Unit 1 The CPU

1.2 CPU Essentials

The basic requirements for any CPU are BUSes and Processor modes. A typical
diagram of a processor is shown in Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1: Block Diagram of CPU

The Bus
Bus is group of connecting wires that are used to conduct an electrical signal. These
are used to data transfer between all the devices connected to the computer.
BUSes are divided into three parts:
1. The Data Bus
These are used to transfer data in the CPU. It is used to transfer data in CPU. It
acts as measure of CPU performance. It transfer data in a given time. It is used
to carry data from CPU to RAM, ROM and I/O units and time & control unit.
The data lines are represented by D with prefix ie. D0,D1,D2…
2. ADDRESS BUS / MEMORY BUS
These are used to define address in the CPU. It is also known a memory bus. It
does not carry actual data but carry the location address of the particular data.
Address Bus measure the data in terms of address lines.
The CPU with address line 10 will have address 210 = 1024 bytes
Address lines are presented by A with Prefix : A0,A1,A3…

3. The Control Bus

This is also known as timing and control bus. It is used to control and co-
ordinate the CPU operations.
Various signals used by control bus are:
  Read
 Write
 Interrupt
 Acknowledge
 Parity Checking
 Cache Operations
 Power Control and management
Difference between the three buses
Data Bus Address Bus Control Bus
Transmits the Transmits the Transfer number of
instructions to the address to the individual signals that
CPU from memory memory before any is used to control and
for execution instruction or data co-ordinate the
can be written operations
Carries Data Carries Address/ Carries individual
Location signals

Processor Mode
Mode is a way that create a system for itself to its processor creation and operations.
Processor mode is responsible for managing and controlling the system memory and
its use.
Processor mode are classified into three types
1. Read Mode
This mode operates CPU in limited environment mode
 Has advantage of accessing speed
 Compatible with intel 8088 chip
 All processor supports real mode+
 Computers normally boot up in real mode or DOS mode
2. Protected Mode
Modern multitasking operating systems use protected mode
 First implemented in 80826 chip
It has several advantages
Offer faster memory access
Support multitasking access
Can execute many programs at a time
To limit for accessing memory, can use additional memory
 Needed along with the support of virtual memory
3. The Virtual Read Mode
It is the enhancement of protected mode. The virtual mode issued to run
graphical multitasking operating system like window. It allows to run DOS using
some necessary files, The virtual real mode machines have separate address
space which help to run DOS programs in virtual real mode.

MODEN CPU Concept

1. CISC : Computer Instructions set Computer
Most computer use CISC because hardware is always faster than software. Its
instructions is powerful and help to use assembly level instructions with less
coding
2. RISC : Reduced Instructions Set Computer
It uses complies which never use complex instructions
CISC RISC
Chips are relatively Slow Chips are faster
Use less Instructions Use more instructions
Use large and complex Use fewer, simple and faster
instructions instructions
Comparatively costlier Comparatively Cheaper
Use many new transistor Use fewer transistors
Versatile processing Less versatile
Low performance due to use of Faster CPU Performance
more transistors

Which are the three steps in overclocking

OVERCLOCKING
CPU overclocking can be done by
1) Change the CPU Speed
The speed in which CPU communicate with other parts of CPU is called bus
speed. Bus speed can be change by
 Check the motherboard for the jumper like clock speed, CPU External
frequency selection, front side bus and change which ever need to change
 Change many other jumpers to enable to create a new bus
  Can change bus speed with motherboard support “soft menu technology”
 Change bus speed by using CMOS setting
 Increase speed step by step. Can increase only one at a time.
 Once all steps completed overclocking is completed.

2) Change the Multiplier

Multiplier is used to measure the ratio of internal clock rate and external
support clock
e.g. CPU external clock measure is 156 MHz and clock multiplier of 10x will
have an internal CPU clock rate of 1.56 MHz
Steps to change the multiplier
 Check set of jumpers in the name of “Clock multiplier” in motherboard
manual.
 Can change jumper in CMOS setting if CPU have Soft menu Technology
3) Change the voltage supply
Increase the voltage supply to the CPU which increase the CPU performance. It
is always god to increate voltage supply if CPU is not running reliably in one
clock speed. However the heat produced should be taken cate.

List the Different features of Architectural Performance

The architectural performance features are:
1) Super scalar Architecture
It implements a base for parallel computing. This is the measure of number of
operations executed simultaneously in a computer. It is also called Instruction
level parallelism. Its main capability is to allow multiple executive which results
in execution of many instructions simultaneously in every clock cycle.

