Computer Fundamentals

Dr. Abdulsalam Abdullah

Tuesday 24 September 2024

 CHAPTER 2

SYSTEM UNIT
After completing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Differentiate among various styles of system units on desktop computers, notebook
computers, and mobile devices.
• Describe the control unit and arithmetic logic unit components of a processor and explain
the four steps in a machine cycle.
• Define a bit and describe how a series of bits represents data.
• Differentiate among the various types of memory: RAM, cache, ROM, flash memory, and
CMOS.
• Describe the purpose and types of expansion slots and adapter cards.
• Differentiate between a port and a connector, and explain the differences among a USB port
and other ports.
• Describe the types of buses in a computer.
• Understand how to clean a system unit on a computer or mobile device.
THE SYSTEM UNIT
is a case that contains electronic components of the computer used to process data. System units are available in a
variety of shapes and sizes. The case of the system unit is made of metal or plastic and protects the internal electronic
components from damage. All computers and mobile devices have a system unit (Figure 4-1).
MOTHERBOARD • The motherboard, sometimes called a system board, is the main circuit board of the
system unit.

• Many electronic components attach to the motherboard; others are built into it. Figure 4-
3 shows a photo of a current desktop personal computer motherboard and identifies its
slots for adapter cards, the processor chip, and memory. Memory chips are installed on
memory cards (modules) that fit in a slot on the motherboard.

• A computer chip is a small piece of semiconducting material, usually silicon, on which

integrated circuits are etched.

• An integrated circuit contains many microscopic pathways capable of carrying electrical

current. Each integrated circuit can contain millions of elements such as resistors,
capacitors, and transistors
 PROCESSOR
• The processor, also called the central processing unit (CPU), interprets and carries out the
basic instructions that operate a computer. The processor significantly impacts overall
computing power and manages most of a computer’s operations.
• On a personal computer, all functions of the processor usually are on a single chip. Some
computer and chip manufacturers use the term microprocessor to refer to a personal
computer processor chip.
• Most processor chip manufacturers now offer multi-core processors. A processor core
contains the circuitry necessary to execute instructions. The operating system views each
processor core as a separate processor.
• A multi-core processor is a chip with two or more separate processor cores.
Two common multi-core processors are:
• A dual-core processor is a chip that contains two separate processor cores.
• A quad-core processor is a chip with four separate processor cores.
• Processors contain a control unit and an arithmetic logic unit (ALU). These two components
work together to perform processing operations
THE CONTROL UNIT

• is the component of the processor that directs and coordinates most of the operations in
the computer.
• The control unit has a role much like a traffic cop: it interprets each instruction issued by
a program and then initiates the appropriate action to carry out the instruction.
• Types of internal components that the control unit directs include the arithmetic/logic
unit and buses

THE ARITHMETIC LOGIC UNIT (ALU)

• Another component of the processor, performs arithmetic, comparison, and other

operations.
• Arithmetic operations include basic calculations such as addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division. Comparison operations involve comparing one data item
with another to determine whether the first item is greater than, equal to, or less than
the other item.
• Depending on the result of the comparison, different actions may occur.
 MACHINE CYCLE

For every instruction, a processor repeats a set of four basic operations, which comprise a machine cycle
(Figure 4-5):
1.Fetching is the process of obtaining a program instruction or data item from memory.
2.The term decoding refers to the process of translating the instruction into signals the computer can
execute.
3.Executing is the process of carrying out the commands.
4.if necessary storing, in this context, means writing the result to memory (not to a storage medium)
 • The processor relies on a small quartz crystal circuit called the system clock to
The System Clock control the timing of all computer operations. Just as your heart beats at a regular
rate to keep your body functioning, the system clock generates regular electronic
pulses, or ticks, that set the operating pace of components of the system unit.

• The pace of the system clock, called the clock speed, is measured by the number
of ticks per second.

• Current personal computer processors have clock speeds in the gigahertz range.

• Giga is a prefix that stands for billion, and a hertz is one cycle per second. Thus,
one gigahertz (GHz) equals one billion ticks of the system clock per second.

• The speed of the system clock is just one factor that influences a computer’s
performance. Other factors, such as the type of processor chip, amount of cache,
memory access time, bus width, and bus clock speed.
 DATA REPRESENTATION
• To understand how a computer processes data, you should know how a computer
represents data.
• Most computers are digital. They recognize only two discrete states: on and off.
• The two digits, 0 and 1, easily can represent these two states.
• The digit 0 represents the electronic state of off (absence of an electronic charge).
• The digit 1 represents the electronic state of on (presence of an electronic charge).
The computer uses a binary system because it recognizes only two states.
• The binary system is a number system that has just two unique digits, 0 and 1, called bits.
• A bit (short for binary digit) is the smallest unit of data the computer can process. By itself,
a bit is not very informative. When 8 bits are grouped together as a unit, they form a byte.
• A byte provides enough different combinations of 0s and 1s to represent 256 individual
characters.
• These characters include numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet,
punctuation marks, and others, such as the letters of the Greek alphabet
 MEMORY
• consists of electronic components that store instructions waiting to be executed
by the processor,
data needed by those instructions, and the results of processing the data
(information).
• Memory usually consists of one or more chips on the motherboard or some other
circuit board in the computer.
• Memory stores three basic categories of items:
• the operating system and other system software that control or maintain the
computer and its devices;
• application programs that carry out a specific task such as word processing;
• the data being processed by the application programs and resulting information.
• This role of memory to store both data and programs is known as the stored
program concept
MEMORY SIZES
Types of Memory The system unit contains two types of memory: volatile and nonvolatile.

