SyncML

SyncML

SyncML (Synchronization Markup Language) is the former name (currently referred to as: Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronization and Device Management) for a platform-independent information synchronization standard. Existing synchronization solutions have mostly been somewhat vendor-, application- or operating system specific. The purpose of SyncML is to change this by offering an open standard as a replacement. Several major companies such as Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, IBM and Siemens AG already support SyncML in their products, although LG do not support it in all their phone models, preferring to use their own proprietary syncing protocols such as LG Sync SPP. Philippe Kahn was instrumental in the founding vision for synchronization with Starfish Software, later acquired by Motorola. The founding vision as expressed by Kahn was: "Global synchronization and integration of wireless and wireline devices".

SyncML is most commonly thought of as a method to synchronize contact and calendar information (personal information manager) between some type of handheld device and a computer (personal, or network-based service), such as between a mobile phone and a personal computer. The new version of the specification includes support for push email, providing a standard protocol alternative to proprietary solutions like BlackBerry.

Some products are now using SyncML for more general information synchronization purposes, such as to synchronize project task information across a distributed group of team members. SyncML can also be used as a base for backup solutions.

Problem areas

* A fairly intricate and vague protocol specification has meant that in general there are major interworking problems with different servers against different clients.
* In addition to the server address, user name and password, SyncML requires a database name to be specified for opening a connection. This database name is not standardized, and different servers use different names for the same service. E.g. one server might use card while another ./contacts for the contact database.
* Only the over-the-air (OTA) interface has any degree of standardization (e.g. OMA CP 1.1, OTA 7.0) whereas synchronization over a local interface is not standardized, and requires specific solution for any device, if available at all.

smart card

smart card

A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC), is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process data. This implies that it can receive input which is processed — by way of the ICC applications — and delivered as an output. There are two broad categories of ICCs. Memory cards contain only non-volatile memory storage components, and perhaps some specific security logic. Microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally PVC, but sometimes ABS. The card may embed a hologram to avoid counterfeiting. Using smartcards is also a form of strong security authentication for single sign-on within large companies and organizations.

A Smart Card is a plastic card the size of a credit card with an integrated circuit built into it. This integrated circuit may consist only of EEPROM in the case of a memory card, or it may also contain ROM, RAM and even a CPU.

Most smart cards have been designed with the look and feel of a credit or debit card, but can function on at least three levels (credit - debit - personal information). Smart cards include a microchip as the central processing unit, random access memory (RAM) and data storage of around 10MB.

A smart card is a mini-computer without the display screen and keyboard. Smart cards contain a microchip with an integrated circuit capable of processing and storing thousands of bytes of electronic data. Due to the portability and size of smart cards they are seen as the next generation of data exchange.

Smart cards contain an operating system just like personal computers. Smart cards can store and process information and are fully interactive. Advanced smart cards also contain a file structure with secret keys and encryption algorithms. Due to the encrypted file system, data can be stored in separated files with full security.

Organizations are steadily migrating toward this technology. The days are numbered for a single mainframe used for computing every directive. Today, the delegation of tasks is being transferred to small, but dedicated smart cards. Their usefulness may soon exceed that of the standard computer for a variety of applications due, in part, to their portability and ease of use.

The smart card is an electronic recording device. Information in the microchip can instantaneously verify the cardholder's identity and any privileges to which the cardholder may be entitled. Information such as withdrawals, sales, and bills can be processed immediately and if/when necessary; those records can be transmitted to a central computer for file updating.

Smart cards are secure, compact and intelligent data carriers. Smart cards should be regarded as specialized computers capable of processing, storing and safeguarding thousands of bytes of data. Smart cards have electrical contacts and a thin metallic plate just above center line on one side of the card. Beneath this dime-sized plate is an integrated circuit (IC) chip containing a central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM) and non-volatile data storage. Data stored in the smart card's microchip can be accessed only through the chip operating system (COS), providing a high level of data security. This security takes the form of passwords allowing a user to access parts of the IC chip's memory or encryption/decryption measures which translate the bytes stored in memory into useful information.

