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Inside The Case

The document discusses several key components inside a computer or mobile device case, including the motherboard, computer chips, processors, and random access memory (RAM). The motherboard is the main circuit board that contains the processor and memory. Computer chips contain integrated circuits with millions of transistors. Processors interpret instructions and manage operations, and often include multiple cores. RAM is used for loading operating systems and applications and allows them to run simultaneously.

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Ashlee Samson
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35 views

Inside The Case

The document discusses several key components inside a computer or mobile device case, including the motherboard, computer chips, processors, and random access memory (RAM). The motherboard is the main circuit board that contains the processor and memory. Computer chips contain integrated circuits with millions of transistors. Processors interpret instructions and manage operations, and often include multiple cores. RAM is used for loading operating systems and applications and allows them to run simultaneously.

Uploaded by

Ashlee Samson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Inside the Case Whether you are a home user or a business user, you most likely will purchase a

new computer or mobile device, or upgrade an existing computer at some time in the future. Thus, you should
understand the purpose of each component in a computer or mobile device. Many of these components are inside the
case that contains and protects the electronics of the computer or mobile device from damage. These cases, which are
made of metal or plastic, are available in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Motherboard
The motherboard, sometimes called a system board, is the main circuit board of the computer. Many electronic
components, such as the processor and memory, attach to the motherboard; others are built into it.

On personal computers, the circuitry for the processor, memory, and other components resides on a computer chip(s). 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. A transistor, for example, can act as an
electronic switch that opens or doses the circuit for electrical charges. Today's computer chips contain millions or
billions of transistors.

Processors
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 larger computers, such as mainframes and
supercomputers, the various functions performed by the processor extend
over many separate chips and often multiple circuit boards. 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, or simply 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 single chip with two or more separate processor
cores. Multi-core processors are used in all sizes of computers.
Random Access Memory (RAM)
Users typically are referring to RAM when discussing computer and mobile device memory. RAM (random access
memory), also called main 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 or mobile device, certain operating system files (such as the files
that determine how the desktop or home screen appears) load into RAM from a storage device such as a hard drive.
These files remain in RAM as long
as the computer or mobile device
has continuous power. As
additional applications and data
are requested, they also load into
RAM from storage.

The processor interprets and


executes a program or application's
instructions while the program or
application is in RAM. During this
time, the contents of RAM may
change. RAM can accommodate
multiple programs and applications
simultaneously.

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