EDO UNIVERSITY IYAMHO

Department of Computer Science

CMP 317: Computer Hardware Installation

Instructor: Mr. John Temitope Ogbiti, email: [email protected]

Lectures: Friday 8am – 10am, SH1, phone: (+234) 8034883386
Office hours: Thursday, 8am to 4pm, Office: FOS Rm 2

Teaching Assistants: Mr. David Acheme.

Description: To provide a grand tour of the major hardware Installation Component, to provide
coverage of basic computer system Computer circuits; diode arrays, PIAs etc, Integrated circuits
fabrication process. Use of MSI, LSI and VLSI IC’ hardware Design. Primary and Secondary
memories; core memory, etc. Magnetic devices; disks, tapes, video and disks.

Prerequisites: Students should be familiar with the Hardware Component: Mother board, Hard
Dive, CD ROM Drive, IDE cable SATA cable, Power pack etc

Assignments: We expect to have 2 individual homework assignments throughout the course in

addition to a Mid-Term Test and a Final Exam. Home works are due at the beginning of the class
on the due date. Home works are organized and structured as preparation for the midterm and
final exam, and are meant to be a studying material for both exams. There will be projects for
the students on building up a Computer System.

Grading: We will assign 10% of this class grade to home works, 10% for the Computer
Hardware Installation projects, 10% for the mid-term test and 70% for the final exam. The Final
exam is comprehensive.

Textbook: The recommended textbook for the class are:

Title: Upgrading and Repairing PCs
Authors: Scott Mueller
Publisher: 18th Edition, Eue Publisher
ISBN-07897-3173-85
Year: 2007

Lectures: Below is a description of the contents. We may change the order to accommodate the
materials you need for the projects.

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 HARDWARE INSTALLATIONS
What Is a PC?
I normally ask the question, ―What exactly is a PC?‖ Of course, most people immediately answer

that PC stands for personal computer, which in fact it does. They might then continue by

defining a personal computer as any small computer system purchased and used by an

individual. Unfortunately, that definition is not nearly precise or accurate enough for our

purposes. I agree that a PC is a personal computer, but not all personal computers are PCs. For

example, an Apple Macintosh system is clearly a personal computer, but nobody I know would

call a Mac a PC, least of all Mac users! For the true definition of what a PC is, you must look

deeper.

Calling something a PC implies that it is something much more specific than just any personal

computer. One thing it implies is a family relation to the original IBM PC from 1981. In fact, I’ll

go so far as to say that IBM literally invented the type of computer we call a PC today; that is,

IBM designed and created the very first one, and IBM originally defined and set all the standards

that made the PC distinctive from other personal computers. Note that it is very clear in my

mind—as well as in the historical record—that IBM did not invent the personal computer. (Most

recognize the historical origins of the personal computer in the MITS Altair, introduced in 1975.)

So, IBM did not invent the personal computer, but it did invent what today we call the PC. Some

people might take this definition a step further and define a PC as any personal computer that is

―IBM compatible.‖ In fact, many years back, PCs were called either IBM compatibles or IBM

clones, in essence paying homage to the origins of the PC at IBM.

The reality today is that although IBM clearly designed and created the first PC in 1981 and

controlled the development and evolution of the PC standard for several years thereafter, IBM is

no longer in control of the PC standard; that is, it does not dictate what makes up a PC today.

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IBM lost control of the PC standard in 1987 when it introduced its PS/2 line of systems. Up until

then, other companies that were producing PCs literally copied IBM’s systems right down to the

chips; connectors; and even the shapes (form factors) of the boards, cases, and power supplies.

After 1987, IBM abandoned many of the standards it created in the first place. That’s why for

many years now I have refrained from using the designation ―IBM compatible‖ when referring to

PCs.

If a PC is no longer an IBM-compatible system, what is it? The real question seems to be, ―Who

is in control of the PC standard today?‖ That question is best broken down into two parts. First,

who is in control of PC software? Second, who is in control of PC hardware?

Who Controls PC Software?

Most of the people in my seminars don’t even hesitate for a split second when I ask this question;

they immediately respond, ―Microsoft!‖ I don’t think there is any argument with that answer.

Microsoft clearly controls the operating systems used on PCs, which have migrated from the

original MS-DOS to Windows 3.1/95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000, Windows XP, windows vista,

Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Microsoft has effectively used its control of the PC operating system as leverage to also control

other types of PC software, such as utilities and applications. For example, many utility

programs originally offered by independent companies, such as disk caching, disk compression,

file defragmentation, file structure repair, and even simple applications such as calculator and

notepad programs, are now bundled in (included with) Windows. Microsoft has even bundled

more comprehensive applications such as Web browsers, ensuring an automatic installed base

for these applications—much to the dismay of companies who produce competing versions.