Smart cards typically hold 2,000 to 8,000 electronic bytes of data (the equivalent of several pages of data). Because those bytes can be electronically coded, the effective storage capacity of each card is significantly increased. Magnetic-stripe cards, such as those issued by banks and credit card companies, lack the security of microchips but remain inexpensive due to their status as a single-purpose card. Smart cards can be a carrier of multiple records for multiple purposes. Once those purposes are maximized, the smart card is often viewed as superior and, ultimately, less expensive. The distributed processing possible with smart cards reduces the need for ever-larger mainframe computers and the expense of local and long-distance phone circuits required to maintain an on-line connection to a central computer.

Overview

A "smart card" is also characterized as follows:

* Dimensions are normally credit card size. The ID-1 of ISO/IEC 7810 standard defines them as 85.60 × 53.98 mm. Another popular size is ID-000 which is 25 × 15 mm (commonly used in SIM cards). Both are 0.76 mm thick.
* Contains a security system with tamper-resistant properties (e.g. a secure cryptoprocessor, secure file system, human-readable features) and is capable of providing security services (e.g. confidentiality of information in the memory).
* Asset managed by way of a central administration system which interchanges information and configuration settings with the card through the security system. The latter includes card hotlisting, updates for application data.
* Card data is transferred to the central administration system through card reading devices, such as ticket readers, ATMs etc.

[edit] Benefits

Smart cards can be used for identification, authentication, and data storage.

Smart cards provide a means of effecting business transactions in a flexible, secure, standard way with minimal human intervention.

Smart card can provide strong authentication for single sign-on or enterprise single sign-on to computers, laptops, data with encryption, enterprise resource planning platforms such as SAP, etc.

History

The automated chip card was invented by German rocket scientist Helmut Gröttrup and his colleague Jürgen Dethloff in 1968; the patent was finally approved in 1982. The first mass use of the cards was for payment in French pay phones, starting in 1983 (Télécarte).

Roland Moreno actually patented his first concept of the memory card in 1974. In 1977, Michel Ugon from Honeywell Bull invented the first microprocessor smart card. In 1978, Bull patented the SPOM (Self Programmable One-chip Microcomputer) that defines the necessary architecture to auto-program the chip. Three years later, the very first "CP8" based on this patent was produced by Motorola. At that time, Bull had 1200 patents related to smart cards. In 2001, Bull sold its CP8 Division together with all its patents to Schlumberger. Subsequently, Schlumberger combined its smart card department and CP8 and created Axalto. In 2006, Axalto and Gemplus, at the time the world's no.2 and no.1 smart card manufacturers, merged and became Gemalto.

The second use was with the integration of microchips into all French debit cards (Carte Bleue) completed in 1992. When paying in France with a Carte Bleue, one inserts the card into the merchant's terminal, then types the PIN, before the transaction is accepted. Only very limited transactions (such as paying small autoroute tolls) are accepted without PIN.

Smart-card-based electronic purse systems (in which value is stored on the card chip, not in an externally recorded account, so that machines accepting the card need no network connectivity) were tried throughout Europe from the mid-1990s, most notably in Germany (Geldkarte), Austria (Quick), Belgium (Proton), France (Moneo), the Netherlands (Chipknip and Chipper), Switzerland ("Cash"), Norway ("Mondex"), Sweden ("Cash"), Finland ("Avant"), UK ("Mondex"), Denmark ("Danmønt") and Portugal ("Porta-moedas Multibanco").

The major boom in smart card use came in the 1990s, with the introduction of the smart-card-based SIM used in GSM mobile phone equipment in Europe. With the ubiquity of mobile phones in Europe, smart cards have become very common.

The international payment brands MasterCard, Visa, and Europay agreed in 1993 to work together to develop the specifications for the use of smart cards in payment cards used as either a debit or a credit card. The first version of the EMV system was released in 1994. In 1998 a stable release of the specifications was available. EMVco, the company responsible for the long-term maintenance of the system, upgraded the specification in 2000 and most recently in 2004. The goal of EMVco is to assure the various financial institutions and retailers that the specifications retain backward compatibility with the 1998 version.

With the exception of countries such as the United States of America there has been significant progress in the deployment of EMV-compliant point of sale equipment and the issuance of debit and or credit cards adhering the EMV specifications. Typically, a country's national payment association, in coordination with MasterCard International, Visa International, American Express and JCB, develop detailed implementation plans assuring a coordinated effort by the various stakeholders involved.

