Question

The Role of Computer

Performance
• Designing high performance computers is one of the major goals of any computer architect.
• As a result, assessing the performance of computer hardware is at the heart of computer design and greatly affect the demand and market value of the computer.
• However, measuring performance of a computer system is not a straight-forward task:
➜ Which application to use to measure performance?
➜ What component of computer to measure (e.g., processor, I/O, cache)?
➜ How do other parameters affect performance (e.g.,OS, compiler)?
How do you define performance (e.g., faster, or most completed jobs during a certain period of time) - execution time vs. throughput.
Example
Do the following changes to a computer system increase throughput, decrease response time, or both?
1) Replacing the processor in a computer with a faster version.
2) Adding additional processors to a system that uses multiple processors for separate tasks - for example handling an airline reservation system.

Answer 1

The performance of a computer system is dependent on the hardware components and the type of applications running on the system.

Step-by-step explanation:

Computer systems are only as efficient as the components. If the components are poor in performance, the computer system works poorly and it is so for good system components.

Adding multi-core, multi-threading system processor and a faster storage like the solid state drive, and upgrading other hardware components based on the applications that needs to run in the system, the computer works efficiently and fast.