ITBA TERM PAPER

LATEST TRENDS IN
HARDWARE AND
SOFTWARE

SUBMITTED BY:
 NITIN PARSWANI
ROLL NO. 26
SECTION ‘G’
MBA CLASS OF 2011
• ‘WINDOWS 7’
The latest version of the popular ‘Windows’ series of operating systems by Microsoft,
i.e. Windows 7, will be released on October 22, 2008 worldwide.
The company has paid close attention to feedback from customers, with the result
that many of the issues with Vista have been addressed.

New features focus on boosting productivity and making it easier for IT departments
to deploy and manage Windows 7 PCs on a corporate network.

Many issues with Vista were caused by its User Access Control security feature,
which caused problems in applications requiring full administrator privileges.
Microsoft said that many of these issues have since been fixed in the Service Pack 1
release of the platform, and that Windows 7 has inherited the changes.

Poor performance was another criticism leveled at Vista, and Microsoft claims that
Windows 7 is faster to boot up and shut down, and has a reduced code footprint.

Speaking at Professional Developers Conference, senior vice president for Windows

Steven Sinofsky said that any system that can run Vista would be faster on Windows
7, and even claimed a satisfactory level of performance on mini-laptops.

Windows 7 also adds a number of business-friendly features such as application

whitelisting, support for BitLocker encryption on USB Flash disks, and tools to help
fix application compatibility issues.

Whitelisting is provided by a feature called AppLocker that enables administrators to

control which applications are allowed to run on the network.

Bitlocker To Go extends Microsoft’s encryption tool to cover removable media such

as USB Flash disks.

Administrators can force users to encrypt before they can move data from the
corporate network.

According to Microsoft, this can allow particular applications, only specific

applications, or all applications signed by a particular publisher.

Windows 7 will also have the ability to preserve user data during a re-image of the
system, making the process much simpler.
Microsoft said administrators could potentially just give users a USB stick with the
image on and have them run the upgrade.

Another feature, DirectAccess, enables mobile workers to securely connect to

resources on the corporate intranet without having to use a virtual private network
(VPN).

• HP CREATES ‘MEMRISTOR’: A CHIP THAT

COULD REVOLUTIONIZE COMPUTING

Researchers at HP Labs claim to have built a once-theoretical basic component for

electrical engineering.

Known as a memory resistor, or 'memristor', the tiny device has the ability to retain
the amount of electrical charge which flows through it. The concept was first
suggested in 1971 by University of California researcher Leon Chua, who posited
that the memristor was the missing companion to the resistor, capacitor and inductor
devices traditionally used to build circuits.

HP envisions the memristor eventually replacing conventional DRAM memory chips,

allowing system memory to retain data after being shut down and virtually eliminating
the concept of a booting process when the machine is turned on.

The researchers see the memristor having its greatest impact on cloud computing,
where the power and speed advantages can be leveraged on hundreds of machines
at once.

The technology could even change the way computers function. HP believes that
memristor circuits will eventually power machines that mimic the human brain.

Such machines could learn from previous experience and retain information for
future use in associating events and recognizing patterns.
• SAMSUNG SSD: THE NEXT GEN FLASH
MEMORY
Samsung Electronics claims to have developed the first solid state disk (SSD) based
on Nand Flash memory technology.

The SSD has a power consumption rate less than five per cent of today's hard disk
drives (HDDs), enabling next-generation mobile PCs to extend battery life by more
than 10 per cent. The Nand-based SSD weighs less than half that of a similar sized
HDD.

The electronics giant is marketing the SSD as a low-power, lightweight storage

media for notebooks, sub-notebooks and tablet PCs.

Using high-density 8Gbit Nand Flash, Samsung said it can build SSDs with a
capacity of up to 16GB.

Free of moving parts, Samsung's SSD memory has minimal noise and heat
emission.

Moreover, it is a highly reliable storage media that endures exceptionally well in

environments with extreme temperatures and humidity, making it suited for industrial
and military applications

The storage disk reads data at 57Mbps and writes it at 32Mbps. Samsung claimed
that these levels of SSD performance exceed those of a comparably sized HDDs by
more than 150 per cent.

To ensure compatibility, the SSDs have been designed to look like HDDs from the
outside.

The company has developed 2.5in SSDs that carry 16 Nand Flash devices of 4GB or
8GB density for 8GB and 16GB of storage respectively. Its 1.8in SSDs will also offer
4GB or 8GB of density.

Samsung expects Nand Flash applications to expand from current applications in

digital cameras, MP3 players and 3G mobile handsets to mobile and digital
consumer appliances.