HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMNTS FOR GIS

 GIS has moved into the mainstream to become a core enterprise technology.
As a result GIS is treated as a corporate resource that needs computing platform
and capabilities to support multi-terabyte sized data storage.
 The over whelming trend has a greater expectancy towards the more
computing power – power to speed application processing, power to respond
more users and power to access and transfer more information.
 First, rapid software and hardware innovation continued to increase system
performance and reduce computing relative cost. Computer manufacturers have
been quick to adopt the latest processors from Intel and RISC processors
produced by Silicon Graphics, Sun Micro Station, IBM, and HP etc.
 Second, while computer performance is going up, the relative cost of
computing power continued to get less expensive.
3.1 Hardware and other Peripherals:

 Hardware: of a computer refers to the physical tangible components. When a

computer does a job, each of these hardware components doest a part of that job.
A computer system consists of a processing unit and a memory unit connected to
a number of peripheral devices.
 Peripheral Device: is external to a computer’s processing and memory units.
Examples are Keyboard, Mouse, Display Terminal, Printer, and Plotter etc.
Components of Computer:
A computer has four essential components namely Input unit, Memory unit, Central
Processing units and Output unit.
All the four logical units of computer system are composed of corresponding
hardware devices, which are termed as input devices, central processor and storage
devices.
1. Input / Output Unit: The input and output units are together called I/O Unit.
i) The input unit accepts the data and program to process the data in machine-
readable form.

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ii) It then transforms the data to the appropriate internal code and then stores in
computer memory.
iii) The output unit transforms the internal representation of the data into a
form, which can be read by people.
iv) The most commonly used input devices are Floppy drive, CD drive, Tape
drive etc. Note that the input devices are not data entry devices. Some data entry
devices are keyboard, mouse, digitizer, scanner etc. However, together all these
are called input unit.
v) The devices to output information from computer are printers (Dot Matrix,
Ink jet, Laser etc), Plotters (B/W, Color- CMY or RGB) in various sizes A0, A1,
A2, A3 etc.
2. Central Processing Unit (CPU):
i) A CPU in a computer retrieves the program and data from the
memory unit and process that achieve the desired results.
ii) The processing unit then stores these results in the memory unit.
3. Memory Unit:
i) A memory unit is required in a computer to store data and program
accepted by input unit.
ii) It is also required to store the data or results obtained after processing.

3.2 Storage Devices:

i) Magnetic Hard Disk:

 Magnetic disks are smooth metal plates coated both sides with a thin
film of magnetic materials.
 A set of such magnetic plates is fixed to a spindle one below the other to
make a disk pack. The disk pack is mounted on a disk drive.
 Hard disk plays a significant role in the following important aspects of
computer systems.
a) Performance: hard disk plays a very important role in overall
system performance. The speed at which PC boots up and program load is
directly related to hard disk speed.

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b) The hard disk performance is also critical when multitasking is
being carried out or when processing large amounts of data are involved.
c) Storage capacity: bigger hard disk lets you store more
programs and data
d) Software support: newer softwares need more space and faster
hard disk to load them efficiently.

ii) Floppy Disk:

 It is a soft magnetic disk and called floppy because it flops if you wave.
 Unlike hard disk, floppy disks are portable because you can remove
them from floppy drive.
 It is slower than hard disk and has less storage capacity, but they are
much less expensive.
 Floppy comes in two basic sizes – 5 ¼” and 3 ½”. The former was
common size for PC’s made before 1987 and capable of storing data between
100 K and 1.2 MB. 3 ½” disks are encased in a rigid envelope. They have storage
capacity between 400 K t0 1.44 MB.

iii) Magnetic Tape & Digital Audio Tape (DAT):

 Magnetic tape memories are similar to commonly used Audio Tape Recorders.
The width of tape is 0.5 inch and recording density is bits per inch (bpi) along its
length.
 The data recorded on tape is accessed only sequentially.
 DAT is also similar to audio-cassette tape. Tape is 4 mm wide and records the
data sequentially.
 A DAT drive is required as a periphery to record or access the data from the
tape. The storage capacity of DAT is up to 10 GB.
iv) DVD and Memory Stick:
 Digital Video Disk (DVD) but now officially Digital Versatile disk is similar
to simple CD but with more storage capacity up to 4.7 GB and better data storage
technique.

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  Memory stick is a latest development in storage media and is very portable just
like a small pen. Unlike CD-R memory stick does not require any driver to run it,
rather it is inserted into the port inbuilt in the latest computer. It can store data
between 64 MB to 250 MB.

3.3 System Design:

Design Philosophy of GIS:

Implementing process of GIS can be divided broadly into five major stages:
i) Concept – Requirement analysis, feasibility analysis
ii) Design- Implementation plan, system design
iii) Development – System acquisition, organizing staff and training,
operation procedure preparation, site preparation
iv) Operation – System installation, pilot project
v) Audit – System Review, System Expansion.

