BTEC National for IT Practitioners: Systems Units has been written specifically to cover the systems pathway of the BTEC National specifications. This book caters for one of the most popular pathways in the BTEC National specifications, bringing together all the key specialist units for students who have chosen the systems route, including the core units specific to this pathway that aren't covered in the core unit book. When used alongside its companions for the core units and business pathways, this series delivers the most accessible and usable student textbooks available for the BTEC National. Units covered: Unit 11 - Data Analysis and Design Unit 22 - Network Management Unit 13 - Human Computer Interaction Unit 28 - IT Technical Support Unit 16 - Maintaining Computer Systems Unit 29 - IT Systems Troubleshooting and Repair Written by an experienced tutor, each unit is illustrated with assessment activities, end-of-chapter questions, case studies and practical exercises. The result is a clear, straightforward textbook that encourages independent study and acts as a reference to various topics within the qualification.

As the dividing line between traditional computing science and telecommunications quickly becomes blurred or disappears in today's rapidly changing environment, there is an increasing need for computer professionals to possess knowledge of telecommunications principles. Telecommunications and Networking presents a comprehensive overview of the interaction and relationship between telecommunications and data processing. The book's early chapters cover basic telecommunications vocabulary, common nomenclature, telecommunications fundamentals, as well as the important relationships among coding, error detection and correction, and noise. Later chapters discuss such topics as switching, timing, topological structures, routing algorithms, and teleprocessing. Other topics covered in detail include specific concerns inherent to computer communications, such as protocols, error detection and correction, network monitoring and security, and system validation. System designers and programmers can no longer be effective simply by understanding the tradeoffs between hardware and software. Telecommunications and Networking provides both computing professionals and students the fundamental computer communications concepts necessary to function in today's computer industry.

Introduces mechanical engineers to high-performance computing using the new generation of computers with vector and parallel processing capabilities that allow the solution to problems beyond the ken of traditional computers. The chapters present an introduction and overview, explain several methodo

Piezoelectric Materials and Devices: Applications in Engineering and Medical Sciences provides a complete overview of piezoelectric materials, covering all aspects of the materials starting from fundamental concepts. The treatment includes physics of piezoelectric materials, their characteristics and applications. The author uses simple language to explain the theory of piezoelectricity and introduce readers to the properties and design of different types of piezoelectric materials, such as those used in engineering and medical device applications. This book: Introduces various types of dielectrics and their classification based on their characteristics Addresses the mathematical formulation of piezoelectric effects and the definition of various piezoelectric constants Describes the structure and properties of practical piezoelectric materials such as quartz, lead zirconate titanate, barium titanate, zinc oxide, and polyvinylidene fluoride Covers the entire gamut of piezoelectric devices used in engineering and medical applications Discusses briefly the use of piezoelectric materials for energy harvesting and structural health monitoring Explores new developments in biomedical applications of piezoelectric devices such as drug delivery, blood flow and blood pressure monitoring, robotic operating tools, etc. Elaborates on design and virtual prototyping of piezoelectric devices through the use of FE software tools ANSYS and PAFEC Giving design engineers, scientists, and technologists the information and guidance they will need to adopt piezoelectric materials in the development of smart devices, this book will also motivate engineering and science students to initiate new research for developing innovative devices. Its contents will be invaluable to both students and professionals seeking a greater understanding of fundamentals and applications in the evolving field of piezoelectrics.

The book presents the current standards of digital multiplexing, called synchronous digital hierarchy, including analog multiplexing technologies. It is aimed at telecommunication professionals who want to develop an understanding of digital multiplexing and synchronous digital hierarchy, in particular, and the functioning of practical telecommunication systems, in general. The text includes all relevant fundamentals and provides a handy reference for problem solving or defining operations and maintenance strategies. The author covers digital conversion and TDM principles, line coding and digital modulation, signal impairments, and synchronization, as well as emerging systems.

