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HARDWARE BASICS

Department of Mathematics
&
Computer Science
Faculty of Natural Sciences
The Open University of Sri Lanka
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Hardware Basics

Computer contains several components and these


components can be fitted to computer in both
internally
and externally.
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External Components of
Computer
Computer Monitor
A monitor or display (sometimes called a visual
display unit) is an electronic visual display for
computers. It is a standard output device

CRTMonitor
LCD Monitor

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CRT Monitor (cathode-ray tube)
Bulky, heavy, use vacuum tube technology.
Using technology that was developed in the 19th century.
Most use a cathode-ray tube as a display
device.
CRT: Glass tube that is narrow at one end
and opens to a flat screen at the other
end.
Narrow end contains electron guns.
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Three guns for color (Red, Green, Blue).
Display screen is covered with tiny phosphor dots that emit
light when struck by the electron gun.

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LCD Monitor (Liquid Crystal
Display)
Low power consumption and compact size
Does not have cathode ray type emission system
Color quality is getting improved
Harmful ray emission also less
Initially came with laptop computers
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Keyboard
Standard input device of the computer.
standard PC keyboard contains 105 to 108 keys
LAPTOP computer you have 87 keys

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Mouse
Mouse is used as pointing device in computer
Also used in pressing buttons shown in screen to initiate
commands
There are various kinds of mouse models in market today
Mechanical Mouse
Optical Mouse
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Mechanical Mouse (with Scroll/ without
Scroll)

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Has a rubber or metal ball on its underside that can roll
in all directions.
Mechanical sensors within the mouse detect the direction
the ball is rolling and move the screen pointer
accordingly.
Commonly used
Due to dust so regular cleaning is necessary to trackball

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Cont
Optical Mouse (with Scroll/ without
Scroll)

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Movement is detected by sensing changes in reflected
light, rather than by interpreting the motion of a rolling
sphere
It respond more quickly and precisely than mechanical
mouse
It is more expensive

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There can be two or three button mouse

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Operation and word associated with mouse
Commonly
Operation
used word
Click
Pressing left mouse button once
Double Click Pressing left mouse button once in
quick succession
Right Click
Pressing right mouse button once
Drag
Scroll
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Pressing and holding left mouse


button move mouse
Scroll by moving finger over direction
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scroll

Cont
Printer
A device that prints text or illustrations on paper.
Three types of printers
Dot Matrix printer
Inkjet / Bubble jet printer
Laser printer

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Cont
Dot matrix Printer
Creates characters by striking pins
against an ink ribbon. This is much
like a typewriter
Each pin makes a dot, and
combinations of dots form characters
and illustrations.

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Cont
Can print on multi-part stationery or make carbon-copies
Lowest printing costs per page.
As the ink is running out, the printout gradually fades rather
than suddenly stopping partway through a job.
Able to use continuous paper rather than requiring individual
sheets.
Create noise when the pins or typeface strike the ribbon to the
paper.
Can only print lower-resolution graphics, with limited color
performance, limited quality, and lower speeds compared to
non-impact printers.
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Cont
Ink Jet Printer Most popular and affordable
printers available today
It place small drops of ink onto
the paper.
Inkjet printers ink drops are
ejected by a pressure wave
created by the mechanical
motion of the piezoelectric
ceramic.
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Bubble Jet printer
Ink drops were ejected from the nozzle by the fast
growth of an ink vapor bubble on the top surface of a
small heater.

Inkjet printers use serial printing process

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Laser Printer
It uses laser beams to
print
The laser creates an
image on a drum
This picks up toner and
prints the image on to
the paper

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Front View and the Back


View of Computer
System Unit
Front of a Computer
Case

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Power Button

To turn on your computer

Power Light

Power light should turn on when PC


turn on

Reset Button

Restart the machine forcefully

Floppy Drive

Floppy disks are read and written by a


floppy disk drive

CD Drive

Short for Compact Disk drive


CD-ROM discs are read using CD-ROM
drives

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Cont
Zip Drive

small, portable disk drive used


primarily for backing up and archiving
personal computer files

Drive bay

An area of reserved space in a


personal computer where hard or
floppy disk drives (or tape drives) can
be installed. The number of drive bays
in a computer determines the total
number of internal mass storage
devices it can handle.

