GSLC Assignment - Storage and OS

1. Information or interesting fact about :

a. Seagate Technology

Seagate Technology is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of Hard Disk Drives.

Seagate has been a leader in the development of the hard disk drives since releasing the 5 MB ST-506 drive in 1980, the first 5.25-inch hard drive.

They were a major supplier in the microcomputer market during the 1980s, especially after the introduction of the IBM XT in 1983. In 1989 they finalized the purchase of Control Data Corporation's Imprimis division, makers of the well regarded Wren product line.

This gave Seagate access to the Wren's voicecoil-based technology. In 1991 they introduced the 7,200 RPM Barracuda line, which remains their high-end offering to this day. 

b.SanDisk Corporation

SanDisk Corporation is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies.

SanDisk has more than 240 000 store fronts across the world.

SanDisk currently holds more than 2100 patents, more than 1100 foreign patents and more than 1100 patent applications pending in the U.S. Every company that uses one of their patents needs to pay royalties to SanDisk, and nearly every handset vendor has embedded SanDisk technology.

Their revenue is currently sitting at US$ 4.82 billion, with a total profit of US$ 1.30 billion for 2010. Their total equity is estimated to be around US$ 5.78 billion.

SanDisk has been operating in South Africa for the last 10 years, and is currently breaking into the Nigerian and Kenyan markets. They are currently selling about 35 000 flash memory units a month.

c.Samsung Storage Devices

Samsung electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Suwon, South Korea. The product which the most known is their Smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy series.

There was a scandal about Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. It was the first of a series of ongoing lawsuits between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics regarding the design of smartphones and tablet computers between them, the companies made more than half of smartphones sold worldwide as of July 2012. 

In the spring of 2011, Apple began litigating against Samsung in patent infringement suits, while Apple and Motorola Mobility were already engaged in a patent war on several fronts.

In the area of storage media, in 2009 Samsung achieved a ten percent world market share, driven by the introduction of a new hard disk drive capable of storing 250Gb per 2.5-inch disk.

In 2010, the company started marketing the 320Gb  HDD, the largest in the industry. In addition, it was focusing more on selling external hard disk drives.

d.Hitachi

Hitachi is a Japanese multinational engineering and electronics conglomerate company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Hitachi was founded by electrical engineer Namihei Odaira in 1910 in the mountains of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. The first Hitachi product was a 5-hp induction electric motor. Hitachi’s first export was the electric fan in 1926 and the destination country was the US.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) manufactures computer hard drives. There are 3 main ranges: Hitachi Travelstar, Hitachi Deskstar and Hitachi Ultrastar. On March 7, 2011 Hitachi Global Storage Technologies was purchased by Western Digital Corporation for $3.5 billion in cash and $750 million in Western Digital common stock.

2. Gather information and discuss about several operating system that you know. Mention the operating system name and usages. (PC, Server, embedded, and mobile)

The OS for PC

a.Windows 8

Windows 8 is currently the newest Operating System produced by Microsoft. This Operating System was released to manufacturing on 1 August 2012, and was released generally availability on 26 October 2012.

Compared to the predecessor Windows 7, the boot up time of Windows 8 is a lot faster. At first glance you will see that the new Windows 8 menu looks like OS in the Windows Phone. This is because of the new features in Windows 8, which is tiled based interfaced or Metro UI. 

The UI system seems like touch screen menus in tablet devices and smartphone.

b.Mac OS

Mac OS X Mountain Lion is the 9^th major released of OS X. OS X Mountain Lion is produced by Apple Inc. and it was released on 25 July 2012. 

Mac OS X Mountain Lion includes features from previous versions of the Macintosh operating system such as large photo-quality icons, built-in networking support, e-mail, chat, online shopping, enhanced speech recognition, optical disc burning, and enhanced multimedia capabilities.

In addition the new features in Mac OS X Mountain Lion :
1. Social integration
2. Game Center for Mac
3. Improved Notifications
4. AirPlay
5. IMessages
6. Notes and Reminders
7. Dictation on the Mac
8. Power Nap
9. Better security

OS for Server

a.Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012, is the current release of Windows Server. It is the server version of Windows 8 and the successor to Windows Server 2008 R2. The software was generally available to customers starting on September 4, 2012 and worldwide through multiple channels in September 2012.

Unlike its predecessor, Windows Server 2012 has no support for Itanium-based computers, and has four editions. Various features were added or improved over Windows Server 2008 R2, such as an updated version of Hyper-V, an IP address management role, a new version of Windows Task Manager, and the new ReFS file system. 

Here are some features in Windows Server 2012 :
1. New Server Manager: Create, Manage Server Groups
2. Better Edition, SKU Selection
3. A Command-Line First, GUI-Second Mentality
4. Hyper-V Replication
5. Expanded PowerShell Capabilities
6. Storage Spaces: Flipping Complexity on Its Head
7. DirectAccess: A VPN Without the Pain of a VPN
8. Dynamic Access Control: New Way of Thinking
9. Resilient File System: An Evolution of NTFS
10. Out-of-the-Box IP Address Management

b.Linux

Linux is an open source Operating System. Linux also is a multipurpose operating system. So, Linux is it can be installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from mobile phones, tablet computers and video game consoles, to mainframes and supercomputers.  Thus some network servers use Linux as their operating system. 

With Linux, a network administrator can configure the network, administer security, run a Web server, and process e-mail. Clients on the network can run Linux, UNIX, or Windows.

Operating System in Mobilephones

a.Iphone OS 6

Iphone OS 6, developed by Apple Inc. is an operating system for iPhone and iPod touch, With the iPhone OS, users can manage contacts and notes, send and receive e-mail and text messages, take pictures, record videos, record voice messages, view a compass, connect to the Internet wirelessly and browse the Web, check stocks, access maps and obtain directions, listen to music, watch movies and videos, and display photos. 

It also provides Wi-Fi access to the iTunes Music Store.

b.Android

Android is a Linux-based operating system designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Android OS is designed by Google Inc. it’s used on more 20 different types of smartphones.

Android OS allows programmers to design programs specifically for devices supporting this operating system. Android OS contains features such as access to e-mail accounts, an alarm clock, video capture, access to Google Apps, Wi-Fi access, and easy Web browsing.

The Android OS is, in strictly legal terms, open source. Android is released under the Apache 2.0 software license, which allows anyone to use, modify and redistribute the code. But while it might meet the letter of the law, Android falls short on the other two points.

In the software world, “open” can be defined around three core traits: a license that insures the code can be modified, reused and distributed; a community development approach; and, most importantly, assurance the user has total freedom over the device and software.

It’s the lack of community-based development that Android’s critics say makes it no more “open” than Apple’s locked-down, decidedly not-open iOS model.

Unlike major open source projects like Firefox or the Linux kernel, you can’t see what’s happening behind the scenes with Android, nor can small developers contribute to the project in any meaningful way. Google typically releases major updates to Android at press conferences, not unlike those Apple uses to show off new iPhone features.

Once the code is released, Android developers can download it and do what they want with it, but they have no way of seeing what’s happening behind the scenes every day.