Introduction To Computer Posted by shariq shukur , Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 5:56 PM, in

Introduction



A computer is mainly divided into two components : hardware and software. Hardware components consists of mainly the visible parts of the computer i.e main processor , internal and external peripherals,bus wire etc. The hardware consist of monitor, central processing unit (cpu),mouse,keyboard etc.

A software component consist of programmable part which are non-visible entities of computers. These programs are used to implement the hardware.





Origin of Computers



The computer invention started around 2000 years ago. The first computer was named Abacus. The Great Grand Father of computers is "Charles babbage". He discovered a calculating machine in the year 1840. The first computer invented was huge and incredibly heavy. While comparing to this days computers, the old computers comprises upto a whole room. Many changes were undergone till the present day to make the computer as small as possible with high performance and reliability. In 1642 the first digital computer was invented by "Blaise Pascal".

Motherboard Posted by shariq shukur , Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 5:50 PM, in

Motherboard description

Motherboard is the main circut board of a microcomputer. The connectors in the motherboard are used to attach additional peripherals. A motherboard mainly consist of Central Processing Unit (CPU) , Basic Input Output Stream (BIOS) , Memory , Mass Storage Interfaces , Serials Ports , Parallel Ports and other controllers to control other external devices namely Monitor , Keyboard , Mouse , Printers , Disk Drives. Every Integrated chip has its own slot. Every chip on the mother board is collectively known as "chipset".

Motherboard Functioning

Many changes have undergone in the design of motherboard from the time of invention. The Functional entity, Performance entity , Physical entity have much improved in the day-to-day motherboards. The motherboard now a days consist of the following aspects.

1 .Microprocessors are better and faster.
2 .Components in microprocessor are faster and smaller.
3 .Microprocessors have improved techniques for the bus structures.
4 .Microprocessors uses chipsets for logical support.
5 .Users can get additional facilities and functions with new microprocessors.
6 .Motherboard consist of additional device controllers and i/o interfaces.
7 .The main features of a motherboard is reliability and maintainability.

Types Of Buses Posted by shariq shukur , Friday, June 12, 2009 at 5:41 PM, in

Types Of Buses

There are four types of Buses which are used to communicate inside the PC. They are

1. Local Bus


2. System Bus


3. I/O Bus


4. Mezzanine Bus

The local bus exists at the immediate input/output pins in CPU. The System Bus is on the motherboard and it connects RAM to the Processor. The I/O Buses connects I/O subsystems – The Processor. The I/O buses are generally derived from the system bus. The Mezzanine Bus is an intermediate bus between a local bus and I/O bus. It acts as abridge between the I/O buses arc the system bus. The PCI and multibus are examples of Mezzanine Bus.

In the original PC, the system bus and I/O bus were the same. The floating point coprocessor is connected to the local bus of 8088. All other subsystems are linked to the microprocessor through buffers. The motherboards subsystems (RAM, ROM, I/O CHIPS) are connected to X bus (XA, XD, XC). Daughterboard are connected via I/O slots which carry A, D & C Buses. Thus X bus and D Bus Serve both as system bus without any differentiation. In this approach, CPU communicates with both memory and I/O subsystems with the same speed. This holds good for 4-Motherboards also.

Ports In CPU Posted by shariq shukur , Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 5:32 PM, in

Ports In CPU

There are many number of external devices which are connected to computer. All the external devices are connected via cables and ports. Port is a slot into which a cable is plugged. A portable computer is attached to several external devices which includes monitor, microphones and speakers, mouse and keyboard. The general ports which are available on the back side of the CPU are :

1. Ps/2 port - Keyboard
2. Ps/2 port - Mouse
3. USB ports
4. Ethernet port - Network
5. Serial port - Dial-up Modem
6. LPT1 Printer port - Printer
7. VGA port - Monitor
8. Speakers
9. Line In
10. Micro Phone
11. Game port - Joystick
    
    
    

Micro Processor Posted by shariq shukur , Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 5:39 PM, in

Introduction To Micro Processor

A micro processor is a single chip CPU. It consists of ALU which performs Arithmetic and logical operations. The Fetch, Decode and other Control operations of an instruction are performed by Control Unit. Operands (Data) and temporary results are stored by using Registers. It also comprises of Flags which are used to temporarily remember certain specific tasks. Micro Processor interfaces with external units like memory and I/O units by using Buffers/Drivers.

Bus Structure is the main universal feature in all Micro Processors. The Hardware Functional units are connected to the Internal Bus inside a Micro Processor. The Internal Bus is also used for communication among Hardware units. The differnt types of Communication among the Functional Units in a Micro Processor are

1. Data


2. Instruction


3. Address


4. Control

Sufficient Driving capablility to the Micro Processor's Address, Data or Control Bus Signals is provided by Bus Buffers. The Buffers also provides appropriate physical Interface to the External World. MOS technologies may be used to build the Internal Circuits in a Micro Processor. Transistor Transistor Logic (TTL) Compatability I/O pins may be provided by the Bus Buffers.

Memory Posted by shariq shukur , at 5:24 PM, in

Memory

The term memory usually refers to RAM (Random Access Memory). The main purpose of a RAM (Random Access Memory) is to take temporary instructions and data needed to complete the tasks. The access of instructions and data stored in memory is very quick due to RAM (Random Access Memory) in the CPU. For example if a computer loads an application namely Microsoft Office -such as word processing or page layout into memory, the program is allowed to access as quickly and efficiently as possible. Thus the work is done faster with less time and allows the computer to perform other tasks efficiently.

The File and Folders are placed in such a way that it should be available easyily without any problem. By doing so, you keep all the files you need handy and avoid search in several places every time you need them.