As a manager of the 90s, you know that IT departments like your own must continue to meet increasingly sophisticated end-user needs despite highly limited resources. Learn when it s best to farm out work to consultants, when to reserve internal resources for other tasks, and how best to use your in-house staff. Coverage unlike any other in the marketplace. Written by 41 experts all practitioners in the networking and IS management fields this guidebook provides unique depth and scope. In this Third Edition, you ll find all new material that clearly outlines today s hottest issues. Prepares you to quickly respond to management requirements. Are you aware of the latest on strategic planning, systems planning, and points-of-failure planning? Have you linked your IT architecture and business plans? Have you updated senior management as to how IT can help achieve corporate goals? Do you have a corporate technology plan? Turn to the Handbook for all this and more. Now you can get up to speed on the latest in client/server, on how to give your end users faster and greater access to corporate data at a lower cost, and on how to quantify the amount of network support that this improvement will require? The Handbook was written with you in mind. The perfect resource for today s successful communications systems manager. This comprehensive, highly authoritative reference is designed to help you select, maintain, and manage your communications systems. It provides all the tools you need to evaluate, formulate, and implement effective communications network strategies to keep pace with today s rapidly changing technology. You get illustrations, tables, and diagrams to clearly outline and guide you the entire way. Be aware of the latest technologies and their impact on you. Keep costs down by aiding your thinking through all the systems and network elements from concept through implementation and day-to-day operation.

Windows Networking Tools: The Complete Guide to Management, Troubleshooting, and Security explains how to use built-in Windows networking tools and third-party networking products to diagnose network problems, address performance issues, and enhance the overall security of your system and network. It starts with a review of the major components of the TCP/IP protocol suite, as well as IP and MAC addressing, to provide a clear understanding of the various networking tools and how they are used in a LAN and a TCP/IP networking environment. Although the book focuses on built-in Windows networking tools, it also investigates a number of third-party products that can enhance the performance of your computer. It identifies tools to help you to understand the traffic flow and operational status of your network , illustrates the use of numerous tools, and shows you several methods to protect your computers from malicious software. It also examines one of the best programs for examining the flow of data on a network Wireshark and explains how to use this program to scan for open ports and discover vulnerability issues. In addition to helping you gain insight into existing problems, the text highlights built-in Windows networking tools that can help to determine if you can expect future bandwidth bottlenecks or other problems to occur under different growth scenarios. Placing the proven methods of an industry veteran at your fingertips, the book includes a chapter devoted to software programs that can enhance the security of your network. It explains how to negate the operation of unwanted advertisement trackers as well as how to minimize and alleviate the various types of hacking from keyboard loggers to network viruses. In the event your computational device is lost or stolen a cryptographic program is described that results in data becoming meaningless to the person or persons attempting to read your

Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures is devoted to supercomputing on a wide variety of Multiple-Instruction-Multiple-Data (MIMD)-class parallel machines. This book describes architectural concepts, commercial and research hardware implementations, major programming concepts, algorithmic methods, representative applications, and benefits and drawbacks. Commercial machines described include Connection Machine 5, NCUBE, Butterfly, Meiko, Intel iPSC, iPSC/2 and iWarp, DSP3, Multimax, Sequent, and Teradata. Research machines covered include the J-Machine, PAX, Concert, and ASP. Operating systems, languages, translating sequential programs to parallel, and semiautomatic parallelizing are aspects of MIMD software addressed in Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures. MIMD issues such as scalability, partitioning, processor utilization, and heterogenous networks are discussed as well.This book is packed with important information and richly illustrated with diagrams and tables, Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures is an essential reference for computer professionals, program managers, applications system designers, scientists, engineers, and students in the computer sciences.

