SERVER

SERVER is software written by Dr. James Magwood that allows the network to work fluidly without any slowdowns. The software connects all the other software together and tells the other software where to find the data it needs, thus the user of the other software doesn't need to type a location at the software start.

SERVER also manages the access of data, and makes sure that two computers do not access the same data at once, which could potentially slow down the network.

Update Time

SERVER has a time display which indicates how long (in seconds) the cycle of access (eg. Computer with mapped drive E: to Computer with mapped drive Z:, so ~20 drives) takes. This time is directly related to the Update Time in the rest of the ORBIT software, as the rest of the software can only access data as fast as the SERVER software allows it to.

Resource Use

The SERVER software is CPU intensive, and a faster CPU means a faster network. The current server computer, FU has a CPU which is too slow to run the network at the current 1 second delay between updates, and as a result, Dr. Magwoods laptop is now used as the server. SERVER is not multithreaded, and as a result, runs better on high clocked single core CPUs, then on Dual Core CPUs.