I don’t know if you have noticed that many things around are developing towards miniaturization and portability, especially mobile phones and computers. Think about the computers in people’s homes or offices now. Are they very large, so they occupy a lot of land? Therefore, the small form factor pc was born. The small form factor pc can make everyone save more living space in our home, make life lighter and use more convenient without changing the configuration.
On the development of small form factor pc
The so-called mini pc refers to the kind of computer that is very small in size and takes up very little space. It is also called microcomputer. At present, small form factor pc is still in the stage of research and development, and they face many technical bottlenecks. It is difficult to achieve major technological breakthroughs in a short time. Is it good or bad for small form factor pc? Or what impact will it have on our lives?
Definition and development history of small form factor pc
From the birth of computers to the extremely developed electronic products today, they have brought countless convenience and great help to our lives. Since all electronic products are to serve mankind, they must develop towards lightness and portability, and computers are no exception. Looking at the development of computers, it is not difficult to find that the size of computers is indeed shrinking. Small form factor pc is the development trend of computers in the future. Therefore, major manufacturers are doing their best to develop small form factor pc. The early small form factor pc is palm computers that we are very familiar with. Such small form factor pc basically meet the needs of people who needed electronic services at that time, but small form factor pc could not carry computers out of the door.
Subsequently, handheld computers gradually integrated with mobile phones, so smart phones were born. The emergence of smart phones has accelerated the progress of the times. We found that in the short 8-year development history of smart phones, countless miracles have been created. Now the functions of smart phones have long been different. But smart phones still can’t realize real computer miniaturization like computers. First of all, the functional experience of computers is based on powerful hardware. With the current scientific research ability of human beings, it is not possible to integrate so many hardware devices into a very small space. The price of space reduction is the sacrifice of performance. The processor of mobile phones is good evidence compared with that of computers.
The role and influence of small form factor pc and their future development
Although the small form factor pc has not been fully developed successfully, its role is very huge. First of all, people can carry the minicomputer everywhere to work, it will produce greater value, and people will create greater social value because of its portability. In addition, the minicomputer can realize its functions in more places, for example, we can place small form factor pc in some forests to observe the environment and realize scientific research and exploration, without affecting the forest environment due to its large size. Of course, small form factor pc needs to solve many problems, such as how to use such a small volume to interact with people, and how to use such a small volume to achieve comprehensive hardware integration, which still needs time.
Small form factor pc is the inevitable trend of the future development of computers, but not now. The current technological bottleneck can be said to be very insurmountable, but human wisdom is infinite. I believe that in the near future, small form factor pc will create greater wealth for human society.
Small form factor pc is abbreviated as microcomputer, commonly known as computer. Its accurate title should be small form factor pc system. It can be simply defined as an entity composed of necessary external equipment and software configured on the basis of small form factor pc hardware system.
Since IBM introduced the first generation microcomputer IBM-PC in 1981, small form factor pc has rapidly entered all fields of society with its characteristics of accurate execution results, fast processing speed, high cost performance, lightweight and compact, and the technology has been constantly updated and the products have been rapidly upgraded. From a simple computing tool, it has developed into a powerful multimedia tool that can process a variety of information, such as numbers, symbols, words, languages, graphics, images, audio, video and so on. Today’s small form factor pc products have made a great leap over earlier products in terms of computing speed, multimedia functions, software and hardware support, and ease of use. Portable small form factor pc is more and more popular with mobile office workers because of their convenient use, wireless networking and other advantages, and has maintained a trend of rapid development.
There are three levels of small form factor pc system from overall to local: small form factor pc system, microcomputer and microprocessor (CPU). Neither a single microprocessor nor a single microcomputer can work independently. Only a microcomputer system is a complete information processing system, which is of practical significance.
A complete small form factor pc system includes two parts: hardware system and software system. The hardware system is composed of arithmetic unit, controller, memory (including memory, external memory and cache), and various input and output devices, which work in the “instruction driven” mode.
The software system of small form factor pc can be divided into system software and application software. System software refers to the software that manages monitors and maintains computer resources (including hardware and software). It mainly includes: operating system, various language processing programs, database management system and various tool software. Among them, the small form factor pc operating system is the core of the system software. Users can complete various operations on the computer only through the operating system. Application software is a computer program compiled for a certain application purpose, such as word processing software, graphics and image processing software, network communication software, financial management software, CAD software, various program packages, etc.
Introduction to small form factor pc
Compared with the large-scale computer, the software and hardware system of the small form factor pc is relatively small, but the price is low, the reliability is high, the operation is flexible and convenient, and it is easy to maintain and use.
Small form factor pc is a microcomputer with small hardware system but many functions, which can be easily carried and used by people.
Four methods adopted to give full play to the functions of small form factor pc resources and improve the performance price ratio
① Small form factor pc can use different word lengths according to different purposes, and try to use shorter word lengths on the premise of meeting the application requirements, so as to compress the computer scale and reduce the cost.