A fast-growing area in the communications industry is the internetworking of an ever-increasing proliferation of computers, particularly via local area networks (LANs). The LAN is a resource-sharing data communications network being used by many offices to interchange information such as electronic mail, word processing, and files among computers and other devices. This unique book shows the user how to establish the performance characteristics of a LAN before putting it to use in a particular type of situation. Simulation of Local Area Networks consists of eight chapters, each with its own extensive list of references. The first chapter provides a brief review of local area networks, and the second chapter gives the analytical models of popular LANs-token-passing bus and ring networks, CSMA/CD LANs, and star networks. Chapter 3 covers general principles of simulation, and Chapter 4 discusses fundamental concepts in probability and statistics relating to simulation modeling. Materials in Chapters 3 and 4 are specifically applied in developing simulation models on token-passing LANs, CSMA/CD LANs, and star LANs in Chapters 5 through 7. The computer code in Chapters 5, 6, and 7 is divided into segments, and a detailed explanation of each segment is provided. The last chapter reviews special-purpose languages such as GPSS, SIMSCRIPT, GASP, SIMULA, SLAM, and RESQ. Helpful criteria for language selection are included. The entire code is put together in the appendixes. This book has two major advantages over existing texts. First, it uses C, a well-developed general-purpose language that is familiar to most analysts. Second, the text specifically applies the simulation principles to local area networks. No other book available shows the systems analyst how to evaluate the performance of existing or proposed systems under different kinds of conditions.

Cooperative Cognitive Radio Networks: The Complete Spectrum Cycle provides a solid understanding of the foundations of cognitive radio technology, from spectrum sensing, access, and handoff to routing, trading, and security. Written in a tutorial style with several illustrative examples, this comprehensive book: Gives an overview of cognitive radio systems and explains the different components of the spectrum cycle Features step-by-step analyses of the different algorithms and systems, supported by extensive computer simulations, figures, tables, and references Fulfills the need for a single source of information on all aspects of the spectrum cycle, including the physical, link, medium access, network, and application layers Offering a unifying view of the various approaches and methodologies, Cooperative Cognitive Radio Networks: The Complete Spectrum Cycle presents the state of the art of cognitive radio technology, addressing all phases of the spectrum access cycle.

Our world is rapidly becoming an Internet-based world, with tens of millions of homes, millions of businesses, and within a short period of time, possibly hundreds of millions of mobile professionals accessing the literal mother of all networks. One of the key problems affecting many Internet users, ranging from individual professionals to networking managers and administrators, is a lack of knowledge concerning Internet Protocol (IP) addressing. A detailed reference guide, The ABCs of IP Addressing provides you with the detailed information about the key challenges of IP addressing and designing networks that work efficiently. It takes you from the basics of the binary numbering system to advanced topics in subnetting, network address translation, and configuring workstations, servers and routers. The book contains network tools that prepare you for testing and troubleshooting and highlights the need for techniques that conserve the use of IP addressing as well as the creation of a next generation IP addressing structure. While structured on a chapter by chapter basis, wherever possible each chapter was written to be independent, making the book convenient and easy to use in a hectic work environment. While you may find it possible to design a network or configure a workstation to operate without a detailed knowledge of IP addressing, the end results are not very efficient. And in the quickly changing global business environment, inefficiency wastes your time and money, both valuable resources for gaining and maintaining the competitive edge. With The ABCs of IP Addressing you get the comprehensive coverage of applications and protocols that help you do your job faster and more effectively.

CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy's Underdog Computer is the first book to document the complete history of the Tandy Color Computer (CoCo), a popular 8-bit PC series from the 1980s that competed against the era's biggest names, including the Apple II, IBM PC, and Commodore 64. The book takes you inside the interesting stories and people behind this unique, underdog computer. Both noted computer science and technology advocates, authors Pitre and Loguidice reveal the story of a pivotal period in the home computing revolution from the perspective of Tandy's CoCo. As these computers were sold in Radio Shack stores throughout the United States and other countries, they provide a critical point of reference for key events in the unprecedented evolutionary period for the PC industry in the 1980s. The book also features first-hand accounts from the people who created and promoted the CoCo, from the original Tandy executives and engineers to today's active product creators and information keepers. The CoCo impacted many lives, and this book leaves no stone unturned in recounting this fascinating slice of the PC revolution that is still in play today. From early telecommunications experiments to engineering and budgetary challenges, it covers all the aspects that made the CoCo a truly personal, useful computing experience in as small and inexpensive a package as possible.