2) Pipelining
It is a technique to construct faster CPUs. By pipelining more than one
operation can execute at a time. Pipelining allows to start execution of another
instruction even fist is still executing. It allows to execute many instructions in
a clock cycle. Pipelines helps in using the resources as CPU can only complete
one instruction per clock cycle.
3) Super Pipelining
It is similar to pipelining with a feature of series of operations are unblocked so
that many instructions are executed at a clock cycle time
4) Speculative Execution and Branch Prediction
It is used to give the probable prediction on branching the instructions in the
CPU. Pipelining has issue in branches, as pipeline is not linear but the sequence
of program execution changes from one level at another in given time. As CPU
executes many instructions at a time and it difficult to maintain the branching
and it need to jump speculatively to next instructions. This is done by predicting
the branches by using if, then, for etc conditional statements

5) Dynamic Execution
It is a technique which is used to predict the multiple or nested branches. It
makes CPU to order the level of the instructions execution according to the
branch in order to enhance the performance of the CPU.
6) Register renaming and write buffers
While executing multiple instructions it should be in proper way. In order to
make separate registers it is renamed which help in avoiding the pipeline
overloading or jam. After execution of instruction result are stored in the
memory location which is done by write buffers. These buffers help in
execution of various instructions and avoid jam or pipeline stalling
7) Multiprocessing
This is a way to run more than one processor in one system. More processor
means increased performance of system and it is directly proportionate to
increase in the number of processor. Main requirement of the multiprocessing
is:
(a) A host computer must have motherboard which can support multiple
processors
(b) Host computer should use the processor which suites multiprocessing
(c) Operating system of computer should support multiprocessing
Multiprocessor operating system are Windows, NT/ 2000or Linus
8) Multimedia Extensions
Multimedia extension is a booster in CPU performance. Only technocrats are
not enough, effective presentation using graphics, animation etc. also make
sytem successful.
SIMD (single instruction multiple data) was used in intel motherboard to
support graphics with MMX extension, 3D is done by using more instructions
by AMD and SSE Motherboard
SSE-II, use SIMD extension which support audio, video graphics and speech
recognition.
List out the import features of MMX technology
MMS is an extension for multimedia extension or matric math extension, these are
used to provide hardware support to multimedia applications. Main features of
MMX are
(a) Its primary caches are twin than earlier processor. It has 16 kb each for level 1
data and instructions caches.
(b) Cache mapping improved by 4-way set associative.
(c) Pipeline feature increase the execution level to 6 stages.
(d) It helps in optimal use of pipeline by running the instructions in two
executive pipes.
(e)Accuracy improved by using branch prediction device.
(f) Efficient in instruction decoder.

Explain in brief the different issues in overclocking – Success and failure

Overclocking is a step by step process which is used to increase the processing of

CPU. It increases the clock cycle of CPU result in execution of more instruction in
one clock cycle. This is done by using change the bus speed, change the multiplier
or change the voltage supply which depends on the motherboard. The main
components of system that effect overclocking are CPU, Motherboard, System
Memory, CPU Cooling as detailed:
1) CPU – Intel CPU are successful in overclocking as AMD and Cyrix CPU are run at
almost closer to their limit. All remarked ad resold CPU run at high speed and
in some CPU there are locked clock multipliers.
2) Motherboard: Fault in motherboard may effect overclocking, due to weak
signals lack of electrical signals with its BUS signals system may be crash. Weak
signals can’t support overclocking also wide range of voltage variation should
be handled by motherboard. In case of not able to find the voltage jumper in
CPU overclock can’t be done.
3) System Memory: RAM will work properly with overclocking until bus speed is
less than 66 MHz. To handle more than this bus speed EDO RAM and SDRAM
should be used. These higher end RAM increase the performance of
overclocking support
4) CPU Cooling: Normal head sinks and fans in CPU can’t cool the increased
amount of heat due to overclocking. Extras cooling facility to cool the CPU is
required, but have to take care that additional large component fit into CPU
 cabinet tightly and there is not gap and enough thermal grease is used in heat
sink and CPU.
The major drawback of overclocking are intermittent operations, shortened life
spam and outright failure.
1. Intermittent Operations: the heat produced by CPU may cause noise in signals
errors which may cause system crash. CPU will be shut down the system until
the CPU cool down.
2. Shortened Life Spam. Excess heat may sometimes cause shorten life spam of
CPU and shutting down suddenly. The CPU which was supposed to work for 10
years may be ended in 2-5 years.
3. Outright Failure. The CPU are designed to work from -25 to 80 degree Celsius
temperature. If CPU is not cooled properly, the die time of CPU maximum its
exceed temperature limit and cause failure. Though there are millions of
transistors are working but 2 or 3 failed transistor are enough to destroy CPU
performance.

