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An Introduction To 64-bit Computing - Assured Systems

Explaining 64-bit Computing
You may have heard people talking about 64-bit computing, be it in relation to processors, operating systems or applications. If you've searched online for information about 64-bit computing you may have seen terms such as x64, x86, memory addressing and more.

So what is 64-bit? In the simplest terms, it's the latest evolution in computer hardware and software technology.  It enables more intensive processing to be carried out faster and more efficiently.

A Brief History of Evolution
We're not talking about Darwinism here! Computing has changed so much since the beginnings, that the forefathers such as Charles Babbage and Alan Turing would most likely not recognise it today. Here is a brief history of some important events over the last two centuries - yes, two centuries!

Date	Event
1631	The first recorded use of the word computer, derived from the Latin words computus and computare, meaning 'to compute'. In the 17th century it meant 'one who carries out mathematical calculations'.
1820's	Charles Babbage, the 19th century mathematician, reasons that a mechanical device can carry out mathematical calculations more accurately, reliably and faster than a human. He begins work on what he called a 'difference engine'. Unknowingly, he is about to provide the foundations for what we all now consider to be computing.
1830's	Charles Babbage begins work on the designs for his 'analytical engine' - a more sophisticated computer which used punched cards to enable programming and calculations. Unfortunately, the machine was never built.
1911	The Computing Tabulating Recording Company is founded through a merger of three companies. The company would later change its name to IBM.
1936	Alan Turing, the British mathematician famous for designing the bombe machine which broke the German Enigma codes during World War Two, published a paper addressing the ‘Entscheidungsproblem’ by reasoning about a simple (but theoretical) computer, which is today known as a Turing Machine.
1939	HP (Hewlett-Packard) was established with a princely initial investment of approximately $500.
1946	The world’s first general-purpose electronic computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was unveiled. It was capable of 50,000 calculations per second and weighed around 30 tonnes. It was used to run computations for the hydrogen bomb and to calculate ballistic trajectories.
1949	In an article, Popular Mechanics magazine stated that “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons”
1957	The first Dot Matrix Printer was marketed by IBM
1965	Moore’s Law is first published, stating that the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. This oft-misquoted and misunderstood prediction has been accurate for nearly half a century.
1971	Intel unveiled the first commercially available 4-bit CPU, the 4004, which had a clock speed of 740 kHz. Used in conjunction with the 4002 support chip, it could address up to 40 bytes of RAM.
1972	Intel unveiled the first commercially available 8-bit CPU, the 8008. It had a maximum clock speed of 0.8 MHz and could address up to 16KB of RAM.
1975	The world’s largest software company, Microsoft, is founded.
1977	Ken Olsen, the founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, was quoted as saying “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” He was actually referring to having a computer to run the home, with automated doors, voice-activated taps, etc.
1978	Intel unveiled the 16-bit 8086 CPU. It had a maximum clock speed of 10 MHz and could address up to 1Mb of RMA. It was the first x86 microprocessor and would set the standard for computing for decades to come - the x86 architecture is still in use today.
1980	AT&T Bell Labs introduce the world’s first fully 32-bit CPU, the Bellmac-32A.
1981	The IBM PC has a usable RAM limit of 640KB. Bill Gates is quoted as saying “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” He never actually said this!
1991	MIPS Technologies produces the first 64-bit CPU. It would be another 12 years before a 64-bit CPU architecture which is backwards compatible with the 32-bit x86 architecture is released.
1992	OS/2 2.0 became the first commercially available 32-bit operating system, following the breakdown of the IBM/Microsoft collaboration in 1990.
2000	AMD release the full specification of their x86_64 architecture, which has now become the standard for 64-bit computing and is more commonly known as x64.
2003	The first CPU to support the x64 architecture is released – AMD’s Opteron. Theoretically, 64-bit CPUs can address up to 16 exabytes of RAM – that’s one billion gigabytes!
2005	Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is the first Windows version to support x64. Due to a general lack of third-part support however, it meets with limited success.
2009	Windows 7 is released, which fully supports x64 computing.
2010	46% of all PCs running Windows 7 have the 64-bit edition installed.

Bits?
Everything to do with computing all boils down to what are called bits. The term bit is a contraction of 'binary digit'. A binary digit can either be a 1 or a 0, but never both. You can consider bits to be logical values, such as Yes/No or True/False or as an activation state such as On/Off. The more bits a system can support and use, the more powerful and the faster it is.

