901-Module 1 Flashcards
What does a desktop computer mean?
Referes to a pC that is not designed to be used on the move.
What are the two divisions of the computer?
- The parts that are designed to be handle by the user (peripheral devices)
- The parts that would be dangerous if exposed.
What is the system case?
a plastic and metal boxthat houses this second class of components
,such as the motherboard, Central ProcessingUnit (CPU), memory, adapter cards, diskdrives,
and power supply unit.
What are the two types of system cases aka chassis?
Tower and Small Form Factor (SFF). These types are available in different sizes.
What is a tower case and what are the three basic sizes?
full,midi, and mini.
Describe the full tower:
cases are usually used for PCservers -
these require the extra internalspace for additional hard disks
adapter cards, and redundant power supply units.
Describe a mid-tower case.
cases are used for high-enduser PCs. These PCs do require extradevices and adapter
cards, but not asmany as a server.
Describe a mini-tower.
cases are usually used foroffice or home PCs
where therequirement for additional internaldevices
and adapter cards is limited.
What is a small form Factor SFF case?
case designs aresemi-portable, space-saving designs typicallyused for domestic
entertainment “MediaCenter” systems that
will not look out of placein a living room.
They are usually ccube-like orsuper slimline. SFF cases
can only fit a limited number of components
What is an all in one desktop?
All-in-one means that thecomputer components (except the keyboardand mouse) are contained
within the monitorcase.
Define field replaceable units (FRU)?
PC components that are easily user-replaceable (or upgradeable) that can be swapped out.
What does the front panel do?
provides access to theremovable media drives,
a power on / offswitch, a reset switch, and LEDs (LightEmitting Diodes) to indicate drive operation
The blanking plate can be found where on a computer?
The real panel of the tower.
What are input/output (I/O) ports?
These allow for the connection of peripheraldevices.
Define PSU?
Power Supply Unit (PSU) & it has an integral fan exhaust
Name parts 1-4
- Power supply unit with Fan
- Chassis Fan
- Motherboard Input/Output (I/O) ports
- Expansion card slots covered by blanking plate
What steps should you consider when you dissemble a PC?
- Take a backup of the harddrive(s) to protect important data
- Create a clean work environment
- gather all necessary tools and equipment
- Make sure all devices are powered off and unplugged from the mains
- Take anti-static precaution to minimize chance of damaging sensative compoents ( ex: processors and memory )
What should you do once the power cord is removed as an extra safety measure?
Press and hold the power button
for a few seconds as this will ensure that
all circuits within computer are completely de-energized.
The main panel is at what direction to the I/O ports?
It is the one opposite of the i/o ports.
What does a printed circuit board (often called the motherboard, mobo, system board or main board house?
houses the processor, chipset,memory, and expansion slots.
The type of motherboard influences system
speed and upgrade capabilities.
Define form factor.
describes its shape, layout, and the type ofcase and power supply that
can be used motherboard.
*note that two motherboards could be the same but have different layout of components.
What are the two design forms of most motherboards?
ATX or Micro-ATX design.
Define standoffs.
These hold the motherboard firmlyand ensure
no other part of it touches thecase. The standoffs
are positioned in holes that line up in the
same position in the caseand the motherboard.
They are either brass/screws/plastic.
Name parts 1-5.
- CPU slot
- Memory slots
- Connector for disks drives
- Slots for adapter cards
- I/O ports (USB, video, audio etc)
Describe the advanced technology extended form factor.
- ATX for short
- Developed in 1995
- Full size are 12” wide by 9.6” deep.
- 7 Slot expansion
Describe the micro-ATX.
standard specifies a 9.6” (244x244mm)square board, with fewer expansion slots (upto 4 compared to a maximum of 7 for fullsizedATX boards).
Define small form factor SFF.
XPCs and Via’s Mini-ITXform factor
Describe the Mini ITX.
Mini-ITX is 6.7x6.7” (170x170mm) with one expansion slot.