As technology has developed, computer hackers have become increasingly sophisticated, mastering the ability to hack into even the most impenetrable systems. The best way to secure a system is to understand the tools hackers use and know how to circumvent them. Defense against the Black Arts: How Hackers Do What They Do and How to Protect against It provides hands-on instruction to a host of techniques used to hack into a variety of systems. Exposing hacker methodology with concrete examples, this book shows you how to outwit computer predators at their own game. Among the many things you'll learn: How to get into a Windows operating system without having the username or password Vulnerabilities associated with passwords and how to keep them out of the hands of hackers How hackers use the techniques of computer forensic examiners to wreak havoc on individuals and companies Hiding one's IP address to avoid detection Manipulating data to and from a web page or application for nefarious reasons How to find virtually anything on the internet How hackers research the targets they plan to attack How network defenders collect traffic across the wire to indentify intrusions Using Metasploit to attack weaknesses in systems that are unpatched or have poorly implemented security measures The book profiles a variety of attack tools and examines how Facebook and other sites can be used to conduct social networking attacks. It also covers techniques utilized by hackers to attack modern operating systems, such as Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X. The author explores a number of techniques that hackers can use to exploit physical access, network access, and wireless vectors. Using screenshots to clarify procedures, this practical manual uses step-by-step examples and relevant analogies to facilitate u

The success of information backup systems does not rest on IT administrators alone. Rather, a well-designed backup system comes about only when several key factors coalesce business involvement, IT acceptance, best practice designs, enterprise software, and reliable hardware. Enterprise Systems Backup and Recovery: A Corporate Insurance Policy provides organizations with a comprehensive understanding of the principles and features involved in effective enterprise backups. Instead of focusing on any individual backup product, this book recommends corporate procedures and policies that need to be established for comprehensive data protection. It provides relevant information to any organization, regardless of which operating systems or applications are deployed, what backup system is in place, or what planning has been done for business continuity. It explains how backup must be included in every phase of system planning, development, operation, and maintenance. It also provides techniques for analyzing and improving current backup system performance. After reviewing the concepts in this book, organizations will be able to answer these questions with respect to their enterprise: What features and functionality should be expected in a backup environment? What terminology and concepts are unique to backup software, and what can be related to other areas? How can a backup system be monitored successfully? How can the performance of a backup system be improved? What features are just "window dressing" and should be ignored, as opposed to those features that are relevant? Backup and recovery systems touch on just about every system in an organization. Properly implemented, they can provide an enterprise with greater assurance that its information is safe. By utilizing the

With the expectation that architectural improvements will play a significant role inadvancing processor performance, it is critical for readers to maintain an up-to-date,unified overview of technological advances in this vital research area.Gathering into one place material that had been scattered throughout the literaturemakingit difficult to obtain detailed information on computer designs-this importantbook describes the main architectural and organizational features of modem mini- andmicrocomputers. In addition, it explains the RISC philosophy by supplying historicalbackground information and excellent examples of several commercially available RISCmicroprocessors.Limiting attention to VLSI implementations of RISC processors, VLSI RISCArchitecture and Organization offers insight into design issues that arose indeveloping a RISC system, using the VLSI RISC chip set developed at AcornComputers Limited as an example ... discusses options considered during the designprocess, the basis for the decisions made, and implementation details . . . describescontemporary RISC architecture, comparing and contrasting different designs ... andlooks at future trends in RISC research.Discussing the topic cohesively and comprehensively-from initial study into reducedinstructions sets to the widespread introduction of RISC architectures into mainstreamcomputer products-VLSI RISC Architecture and Organization is aninvaluable reference for electrical, electronics, and computer engineers; computerarchitects and scientists; hardware systems designers; and upper-level undergraduate andgraduate students in computer science and electrical engineering courses.

