GIS
Hardware/Software
System Architecture
and Design
Parts of this lecture draw upon:
Dave Peters, ESRI User Conference 2002
And Ronald Briggs, U Texas, Dallas
GIS Software system components
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User interface
Tools and functions
Data manager
System architecture configurations
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Desktop
Client-server
Centralized desktop
Centralized server
GIS software categories
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Desktop
Server (Internet)
Developer
Hand-held
Other
ESRI’s GIS Components
c:\ ArcGIS Workstation
Clients
ArcInfo
ArcEditor
ArcView
ArcMap
ArcCatalog
ArcToolbox
ArcMap
ArcCatalog
ArcToolbox
ArcMap
ArcCatalog
ArcToolbox
ArcEngine/
ArcObjects
Application
Development &
Customization
$
Consistent interface
Increasing capability
ArcExplorer
Browser
ArcServer Services
ArcIMS Services
ArcSDE Services
Internet
Source: ESRI with mods.
GIS Characteristics
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Detailed, high resolution graphic displays
Large data files
Intensive data analysis/computation
Need powerful workstations
Need powerful servers for data retrieval
and batch processing
Need high capacity networks
These requirements differ significantly from standard IT
environments.
Information System Components
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Computer hardware: physical machinery, boxes, cables,
connectors
Software: instructions which make hardware perform as
desired by user
– Operating System to control the basic functions of the hardware
and networks
– Applications to provide users with desired results
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Data and databases to store information required by
users
Networks to distribute information between different
computers and users
Orgware: people, procedures & organizational structures
to make all of the above function
– 85% of cost of IT?
The Computer:
Hardware Components

Central processing unit
(CPU):
– microprocessor (control unit
and arithmetic/logic unit)
– primary storage -RAM (main
memory or simply memory)
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Storage
-disks
-tapes
Secondary storage
Central
– disks
» magnetic
» optical
– tapes
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Input/Output Devices (I/O)
communications devices/
network connections
Input
devices
cpu
Main
Memory
Processor
Networks
Output
devices
(hardcopy)
Some Measurement Concepts
for CPU and Storage
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capacity
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bits and bytes: 8bits=1 byte
kilobytes (KB), megabytes(MB), gigabytes(GB), terabytes (TB),petabytes(PT)
(x1,000) 1KB=1,000bytes 1TB=1,000,000,000,000bytes (approx.)
5MB: the text of all of Shakespeare’s works
1TB: 2001 digital orthos for one large city
10TB: text of the library of Congress
speed
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hertz: number (frequency) of electrical pulses per second
clock cycle (megahertz: MHz): (8088: 4.7MHz; p5: 133MHz; p5II 450MHz)
MIPS: million instructions (integer) per second (very~ = 1 MHz)
Gigaflops: Billions of floating point operations per second
Central Processing Unit: performance
Moore’s Law: Performance doubles every 18 months
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processor speed
– clock cycle (megahertz: MHz):
8088-4.7MHz PIII-750MHz
– word length (8,16,32,64) at
single address (8088-16; PIII32)
– data bus width (processor to
main memory) (8088-8; PIII-64)
Examples
– 4.7Mhz - 2.2Ghz (pc/ws)
– Servers substantially more

main memory capacity (RAM):
(size of program &/or data file)
– 256MB-1GB (pc)
– Servers substantially more
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Processors & their
organization
– single v. multi processing
» 1 v 2,4,8 processors
– massively parallel processing
» 1,000 processors
Ability of multi-processors to improve
performance depends on
operating system capabilities and
application software design
Moore’s Law
(Wikipedia) Moore's law is the empirical observation that at our rate of technological
development, the complexity of an integrated circuit, with respect to minimum component cost, will
double in about 18 months.
