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| newsletter@quarkit.com.au | www.quarkit.com.au | issue 10 | july 2005 |
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Update Zone |
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The Latest Virus And Worm Information |
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Quark Automation :: Retrofitting C-Bus In Your Existing Home |
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Automation and the Smart Home Over the past few years, the advantages and quality design of C-Bus™ has established the system as powerful presence in the home and commercial marketplace. With Smart Homes in Australia being built with lighting/power control and structured network systems, the benefits of C-Bus™ with regard to convenience, aesthetics and property re-sale value have become salient. Although Systems Integration is the preferred option for new constructions, those of us with existing homes have not been able to experience these benefits without significant and often costly re-wiring of the home. Often, renovation is seen as the only opportunity to add these systems in a cost-effective way. Now, there is another way. Clipsal® have produced a full range of wireless C-Bus™ products that can directly replace your existing 240V switches without requiring the entire home to be re-wired. C-Bus™ Wireless uses Radio Frequency (RF) signals to communicate between units without the need for data cables. This means that you can now experience the benefits of C-Bus™ in your current house or unit using the existing wiring in your home. It can be as simple as replacing your current light switch with a trendy “Neo” or classy “Saturn” C-Bus™ Wireless switch. Further, C-Bus™ Wireless can be used to switch power to a range of devices with wireless plug-pack relay and dimmer units. C-Bus™ Wireless plug-packs simply plug into your existing power outlet, and then you plug in the appliance you want to dim or switch. This can be great for control of anything from dimming table lamps to switching pedestal fans or Christmas tree lights! The C-Bus™ Wireless range also includes an RF remote control. This means that you can switch appliances or dim your lights without having to walk across the room. You can even control lighting scenes with one touch, all from the convenience of your arm chair. Since C-Bus™ Wireless uses RF, you don’t have to worry about line-of-sight to control your system – C-Bus™ Wireless can work through most walls to a maximum range of 75 metres! |
Quark Automation C-Bus™ Wireless can also be linked to an existing hard-wired C-Bus™ network. So, if you have C-Bus™ in part of your home already, but would like to simply add some extra areas, C-Bus™ Wireless may be the best solution. Whether you are building, renovating, or would just like to enjoy the benefits of C-Bus™ in your existing home, Quark Automation can provide the system best suited to your budget and needs. Please contact us to discuss your automation needs.
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Dual Core CPUs |
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A bit more history Last month we covered a fair bit of the history of Intel CPUs, however we intentionally left out a few of their processors such as the Pentium Pro and Xeon CPUs. This month we'll fit these into the picture because they are more relevant to the Dual Core CPUs than Intel's x64 (or 64 bit) CPUs. Way back in the dim dark ages of computing, Intel had motherboard chipsets that supported running dual 80386 CPUs and others that ran dual 80486 CPUs, but these were both rather rare, in part because special operating systems were needed to support dual CPUs. With Microsoft's release of Windows NT 3.51, multiple CPUs were supported in a mode known as Symmetrical Multi-Processing, or SMP. (A few Unix variants, as well as Linux and OS/2 also supported SMP back then, but these were not popular enough to make any serious impact. When the Intel Pentium was released in 1993, it was also able to run in a single-CPU or dual-CPU mainboard, and because of the popularity of Microsoft Windows NT, dual Pentium systems were starting to gain in popularity for those users who needed high-end performance. In 1995, Intel released their "Pentium Pro" CPU which was approximately double the speed of a similar Pentium processor with 32 bit code, however the Pentium Pro ran 16 bit code slower than its predecessor. It was ideal for use in high end workstations and servers in a single, dual or quad CPU configuration. Symmetrical MultiProcessing (SMP) Intel continued releasing their mainstream CPUs - the Pentium-II and Pentium-III with SMP support, but decided that the Pentium 4 should only allow for single CPU operation. The reason for this was because they had also released a "server" CPU known as the Intel Xeon which was targeted at the high end workstation and server market. This was released in the Pentium II days, and has continued through until