How your system is set up and which hardware and software components are available determine the tasks you can do and the way you perform those tasks. This section provides you with the background you need to understand and recognize the components and the setup of your AIX system.
The AIX system is a powerful and flexible system made up of hardware and software components. Hardware components, also known as devices, are the physical parts of the computer system. Software components, which are the instructions that the computer follows, are the programs available on the computer system. As the computer follows the instructions, we say that it runs the program.
Hardware and software are complementary. They work together to make the computer system perform the tasks you want. Computer hardware and software require a specific program to administer all their components. The AIX operating system performs this task.
Of all the characteristics of the AIX operating system, the most valuable are that it is multitasking and multiuser. Multitasking lets AIX run more than one independent program on the system at the same time. The advantage of a multiprocessing system is that it can perform processing tasks while you simultaneously run other programs. This is known as background processing. Without it you would have to wait for a program to complete before going on to any other task. Multiuser means AIX can have more than one person working on the system at a time. The advantage of a multiuser system is that many users can share system hardware and programs. The disadvantage is that the system slows down as more and more users log in.
Your system may be set up so that you share your system with others, or it may be set up to be used just by yourself. A shared or multiuser system is also known as a time-sharing system. A single-user system (not on a network or used as a host) is known as a standalone system. A computer system (on a network or not) that operates all by itself, because it has its own CPU, is known as a workstation.
This section covers the following: