Today, we are going to rip apart a computer and see what is inside it? We will see and learn about:
Power Supply: supplies electricity to all components.
Motherboard: the main and central part of a computer.
Ports: for sending and receiving data from outside.
Serial (9 pin) => Slow,
Parallel (25 pins) => Fast,
USB (Universal Serial Bus) => Very Fast.
Slots: for connecting different components to the
motherboard.
ISA (Industry Standard Architecture),
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect),
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port),
RAM (Random Access Memory).
Memory: for temporary storage of program data.
RAM (Random Access Memory),
ROM (Read Only Memory).
CPU (Central Processing Unit): The brain of computer,
gets hot!
Intel: 286, 486, Celeron, Pentium I, Pentium II, ....
Hard drive: for storing programs and data.
Floppy drives: used for storing/transferring small
amount of data.
5.25 inch (old, 1.2 MB),
3.5 inch. (new, 1.44 MB).
CDROM drive (Compact Disc Read Only Memory),
Graphics card: for connecting to a monitor,
Modem: for connecting to the Internet using a phone
line,
Ethernet card: for fast connection to the Internet,
SCSI card (Small Computer System Interface): for
fast connection components,
Sound card: for connecting to speakers, headphone,
and microphone.
Acronyms:
BPS = Bits Per Second
OS = Operation System : example: Windows, Apple (Mac), Linux,
Unix, ...
PC = Personal Computer
KB = Kilo Byte
MB = Mega Byte
MHz = Mega Hertz
GHz = Giga Hertz
Kilo = 1000
Mega = 1000,000
Giga = 1000,000,000
See the 15-page reference handout for more details and pictures. Use the Errata page for correcting a few typos.
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