Philosophy of GIS design can be drawn as following:

Requirements of Resources

Applications and Processes

System Functions Data Base Contents Organizations and

Institutional Matters

Software Data Base Design

Hardware

System Design
 GIS is implemented typically by acquiring a commercially available hardware
and Software
 Numerous GIS systems are available in the market, each with strengths and
weaknesses that should be assessed in light of the organization’s requirement.
Hardware
Generally hardware is being assessed by factors:

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 Affordability (Cost of the machine)
 Reliability (System performance, Average down/upload time)
 Connectivity (Network Compatibility)
 Security (Protection from hackers)
Following hardware is required for a full-fledged GIS system
1. Computer (450 MHz chip, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB hard
Disk, 1.44 FDD, CD-R Drive)
2. Digitizer (Ao Size)
3. Graphic Accelerator Card
4. Color Plotter/Printer
5. External Storage device (4/6/8 mm DAT drives)
6. Ao Scanner (Color)

3.4 Softwares:
 Before buying of software one should have clear
understanding of what the really want the software to do for him in the project.
 Next step is to make sure that GIS software can be
executed on your computer under operating system you are using.
 Next, to see its capability and its user friendliness.
So, the key terms for validating software worthiness are: -
i) User Friendliness (easy graphical interface)
ii) Functionalities (effectiveness and efficiency)
iii) Compatibility (OS friendliness)
iv) Updativity (changeable with versions)
v) Documentations (help on software functions)
vi) Cost effectiveness (more functions with less price)

3.5 Overview of Current GIS Packages:

There are considerable numbers of GIS packages available in the market. The
commonly used GIS packages are-
a) Arc/Info
b) Spans GIS

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c) ILWIS
d) MAPINFO
e) ENVI
f) Arcview / ArcGIS

1. Arc / Info:
 Arc / Info is one of the first GIS packages that was
available commercially and is being used all over the world. It has been
developed by Environmental System Research Institute (ESRI), Redlands, USA.
 Data Structure: it is a vector based GIS package, capable of
handling both spatial and non-spatial data. It organizes geographic data using
vector topological models and non-spatial data using relational models in DBMS.
 Functionalities: the main functionalities of the software
are:-
Arc Digitization System (ADS) and Arcedit:
 Data base creation in Arc/Info is possible through the process of digitization
using ADS and Arcedit modules.
 ADS is menu driven module and Arcedit is command based module for
editing, coordinate entry through digitizer, screen cursor etc.
INFO:
 It is a relational data base manager for the tabular data associated with spatial
features in map coverage.
 Info used to create, update, manipulate and query attribute table.
Analysis Module:
 Arc/Info offers spatial analysis capabilities like overlay, buffer generation,
proximity analysis, feature aggregation, feature extraction etc.
Arcplot:
 Arcplot is used to generate cartographic quality output in the form of maps.
Further it is used to print or plot the map through printer or plotter respectively.
 Display of map features as per scale, symbolization, legend, text, graphics,
north arrow etc are some of the works carried out in Arcplot.
TIN:

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 Used to create, store and manage and then perform analysis pertaining to 3D
data.
 Calculation of slope, aspect, perspective view, volumes etc are main operations
carried out here.
Network:
 Network analysis such as best route selection, resource allocation, water flow
analysis etc are carried out here.
COGO (Coordinate Geometry):
 Coordinate Geometry module supports the functions performed by Land
Surveyor and Civil Engineers.
 The major tasks carried out here are- Design and Layout of subdivision, Road
construction, Traverse adjustment (including adding curves), compute areas,
bearing, azimuth etc.
GRID:
 This is extension of Arc/Info. Used mainly for Raster to Vector conversion and
vice versa, Raster modeling, Multi layer integration etc.
Platform: Arc/Info is available in both Unix and PC environments.

2. Spans GIS (Spatial Data Analysis System):

 Developed by TYDAC technologies, USA
 GIS Modules: for basic GIS operations like digitization, editing, R to V and V
to R conversion, projection coordinates, map display / browse etc.
 Core module: for GIS analysis like polygon overlay, logical overlay, matrix
overlay, weighted overlay and spatial modeling.
 Contouring / DEM module: Spatial interpolation of point data, contour
generation, slope, aspect, hill shading etc.
 Raster Interface module: Import / Export of raster data, multiplayer overlay
etc.
 Platform: windows based.
3. ILWIS:
 For windows based GIS and RS applications

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 Basic GIS facilities like digitization, editing, attribute data manipulation,
spatial analysis etc.
 It also has image processing facilities, creation of DEM, slope etc.

4. MAPINFO:
 It has a good display capability. Supports dBase and others DBMS softwares.
 Good in spatial data handling.

5. ENVI (Environment for Visualizing Images):

 Used for multi and hyper spectral analysis of remotely sensed data.
 Supports basic GIS modules
 Integration of RS and GIS data.

6. Arcview:
 Product of ESRI. It is good for data display and map generation but has
limitations in data base generation.
 View: is used to display themes, set scale, change symbology, query, basic
editing of themes etc.
 Tables: Create, edit, update attribute tables. Add tables created by other DBMS
and linking of tables.
 Charts: to create charts such as pie charts, bar charts, line graph etc using fields
in attribute table.
 Layout: designing of maps with other marginal information in user friendly
manner
 Script: used to customize the softwares using inbuilt Avenue Programme as per
the user requirements.

7. ArcGIS:
 It is combination of Arc/Info and Arcview along with extensions like Spatial
Analyst, 3D Analyst, Network Analyst, Survey Analyst etc. it has similar
functionalities of Arc/Info and Arc View.

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 ArcGIS SDE is data base engine of the software, which provides a common
platform for the integration of non-spatial database created through different
DBMS softwares.