the present time, where Intel Xeon CPUs are still available. Ensuring the Pentium 4 was incapable of running in an SMP situation helped distinguish the Xeon from the Pentium 4. The main advantage of an SMP system is the ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. One CPU can be running SQL tasks, the other can be running regular operating system tasks. There is a little overhead involved, so a dual CPU system is only approximately 1.75 X the speed of a single CPU system - not a bad trade off, though. Simultaneous MultiThreading (SMT) Intel also released a "poor man's SMP" in 2002 with a technology known as Simultaneous MultiThreading, which Intel calls HyperThreading, that was available in all of their Pentium 4 Xeon and most of their later Pentium 4 CPUs. HyperThreading basically allows a single CPU to process multiple threads simultaneously (a thread is a part on an application) with certain conditions. This is nowhere near as beneficial as true SMP - with an approximate increase in performance of between 0% and 30% - but it sure beats nothing. The Intel Xeon CPU, therefore, when operating in a multiprocessor scenario, has the best of both worlds - true SMP and also each processor benefitting from the advantages that SMT (Hyperthreading) can bring.
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Dual Core CPUs In a never ending search for the best way to get the most performance in the smallest space, Intel has chosen to look at multi-core CPUs, the first step being its new Intel Pentium D dual core CPUs. What has happened is that Intel has managed to shoehorn 2 complete Pentium 4 processors as well as 2 MB of L2 cache onto a piece of silicon very similar to the size of the original Pentium 4. This offers a lot of the benefits of true SMP, however Intel chose to leave SMT (Hyperthreading) off this CPU. Dual core Intel Xeons and Pentium D Extreme CPUs will both have HyperThreading support. That means that you can have a dual Intel Xeon dual core system with Hyperthreading that results in 8 CPUs being presented to the operating system. :) Oh, the other thing to note is that all dual core CPUs are also x86-64 CPUs - meaning that they not only have 2 CPU cores on the dye, but that these cores are also 64 bit CPUs. On the desktop So, what benefit will a dual core CPU actually provide in your everyday life? Well, if you regularly run a lot of applications or if you run applications that require a lot of processing such as large spreadsheets, 3D rendering or similar number crunching application, a dual core CPU will enable you to do more work in a given period of time. The main advantage for those of us who regularly run a dozen Internet Explorer windows, a couple of Word documents, Outlook, an Excel spreadsheet or three and various other applications will be a smoother feeling computer, more easily able to switch between all of these running tasks. What about AMD? Well, funny you should mention this. We have been Intel supporters from way back. We're not so biased as not to be able to give their competition credit where credit is due, and with AMD's latest few CPUs, they have done quite well. Intel has, in our oh, so humble opinions been on a technological downward spiral since Andy Grove stepped down as CEO in 1998 and AMD has been taking advantage of Intel's marketing focus (instead of their earlier technology focus) by bringing out faster and better technology. Well, in a face-off, an AMD dual core system will marginally out-perform an Intel dual-core system. This still doesn't make me buy an AMD system - we've recently installed an Intel Pentium D 800 (dual core 3.0 GHz) machine in our office and we don't (yet) have any AMD systems here. The time may not be far off, though. The one major advantage that Intel has is that they are shipping their CPUs now - we are still waiting for the Athlon 64 X2 CPUs to hit the market. Intel's dual core Xeons are also, may I add, still not shipping at present. The future of multicore computing All future CPUs will be multicore CPUs unless there is a major advance in cooling and performance that no-one can see right now. The future is both 64 bit and multicore CPUs. I'm sure that Intel will enhance their current Pentium M CPUs so that they can have a dual core Pentium M CPU in the near future. Microsoft's next operating system, currently codenamed Longhorn, will also likely require a dual core CPU running in 64 bit mode to gain the most benefit. It will also more than likely require as a minimum one of the graphics cards that are considered high performance today. The march of progress is not slowing down! If you wish to know more about x86-64 CPUs, dual core CPUs or other products, please contact Quark IT to discuss your needs and the products available to you. |
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Small Business Server 2003 Features:
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 |
