Chapter 2. Capacity 21
2.3 Elements of a system required for capacity
Any computer system, from a single user personal computer to a multi-thousand
user IBM System z mainframe, performs work in the following stages:
1. Load a program from a storage device (normally a disk) to main storage.
2. Process the instructions in the program.
3. Load any required data from disk or tape into main storage.
4. Process the data and send the results to the desired endpoint.
This requires the following elements of hardware:
Processors
main storage
Access input/output storage (for example, disk or tape). This includes also the
connection to that device (channels or network).
For maximum capacity, these three elements must be in balance and have
software capab ...