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SOME of the important performance parameters of information technology (IT) are:

Functional capabilities and limitations: The functional capabilities of a specific IT tool identify the type of processing it is intended to perform. The functional capabilities are measured in terms of capacity, speed, price, reliability, and operating conditions.

Of these parameters, capacity relates to its storage and processing. In a computer-based system, size of cache, Random Access Memory (RAM) or secondary storage (hard disk) is the capacity of that system.

The speed parameter relates to processor speed, which is often measured in MHz, Ghz or in millions of instructions per second (MIPS). However, speed of the processor alone does not make the machine speedy. The third parameter, price performance, has direct relation with storage capacity and speed of execution. The analysis of price performance is important from the standpoint of productivity of technology. For example, competition among personal computer manufacturers in the early 1990s generated major improvements in performance. While computers have become faster and more powerful, the price for any given level of processing power has plummeted.

The reliability parameter relates to performance of the technology without errors or unplanned interruptions. And the last parameter, operating conditions, involves awarenss about space, weigh, temperature requirements and power consumption. These may not seem important but often determine the best-suited technology for an organisation, such as, whether a laptop computer will be sufficient or not.

Ease of use: Easy to use is another important performance parameter of IT.

It depends mainly on two things — quality of user interface and portability. Ease of use, though often associated with user interface, is actually a broader idea that includes ease of learning how to use the technology, ease of setting it up and ease of using it directly.

Compatibility: This means the extent to which the characteristics and features of a particular technology fits with those of other technologies relevant to the situation. Compatibility permits modules to work together. The compatibility basically involves two issues, that is, conformance to standards and interoperability. If you ever wanted to plug an American hair dryer into a typical wall socket in Europe or Asia, then you can understand the need for compatibility. The plug's shape is not compatible with the outlet's shape, and the hair dryer will operate with a special adapter.

In IT, compatibility issues range from technical details, such as internal machine languages and data coding methods, to mundane ones such as the size of the paper in copy machines and the shape of plugs.

Interoperability relates to the question: "To what extent does the technology use the internal coding and external interfaces of other technologies it must operate with or substitute for?"

Maintainability: How easy it is to keep the technology operating over time? Modularity, scalability, and flexibility are the three basic parameters to measure the performance of the system as far as maintainability is concerned. Modularity involves the separation of a system or device into a set of subsystems, each of which can be developed, tested, and understood independently.

Dividing systems into modules makes them easier to build and understand because solving many small problems is usually easier than solving one big problem. The modules work together based on the way the outputs of one become the inputs of the others. The second performance variable relates to the possibilities of significantly increasing or decreasing the capacity of the system or components of the systems without major disruptions.

Flexibility relates to the possibilities to change important aspects of the system operation without major disruptions.

LAN and its types

LOCAL area network (LAN) is a system of hardware, software and communication channels that connects devices in close proximity.

It permits the flow of data (text, voices and graphics images) between different types of hardware such as mainframes, PCs, terminals and input/output devices.

Most of the LANs connect devices located within a 2,000-foot radius. LANs generally have higher transmission rate than PBXs and use bus or ring topology.

Types of LAN

LAN can be broadly classified into the following:

Clients-server LANs: It consists of requesting micro-computers called clients, and a device known as server. The server is powerful and manages shared devices such as printers, scanners, and so on — a network that runs on Novell NetWare is an example of client server networks.

Peer-to-peer LANs: Here, all computers in a network communicate directly with each other without depending on a server.

These are less expensive than a client-server network and work effectively with up to 25 computers.

LAN technologies

There are seven principal LAN technologies for physically connecting clients:

Ethernet: It was developed by Xerox, Digital Equipment Corporation and Intel. It uses LAN data link technology, in which, systems are attached to a common transmission facility, such as a coaxial or twisted-pair cable, to form a bus- or tree-structure configuration. A system typically attempts to transmit whenever it has data to send. Ethernet is the most widely used form of LAN data link technology.

Token Ring: It is a LAN data link technology in which systems are connected to one another using point-to-point twisted-pair cable segments to form a ring structure. A system is allowed to transmit only when it has a special data unit called the token, which is passed from one system to another around the ring.

Token Bus: This is a LAN data link technology in which systems are connected to a common transmission medium in a similar manner as an Ethernet LAN. A system is allowed to transmit only when it has the token, which is passed from one system to another. Token Bus is at times used in factory automation.

ARCnet: This is the name of a family of LAN products that implement a relatively low-speed form of LAN data link technology in which all systems are attached to a common coaxial cable only when it has the token.

Fibre distributed data interface: FDDI is a high-speed LAN data link technology in which all systems are connected to one another using point-to-point fibre-optic cable segments to form a ring structure. A system is allowed to transmit only when it has the token.

Local talk: This is a low-speed LAN data link technology in which systems are attached to a common cable. This technology has been built into most of the computing devices.

Wireless LAN technologies: Local area network infrastructure vendors have developed various technologies for implementing LAN communication over wireless transmission media, such as radio and infrared signals.

(Edited extracts from Management Information Systems and Corporate Communication — Intermediate Course Study Material, Paper 4. Courtesy: The Institute of Company Secretaries of India. www.icsiindia.org)

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