Hardware Study Material

8/6/2019 Hardware Study Material

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/hardware-study-material 1/33

CS Study Material

Skill+

Learning Academy



CS Study Material

Skill+

Learning Academy Hardware 1

Hardware

Introduction:

All the elements put together to make up a PC fall into one of two categories

Hardware or Software. One of the definitions of 'Hardware' according to Webster'sdictionary is 'major items of equipment or their components used for a particular

purpose’. Hardware refers to the electrical, mechanical and electronic components of acomputer e.g. Monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. Software refers to programs or set of

instructions that enable the computer to perform a specific task e.g. Anti virus, MS Officeetc. Firmware is a combination of hardware and software. These are programs that are

written on Read Only Memory (ROM) chips.e.g. BIOS. This section is about hardware,upon which software runs.

Objectives

This chapter will focus on

· Computer Analog and Digital computers

· Input and Output Devices

· Components present inside the PC cabinet · Components of a Motherboard (includes Processor, RAM, ROM, Expansion

slots)

· NIC and its types

· Modems Dial up, DSL and Cable

What is a Computer?

A computer is an electronic device that accepts information in digital or similar form and manipulates it for a result, based on a sequence of instructions given.

Computers typically perform their work in three well defined steps: (1) Accepting input,(2) Processing the input according to predefined rules (programs) and (3) Producing

output.



CS Study Material

Skill+


Analog and Digital Computer

An analog computer operates with numbers represented by directly measurable

quantities (such as temperature changes or voltages) which vary continuously, whereas a

digital computer works with signals which are either on or off (binary 0 or 1). Allordinary computers are digital; Analog computers are employed for special uses, such asrobotics, where an experimental design can be tested in real time.

Desktops and laptops

Desktop computer is a personal computer made for use on a desk in an office or home. Laptop computers, also called a notebook computer or notebook, is a small

personal computer designed for mobility.

Input Devices

Input devices are devices that are used for feeding data or instructions to a computer. Thefollowing are some of the commonly used input devices used in our day today life.

Keyboard

The primary function of the keyboard is to translate keystrokes into letters or

numbers. Using a keyboard, a person can type a document, use keystroke shortcuts,access menus, play games and perform a variety of other tasks. Keyboards can have

different keys depending on the manufacturer, the operating system they're designed for,and whether they are attached to a desktop computer or part of a laptop. Wireless

keyboards are becoming increasingly popular. The wireless receiver usually connects tothe computer via USB.

Keyboard

http://www.howstuffworks.com/laptop.htm

http://www.howstuffworks.com/operating-system.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_desk

http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/secondary_definition.php?lookup=794



CS Study Material

Skill+


Mouse

Every day, we reach out for our mouse whenever we want to move the cursor or

activate something. The mouse senses the motion and the clicks and sends them to thecomputer so it can respond appropriately. It acts as a pointing device.

Optical Mouse

There are two basic types of mouse – mechanical and optical. Mechanical mousehas a rubber ball at the bottom that can roll in any direction. The ball mouse utilizes two

rollers rolling against two sides of the ball. One roller detects the horizontal motion of themouse and other the vertical motion. An optical mouse uses a light emitting diode and

photodiodes to detect movement relative to the underlying surface.

Scanner

A scanner is a device that can read text or illustrations printed on paper and interpret

the information into a form the computer can use. Larger scanners include machines intowhich you can feed sheets of paper. These are called sheet fed scanners. A second type of

large scanner, called a flatbed scanner, is like a photocopy machine. It consists of a boardon which you lay books, magazines, and other documents that you want to scan. Most

scanners of this type connect via USB ports.

Scanner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodiode

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode



CS Study Material

Skill+


Output Devices

An output device is any piece of computer hardware equipment used to communicate theresults of dat processing carried out by the computer to the outside world

Printer

Printer is an output device which can be used to get a printed copy of the processedtext or result on paper. There are different types of printers that are designed for different

types of applications.

The commonly used printers are

Dot Matrix Printer

Dot matrix printer is an impact printer that produces text and graphics when tiny wire pins on the print head strike the ink ribbon. The print head runs back and forth on the

paper like a typewriter. When the ink ribbon presses on the paper, it creates dots that

form text and images. As of today, dot matrix printers are only used in some point of sales terminals, or businesses where printing of carbon copy multi part forms or datalogging are needed.



CS Study Material

Skill+


Inkjet Printer

Inkjet printers are non impact printers which print text and images by spraying

tiny droplets of liquid ink onto paper. The core of an inkjet printer, the print headcontains a series of nozzles that are used to spray drops of ink. Depending on the

manufacturer and model of the printer, ink cartridges come in variouscombinations, such as separate black and color cartridges, color and black in a

single cartridge or even a cartridge for each ink color.

Laser Printer

Laser printer uses toner (black or colored powder) instead of liquid inks. A laser

printer consists of these major components: drum cartridge, rotating mirror, toner



CS Study Material

Skill+


Cartridge and roller. The drum cartridge rotates as the paper is fed through. The

mirror deflects laser beam across the surface of the drum. Laser beam createscharge that causes the toner to stick to the drum. As the drum rotates and presses

on paper, toner is transferred from the drum to paper, creating images. Rollers thenuse heat and pressure to fuse toner to paper.

Monitor

The computer monitor is an output device that is part of the computer's displaysystem. A cable connects the monitor to a video adapter (video card) that is installed in

the computer’s motherboard. This system converts signals into text and pictures and

displays them on a TV like screen (the monitor) .

There are two basic types of monitors in use today

· CRT based which are being used as a standard desktop unit for many years.

· LCD which were traditionally associated with portable computer and now beingused in desktop PCs also.

CRT Monitor LCD Monitor

The Cathode Ray Tube is a funnel shaped glass tube that uses electron guns toexcite the phosphor elements on the back of the display glass. The lightened phosphors

blend to form images and movements that show through the display of the CRT for theuser to view.

The Liquid Crystal Display is popular because it is thinner, lighter and requires less

power than CRT. Liquid crystals are organic, rod shaped molecules that have propertiesof both solids and liquids. Light passes through the crystals depending on how the

molecules are aligned and applying an electric current to the crystals alters their molecular alignment. LCD monitors are more expensive than CRT monitors because they

cause more to produce.



CS Study Material

Skill+


Advantages of LCD over CRT

· They are perfectly flat.

· They do not use bulky, heavy Cathode Ray Tube. · They do not produce EMI.

· They use far less power.

Depending on the type of CRT used, they are classified as

1. Monochrome monitors

2. Color monitors

“Mono” means one and “chrome” means color. Monochrome monitors show their images in one color, it may be green, amber and white phosphor, crimson. Color of the

display is obtained but different gray levels and different shades in the same color arealso possible.

For color monitors, three primary colors i.e., Red, Green and Blue are used. Hence

the combination of all the prime colors can be obtained.

Speaker

A speaker gives sound output from the computer. Some speakers are built intothe computer and some are separate.

Speakers



CS Study Material

Skill+


PC Cabinet

The PC cabinet or case is a thin sheet metal enclosure that houses theMotherboard, Switch Mode Power Supply (SMPS) and various drives (Hard Disk Drive,

Floppy Disk Drive, Compact Disk Drive and Digital Versatile Disk).

Inside the PC Tower

Motherboard

Motherboard acts as the spine of the computer, because it aggregates all of the

PC’s primary system components on a single Printed Circuit Board (PCB). Themotherboard of a PC is a home to many of the most essential parts of the computer,

including the microprocessor, expansion bus, chipset, memory sockets, parallel and serial ports, mouse and keyboard connectors, IDE and floppy disk drive controllers etc.

The SMPS unit, hard disk, CD ROM drive, floppy dick drive etc are alsoconnected to the motherboard.



CS Study Material

Skill+


Components of the Motherboard

Processor a short form for microprocessor and also often called the CPU or central

processing unit , is the central component of the PC. The processor is placed in the processor slot / socket present on the motherboard. All the work that is done on the

computer is performed directly or indirectly by the processor. Two typical components of a CPU are

· The arithmetic logic unit (ALU ), which performs arithmetic and logicaloperations.