RAM Limit Comparison
The main difference between the various 'bits' of computing you will notice, is the amount of RAM which can be addressed (or utilised) by the hardware and software. The limits given below are theoretical limits, and can be exceeded with compatible hardware, firmware and software - the exception to this is 64-bit, where the theoretical limit has not yet been reached due to lack of hardware support.

Bits	Theoretical Addressable Memory (bytes)
8	256	256b
16	65,536	64KB
32	4,294,967,296	4GB
64	18446744073709600000	16EB

The more RAM a system has, the more processes can be stored in memory which is quick to access, making the computer faster and more responsive. In combination with a 64-bit CPU and operating system, a computer can access and utilise huge files extremely quickly as more data can be addressed directly.

With modern Windows operating systems (Windows 7, 8, Server 2008 R2 & Server 2012), Microsoft recommend using at least a 2Ghz x64 processor with 2GB RAM. Add to that the overhead of additional programs (2GB of RAM is recommended for Microsoft Office 2013 for example) and when you consider that to run at its best the OS would be using most of that 2GB RAM, it's easy to see why 4GB+ RAM is recommended on most systems.



Hang on, what's an EB?!
You will be familiar with bytes (b), Kilobytes (KB), Megabytes (MB) and Gigabytes (GB), but many of you may have never seen the term Exabyte (EB) before. So what exactly is an Exabyte?

An Exabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes or 1 billion gigabytes.

A 64-bit operating system can (theoretically) see up to 16,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes or 16 billion gigabytes.

To put that in perspective, if you were to put all of that data onto CDs they would stretch out more than halfway around the earth. The global data volume (that is, all the data in the world) was estimated to by just over 15EB in 1993, although today it is much more.

Software compatibility
Most software is currently only available in 32-bit versions. This is larger due to previous lack of demand for 64-bit versions, lack of system compatibility and a lack of skills in developing 64-bit applications. As 64-bit operating systems and hardware matures, this is changing though. More and more applications, such as Adobe Photoshop and Internet Explorer, are available in 64-bit versions.

Such applications can handle a large amount of information at any one time, and the difference is noticeable. From our experience, Adobe Photoshop 64-bit is considerably faster than its 32-bit counterpart.

Fortunately with modern operating systems, such as Windows 7, software compatibility isn't an issue most of the time. Most new OSes have built in compatibility which allows 32-bit programs to run on a 64-bit OS.

Windows on Windows (WoW) is on such example of built in compatibility. It is essentially a virtual copy of 32-bit Windows which runs in the background (and completely transparently) and allows 32-bit programs to be installed and run on Windows 7. As an end user, you don't see anything different from normal - the programs just work as expected.

There are always exceptions of course, and it is worth checking with your software vendor to ensure that your OS is supported.

Driver compatibility
As you will know, hardware such as printers, sound cards, webcams etc. requires drivers. Usually the type of driver isn't a concern as you can simply install the hardware and the operating system installs the driver automatically (in the case of Windows 7 and Mac OSX) However with 64-bit systems, driver availability needs to be carefully considered. 

64-bit operating systems will only run 64-bit drivers. They will not accept 32-bit drivers and trying to install them will result in failure. Therefore it is extremely important to check with your hardware manufacturer to ensure that 64-bit drivers are available. For most peripherals over the last few years, this should not be a problem.

An additional consideration is if the drivers which are available are compatible with your chosen operating system. Many drivers which are available for Windows 7 with also work on Windows Embedded Standard 7, as they are an almost identical product. This isn't always the case however, so it is important to test the hardware thoroughly and if in doubt, contact the manufacturer. 

But what does this all mean for me?
It means that applications which process large amounts of data can do so more quickly and efficiently, with fewer errors. In short, it generally means faster, more efficient computing.

Because 64-bit computing can see, use and store more RAM, less time is spent using the hard drive as more operations can be carried out from RAM. As RAM is considerably faster than traditional spinning disks, more operations per second can be carried out. You could call it extreme multi-tasking!

64-bit computing is starting to mature, largely driven by the success of Windows 7 64-bit, and a greater understanding of this technology is prompting hardware and software developers to ensure their products are compatible with the latest OSes.