This book is concerned with the ways in which organizations design, build and use information technology systems. In particular it looks at the interaction between these IT-centred activities and the broader management processes within organizations. The authors adopt a critical social science perspective on these issues, and are primarily concerned with advancing theoretical debates on how best to understand the related processes of technological and organizational change. To this end, the book examines and deploys recent work on power/knowledge, actor-network theory and critical organization theory. The result is an account of the nature and significance of information systems in organizations which is an alternative perspective to pragmatic and recipe-based approaches to this topic which dominate much contemporary management literature on IT. This book is intended for academic: Management and social science academics and postgraduate students of IT strategy and organization. Practitioner: Senior managers concerned with IT and strategy issues.

Parallel Computing: Methods, Algorithms and Applications presents a collection of original papers presented at the international meeting on parallel processing, methods, algorithms, and applications at Verona, Italy in September 1989.

This book describes the benefits and drawbacks inherent in the use of virtual platforms (VPs) to perform fast and early soft error assessment of multicore systems. The authors show that VPs provide engineers with appropriate means to investigate new and more efficient fault injection and mitigation techniques. Coverage also includes the use of machine learning techniques (e.g., linear regression) to speed-up the soft error evaluation process by pinpointing parameters (e.g., architectural) with the most substantial impact on the software stack dependability. This book provides valuable information and insight through more than 3 million individual scenarios and 2 million simulation-hours. Further, this book explores machine learning techniques usage to navigate large fault injection datasets.

Current computer graphics hardware and software make it possible to synthesize near photo-realistic images, but the simulation of natural-looking motion of articulated figures remains a difficultand challenging task. Skillfully rendered animation of humans, animals, and robots can delight and move us, but simulating their realistic motion holds great promise for many other applications as well, including ergonomic engineering design, clinical diagnosis of pathological movements, rehabilitation therapy, and biomechanics.Making Them Move presents the work of leading researchers in computer graphics, psychology, robotics and mechanical engineering who were invited to attend the Workshop on the Mechanics, Control and Animation of ArticulatedFigures held at the MIT Media Lab in April 1989. The book explores biological and robotic motor control, as well as state-of-the-art computergraphics techniques for simulating human and animal figures in a natural and physically realistic manner.

Companies are spending billions on machine learning projects, but it's money wasted if the models can't be deployed effectively. In this practical guide, Hannes Hapke and Catherine Nelson walk you through the steps of automating a machine learning pipeline using the TensorFlow ecosystem. You'll learn the techniques and tools that will cut deployment time from days to minutes, so that you can focus on developing new models rather than maintaining legacy systems. Data scientists, machine learning engineers, and DevOps engineers will discover how to go beyond model development to successfully productize their data science projects, while managers will better understand the role they play in helping to accelerate these projects. Understand the steps to build a machine learning pipeline Build your pipeline using components from TensorFlow Extended Orchestrate your machine learning pipeline with Apache Beam, Apache Airflow, and Kubeflow Pipelines Work with data using TensorFlow Data Validation and TensorFlow Transform Analyze a model in detail using TensorFlow Model Analysis Examine fairness and bias in your model performance Deploy models with TensorFlow Serving or TensorFlow Lite for mobile devices Learn privacy-preserving machine learning techniques

