WEEK 1 ASSIGNMENT 3

DESIGNING COMPU

TER

ARCHITECTU

RE

B Y ST E V E W

A R N E R

I have tweaked my system to meet my personal needs over the years. Once, I had a 133 MHZ processor with a 100 MB hard drive. Today, I have had enough experience to know what I want to use and the technology has expanded to the point where you can make careful choices. For my latest computer, I went with the Acer netbook. I have had various models and makes of laptops in the past and I was trying to get away from having a laptop I always had to plug in. The Acer gives me a good six hours on the battery and stays cool. I have outlined the fan cooler I added to keep dirt and dust free as much as possible (I have a curious cat who likes to help me do my work.

MY OVERALL DESIGN

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ENHANCEMENTS

W I D E S C R E E N M O N I T O R I N P U T D E V I C E S

I have added a wireless mouse and a VisTablet input device to direct draw and make illustrations. Both are portable and low power consumption

Steve Warner photos

On the right side I have my USB to hub and speakers

I use an external USB drive for backup 300GB with SmartWare to control my backup areas. I also have a smaller non-powered hub into this side along with my external monitor connection. This computer has three USB ports which I find convenient. The non-powered USB hub has four. The only device which needs the computer directly is the Sony book reader to charge. My cell phone, shown circled in back, is a Palm Pixi Plus and has a feature called Hotspot. The computer has a great wireless card built in, but if I am in an area without WiFi I can use my cellphone for my computer to connect to the internet. The black disk under the blue USB is an external DVD which allows me to watch movies or read CDs as my netbook has no internal CD/DVD drive. It only needs the USB power and is portable.

BACKUP AND DVD

I have wondered over the years if one device will do all the functions electronically. I was thinking of getting an iPad for this reason but decided against it as the tablet is still an on-going development and HP is coming out with one soon. I like my phone to be small and portable and I can add the reader for even more entertainment or study on-the-go purposes. The netbook allows me to have the freedom to work on projects, as I did this year when I went to my sister and brother-in-laws to watch the Super Bowl and did my homework at the same time. HP has added Palm to their lineup and is coming out with a web browser 2.0 for the phone. I have thought about the Android or iPhone but have always liked the Palm platform.

USE THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB

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VON NEUMANN’S ARCHITECTUREMy system is based on the traditional von Neumann

architecture. There have been developments in laptops with even longer battery life with no hard drive only flash type memory, but I am not comfortable with it yet. The improvements I have noted are there is a dual processor HP 210 with 10 hours of battery life, and I am considering making an upgrade there. The difference will be I will go from a 1.6 single processor to a dual processor and maybe gain a little speed. I am not yet totally sold on it as I haven’t had a chance to try out one and am happy with the speed I have since I run Windows 7 Home and Office 2010 plus antivirus software and Photoshop among others with no noticeable lag time. I can watch movies with little difficulty. I do have a broadband cable connection which I don’t think I could ever go back to dial up and since the price was right so far so good.

PORTABILITY AND HOME

This is my mobile one setup. I found this desk in Walmart for $20 and it is perfect for sitting the netbook on your lap and still using your mouse. The keypad on this model is full size and I do have an external wireless keyboard as well. Besides sitting on your lap, there are folding legs under the desk for sitting it upright.

This is for mobile three setup which is just the netbook and the mouse and they fit conveniently in the small netbook bag. I have used it when I go to visit relatives in the hospital or go to doctor appointments of my own.

Steve Warner photos