Microsoft has also leveraged its control of the operating system to integrate its own networking

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software and applications suites more seamlessly into the operating system than others. That’s

why it now dominates most of the PC software universe, from operating systems to networking

software to utilities, from word processors to database programs to spreadsheets.

In the early days of the PC, when IBM was clearly in control of the PC hardware standard, it

hired Microsoft to provide most of the core software for the PC. IBM developed the hardware,

wrote the basic input/output system (BIOS), and then hired Microsoft to develop the disk

operating system (DOS), as well as several other programs and utilities for the PC. In what was

later viewed as perhaps the most costly business mistake in history, IBM failed to secure

exclusive rights to the DOS it had contracted from Microsoft, either by purchasing it outright or

by an exclusive license agreement. Instead, IBM licensed it nonexclusively, which subsequently

allowed Microsoft to sell the same MS-DOS code it developed for IBM to any other company

that was interested. Early PC cloners such as Compaq eagerly licensed this same operating

system code, and suddenly consumers could purchase the same basic MS-DOS operating system

with several different company names on the box. In retrospect, that single contractual error

made Microsoft into the dominant software company it is today and subsequently caused IBM to

lose control of the very PC standard it had created.

Who Controls PC Hardware?

Although it is clear that Microsoft has always controlled PC software by virtue of its control over

the PC operating system, what about the hardware? It is easy to see that IBM controlled the PC

hardware standard up through 1987. After all, IBM invented the core PC motherboard design;

the original expansion bus slot architecture (8/16-bit ISA bus); serial and parallel port

implementations; video card design through VGA and XGA standards; floppy and hard disk

interface and controller implementations; power supply designs; keyboard interfaces and

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designs; mouse interface; and even the physical shapes (form factors) of everything from the

motherboard to the expansion cards, power supplies, and system chassis. All these pre-1987 IBM

PC, XT, and AT system design features are still influencing modern systems today.

But to me the real question is which company has been responsible for creating and inventing

newer and more recent PC hardware designs, interfaces, and standards? When I ask people that

question, I normally see some hesitation in their responses—some people say Microsoft (but it

controls the software, not the hardware), and some say Compaq or Dell, or they name a few other

big-name system manufacturers. Only a few surmise the correct answer—Intel.

Intel controls the PC hardware standard because it controls the PC motherboard. It not only

makes the vast majority of motherboards being used in systems today, but it also supplies the

vast majority of processors and motherboard chipsets to other motherboard manufacturers.

Intel also has had a hand in setting several recent PC hardware standards, such as the following:

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) local bus interface

PCI Express (originally known as 3GIO), the interface elected by the PCI Special Interest Group

(PCI SIG) to replace PCI as a high-performance bus for future PCs

Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) interface for high-performance video cards

ATX motherboard form factor (and variations such as Micro ATX and Flex ATX), which,

beginning in 1996–1997, replaced the (somewhat long-in-the-tooth) IBM-designed Baby-AT

form factor that had been used since the early 1980s

NLX motherboard form factor to replace the proprietary and limited LPX design used by many

lower-cost systems, which finally brought motherboard upgradability to those systems

Desktop Management Interface (DMI) for monitoring system hardware functions

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Dynamic Power Management Architecture (DPMA) and Advanced Power Management (APM)

standards for managing power use in the PC

System Types

PCs can be broken down into many categories. I like to break them down in two ways by the

type of software they can run and by the motherboard host bus, or processor bus design and

width. Let’s look at that first.

When a processor reads data, the data moves into the processor via the processor’s external data

bus connection. The processor’s data bus is directly connected to the processor host bus on the

motherboard. The processor data bus or host bus is also sometimes referred to as the local bus

because it is local to the processor that is connected directly to it. Any other devices connected to

the host bus essentially appear as if they are directly connected to the processor as well. If the

processor has a 32bit data bus, the motherboard must be wired to have a 32-bit processor host

bus. This means the system can move 32 bits of data into or out of the processor in a single

cycle.

Intel and Intel-Compatible Processors and Their Data Bus/Register Widths

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System Components

A modern PC is both simple and complicated. It is simple in the sense that over the years, many

of the components used to construct a system have become integrated with other components

into fewer and fewer actual parts. It is complicated in the sense that each part in a modern system

performs many more functions than did the same types of parts in older systems.

This section briefly examines all the components and peripherals in a modern PC system. Each

item is discussed further in later chapters.

The components and peripherals necessary to assemble a basic modern PC system are listed in

Basic PC Hardware Components

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