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INFOTECH The CIO's Guide to Customised Computing Corporate Warning: the fundamentals of corporate computing have shifted. Does your CIO know that the most powerful PC may not, necessarily, be the best any more? By Vivek Bhatia Are your CIO's three most favourite words Faster, Faster, and Faster? Try squeezing a meeting with him into tomorrow's morning- schedule. Chances are that he hasn't woken up to the new theme of corporate computing: that state-of-the-art infotech no longer has to ride into your organisation on the most expensive PCs in cybertown. And the lack of that realisation could do more damage to your costs than a virus to your hard disk. For, chasing the maximisation of computing power instead of its optimisation can make your CIO spend at least 20 per cent more than he really needs besides creating the computing equivalent of a system that uses rocket science to solve arithmetic problems. Make no mistake: the assumptions that drove your company's PC-buying decisions yesterday must change drastically. The instigator, as ever, is the $24.60-billion Intel, with the $2.35-billion Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and the $2.60-billion National Semiconductor cloning its moves faithfully. What is this transformation that they have wrought? Earlier, the choice of the Central Processing Unit (CPU)-or chip- for every computer in your office used to be simple: your CIO simply picked the latest product in the market. But, suddenly, he has several chips to choose from, depending on the precise uses to which he will put a particular computer. Nor is the choice limited to the chip; he can also juggle every element of the configuration of every computer, virtually customising each one to the specific requirement it will serve. Is Computer A meant primarily for spreadsheet work in the accounts department, Computer B by the R&D department for design, and Computer C to produce the company newsletter? Each of them must then have a unique combination of features and specifications-covering not just the CPU, but also the memory, other chips, the attachments, and even the display-if it is to deliver the best value for money. Although infotech revolutions, as Moore's Law II might have put it, double their intensity every 18 months, the result of these changes promises a fundamental transition in the way your organisation will buy, deploy, and utilise its PCs. Till recently, all the complexities of the PC boiled down to one question: how fast is the CPU? For almost a decade, brand differentiation has been irrelevant to performance, with the CPU identifying the computer: a 386, a 486, or a Pentium. It was a handy shorthand for performance, which scaled, predictably, with the type and speed of the CPU. It was always a case of more bang for more bucks. Now, the proliferation of chips has made the choice more complex. The same bucks get different bangs; not just in different sizes, but also in different varieties. For instance, for Rs 48,000, your CIO can get a PC based on Intel's 266-MHz Celeron chip, a stripped-down version of the top-of-line Pentium II. Or, he can buy a machine built around AMD's 300-MHz K6 chip, which has about the same performance-level as the Celeron. Another Rs 4,000, and you can jump to Intel's 266-MHz Pentium II, which, despite the identical clock-speed, is faster. Speed must, therefore, be defined with respect to specific uses. For, changes in speed between different chips are not always perceptible since relatively simple software like word-processors and spreadsheets do not really work faster beyond a point. Likewise, the differential between two chips under one operating system will vary from that under another. The net result? ''There's greater performance and more choice available at lower prices than ever before,'' answers Atul Vijaykar, 38, Director (South Asia), Intel. This new cyber-universe follows the dismantling of Intel's original model incorporating a single-value scale for CPUs through which the chips moved over their life-cycles. Explains Ng Jui Keng, 47, Regional Manager, IBM Microelectronics, who heads the $78.80-billion International Business Machines' (IBM) CPU business for Asia: ''Intel's strategy of subsidising one part of its CPU range with others is no longer effective. The diversity of microprocessors is bound to increase rapidly.'' Fears of incompatibility between non-Intel CPUs with software written for Intel's chips have receded too. Acknowledges Rajiv Nayar, 37, Director (South Asia), Microsoft: ''The AMD K6 and the Cyrix 6X86 are compatible with our operating systems.'' Thanks to this proliferation of CPUs, optimisation now means matching the configuration of a computer to the environment in which it will operate, and the need that it will serve. Thus, every function and every department in your organisation could end up using computers with radically different configurations instead of always sporting the fastest CPU, the greatest storage space, the largest memory, the quickest CD-ROM drive, and the highest-resolution monitor. And even if you spend the same amount of money, the specific need must determine how to distribute it between the different components of your PC. Explains Harish Nawathana, 38, a Delhi-based systems integration consultant: ''For standard desktop applications, it makes more sense to buy the cheapest CPU available, and shift some of that budget to the ram and a faster hard disk.'' How, then, can silicon stretchability be used for features-flexibility in your company's computers? POWER COMPUTING Only those functions that demand the maximum computing power in your