System Unit

MUHAMMAD ZEESHAN
 What is the system unit?
Case that contains electronic
components of the computer
used to process data
Front of the Computer Case/System Unit
Inside the Computer Case/ System Unit
What are common components
Cooling fan
Power Supply
inside the system unit?
Memory
Adapter cards
◦ Sound card
◦ Video card
Ports
Ports
Drive bays
Power supply
What is the motherboard ?
Main circuit board in system unit
Contains adapter cards, processor chips, and
memory chips
Also called system board
Large circuit board with thousands of electrical
circuits Power supply- provide electric power of
all parts of the system unit through main board
What’s on the motherboard?
Microprocessor (CPU)- Central processing unit interprets and carries out
instructions given by software
Memory- Enables the computer to retain information
Chipset- A collection of chips that provide the switching circuitry needed to
move data
Input/Output buses- Pathways that allow the microprocessor to communicate
with input and output devices
Motherboard
What is a chip?
Small piece of semi-conducting material on which integrated circuits are etched
◦ Integrated circuits contain many microscopic pathways capable of carrying
electrical current
Chips are packaged so they can be attached to a circuit board
Central Processing Unit (CPU)/
Microprocessor
The central processing unit, is the “brain” of computer system.
Administrative section of computer.
Supervises the operations of the other computer units.
CPU is connected to all other parts of computer.
Receives data and instructions given by user, processes accordingly and produces the output.
This section not only executes the instructions but also controls all the permanent or temporary
storage of data, I/O activities as well as the function of different devices attached with it.
It is further divided into two parts:
◦ Control Unit (CU)
◦ Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
What are the types of CPUs?
Basic Operation Performed by CPU
(Control Unit )
4 basic operations:
Fetch – The Control Unit takes the instruction that is store in the Main Memory.
Decode - The Control Unit translates the instruction into machine language or
binary code.
Execute - carry out the command
Store - write the result to memory
Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)
Major processing unit of the CPU.
All arithmetic and logical (decision making) activities are performed in this
section.
Arithmetic means all sort of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.
The logical operations performed in this unit make it possible for computer to
make decisions by comparing one item with the other.
Machine Cycle
4 operations of the CPU comprise a machine cycle.
Instruction time– time to fetch and decode
Execution time– time to execute and Store

Million Instructions per second (MIPS)

Billions of cycles per second (BIPS)
How a CPU works
 Machine Cycle
Instruction cycle

Execution cycle

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What is memory?
A term for a device that enables the computer to retain (store) information.
Memory
Von Neumann Architecture
◦ Concept of stored program

Stores open programs and data

Small chips on the motherboard
More memory makes a computer faster

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Memory Address and Size
Each Memory has an address
Memory size is measured in KB, MB, GB or TB

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What Memory Stores?
 Store Instructions waiting to be executed by
the processor
 Data needed by those instructions, and
 Results of processing the data
 Stores three basic categories of items:
The operating
system and other
Application
system software programs
Data being 20
What are the types of memory?
Volatile memory (Random Access Memory/RAM; Cache Memory; Virtual
Memory)
Contents of memory are erased when power supply is turned off. Also called
Temporary storage.
Non-volatile memory (Read Only Memory/ROM; Flash Memory)
Contents of memory are not erased when power is turned off. Also called
Permanent storage.
What is Random Access Memory /
RAM?
A type of volatile memory that stores information temporarily so that it’s
available to the CPU.
HOW DOES RAM WORK?
CHIPS CONTAIN MEMORY LOCATIONS CALLED MEMORY ADDRESSES

THE CPU STORES AND RETRIEVES DATA BY GOING TO THE MEMORY

ADDRESSES
HOW RAM WORKS
What is cache memory?
Located within the CPU chip, it is the memory the microprocessor
uses to store frequently used instructions and data.
Faster than RAM
What is virtual memory?
Part of the hard disk is reserved as RAM
When RAM modules become full the CPU accesses the hard disk to
store and retrieve data
Slower than RAM
Buses
 What are input/output (I/O) buses?
Pathways that enable the CPU to communicate with
input/output devices
Typically the buses contain slots called expansion
slots, in which expansion cards are inserted
The Bus
Electronic pathway between components
Two main buses: Internal (or system) bus and External (or
expansion) bus.
Internal or System bus
◦ resides on the motherboard and connects the CPU to other devices that reside
on the motherboard
◦ has three parts: the data bus, address bus and control bus

External or Expansion bus

◦ connects external devices, such as the keyboard, mouse, modem, printer and
so on, to the CPU.
◦ Cables from disk drives and other internal devices are plugged into the bus.

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Bus Width and Speed
Bus width is measured in bits
Speed is tied to the clock

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Bus Interconnection Scheme
A system bus consists of a
◦ A data bus,
◦ a memory address bus and
◦ a control bus.
 Data Bus
is a computer subsystem that allows for the transferring of data
◦ from one component to another on a motherboard or system board, or
◦ between two computers.

This can include transferring data to and from the memory, or from CPU to other
components
Each one is designed to handle so many bits of data at a time.
The amount of data a data bus can handle is called bandwidth
A typical data bus is 32-bits wide
Newer computers are making data buses that can handle 64-bit

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Address Bus
is a series of lines connecting two or more devices that is used to specify a
physical address.
When a processor needs to read or write to a memory location,
◦ it specifies that memory location on the address bus (the value to be read or written is
sent on the data bus).

The width of the address bus determines the amount of memory a system can
address.
◦ For example, a system with a 32-bit address bus can address 2 32 (4,294,967,296)
memory locations.
◦ If each memory address holds one byte, the addressable memory space is 4 GB.

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Control Bus
A control bus is (part of) a computer bus, used by CPUs for communicating with
other devices within the computer.
◦ While the address bus carries the information on which device the CPU is
communicating with and
◦ data bus carries the actual data being processed,

Control bus carries commands from the CPU and returns status signals from the
devices
◦ e.g. if the data is being read or written to the device the appropriate line (read or write)
will be active

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What’s on the outside of the system unit?
Power switch- Located on the back; turns power on/off to the
computer
Receptacles- Called connectors or ports; Usually located on the back;
Used to plug in peripheral devices, keyboard, mouse and monitor
Front panel- Contains drive bays, various buttons and lights