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Week 2 Flashcards

1
Q

what is the foundation that holds our computer together?

A

motherboard

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2
Q

what lets us expand our computer’s functionality by adding expansion cards?

A

motherboard

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3
Q

what routes power from the power supply and allows the different parts of the computer to communicate with each other?

A

motherboard

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4
Q

Every motherboard has a few key characteristics, what are they?

A

form factor, expansion slots, chipsets

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5
Q

what decides how components talk to each other on our machine?

A

chipset

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6
Q

The chipset on motherboards is made up of two chips, what are they called?

A

the Northbridge & Southbridge

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7
Q

what does the Northbridge do?

A

interconnects stuff like RAM & video cards.

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8
Q

what does the Southbridge do?

A

maintains the input/output controllers, (IO)

“hard drives & USB devices “

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9
Q

In some modern CPUs, the Northbridge has been directly integrated into what?

A

CPU, so there isn’t a separate Northbridge chipset.

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10
Q

what is a chipset ?

A

key component to motherboard

helps us manage data between CPU, RAM, & peripherals.

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11
Q

what are Peripherals?

A

external devices, connected to our computer like: mouse,keyboard, & monitor

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12
Q

what do expansion slots do?

A

gives the ability to increases the functionality of our computer

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13
Q

If you want to upgrade your graphics card, you could purchase one and just install it on what?

A

on motherboard via expansion slot

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14
Q

what is the standard for an expansion slot today ?

A

PCI Express or (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express)

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15
Q

what does PCI EXPRESS stand for?

A

Peripheral Component Interconnect Express.

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16
Q

what does a PCIe bus look like?

A

a slot on the motherboard

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17
Q

what does a PCIe base expansion card look like?

A

smaller circuit board

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18
Q

There are different sizes of motherboards that are available today.

These sizes of form factors determine what ?

A

how much stuff we can put in it
&
how much space we have to work with

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19
Q

what is the most common form factor for motherboards ?

A

ATX

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20
Q

what does ATX stand for?

A

Advanced Technology eXtended.

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21
Q

Does ATX come in different sizes ?

A

Yes

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22
Q

In desktops, you’ll commonly see what sized ATX’s.

A

Full Sized

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23
Q

If you don’t want to use an ATX form factor, you could use a what?

A

ITX

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24
Q

what does ITX stand for?

A

Information Technology Extended Form Factor.

