system upgrades
background info
Ryan Townsend, Joshua Nightingale and John Kern have now had their workstations for just over a month. During this time they have already been able to write a large amount of code for their software company: Pipeline Software Development, due in part to their very powerful machines!
During the first month of operation the company has made very good progress. It has increased its client base and has many new contracts. Each partner is working full time and is fully stretched. They are grateful to me for supplying them with systems that have appropriately suited their individual needs and have now asked me to do some more work for them.
the problem
John's current system is powerful enough for his current workload. However the company has just signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence to work on some software for a classified project. This project will take advantage of some of the newest and most powerful hardware available. The software that the company is required to develop will be substantial and will require a considerable amount of memory. Apparently, the partners will need to outsource parts of the project to other development companies. Nevertheless John's system will still require some upgrades.
"The Ministry of Defence contract is very valuable to us." - John Kern.
what new hardware does John need?
John does not require a new processor. His current computer has a very fast dual-core 64-bit AMD Athlon 3800+. He also has two extremely fast (server-class) SATA RAID hard disks so there is no need for these to be upgraded or replaced.
Currently there is only 1 gigabyte of Random Access Memory (RAM) installed in John's machine which is sufficient for compiling the code for his current projects. However a preliminary examination of the specification of the MoD project, indicates that more RAM will be required. John has estimated that he will require at least two times the amount of RAM that he has now, and that it will need to be of the 'high performance' variety.
This upgrade will not only improve the performance of his system so that it will be able to meet the demands of the MoD contract but it will also reduce the time needed to carry out his current less memory intensive projects.
are any software upgrades required?
John needs the latest version of KDevelop installed on his machine. KDevelop is the contemporary programming environment he already uses. He currently has version 3.2 installed. I will be downloading and installing version 3.4 using a program called 'yum'. Yum is a tool used by most experienced Linux users to download and install the latest program updates and system files. This version of KDevelop has several new features that will aid his programming techniques and speed up production.
New features include:
- Allow easy sub-classing of classes in the persistant class store in C++ New Class Wizard.
- Optional automatic reload on external file modifications.
- New project template mechanism / Improved Appwizard.
He also needs the Sun Microsystems Java Development Kit downloaded and installed. This will allow him to assist Ryan Townsend in developing some Java files for the MoD project.
After installing the hardware and software, I will test the new additions and optimise their settings to improve the performance of John's workstation even more.
witness statement
My tutor has signed a witness statement displaying how I have met the requirements of 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 of the unit's specification in Lab time. I have completed all the work for this unit independently.
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