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An Introduction to Linux - Assured Systems

An Introduction To Linux
Almost everyone who is familiar with computers will have used a version of Microsoft Windows at some point. It seems to be everywhere - at work and home, in libraries, colleges, universities and almost anywhere else you can think of. The problem with the ubiquity of Windows is that many people don’t realise that they have a choice of operating system when deciding to purchase a new computer.

Over the last decade or so, there has been an increasing amount of attention paid to something called Linux. However, a large majority of people do not know or understand what exactly Linux is. Here at Assured Systems we are seeing an increase in the number of systems requested with Linux installed. This blog post will help you become familiar with Linux, as a free alternative to the Windows operating system.

So, What is Linux?
In its simplest form, Linux is a free (as in beer and speech) operating system, designed to work on most modern computers. Basically, if your computer can run Windows, it should run Linux with ease – sometimes even better than it does with Windows. Like Windows, it has a graphical user interface (GUI) which you can navigate using your mouse and keyboard. Different versions of Linux (called distributions) come with different GUIs installed. Here, we will focus on one of the most popular Linux distributions (and the one we recommend for use with our systems) – Ubuntu.

Free, as in Beer and Speech?
Generally speaking, Linux is free (though there are some distributions which you must purchase to use.) Both free to own and free to do with as you wish. This means, that you can achieve an incredibly high level of customisation for your system, only including the components you require. You can change the GUI to any one of many different choices available to you, including Unity, KDE and Gnome, or even your own GUI if you have the resources to develop one!

The Ubuntu operating system is available for free as the company who are responsible for it (Canonical) provide services for which there is a charge. These included business support, hardware certification, installation services and merchandising. Together these services pay for the time, effort and resources required to continually develop a world class operating system.

Bundled Applications
One of the reasons for the popularity of Ubuntu is the number of high quality applications which ship with the OS. Productivity applications such as LibreOffice, web browsers such as Firefox and Chrome, social and email apps such as Skype and Thunderbird, media applications such as Rhythmbox and Banshee, and many more are all available in Ubuntu. More applications (both free and paid-for) can be downloaded from the Ubuntu Software Centre.

There is a high level of compatibility with files you will be familiar with, such as Microsoft Office documents, photos, music and videos. Ubuntu also provides compatibility with files formats out of the box which Windows does not support without extra software!

Unity
Unity is the latest GUI for Ubuntu. It provides a desktop environment similar to Windows, with a ‘launcher’ where you can create shortcuts to your most used applications, a search box to find documents and applications, and a menu to access your applications (similar to the Windows start menu)

The Unity Desktop Environment

The Launcher
To the left hand side of the desktop is the Unity Launcher. It’s similar to the Windows taskbar in that you can pin applications and folders to it, to provide quick access to your most frequently used items. At the top of the launcher is the Ubuntu button. Clicking this gives brings up the Ubuntu ‘lens’, which provides you with a similar experience to the Windows start button.

The Ubuntu ‘Lens’
From the lens you can find documents, photos, music, videos and applications (both installed and available to install).

The Ubuntu 'Lens'

The Global Menu
Ubuntu has a menu bar across the top of the screen called the ‘global menu’. Similar in functionality to the Apple Mac OSX menu, the Ubuntu global menu provides access to your applications traditional menu options, such as file, edit, tools, etc., as well as the maximise, minimise and restore buttons. The options on the global menu change according to the application you are currently using.

Settings
Many of the system settings in Ubuntu can be changed, much like any operating system. The appearance can be changed to suit your requirements, along with the input methods, network settings, power options and more.

The Ubuntu System Settings Panel

The Terminal
Ubuntu comes complete with a terminal application, which allows Windows command line style access to the operating system. Unlike the Windows command line, the Ubuntu terminal is incredibly powerful. As well as the standard options for creating folders and files, moving things around and changing simple settings, the Ubuntu terminal provides powerful options for changing lower level system settings.

The Ubuntu Terminal

The Community
Ubuntu has an excellent community of developers, engineers and users who all contribute to each version of the operating system. Community forums are a great way of finding out more about Ubuntu, requesting technical support to resolve issues and providing help to new users who are unfamiliar with Ubuntu. The chances are that any question you have about Ubuntu will have either been previously asked and answered on a forum somewhere, or someone will be able to answer very quickly.

Quick Comparison
We have produced a chart of some of the most common features of Windows and Linux, to help you to easily compare the basic features of the operating systems.