organisation need the highest-performing CPU: the Pentium II. While Intel's mainline chip straddles the entire performance range of the PC, its optimum usage is in areas that need dual-processor machines, powered by the 400-MHz version of the chip. That includes not just computer-aided design and three-dimensional graphics, but also the emerging usage of computer-driven simulation for scenario-planning or number-crunching. It is, however, critical to use Pentium II-based machines-whose power is usually heightened by 32 or even 64 MB of Random Access Memory (RAM), a fast graphics accelerator, and a fast hard disk-for state-of-the-art applications. The reason lies in the architecture of the chip, which represents a break from the past. Unlike everything upto the Pentium, the Pentium-II architecture does not actually execute the software written for the so-called Intel standard. It translates the x86 code into its own internal format, and then, executes it. This architecture, which it shares with the Pentium Pro, has some unexpected implications for users who run Windows 3.1x; those who run programs written for W3.1x on Windows 9x; and even those who run Windows 9x itself. In other words, for virtually all Windows users. For, the Pentium II runs this older code very inefficiently, actually making machines that use it a little slower than Pentiums for such applications. So, if your CIO expects to run critical legacy applications, which he used during the mainframe days, for some time-many old applications cannot be abandoned just yet-you won't get any value for the extra money spent on the Pentium II-unless he switches to Windows NT, Linux, or other fully 32-bit operating systems. Even within this focused framework, your CIO has a second choice: AMD's K6/K6 3D, whose biggest advantage is dramatically-lower system costs. All other things being equal, a 300-MHz K6 PC is likely to cost Rs 40,000 versus Rs 55,000 for a 300-MHz Pentium-II PC. There is, however, a catch: AMD's present generation of CPUs is caught in the so-called Socket 7-versus-Slot 1 issue. Intel's Pentium chips are flat plastic slabs with a huge array of 748 pins spread on their undersides. These pins plug into a socket on the PC's motherboard, Socket 7, as it is the seventh generation of IC socket design. But there is nothing proprietary about the know-how required to make chips that use Socket 7. For the Pentium-II generation, however, Intel switched to a design named Slot 1, in which the CPU is an oblong cuboid that stands vertically on the motherboard, and, importantly, is proprietary to Intel. AMD's K6 is a CPU that rivals Intel's Pentium II in performance, but physically incorporates Socket 7 design. This is not a technical problem, but may eventually threaten the chip's existence. The reason is Intel's decision to phase out the last of its Socket 7 chips, the Pentium MMX. When Intel Socket 7 chips are no longer manufactured, motherboard vendors may not find Socket 7 volumes large enough to make such motherboards. And, hence, they may not invest in designing new Socket 7 motherboards. This will starve K6-based systems of newer motherboard-hosted technologies like AGP (Advanced Graphics Port) Graphics and USB (Universal Serial Bus) Ports. Until then, however, the K6 will give you Pentium II-like performance at a far lower cost. But then, today's elasticity of configurations ensures better value from other non-Pentium II CPUs for older, or less-demanding, applications. MUSCLE COMPUTING Barring power-hungry and memory-hungry applications like 3D Studio Max, the majority of the graphics and multimedia software that your company's creative people use-such as Photoshop, Pagemaker, or CorelDRAW!-work just as well on the lite version of the Pentium II, named Celeron, which runs at 266 MHz. Although the suffix is missing, Intel's Celeron chips do include MMX (Multimedia Instructions), a technology to enhance multimedia performance that Intel added to its chips 2 years ago, and is used as a suffix only with the Pentium because it has a non-MMX version. Adds Kanwaljit Singh, 34, General Manager (Marketing), Intel India: ''The Celeron is a sub-brand of the Pentium II. It is a Pentium II that has been optimised for certain markets.'' However, the Celeron is cheaper than the Pentium II because of less-expensive packaging, and, more importantly, the absence of Level 2 (L2) cache. The most time-consuming task of a CPU is fetching data and instructions from the PC's ram. To reduce the extent to which this hits performance, computers have a small amount of very high-speed memory-the cache-dedicated to the task of storing the bytes of data that the CPU is likely to need regularly. On the Pentium II, this memory is located inside the CPU-hence the name L2 cache-albeit on a separate chip. The Celeron dispenses with this expensive cache, which cannot really improve the speed of the majority of graphics and multimedia applications. To get the best out of the Celeron PCs used for this function, your CIO will have to ensure 64 MB of ram, a 24x, or faster, CD-ROM drive, and a display system that offers at least a 1,024-by-786-pixel screen with 16 million colours while maintaining a screen refresh rate of 72 Hz or higher. What it can displace from today's top-of-line configuration, accordingly, is a Pentium II chip. Says Sunita Dharwadkar, 35, the CIO of hcl Comnet Services: ''Today's business applications do not really need a faster 400-MHz Pentium II unless you're buying for a longer timeframe.'' DIET COMPUTING In comparison to the CPUs further up the price-band, the Pentium MMX has begun to look like a downmarket choice. But, on any absolute scale, this CPU