Thereare also smaller nano-, pico-, and mobile-ITXform factors but these are used for embedded
systems and portables rather than PCs.
Define headers & what they can include.
- Power button / reset button
- Power light - there may be a separatepower light (LED), though this is usuallypart of the button.
- Drive (HDD) activity lights - these showwhen an internal hard disk is beingaccessed.
- USB ports
- Audio ports
Describe 1 &2 in the image.
1) Front panel headers and
2) 9-pin internalUSB header
Define jumper.
A jumper is asmall plastic clip containing a metal
conductorthat fits over two contacts
on themotherboard. The position of the clipcompletes
a circuit that configures themotherboard in one way or another.
If there is a motherboard reset jumper what could it do?
There may be a motherboard resetjumper.
Setting this may allow you torestore the system
from a failedfirmware update, forgotten system supervisor password, and so on.
Describe the power connector.
Thepower connector is usually a 24-pin white orblack block. Fan connectors are smaller.
Therewill be one for the CPU and one or more forthe case fans.
Describe 1-4 in the image.
1) Main connector for the PSU (ATX / P1);
2) Dedicated CPU power (EPS12V);
3) CPU fan connector;
4) Chassisand power supply fan connectors
How do computers transmit data?
transmit data using electricalsignals and process
and store it usingcomponents called transistors and capacitors.
Define a bus.
An electrical pathway on the motherboard
orthrough cabling that carries the signals.
Define traces.
a bus isimplemented on the motherboard as tinywires (called traces) running betweencomponents.
Describe how a bus works?
The bus carries informationbeing processed by the computer (data) andinformation about where the data is located inmemory (address). The bus also carriespower to a component and the timingsignals that synchronize data transfersbetween components.
How are periperal devices connected in “bus architecture”?
Through an expansion bus.
Define an internal or local bus.
An internal (or local) bus connects corecomponents, such as the CPU, memory, andthe system controllers.
Define an external bus (expansion bus).
allowsadditional components to be connected to thecomputer. These components could beperipheral devices (located outside the case)or adapter cards (located inside the case).
What are some examples of external buses?
like SCSI, USB, or Firewire) extends the buswires outside the computer case usingcabling.
What does the system clock do?
synchronizes the operationof all parts of the PC and provides the basictiming signal for the CPU
What are clock speeds measured in?
Megahertz (MHz) or Gigahertz (GHz).
Define clock generator and clock multipliers.
clock consists of a clockgenerator that sets up a timing signal andclock multipliers that take the timing signalproduced by the generator and apply amultiplication factor to produce differenttiming signals for different types of bus
What is the difference between single ended and differential signaling?
older computer bus types (such as serial and PS/2 ports or VGA displayports) use a method called single endedsignaling. Newer buses (such as USB,Firewire, and PCI Express) use differentialsignaling. The advantage of differentialsignaling is that it allows the use of lowervoltages, reducing power consumption andheat.
Descrbe data transfer in parallel.
which means that there aremultiple physical wires to carry the signals. Aparallel bus 32 bits wide would transfer 32bits in each operation.
Signaling can be either digital or analog. Describe these.
Computers usedigital signaling, where pulses in the electricalsignal refer to discrete binary values (onesand zeros). Analog is a continuous, variablesignal, just like natural sound waves.
Define a bit.
Thefundamental unit of data storage is the bit(binary digit) which can represent 1 or 0. A bitcan be measured in multiples using Kilobit(Kb) and Megabit (Mb).
Define the bytes (there are 5).
■
8 bits form a byte (B).
■
1024 bytes make a kilobyte (that is 2 ^10 bytes).
■
1024 kilobytes (KB) make a Megabyte (MB) or 1,048,576 bytes.
■
1024 MB make 1 Gigabyte (GB) or1,073,741,824 bytes.
■
1024 GB make 1 Terabyte (TB).
How can binary be devised?
kibibyte [KiB],mebibyte [MiB], and gibibyte [GiB]
If you have 2GB memory what does this mean in MB?
this means 2048 MB, not 2000 MB.