② Small form factor pc can adopt microprogram control structure, with regular structure, which is convenient to realize production standardization. Moreover, the minicomputer can flexibly realize various control functions, and the corresponding microprogram can be compiled according to different applications to obtain a good performance price ratio.
③ Small form factor pc is classified according to processing capacity, and a series of small form factor pc is developed. The word length and instruction system of all minicomputers in the same series are often the same, but the size and processing capacity are different. Various optional functional components and interfaces are developed for various small form factor pc, and the configuration scale of main memory and peripheral devices also has a certain range of changes. In this way, small form factor pc with appropriate models and system configuration scale in the series can be selected for different application scales.
④ Small form factor pc can develop various software, such as real-time operating system, multi-user time-sharing operating system, various high-level languages (including special languages) and various application packages, so as to achieve good results in solving various application problems.
Miniaturization of small form factor pc
The development of minicomputers and VLSI technology has created conditions for the birth of small form factor pc. The cost of 8-bit and less than 8-bit microcomputers, single board computers and microprocessors, as well as 16 bit single board computers and microprocessors, is much lower than that of minicomputers, and it is also easier to maintain and use. In the field of small form factor pc application, microcomputer and minicomputer complement each other and are widely used. In order to improve the performance price ratio of minicomputers, many manufacturers use large-scale integrated circuit technology to realize miniaturization of minicomputers. Because the system logic structure is ready-made, the development and production cycle can be shortened, and the originally developed software can also be used.
Small form factor pc
In order to expand the application field of small form factor pc minicomputers, various technologies have been used to develop super minicomputers. The processing capacity of these high-performance minicomputers reaches or exceeds that of low-end mainframe computers. Therefore, the boundary between small form factor pc and large computers has also been staggered. There are four main technical measures to improve performance.
① The word length of a small form factor pc can be increased to 32 bits in order to improve the accuracy and speed of operation, enhance the instruction function, expand the addressing range, and greatly improve the processing capacity of the computer.
② Small form factor pc adopts some technologies of large computer, such as pipeline structure, general register, super cache memory, fast bus and channel, to improve the operation speed and throughput of the system.
③ Some small form factor pc adopts various large-scale integrated circuits, and use fast memory, gate array, program logic array, mass storage chip and various interface chips to form computer systems, so as to reduce volume and power consumption, and improve performance and reliability.
④ The small form factor pc produced in this way can develop more powerful system software, tool software, communication software, database and application program package, as well as the hardware system structure, instruction system and firmware that can support the core part of the software. The combination of software and hardware forms a high-performance system with wide applications.
Characteristics of small form factor pc
① Small size
Due to the use of large-scale and very large-scale integrated circuits, the number of devices required to form a small form factor pc is greatly reduced, and the volume is greatly reduced. A 16-bit microprocessor MC68000, which is equivalent to the CPU function of a minicomputer, is composed of 13000 standard gate circuits.
② High reliability
After the adoption of large-scale integrated circuits in small form factor pc, the number of chips used in the system is greatly reduced. In this way, the number of small form factor pc connectors is greatly reduced, the external leads are simplified, and the installation is easier. In addition, the small form factor pc circuit chip itself has low power consumption and low calorific value, which greatly improves the reliability of the small form factor pc, and thus reduces the requirements for the use environment. Ordinary office and home environments can meet the requirements for the use of small form factor pc.
③ Simple structure
Most small form factor pc adopts modular hardware structure, especially after adopting bus architecture, the minicomputer system has become an open architecture. All functional components in the system are connected through standardized slots and interfaces. Users can choose different functional components (boards) and corresponding peripheral devices to form minicomputer systems with different requirements and scales.
④ High cost performance
With the rapid development of microelectronics and the continuous maturity of large-scale and very large-scale integrated circuit technology, the price of integrated circuit chips is getting lower and lower, and the cost of small form factor pc is declining. At the same time, many technologies that were only used in large and medium-sized computers in the past (such as waterline Technology, RISC technology, virtual storage technology, etc.) are also used in small form factor pc.
Advantages of small form factor pc
① High stability
Insert the graphics card into the host of the minicomputer, and install the minicomputer. 1-7 computer users can use the computer at the same time, run the same or different program, do not interfere with each other, and the processing speed is not affected. Small form factor pc can dynamically allocate system resources and stably execute system-based applications. Due to their superior performance, the expanded small form factor pc has the same excellent performance as the host, reducing the host hardware of the terminal and greatly reducing the equipment failure rate. It is worth mentioning that many good genuine software of small form factor pc is hard encrypted, and the price is relatively high
② Low overall cost
Due to the rapid upgrading of computer CPU, experts calculate that more than 99% of computers are upgraded every 2-3 years on average. Every time a small form factor pc upgrades its hardware equipment, the main machine, hard disk, CPU and memory are the main objects of upgrading, and they are all the equipment in the computer host. Because many computers need to replace 80% of the hardware devices every time they are upgraded, while small form factor pc terminals only need to replace 15% of the hardware devices! The effective reduction of small form factor pc includes the first set-up cost, maintenance fee, electricity fee, housing fee, upgrade fee, etc. The price performance ratio is unprecedentedly improved, which saves power, energy and space, is conducive to environmental protection, and can realize single machine multi-user.
