Supercomputer and mainframe computers are the most powerful computers. But they can be distinguished by the tasks they perform. On the one hand where supercomputer focuses on a fast computation of complex mathematical operations. On the other hands, the mainframe computer acts as a server and support large database, vast I/O devices, and multiprogramming. Let us discuss some more differences between supercomputer and mainframe computer with the help of comparison chart shown below. Content: … [Read more...]

The memory of a computer is classified in the two categories primary and secondary memory. Primary memory is the main memory of the computer where the currently processing data resides. The secondary memory of the computer is auxiliary memory where the data that has to be stored for a long time or permanently, is kept. The basic difference between primary and secondary memory is that the primary memory is directly accessible by CPU whereas, the secondary memory is not directly accessible to … [Read more...]

Multiprocessor is one which has more than two processors in the system. We have two categories of multiprocessing systems, that are loosely coupled and tightly coupled multiprocessor system. The degree of coupling between the processor is low in loosely coupled system whereas, the degree of coupling between processors in the tightly coupled system is high. The basic difference between the loosely coupled and tightly coupled multiprocessing system is that loosely coupled system has distributed … [Read more...]

Magnetic tape and magnetic disk both stores the data magnetically. The surface of a magnetic tape and the surface of a magnetic disk are covered with a magnetic material which helps in storing the information magnetically. Both are non-volatile storage. Despite these similarities both differs in many aspects from their appearance to their working, their cost and much more. The basic difference between magnetic tape and magnetic disk is that magnetic tape is used for backups whereas, magnetic … [Read more...]

Multiprocessing and Multithreading both adds performance to the system. Multiprocessing is adding more number of or CPUs/processors to the system which increases the computing speed of the system. Multithreading is allowing a process to create more threads which increase the responsiveness of the system. I have figured some more differences between multiprocessing and multithreading which I have discussed with the help of comparison chart shown below. Content: Multiprocessing Vs … [Read more...]

Paging and Swapping are two memory management strategies. For execution, each process is required to be placed in main memory. Swapping and Paging both places the process in main memory for execution. Swapping could be added to any CPU scheduling algorithm where processes are swapped from main memory to back store and swapped backed to main memory. Paging allows the physical address space of a process to be noncontiguous. Let us discuss the differences between paging and swapping with the … [Read more...]

Deadlock and Starvation both are the conditions where the processes requesting for a resource has been delayed for a long. Although deadlock and starvation both are different from each other in many aspects. Deadlock is a condition where no process proceeds for execution, and each waits for resources that have been acquired by the other processes. On the other hands, in Starvation, process with high priorities continuously uses the resources preventing low priority process to acquire the … [Read more...]

Memory is a hardware device that is used to store the information either temporary or permanently. In this article, I have discussed the differences between virtual and cache memory. A Cache memory is a high-speed memory which is used to reduce the access time for data. On the other hands, Virtual memory is not exactly a physical memory it is a technique which extends the capacity of the main memory beyond its limit. The major difference between virtual memory and the cache memory is that a … [Read more...]

Semaphore and Monitor both allow processes to access the shared resources in mutual exclusion. Both are the process synchronization tool. Instead, they are very different from each other. Where Semaphore is an integer variable which can be operated only by wait() and signal() operation apart from the initialization. On the other hand, the Monitor type is an abstract data type whose construct allow one process to get activate at one time. In this article, we will discuss the differences … [Read more...]

In this article, we will discuss the differences between Multitasking and Multithreading. People generally get confused between these terms. On one hand, Multitasking is a logical extension to multiprogramming, and on the other hand, Multithreading is thread-based multitasking. The basic difference between Multitasking and multithreading is that Multitasking allows  CPU to perform multiple tasks (program, process, task, threads) simultaneously whereas, Multithreading allows multiple threads … [Read more...]