· The control unit (CU), which extracts instructions from memory and decodes

and executes them, calling on the ALU when necessary.

Expansion Slots

Expansion slots are built in areas for future expansion.An expansion card (like Network Interface Card, Sound card etc.) can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer

motherboard to add additional functionality to a computer system.

Motherboard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motherboard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/execute.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/memory.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/instruction.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CU.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/ALU.html



CS Study Material

Skill+


Inserting an Expansion Slot

Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) is an older bus standard that was mainly

designed for IBM PC. It comes as both 8 and 16 bit interfaces. They are black in colour.These are now a days replaced by PCI.

Industry Standard Architecture

Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) is a 32 bit interface. It is creamy

white in colour. It is in this slot where we plug in the Network Interface Card. NIC allows

the computer to be linked to a computer network where it can communicate with other computers. Also used as a means of accessing the Internet via a broadband connection.

Sound card, internal modem, TV tunner card can also be connected to this slot.

Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended (PCI X) is a computer bus

that is designed to supercede PCI. The width of the bus is 64 bit. It is backward compatible with PCI. It may be creamy white, green or orange in colour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_Component_Interconnect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_bus



CS Study Material

Skill+


PCI Express PCI and PCI X, are 32 and 64 bit parallel buses respectively but PCI

Express uses high speed serial link technology similar to that found in Gigabit Ethernet,

Serial ATA (SATA), and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). PCI Express reflects an industry

trend to replace legacy shared parallel buses with high speed point to point serial buses.PCI Express was designed to replace the PCI, PCI X, and AGP parallel buses gradually.

Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) is an interface specification that enables 3 Dgraphics to display quickly on ordinary personal computers, enhancing both the look and

speed of the computer's graphics. AGP is designed to convey 3 D images much morequickly and smoothly. It is especially useful in conjunction with gaming, three

dimensional (3D) video, and sophisticated scientific/engineering graphics programs.

Accelerated Graphics Port



CS Study Material

Skill+


Expansion slots in laptop computers

PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) are 16 bit slots that are present in laptop computers. They are hot swappable and plug n

play compatible. The cards that are connected to this slots are called ‘PC cards’ or

‘PCMCIA cards’ There are three types of PCMCIA slots/ cards

Type No of rows of pins Usage

Type I Single row of pins For memory cards.

Type II Two rows of pins For modems and LAN adapters

Type III Four rows of pins For PC card hard disks.

Cardbus Improved version of PCMCIA is cardbus. Cardbus allows for all the

functions that are possible with PCMCIA cards, but with these improvements:

· A 32 bit path is used for data transfer.

· The operating speed is several times greater. · CardBus works at lower battery voltage.

These CardBus cards can only be used with CardBus slots they are keyed to preventinsertion into 16 bit slots so that the card and the slot won't be damaged by differing

voltage requirements. 16 bit cards work in either type of slot, but CardBus cards only

work in CardBus slots. A CardBus card will have a gold grounding shield strip across it,typically with 8 small metal bumps. This strip is necessary to prevent signal noise frominterfering with CardBus high speed bus.

Cardbus card PCMCIA card



CS Study Material

Skill+


Connectors

The cables used in PCs terminate in a variety of connectors. Every connector is

considered either male or female. The male has "pins" which stick out, while the femalehas holes, or "receptacle" contacts. A familiar example of a male and female connector is

a power socket. The plug (with the pins) is the male connector, while the socket (with theholes for the pins to go into) is the female connector. In most cases, a male connector is

found on the end of a cable and a female connector on the component it plugs into,although there are a few exceptions.

PS2 connectors The keyboard and mouse use "PS2" connectors. The PS2 connectors

are color coded. The purple connector is for the keyboard. The green connector is for the

mouse. Earlier 5 pin DIN (Deutsches Industries Norms) connector was used for keyboards.PS2 connectors are also called as 6 pin mini DIN connectors.

Monitor Port is a 15 pin female connector (arranged in 3 rows as (5+5+5)) used for

connecting Monitor, LCD etc

Monitor Cable

Game Port is a 15 pin connector (arranged in 2 rows as (8+7) used for joystick.