Storage:
disks and tapes
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– seek time (to find data)
» disk: random access
» tape: sequential access
capacity
– 4,000 (80x50) bytes per
printed page
– 350 pages per 1.44MB
diskette
– 50,000 pages per 200MB
1/2 inch reel/cartridge
– 150,000 typed pages per
640MB CD-ROM
– 1-7 Gigabytes per
4mm or 8mm cassette
– 40-80GB per DEC DLT
(digital linear tape)
– DVD (4.7-17GB)
performance (speed)
– transfer rate
– cache size and performance
– SCSI (fast) v. IDE (cheap) bus
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magnetic disk cost
– $15,000 per gigabyte in 1985
(mainframe)
– $500 per gigabyte in 1995(pc)
– $30 per GB in 1999
– $2 per GB in 2002 for IDE
– $7 per GB in 2002 for SCSI
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traditional trade-off:
disk---optical---tape
Speed
& cost
capacity
IBM Hollerith Card
Input/Output:
User Interface
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“IBM” punched card
– Herman Hollerith, 1884
Graphical user interface
(GUI)
– bit-mapped display:
– each picture element (pixel)
manipulable
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Resolution
– CGA: 320x300 pixels with 4
colors (96,000 pixels)
– VGA: 640x480 with 16 colors
– SVGA: 800x600 or 1024x768
with 256 colors
– XGA: 16,777,216 colors at
1024x768 (786,432 pixels)
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24 bit color
– RGB: red/green/blue primary
colors
– 1x8bit register per color =256
intensity values
– 3 primary colors @ 256 each =
16,777,216 combinations
(256x256x256)
Xerox Star 8010 with mousecontrolled GUI April 1981
Issues: Performance bottlenecks
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CPU performance
Memory (RAM)
I/O: to disk and/or to network
Network performance: speed and/or load
Balanced system critical
Issues: Capacity Planning
 peak load versus standard load
Issues: CPU Selection & configuration
 Servers: database, geoprocessing, web, terminal
 Client: Workstation, terminal client, browser client
 Mobile: portable, palm, pocket (laptop, PDA, phone)
Example ArcIMS (Web) Server Configurations
ArcIMS Components
Single Tier Config.
Two Tier with
load balancing
Three Tier
Three Tier
with Load
balancing
Biggest
processing
requirement
Note: data is duplicated
Note: data is from
database server
Example ArcIMS
configurations
relative to security
Least secure
One of many
intermediate
solutions
Most secure
Client Configurations
Web
server
Terminal
Server
GISWeb Software runs on
web server
Can hand-off some work
to GP server
Data stays on servers
Image to Client
Low end PC with standard
web browser
Low network bandwidth
Limited GIS functionality
(depends on GIS Web
software)
Web
Link
Web
Browser
Geoproc.
Server
GIS Software runs on
terminal server
Can hand-off some work
to GP server
Data stays on servers
Image to Client
Low end PC with special
TS software
Low network bandwidth
Full GIS functionality
(Citrix is primary vendor)
LAN link
Or VPN*
Terminal
Client
*VPN Virtual Private Network
Database
Server
Servers
GIS Software runs on PC
Data to PC
High end PC
High network bandwidth
Full GIS functionality
LAN link
PC
Workstation
Mobile Client Considerations
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Device type: Portable, tablet, palm or pocket?
– Palm and pocket likely to merge
– How much capability is required
» In field editing or info look up?
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Is Connectivity required?
– Wireless data connections slow and expensive
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How to keep databases in synch?
Software and Programs
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Software: instructions to the computer
Program: a set of instructions which accomplish a specific task.
