Server Architectures: Multiprocessors, Clusters, Parallel...

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 784 pages
• Published by: Digital Press December 15, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1555583334
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1555583330
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 3.5 pounds

Product Description
The goal of this book is to present and compare various options one for systems architecture from two separate points of view. One, that of the information technology decision-maker who must choose a solution matching company business requirements, and secondly that of the systems architect who finds himself between the rock of changes in hardware and software technologies and the hard place of changing business needs.
Different aspects of server architecture are presented, from databases designed for parallel architectures to high-availability systems, and touching en route on often- neglected performance aspects.

1. The book provides IT managers, decision makers and project leaders who want to acquire knowledge sufficient to understand the choices made in and capabilities of systems offered by various vendors:
2. Provides system design information to balance the characteristic applications against the capabilities and nature of various architectural choices
3. In addition, it offers an integrated view of the concepts in server architecture, accompanied by discussion of effects on the evolution of the data processing industry.

Back Cover Copy
This work presents and compares various options regarding server architecture from two separate points of view: first, that of the information technology decision-maker who must choose a solution matching company business requirements, and second, that of the systems architect who finds himself between the rock of changes in hardware and software technologies and the hard place of changing business needs.

Different aspects of server architecture are presented, from databases designed for parallel architectures to high-availabiltiy systems, touching en route on often neglected performance aspects.

René's book will answer the following questions critical to server architecture design, implementation, and management and more

. Given the shift to widespread use of Intel microprocessors, is the importance of hardware architecture, once the province of systems manufacturers, tending to decrease?
. Given that they are extremely complex to implement, will MPP architectures be confined to scientific and technical markets?
. Are RISC processors dead, killed by Intel?
. How much longer will system performance continue to increase?
. How do the three major multiprocessor architectures compare: SMP, Massively Parallel, and Cluster?

René Chevance has an engineering degree from Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) and a Doctorat d'Etat Es-Sciences from Université Paris 6. He joined CII in 1968, a company which later merged with Groupe Bull. He has twenty years' teaching experience at Université Paris 6 (Compiler Construction, software Engineering) and for more than ten years, as an associate professor, at CNAM (System Architecture and System Integration).

He has written numerous papers and a book on server architectures, Serveurs Multiprocesseurs, clusters et architectures parallèles, Eyrolles (Paris April 2000). He left Groupe Bull in 1999 to become an independent consultant and can be reached at rjc@chevance.com or through his web site www.chevance.com

Reader Reviews
Chevance gives good coverage to both the hardware and software issues. In the field of multiple/concurrent processing, there is still a variety of hardware offerings. You get a discussion of trends. Most importantly of whether the Intel or AMD chipsets might predominate over more specialised chipsets for future architectures. The economics of mass produced cpus suggests that you may want to hedge your bets as to what you commit to. Further up the food chain, the book goes into various software approaches, especially with an eye towards being deployed on Web servers. Unlike some specialised multiprocessors, which might be mainly used in science, the Web servers have broad appeal. Here, Enterprise Java Beans, object pooling and other subjects are gone into. However, while this section of the book may have broader appeal, it is more comprehensively covered in other texts.