CS Study Material

Skill+


Serial Port

Serial port is a DB 9 Male connector. Pins will be arranged as 5 & 4 in each row

respectively. Data transfer is bit by bit. Devices like external dial up modem, serialmouse can be connected to this port.

Serial Port

Parallel Port

Parallel port is a 25 pin Female connector. Pins will be arranged as 13 & 12 in each row

respectively. Parallel port transfers number of bits at a time. Printers, Scanners andPlotters can be connected to this port.

Parallel Port

Universal Serial Bus

USB is a standard feature on all PCs and makes it much easier for users everywhere to

plug in everything from digital cameras to MP3 players to their PCs. Devices are easier toinstall and can be disconnected and plugged back in freely without rebooting the system

(hot swappable). USB has provided a tenfold performance increase in data speed. Today,new device categories include digital camcorders, digital still cameras, USB flash drives,

MP3 players, external DVD RWs, CD burners, external storage and more advanceddigital scanners and specialty printers.



CS Study Material

Skill+


There are three versions of USB

USB Version Data Transfer rate

1.0 (Prototype) 1 2 Mbps

1.1 12 Mbps

2.0 (High speed USB) 480 Mbps

Upto 127 devices can be connected a USB port using a USB hub.

There are two types of connectors on USB cables: a long, flat rectangle for plugginginto computers and hubs called 'USB A', and a smaller, square connector for

plugging into devices like external CD and Hard drives, scanners, and printerscalled 'USB B'.

USB A

USB

USB B



CS Study Material

Skill+


Basic Input Output System (BIOS)

The BIOS is special software that interfaces the major hardware components of a

computer with the operating system. The BIOS is placed in a ROM chip on the

motherboard (often called as ROM BIOS). The primary function of the BIOS is to prepare the PC so other software programs stored on various media (such as hard drives,floppies, and CDs) can load, execute and assume control of the PC. This process is

known as booting up.

BIOS

Many modern PCs have flash BIOS, which means that the BIOS has been recorded on aflash memory chip, which can be upgraded if necessary.

When the computer is powered on the first thing that the BIOS does is called the Power On Self Test, or POST for short. POST (Power On Self Test) is the diagnostic testing

sequence that a computer's BIOS runs to determine if the computer keyboard, randomaccess memory, disk drives, and other hardware devices are working properly or not.

If the necessary hardware is detected and found to be operating properly, the computer

begins to boot. If the hardware is not detected or is found not to be operating properly,the BIOS issues an error message which may be text on the display screen and/or a series

of coded beeps, depending on the nature of the problem.

http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid1_gci211696,00.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/flash_memory.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_software

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/chip.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/ROM.html




CS Study Material

Skill+


Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)

BIOS stores the PC’s configuration settings in the CMOS. It contains informationsuch as boot order, real time system clock, calendar settings, hardware passwords, hard

drive configuration settings, power management settings and the installed memory(RAM). Essentially the CMOS chip stores data for the BIOS so that a computer can boot

up properly. The small lithium battery on the motherboard is responsible for retaininginformation like the date and time of the system, so that even if the computer is switched

off for a long period, the system can still compute and recall the current date and time.

SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supply)

The system box has a separate power supply unit inside called the Switched Mode

Power Supply (SMPS). The main work of this unit is to convert high voltage AC currentto a low voltage DC current that can be handled by the computer (Computers can handle± 5 V or ± 12 V DC current).

Power supply connectors

AT (Advanced Technology) connector consists of two 6 pin connectors that carry DC

power connections to the motherboard. These carry +5, 5,+12 and 12 voltages. In thiscase, manual shutdown takes place, i.e., If this type of connector is used in a

motherboard, it displays ‘It is now safe to turn off the computer’. The power buttonneeds to be pressed once this message appears, to switch off the computer.

ATX (Advanced Technology Extended) connector provides 5 voltages +5, 5, +12, 12and 3.3V through a 20 pin connector. In this case, automatic shutdown takes place, i.e.,

the computer shuts down without the user having to press the power button.

