Windows NT

Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server are 32-bit operating systems for users who require fast multitasking environments.

Developers and engineers , as well as financial and technical users, can take advantage of these operating systems for business needs such as:

• Mechanical and electronic design automation
• Architecture planning
• Engineering and construction
• Manufacturing and process control
• Custom software development
• Accounting
• Financial analysis
• Investment trader workstations
• Real-time systems

In addition, any user who needs the power of a multiprocessing system can use Windows NT to run multiple applications simultaneously . For example, background applications can continue while a user works in the foreground.

Windows NT supports applications in separate memory address spaces. When applications are running in separate memory address spaces, malfunctioning applications will not affect other applications. Furthermore, the Windows NT architecture protects the operating system from applications that attempt to consume too much of the CPU's processing time or to use the operating system's memory address space.

Windows NT Workstation

The Microsoft Windows NT Workstation operating system includes all the capabilities of Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, elevated to a more powerful multitasking level. Windows NT Workstation can be used alone as a powerful desktop operating system, networked in a peer-to-peer workgroup environment, or as a workstation in a Windows NT Server domain.

Windows NT Server

Windows NT Server is a powerful network server operating system designed for organizations that need to implement mission-critical business applications. Windows NT Server is the networking foundation for a new generation of server applications and tools, as well as file and print services. Its client/server platform is designed to integrate current and future technologies and provide a competitive advantage through better information access.

Windows NT multiprocessing capabilities and New Technology File System make it the most secure and stable Windows operating system.

Symmetric Multiprocessing

Windows NT is a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) operating system. This means that Windows NT automatically uses all the available processors on a computer with more than one processor. With this approach, system and application needs can be distributed evenly across all available processors.

Hardware Abstration Layer

Windows NT is designed to run on a variety of CPUs and hardware platforms. Windows NT separates the operating system code from the machine's hardware using an isolation layer referred to as the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). HAL allows Windows NT to provide a non-hardware specific operating system to improve overall efficiency on any platform.

NT File System (NTFS)

The New Technology File System (NTFS) is the preferred file system under Windows NT. However, at times you may need to use another file system on the same computer as Windows NT. For the computer to run another operating system, at least one partition must be formatted with a file system supported by that operating system. Only Windows NT supports NTFS.

NTFS supports larger partitions than other file systems. Under NTFS, a file can be up to 16 exabytes in size . To give some idea of how large that is, consider the following progression:

• 1,024 MB = 1 GB (Gigabyte)
• 1,024 GB = 1 TB (Terabyte)
• 1,024 TB = 1 PB (Petabyte)
• 1,024 PB = 1 EB (Exabyte)

One exabyte is slightly larger than one billion gigabytes. For example, if every man, woman , and child on earth (there are about five billion people) had 2,000 pages of text, at 2K per page, every one of them could fit their pages into a single Windows NT file. Even then, the file would only be filled to 1/16 (a little over 6 percent) of its total capacity. The minimum NTFS partition size is 5 MB.

NTFS Considerations

The following considerations are important in implementing an NTFS file system:

• Recoverability is designed into NTFS so that users do not have to run a disk repair utility on an NTFS partition.
• There is no way to undelete a file on an NTFS partition.
• Fragmentation is greatly reduced on NTFS partitions.
• NTFS provides support for the Windows NT security model, so that permissions and auditing can be configured on files and directories.
• Because of slower performance, NTFS is not recommended for use on volumes smaller than 400 MB.