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What is Microsoft SQL Server 2000? Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is included in the Premium Edition of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. Microsoft SQL Server is Microsoft's high end database server that is used for managing databases used in multiple-user applications, for example in the medical industry by products such as Best Practice, Plexus and Pracsoft. In this article we will discuss Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and the requirements, benefits and implications of using Microsoft SQL Server on an SBS 2003 server. SQL Server 2000 System Requirements Microsoft SQL Server 2000 places a significant load on the resources available in your server. In larger organizations, the SQL Server is generally a separate, dedicated server running multiple CPUs and 4 GB of RAM. Because a small business cannot afford those sort of resourced, Microsoft designed Small Business Server 2003 to allow Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server to run on the same box with a few optimizations specific to the requirements of small business. If you are utilizing SQL Server 2000 on your SBS 2003 server, then you will need to have 4 GB of RAM in the server, and dual CPUs if the database is a very CPU intensive database. Quark IT will discuss these needs with yourself and the providers of the line-of-business software that you are running. In addition to the RAM and CPU requirements, the hard drive system will likely need to be enhanced with a SCSI RAID 1, RAID 10 or preferably a RAID 5 system that will not only increase data capacity but also provide redundancy in case of a hard drive failure. SQL Server databases are commonly in the 3 GB to 8 GB range and have a theoretical limit of many times this size. We will discuss the benefits of RAID systems in a future article. |
What Benefits Does SQL Server Provide? The benefits of using Microsoft SQL Server as the database engine are many and varied. The main benefit is improved database speeds especially in multi user multi access scenarios. Another key benefit of Microsoft SQL Server technology over most of the competition is the databases ability to self-tune its performance to the specific situation it is being utilised in. It is not uncommon for the database to get significantly faster after the first 2 weeks of operation, as this is when the tuning and optimisation process takes place. Other benefits include built in Business Intelligence tools to enable all of your employees to be up-to-date with critical, timely business information tailored to their individual requirements. What Are The Implications Of SQL Server? The two main implications of Microsoft SQL Server are cost and implementation. As you can see in the system requirements above a substantial extra investment in the server hardware is required to get the most out of Microsoft SQL Server. This fortunately is a one-off cost that will be far outweighed by the long term benefits to your business that Microsoft SQL Server will offer. The implementation costs to develop and SQL database for a non-standard or non off-the-shelf application can also result in an increased initial and sometimes ongoing investment, but fortunately most industries have off the shelf products that will suit your needs, maybe with some minor tweaks. This way you can enjoy all the benefits with out the additional development costs. If you think that you would benefit from installing Microsoft SBS 2003 with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or are interested in discussing your database needs, please contact us and we will arrange a time to evaluate your requirements to determine a solution that will meet your specific needs. |
Signing off |
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Well, that's it for the July 2005 Quark IT Newsletter. July 2005! Wow, where does time go? Remember that neither Microsoft nor any other software manufacturer will email you updates to their software out of the blue. If you receive an email that appears to be from a company such as Microsoft (and you have not signed up to their Security Bulletin email list) and especially if this email contains an attachment that you are asked to install, be very suspicious of this email. Quark IT, Quark AudioVisual and Quark Automation can work closely together to ensure that your office and your home are enjoyable places to be. We can not only design an environment with Clipsal® and other products that is comfortable to work in, but we can also integrate this Clipsal® C-Bus™ environment with your computer network and ensure that this network runs smoothly now and in the future. If you know anyone else who would like to receive this newsletter, please feel free to forward this edition to them and also ask them to email us asking to subscribe. Please contact us if you would like Quark IT to assist you in ensuring that your home as well as your office computing environment is supported as best it can be. | |