Memory

The term ‘memory’ refers to all the storage areas of a computer. Hence, it is also referred

to simply as ‘storage’. Data is stored in the memory and retrieved whenever required. Thememory performs the following major functions:

· All data and instructions are stored here before and after processing.

· Intermediate results of processing are also stored here.

There are two kinds of computer memory: Primary and Secondary



CS Study Material

Skill+


Primary memory also called ‘main memory’ is used to store the program that a

computer is currently running. It also provides the additional temporary storage requiredduring the execution of a program. The primary memory is accessible directly by the

processing unit. RAM & ROM form a part of the main memory of a computer.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

RAM refers to the working memory of a computer where data and programs are

temporarily stored. Memory or RAM is a type of computer storage whose contents can beaccessed in any order. RAM is a volatile memory. Data in RAM stays as long as thecomputer is running. When switched off, RAM loses its data. It is also called read/write

memory.

Types of RAM

Static RAM (SRAM) refers to a type of RAM that holds its data without external

refresh, for as long as power is supplied to the circuit which makes it faster; but it isexpensive. Static RAM is used for cache memory.

Cache memory is random access memory (RAM) that temporarily stores frequently used

instructions and data for quicker processing by the central processor of a computer. Thecache is usually filled from main memory when instructions or data are fetched into the

CPU. As the microprocessor processes data, it looks first in the cache memory and if itfinds the data there, it does not have to do the more time consuming reading of data from

larger memory. An L1 cache is on the same chip as the microprocessor. L2 is usually aseparate static RAM (SRAM) chip. The main RAM is usually a dynamic RAM (DRAM)

chip. Cache memory is much like other memory, except it can operate much faster, andmuch more expensive.

RAM

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid94_gci213914,00.html

http://searchsmb.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid5_gci214231,00.html



http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid44_gci212546,00.html

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid_gci211728,00.html

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid44_gci214255,00.html



CS Study Material

Skill+


Dynamic RAM (DRAM) is a type of RAM that only holds its data if it is

continuously accessed by special logic called a refresh circuit. This circuitry reads thecontents of each memory cell constantly (hundreds of times each second), whether the

memory cell is being used at that time by the computer or not.

Types of Dynamic RAM

Type of RAMNo of

PinsWidth Usage

SD RAM 168 64 bit Older and slower type. No use.

RD RAM 184 16 bitAdvanced RAM. Only used for few

Pentium 4’s with specific Intel chipsets.

DDR RAM 184 64 bitA faster version of SD RAM. Used both

for Athlon and Pentium 4’s.

DDR2 RAM 240 64 bit New version of DDR RAM with higher

clock frequencies.

SD RAM – Synchronous Dynamic RAM

RD RAM Rambus Dynamic RAM

DDR RAM – Double Data Rate RAM

Read Only Memory (ROM) The storage of program and data in the ROM is

permanent. The ROM stores some standard processing programs supplied by the

manufacturers to operate the personal computer. The ROM can only be read by the CPU but it cannot be changed. The memories, which do not loose their content on failure of

power supply, are known as non volatile memories. ROM is a non volatile memory.

Types of ROM

Ø Programmable ROM (PROM) — can be custom programmed by the

user (once) using special circuitry

Ø Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM) — can also be programmed and erased by the user using ultraviolet light and special

circuitry external to the computer.

Ø Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM) — can be erased andreprogrammed by special circuitry within the computer.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/dynamic_RAM.html



CS Study Material

Skill+


Ø Electrically Alterable Read Only Memory (EAROM) is a type of

EEPROM that can be modified one bit at a time. Writing is a very low

process and again requires higher voltage (usually around 12 V) thanis used for read access.

Secondary memory also called ‘storage memory’ refers to mass storage devices which

includes magnetic disks like hard drives and floppy disks ; optical disks such as CDROMs ; and magnetic tapes.

Floppy Disk

A floppy disk is a magnetic storage medium encased in a square or a rectangular plasticwallet. The first floppy drive used was an 8 inch disk, after which 5.25 inch and 3.5 inchdisks came into existence. The 5.25 inch disk held 360 kilobytes compared to the 1.44

megabyte capacity of 3.5 inch diskette.