③ Fast reading speed
Our small form factor pc use unique technology to increase reading efficiency, dynamically allocate system resources, and provide a better execution efficiency of the system
④ Strong confidentiality
Our small form factor pc supports dynamic directory management and permission management, allowing each user of the device to have a private directory to avoid mutual interference and disclosure.
⑤ Easier maintenance
The small form factor pc we produce only needs to maintain one host, which greatly improves the utilization of system equipment and reduces maintenance costs. Moreover, the software update and hardware upgrade and maintenance of the minicomputer are easier and the workload is less.
⑥ Good independent performance
Each of our small form factor pc users can access the Internet and use all kinds of application software independently, log in to the LAN independently, and can use any shared resources of the LAN completely. At the same time, they can also listen to music and copy materials independently. Small form factor pc has online entertainment application functions, video information, game applications, and can move app applications that are not usually used to the front of the TV. Usually, online e-book reading, real-time weather forecast, real-time stock online, real-time ticket booking services, and real-time flight query services can be realized in front of the small form factor pc display.
⑦ High LAN speed
The reduction of the number of small form factor pc hosts we produce greatly reduces the network collision on the local area network, and greatly improves the network efficiency. The reduction of network cables and network interfaces can also reduce the cost of erection.
⑧ Good software efficiency
Each small form factor pc user can simultaneously use the genuine operating system, office software, CAD engineering design, Photoshop art design, 3D drawing production, Internet access, game playing, image security monitoring, etc. The small form factor pc we produce enables you to legally use genuine software at the same time to the maximum extent.
⑨ Safety management
All our small form factor pc is minicomputers are managed on the host computer, and all users are centrally controlled by the core console of the system. Each user’s permission can be set. Small form factor pc’s management is quite easy and convenient. It can effectively prevent virus infection from optical and floppy disks and unauthorized data replication. In terms of functions, small form factor pc has the least network functions, but the installation, maintenance and compatibility are the best Small form factor pc has the most comprehensive and powerful multimedia functions, but their installation, maintenance and compatibility are second, and computer extensions rank second. Small form factor pc has the function of high-definition HD Blue ray playback, and support a variety of video formats. Under broadband connection, our small form factor pc can watch online movie and video resources, and we ensure that the screen definition of small form factor pc can effectively ensure the high definition of video, etc.
Small form factor pc is computers that use microprocessors as CPUs. Another common feature of such computers is that they occupy very little space.
Most devices of small form factor pc is tightly installed in a separate chassis, and some devices may be placed near the chassis and connected with it, such as monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. Generally speaking, the size of a small form factor pc makes it easy to place on most desktops. In contrast, larger computers such as minicomputers, mainframe computers and supercomputers can occupy part of the cabinet or the whole room.
Most small form factor pc only provide single user services, but some PCs and workstations running UNIX style operating systems can be used by multiple users at the same time. Like all computers, microprocessors are responsible for all calculations and data processing. There are two kinds of data storage that work with CPU, high-speed but volatile RAM and low-speed but non-volatile disk.
Other devices included in the complete small form factor pc include power supply and various input / output devices.
The main functions of the small form factor pc arithmetic unit are arithmetic and logic operations and logic operations. The object of the arithmetic unit is data, so the data length and computer data representation method have a great impact on the performance of the arithmetic unit.
The arithmetic unit of a small form factor pc is similar to that of a general computer. It is composed of arithmetic logic unit (ALU), accumulator, status register, general register group, etc. The basic functions of arithmetic logic operation unit (ALU) are addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and, XOR and other logical operations, as well as shift, complement and other operations. When the small form factor pc is running, the operation and type of operation of the arithmetic unit are determined by the controller. The data processed by the arithmetic unit comes from the memory. The processed result data is usually sent back to the memory or temporarily stored in the arithmetic unit. Together with control unit, it forms the core part of CPU.
In the 1970s, microprocessors often used 1, 4, and 8 16 binary bits are used as the basic unit for processing data. Most general-purpose computers use 16, 32, and 64 bits as the length of data processed by the arithmetic unit. An arithmetic unit that can process all bits of a data at the same time is called a parallel arithmetic unit. If only one bit is processed at a time, it is called a serial arithmetic unit. Some arithmetic units can process several bits at a time (usually 6 or 8 bits), and a complete data is divided into several segments for calculation, which is called serial / parallel arithmetic unit. Arithmetic units often process data of only one length. Some can also process several different lengths of data, such as half word length operation, double word length operation, quadruple word length operation, etc. Some data lengths can be specified during the operation, which is called variable word length operation. Therefore, devices such as minicomputers are small form factor pc.
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