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Monitors - Video Card
Processes info to send to monitor
Amount of video memory may speed up
graphic intensive programs
» 32 megs –general purpose
» 128 or more megs – graphic intensive use
AGP port can speed up graphics
3D accelerator card improves graphics
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Monitor - Buying Hints
17” or larger
.28 dot pitch or better
32 or more megs of memory on
video card
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Printers
Laser
Ink Jet
Dot Matrix
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Printers - Laser
Works similar to a copy machine
» Color printers available but more expensive
Fast, quite, with excellent quality
More expensive to buy and operate
Some units scan, photocopy, and print
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Printers - Ink Jet
Squirts small jet of ink onto paper to
form characters
Replaced dot matrix
Quiet
Does good job on color
Good quality and reliability
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Printers - Dot Matrix
Strikes pins against ribbon to print
Comes in 9 and 24 pin
Once very popular
Now replaced by ink jet and laser
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Printers - Speed
Measured in pages per minute (PPM)
Laser printers range from 20-45 ppm
» Color printing is slower
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Printers - Quality of Print
One measure is dots per inch (DPI)
» 300 dpi for general purpose uses
» 600 dpi for higher quality
» 1200 dpi for photo quality
May have different vertical and
horizontal resolution
» 600 x 300
Other factors can affect quality
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Basic Processing Cycle
Central Internal
Data
Processing Memory
Bus
Unit
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How Information Is Stored
Memory consist of switches which can
be either on or off - Off=0 On=1
Each on/off switch is called a bit
Eight bits make up a byte
It takes one byte to store a character
» Character can be letter, space, punctuation,
etc.
» ASCII code used
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Other Memory Terms
Byte is eight bits
Kilobyte (KB) is approx. 1,000 bytes
Megabyte (MB) is approx. 1million bytes
Gigabyte (GB) is approx. 1 billion bytes
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Central Processing Unit
Also called CPU, processor or
microprocessor
Is the “brains” of the computer
Performs all computer operations
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CPU - IBM COMPATIBLES
Many made by company called Intel
Also made by AMD
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Pentium class processors
Needed to run most current software
Intel – Celeron or Pentium IV
AMD
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CPU - Clock Speed
Number of “cycles” per second
computer can operate
Measured in megahertz (MHz)
One MHz = 1 million cycles per second
One gigahertz(GHz)=1 billion cycles
Current speeds 2-4 GHz
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CPU - Misc.
Performance also affected by speed of
data bus
» 400-800 MHz on most current systems
Cache can increase speed
» Stores data you will likely need next in an
area that has faster access
» Both memory cache and disk cache used
» Should be 512 K or better
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CPU - Buying Hints
Minimum of Pentium IV or AMD Athlon
Minimum of 2 GHz clock speed
Minimum of 512K of cache
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Internal Memory - RAM
RAM - Random Access Memory
» CPU can access any location as quickly as any
other
Can not only read current info but also write
new info
Very important in determining capabilities of
the computer system
Computer should have at least 256 megs -
512 preferred (can add to later)
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Internal Memory - ROM
ROM - Read Only Memory
» Can read info Stored in ROM
» Can not write new info into ROM
Used for “internal workings” of computer
Buyer is not very concerned with ROM
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External Memory
