COMPUTER HARDWARE: INTERNAL PARTS

1. CPU
2. The system units and its components
3. Motherboard
4. Harddisk and partion

- CPU
Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the heart of the Computer. It is the hardware,that carries out
the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetical, logical, and
input/output operations of the system.

- CPU Ports and Connectors

- A port is a connector at the back of a CPU where you plug in an external device such as a
printer, keyboard, scanner, modem etc. This allows instructions and data to flow between the
computer and the device.
- The computer ports are also commonly referred to as the Input/output ports (I/ O ports).
These ports can be either serial or parallel.
- The keyboard and mouse use "PS2" (Personal System 2) connectors. The PS2 connectors
are color-coded. The purple connector is for the keyboard. The green connector is for the
mouse.
PS/2 Ports: Standard keyboards and mouse often connect to the computer via the PS/2
ports.Be sure not to force the connector because you will end up bending the pins
Serial and Parallel Ports: - The serial port and parallel port allow connections to printers
and other external devices. To transfer a byte through a serial port, eight bitsA bit (short for
binary digit) is the smallest unit of data in a computer. A bit has a single binary value, either
0 or 1. are queued and sent bit by bit. However, in a parallel port, all the eight bits are
transferred simultaneously.< br> - The parallel port, serial port, and video port all use "D"
type connectors (DB-25M, DB-9M and DB-15F respectively). These are called D connectors
because of their shape, which permits the cables to be plugged in only one way.
USB (Universal serial bus) Ports - A USB connector's distinctive rectangular shape
makes it easily recognizable.
- USB has a number of features that makes it particularly popular on PCs. First, USB devices
are hot swappable. You can insert or remove them without restarting your system
LAN(Local Area Network) Port: The LAN port is used to connect the PC to a local
network or to high speed Internet services.
VGA (Video Graphics Array) Ports: The VGA port provides access to integrated
video.
Audio ports: It provides access to integrated audio. The audio jacks are the most confusing
connectors on the back panel. Although the jacks are sometimes colorcoded, the devices that
plug into them rarely.

THE SYSTEM UNIT AND ITS COMPONENTS

The system unit is a box-like unit filled with a number of useful components, each performing
a discrete function. These components work together to accomplish the main function of the
computer. accept and process input and deliver output.
Power Supply - The power supply connects to nearly every device in the PC to provide
power. It is located at the rear of the case.
- The system unit draws power from the AC mains through a power protection device. This
power is not directly supplied to the internal components. Instead, one of the components,
called the internal power supply, converts the AC input into DC output of 5 and 12 volts.
- Normally, the internal power supply is referred to as Switched Mode Power Supply (SMPS).
The SMPS provides cable connectors to supply the required voltage to the other internal
components like the floppy drives, the hard disk drive, the motherboard and external device
such as the keyboard.
- The ON/OFF switch of the system unit is actually a part of the SMPS.
Fan The SMPS has a small fan, called the exhaust fan, attached to SMPS. This fan rotates as
long as the computer is switched on. Its function is to cool the SMPS unit.
Drive Bays: The 5.25" and 3.5" drive bays house the many kinds of storage devices a
computer might contain.
Expansion Slots: An expansion slot is a slot located inside a computer mother board that
allow additional peripharals to be connected to it.
Memory Slot Memory Slot is used to insert a Random Access Memory(RAM)
Storage Drivers - Storage drivers such as hard drives, optical drives and floppy drives all
connect to the motherboard via cables and is mounted inside the computer.
Peripheral cards slot - The peripheral cards are the spare expansion slots available on the
mother board on which peripheral cards can be inserted. The following are the peripheral
cards.

1. Sound card
2. Video card
3. Modam
4. Wireless network
5. peripheral card, designed with a PCI (Peripheral component interconnect) connector.

MOTHERBOARD

The motherboard is a printed circuit that is the foundation of a computer and allows the CPU,
RAM, and all other computer hardware components to function with each other.
- The motherboard is the primary component of the entire system.A mother board is a large
board containing a number of tiny electronic circuits and other components are visible. All
peripheral devices are connected to the motherboard. The components of the motherboard
are:

1. Keyboard / mouse port

Floppy Port: The floppy drive connects to the computer via a 34-pin ribbon cable, which
in turn connects to the motherboard. A floppy controller is one that is used to control the
floppy drive.
RAM slots: Random-Access Memory (RAM) stores programs and data currently being used
by the CPU. RAM is measured in units called bytes. RAM has been packaged in many
different ways
- SIMM-Single inline memory module -32 or 72 Pin
- DIMM- Dual Inline Memory module -168 pin.
- In most of the PC's uses of the DIMM module
ROM BIOS Chip: This means Read Only Memory Basic Input-Output System. The built-
in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk.
On PCs, the BIOS contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk
drives, serialcommunications, and a number of miscellaneous functions.
- The BIOS is typically placed in a ROM chip that comes with the computer (it is often called
a ROM BIOS). This ensures that the BIOS will always be available and will not be damaged
by disk failures. It also makes it possible for a computer to boot itself. Because RAM is faster
than ROM, though, many computer manufacturers design systems so that the BIOS is copied
from ROM to RAM each time the computer is booted. This is known asshadowing.
- Many modern PCs have flash BIOS, which means that the BIOS have been recorded on a
flash memory chip, which can be updated if necessary. The PC BIOS is fairly standardized,
so all PCs are similar at this level (although there are different BIOS versions). Additional
DOS functions are usually added through software modules.
CMOS Battery CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) is the term usually
used to describe the small amount of memory on a computer motherboard that stores the BIOS
settings.
Most CMOS batteries will last the lifetime of a motherboard (up to 10 years in most cases)
but will sometimes need to be replaced. Incorrect or slow system date and time and loss of
BIOS settings are major signs of a dead or dying CMOS battery.
ISA slot: (Industry Standard Architecture) It is the standard architecture of the Expansion
bus. Motherboard may contain some slots to connect ISA compatible cards.
PCI slot : Intel introduced the Peripheral Component Interconnect bus protocol. The PCI
bus is used to connect I/O devices to the main logic of the computer. PCI bus has replaced the
ISA bus. PC motherboards have one PCI slot but generally more than one.
- The PCI bus architecture is a processor-independent bus specification that allows peripherals
to access system memory directly without using the CPU.
AGP slot: The Accelerates Graphics Port (AGP) is a highspeed point-to-point channel for
attaching a video card to a computer's motherboard.
Power supply plug in The Power supply, as its name implies, provides the necessary
electrical power to make the PC (Personal Computer) operate. The power supply takes
standard 110-V AC power and converts into +/-12-Volt, +/-5-Volt, and 3.3- Volt DC power.
The power supply connector has 20-pins, and the connector can go in only one direction.

HARD DISK AND PARTITIONS

- Partitioning is a process of dividing the Hard disk into several chunks, and uses any one of
the portion or partition to install OS or use two or more partitions to install multiple OS. But
it can always have one partition, and use up the entire Hard disk space to install a single OS,
but this will become data management nightmare for users of large Hard disks.
Extended Partition is not a usable partition by itself, but it's like a "container" and it is used to
hold LogicalDrives! That is this Extended Partition can be subdivided into multiple logical
partitions.
- In order to boot into a Partition, it must be designated as bootable partition or Active
Partition. Active Partition is that partition which is flagged as bootable or which contains OS,
this is generally a Primary Partition.
Types of Partitions: Master Partition Extended and Logical Extended Master Boot Record
(MBR): MBR is a small 512 bytes partition which is at the first physical sector of the hard
disk. The location is denoted as CHS 0,0,1 meaning 0th Cylinder, 0th Head and 1st Sector.
- MBR contains a small program known as bootstrap program which is responsible for booting
into any OS. MBR also contains a table known as Partition Table.
- This Partition Table is a table which lists the available Primary Partitions in the hard disk.
Partition table considers whole Extended Partition as one Primary partition and lists it in the
table!
- So a Partition table can have two possible entries:- Up to 4 Primary Partitions. Up to 3
Primary Partitions and 1 Extended Partition.(Total not exceeding 4).
Partition Boot Sector (PBR): This is the logical first sector, that is sector at the start of
a Primary Partition. This is also 512 byte area, which contains some programs to initialize or
run OS files. All Primary Partitions have its own PBRs.
Extended Boot Sector (EBR): This is the logical first sector, that is the sector at the start
of the Extended Partition. This EBR contains a Partition Table, which lists the available
Logical Partitions inside Extended Partition. That is it contains the Starting addresses of each
Logical Partitions. Logical Extended Boot Sector (LEBR): This is the logical first sector
residing at the start of each Logical Partition. This is similar to PBR for Primary Partitions.

Traveler
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.