This book describes the design and implementation of energy-efficient smart (digital output) temperature sensors in CMOS technology. To accomplish this, a new readout topology, namely the zoom-ADC, is presented. It combines a coarse SAR-ADC with a fine Sigma-Delta (SD) ADC. The digital result obtained from the coarse ADC is used to set the reference levels of the SD-ADC, thereby zooming its full-scale range into a small region around the input signal. This technique considerably reduces the SD-ADC's full-scale range, and notably relaxes the number of clock cycles needed for a given resolution, as well as the DC-gain and swing of the loop-filter. Both conversion time and power-efficiency can be improved, which results in a substantial improvement in energy-efficiency. Two BJT-based sensor prototypes based on 1st-order and 2nd-order zoom-ADCs are presented. They both achieve inaccuracies of less than +/-0.2 DegreesC over the military temperature range (-55 DegreesC to 125 DegreesC). A prototype capable of sensing temperatures up to 200 DegreesC is also presented. As an alternative to BJTs, sensors based on dynamic threshold MOSTs (DTMOSTs) are also presented. It is shown that DTMOSTs are capable of achieving low inaccuracy (+/-0.4 DegreesC over the military temperature range) as well as sub-1V operation, making them well suited for use in modern CMOS processes.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to embedded flash memory, describing the history, current status, and future projections for technology, circuits, and systems applications. The authors describe current main-stream embedded flash technologies from floating-gate 1Tr, floating-gate with split-gate (1.5Tr), and 1Tr/1.5Tr SONOS flash technologies and their successful creation of various applications. Comparisons of these embedded flash technologies and future projections are also provided. The authors demonstrate a variety of embedded applications for auto-motive, smart-IC cards, and low-power, representing the leading-edge technology developments for eFlash. The discussion also includes insights into future prospects of application-driven non-volatile memory technology in the era of smart advanced automotive system, such as ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) and IoE (Internet of Everything). Trials on technology convergence and future prospects of embedded non-volatile memory in the new memory hierarchy are also described. Introduces the history of embedded flash memory technology for micro-controller products and how embedded flash innovations developed; Includes comprehensive and detailed descriptions of current main-stream embedded flash memory technologies, sub-system designs and applications; Explains why embedded flash memory requirements are different from those of stand-alone flash memory and how to achieve specific goals with technology development and circuit designs; Describes a mature and stable floating-gate 1Tr cell technology imported from stand-alone flash memory products - that then introduces embedded-specific split-gate memory cell technologies based on floating-gate storage structure and charge-trapping SONOS technology and their eFlash sub-system designs; Describes automotive and smart-IC card applications requirements and achievements in advanced eFlash beyond 4 0nm node.

Reconfigurable computing techniques and adaptive systems are some of the most promising architectures for microprocessors. Reconfigurable and Adaptive Computing: Theory and Applications explores the latest research activities on hardware architecture for reconfigurable and adaptive computing systems. The first section of the book covers reconfigurable systems. The book presents a software and hardware codesign flow for coarse-grained systems-on-chip, a video watermarking algorithm for the H.264 standard, a solution for regular expressions matching systems, and a novel field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based acceleration solution with MapReduce framework on multiple hardware accelerators. The second section discusses network-on-chip, including an implementation of a multiprocessor system-on-chip platform with shared memory access, end-to-end quality-of-service metrics modeling based on a multi-application environment in network-on-chip, and a 3D ant colony routing (3D-ACR) for network-on-chip with three different 3D topologies. The final section addresses the methodology of system codesign. The book introduces a new software-hardware codesign flow for embedded systems that models both processors and intellectual property cores as services. It also proposes an efficient algorithm for dependent task software-hardware codesign with the greedy partitioning and insert scheduling method (GPISM) by task graph.

Written with graduate and advanced undergraduate students in mind, this textbook introduces computational logic from the foundations of first-order logic to state-of-the-art decision procedures for arithmetic, data structures, and combination theories. The textbook also presents a logical approach to engineering correct software. Verification exercises are given to develop the reader's facility in specifying and verifying software using logic. The treatment of verification concludes with an introduction to the static analysis of software, an important component of modern verification systems. The final chapter outlines courses of further study.

This proceedings volume contains selected papers presented at the 2014 International Conference on Frontiers in Computer Education (ICFCE 2014), which was held December 24-25, 2014, in Wuhan, China. The objective of this conference was to provide a forum for different researchers in different fields, especially Computer Education as well as Information Technology, to exchange their various findings. The papers have been grouped under the following overarching themes: Computer Science, Computer Education, Education and Teaching Reform, and Communication and Intelligent Control.