The backers of EMV claim it is a paradigm shift in the way one looks at payment systems. In countries where banks do not currently offer a single card capable of supporting multiple account types, there may be merit to this statement. Though some banks in these countries are considering issuing one card that will serve as both a debit card and as a credit card, the business justification for this is still quite elusive. Within EMV a concept called Application Selection defines how the consumer selects which means of payment to employ for that purchase at the point of sale.

For the banks interested in introducing smart cards the only quantifiable benefit is the ability to forecast a significant reduction in fraud, in particular counterfeit, lost and stolen. The current level of fraud a country is experiencing, coupled with whether that country's laws assign the risk of fraud to the consumer or the bank, determines if there is a business case for the financial institutions. Some critics claim that the savings are far less than the cost of implementing EMV, and thus many believe that the USA payments industry will opt to wait out the current EMV life cycle in order to implement new, contactless technology.

Smart cards with contactless interfaces are becoming increasingly popular for payment and ticketing applications such as mass transit. Visa and MasterCard have agreed to an easy-to-implement version currently being deployed (2004-2006) in the USA. Across the globe, contactless fare collection systems are being implemented to drive efficiencies in public transit. The various standards emerging are local in focus and are not compatible, though the MIFARE Standard card from Philips has a considerable market share in the US and Europe.

Smart cards are also being introduced in personal identification and entitlement schemes at regional, national, and international levels. Citizen cards, drivers’ licenses, and patient card schemes are becoming more prevalent; For example in Malaysia, the compulsory national ID scheme MyKad includes 8 different applications and is rolled out for 18 million users. Contactless smart cards are being integrated into ICAO biometric passports to enhance security for international travel.

Contact smart card

Contact smart cards have a contact area, comprising several gold-plated contact pads, that is about 1 cm square. When inserted into a reader, the chip makes contact with electrical connectors that can read information from the chip and write information back.
The ISO/IEC 7816 and ISO/IEC 7810 series of standards define:

* the physical shape
* the positions and shapes of the electrical connectors
* the electrical characteristics
* the communications protocols, that includes the format of the commands sent to the card and the responses returned by the card.
* robustness of the card
* the functionality

The cards do not contain batteries; energy is supplied by the card reader.

Smart Card Usage

The uses of smart cards are as versatile as any mini-computer. At a hospital emergency room, for example, the card could identify the person's health-insurance carrier and transfer all necessary information from the microchip to an admittance sheet. Tests, treatment, billing and prescriptions could be processed more quickly using the card. Major clinical findings could be added to the medical information section within the microchip.

In the U.S., smart cards are utilized in GSM mobile telephones, in DirecTV and EchoStar satellite receivers, and in the American Express Blue card.

Smart Card Operating Systems

Smart cards designed for specific applications may run proprietary operating systems. Smart cards designed with the capability to run multiple applications usually run MULTOS or Java Card.

ZigBee

ZigBee

ZigBee is a specification for a suite of high level communication protocols using small, low-power digital radios based on the IEEE 802.15.4-2003 standard for wireless personal area networks (WPANs), such as wireless headphones connecting with cell phones via short-range radio. The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other WPANs, such as Bluetooth. ZigBee is targeted at radio-frequency (RF) applications that require a low data rate, long battery life, and secure networking.

The ZigBee Alliance is a group of companies which maintain and publish the ZigBee standard.

Overview

ZigBee is a low-cost, low-power, wireless mesh networking proprietary standard. The low cost allows the technology to be widely deployed in wireless control and monitoring applications, the low power-usage allows longer life with smaller batteries, and the mesh networking provides high reliability and larger range.

The ZigBee Alliance, the standards body which defines ZigBee, also publishes application profiles that allow multiple OEM vendors to create interoperable products. The current list of application profiles either published or in the works are:

* Home Automation
* ZigBee Smart Energy
* Commercial Building Automation
* Telecommunication Applications
* Personal, Home, and Hospital Care

The relationship between IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee is similar to that between IEEE 802.11 and the Wi-Fi Alliance. The ZigBee 1.0 specification was ratified on 14 December 2004 and is available to members of the ZigBee Alliance. Most recently, the ZigBee 2007 specification was posted on 30 October 2007. The first ZigBee Application Profile, Home Automation, was announced 2 November 2007.

