Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

A+ 220-1001 > 1001: Hardware > Flashcards

1001: Hardware Flashcards

1
Q

Name the 3 primary components to a HDD.

A

Controller - Controls all drive operations
Hard Disk - Solid metal disk that stores data in electrical fields
Host Bus Adapter (HBA) - converts electrical signals to data

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What are the 3 primary sizes of HDDs?

A
  1. 8 in - uncommon
  2. 5 in - laptops and portable devices
  3. 5 in - desktops
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What is the logical processing system used by SSDs?

A

NAND (not-and)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What are the two types of memory module sockets used?

A

Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM)

Small Outline DIMM (SODIMM)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Why can Blu-ray drives write and store more data than DVDs and CDs?

A

Laser is blue in color, works in a higher frequency. Encodes data in a tighter focus.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

How many pins does a traditional PCI card have?

A

124

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What are the 4 main speed standards of wireless PCI cards?

A

802.11a/b/g/n

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What does TRS and TRRS stand for when talking about audio connections?

A

Tip Ring [Ring] Sleeve

Describes the type of 3.5 mm audio jack connection. TRRS used with devices that have microphones.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

How are LCD screens lit?

A

Using a fluorescent or LED back light.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

How does an OLED screen produce light in each pixel?

A

Passing a charge from the positive anode, through the LEDs, to the negatively charged cathode.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What are the two main types of OLED screens?

A

Passive Matrix (PMOLED)

Active Matrix (AMOLED)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What are the two factors to consider when measuring webcam performance?

A

Image Quality (resolution in pixels)

Frame Rate (FPS)

High quality and high frame rates mean higher data counts

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What is required for a fluorescent back light that an LED does not need?

A

Inverter

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What is a digitizer?

A

A screen that uses a pointing device for input

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What are the common motherboard form factors in descending size/functionality?

A 
ATX
Micro-ATX
Mini-ATX
Mini-ITX
Nano-ITX
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What considerations apply to overclocking a processor?

A

Adequate Cooling
Adequate power
System Stability

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What are the two major groups of chipsets on modern motherboards?

A

NorthBridge

Southbridge

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What bus handles communication between the processor and memory?

A

Front-side bus

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What characteristic of a PCI express slot determines the size of card it can fit?

A

The number of lanes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What does it mean for a memory module to be dual-inline?

A

Has connectors on both sides of the card

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What are the 4 main slot sizes for DIMM memory? (Pin counts)

A

30
72
168
184

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What are the 3 main slot sizes for SODIMM memory? (Pin counts)

A

72
144
200

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

How does DDR (Double Data Rate) RAM double speeds of SDRAM?

A

It performs reads and writes at the top and bottom of each clock cycle

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

What advantage does DDR2 RAM have over DDR?

A

Two memory accesses for each rising and falling of the clock cycle

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

What is the transfer rate difference between DDR2 and DDR3?

A

DDR3 has twice the data transfer rate, enabling higher bandwidth (64 times the memory clock speed in mbps)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

How can you tell if a memory stick uses parity or non-parity error checking?

A

Parity sticks have 9 chips on them, non-parity have 8

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

What type of RAM is ECC?

A

Error Correction Code - can detect and correct errors in data

28
Q

If the total capacity of a set of drives in RAID 10 configuration is 1 Tb, how much space is actually available for storage?

29
Q

How is data written in a RAID 5 configuration?

A

Striped across all drives with a parity bit

30
Q

How is data written in a RAID 0 configuration?

A

Striped across all drives

31
Q

What is the maximum throughput of PCI cards?

A

538 mbps (64 bit at 64 MHz)

32
Q

What form factors of expansion cards are used in laptops?

A

miniPCI and miniPCIe (Express)

33
Q

What likely needs updating if your system does not support a particular hardware upgrade?

A

System BIOS

34
Q

What is a TPM chip?

A

Chip on the motherboard that uses hashes to unlock a drive upon boot

35
Q

Where are the CMOS settings stored when the PC is powered off?

36
Q

Adding more CPU cores does not have a linear affect on performance. What does impact the performance of multiple cores?

A

Amount of memory present to serve the CPU

37
Q

What is hyperthreading when talking about CPUs?

A

Allows multiple threads to run simultaneously, improving reaction/response time

38
Q

What kind of product is used to manage virtualization software?

A

Hypervisor

39
Q

What is meant when talking about the clock speed of a CPU?

A

Rate at which the clock oscillates in millions of cycles per second (MHz)

40
Q

What is the difference between external and internal clock speeds?

A

External - how fast the motherboard communicates with the CPU
Internal - how fast the CPU performs internal operations

41
Q

What’s the difference between a pin grid array and land grid array CPU sockets?

A

PGA - pins are attached to CPU

LGA - pins are attached to the socket

42
Q

Is a PCI connection serial or parallel?

43
Q

How many pins are on a main motherboard power connector?

44
Q

In 2004 the main power connector standard pin count increased from 20 to 24 pins. What are the extra 4 pins for?

A

3.3V, 5V, 12V connections for PCI cards, and a ground

45
Q

What is the maximum rated capacity of a power supply rated in?

46
Q

How can you calculate the wattage requirement of a PC component?

A

multiply voltage by current

volts * amps = watts

47
Q

What is the total draw of a SATA power connector?

A

about 30 watts

48
Q

What is the minimum optimal rotational speed for a hard drive on a PC used for audio/video editing?

A

7,200 rpm and up

49
Q

What are the two largest hardware considerations when setting up a virtualization workstation/server?

A

Max RAM and CPU cores

50
Q

What is the purpose of Apple’s Bonjour?

A

Discovers devices on the network

51
Q

What form of SDRAM is not backwards compatible?

52
Q

At what rotational speed of a HDD is latency decreased to about 3 milliseconds?

A

10,000 rpm

53
Q

What is the latency of a HDD at 5400 rpm? How much does latency decrease with each increase in rpm?

A

5.6 ms

Roughly 2 ms / 5000 rpm

54
Q

What connection type involves an initiator and a target, where the initiator is able to power the target, allowing the target to be battery free?

55
Q

An AT power connector has two different connectors. What will the two connectors be labeled?

56
Q

What is the Northbridge chipset on a motherboard responsible for?

A

High speed transmission (graphics, processing, memory) (Memory controller)

57
Q

What is the Southbridge chipset on a motherboard responsible for?

A

Moving data from all other sources to and from the northbridge. (I/O controller)

58
Q

What are the characteristics of a PMOLED screen?

A

Passive Matrix OLED

  • Lower picture quality
  • Cheaper
  • Longer material life
59
Q

What are the characteristics of a AMOLED screen?

A

Active Matrix OLED

  • Higher quality
  • Materials degrade faster
  • More expensive
60
Q

Which of these throughputs would you most likely associate with SATA revision 3.0?

61
Q

What type of memory is used to improve the performance of instruction processing?

62
Q

What does it mean for a CPU socket to have zero insertion force (ZIF)?

A

The CPU drops into the socket with no pressure

63
Q

What is the only advantage of using a RAID 0 setup?

64
Q

How is data written in a RAID 1 configuration?

A

Data is mirrored to two identical drives

65
Q

What is the minimum number of disks needed for a RAID 5 configuration?

A

Three or more

66
Q

What are the benefits of using a RAID 10 configuration (known as RAID 1+0)?

A

You get the speed of RAID 0 and fault tolerance of RAID 1

A+ 220-1001 (8 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2025 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions