ICT 113

Hardware Fundamentals

Power Supply Unit

Description
the power supply unit located inside the system unit by simply finding the input where the power cord is plugged in. Without opening your computer, If you were remove the power supply, it would look like a metal box with a fan inside and some cables attached to it.

Types of computer Power Supply Unit

1. AT (Advance Technology) Old type of power supply Composed of P8 and P9 with 6 pins each intended for motherboard 2. ATX (Advance Technology Extended) Common power supply used today With 20 or 24 pins intended for motherboard. 3. Laptop power supply Also known as AC Adapter The voltage and amperes varies on laptop requirements.

Parts of power supply Unit

Power Supply unit ATX Connectors

Power Supply Unit Function

From AC (Alternating Current) as input power supply unit will convert to DC (Direct Current) in order to have constant negative and positive terminals and distribute appropriate voltage in every color of wires. Reduce the Mains AC (Alternating current) voltage to a lower level. Regulate the DC output to compensate for varying load (current demand) Provide protection against excessive input/output voltages.

Power Supply works

Supplies current to motherboard (20/24 pins varies on ATX power controller of the motherboard) positive 12 volts (4 pins, 2 yellow and 2 black wires) Supplies current to hard disk drive, optical disk drive and chassis fan using MOLEX connector (4 pins, 2 black 1 yellow and 1 red) Supply current to floppy disk drive using BERG connector (4 pins, 2 black, 1 yellow and 1 red)

Motherboard (main board, MOBO, System board, Logic Board)

Motherboard Description
Composed of electronic circuitries Found inside the system unit Mounted in stand off The widest part of inside the system unit All devices attached on it

Types of motherboard
(the types of motherboard usually varies on the type of power supply)

1. AT (Advance Technology)
Motherboard power supply connector 12 pins only

2. ATX (Advance Technology Extended) Motherboard power supply connector 20 or 24 pins (note: the 4 pins is separated from 20 pins)

Function of motherboard
The main circuit board Accommodate all hardware attached(some hardware need software installation) It serve as the bus of all processing. It provide socket, slots, controller, ports pins for all devices.

How it works?

CPU (Processor)

CPU Description

is usually small and square with many short, rounded, metallic connectors on its underside. Some older CPUs have pins instead metallic connectors.

Types of CPU (in terms of position)

1. Slotted
Old type of CPU Position is against the position of motherboard

2.

Socketted Current type of CPU Position is align with the motherboard

Types of CPU (in terms of pins)

1. PGA (pin grind array)

1. LGA (land grind array)

CPU manufacturer
Intel (Integrated Electronics)

AMD (Advanced Micro Devices )

Function of CPU
responsible for interpreting and executing most of the commands from the computer's hardware and software. Also known as brain of computer system

CPU basic operations

Fetch: the processor collects the bytes to execute from memory (which may be RAM or cache). Each instruction is saved in memory as one or more bytes called word. Decoding: the processor takes the bytes read in the previous step and input them to the decoder. The decoder activates then the line corresponding to the instruction whose bytes equal to the bytes read from the fetching phase.

Executing: once the processor knows the meaning of the bits by the decoder, it goes then to the execute phase. In this phase, the processor makes the necessary operation as denoted by the decoder. Write Back: once the processor done the operation, it writes it back to the memory in the place denoted by the instruction. This result may be fed to other instructions in the same program.

HARD DISK DRIVE

Description
hard drive is usually the size of a paperback book but much heavier. a device for storing and retrieving digital information, primarily computer data. It consists of one or more rigid (hence "hard") rapidly rotating discs (platters) coated with magnetic material, and with magnetic heads arranged to write data to the surfaces and read it from them.

Types of Hard disk drive (in terms of position)

Internal Hard Disk Drive
Found inside the system unit

External Hard Disk Drive

Found outside the system unit

Types of Hard Disk (In terms of bus connector)

IDE : Integrated Drive Electronics. IDE drives are also known as PATA drives( Parallel advance technology attachment )

SATA : Serial advance technology attachment

SCSI : Small Computer System Interface.

SAS : Serial Attached SCSI

Function
a device that is used to store large amounts of data in a computer system. A non-volatile, information retain even when they do not have power. hard disk drives also contain all of a computer's operating data, including the operating system. In configurations with multiple hard drives, they are also useful in backing up data for retrieval purposes.

Optical Disk Drive

Description
An optical drive is about the size of a thick soft cover book. The front of the drive has a small Open/Close button that ejects and retracts the drive bay door. The back end of the optical drive contains a port for a cable that connects to the motherboard and connection for power from the power supply.

Examples of Optical Drive

CD-ROM CD-R CD-RW DVD DVD+R DVD+RW

Types of optical disk drive (In terms of bus connector)

IDE : Integrated Drive Electronics. IDE drives are also known as PATA drives( Parallel advance technology attachment )

SATA : Serial advance technology attachment

SCSI : Small Computer System Interface.

SAS : Serial Attached SCSI

Types of optical disk drive (in terms of position)

Internal optical Disk Drive
Found inside the system unit

External optical Disk Drive

Found outside the system unit

Function

Most optical drives can play and/or record onto a large number of different disc formats(music, documents, video and software).

Parts

Memory Chip

Memory Description
Desktop memory is long, thin and resembles a short ruler. The bottom of the memory module has one or more notches to guide for proper installation and is lined with numerous, usually gold-plated connectors.

Types of memory
There are lots, too many to name. Some of the popular ones are: EDO (Obsolete)SDRAM (MostlyObsolete) RAMBUS (Obsolete) - Data transfers fast, but takes a long time to find. Only used on P4 systems. DDR/DDR2/DDR3 - Current technology. Basically a pumped up version of SDRAM DDR2

SRAM Static random access memory, SRAM, is used in PCs, workstations, routers and many other devices. SRAM does not need to be periodically refreshed with power to retain its information, like dynamic random access memory (see below).

DRAM Dynamic random access memory is different from SRAM in that the chip must be periodically recharged with power to keep the information on it from fading, leading to higher power consumption than SRAM. A new version of DRAM called single data rate synchronous DRAM, SDR DRAM, led to faster computing and higher memory capacities.

DDR SDRAM

Double Data Rate synchronous dynamic random access memory, or DDR SDRAM, is found in many modern computers. It performs twice as fast as single data rate SDRAM. It first appeared in the year 2000. RAM has a specific data capacity, measured in megabytes or gigabytes, as well as an overall operating speed. DDR SDRAM has capacities of up to 1 gigabyte, good for most average computing. But its maximum speed of 333 MHz is slower than many other types of RAM now found on the market.

DDR2 SDRAM

DDR2 SDRAM is twice as fast as DDR SDRAM because computer engineers found a way to double the rate at which information could be added and subtracted from memory.
Types of DDR2 DDR2-533 DDR2-667 DDR2-800 DDR2-1066

DDR3 SDRAM
DDR3 SDRAM is twice as fast as DDR2 and is considered the top of the line for consumer performance. DDR3 came out in 2007 and runs at the fastest consumer sped for RAM, 1066 MHz. You'll find it in the new 27" iMac, for example.
Types of DDR3 DDR3-800 DDR3-1066 DDR3-1333 DDR3-1600

DDR4 SDRAM

DDR4 SDRAM will succeed DDR3, and should come out in 2012, with starting speeds of 1600 GHz, which is faster than any RAM out there now. Speeds could rise to 3.2 GHz, blindingly fast for RAM.

Flash memory

Flash memory is a type of RAM that holds memory even when electricity is powered off. It's used often in memory cards and USB flash drives. Flash is a special type of electrically erasable and programmable memory that offers fast read access times and tougher durability that a hard disc.

Video Card

Vide card Description

(also called a display card, graphics card, graphics board, display adapter or graphics adapter) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display. Most video cards offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors. is rectangular in shape with numerous contacts on the bottom of the card and one or more ports on the side for connection to video displays and other devices. The video card installs in an expansion slot on the motherboard.

Types of Video Card

1. PCI Card (Peripheral Components Interconnect) The slowest graphics card bus

2. AGP Card AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is much better compare to PCI.

3. PCIE Card
(Peripheral Components Interconnect express)

newest and highest-bandwidth interconnect

VIDEO CARD PARTS

LAN CARD (network interface card, network adapter, LAN adapter)

Description
An expansion card that has network ports Commonly PCI card and build-in in motherboard, ( for laptop, notebook, iPod, cell phones, etc.) and USB.

Types of NIC
1. Wired LAN Card
Usually used UTP, Coaxial and Fiber optic

1. Wireless LAN Card

Usually build-in in motherboard(also known as Wi-Fi) and USB.

NIC Ports
BNC Port (Bayonet NeillConcelman)

RJ45 port (Registered Jack)

AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator)

Function of AVR
Designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage level A device or circuit that maintains a load voltage nearly constant over a range of variations of input voltage and load current. it may be used to regulate one or more AC or DC voltages.

UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) battery/flywheel backup

function
is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source, typically mains power, fails UPS is typically used to protect computers, data centers, telecommunication equipment or other electrical equipment where an unexpected power disruption could cause injuries, fatalities, serious business disruption or data loss