruction set. The implementation of any program is influenced by these qualities of architecture. The change in a bit or size can lead to a different result for the programmer.Computer OrganizationComputer organization can study the basic computer ... Read More

Myrinet is a high-performance, packet-communication, and switching technology. It was produced by Myricom as a high-performance alternative to conventional Ethernet networks. Myrinet switches are multiple-port components that route a packet entering on an input channel of a port to the output channel of the port selected by the packet.Myrinet switches have 4, 8, 12, 16 ports. For an n-port switch, the ports are addressed 0, 1, 2... n - 1. For any switching permutation, there may be as many packets traversing a switch concurrently as the switch has ports. These switches are implemented using two types of VLSI chips such ... Read More

An n1 x n2 switch consists of n1 input ports, n2 output ports, links connecting each input to every output, control logic to select a specific connection, and internal buffers.A switch is used to establish connections from the input ports to the output ports. These connections may be one-to-one, which represents point-to-point connections, or one-to-many, which represents multicast or broadcast. The case of many-to-one should cause conflicts at the output ports and therefore needs arbitration to resolve conflicts if allowed. When only one-to-one connections are allowed, the switch is called a crossbar. An n x n crossbar switch can establish ... Read More

Ethernet is a packet-switched LAN technology introduced by Xerox PARC in the early 1970s. Ethernet was designed to be a shared bus technology where multiple hosts are connected to a shared communication medium. All hosts connected to an Ethernet receive every transmission, making it possible to broadcast a packet to all hosts at the same time.Ethernet uses a distributed access control scheme called Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detect (CSMA/CD). Multiple machines can access an Ethernet at the same time. Each machine senses whether a carrier wave is present to determine whether the network is idle before it sends ... Read More

A cluster is a collection of stand-alone computers connected using some interconnection network. Each node in a cluster could be a workstation, personal computer, or even a multiprocessor system.A node is an autonomous computer that may be engaged in its private activities while at the same time cooperating with other units in the context of some computational task. Each node has its input/output systems and its operating system.When all nodes in a cluster have the same architecture and run the same operating system, the cluster is called homogeneous, otherwise, it is heterogeneous. The interconnection network could be a fast LAN ... Read More

Parallel applications can be designed using the client/server model. A client may divide a big application into several smaller problems that can be processed by multiple servers simultaneously. All the servers compute the solution to their respective problems and send their results to the client.The client assembles the results from each server and outputs the final result to the user. The client acts as the master (supervisor) while the servers act as the slaves (workers) in the master-slave (supervisor-workers) model as shown in the figure. The steps are taken at the client and each server is summarized as follows.Client (Supervisor)Client ... Read More

Sockets are used to provide the capability of making connections from one application running on one machine to another running on a different machine. A socket abstraction consists of the data structure that holds the information needed for communication, and the system calls that manipulate the socket structure. Once a socket is created, it can be used to wait for an incoming connection (passive socket) or can be used to initiate a connection (active socket).A client can establish an active connection to a remote server by creating an instance of a socket. To establish a server connection and bind it ... Read More

Several possible problems can result from the use of certain routing mechanisms in message-passing systems. These include deadlock, livelock, and starvation, which are as follows −Deadlock − When two messages each hold the resources required by the other to move, both messages will be blocked. This is called a deadlock. It is a phenomenon that occurs whenever there exists a cyclic dependency on resources. Management of resources in a network is the responsibility of the flow control mechanism used. Resources must be allocated in a manner that avoids deadlock.Livelock − Livelock describes a situation in which a message keeps going ... Read More