All computers use the stored program concept for program execution:
– instructions (program) reside permanently on secondary storage
(disk)
– program is copied and stored (loaded) into main memory to be run
(executed).
to be executed, programs must be in binary machine language
– compilers convert a programmer’s source code to binary code
»
»
»
»
once converted, can be run many times
most purchased packages delivered in binary form
will only run on the OS for which binary was created
cannot be “understood” or modified by the user
Software Layers
HARDWARE
 Firmware, Device drivers
 Operating System
 Utilities
 Data Base Software
 Application Software
 User Interface
USER
Operating Systems: Primary Current Systems
Portable
– Windows CE
– Palm
Desktop:
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Advanced (professional)
– Windows XP Professional
– UNIX of various flavors
Windows Server
– Server
– Advanced server
– Data center server
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Basic (home)
– Windows 95/98/Me/XP
home
– MAC System 9 and X
– Linux (Red Hat, Caldera)
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Server/Network/Enterprise
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UNIX: Solaris (SUN), HP-UX, IBM
AIX
Linux
Legacy
– IBM MVS & OS/390 (mainframe)
– IBM AS/400 (minicomputer)
– Digital Equipment Corp (DEC):
Open VMS (1999 Compaq
announced 5 yr support)
– UNIX niche (Unisys, NCR, Sequent)
Significance of Different Operating Systems
Upside to Variety: advantages for
particular groups of users or
applications
– legacy for hard core data
processing
» extreme reliability
» maximized for I/O and data access
» binary compatibility between versions
– UNIX for scientific processing,
Internet applications and,
increasingly, database applications
» extreme flexibility
» horsepower for number crunching
– Windows
» user oriented, but with power left for
processing
– MAC
» user friendly
– Wireless
» Access from the field
Downside to Variety
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user training
user interface development
different software binaries
support staff expertise
communications and
networking complexities
Web browsers and JAVA help
address some of these
issues, but really only the
first two
GIS may have to access legacy
systems for data
Software for GIS:
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ArcGIS--ARC/INFO (ESRI, Inc., Redlands, CA)
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Trying very hard to move from Desktop/Present. to Enterprise/Industrial with newer MapX,
MapXtreme and MapInsight products
Strong presence in telecom and business, especially site selection & marketing
Intergraph (Huntsville, AL)
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privately owned by Jack Dangermond, a legend in the field and former Harvard student The only two
originated commercial GIS and still clear market leader with about a third of the market “pure GIS”
companies.
Strong in gov., education, utilities and business logistics
MapInfo
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The Main Vector Players
origins in proprietary CAD hardware/software
strong in design and FM (facilities management), and running hard to match ESRI in GIS
UNIX-based MGE (Modular GIS Environment) and FRAMME evolved from CAD
after split with Bentley, courageously committed to NT and object technology in 1995 and first
released “new generation” GeoMedia product in March 1997
Serious threat to ESRI until ArcInfo 8 released.
Bentley Systems (Exton, PA)
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Bentley brothers (Barry & Ray) originally developed the PC-based Micro-Station product under
contract with Intergraph, but split in 1995
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have very successfully continued to develop and sell MicroStation GeoGraphics since then.
Strong in engineering; advertises itself as “geoengineering”
Autodesk’s AutoCAD Map
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dominant CAD supplier and world’s 4th largest software company
fully topological AutoCAD Map introduced in 1996 (but no raster)
High initial expectation (huge installed AutoCad base) but hasn’t lived up to earlier expectations
Primarily small business/small city customer base
Software for GIS: Remote Sensing/Raster
– Different players
– origins in remote sensing thus
raster oriented
– Some now include vector
support, but has proven
insufficient for them to really
compete with vector-based GIS
– Convergence of raster and vector
GIS software has not occurred to
the degree expected 5 years ago
– Need one of these products if you
are heavy into remote sensing,
image analysis,
ororthophotography production
– new satellite data products
enhance their utility
– Will never compete in the
enterprise/management market
– ERDAS/Imagine long
established leader, purchased
by Leica Systems of
Switzerland in 2001
– ER MAPPER very agressive
newcomer originating in
Australia
– Envi, another relative
newcomer, radar
specialization, now (2000)
Kodak owned
– PCI long-term Canadian
player
– CARIS another newer
Canadian entry
Software for GIS:
other professional/analytical
Also….
