901-1 Flashcards
Explain the process of flashing the BIOS
Download the newest version of the BIOS, and the current version being used from the manufacturers website.
Burn copies to a cd and boot to CD.
This process depends on the manufacturers steps to flash
What component information can be found in the BIOS
RAM
HDD
Optical Drive
CPU
What configurations can be made in the BIOS
- Boot Sequence
- Enabling and Disabling Devices
- Date/Time
- Clock Speeds
- Virtualization Support
- BIOS Security *
What security features can a BIOS have
Passwords Drive Encryption TPM - Trusted Platform Module LoJack Secure Boot
What is the POST
Power on Self Test
runs to determine if the computer keyboard, random access memory, disk drives, and other hardware are working correctly.
What components can be monitored within the BIOS
Temperatures Fan Speeds Intrusion Detection Voltages Clock and Bus Speed
In computers, what does a bus refer too
A communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers.
What is the internal data bus?
The internal bus connects all the internal components of a computer, such as CPU and memory, to the motherboard. This bus is typically rather quick and is independent of the rest of the computer operations.
What other names is the internal bus known as?
- internal data bus
- memory bus
- system bus
- Front-Side-Bus,
- Local Bus
What is the back side bus
was a computer bus used to connect the CPU to CPU cache memory, usually L2.
What speeds do PCI slots run at?
133 MB/s (32-bit at 33 MHz – the standard configuration)
266 MB/s (32-bit at 66 MHz or 64-bit at 33 MHz)
533 MB/s (64-bit at 66 MHz)
What speeds to PCI-X slots run at
Essentially all PCI-X cards or slots have a 64-bit implementation and vary as follows: 66 MHz 100 MHz 133 MHz 266 MHz 533 MHz
What is the importance of PCIe
PCIe can scale from one to 32
backward compatible
higher maximum system bus throughput
What speeds does PCIe v. 1.x achieve
v. 1.x (2.5 GT/s):
250 MB/s (×1)
4 GB/s (×16)
What speeds does PCIe v. 2.x achieve
v. 2.x (5 GT/s):
500 MB/s (×1)
8 GB/s (×16)
What speeds does PCIe v. 3.x achieve
v. 3.x (8 GT/s):
985 MB/s (×1)
15.75 GB/s (×16)
What speeds does PCIe v. 4.x achieve
v. 4.0 (16 GT/s):
1. 969 GB/s (×1)
31. 51 GB/s (×16)
What speeds does PCIe v. 5.x achieve
v. 5.0 (32 GT/s):
3.9 GB/s (×1)
63 GB/s (×16)
What is mini-PCI
a small version of the PCI Express peripheral interface for laptop computers and other portable devices.
What is the Northbridge responsible for
- connected directly to the CPU via the front-side bus
- responsible for tasks that require the highest performance
- Manages communications between RAM, and PCI Express, CPU, and the southbridge
- Integrated Graphics
What is the Southbridge responsible for
Intel = I/O Controller hub
AMD = Fusion Controller Hub
- not directly connected to the CPU
- handles all of a computer’s I/O functions, such as USB, audio, serial, the system BIOS, the ISA bus, the interrupt controller and the IDE channels
What is the CMOS battery and what is its purpose
complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor
Mac equivalent to CMOS is PRAM
CMOS is usually powered by a CR2032 cell battery
What power connections will you find on a motherboard
ATX uses a 20-pin connector or 24 pin connectors
four pin ATX 12 volt connector
auxiliary 6-wire connector
Molex connector used for many different components
What other small pins will you find on the motherboard
Fan connectors USB Power/Reset Drive activity Audio
What features does DDR SDRAM have
strict control of the timing of the electrical data and clock signals
transferring data on both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal
data being transferred 64 bits at a time
How do you calculate the maximum transfer rate of RAM
Memory bus clock rate × Data Rate × 64 (#of bits transferred) / 8 (number of bits/byte)
What features does DDR2 SDRAM have
- higher bus speed and requires lower power by running the internal clock at half the speed of the data bus
- total of four data transfers per internal clock cycle
- latency is greatly increased as a trade-off
What features does DDR3 SDRAM have
- total of eight data transfers per internal clock cycle
- transfer rate of (memory clock rate) × 4 (for bus clock multiplier) × 2 (for data rate) × 64 (number of bits transferred) / 8 (number of bits/byte)
- 8 GB Maximum
- uses less power.
What is SODIMM
small outline dual in-line memory module
often used in systems that have limited space
How many pins do SODIMM have
100 144 200 204 260
What is DIMM
Dual Inline Memory Module, it’s a module containing one or several random access memory
What is ECC RAM
Error Correcting Code RAM, can monitor and correct most common kinds of internal data corruption
maintains a memory system immune to single-bit errors
Can Non-ECC RAM fix errors?
With parity yes.
What RAM configurations are there
Single Channel (2) Dual Channel (4) Triple Channel (6)
What is unique about Buffered RAM
have a register between the DRAM modules and the system’s memory controller
Contrast Buffered and Unbuffered
Buffered = servers Unbuffered = home users
What expansion cards can be found in a pc
Sound/Video Network USB/Firewire/Thunderbolt Storage Modem Cellular Cards Video Capture Cards Riser Cards
What is a USB Host Controller
Circuit built into the chipset to control every USB device
Max. 127 devices
What is the USB Root Hub
Part of the controller that makes the physical connection
What speeds do USB 1.1 transfer at
1.5 Mbps @ low speed
12 Mbps @ Hi-speed
What speeds do USB 2.0 transfer at
480 Mbps
What speeds do USB 3.0 transfer at
5 Gbps
What speeds do USB 3.1 transfer at
10 Gbps
What is the rule of thumb when it comes to the length of USB cables
Stick to a max length of two meters
What are the characteristics of firewire
6 pin powered connector & 4 pin bus powered connector 1394a = 400 Mbps 1394b = 800 Mbps Max 63 devices Max length = 4.5 meters
What is thunderbolt
A mix of copper and fiber cables 3 meters max with copper 60 meters max with fiber 1 @ 10 Gbps 2 @ 20 Gbps 3 @ 40 Gbps
What is bit rate
The amount of bits transferred to the mp3 decoder in 1 second.
What are the characteristics of a Serial connection
7 wires with 1 meter max
Transfer @ 1.5 Gbps/3 Gbps/5 Gbps
Drive speeds are calculated at 80% of pure bandwidth
AKA SATA
What are the characteristics of a Parallel connection
40 or 80 pins with 18 inch max
Use a molex connector for power
66 Mbps max (80 pin cable)
What is AHCI
Advanced Host Controller Interface
- Unlocks advanced features for SATA
- gives software developers and hardware designers a standard method for detecting, configuring, and programming SATA/AHCI adapters
What is NCQ
Native Command Queuing, disk optimization feature for SATA drives
What is NVMe
Makes the drive appear as a spinning drive to map the guts of the SSD; Translator between OS and SSD
What is RAID 1
Mirroring - Two disks are written to at the same time
What is RAID 0
Data is spread amongst multiple drives. there is no redundancy and all data would be lost.
What is RAID 5
Disk Striping with Distributed Parity
Adds extra info so the data can be rebuilt in case of drive failure. Requires 3 drives (2 stripe to each other, 1 used for parity
What is RAID 6
Disk Striping with extra parity, requires 5 drives and can survive 2 disks failing
What is RAID 10
Nested Striped Mirrors
Minimum 4 drives, 2 drives configured as mirrors, and data is striped across the two mirrored pairs.
What is RAID 0+1
Mirror of Stripes
Minimum 4 drives.