The floppy disk drive is connected to the motherboard using the floppy disk driveconnectors (34 pins) on the motherboard.

Floppy Disk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrically_alterable_read-only_memory



CS Study Material

Skill+


CD ROM : Compact Disk Read Only Memory

CD ROM is a polycarbonate disc with one or more metal layers capable of storing digital

information. It can store up to 700 MB.

A hard disk often called a "Hard Disk Drive," or "hard drive," stores and providesrelatively quick access to large amounts of data on an electromagnetically charged

surface or set of surfaces. Today's computers come with a hard disk that contains several billion bytes (gigabytes of storage).

Hard Disk

Hard disks have a hard platter that holds the magnetic medium. Data is stored onthe surface of a platter in sectors and tracks. Tracks are concentric circles and

sectors are radial lines on a track, like this

CD ROM

http://images.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http%3A//lloyd.caltech.edu/albums/cdrom/cdrom.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A//lloyd.caltech.edu/gallery/view_photo.php%3Fset_albumName=cdrom&id=cdrom&h=375&w=379&sz=197&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=9wXYm1-CPyZMOM%3A&tbnh=141&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq=CDROM+&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N





CS Study Material

Skill+


Tracks and Sectors

A hard disk is really a set of stacked "disks," each of which has data recorded

electromagnetically in tracks on the disk. A "head" records (writes) or reads theinformation on the tracks. Two heads, one on each side of a disk, read or write the

data as the disk spins. A sector contains a fixed number of bytes for example,256 or 512. Either at the drive or the operating system level, sectors are often

grouped together into clusters.

The process of low level formatting a drive, establishes the tracks andsectors on the platter. High level formatting then writes the file storage structures,

like the file allocation table, into the sectors. This process prepares the drive tohold files.

IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) is a standard electronic interface used

between a computer motherboard's data paths or bus and the computer's storage

devices (like hard disk and CDROM). IDE has 40 pins and 2 IDE controllers are present in the motherboard.

SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment Standard) IDE is

now a days replaced by SATA. SATA like IDE is computer bus primarilydesigned for transfer of data between a computer and storage devices (like disk

drives and optical drives).

USB Flash Drive

USB flash drives are flash memory data storage devices integrated with a USB(Universal Serial Bus) interface. They are typically small, lightweight, removable

and rewritable. They are more compact, faster, hold more data, and are morereliable due to their lack of moving parts, and more durable design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_storage_device

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory







CS Study Material

Skill+


USB

Network Interface Card

Network Interface Card, also called network adapter card or network card, a device thatallows a computer to communicate on a network. It acts an a interface between the

computer and the network.

Types of NIC

There are different types of NICs available for different purposes. The major types are

Wired NICs and wireless NICs. To connect a computer to a wired network a wired NICis used. To connect a computer to a wireless network, wireless NIC is used. The main

difference between a wired NIC and a wireless NIC is Wired NIC has an RJ 45 port,whereas a wireless NIC has small transreceiving circuit to send and receive signals. There

are other types of NICs as well



CS Study Material

Skill+


NIC Type Usage Slot/Port

PCI adapter

(wired / wireless)

Used for connecting a desktop

computer to a wired / wirelessnetwork

Connected to PCI slot

PCMCIA adapter (wired / wireless)

Used for connecting laptopcomputer to a wired / wireless

network

Connected to Type II PCMCIAslot

USB adapter

(wired / wireless)

Used for connecting desktop /

laptop computer to a wired /wireless network

Connected to USB port

Modem

The term modem stands for Modulator Demodulator.Computers work with digital data

whereas telephone lines are analog. A modem is a device that converts digital datagenerated by the computer into analog waves that it can send over the phone line. At the

other end of a telephone connection, a second / receiving modem demodulates the analogsignal back into digital dta and relays it to another computer.

Modem



CS Study Material

Skill+


Types of modem

Dial up modem

The client uses a dial up modem connected to a computer and a telephone line to dial

into an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) node, which is then routed to the Internet.Thesemodems utilize traditional copper phone lines to transmit analog signals. The maximum

speed delivered by a dial up modem is 56 Kbps. Dial up modems can be installed inside aPC in an expansion slot or attached to the PC externally through a serial or USB port.

