A system architecture is the conceptual model that defines the structure , behavior , and more views of a system . An architecture description is a formal description and representation of a system, organized in a way that supports reasoning about the structures and behaviors of the system.
7-464: PowerPC Reference Platform ( PReP ) was a standard system architecture for PowerPC -based computer systems (as well as a reference implementation ) developed at the same time as the PowerPC processor architecture. Published by IBM in 1994, it allowed hardware vendors to build a machine that could run various operating systems, including Windows NT , OS/2 , Solaris , Taligent and AIX . One of
14-696: A set of representations of an existing (or future) system. These representations initially describe a general, high-level functional organization, and are progressively refined to more detailed and concrete descriptions. System architecture conveys the informational content of the elements consisting of a system, the relationships among those elements, and the rules governing those relationships. The architectural components and set of relationships between these components that an architecture description may consist of hardware, software , documentation, facilities, manual procedures, or roles played by organizations or people. A system architecture primarily concentrates on
21-540: Is extremely low. The RTEMS real-time operating system provides a board support package for PReP which can be run utilizing the QEMU PReP emulator. This provides a convenient development environment for PowerPC-based real-time, embedded systems. Power.org has a Power Architecture Platform Reference (PAPR) that provides the foundation for development of Power ISA -based computers running the Linux operating system. PAPR
28-649: The Power Macintosh architecture. Key to CHRP was the requirement for Open Firmware (also required in PReP-compliant systems delivered after June 1, 1995), which gave vendors greatly improved support during the boot process, allowing the hardware to be far more varied. PReP systems were never popular. Finding current, readily available operating systems for old PReP hardware can be difficult. Debian and NetBSD still maintain their respective ports to this architecture, although developer and user activity
35-465: The internal interfaces among the system's components or subsystems , and on the interface(s) between the system and its external environment, especially the user . (In the specific case of computer systems, this latter, special, interface is known as the computer human interface , AKA human computer interface, or HCI ; formerly called the man-machine interface.) One can contrast a system architecture with system architecture engineering (SAE) -
42-551: The stated goals of the PReP specification was to leverage standard PC hardware. Apple , wishing to seamlessly transition its Macintosh computers to PowerPC, found this to be particularly problematic. As it appeared no one was particularly happy with PReP, a new standard, the Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP), was developed and published in late 1995, incorporating the elements of both PReP and
49-506: Was released in the fourth quarter of 2006. System architecture A system architecture can consist of system components and the sub-systems developed, that will work together to implement the overall system. There have been efforts to formalize languages to describe system architecture, collectively these are called architecture description languages (ADLs). Various organizations can define systems architecture in different ways, including: One can think of system architecture as
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