Differentiating Memory And Storage

The terms memory and storage are often confused by people, mainly during describing the amount they have of each. The amount of RAM insalled in the computer refers to the term memory, Whereas the capacity of the computers harddisk refers to the term Storage. Let us consider a computer to an office that contains a desk and a file cabinet to clarify the common mixup.

Consider the Desk-and-File Cabinet metaphor, it would be like if every time you wanted for a file or document you need to retrive from a file drawer. This process makes to slow down tremendously. With adequate desk space - the information can be retrieved immediately, often with a glance.

Adequate Need Of Memory

The memory requirements for a desktop computers depends on the computer's operating system and the application software used on it. Atleast 32MB of memory is required for the word processing and spreadsheet applications to run. The software and operating system developers continue to extend the capabilities of their products, which usually need greater memory requirements. Now-a-days developers assumes a minimum memory configuration of 64MB. Computers using Graphics, Publishing and multimedia call for atleast 128MB of memory and it's important for such computers to have 256MB or more for better performances.

Advanced Pcs Posted by shariq shukur , at 5:16 PM, in

Advanced Pcs

Micro Processors plays a very important role in the making the Pcs more powerful , faster and cheaper. Apart from Micro Processors, many powerful chipsets have been introduced to design the entire circuits on a single chip. The number of components have reduced gradually and it has become simple to solve the problem. The present day Motherboards consist of both System board and Daughterboard on itself.

Personal Computers

The Microcomputer is a low cost computer. The installation and maintenance cost of the Microcomputer is low. The small size, Weight and Low requirements enable the use of the pc anywhere irrespective of the cooling the site. The design of the pc is simple and the user can himself handle the installation. There is no need for frequent visits of any service Engineer. Various Micro Processors are placed on various sockets available on Motherboard. The compatability of the Processors is checked before connecting to Motherboard.

Memory Speed Posted by shariq shukur , Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 6:01 PM, in

Memory Speed

The main purpose of the memory is to store the information provided by the user. Whenever CPU(Central Processing Unit) needs the information, a request is sent which is managed by the Memory Controller. The Memory Controller inturn sends the request to the memory and informs the CPU when the Information is available. This whole process of Feteching and Executing the information in depend upon the memory speed and other entities like Bus Speed.

The Memory Speed is actually measured in MegaHertz(MHz), or it can be measured by knowin the actual time required for data delivery which is measured in nanoseconds. By using the Megahertz or Nanoseconds, memory speed indicates how quickly the memory module itself can deliver the information which is fetched.

Time Taken To Access

Access time measures from when the memory module recieves a data request to when that data becomes avaialble. The access times are marked on each of memory chips and memory modules ranging from 80ns to 50ns. The low number on the memory chip indicates faster speed.

Front Side Bus Posted by shariq shukur , at 5:43 PM, in

Front Side Bus

The term which describes a Processor to System Memory Data Bus is known as Front Side Bus. The other Synonyms of a Front Side are System Bus, Memory Bus, External CPU Speed and CPU Bus Speed. The speed which Communicates with RAM is the Front Side Bus. The Front Side Bus on a Computer connects the processor to the North Side Bridge, which comprises the Memory Bus, PCI Bus and AGP Bus. Moreover a higher Processing Speed and Faster Computer Consist of a Faster Front Side Bus.

In Pentium 4 the Front Side Bus Consist of 400 MHZ, but it is the fact that 100MHZ "Quad Pumped". The Data is transfered twice per a clock cycle, on the rise and fall edge and can also transfer two bytes of data at a time to effectively give four times the throughput of a 100MHZ Front Side Bus. A Clock Multiplier is applied to the Frontside Bus Speed to determine how fast a processor runs.

For instance a processor running at 550MHZ might be using 100MHZ Front Side Bus. the clock multiplier might to 5.5. Thus a CPU is set to run at 5.5 times the processors are available in multiples of 100MHZ, 133MHZ, 266MHZ, 333MHZ and now with the AMD KB 3200+ and AMD Athlon FX-51 1600MHZ FSB.

By changing the Jumper a user can manually set the clock Multiplier and FSB settings. This ablity is provided by some Motherboards. The preset multiplier setting are locked by some manufacturers which disables the user to set the clock. A FSB speed for the CPU purchasing should consist of memory capable of this faster speed. Pushing the front side bus to 110MHZ means you are also pushing your memory, be it PC100, to 110MHZ. A FSB today is dual or quad channel, a FSB speed advertised as being "333MHZ" may actually be 166MHZ dual channel, effectively means 333MHZ of speed. CPUs work with front side bus speed ranging from 133MHZ dual channel to 200MHZ quad channel.

Memory Categories Posted by shariq shukur , at 5:26 PM, in

Memory Categories

The Memory which is present in the computer is usually arranged in Memory Banks. A Memory Bank is a collection of sockets or modules which constitutes a Logical Unit. The Memory sockets that are arranged in rows may be part of one bank or many banks. Now-a-days most of the Computer Systems have two or more Memory Banks, Usually known as Bank A, Bank B so on. Rules or Conventions are alloted to each System to fill the memory banks. For some Instance the computer systems requires all the sockets in one Bank with same capability modules. Some of them requires the first Bank to house the highest capacity modules. If the rules and conventions are not followed, then the computer may not start up or may not identify all the memory inthe system.

A Computer's System Manual consist of the specific rules for the memory configuration for specific computers. A memory Configurator ia also used. Most of the Memory manufacturers offers free memory configurator in printed form or by the web. This memory configuration allow you to find the part numbers and special memory configuration rules that apply to the computer.