What is 300gb actually?
300 GB has an “actual”capacity of 286 GiB.
How are data transder rates recorded?
Units per second. bit per second (bps), Megabits persecond (Mbps), Megabytes per second (MBps), or Gigabytes per second (GBps)
Describe 1-3 in the image.
1) CPU socket;2) Northbridge chipset; 3) Southbridgechipset
Define chipset.
chipset is built into themotherboard and cannot be upgraded. Thetype of chipset on the motherboard can affectthe choice of processor and multiprocessingsupport, type and amount of system memorysupported, and type(s) of system bussupported.
Chipsets consist of what and what do they do?
Chipsets contain controllers.
What do the chipsets in controllers do? And what are some examples of controllers?
handle the transfer of databetween the CPU and various devices.Examples of controllers include the following:
■
System memory controller.
■
PS/2 keyboard and mouse controller.
■
Input / Output (I/O) controller to handleserial ports, parallel ports, floppy disks,disk drives, and expansion buses.
■
Controllers for any integrated video,sound, network (cabled and wireless),and SCSI interfaces.
What is the main function of the nothbridge?
is as the system memorycontroller, connecting the processor to RAM.The northbridge also supports other fastcomponents, such as the Accelerated GraphicsPort (AGP) bus, designed for video adapters.The northbridge is connected to the processorthrough the Front Side Bus.
What is the main function of the south bridge?
is designed to control all ofthe I/O functions not handled by thenorthbridge. These are older, slowertechnologies, such as USB, serial, parallel, ISAbus, PCI bus, system firmware, diskcontrollers, and onboard audio or networkadapters. The southbridge is connected to theCPU via the northbridge (usually via the PCIbus).
Define RAM,
Random Access Memory (RAM) is theworking memory of the PC
How does RAM work?
Program code isloaded into RAM so that it can be accessedand executed by the processor. RAM alsoholds data (for example, the contents of aspreadsheet or document) while it is beingmodified.
System RAM is volatile, what does this mean?
it loses itscontents when power is removed. SystemRAM is normally packaged as Dual InlineMemory Modules (DIMM) fitted tomotherboard sockets.
What is Single Inline Memmory Module?
you may see references to SingleInline Memory Module (SIMM). Thisformat was the precursor of DIMMs buthas been obsolete since the mid-1990s
What is Flash memory?
Flash memory is a non-volatile type of RAMincreasingly used in place of or alongside harddisks for persistent storage of data
What is BIOS? (Basic Input/Output systen)?
provides industry standard program code thatoperates the essential components of the PCand ensures that the design of eachmanufacturer’s motherboard is PC compatible.
Why is BIOS described as system firmware?
it consists of both the physicalchip (hardware) and the programs coded intoit (software).
The system firmware (BIOS) provides what features?
■
The Poweron Self-Test (POST)diagnostic tests to start the PC.
■
A Real Time Clock (RTC) that keepstrack of the current date and time.
■
Setup menus that allow the low-levelhardware configuration settings of a PCto be viewed and edited
Define UEFI (unified extensible firmware interface).
UEFIprovides support for 64-bit CPU operation atboot, full GUI and mouse operation at boot,and better boot security.
Older computers use CMOS ram (complementary metal oxide semiconductor). Define CMOS
describes the manufacturing process used tomake the RAM chip.
The CMOS battery is a coincell lithium battery. These batteries typicallylast for 5-10 years.
What is NVRAM?
Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM) chipsuch as flash memory rather than CMOS RAM.Flash memory does not require battery-backup. A “CMOS battery” is still used topower the Real Time Clock however and maybe referred to as the RTC or clock battery.
Industry standard architecture is what? What was it replaced by?
an 8 bit parallel bus. It was replaced ny plug and play in 1993.
What does PCI stand for?
Peripheral component interconnect.
PCI can support how many devices?
5, but each device can have up to 8 functions.