Computer Hardware

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BASIC HARDWARE Vijay Kumar Sharma

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Main Board or Mother Board It is the most important element. The whole PC architecture is build on the main board. All devices and peripherials are connected to mother board. If we have a look at its basic structure we can easily identify:         1.Microprocessor Socket         2.BIOS (and Battery)         3.RAM memory slots (DIMM, DDR, ...)         4. Card Slots (PCI, ISA, AGP, ...)         5.Chipset         6.Connectors PS/2 (Keyboard, Mouse) USB IDE Bus Serial and parallel ports (COM &LPT1) Power supply (CN1)

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Mother board

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BIOS         (Basic Input/Output System) It is a memory (ROM) keeping a group of routines needed to control system devices. It allows booting process. System configuration is saved in a CMOS memory needing a battery not to loose the information.
	Some of them allow to configure Microprocessor or bus clock speed above their recomended values. This process is called Overclocking.

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Memory

• Caché Memory (L1, L2)
• Placed between RAM and Microprocessor.
• It is extremely fast but with low capacity and high cost.
• L1 is built in the Microprocessor.
• L2 can be found on the Main Board.
• Volatile (loses data when turned off).
• RAM (Random Acces Memory)
• Stores data temporarily.
• Higher capacity (Mbytes), cheaper and slower than Caché.)
• Need a refresh not to loose data.
• Volatile (loses data when turned off).
• ROM (Read Only Memory)
• No-Volatile

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Basic Hardware

• RAM memory slots on mother board


• RAM card assembly

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Microprocessor

• Microprocessor

• Also known as CPU (Central Processing Unit).
• Processes the data arriving from storage units and peripherials.

• Modern Microprocessors work at two different speeds:-
• Internal: the speed at which data can be processed.
• External: the speed used to communicate with Main Board.

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Microprocessor

• Microprocessor.

• Socket.

Placed on mother board allows microprocessor connection