DVD Drive
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Front View and the Back


View of the Computer
System Unit
Back of a Computer
Case
Many of the external
components fit into
appropriate port of the
back of your PC

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Power connector

Connect the computer to the power


supply

VGA Connector

A VGA (Video Graphic Array) port is a


three-row 15-pin DE-15 connector
Connects Computer monitor of PC

Keyboard
port

Connects keyboard to your PC


PS/2 Ports : simple, 6-pin, low-

speed serial connections


Mouse
port
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Connects mouse to your PC


PS/2 Ports
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Port

Network port

Use to communicate with other


computers or internet

Printer port

Use to connect printer to your PC


25 pin DB25 Parallel Port
Almost all the PCs have only one
parallel port, but can add more by
buying and inserting ISA/PCI parallel
port cards.

Sound Line in,


Sound Line out

Pink/Red - Microphone connector


Green - Line-Out, Front Speakers,
Headphones
Blue Line in, connecting a CD-

player or cassette tape


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Cont
USB Port
Stands for Universal Serial Bus
USB allows data to be transferred
between devices
Up to 127 devices can connect to the
host, either directly or by way of USB
hubs.

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Keyboard
Mouse
Printer
Modems
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Internal Components of
Computer

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CPU Central Processing Unit
-The brain / heart of the computer
-Commonly called as processor / microprocessor
-It handles all the instructions and data inside the computer

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Components of CPU
ALU: To do mathematical calculations. It might be able to
add, subtract, multiply and divide
CU: To handle instructions and command
Registers: To store the data for current
processing/operations
Cache: To store the data that is required for next
operation as well as repeatedly required data

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Cont
When you double click on an icon to run a program, here is
what happens:
The program, which is stored inside the hard disk drive, is
transferred to the RAM memory. A program is a series of instructions.
The CPU, using a circuit called memory controller, loads the
program data from the RAM memory to the CPU.
Now the data is inside the CPU and starts processing.
What happens next will depend on the program. The CPU could
continue loading and executing the program or could do something
with the processed data, like displaying something on the screen.
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Cont
CPU performs the following four steps for each instruction:
The control unit gets the instruction from memory.
The control unit decodes the instruction (decides what it means)
and direct the necessary instructions from memory to the
arithmetic/logic unit. These first two steps together are called
instruction time, or I-time.
The arithmetic/logic unit executes the arithmetic or logical
instruction. That is, the ALU performs the actual operation.
The arithmetic/logic unit stores the result of this operation in
memory or in a register. Steps 3 and 4 together are called
execution time, or E-time.

Cont

There are several ways to calculate the speed of CPU. One


method is specifying the instructions carried out per
second.
1 instruction per second 1Hz
1024 instructions per second 1 KHz
1024x1024 instructions per second 1 MHz

Cont
Multi core processor
Modern CPUs are built to contain multiples of CPU cores
inside one main central processing unit. Ex: dual core, core
duo, quad core
They are sharing one common cache, because most of the
time these CPU cores are working in parallel to do sub tasks
of a single task and the data is common
VGA Card (Graphic card)
There is a separate processing unit in VGA card for
processing graphical data to produce the output

Cont

AGP slot
on
motherboa
rd

PCI
express
slot on
motherboa
rd
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VGA card is the part of the computer that translates the
binary data in to picture(output) that you can see on the
monitor using its CPU.
You have to select the correct VGA card to suit for your
mother board.(connecting slot has to be matched)
Connection to the motherboard is usually through one of
three interfaces;
Peripheral component interconnect (PCI)
Advanced graphics port (AGP)
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PCI Express (PCIe)


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Same as motherboard, a graphic card is a printed circuit
board that includes;
Processor: GPU (Graphic Processing Unit)
BIOS chip: stores the card's settings and performs
diagnostic
Memory: to keep processed data.

Most graphic cards have two monitor connections;


DVI connector: Support LCD screens
VGA connector: Support CRT screens

CRT
screens can connect
to DVI ports through an40adapter
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There are VGA cards that can connect multiple
monitors (Dual VGA) and capable of giving output
to Televisions and HD televisions.
Most of the motherboards comes with built in VGA
card
Generally the speed of GPU is in 33 MHz to 1 GHz
range. The memory capacity is from 32MB to 1.5
GB.