Internal Dial up modem

As the name suggests, this type of dial up modem is installed inside a PC in an expansionslot. It has 2 RJ11 ports one connected to the line and the other connected to the phone.

External Dial up Modem


An external dial up modem is attached to the PC externally through a serial or USB port.It also has 2 RJ11 ports one connected to the line and the other connected to the phone

and a serial port / USB port to be connected to the PC.

http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/analog.html

http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/modem.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_service_provider

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_line

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem



CS Study Material

Skill+



Cable Modem

A cable modem is a type of modem that provides access to a data signal sent over the cable television infrastructure.Because the coaxial cable used by cable TV provides

much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable modem can be used to achieveextremely fast access to the internet.

DSL Modem

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is a very high speed connection that uses the samecables as a regular telephone line. Unlike dial up modem, both the internet and the phone(for calls) can be used at the same time.

References

· PC Hardware, A Beginner’s Guide – Gilster · http://www.howtobuildyourowncomputer.net

· http://searchstorage.techtarget.com

· http://www.nos.org/htm

· http://developer.apple.com/hardwaredrivers/firewire/index.html · http://en.wikipedia.org

· www.pcguide.com, · www.computercompanion.com

http://www.computercompanion.com/

http://www.pcguide.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/

http://developer.apple.com/hardwaredrivers/firewire/index.html

http://www.nos.org/htm/funda2.htm

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/telephone.htm

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cable_modem.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/bandwidth.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/coaxial_cable.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem



CS Study Material

Skill+


Review

Ø Computers perform their work in three well defined steps: (1) Accepting input,

(2) Processing the input according to predefined rules (programs), and (3)

Producing output.

Ø Keyboard, mouse and scanners are few examples of input devices and monitor,

speaker and printer are examples of output devices.

Ø An expansion card is inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard

to add additional functionality to a computer system. Some of expansion slots are

ISA, PCI, PCI Express etc.

Ø USB and Firewire are hot swappable devices used for high speed data transfers.

Ø SMPS provides power to the all the components inside the PC.

Ø The term memory identifies data storage that comes in the form of chips, and the

word storage is used for memory that exists on tapes or disks.

Ø There are 3 types of NICs – PCI adapters, PCMCIA adapters and USB adapters.

Ø A Modem is used to convert an analog signal to digital signal and vice versa.

Review Questions

1. Give a list of all the expansion slots in the motherboard with specifications.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/disk.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/storage.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/chip.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/data.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motherboard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer



CS Study Material

Skill+


2. Give the differences between the following:

a. Serial and parallel communication

b. USB and Firewire

c. IDE and SATA

d. AT and ATX connector

3. What type of PC card is used for hard disks and LAN adapters?

4. What is the maximum data transfer rate offered by USB and Firewire?



CS Study Material

Skill+


5. Name a few hot swappable devices.

6. The maximum speed offered by a dial up modem is ______________.

7. I want to connect my desktop computer to a wireless network. What should I buy?

8. External DSL modem in connected to the __________ port present in the computer.

9. RAM refers to non volatile memory. True / False

10. DSL stands for______________________________________________

LAB Questions

1. How do you differentiate a PCMCIA and Card bus by appearance?

2. Given a motherboard, identify any 10 components and describe them briefly.



CS Study Material

Skill+


3. Where are the following devices connected?a. Printer

b. Monitor

c. Mouse

d. Scanner

e. External dial up modem

4. Draw the connection diagrams for internal dial up modem and external dial up modem.

5. How do we enable or disable the USB port?

6. At the back of your PC tower, what are different connectors you find?

7. Differentiate wired and wireless NIC?



CS Study Material

ELO (Expected Learning Outcome)

Ø What is a computer Hardware, Software and Firmware.Ø Laptops and Desktops

Ø Input devices and Output devicesØ Motherboard and its components

Ø BIOS and CMOSØ SMPS

Ø Memory and types of memoryØ NIC and types of NICs.

Ø Modem – Dial up, DSL and Cable.

Hardware Study Material

Documents

Transcript of Hardware Study Material