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Other Commercial
Players
– Manifold
(CDA International Corp)
one of the best deals around
– Maptitude
(Caliper Corp, MA): another
low cost one
– CadCorp SIS (Spatial
Information System)
recent entry from UK
– WinGIS
(Progis Corp, Austria):
European entry
– Smallworld Systems
(Englewood, CO)
first to use OO (in early
1990s) but never broke out
of its FM utilities base and
bought by GE in 2000
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GRASS
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raster oriented, but some vector routines
originally developed by US Army Construction
Engineering Research Lab(CERL)
army ended dev. & support in 1996 but
assumed by Baylor University.
IDRISI (Clark Univ)
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one of the pioneering, university developed
packages,
limited commercial penetration but still trying
raster orientation with some vector capabilities
GRASS: Unix Tkl/Tk
Manifold GIS Release 6.5
Software for GIS: Niche products
Business Targeted
– BusinessMAP (from ESRI): $99 choropleth and pin mapping (originally Maplinx)
– NDS (National Decision Systems): marketing data supplier; I-Mark software
(released 1999) combines earlier Infomark Express (reporting) and I-Map (maps)
– Tactician: specialist product for market analysis, site selection, etc.
– GeoQuery (Naperville, IL): a business mapping product based on Intergraph GeoMedia
(originally an independent product)
Other Industry Targeted
– TransCAD (from Caliper): specialized GIS for transportation
– EDX, Planet (from Mobile Systems International, now part of Marconi),
Network Engineer (from Mesa Solutions), Cell CAD II: wireless telephony planning
GIS specialized functions
– Surfer (Golden Software): contour creation & spatial interpolation
– Map Viewer (Golden Software): thematic map creation
– FreeGIS (www.freegis.org)
– Xmap Geographic (DeLorme): 3-D TopoQuads display, image registration, coordinate
geometry
– Blue Marble Geographic Calculator: projections, conversions, etc.
Extensions to standard GIS Products
– Add-ons to standard GIS packages to meet niche needs
Estimated Market Shares
GIS Vendor
Marketshare 2001
Other
14%
Logica
3%
ESRI
34%
SICAD
5%
Total Revenue
Estimates
2001 1,073 M
IBM
5%
2004 2, 020 M
MapInfo
6%
Leica Geosystems
(ERDAS)
6%
Autodesk
7%
GE Netw ork
Solutions
7%
Intergraph
13%
2003 Sector share
Utilities
Public sector
Private sector
44%
29%
24%
2003 Type share
Software
Services
Data
Hardware
64%
24%
8%
4%
ESRI Product Line-up: ArcGIS client products
ArcReader (“adobe acrobat” for maps) & ArcExplorer (spatial data viewer)
–
Free viewers for geographic data.
ArcGIS 9.x Desktop: two primary modules (MS NT/2000/XP only)
1.
ArcMap: for data display, map production, spatial analysis, data editing
2.
ArcCatalog: for data management and preview
ArcToolbox, for specialized data conversions and analyses, available as a window in both
Available capabilities within these modules are “tiered”
»
»
»
ArcView: viewing, map production, spatial analysis, basic editing
ArcEditor: ArcView, plus specialized editing
ArcInfo: ArcView & ArcEditor plus special analyses and conversions
Extensions: for special apps.: Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst, Geostatistics, Business Analyst,etc.
ArcObjects: build specialized capabilities within ArcMap or ArcCatalog using VB for Applications
ArcGIS Workstation (for UNIX and MS NT/2000/XP)
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the old command line ArcInfo 7.1
ArcGIS Engine (MS NT/2000/XP)
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Set of embeddable GIS components (ArcObjects software objects) for building custom applications
Runs under Windows, Unix and Linux, with support for Java, C++, COM and .NET
–
Replaces MapObjects which were based upon a previous generation of GIS objects
Notes:
ArcGIS 8 released 2000 to integrate two previous standalone products: ArcView and ArcInfo
ArcGIS 9 released 2004 providing the full capability that should have been in ArcGIS 8!!!
