Found 387 Articles for Hardware

Buffering and caching, two important concepts in operating systems, are used to increase the data transmission and processing speed. The most basic difference between buffering and caching is that buffering is used to sync the speed of data transmission between sender and receive, while caching is used to increase the speed of data processing by the CPU. In this article, we will discuss the important differences between buffering and caching. But before that, let's have a basic overview of buffering and caching so that it becomes easier to understand the differences between them. What is Buffering? The area in main ... Read More

In operating systems, both deadlock and starvation are unwanted situations that take place when the processes that need a shared resource block each other's progress indefinitely. Both are unwanted situations; however, a deadlock is quite different than a starvation. In this article, we will discuss all the important differences between deadlock and starvation. What is Deadlock? A deadlock is a condition in operating systems in which no process proceeds for execution and waits for resources that have been acquired by some other processes. Thus, in the case of a deadlock condition, the process simply gets blocked. Deadlock is also known ... Read More

A computing system which consists of more than two processors is known as a multiprocessor system. Multiprocessor systems are broadly classified into two categories− loosely coupled multiprocessor system and tightly coupled multiprocessor system. In a loosely coupled multiprocessor system, the degree of coupling between different processor is low; whereas a tightly coupled multiprocessor system has high degree of coupling between different processors of the system. Read this article to find more about loosely coupled and tightly coupled multiprocessor systems and how they are different from each other. What is a Loosely Coupled Multiprocessor System? A multiprocessor which has very ... Read More

In this post, we will understand the difference between a linker and a loader −LinkerThe main function of the linker is to generate executable files.The linker takes the input as the object code which would be generated by a compiler/assembler.The process of linking can be understood as a method to combine different snippets of code in order to obtain executable code.There are two types of linkers available: Linkage Editor and Dynamic Linker.Linker also helps combine all the object modules.Linker is responsible to arrange the objects in the program’s address space.LoaderThe main function of a loader is to load executable files ... Read More

In computer networks, links are the pointers associated with files and directories. These links are of two types: Hard Links and Soft Links. A hard link is a direct reference to a file, while a soft link is a reference by name. Thus, a soft link points to a file by its file name. Read this article to find out more about hard links and soft links and how they are different from each other. Let's start with a basic overview of hard links and soft links so that it becomes easier to differentiate them. What is a Hard Link? The ... Read More

In computer systems, different types of memory devices are used to store data permanently. Both SSD and HDD are such storage devices. SSD and HDD are the most commonly used types of secondary memories. HDD is a traditional storage device, while SSD is a modern storage device. SSD and HDD are quite different from each other. The most fundamental difference between SSD and HDD is that SSD (Solid State Drive) is a storage device that stores data in integrated circuits, whereas HDD (Hard Disc Drive) is a device that stores data magnetically. There are several other differences between SSD and ... Read More

Memory corruption vulnerabilities have plagued software for decades, despite efforts by large companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft to eradicate them. This article presents some basic facts about ASLR, focusing on the Windows implementation. In addition to covering what ASLR accomplishes to improve security posture, we aim to give defenders advice on how to improve the security of their software, and to give researchers more insight into how ASLR works and ideas for investigating its limitations.Memory corruption vulnerabilities occur when a program mistakenly writes attacker-controlled data outside of an intended memory region or outside intended memory’s scope. This may crash ... Read More

As we know in context of computer/system, the main key feature on which the whole performance get dependent is Memory. It is memory and its allocation which make the system to perform fast and efficient. Now on the basis of organizing of this memory in the system, we can distinguish between Simultaneous and Hierarchical Access Memory Organisations.Following are the important differences between Simultaneous and Hierarchical Access Memory Organisations.Sr. No.KeySimultaneous Access Memory OrganisationsHierarchical Access Memory Organisations1DefinitionSimultaneous Access Memory Organisations is the memory organizing technique in which CPU can interact with multiple memory levels at same time and gets data interaction. This ... Read More

Both basic disk and dynamic disk are disk configurations available in Windows Operating System. A basic disk is from initial days of DOS, Windows to till date. Dynamic Disk is available from Window 2000 onwards.Basic DiskBasic Disk Configuration works on the concept of partition, partition table, and logical drives. A disk can have up to four partitions or three partitions and one extended partition with multiple logical drives. The following operations can be performed in basic disk configuration.Create/Delete primary/extended partition.Create/Delete logical drives within an extended partition.Format a partition and mark as active.Dynamic DiskDynamic Disk Configuration works on the concept of ... Read More

Data PathsCPU has two sections, data section and control section. Data section is also called data paths. Registers, ALU and interconnection bus collectively constitutes a data path. Data paths are of three types:Single CycleMultiple CyclePipelineFollowing are some of the important differences between Single Cycle, Multiple Cycle and Pipeline data paths.Sr. No.KeySingle CycleMultiple CyclePipeline1CycleSingle Cycle has one CPI (Clock Cycle Per Instruction).Multiple Cycle has variable CPIs.Pipeline has fixed no. of CPIs.2Instruction divisionIn single cycle, instruction is not divided per CPI.In multiple cycle, an instruction can be divided in arbitrary steps.In pipline, an instruction is divided one step per pipeline stage.3Instruction divisionIn ... Read More