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25
what is an ITX?
a form factor for small computer motherboards
26
ITX form factors are much smaller than ATX, for example, the Intel NUC uses a variation of the ITX board which comes in three board sizes, what are they?
mini-ITX, nano-ITX, and pico-ITX.
27
the type of RAM module or processor socket are dependent on what?
the kind of motherboard they need to fit into.
28
gigabytes & bits refer to what
data sizes
29
The smallest unit of a data storage is a what?
bit
30
A bit can store what?
a binary digit, 1 or 0.
31
A bit can hold only one of two values what are they?
0 or 1
32
A bit can hold only one of two values: 0 or 1, what do they correspond to?
electrical values of on or off
33
what is the smallest increment of data on a computer?
a bit
34
what is a binary digit?
a bit
35
after a bit what is the next largest unit of storage?
a Byte
36
a byte is comprised of how many bits?
8bits
37
A single byte can hold what?
letter, number or symbol
38
after a byte what is the next largest unit of storage referred to?
a Kibibyt
39
Kibibytes are typically referred to as what?
Kilobyte
40
1 kilobyte is made up of how many bytes?
1,024 bytes
41
how many kilobytes in 1 megabyte?
1024 kilobytes
42
How many megabytes in 1 gigabyte
1024 megabytes
43
How many gigabytes in a terabyte?
1024 gigabytes
44
from smallest to large what are the units of storage in order?
Bit, Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, & Terabyte
45
We store all of our computer's data on what?
hard drive
46
what allows us to store our programs, music, pictures, etc.
hard drive
47
what are the two basic hard drive types used today?
HDDs & SSDs
48
what does HDD stand for?
Hard Disk Drive
49
What does SSD stand for?
Solid State Drive
50
what uses a spinning platter and a mechanical arm to read and write information?
Hard Disk Drives, HDDs
51
The speed of the HDD, that the platter rotates allows you to what? .
read and write data faster
52
The speed of the HDD that the platter rotates allows you to read and write data faster. This is commonly referred to as what?
RPM, or revolution per minute.
53
What does RPM stand for?
Revolution per minute
54
A hard drive with a higher RPM is what?
Faster
55
HDDs are prone to a lot more damage because of what?
there are a lot of moving parts
56
The HDDs susceptibility to damage went away with a new type of storage called what?
SSD
57
Out of HDDs & SSDs which one has no moving parts?
SSDs
58
How are SSDs created in a similar way as USB sticks?
information is stored on microchips & data travels faster than HDDs
59
The form factor for SSDs is slimmer compared to what?
HDD
60
what are the pros & cons of HDDs & SSDs?
HDDs are more affordable, but more prone to damage. SSDs are less risky at losing data, but also more expensive. So you may not buy as much memory storage in SSDs than what you can get in HDDs.
61
the hybrid of SSD and HDD is known as what?
solid state hybrid drive, SSHD
62
what is an example of a hybrid hard drive?
SSHD
63
An SSHD is a device that is designed to do what?
combine flash memory storage and HDD storage into a single device
64
What do SSHDs have built in them?
solid-state storage built in but also use HDD technology as a way to provide additional storage space.
65
What does SSHD stand for?
solid-state hybrid drive
66
what is the most common interface that hard drives use
ATA
67
what is the most popular ATA drive?
SATA, Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
68
how are programs & software different ?
A program is a piece of code or a set of instructions that performs a given task a software is a set of programs used to perform a task, which is more complex than that of a program. Software is more complex and more essential than that of a program. A computer doesn't work without a software
69
What are the two types of electricity?
DC & AC
70
What's the difference between DC & AC electricity?
DC, Direct Current flows in one direction AC, Alternating Current changes direction constantly
71
What does the power supply do?
It converts the AC we get from the wall into low voltage DC power that we can use and transmit throughout our computer.
72
What kind of voltage do our computers use?
DC voltage
73
what is a charge cycle?
one full charge and discharge of a battery
74
our devices use programs to tell the CPU how to run them. These programs are called what?
services or drivers
75
The drivers contain the instructions our CPU needs to understand what?
external devices like keyboards, webcams, printers.
76
Our CPU doesn't know that there is a device that it can talk to, so it has to connect to something called the what?
BIOS, or basic input output services.
77
what is the BIOS?
software that helps initialize the hardware in our computer and gets our operating system up and running
78
Where is the BIOS firmware stored?
Originally, stored in a ROM chip on the PC motherboard In later computer systems, the BIOS contents are stored on flash memory so it can be rewritten without removing the chip from the motherboard.
79
The BIOS isn't stored on a hard drive. Our motherboard stores the BIOS in what?
a special type of memory called, the read-only memory chip, or ROM chip.
80
Unlike RAM, ROM is what?
non-volatile
81
In today's system, there is another player for BIOS called UEFI, which stands for what?
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface.
82
UEFI performs the same function of what?
of starting your computer as a traditional BIOS. But it's more modern and has better compatibility and support for newer hardware.
83
what will eventually become the predominant BIOS?
Eventually, UEFI will become the predominant BIOS.
84
computers run a test to make sure all the hardware is working correctly, this is called what?
This is called a Power On Self Test or POST.
85
what does the BIOS run when you boot up your computer?
Power On Self Test or POST.
86
So, if your computer successfully boots up, you may hear what?
a single beep
87
If you hear two beeps when booting your computer it could mean what?
it could mean a POST error

IT Support Fundamentals (3 decks)

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