--full support for all data types (coverages, shapefiles, geodatabases)
--full support for all previous geoprocessing analyses
--Modelbuilder for scripting and repetitive processing
--ArcEngine for building custom applications
ArcView 3.3 (the predecessor to ArcGIS 8.x) the only GUI option for UNIX.
ESRI Product Line-up: ArcGIS server products
SDE (Spatial Database Engine)
– middleware to support spatial data storage in standard DBMS
– Supports all major industry databases:
»
Oracle, SQL-Server, IBM DB2, Ingres
ArcGIS Server
– Permits the creation of server-based GIS services using any
ArcGIS capability
– Provides GIS capabilities to a user without a desktop GIS
system:
»
inward focus—user goes to server
ArcIMS
– Software to develop Internet server-based mapping and basic
analysis
– Provides maps to the user without a desktop GIS system :
»
outward focus—gives user a map
ArcGIS Services
– Server based applications built and operated by ESRI or its
partners and made available on the Internet for subscription
– Normally charged on a “per transaction” basis, but can be flat fee
– presumably built using ArcGIS Server
Decisions/Actions Required
for Software
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Operating systems for clients and
servers
Interfacing with existing non-GIS
application systems
Selection of GIS software appropriate
for task required
GIS Software Selection
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Council, get off my back! Planner Needs faster, easier, jazzier way of
answering council member queries.
– Need professional analysis package
– use ArcView 9, since city has extensive ArcInfo shapefiles & coverages;
– Uses ModelBuilder and Python scripts to automate most common queries
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Appraisal District needs to accurately maintain parcel files
– Replaces current CAD system with ArcEditor for accurate topological editing
and easier interface with GIS files
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Emergency Preparedness Manager for coastal county needs
application to track potential spread of oil spills
– Uses ArcObjects and VB for Applications within ArcInfo version of ArcGIS to
develop customized model
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City Planner wants easier way for citizens to know location of city
facilities, property zoning, roads, etc..
– Developes ArcIMS application on city server which includes layers for roads,
zoning, parcels, schools, other city facilities, etc.. which citizens can access
from their home PCs using any browser
Contd on next slide
GIS Software Selection
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Bus service manager. Wants application to display real time location of
buses on touch-screen terminal to passengers waiting at transit centers
– Uses ArcServer to develop central application to track buses
– Uses internet browser at transit station to query ArcServer
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Developer of software to support operations within a real estate
office, including payroll, client tracking, billing, etc.., requires way
to map location of houses sold by office
– Uses ArcEngine to incorporate mapping capabilities within his software
system
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Taxation aqnd Assessment. Must tie all my data together--land
ownership, tax rolls, utility lines, roads, 911 calls etc.
– Needs enterprise solution.
– ArcSDE with ORACLE data base, accessed with ArcExplorer (free),
ArcView 9 (for read only & analysis), ArcEditor 9 (for data maintenance) &
ArcInfo 9 (for specialized analyses)
Functional Types of Data
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strategic: long term direction, goals (us versus
them; Ford v. GM; Plano v. Richardson
Tactical/procedural: comparisons for short term
decision making (is it selling?, focus policing at high
accident/crime sites; identify roads)
operational: daily activities (inventory
replenishment; repair orders)
transactional: flows through the system ( water
meter readings, billings, 911 calls).
Database Choices
Workstation
ArcSDE
DB
Middleware
ArcSDE supports
 Oracle
 Microsoft SQL Server
 IBM’s DBII
 Informix
Some database vendors
have ability to support
spatial data directly
without ArcSDE (e.g.
Oracle Spatial)
Selection often a function of
what already exists in house
for business applications
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may conform to ISO standard
Better security
May cost less than ArcSDE
More limited capability (e.g.
no “geodatabase”)
Does not protect against disastrous
destruction! (WTC 9/11, tornado, etc.)