For non-commercial purposes, the ZigBee specification is available free to the general public. An entry level membership in the ZigBee Alliance, called Adopter, costs US$3500 annually and provides access to the as-yet unpublished specifications and permission to create products for market using the specifications.

ZigBee operates in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands; 868 MHz in Europe, 915 MHz in the USA and Australia, and 2.4 GHz in most jurisdictions worldwide. The technology is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other WPANs such as Bluetooth. ZigBee chip vendors typically sell integrated radios and microcontrollers with between 60K and 128K flash memory, such as the Freescale MC13213, the Ember EM250 and the Texas Instruments CC2430. Radios are also available stand-alone to be used with any processor or microcontroller. Generally, the chip vendors also offer the ZigBee software stack, although independent ones are also available.

"In the U.S., as of 2006, the retail price of a Zigbee-compliant transceiver is approaching $1, and the price for one radio, processor, and memory package is about $3." Comparatively, the price of consumer-grade Bluetooth chips is now under $3.. In other countries the prices are higher. For example in the UK, (March 2009) the one-off cost to a hobbyist for a barebones ZigBee surface-mount transceiver IC varies from £5 to £9, with pre-assembled modules around £10 more (excluding aerials).

Because Zigbee can activate (go from sleep to active mode) in 15 msec or less, the latency can be very low and devices can be very responsive — particularly compared to Bluetooth wake-up delays, which are typically around three seconds. Because Zigbees can sleep most of the time, average power consumption can be very low, resulting in long battery life.

The first stack release is now called Zigbee 2004. The second stack release is called Zigbee 2006, and mainly replaces the MSG/KVP structure used in 2004 with a "cluster library". The 2004 stack is now more or less obsolete.

Zigbee 2007, now the current stack release, contains two stack profiles, stack profile 1 (simply called ZigBee), for home and light commercial use, and stack profile 2 (called ZigBee Pro). ZigBee Pro offers more features, such as multi-casting, many-to-one routing and high security with Symmetric-Key Key Exchange (SKKE), while ZigBee (stack profile 1) offers a smaller footprint in RAM and flash. Both offer full mesh networking and work with all ZigBee application profiles.

ZigBee 2007 is fully backward compatible with ZigBee 2006 devices: A ZigBee 2007 device may join and operate on a ZigBee 2006 network and vice versa. Due to differences in routing options, ZigBee Pro devices must become non-routing ZigBee End-Devices (ZEDs) on a ZigBee 2006 or ZigBee 2007 network, the same as ZigBee 2006 or ZigBee 2007 devices must become ZEDs on a ZigBee Pro network. The applications running on those devices work the same, regardless of the stack profile beneath them.

Uses

ZigBee protocols are intended for use in embedded applications requiring low data rates and low power consumption. ZigBee's current focus is to define a general-purpose, inexpensive, self-organizing mesh network that can be used for industrial control, embedded sensing, medical data collection, smoke and intruder warning, building automation, home automation, etc. The resulting network will use very small amounts of power — individual devices must have a battery life of at least two years to pass ZigBee certification[8].

Typical application areas include

* Home Entertainment and Control — Smart lighting, advanced temperature control, safety and security, movies and music

* Home Awareness — Water sensors, power sensors, smoke and fire detectors, smart appliances and access sensors

* Mobile Services — m-payment, m-monitoring and control, m-security and access control, m-healthcare and tele-assist

* Commercial Building — Energy monitoring, HVAC, lighting, access control

* Industrial Plant — Process control, asset management, environmental management, energy management, industrial device control

Device types

There are three different types of ZigBee devices:

* ZigBee coordinator (ZC): The most capable device, the coordinator forms the root of the network tree and might bridge to other networks. There is exactly one ZigBee coordinator in each network since it is the device that started the network originally. It is able to store information about the network, including acting as the Trust Centre & repository for security keys.
* ZigBee Router (ZR): As well as running an application function, a router can act as an intermediate router, passing on data from other devices.
* ZigBee End Device (ZED): Contains just enough functionality to talk to the parent node (either the coordinator or a router); it cannot relay data from other devices. This relationship allows the node to be asleep a significant amount of the time thereby giving long battery life. A ZED requires the least amount of memory, and therefore can be less expensive to manufacture than a ZR or ZC.

