Computer Literacy
A look at the brains of the computer,
the motherboard, and its associated
components.
Overview
1. Inside a PC
2. The Motherboard the 'brains'
3. RAM
4. ROM types of memory
5. CMOS Memory
6. The CPU the processor
7. Expansion Slots
8. Booting the Computer
2
Inside a PC
CD-ROM
Power drive
supply
Hard disk
drive
Mother
board Floppy
disk drive
Sound/network
cards
Wires and
ribbon cables
3
Motherboards
House the CPU
Allow devices to communicate with it and each other
Most popular: ATX
ATX
More power-management features
Support faster systems
Easier to install
Selection of motherboard determines capabilities and
limitations of the system
4
Form Factor
Motherboard form factor
Determines the size of the board
Drives selection of power supply, case, CPU, cards
ATX: most popular motherboard form factor
BTX: the latest motherboard form factor
Three types of motherboards you can select:
A board providing the most room for expansion
A board suiting the computers current configuration
A board falling in between current and future needs
ATX Motherboard Parts
ATX Motherboard Standard
Printed Circuit Board
Expansion Slot ( PCI type )
Expansion slot or Expansion bus is the slot that enable the user
to add the adapter card for additional function to the system.
Peripheral Component Inter-Connect slots allow direct
interaction between secondary H/W and CPU
Ex.
-Sound card or Multimedia
- LAN card.
- Internal Modem card.
-TV tuner card.
-Additional hard disc controller card.
AGP Port
AGP ( Accelerated Graphic Port ) port is a high speed data
transfer port, this port is used by the display adapter card that
demands so much data with in short period of time.
IO Connector/USB ports
Hard Drive Connection
There are two types of hard drive
connections that a computer could have:
Parallel ATA (PATA), also known as IDE,
and Serial ATA (SATA).
Serial ATA (SATA, abbreviated from Serial
AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface
that connects host bus adapters to mass
storage devices such as hard disk drives,
optical drives, and solid-state drives
Parallel ATA (PATA), originally AT
Attachment, is an interface standard for the
connection of storage devices such as hard
disk drives, floppy disk drives, and optical
disc drives in computers.
Memory Socket( DIMM socket)
There are 3 types of memory that currently
popular used in the PC,
1. SD RAM
2. DDR RAM
3. Rambus-DRAM
or RDRAM
Continue.
RDRAM Memory
-Used in Pentium 4 motherboard
-highest performance and is most
expensive.
DDR ram
-128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB.
-medium high performance and
medium price.
SDRAM
-lowest performance and lowest
price.
Data/Instruction Flow from RAM to Cache
ROM
Read-Only Memory can
be read but not changed.
It is non-volatile storage: it remembers its contents
even when the power is turned off.
Some kinds of ROM are PROM, EPROM, EEPROM,
and CD-ROM.
CMOS Memory
CMOS is a battery powered semiconductor chip which
the battery
stores information.
A computer needs a semi-permanent
way of keeping some start-up data
e.g. the current time, the no. of hard disks and type of
hard disks and boot sequence.
the data may need to be updated/changed
CMOS memory requires (very little) power to retain
its contents.
supplied by a battery on the motherboard
Retains data even when computer is turned off
BIOS
Its the first program that runs every time we turn on computer.
BIOS instructs the computer on how to perform a number of
basic functions such as booting and keyboard control.
It also provides a way for configuring computer hardware.
Hardware like hard drive, floppy drive, optical
drive, CPU, memory, etc.
On starting computer we see message like Press F2 for Setup
Non volatile
CMOS Battery
This is a 3 volt battery, this
battery supplies the power
to CMOS ram for CMOS
ram to retain the
information during system
powered off, the battery
may be last for 5 or 6 years.
CPU Socket
A CPU socket or slot is an electrical
component that attaches to a printed
circuit board (PCB) and is designed to
house a CPU (also called a
microprocessor).
It is a special type of integrated circuit
socket designed for very high pin counts.
CPU sockets on the motherboard can
most often be found in most desktop
and server computers (laptops typically
use surface mount CPUs), particularly
those based on the Intelx86 architecture.
The CPU
The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the chip on the
motherboard that acts as the "computer's brain "
it does calculations, and coordinates the other
motherboard components
CPU examples: the Pentium, the PowerPC chip
The CPU is also known as the processor or
microprocessor.
Different kind of CPU
Intel
Celeron Common
Pentium 4 features
Xeon
Clock rate >
AMD
2GHz
Duron
Athlon XP
Differences
Sempron Word Size
Athlon 64 Cache Memory
Size
Front Side Bus
No. of transistors
Some Processors (CPUs)
Pentium Chip
PowerPC Chip
Chip Fan
AMD Processors (continued)
The CPU and RAM Communication
The RAM The CPU
contains data processes data.
and programs.
The data bus transports the
processed data to the RAM so
it can be stored, displayed, or
output.
How CPU Works
The CPU in Action
The CPU
Chip set is a set of IC.
Chipset
The combination of
the North and Southbridge
in a computer is Called
the chipset.
NB allows communication
between CPU,RAM,AGP
SB handles Secondary
H/W,BIOS,I/O,USB
The System Clock
The system clock sends out 'ticks' to control the timing
of all the motherboard tasks
e.g. it controls the speed of the data bus and the
instruction cycle
The time it takes to complete an instruction cycle is
measured in megahertz (MHz).
1 MHz = one million cycles per second
CPU Heat Sinks and Cooling Fans
Explore.
Hard disk and its connectivity to mother board??
Disk Drive Components and working??
Difference between SATA and PATA??
Power supply and power connectors??
What is North Bridge and South Bridge??
Discuss about Booting process ??
