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Major Hardware Components of A Computer System
Major Hardware Components of A Computer System
a Computer System
Motherboard (cont.)
Motherboard (cont.)
Expansion slots/add on boards - allow cards that attach
various peripheral devices to the motherboard
monitors, hard drive, internal fax/modem, network cards,etc
PCMCIA slots: special slots developed for laptops to attach
devices and add on RAM
Main Memory
Random Access Memory (RAM): allows data
and instructions to be accessed randomly from any
memory location (address). Primary storage.
Volatile - lost when power is turned off
Main Memory
Data and instructions are stored as BITS (binary
digits). Everything from our world is translated into
a computer recognizable format called binary
(zeros or ones)
The combination of binary digits represents our letters or
numbers. One character represented is equal to a byte.
Microprocessor Families
Intel (IBM) and Motorola (Macintosh
68000) two main manufacturers
Microprocessors are families - upward
increases in speed (early SX vs DX chips)
Increase in bus capacity indicates a new
generation
Badge Reader
Bar-code Reader
Cartridge & cassette drives
CD Rom
Digital camera
Digital tables & scanners
Keyboard, mouse, pens
MICR
Voice
OCR
Touch screen
Plotter
Robotics
Speech synthesizer
VDT
Microforms
Storage
Required because main memory is limited, expensive
and volatile.
Sequential Access Storage Devices (SASD): data is stored
in sequential order. Retrieval is also sequential.
Storage media is magnetic tape.
Supports batch processing environment
Excellent form of backup
Direct Access Storage Devices (DASD): data can be stored
and retrieved randomly.
Storage capacity is referred to as density. How tightly
packed data is on the disk.
DASD is required for transaction processing.
Memory capacity is measured in bytes. Todays most
common measurement is kilobytes, megabytes and gigabits.
Printer Considerations
Dot matrix - low price & inexpensive to
operate. Lower quality. Impact - can print
carbon forms. Color option. Slow.
Ink jet - moderate price & better output.
Color option. Nonimpact. Quieter.
Laserjet - more expensive. Faster. High
quality. Nonimpact.
Display Considerations
Screen size- diagonal measurement from corner to corner.
Popular sizes are 14, 15 and 17
Dot pitch - measure of image clarity. The smaller the dot
pitch, the crisper the image or resolution.
Video adapters/cards impact image resolution and display
speed. Today, most monitors are Super VGA (1024 x
768)and use non-interlaced projection technology (flicker)
Laptop - liquid crystal display (LCD). Passive matrix vs
active matrix screen (display method which impacts
image quality). Active matrix is much better but more
expensive and can have problems.
DASD
Floppy Disk: removable DASD. Most common
density is 1.44Mb.
Hard Disk: usually dont remove (but newer devices
you can). Higher storage capacity than floppy disks.
Faster access.
Winchester drive architecture is not removable.
Can be drives that have removable disk platters.
Optical disk: CD_ROM (read-only) Erasable optical disk is
also available. WORM - write once, read many.
Flash memory: main memory on a card. Non volatile.
PCMCIA card.
DASD cont.
All data stored on DASD media is stored in pieshaped sectors that determines how much data is
moved into and out of main memory at a time.
Virtual storage: operating system uses hard disk
drive as an extension of main memory.
Cache memory: operating system assumes that
most data used by an application is accessed over
and over again. Cache is a special area in main
memory where such data is put instead of paging it
back and forth to DASD.
DASD cont
WORM: write-once, read many. (CD
ROM). Also have rewriteable CD ROM.
Floptical Disk: optical storage capacities on
floppy disk.
DVD: Digital video disk
Hierarchical Storage: use of many different
types of DASD & SASD devices to achieve
storage requirements.
Other considerations:
Desktop vs Laptop - expansion slots and
capability
Anatomy of a Filename
Rules for creating valid filenames
(appropriate characters, length of names,
etc.) depends on the operating system being
used.
Components of a filename consist of:
File name from
you
Drive Designation
C:/foldername/filename.ext
Folder/subdirectory
name
File extension
supplied by the
program
File Storage
Logical Storage:
How you perceive that data
is stored on an auxiliary
storage media
Physical Storage
How data actually
resides on your
auxiliary storage
media
File/disk directory
No indication of
fragmentation