Software and hardware

The software is designed to be easy to develop on small, inexpensive microprocessors. The radio design used by ZigBee has been carefully optimized for low cost in large scale production. It has few analog stages and uses digital circuits wherever possible.

Even though the radios themselves are inexpensive, the ZigBee Qualification Process involves a full validation of the requirements of the physical layer. This amount of concern about the Physical Layer has multiple benefits, since all radios derived from that semiconductor mask set would enjoy the same RF characteristics. On the other hand, an uncertified physical layer that malfunctions could cripple the battery lifespan of other devices on a ZigBee network. Where other protocols can mask poor sensitivity or other esoteric problems in a fade compensation response, ZigBee radios have very tight engineering constraints: they are both power and bandwidth constrained. Thus, radios are tested to the ISO 17025 standard with guidance given by Clause 6 of the 802.15.4-2006 Standard. Most vendors plan to integrate the radio and microcontroller onto a single chip.

ZigBee and ZigBee PRO technologies
All ZigBee technology devices implement a layered stack architecture. The ZigBee stack uses the IEEE 802.15.4 Physical (PHY) and Medium Access Control (MAC) Layers. In addition to the IEEE layers, the ZigBee Alliance has defined a set of standardized layers that sit on top of the IEEE layers and together these layers make up the ZigBee technology stack architecture.

The lower layers (including PHY/MAC, Network and Security layers) make up the ZigBee stack. On top of this there is an Application layer which will be specific to the particular "Profile" being implemented. The Profile contains the protocol that is specific to the application ZigBee is being used to implement.

Two types of ZigBee technology have been defined. These are ZigBee and ZigBee PRO. The differences between the types relate to network architecture and available security, however they have been design to allow a mixture of types within one network under certain network configurations. For further information relating to the two types of ZigBee technology click on the following link ZigBee & ZigBee PRO
Global Approvals

In addition to the regulatory Radio, Safety and EMC requirements that apply to ZigBee devices, the ZigBee Alliance has put in place a certification process that must be satisfied prior to using the ZigBee name or logo.

For further information on gaining market access to specific markets, just follow the relevant link:

* European
* North America
* South and Central America
* Africa
* Asia
* Australasia
* Middle East

The ZigBee Advantage

The ZigBee protocol was designed to carry data through the hostile RF environments that routinely exist in commercial and industrial applications.

ZigBee protocol features:

* Low duty cycle - Provides long battery life
* Low latency
* Support for multiple network topologies: Static, dynamic, star and mesh
* Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
* Up to 65,000 nodes on a network
* 128-bit AES encryption – Provides secure connections between devices
* Collision avoidance
* Link quality indication
* Clear channel assessment
* Retries and acknowledgements
* Support for guaranteed time slots and packet freshness

White lead

White lead

White lead is the chemical compound (PbCO3)2·Pb(OH)2. It was formerly used as an ingredient for lead paint and a cosmetic called Venetian Ceruse, because its opaque quality made it a good pigment. However, it tended to cause lead poisoning, and its use has been banned in most countries.

White lead has been the principal white of classical European oil painting. There have been claims that it is partly responsible for darkening of old paintings over time, reacting with trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide in the air to produce black lead sulfide. Other authorities dispute this; the most traditional view is that impermanent pigments and dirty varnish (which is often cleanable) are more likely responsible for darkening. In any event, white lead has been mostly supplanted in artistic use by titanium white, which is structurally weaker than white lead. White lead is less used by today's painters, not because of its toxicity directly; but simply because its toxicity in other contexts has led to trade restrictions that make lead white difficult for artists to obtain in sufficient quantities.

Historically, white lead was produced by the Dutch process. This involved casting metallic lead as thin buckles. These were corroded with acid in the presence of carbon dioxide. Next they were placed in pots with a little vinegar (containing acetic acid). These were stacked up and left for six to fourteen weeks, by which time the blue-grey lead had corroded to white lead. The pots were then taken to a separating table where scraping and pounding removed the white lead from the buckles. The powder was then dried and packed for shipment.