Conclusion
Every computer needs an operating system, this is a prerequisite.  However, what is now clear is that users have a choice other than Windows, and good choices at that.  For commercial applications, sometimes the cost of a licence from Mr Gates can make up 50% of the cost of the actual system – this means the cost to the end user can be over-inflated before the system even leaves the R&D team.  Whilst we still use Windows on the majority of our systems, we are seeing an increase in people requesting Linux for all kinds of applications.  Some argue it’s more stable; some that it’s faster; some prefer the customisation possibilities; but everyone likes the fact it’s free.  If you’d like to consider it on your application then give me a call and we can look to get some test hardware together.

Cheers,

Alan Shenton
Systems Engineer (and chief Linux aficionado)
+44 (0) 1785 879050  


About Assured Systems
Assured Systems is a leading technology company offering high quality and innovative applied computing solutions to the embedded, industrial, and digital-out-of-home markets across the world.  Headquartered in Stone, England and with offices in North America, our reach is truly global. Our impressive product portfolio includes a full range of Fanless Embedded Computer Systems, Digital Signage & Multimedia Computer Systems, Touchscreen Panel PCs, Human Machine Interfaces, Vehicle Mount Computers, Rackmount Computer Systems, Single Board Computers, Rugged Laptops & Tablets.  Please call the numbers listed above or visit our website at www.assured-systems.com for more information.

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Assured Systems: Global Reach, Local Service

Over the past two decades, the internet has changed the world beyond recognition: the way we communicate, the way we work, shop, information gather, meet new people and reconnect with old.  The world at your fingertips maybe a cliché, but it's so very true – people want to find what they’re looking for in a few clicks and move on to the next thing, and with the minimum of fuss.  These changes mean that unless you make your online presence felt, it’s unlikely your business will reach its true potential.  We put an inordinate amount of effort in to our online ‘shop window’ – and this is how we’re judged by the outside world, like it or not.  How clean our facility is, our focus on quality, the knowledge of our team isn’t questioned until folks have had a good delve around our website and made that decision to reach out to us.   Our website has over a thousand detailed pages about our company, products, datasheets, news and industry insight; this content, relevant to our target audience, means we’re easily found all over the world, and we have many visitors from lots of interesting places every day.   Like everybody, we have a lot to thank the internet for as it has enabled Assured Systems to be a truly global player; we source our products from the Far East, US and Europe and we have clients in each of the 4 corners of the globe, too.

To name a few of the top international projects over the past quarter, we have a contract to supply IP65 displays to hydroelectric plants in South America; we’re working with a number of top 50 Fortune 500 companies in the United States supplying both single board computers and display technology; we build embedded computers for automated fruit packing systems in Spain; and we specified and supplied Class 1/Division 2 systems for an oil and gas project in Cairo.  At present, our European clients are supported from our company headquarters in Stone, England.  Due to extremely low shipping rates, we can send systems around Europe for almost the same cost as a domestic order.  For customers based in the Americas, we have recently established a satellite facility in South Carolina, USA, where systems are configured, tested and shipped, underlining our commitment to unrivaled service regardless of location.  If you have a project where you’d like us to assist, wherever you may be in the world, then we’d love to hear from you.  Our worldwide contact details can be found below.

• EMEA Customers can call us on +44 (0) 1785 87 90 50 or email sales@assured-systems.co.uk   

• North & South American Customers can reach us on +1 864 421 6991 or email sales@assured-systems.com 

• Asia Pacific Customers should route their enquiries through our UK office 

About Assured Systems
Assured Systems is a leading technology company offering high quality and innovative applied computing solutions to the embedded, industrial, and digital-out-of-home markets across the world.  Headquartered in Stone, England and with offices in North America, our reach is truly global. Our impressive product portfolio includes a full range of Fanless Embedded Computer Systems, Digital Signage & Multimedia Computer Systems, Touchscreen Panel PCs, Human Machine Interfaces, Vehicle Mount Computers, Rackmount Computer Systems, Single Board Computers, Rugged Laptops & Tablets.  Please call the numbers listed above or visit our website at www.assured-systems.com for more information.