delivers incredible value. And for bread-and-butter corporate computing functions, which the majority of your employees are involved in, a well-specified Pentium MMX system delivers more than adequate performance. Ensuring that it is well-specified is critical. Because of the low-end image that Intel and PC-makers are giving the chip, most Pentium MMX systems are sold with inadequate ram and sluggish display systems. Actually, a Pentium MMX system with 32 MB, or more, of ram and a fast display card is close in perceptible performance to all but the most expensive systems. For straightforward business applications, Pentium MMX-based systems won't prove inadequate for a long time. Of course, your CIO will have to hurry to buy these systems: Intel's value-for-money workhorse is on its way out. As Intel's Vijaykar points out: ''New Pentium MMXs are no longer being manufactured although those that are in the supply pipeline may be available for some time.'' However, even if the vanilla Pentium is phased out, your company could consider PCs based on the 6X86, manufactured by Cyrix (a division of National Semiconductor since its merger with the latter a year ago). Focused on low-cost systems, the chip has added functionality that makes it cheaper to implement sound and modem functionality on the motherboard itself. In the recent past, low-cost systems from manufacturers like IBM, the $46.10-billion Hewlett-Packard (h-p), and the $25-billion Compaq have been based on Cyrix's chips. But since it needs a ground-up redesign of the motherboard, only large PC-makers have been using the chip. Such systems have, typically, been distinctive and non-upgradable, and sold on the manufacturer's own identity rather than that of the CPU. The Compaq Presario 4200 and the IBM Aptiva E26 are examples. Claims Jayant Kulkarni, 38, National Semiconductor's former country manager in India: ''The 6X86 has a distinct niche in delivering high-functionality, low-cost systems.'' Another option for your CIO: a PC around Winchip, the new chip from the $580-million custom integrated circuit-maker, Integrated Device Technologies. Incorporating as it does many of the components of a PC, it could prove suitable for low-priced systems. It's not just the various computer applications that the different departments of your organisation use that will force your CIO to introduce need-based hardware. A second factor impacting his decision is the issue of networking, and the configuration of the server-which runs your Local Area Network (LAN)-and the clients, which are the PCs attached to that LAN. For the first, it will be possible to choose PC-based products, ranging from the Pentium Pro to the soon-to-be-launched Merced. The former, which is Intel's least-known and most-expensive chip, is almost an accident of history. It is expensively priced at Rs 21,000 for the CPU alone, and does not incorporate MMX technology. Intel introduced it at a time when MMX was not ready, but it needed a faster chip for the server market where cost is not a driver. This CPU is used only for high-end servers, with many of its special features being tuned for that application. It can, for instance, be used in four-way servers, where one machine harnesses 4 CPUs for computing-intensive uses. As for the Merced, which is the codename and not the brandname of the collaborative product between Intel and h-p, it represents a fundamentally-new approach to CPU architecture. Its epic (Explicitly Parallel Instruction Set) architecture involves parallel processing, but with a twist. epic allows software that explicitly instructs the CPU how to exploit this parallel processing capability to its best advantage, which should translate into big gains in performance. Of course, the Pentium Pro is now well on its way to being superseded by Intel's Xeon, which is yet another variation on the Pentium II. The Xeon differs in having a very large cache-of upto 2 MB-which makes it suitable for server and workstation applications. Launched in August, 1998, the Xeon now powers an increasing number of high-end computers, and offers a serious option to the CIO. The configurations of the clients offer a major point of decision-making to your CIO too. While even 2 years ago, the trend was to place as many of the applications on the hard disk of the client's computers, freeing the server in the process, the thinking is now swinging back towards the notion of putting the applications on the server after all, and designing so-called thin clients, whose storage-capacity isn't high. Making these choices will be crucial for ensuring economy. Nor will the choices stop there. As early as next year, your CIO may have to decide whether to go in for a new technology for top-end applications: the copper-connector chips that IBM has perfected in its labs, and is close to turning it into a commercial application for the CPUs it manufactures on behalf of AMD and Cyrix. With copper being a better conductor of electricity than the aluminium that Intel uses on its chips, the K6 could even touch clock speeds of 1,000 or 1,500 MHz. Soon afterwards, AMD will unveil its K7 chip, designed to run, like Intel's Katmai, at 500 MHz even as Intel prepares its 1,000 MHz CPU, code-named Foster. That, obviously, will change everything-including the choice of the computer configurations in different parts of your organisation. It is this change that both you and your CIO must now accept: that different needs must beget different PCs. That it is time, once and for all, to shut down one-spec-fits-all computing. And to boot up customised computing instead. ADDITIONAL READING |
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