In the eighteenth century, white lead paints were routinely used to repaint the hulls and floors of Royal Navy vessels, to waterpoof the timbers and limit infestation by teredo navalis worms.

White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite

corDECT

corDECT



corDECT is a wireless local loop standard developed in India by IIT Madras and Midas Communications (www.midascomm.com) at Chennai, under leadership of Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, based on the DECT digital cordless phone standard.

Overview

The technology is a Fixed Wireless Option, which has extremely low capital costs and is ideal for small start ups to scale, as well as for sparse rural areas. It is very suitable for ICT4D projects and India has one such organization, n-Logue Communications that has aptly done this.

The full form of DECT is Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications, which is useful in designing small capacity WLL (wireless in local loop) systems. These systems are operative only on LOS Conditions and are very much affected by weather conditions.

System is designed for rural and sub urban areas where subscriber density is medium or low. "corDECT" system provides simultaneous voice and Internet access. Following are the main parts of the system.

DECT Interface Unit (DIU)
This is a 1000 line exchange provides E1 interface to the PSTN. This can cater up to 20 base stations. These base stations are interfaced through ISDN link which carries signals and power feed for the base stations even up to 3 km.

Compact Base Station (CBS)
This is the radio fixed part of the DECT wireless local loop. CBSs are typically mounted on a tower top which can cater up to 50 subscribers with 0.1 erlang traffic.

Base Station Distributor (BSD)
This is a traffic aggregator used to extend the range of the wireless local-loop where 4 CBS can be connected to this.

Relay Base Station (RBS)

This another technique used to extend the range of the corDECT wireless local loop up to 25 km by a radio chain.


Fixed Remote Station (FRS)
This is the subscriber-end equipment used the corDECT wireless local loop which provides standard telephone instrument and Internet access up to 70kbit/s through Ethernet port.

The new generation corDECT technology is called Broadband corDECT which supports provides broadband Internet access over wireless local loop.

GRID COMPUTING

GRID COMPUTING


Grid computing (or the use of computational grids) is the application of several computers to a single problem at the same time — usually to a scientific or technical problem that requires a great number of computer processing cycles or access to large amounts of data.

One of the main strategies of grid computing is using software to divide and apportion pieces of a program among several computers, sometimes up to many thousands. Grid computing is distributed[citation needed], large-scale cluster computing, as well as a form of network-distributed parallel processing[citation needed]. The size of grid computing may vary from being small — confined to a network of computer workstations within a corporation, for example — to being large, public collaboration across many companies and networks. "The notion of a confined grid may also be known as an intra-nodes cooperation whilst the notion of a larger, wider grid may thus refer to an inter-nodes cooperation"[1]. This inter-/intra-nodes cooperation "across cyber-based collaborative organizations are also known as Virtual Organizations"[2].

It is a form of distributed computing whereby a “super and virtual computer” is composed of a cluster of networked loosely coupled computers acting in concert to perform very large tasks. This technology has been applied to computationally intensive scientific, mathematical, and academic problems through volunteer computing, and it is used in commercial enterprises for such diverse applications as drug discovery, economic forecasting, seismic analysis, and back-office data processing in support of e-commerce and Web services.

What distinguishes grid computing from conventional cluster computing systems is that grids tend to be more loosely coupled, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed. Also, while a computing grid may be dedicated to a specialized application, it is often constructed with the aid of general-purpose grid software libraries and middleware.

Grid Computing is a technique in which the idle systems in the Network and their “wasted” CPU cycles can be efficiently used by uniting pools of servers, storage systems and networks into a single large virtual system for resource sharing dynamically at runtime.
- High performance computer clusters.
-share application, data and computing resources.

Design considerations and variations

One feature of distributed grids is that they can be formed from computing resources belonging to multiple individuals or organizations (known as multiple administrative domains). This can facilitate commercial transactions, as in utility computing, or make it easier to assemble volunteer computing networks.