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Life Through The Lens - Social Media & Assured Systems

Assured's LinkedIn Profile

Arty Photos via Instagram

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Windows 8 - First Impressions from Assured Systems

Windows 8 will be the latest in a long line of operating systems (OS) from market leader Microsoft.  The OS is designed for use on computers of all types including desktops, laptops, home theatre computers, multimedia devices, and more.  It is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and succeeds the successful Windows 7 system.  Windows 8 will be available in four major editions: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 Enterprise, and Windows RT. The first three have almost the same hardware requirements as that of Windows 7. The latter, however, runs on tablet computers with ARM architecture and has different hardware requirements such as mobile or embedded devices.

Windows 8 is built using the Modern UI, previously Metro, typography-based design language created originally for use in Windows phones.  One of the key fundamental design features is a better focus on the content of applications rather than the graphical user interface (UI).  Microsoft’s design team report influences such as public transport signs for the UI, placing emphasis on good typography and large text which catches the eye; the result is a modern, clean and fast way of selecting where you wish to go on your device.  Flat coloured ‘live tiles’ are used which include stylised text and logos, making navigation very simple.  Each tile represents an application and can display information about that application, such as the date, time, unread messages, temperature, etc.

The start button is now featured alongside the tiles, known as ‘Charm bar’ which is the universal toolbar of Windows 8, and which you can access from anywhere no matter which application you are working in. There are two ways to enter the Charm Bar; firstly, by dragging your mouse pointer to the top or bottom right corner of the screen, or alternatively you can press the Windows+C button on your computer to invoke the bar.  We like the interface and think it offers a refreshing change to the traditional icon based systems of the past.  Clearly, Apple’s iPhone/iPad lead the way in such an intuitive interface, and perhaps it could be said Microsoft’s design team have made it more modern and interesting; however, only time will tell if the layout becomes irksome as the amount of applications on your devices increase.

Windows 8 'Modern UI' - note the 'Charm Bar' down the right hand side

Windows 8 Mail App

Windows 8 System Setting Screen

Windows 8 Desktop - note the start button is now missing

Hardware requirements of Windows 8 are similar to Windows 7, which is good news for industrial and embedded users whose systems typically sit further down the chain than those of consumer grade computers. To run a single Modern UI ‘App’ you’ll need a display with at least 1024x768 resolution, or to run two simultaneous ‘Apps’ side by side a resolution of 1366x768 or higher.  Minimum processor hardware specs are as follows:

Architecture	32-bit	64-bit
CPU	1GHz	1GHz
RAM	1GB	2GB
Graphics	DirectX 9 with WDDM 1.0 or higher	DirectX 9 with WDDM 1.0 or higher
Storage	20GB	20GB

Microsoft has also released information on tablets or mobile computers, defined as standalone devices which combine a PC and display, alongside integrated pointing device.  This is poignant in our industry, as this OS will be installed on our rugged tablets, panel computers and touchscreen systems.  The touchscreen must be a minimum of 5-point touch and have a resolution of 1366x768 or higher.  Interestingly, to receive Microsoft’s certification, the device must also resume from standby in 2 second or less.

We’ve run some basic benchmarking tests on the same machine running both Windows 7 and Windows 8, and we’re impressed with how the new OS stacks up against its predecessor.  Boot up times were faster, applications loaded quicker, and general responsiveness of the Windows 8 machine was impressive.  Below you can see our benchmarking figures which were run on one of our NDiS 125-L multimedia computers using 32-bit versions of both OSs with the following spec:

NDiS 125-L Fanless Multimedia Computer
Intel Atom D525 1.8GHz Dual Core CPU
Nvidia ION2 GPU
2GB DDR3 Memory
60GB SATAIII Solid State Drive

Benchmarking tests for Windows 7 v Windows 8 on an embedded computer

Windows 8 will go on general release on October 26th 2012.  For those wishing to upgrade, the path will be straight forward for Windows 7 users as all user settings, personal files and apps will remain in tact during the process.  Windows Vista users will find user settings and personal files ported, and Windows XP users will find personal files remain in tact.  The upgrade cost will be around £30 to £50 depending on what you’re upgrading from and to.  There is also a special offer for those with new computers pre-installed with Windows 7 Pro purchased between June 2nd 2012 and January 31st 2013, which will cost around £10 (Windows 7 Starter and Enterprise are not included).

If you would like to discuss your project or application in more detail please contact technical sales on 01785 87 90 50 or email us at sales@assured-systems.co.uk.  For more information on Assured Systems please visit our website at www.assured-systems.co.uk.

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