عتاد النظام - كلفة التجهيزات - شركات الطيران .. الحاسبات تعمل

System Hardware - Equipment Cost - Airlines .. Computers work

System Hardware

The system at the airline's headquarters includes a computer group consisting of two or more processors that share the main memo and the storage, a number of computers to process signals, several magnetic tape storage units to save records in the event of a failure of the main storage system, a card reader, a printer and a line plotter for the company's monitoring and planning devices.

The company's offices and regional centers are equipped with television screens that show exchanged messages, printers to print and save important messages, and typewriters with touch panels to enter information into the system and to question it. All of these are connected to the computer group at the company's headquarters either wirelessly or by telephone lines. The company's regional offices may be equipped with their own computers, connected to the computers at the company's headquarters, in order to reduce the burden on the main computers and to handle flight reservations in the region and to control administrative work.

A remote computer system that provides airlines with great flexibility in conducting their business (pages 54-55).

The travel agent's office is equipped with a remote printer or a touch-panel console and a television screen, but these devices are not permanently connected to the computer system of any of the airlines. Rather, they are provided with means of communication, such as those used in telephones, that enable them to communicate with the reservation system of any of the major airlines. The office may be equipped with a printer to store the reservation confirmation or it may send the confirmation and other important correspondence from the branch office of the airline by mail.

It is known that the offices of some airlines in the regions are equipped with a special computer linked to the company's main computer, and its mission is to control local business and record information related to reservations within the same region. This will reduce the burden on the central computer.

Equipment cost

The costs of the entire computer system for a major airline may amount to millions of pounds sterling, distributed as follows:

1 - The computer group at the company's main headquarters, which consists of two or more processors in a time-sharing system, and a number of computers to process signals. The capacity of the main notebook of the multi-processor computer may reach a few million features, while the disk storage capacity exceeds a thousand million features. The cost of this computer group may exceed two million pounds sterling, but the airline may prefer to rent this equipment from the computer manufacturer, instead of buying it. The annual rent may increase to half a million pounds, but in this case the airline can replace the devices with newer ones whenever it wants.

2 - Relatively small computers and signal processing computers in the company's regional centers, the cost of this equipment may exceed half a million pounds for each center.

3 - A printer and a number of consoles with a TV screen and a touch panel in each branch office, the cost of which may reach ten thousand pounds for each office.

4 - A printer or console with a TV screen, a panel and touch panels in the travel agent's office, the cost of which ranges between five hundred and one thousand pounds.

E - Communication devices and their means of telephone lines, wireless communication stations, modulation and detection units (detectors) and communication control devices.

The cost of this equipment may exceed one million pounds sterling and constitute a large part of the cost of the entire system.

Despite the high cost of computers and communication equipment, they save airlines much more than they cost, as they increase the efficiency of using aircraft and facilities and the productivity of the human workforce.

Main memo

The capacity of the main memo usually ranges between one and two million features, and does not take more than a millionth of a second to access. The memo stores the main section of the executive program and all the programs being executed and their data.

The touch punch is used to punch cards. If the touch of a feature is pressed, holes representing that feature are formed in one of the columns of the card, and the punching mechanism moves to the next column. The touch punch works in isolation, meaning that it is not connected to the computer.

The card reader senses the holes in the card using contact springs or photoelectric cells and sends electrical pulses to the computer representing the pattern of holes in each column. The same device may include a card reader and a card punch operated by the computer.