U. Glaeser

advances that have been made in device fabrication and more importantly in the architecting of these
individual components into powerful systems.
In the 1980s, advances in computer architecture research were most pronounced on two fronts: on
the one hand, new architectural techniques such as RISC made their appearance and revolutionized single
processor design and allowed high performance for the single chip microprocessors which first came out
as system components in the 1970s. At the same time, large-scale parallel processors became mature and
could be used by researchers in many high-end, computationally intensive, scientific applications.
In recent times, the appetite of Internet surfers has been fueling the design of architectures for powerful
servers: in Section 5.1 “Server Computer Architecture,” Siamack Haghighi emphasizes the unique requirements
of server design and identifies the characteristics of their applications.
In Section 5.2, Binnl Matthews describes the VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) processor model,
compares it to more traditional approaches of Instruction Level Parallelism extraction, and demonstrates
the future of VLIW processors, particularly in the context of multimedia applications.
Similarly, multimedia applications have promoted a dual architectural approach. In Section 5.3 “Vector
Processing,” Krste Asanovic traces the ancestry of vector processors to the supercomputers of the 1980s
(Crays, Fujitsu, etc.) and describes the modern applications of this architecture model.
Architectures cannot be evaluated independently of the underlying technology. Indeed, nowadays,
while deep-submicron design rules for VLSI circuit are allowing increasing numbers of devices on the
same chip, techniques of multiprocessing are seeing additional applications in different forms which
range from Networks Of Workstations. Portability, all the way to multiprocessing on a chip, is the topic
of Section 5.4 “Multiprocessing, Multiprocessing,” by Manoj Franklin.
Taking concurrent processing to the next level, Donna Quammen surveys parallel systems in Section
5.5 “Survey of Parallel Systems,” including large-scale tightly coupled parallel processors.
Finally, in Section 5.6 “Virtual Memory Systems,” Bruce Jacob surveys the concepts underlying virtual
memory systems and describes the tremendous advances this approach has undergone since first being
proposed in the late 1960s.
5.1 Server Computer Architecture
Siamack Haghighi
Introduction
Widespread availability of inexpensive Internet access and powerful computers has resulted in considerable
business productivity improvement. Electronic automation of business operations and Internet
communication has resulted in many profitable electronic or “e” business models such as e-commerce.
The cost-saving potential has required many modern companies to automate their traditional manual
customer interface operations and processing through Web technologies. Businesses rely on enterprise
information technology (IT) computing and communication infrastructure as a backbone for their
operations. It is estimated that the current e-commerce revenues exceed hundreds of billions of dollars
in the U.S. alone.
Availability of robust, reliable, secure, and cost-effective IT infrastructure is one of the key drivers of the
new Internet-based businesses. Customer usage models and applications also affect IT infrastructure performance,
operation, and cost. IT infrastructure hardware and software requirements can be met cost
effectively with client–server computing paradigm. Although not a new idea, availability of inexpensive high
performance microprocessors, scalable computing and storage systems, and high bandwidth networks make
client–server computing model an ideal fit. Shared data storage and backup, infrastructure cost, reliability,
serviceability, and availability are some of the other reasons for adoption of client–server computing.
Powerful central processing units (CPU), reliable and available memory system, scalable input/output (I/O),
advanced software, and services and packaging are some of the elements of servers. This chapter will
highlight some of the architecture, design, deployment, usage model, and application of servers.
© 2002 by CRC Press LLC