Lesson 4 Types of Components and Objects to be Measured

Objectives

1. Discuss the types of components and objects to be measured;

2. Identify the name of components and its measurements; and
3. Appreciate the importance of knowing the components and objects to be measured

Mensuration refers to the process of measuring the computer components and objects to fully
understand the needed requirements and capacity. The results of measurements taken are the
calculations that are usually considered in building a computer.

1. Memory

Memory is the working storage space of the computer which holds data, processing instructions
and processed data (information) waiting to send in secondary storage.

Two Types of Memory

a. Random Access Memory (RAM)

- Is the computer’s portion that temporarily stores the computer’s running instructions and the
data it handles.

- RAM data is volatile. If the power of the machine is switch off, all data will be erased and
become lost

- The RAM can carry millions of bytes of data, so the capacity is calculated based on Megabytes
(MB) 1,000,000 or 1 million bytes and Gigabytes (GB) 1,000,000,000 or 1 billion bytes.

b. Read Only Memory

- is a type of non-volatile, memory used in computers and other electronic devices.

- Data stored in ROM cannot be electronically changed after the manufacture of the memory
device.
- Read-only memory is beneficial for storing software that is rarely changes during the life of the
system, also known as firmware.

2. Data Storage Capacity

- Refers to how much disk space one or more

storage devices provides. It measures the
capacity of data on a computer system.

- Storage capacity is measured in Kilobytes

(KB), Megabytes (MB), Gigabytes (GB) and
Terabytes (TB).

For example, a computer with 500 GB hard drive has a storage capacity of 500 gigabytes or 5
billion bytes.

Types of Data Storage Device

1. Magnetic Storage Media and Devices

- Stores data in a form of tiny magnetized dots. These dots are
formed, read and erased by very tiny electromagnets using magnets
films.

Kind of Magnetic Storage Media and Devices

a. Hard drives

- Have a relatively high storage capacity (up to 1 TB). They can be used for storing large
quantities of data.

- Hard drives are random access drive that can be used to store all firm types, including large
files like videos.

- Data access are very fast. The data is stored on a rotating metal or glass disc inside a hard drive.
b. Portable Hard Drive

- Also known as external hard drive, is one that is mount in a

small case along with some electronics that allows the hard-drive
to be accessed using a USB link or similar connection.

- Portable hard drive make it possible to transfer large volumes of

data from computer to another computer.

c. Magnetic Tape

- Is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of
plastic film.

d. Floppy Disk

- A detachable, portable, inexpensive, low-capacity (1.44

MB) storage medium.

- Floppy disks are random access devices used to transfer

small amounts of data between computers or to back up
small files.

- This device has already been replaced by CDROMs, DVDs,

and USBs memory sticks.

2. Optical Storage Devices

- A kind of computer disk drive that reads and writes data from optical disks through laser beaming
technology.

- This kind of drive allows a user to retrieve, modify and delete the content from optical disks such as
CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray disks.
- Optical drives are one of the most common computer components.

Types of Optical Storage Devices

a. Compact Disc – CD-ROM

- Read-only Memory Disc that can hold around 800MB of data. The data
cannot be changed (non-volatile), and cannot be accidentally deleted. CD-
ROM’s are random access devices.

b. Digital Versatile Disc-Read-Only Memory (DVD-ROM)

- Disc can hold around 4.7GB of data, dual-layer DVD can hold twice as
much.

- DVD-ROM’s are random access devices. They are used for high-quality
video storage.

c. Blu-Ray Disc

- A high capacity disks that can hold data from 25-50 GB. It is the recent replacement for DVD. Blu-ray
discs are random access devices.

d. High-density DVDs (HD_DVD)

- An optical storage capable of storing up to 30GB of data. It is also a random access device.
3. Solid-State Storage

- A storage device that has no moving parts no reels of tapes, no spinning discs, and no laser
beams. Solid-state storage devices store data using a special memory type known as flash
memory.

a. Memory Sticks

- Also known as “thumb drives” – are non-volatile random- access

storage devices. Each of these small devices has flash memory
attached to a USB interface.

b. Memory Card

- Is a kind of storage device that is used for storing media and data files. It provides
a permanent and non-volatile medium to store data and files from the attached
device. It is commonly used in small, portable devices, such as cameras and
phones.

c. Smart Card

- Is a plastic, credit-card size card with one or more embedded computer

chip. Example of this credit card, door entry cards, satellite TV cards.

3. Processor

- Called the CPU or central processing unit which is

considered as the computer’s brain.

- It is performs the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output

operations of a computer system.

- The speed at which the CPU can execute the instructions is

called the clock speed.

- The clock speed is measured in cycles per second, and one cycle per second is known as 1
hertz. This means that a CPU with a clock speed of 2 gigahertz (GHz) can carry out two
thousand million (or two billion) cycles per second.
4. Video Card

- Also called as graphics cards, video adapters, display cards,

graphic adapters and graphic accelerators.

- It is a computer component that is used to enhance the quality of

images showed on a display.

- It is attached to the motherboard which controls and calculates the appearance

of an image on the screen.

- A graphics card’s processor is called a graphics processing unit or GPU.

- The card’s performance is measured in its frame rate which is calculated in frames per
second (FPS).

5. System’s Specification

- `Whenever you purchase software or hardware for your computer, you should first make sure your
computer supports the system requirements.

- These are the necessary specifications your computer must have in order to use the software or
hardware.

- Most hardware and software products have the system requirements printed on the side or bottom of
the product packaging.

- The important information to record includes:

 Operating System (i.e, Window XP, SP 2 or Mac OS X 10.3.8)

 Processor Speed (i.e. Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz or Power PC G5, 2.0 GHz)
 Memory a.k.a. RAM (i.e. 512 MB)
 Graphics Card (i.e. ATI Radeon 9800 w/ 256 MB video memory)
 Hard Disk Space (i.e. 80 GB available)
 I/O Ports (i.e. USB, Firewire, Serial, Parallel, SCSI, VGA, DVI ports)
- By recording these specifications from your computer, you will able to make sure your
computer supports the products you are buying.

Processor Speed and Architecture

 - The speed of a computer’s processor chip (technically known as its “clock speed”) in
measured in gigahertz (GHz), with the fastest modern processors currently running at up
to 4.7 GHz.
- For applications such as video editing, 3D graphics work and playing computer games,
higher processors speed is highly required.
- The architecture of a processor is the most important factor to determine its
performance, and refers to its basic design and complexity.
- Front side bus (FSB) speed is a measure of how fast a microprocessor communicates
with the computer’s main circuit board (or motherboard) into which it is physically
connected.

RAM

- To a large extent, the more RAM a computer has the faster and more effectively it will
operate.
- Computers with little RAM have to keep moving data to and from their hard disk in order
to keep running.
- RAM is measured in megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB), as detailed on the storage
page.

Graphic System

- A computer’s graphic system determines how well it can work with visual output.
- Graphics system can either be integrated into a computer’s motherboard, or plugged into
the motherboard as a separate “video card”.
- Graphics systems integrated into the motherboard (also known as “onboard graphics”)
are now quite powerful, and sufficient for handling the requirements of most software
applications aside from games playing, 3D modeling, and some forms of video editing.