Computer Components – Unit 2.

By Rachel Fiveash.

There are 5 main categories..

• Internal system unit components

• Peripherals

• Backing Storage

• Cables

• Operating Systems

• And software utilities.

Internal Components.

• Mother board• RAM & ROM• BIOS• Hard drive• Graphics Card• Heat sync and fan• Network cards• Sound cards

Motherboard.

The motherboard houses the essential parts of a computer and all connections between the PC and peripheral go through it.

Components onboard the motherboard.

PCI.

• Peripheral Component Interconnect is used for connecting additional hardware to your computer, you slot the new hardware into the PCI slot and it is ready to be used.

AGP.

• Accelerated Graphics Port – is a point-to-point channel for attaching a video card to a computers motherboard.

• AGP is slowly being phased out for PCI Express.

North Bridge.

• the Northbridge is the chip or chips that connect a CPU to memory, the PCI bus and level 2 cache. The Northbridge chip is one of two chips that control the functions of the chipset. The other is the Southbridge.

CPU Socket.

• A CPU socket or CPU slot is an electrical component that attaches to a printed circuit board (PCB)

• It is a special type of integrated circuit socket designed for very high pin counts.

RAM & ROM

• Ram – Random access memory, is used to perform tasks whilst the computer is on, a higher amount of RAM means there is more space available for temporary data storage, which can effectively speed up your computer.

• ROM – read only memory, is where information can be read only, and cannot be changed.

BIOS.

• the BIOS (basic input/output system makes sure all the other chips, hard drives, ports and CPU function together.

• the BIOS contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications, and a number of miscellaneous functions.

• Many modern PCs have a flash BIOS, which means that the BIOS has been put on a flash memory chip, which can be updated if needed.

Cache

• Cache is a component that stores data for future requests so that I can be served faster, which have been used at an earlier date.

• If requested data is contained in the cache this request can be served by simply reading the cache.

Hard drive.

• disk drive: computer hardware that holds and spins a magnetic or optical disk and reads and writes information on it such as files, music, images etc.

Graphics Card.

• is an expansion card whose function is to generate output images to a display. Many video cards offer added functions, such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, video capture, TV-tuner adapter.

Heat sync and fan.

• A component designed to lower the temperature of an electronic device by dissipating heat into the surrounding air. All modern CPUs require a heat sink. Some also require a fan. A heat sink without a fan is called a passive heat sink; a heat sink with a fan is called an active heat sink. Heat sinks are generally made of an aluminium alloy and often have fins.

Network Cards.

• Is an interface to a computer network and allows a network-capable device to access the internet through a network.

Sound Cards.

• Sound cards are a device that allows the input and output of audio signals.

• Sound cards are most commonly used to listen to music and play music and sounds from programmes.

Peripherals.

• Keyboard

• Webcam

• Scanner

• Mouse

Keyboards.

• A keyboard is a device that has keys with characters printed on them, which when pressed the same character appears on screen.

Webcam.

• A webcam is a device which streams images in real time through between computer.

• Webcams can also be built in with microphones so the users can also speak to one another as well as seeing each other.

Scanner.

• Scanners are used to scan and converts printed text, images or an object into a digital image. Images are placed on a glass screen and scanned through into the computer ready to manipulate.

Mouse.

• A mouse is a pointing device which controls the cursor on the users screen as you move it.

Buses

• System bus

• Address bus

• Data bus

• Control bus

System Bus.

• The system bus is conductors that carry data and control signals from one component to another throughout the computer system.

Address Bus.

• The address bus carries addresses that are made in the cpu to the memory of the computer.

• The more conductors determines the size of the address bar.

Data Bus.

• Data can flow from the cpu while a write operation is being performed.

• Whilst data is being read data can also be moved from the computer memory to the CPU.

Control Bus.

• The control bus carries the control and timing signals that are needed to control the orders of activities.

• The microprocessor responds to different control signals.. The most common ones are; System clock (SYSCLK)

• Memory read (MEMR)• Memory write (MEMW)• Read/write line (R/W Line)

Controllers.

• SATA

• IDE

SATA Cables.

• Sata cables are a computer bus for connecting host bus adapters to mass storage device such as hard drives.

IDE Cables.

• IDE stands for integrated development environment.

• IDE is an interface is used between the motherboard and bus to the storage devices. More modern computers use EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics) which is built in.

Operating Systems.

• Operating system is a software consisting of programs and data.

• The operating system also manages the computers hardware

• The operating system applies memory allocation.

• acts as an intermediary between application programs and the computer hardware

Command Line.

• Is the commands that a user types in order to run an application, this relies on the users to know the commands and typing them into the keyboard.

• Unix and Dos both use this type.

GUI.

• GUI, Graphical User Interface means that the user can interact with the computer using (WIMP) – windows, icons, menus and pointing device such as a mouse

• GUI is based on graphics icons, pictures and menus instead of just text.

• Types of operating systems that use this are – Microsoft windows, Mac OS and Linux all use this.

GUI’S.

• The Graphical User interface consists of widgets which can be customized. The widgets allow the user to interact with the programs such as scroll bars, buttons, menus and windows.

• Windows are store’s for content such as files.

Software Utilities - Virus Protection.

• Virus Protection - Virus protection software, also known as anti-virus software, refers to the software for detecting and removing viruses from the user’s computer system, including but not limited to computer viruses, computer worm, Trojan horses, spyware and adware.

• The most common way that virus protection works is via recognising and detecting patterns in data within executable code.

Firewall.

• Firewall is used to block unauthorized access to computer networks. Access is only authorised if the network transmissions match the rules and criteria

• Many personal computers have firewall included in there operating systems, to protect against threats from the public Internet

Removal of cookies.

• cookies are a small piece of text and information that are created by websites which the user has visited, which are then sent to the user’s browser, such as Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari as examples. Some cookies are saved to the user’s hard disk and when you visit the same Web page again; your browser sends these cookies back to the website. Deleting cookies will protect your privacy settings and clear all passwords and users names from your saved to your history.

Clearing internet history.

• clearing internet history protects the users personal information such as passwords, usernames and websites visited.

Defragmentation.

• is a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation in file systems. It does this by physically organizing the contents of the disk to store the pieces of each file close together

• Which speeds up file management and the computer system all together.