We are only beginning to understand the global networked computing utility—often referred to as "The Grid"—that the Internet could ultimately become. Ongoing innovations in microprocessors, servers, storage, communications, and other areas will provide a scalable infrastructure based on commodity technologies, eventually by using the aggregated worldwide computing resources of enterprises, service providers, and individuals. At the same time, communications technologies continue to evolve, with 802.11 wireless LANs competing with 3G cellular networks, while new Internet protocols are poised to make innovative communications services as easy to create as Web content.
Volume 2: Emerging Patterns of Internet Computing discusses these and other changes underway in IT. The book is divided into three major sections, each highlighting a different area of computing and communications, that together comprise 12 chapters providing detailed coverage of specific technologies:
Processors & Platforms contains chapters on semiconductors; embedded processors; traditional computing platforms, including systems from notebook computers to supercomputers and the operating systems that run on them; storage; displays; and emerging platforms, including mobile handheld devices, consumer Internet access devices, and telematics.
Communications comprises chapters on telecommunications services, including the transition currently under way to widespread use of Voice-over-IP; wireless communications, including 2.5G and 3G cellular systems and 802.11 wireless LANs; wireline communications, including Resilient Packet Rings and metropolitan area Ethernet; and Internet technologies, including quality of service and the session initiation protocol (SIP).
Web Application Management includes chapters on Website performance and availability and on system management.
The book features interviews with four leading figures in IT: Judy Estrin, president and CEO of Packet Design; Prof. Leonard Kleinrock of UCLA’s Computer Science department; Dr. Richard F. Rashid, senior vice president of research at Microsoft; and Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, vice president for technology and strategy in IBM’s Server Group.
