This week, we discussed the 3 FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF A COMPUTER which are the following:
• System Unit
• Output Devices
• Input Devices
The system unit acts like the center or core, processing the data and information it receives from input devices.
Output devices like printers receive the system unit’s processed information
Parts of the computer
The System case
The system case is a plastic and metal box that houses components such as the motherboard, disk drives and power supply unit.
System Case Types
There are two basic types of system case: desktop and tower. Desktop case: is designed to sit horizontally on a surface, so that it is wider than it is long. These are usually used for office or home PCs. 2 basic sizes: standard and slim line.
Tower case: is designed to sit vertically on a surface, so that it is higher than it is wide. 3 basic sizes: full, midi and mini.
Parts of the Case
Cover: the case has a cover which is removed by either undoing the screws at the back, or pressing together clips that release it.
Front Panel: provides access to the floppy and CD, a power on/off switch, a reset switch, and LEDs (light Emitting Diodes) to indicate drive operation.
Parts of front panel cover: CD-R and CD-RW drives, removable hard disk, 3.5 floppy disk,3.5 drive bays, LEDs, Reset switch, Power on/off switch.
THE MOTHERBOARD
The motherboard is the largest board of the computer system.
The motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and all the controllers required to control standard peripheral devices, such as the display screen, keyboard, and disk drive. Chipset: chips that reside on the motherboard.
The mother board battery: is used to preserve the computer’s clock’s time and your BIOS settings while the computer is turned off.
THE CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT-CPU
Is the device that interprets and executes instructions.
CLOCK
The system clock synchronizes the operation of all parts of the PC.
It consists of a clock generator that sets up a timing signal, and clock multipliers.
MEMORY
2 fundamental types:
-main memory and
-secondary memory
MAIN MEMORY
Very closely connected to the processor. The contents are quickly and easily changed. Holds the programs and data that the processor is actively working with. Interacts with the processor millions of times per second.
RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM)
It means the computer can store, retrieve, alter or delete any items held in the RAM’s at random. It is a semiconductor-based memory that can read and written.
ROM BIOS
The BIOS (basic input output system) is a ROM (read only memory) chips that provides:
The industry standard program code that operates the fundamental components of the PC (for example, VDU, keyboard, printer port) and ensures that the design of each manufacturer’s motherboard is PC-compatible.
The routines that allow the setup configuration of a PC (stored in the CMOS RAM) to be viewed and edited.
The power-on self-test (POST) diagnostic tests for the PC
CMOS RAM
CMOS RAM stores the configuration of the PC.
CMOS stands for Complimentary Metal-Oxide Semiconductors, which describes the manufacturing process used to make RAM chip.
The CMOS battery is either a NICard, lithium or alkaline cell
SECONDARY MEMORY
Connected to main memory through the bus and a controller
The contents are easily changed, but this is very slow compared to main memory
Used for long-term storage of programs and data
The processor only occasionally interacts with secondary memory
3 Standard sizes:
8-inch is called a largefloppy
5.25-inch is called a minifloppy
3.5-inch is called a microfloppy
5.25-inch floppies were invented by Shugart Associates
3.35-inch floppies were invented by Sony.
The typical 3.5 floppy drive holds 1.44 MB.
Drive
Zip, the most popular super-capacity floppy disks is the Zip disk.
It holds 100M, which is 70 times as much as 1.44M floppy
HARD DISK
Might have a storage capacity of 40 gigabytes. This is about 300 times the amount of storage in main memory (assuming 128 megabytes of main memory)
CD-ROMs
CD that holds music is called a music CD
A CD that holds computer data instead is called a computer CD
The standard CD-ROM disks has a diameter of 12 centimeters and holds 650 megabytes.
The CD can hold 99 tracks, totaling an hour of music or 650 Mb.
CD-RW
CD-rewritable drive, which can write onto a blank CD-RW disk and then edit what you wrote.
DVD
1997, the electronic industry selling an improved kind of CD, called a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)
Holds 2-hour movie (including the video and sound)
Movie Lovers call it a Digital Video Disk
VIDEO CARD
A board that pugs into a personal computer to give it display capabilities
Graphics Accelerator: adapters graphics coprocessor for performing graphics calculations
Video Card are also called video adapter, video board , video display board, graphics card and graphics
UNDERSTANDING VIDEO GRAPHICS
The video/graphics card converts digital data into signals that can be sent across a connector to you monitor, which interprets the signal into an image on screen.
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