Hardware The CPU & Storage

Hardware The CPU & Storage

1. 4.1: Microchips, Miniaturisation & Mobility

   • Transition from Vacuum Tubes to Microchips
     • The arrival of the transistor
       • Transistor came after the circuit and is a tiny electrically operated switch that can alternate between on or off many million times per second
       • An interpreted circuit embodies a Solid state technology, whereby in the device the electrons travel through solid material with no moving parts
       • Transistors are now part of an Integrated cuirct whereby: and entire electric circuit, including wires, formed on a single "chip" or piece of special material usually silicon.
     • Evaluation of small electronic componants
       • Circuit is a closed path followed or capable of being followed by an electric current. without this electricity will not be controllable.
     • Silicon and semiconductors
       • Silicon: an element that is widely found in clay and sand. Its abundant which makes it cheap and makes it a semiconductor
       • Silicon on its own has no pressing power so a chip is needed. Chip/Micro Chip: tiny piece of silicon that contains millions of microminuture integrated electronic circuits
       • Semiconductor is a material whose electrical property are intermediate between a good conductor of electricity and nonconductor of electricity.
   • Miniaturisation Miricals: Microchips & Microprocessors
     • Diffrent types of microships
       • Microprocessor is the miniaturised circuity of a computer processor - the CPU (the central processing unit) the part that processes, or manipulates, data into info. When modified for use in machines it can also be called micro controller or embedded computer
       • Memory
       • Graphics
       • Microchips are responsible for the miniaturisation of info. They store and process data in all gadgets.
       • Communications
       • Logic
       • Math coprocessor chip
   • Mobility
     • Microprocessors and micro controllers have enabled mobility of electric devices
   • Choosing an inexpensive PC & Understanding Ads
     • Most computers are multimedia computers " combination of media". Feature such equipment as a fast processor, DVD Drive, sound card, graphic card and speakers

2. 4.2: The System Unit: The Basics

   • Binary System
     • Binary System: uses two numbers 0 and 1 to depict on or off
     • Measuring capacity
       • Bit: each 0 or 1 is a bit short for binary digit
       • Byte: Represents letters, no., special characters a group of 8 bits and is only one charachter
       • Kilobyte: (K,KB) is about 1,000 bytes
       • Megabyte: (meg; M, MB) is about1 million bytes
       • Gigabyte: (gig; G,GB) is about 1 billion bytes
       • Terabyte: (T,TB) represents about 1 trillion bytes
       • Petabyte: (P,PB) represents about 1 quadrillion bytes
       • Exabyte: (EB) represents about 1 quintillion bytes
     • Binary coding Shemes
       • ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange is the binary code most widely used on microcomputers
       • Unicode uses 2 bytes for each character rather than 1 byte
       • EBCDIC - Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code: a binary code used with large IBM and IBM- compatible computers e.g mainframes
   • Machine Language
     • Machine code is the computer's "native language"
       • Machine Language is a binary-type programming language built into the CPU that the computer can run directly
   • Computer Case: Bays, Buttons and Boards
     • The computer case houses the main parts of the computer
       • The system unit houses the motherboard, power supply and storage devices
       • A tower is a cabinet thats tall narrow and deep
   • Power Supply
     • Power Supply is a device that converts AC to DC to run the computer
     • Surge Protector
       • Surge protector is a device that protects the computer from being damaged by surges of high voltage
     • UPS
       • UPS- a battery operated device that provides a computer with electricity if there is a power failure
       • Power supply units are usually rated in joules, the higher the number the better the power protection
   • The Motherboard
     • Motherboard / Systemboard and the microchip processor
       • Expansion is a way of increasing a computers capability by adding hardware to perform tasks that are beyond the scope of the basic system e.g. adding vedio or sound card.
       • The motherboard is the main cirrut board in the system unit that consists of a flat board that fills one side of the case.
       • Upgrading: changing to newer, usually more powerful or sophisticated variations
     • Microprocessor chip
       • Transistor-key parts of a chip. They are key part of the microprosser and transistor, which are tiny electronic devices that act as on/off switches .
       • Chipset for controlling info among system components: the Chipset consists of groups of interconnected chips on the motherboard that are designed to work together to control the flow of information between the microprocessor and other system components connected to the motherboard
     • Traditional Microcomputer microprocessor
       • Intel-type processors for microcomputers - Intel and AMD Chips: intel-type chips have a similar internal design and are made to run microcomputer
       • Multicore processors for PCs - dual core and quad core
       • Processors for portable devices
       • Graphics processing units - specialised processors for 3-D graphics
   • Processing speeds:From Megahertz to Picoseconds
     • System Clock: controls how fast the operations within a computer takes place
     • Megahertz: a measure of frequency equivalent to

3. 4.3 The system unit: What supports the processor

4. 4.4 Secondary storage

5. 4.5 Future Developments in Processing & Storage