Types Of Computing
What are the different types of computing? Computing is a goal-oriented task in which computers are heavily utilized. There are various types of computing, some of which are mentioned here.
Types of Computing: Radio Computing
As can be inferred from the name, radio computing involves designing and utilized specially designed software to schedule radio broadcasts. To date, a lot of softwares have been developed to achieve this end. Selector, developed by RCS on FORTRAN, is a music scheduler that is still in use. MusicMaster and PowerGold are other schedulers that are used to create playlists in radio stations. The playlists also include advertisements and station identifiers. Gselector is another product of radio computing that gives the director greater leeway in amending the playlist as he/wishes.
Radio computing has also resulted in the development of studio automation softwares such as Zetta, NexGen and Master Control. These enable a radio station to be run remotely and with a greatly reduced human staff.
Radio computing has resulted in greater participation of citizen journalism through applications such as iPush and RCS News. iPush enables a person to send an audio recording to the automation softwares such as NexGen while RCS News aggregates news from automation softwares and internet sources such as RSS and emails.
Types of Computing: Cloud Computing
Cloud computing involves the use of computing resources, both software and hardware shared over a cloud network. Cloud computing is a relatively new phenomenon in which remote servers act as storage units for resources that would be traditionally located on a stand- alone computer’s hard disk drives. Access to this services often comes at a cost that is generally considered lower than if you were responsible for maintaining the softwares and hardware on your own. Cloud computing combines elements from other types of computing. In cloud computing, platforms, infrastructure, softwares can also be presented as services to be accessed by an internet enabled device such as a tablet, or a desktop PC.
Types of Computing: Utility Computing
Utility computing is all about presenting computer services as a metered service, used like a public phone, where one pays for usage lasting a specific duration. This was especially more useful in the early days when personal computers were not affordable. Nowadays, cloud computing has usurped utility computing.
Types of Computing: Distributed Computing
Distributed computing is the study and exploitation of distributed systems in solving computer problems. Distributed computing results in greater efficiency because of the greater memory available for processing data. Distributed computing is utilized in aircraft control, phone networks and database management systems.
Types of Computing: Cluster Computing
This is a set of interconnected computers that can be viewed as a single system. In most cases, one computer is designated as a master while the rest are slaves to the master, which assigns tasks. They are essentially a subtype of distributed computing. They however differ, especially the modern versions, because they require a clustered file system to operate.
Types of Computing: Grid Computing
This is also in essence distributed computing with freer reins on geographical distribution of the various components. Grid computing has been used to achieve great computer speeds; Einstein@home, utilizing grid computing, has attained speeds of 288TFLOPS.