1.volatile memory: loses its contents, When the computer’s power is

turned off.

2.Nonvolatile memory, does not lose its contents when power is removed
from the computer.

• Thus, volatile memory is temporary and nonvolatile memory is

permanent.

• RAM is the most common type of volatile memory.

Examples of nonvolatile memory include ROM, flash memory, and
CMOS.
RAM (Random Access Memory)
• Consists of memory chips that can be read from and written to by the processor and other
devices.
• When you turn on power to a computer, certain operating system files (such as the files that
determine how the desktop appears) load into RAM from a storage device such as a hard disk.
• Most RAM is volatile; Thus files remain in RAM as long as the computer has continuous power.
• As additional programs and data are requested, they also load into RAM from storage.
• Three basic types of RAM chips exist: dynamic RAM, static RAM, and magneto resistive RAM.
1.Dynamic RAM (DRAM pronounced DEE-ram) chips must be re-energized constantly or they
lose their contents. Many variations of DRAM chips exist, most of which are faster than the
basic DRAM.
2.Static RAM (SRAM pronounced ESS-ram) chips are faster and more reliable than any variation
of DRAM chips. These chips do not have to be re-energized as often as DRAM chips, thus, the
term static.
3.Magneto resistive RAM (MRAM pronounced EM-ram), stores data using magnetic charges
instead of electrical charges. Manufacturers claim that MRAM has greater storage capacity,
consumes less power, and has faster access times than electronic RAM.
CACHE
• Most of today’s computers improve processing times with cache (pronounced cash).
• Two types of cache are memory cache and disk cache.
• Memory cache helps speed the processes of the computer because it stores
frequently used instructions and data.
• Most personal computers today have at least two types of memory cache: L1 cache
and L2 cache.
• • L1 cache is built directly in the processor chip. L1 cache usually has a very small
capacity, ranging from 8 KB to 128 KB.
• L2 cache is slightly slower than L1 cache but has a much larger capacity, ranging
from 64 KB to 16 MB.
• Current processors include advanced transfer cache, a type of L2 cache built directly
on the processor
chip. Personal computers today typically have from 512 KB to 12 MB of advanced
transfer cache.
ROM (Read-only memory)
• (ROM pronounced rahm) refers to memory chips storing permanent data and instructions.
• The data on most ROM chips cannot be modified — hence, the name read-only.
• ROM is nonvolatile, which means its contents are not lost when power is removed from the computer.
• Manufacturers of ROM chips often record data, instructions, or information on the chips when they manufacture the chips.
• These ROM chips, called firmware, contain permanently written data, instructions, or information.

FLASH MEMORY
• is a type of nonvolatile memory that can be erased electronically and rewritten.
• Most computers use flash memory to hold their start up instructions because it allows the computer easily to update its
contents. For example, when the computer changes from standard time to daylight savings time,
the contents of a flash memory chip (and the real-time clock chip) change to reflect the new time.
• Flash memory chips also store data and programs on many mobile computers and devices, such as smart phones, portable
media players, PDAs, printers, digital cameras, automotive devices, digital voice recorders, and pagers.

CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor)

• Some RAM chips, flash memory chips, and other types of memory chips use (CMOS pronounced SEE-moss) technology
because it provides high speeds and consumes little power.
• CMOS technology uses battery power to retain information even when the power to the computer is off.
• Battery-backed CMOS memory chips, for example, can keep the calendar, date, and time current even when the computer is
off.
• The flash memory chips that store a computer’s startup information often use CMOS technology.
MEMORY ACCESS TIMES
• is the amount of time it takes the processor to read data, instructions, and information from
memory.
• A computer’s access time directly affects how fast the computer processes data.
• Accessing data in memory can be more than 200,000 times faster than accessing data on a
hard disk because of the mechanical motion of the hard disk.
• Today’s manufacturers use a variety of terminology to state access times (Figure 4-15).
• Some use fractions of a second, which for memory occurs in nanoseconds. A nanosecond
(abbreviated ns) is one billionth of a second. A nanosecond is extremely fast.
• Other manufacturers state access times in MHz; for example, 800 MHz RAM
PORTS AND CONNECTORS
• A port is the point at which a peripheral attaches to or
communicates with a system unit so that the peripheral can send
data to or receive information from the computer.
• An external device, such as a keyboard, monitor, printer, mouse,
and microphone, often attaches by a cable to a port on the system
unit. Instead of port, the term jack sometimes is used to identify
audio and video ports.
• A connector joins a cable to a port. A connector at one end of a
cable attaches to a port on the system unit, and a connector at the
other end of the cable attaches to a port on the peripheral.
• A USB port, short for universal serial bus port, can connect up to
127 different peripherals together with a single connector.
• Devices that connect to a USB port include the following:
• mouse, printer, digital camera, scanner, speakers,
• portable media player, optical disc drive, smart phone,
• PDA, game console, and removable hard disk.