Unit 2 - P1 - EXPLAIN the function of computer hardware components

Processors CPU

A CPU is a central processing unit. This is the part of the computer which carries out instructions of a program from sums being calculated, and the use of logical input and output operations to the system. The CPU is essentially the brain of the computer. A CPU has clock speeds, which will be measured in gigahertz (GHz), and it is the measure of the amount of clock cycles that the CPU is capable of achieving each second. Also, a single-core CPU is capable of performing on task at a time, so having multiple CPU cores means a CPU is capable of performing multiple tasks.

Mother Board

A mother board, which can be called a main board or a system board is a PCB, printed circuit board. It is in the computers tower , where busses transfers information or data to the required components of the system, like the CPU. The mother board also has the connectors for peripheral devices, like the mouse, keyboard or a USB. The motherboard generally has slots on it, which are designated for different components of the computer, where the different sections of the motherboard is for specific components. This is to allow the communications to run efficiently and to allow the computer to work properly.

BIOS

A BIOS is a firmware in which when the computer is just starting up, it performs the hardware initialisation, as well as providing the runtime of the OS and programmes on the computer.

Power supply

A PSU (power supply unit) converts the power of the AC voltages, to a lower, DC voltage for the components on the inside of the computer. This means that the PSU is essentially like a big battery for the computer.

Fan and heatsink

A heatsink is a component in a computer where a fan is generally used to ensure that the other components don’t over heat, such as the processor, by making the components cool. In some situations, a fan is not used and a peltier cooling device is used instead

Hard Drive

A hard drive is the component which reads information from as well as what writes new information into the computer. It is similar to a gramophone in the way it works, where a needle reads off of a disk to read or write the information. The Hard drive will have a smaller capacity than what has been told by the manufacturer. This can be due to the operating system using space on the Hard drive or the use of different units when the capacity is being calculated or the lack of data. The units are generally gigabytes or terabytes. The seek time of the Hard drive ranges from below 4 milliseconds for the better Hard drives to 15 milliseconds for mobile drives. The most used mobile drives are generally about 12 milliseconds and for the desktop type, it is usually around 9 milliseconds. The first HDD created, the average seek time was 600 milliseconds which fell to 25 milliseconds by 1970. Some of the earlier drives would have used a stepper motor to move the heads, meaning the seek times took 80–120 milliseconds. This was improved by voice coil type actuation in the 1980s, leading to a seek times of 20 milliseconds. Some computer systems allows the user to make a trade off between the seek performance and the drive noise. The faster the seek rate is, the more energy usage to quickly move the heads across the platte is required, so louder noises is made from the Hard drive. The quieter the operation is, the slower the movement speed and acceleration rates is, where the seek performance is worsened.

Hard Drive Controllers (IDE / EIDE / SATA)

The HDC, meaning hard drive controller, allows the computer to read and write information on and to the hard drive. It acts as a bus , where it connects the hard drive to the other components on the motherboard

Hard Drive Configurations (Master / Slave)

The master to slave relationship of hard drive configuration, allows the hard drive to be used for a load sharing purpose with two monitors of which are the exact same and are connected to two separate drives. One of the drives is the master and is for running the speed control mode, where as the other drive is the slave drive and is for the running of the torque-control mode.

Internal Memory (RAM / ROM)

Internal memory is the memory of which data is stored onto the computer. RAM is the most common memory in the computer system, but it is not able to open data on the computer, so it sends the information to the hard drive to open by a bus. ROM is Read-only memory and it is a non-volatile memory type. Data that is stored on ROM is able to be modified, slowly and with difficulty, occasionally not at all. The main purpose of ROM is to store firmware (software that is linked to certain and specific hardware where updates are less frequent).

Network cards

A network card is a card that laptops and computers have. The network card connects the computer or laptop to a network, which is most often a LAN

Graphics card

A graphics card, or a video card, is the hardware part of a computer, seen as an expansion to the computer, where images are processed through it from the computer to the monitor. The graphics card renders the image for the monitor by the data being converted into data that the monitor understands. Graphic cards are advertised as discrete or dedicated, where the differences between these and integrated cards are emphasised. Graphic cards are sometimes called graphics add-in-boards which is also AIB, where graphics is normally left out.

Sound Cards

A sound card is a card, which can be easily slotted into the computer and it allows any multimedia files with sound, play the sound. It also allows headphones, microphones and other input or out put devices be connected for use to the computer

Ports (USB / Parallel / Serial)

The usb ports send or receive data from input or output devices to and from the computer, where the data will be read from the hard drive, so the data is transferred by busses on the motherboard.

Parallel ports allow data to be received or sent simultaneous, due to the multiple use of wires being used. Serial ports are the same as parallel ports, but instead of multiple wires, there is one and it can send or receive data in smaller chunks than a parallel port can

Output Devices (Monitors / Printers /Speakers) Input Devices (keyboard / mouse/joystick)

Output devices are any device of a computer where there is information being given from the computer, such as the monitor where the user can physically see the information

So, input devices are the devices where information is put into the computer used by the device, like keyboards to write any information, or a joystick to move characters in games

A monitor is an output device due to it showing information to the user, printers are a second example, where information from the computer is made into a physical copy and speakers are a third example, where sound is able to be made and from files on the computer.

A keyboard is a input device, where the keys that are pressed effect the way an action is done, like the arrow keys to control a character in a game, a mouse is a second example, where it is used to control certain actions on computers, such as what or how a file is opened and a third example is a joy stick, where the movements or buttons control specific actions within a game, like movement of characters.

Types of back ups(Disks, Pen Drives, Flash Memory Cards)

There are several ways of backing up data from computers, such as SD cards or pen drives. Depending on the storage the back up has, the more or less data it can store. Meaning that camera SD cards would need to be larger than a pen drive as the files stored on the cameras SD card are larger than the files on the pen drive.

SD cards: can hold a large amount of data, are portable, meaning they can be taken with the owner. They can connect to different digital devices, so transporting files is easy and they are durable, due to the lack of moving parts. But SD cards are extremely easy to loose or be stolen, especially the micro cards and they aren’t all able to be read by computers as an SD card reader isn’t always built in, so one will need to be purchased.

Pen drives : advantages of  memory sticks are the amount of data being able to be stored, they are portable, so can be used anywhere and the are durable due to there being no moving parts, but they can be lost, stolen or damaged easily.

Portable v. Fixed Drives

There are portable hard drives and fixed hard drives. Fixed hard drives are built into the computer and shouldn’t be moved, where as the portable hard drives can b used for any computer, so data can be read, written faster than before on the computer

Performance (Data Transfer Rate, Capacity)

The performance of the computer can depend on how much storage space there is on the computer as the hard drive needs so much storage space to read and write the data. The more room there is on the computer, generally the faster it will go. Also the data transfer rate is affected by the speed of the computer as the slower the computer is, the longer it will take for files to be transferred from save place to save place. The worse the performance a computer has the cheaper it may be to sell.