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Computer Memory / Main Memory /Primary
Memory (RAM)
RAM stands for Random Access Memory.
Can be accessed randomly; that is, any byte of memory
can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes.
RAM is used to keep working data that is required by
CPU and loaded programs also exist in there.
Once power is switched off, information from memory
gets erased; Therefore this memory is called as
Volatile memory.
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History of RAMs.

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How much RAM do you


need?

Next to the CPU itself, RAM is the most important factor in


computer performance
Sometimes adding RAM can make more of a difference than
getting a new CPU!
If your system responds slowly or accesses the hard drive
constantly, then you need to add more RAM
If you are running Windows XP, Microsoft recommends
128MB as the minimum RAM requirement.
Linux works happily on a system with only 4 MB of RAM
Mac OS X systems should have a minimum of 128 MB.
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The amount of RAM listed for each system above is estimated for normal
usage
If you do computer-aided design (CAD), 3-D modeling/animation or heavy
data processing, or if you are a serious gamer, then you will most likely need
more RAM.
You may also need more RAM if your computer acts as a server.
Another question is how much VRAM (video RAM) you want on your video
card
Almost all VRAM that you can buy today have at least 512 MB of RAM. This is
normally enough to operate in a typical office environment. You should
probably invest in a 4GB or better graphics card if you want to do any of the
following:
Play realistic games ,Capture and edit video ,Create 3-D graphics,
Work in a high-resolution.
When buying a video card, remember that your monitor and computer must
be capable of supportingSample
the card
footeryou choose.
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Main Board / Mother Board /
Primary
Circuit Board
One piece of equipment that
ties everything together
It allows all the parts of the
computer to receive power
and communicate with one
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Diagram of a modern motherboard, which supports many onSample footer


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board peripheral functions
as well as several expansion
slots.

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Devices that can be used to connect to the motherboard
are;
RAM
Sound card
Graphic card
Hard disk
CPU
Motherboard generally contain;
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Component

Operation by its component

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Input output controller

This will drive all the disks and printer


and other output devices.
VGA controller (onboard or add on) Controls output to computer monitors.
Memory controller
Control memory modules fitted to
motherboard.
Communication controller
To communicate using telephone line or
network.
System bus
ROM

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Passage where the data is sent to all


devices when necessary.
Read only memory that powered by a
small battery which contains basic
instructions to start computer and the
information on all the devices connected
to computer. This also stores date and
time of computer. 50

Busses and North Bridge & South


Bridge
Data are constantly being moved back and forth between
the CPU and all the other components (RAM, hard disk,
etc.). These transfers are all done using busses.
These busses which connect all the components to each
other. There are several buses, they are all connected. so
that data can run from one to another.
Bus system is subdivided into several branches.
That is because some of the PC components work with huge
amount of data, while others work with less amount of
data.
Ex:- the keyboard only sends very few bytes per second, whereas the
working storage (RAM) can send and receive several gigabytes per
second. So you cant attach
RAM and the keyboard to
the same bus.
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Two busses with different capacities (bandwidths) can be
connected if we place a controller between them.
Such a controller is often called a bridge, since it functions
as a bridge between the two different traffic systems.

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The busses connecting the motherboard to the PCs
peripheral devices are called I/O busses.
The motherboards busses are regulated by a number of
controllers. Most of these controller functions are grouped
into a couple of large chips, which together comprise the
chip set.
The most widespread chipset architecture consists of two
chips, usually called the north and south bridges
The north bridge and south bridge are connected by a
powerful bus, which sometimes is called a link channel:

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The north bridge controls the flow of data between the CPU
and RAM, and to the AGP port
It has a large heat sink. It gets hot because very large amounts
of data traffic pass through it.
The AGP is actually an I/O port. It is used for the video card.
In contrast to the other I/O devices, the AGP port is directly
connected to the north bridge, because it is close to the RAM.

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South bridge looks the transfer of data to and from the hard
disk and all the other I/O devices, and passes this data into
the link channel which connects to the north bridge
south bridge is physically located close to the PCI slots, which
are used for I/O devices

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