One disadvantage of this feature is that the computers which are actually performing the calculations might not be entirely trustworthy. The designers of the system must thus introduce measures to prevent malfunctions or malicious participants from producing false, misleading, or erroneous results, and from using the system as an attack vector. This often involves assigning work randomly to different nodes (presumably with different owners) and checking that at least two different nodes report the same answer for a given work unit. Discrepancies would identify malfunctioning and malicious nodes.

Due to the lack of central control over the hardware, there is no way to guarantee that nodes will not drop out of the network at random times. Some nodes (like laptops or dialup Internet customers) may also be available for computation but not network communications for unpredictable periods. These variations can be accommodated by assigning large work units (thus reducing the need for continuous network connectivity) and reassigning work units when a given node fails to report its results as expected.

The impacts of trust and availability on performance and development difficulty can influence the choice of whether to deploy onto a dedicated computer cluster, to idle machines internal to the developing organization, or to an open external network of volunteers or contractors.

In many cases, the participating nodes must trust the central system not to abuse the access that is being granted, by interfering with the operation of other programs, mangling stored information, transmitting private data, or creating new security holes. Other systems employ measures to reduce the amount of trust “client” nodes must place in the central system such as placing applications in virtual machines.

Public systems or those crossing administrative domains (including different departments in the same organization) often result in the need to run on heterogeneous systems, using different operating systems and hardware architectures. With many languages, there is a trade off between investment in software development and the number of platforms that can be supported (and thus the size of the resulting network). Cross-platform languages can reduce the need to make this trade off, though potentially at the expense of high performance on any given node (due to run-time interpretation or lack of optimization for the particular platform).

Various middleware projects have created generic infrastructure, to allow diverse scientific and commercial projects to harness a particular associated grid, or for the purpose of setting up new grids. BOINC is a common one for academic projects seeking public volunteers; more are listed at the end of the article.

In fact, the middleware can be seen as a layer between the hardware and the software. On top of the middleware, a number of technical areas have to be considered, and these may or may not be middleware independent. Example areas include SLA management, Trust and Security, Virtual organization management, License Management, Portals and Data Management. These technical areas may be taken care of in a commercial solution, though the cutting edge of each area is often found within specific research projects examining the field.

The term grid computing originated in the early 1990s as a metaphor for making computer power as easy to access as an electric power grid in Ian Foster's and Carl Kesselman's seminal work, "The Grid: Blueprint for a new computing infrastructure."

CPU scavenging and volunteer computing were popularized beginning in 1997 by distributed.net and later in 1999 by SETI@home to harness the power of networked PCs worldwide, in order to solve CPU-intensive research problems.

The ideas of the grid (including those from distributed computing, object-oriented programming, and Web services) were brought together by Ian Foster, Carl Kesselman, and Steve Tuecke, widely regarded as the “fathers of the grid[4].” They led the effort to create the Globus Toolkit incorporating not just computation management but also storage management, security provisioning, data movement, monitoring, and a toolkit for developing additional services based on the same infrastructure, including agreement negotiation, notification mechanisms, trigger services, and information aggregation. While the Globus Toolkit remains the de facto standard for building grid solutions, a number of other tools have been built that answer some subset of services needed to create an enterprise or global grid.

In 2007 the term cloud computing came into popularity, which is conceptually similar to the canonical Foster definition of grid computing (in terms of computing resources being consumed as electricity is from the power grid). Indeed, grid computing is often (but not always) associated with the delivery of cloud computing systems as exemplified by the AppLogic system from 3tera.


IMPORTANCE OF GRID COMPUTING
Flexible, Secure, Coordinated resource sharing.
Virtualization of distributed computing resources.
Give worldwide access to a network of distributed resources.


GRID REQUIREMENTS
Security
Resource Management
Data Management
Information Services
Fault Detection
Portability


TYPES OF GRID
Computational Grid
-computing power
Scavenging Grid
-desktop machines
Data Grid
-data access across multiple organizations


ARCHITECTURAL OVERVIEW
- Grid’s computer can be thousands of miles apart and connected with internet networking technologies.
- Grids can share processors and drive space.


Fabric : Provides resources to which shared access is mediated by grid protocols.
Connectivity : Provides authentication solutions.
Resources : Connectivity layer, communication and authentication protocols.
Collective : Coordinates multiple resources.
Application : Constructed by calling upon services defined at any layer.

GRID COMPONENTS
In a world-wide Grid environment, capabilities that the infrastructure needs to support include:
Remote storage
Publication of datasets
Security
Uniform access to remote resources
Publication of services and access cost
Composition of distributed applications
Discovery of suitable datasets
Discovery of suitable computational resources
Mapping and Scheduling of jobs
Submission, monitoring, steering of jobs execution
Movement of code
Enforcement of quality
Metering and accounting

GRID LAYERS
Grid Fabric layer
Core Grid middleware
User-level Grid middleware
Grid application and protocols
OPERATIONAL FLOW FROM USER’S PERSPECTIVE
- Installing Core Gridmiddleware
- Resource brokering and application deployment services

COMPONENT INTERACTION
- Distributed application
- Grid resource broker
- Grid information service
- Grid market directory
- Broker identifies the list of computational resources
- Executes the job and returns results
- Metering system passes the resource information to the accounting system
- Accounting system reports resource share allocation to the user

PROBLEM AND PROMISES
PROBLEMS
- Coordinated resource sharing and problem solving in dynamic, institutional organizations
- Improving distributed management
- Improving the availability of data
- Providing researchers with a uniform user friendly environment
PROMISES
- Grid utilizes the idle time
- Its ability to make more cost-effective use of resources
- To solve problems that can’t be approached without any enormous amount of computing power.

EDGE TECHNOLOGY

EDGE TECHNOLOGY

EDGE is an enhancement to the GSM mobile cellular phone system. It is a step towards the evolution of 3G networks. The name EDGE stands for Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution. When applied to GSM/GPRS networks, EDGE dramatically increases data throughputs, as well as network capacity. EDGE provides three times the data capacity of GPRS. Using EDGE, operators can handle three times more subscribers than GPRS, triple their data rate per subscriber, or add extra capacity to their voice communications. EDGE uses the same TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) frame structure, logic channel and 200 kHz carrier bandwidth as today's GSM networks, which allows existing cell plans to remain intact. But it uses a new modulation scheme, 8-PSK. In this seminar an overview of the EDGE technology, the modulation scheme and its applications will be discussed.

Dynamic RAM Chip

Dynamic RAM Chip

Dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) are the simplest and hence the smallest, of all semiconductors memories, containing only one transistor and one capacitor per cell. For that reason they are the most widely used memory type wherever high density storage is needed, most obviously as the main memory in all types of computers. Static RAMs are faster; by their much larger cell size (which holds up to six transistors) keeps their densities one generation behind those that DRAMs can offer.

Disease Detection Using Bio-robotics

Disease Detection Using Bio-robotics

This seminar deals with the design and the development of a bio-robotic system based on fuzzy logic to diagnose and monitor the neuro-psychophysical conditions of an individual. The system, called DDX, is portable without losing efficiency and accuracy in diagnosis and also provides the ability to transfer diagnosis through a remote communication interface, in order to monitor the daily health of a patient. DDX is a portable system, involving multiple parameters such as reaction time, speed, strength and tremor which are processed by means of fuzzy logic. The resulting output can be visualized through a display or transmitted by a communication interface.

DIGITAL DATA BUS (MIL-STD-1553B)

DIGITAL DATA BUS (MIL-STD-1553B)

The MIL-STD-1553B bus is a differential serial bus used in military and space equipment. It is comprised of multiple redundant bus connections and communicates at 1MB per second.

The bus has a single active bus controller (BC) and up to 31remote terminals (RTs). The BC manages all data transfers on the bus using the command and status protocol. The bus controller initiates every transfer by sending a command word and data if required. The selected RT will respond with a status word and data if required.

The 1553B command word contains a five-bit RT address, transmit or receive bit, five-bit sub-address and five-bit word count. This allows for 32 RTs on the bus. However, only 31RTs may be connected, since the RT address (31) is used to indicate a broadcast transfer, i.e. all RTs should accept the following data. Each RT has 30 sub-addresses reserved for data transfers. The other two sub-addresses (0 and 31) are reserved for mode codes used for bus control functions. Data transfers contain up to (32) 16-bit data words. Mode code command words are used for bus control functions such as synchronization.