How will you overclock intel processors?

Intel processors are supposed to be easies CPU to overclock. Intel processors are
feasible for increasing the performance of CPUs. Intel processor are overclocked by
changing BUS speed, multiplier or voltage supply. Overclocking depends on the
motherboard characterizes. In order to achieve more speed motherboard also
support for additional front side bus and capability to set voltage supply. Modern
motherboard uses software to set clock multiplier, BUS Speed and voltage supply.
This help in change the setting without opening the case and look for different
jumpers and without disconnecting the setting. Front side bus speed need to
increase to set the overclocking.

Usually the BUS is the common means for sharing data and this data transfer is done
between all the devices connected to it. The BUSes are also called processor signals.
The several sets of these signals are divided into three main sets, mainly:
The Data BUS: This BUS is responsible for the to and fro movement of information in
the CPU. It acts as a measure of CPU performance. It is also used to carry data in and
out of the CPU at any given time. As shown in figure 1.1 the data BUS is used to carry
the information from CPU to RAM, ROM and I/O units as well as among Timing and
control,
BUS interface and ALU. The data lines are usually represented by “D” prefix (D0, D1,
D2, and D3 … Dn).
The Address BUS: This BUS is used to define address in the CPU. It is also called as
memory BUS. The Address BUS does not carry the actual data but carries the specific
address of that particular data. The address BUS measures the data in terms of
address lines. For example, the CPU with address lines= 10 may have address 210 =
1024 bytes. The “A” prefix (A0, A1, A2, A3 … An). is generally used to represent
address lines.
The Control BUS: This BUS is also called as timing and control BUS. It is used to control
and coordinate the CPU operations. The various signals are read, write, interrupt,
and acknowledge; parity checking, cache operation and power control and
management.
Table 1.1: Difference between the three BUSes
Data BUS Address BUS Control BUS
Transmits Transmits Transmits
instructions address to number of
to the CPU memory before individual
from any instructions signals that is
memory for or data can be used to control
execution. written. and coordinate
the operations
Carries Carries Carries
data or addresses or individual
operands locations signals
1.2.2 Processor Modes
Before we proceed to the CPU concepts and its architecture, it would help you to
have a brief introduction to some of the concepts of processor modes. In generic
term, mode is a way that creates a system for itself for its processor creation and
operations. Processor mode is responsible for managing and controlling the system
memory and its use. Processor modes are classified into three types as:
Real Mode: This mode operates CPU in a limited environment. The real mode has the
advantage of accessing speed. It is compatible with Intel 8088 chip. All processors
can support real mode. Computers normally boot up in real mode or DOS mode.
Protected Mode: This mode used in modern multitasking operating systems was first
implemented in 80826. Protected Mode has several advantages. o It offers faster
access to memory
o It supports multitasking facility that manages the operating o System in the
execution of many programs at a time. o There is no limit for accessing the memory.
o It allows the computer to use additional memory whenever o Needed along with
the support of virtual memory.
Virtual Real Mode: This mode of operation is the enhancement of protected mode.
Protected mode is used to run graphical multitasking OS like windows. If you want to
run DOS program in the windows system then you would have to use the virtual real
mode. This is because the necessity of running DOS program on real mode and not
in protected mode has given rise to the virtual real mode. This mode will simulate
the real mode to start in the protected mode and help in running DOS programs in
windows. The virtual machine will have separate address space dedicated to it, which
helps in invoking this feature of operating virtual real mode machines.

1.3 Modern CPU concepts

In order to understand the full concept of the CPU you would have to draw up a very
big outline, which is beyond the scope of this book. However, there are certain
concepts, which are basic and essential to understanding the PC growing world.
1.3.1 CISC vs RISC CPUs:
CISC (pronounced ‘sisk’) is the acronym for Complex Instruction Set Computer. Most
computers use CISC because hardware is always faster than software and an
instruction set is made that is powerful and helps the programmers to use assembly
level instructions with less coding. RISC on the other hand is based on the philosophy
that almost no one uses complex assembly language instructions, and people mostly
use compilers, which never use complex instructions. RISC (pronounced ‘risk’) is the
acronym for Reduced Instructions Set Computer. RISCs are mostly used in high-end
workstations.
Table 1.2: comparisons of CISC and RISC CPUs
CISC RISC
CISC chips are relatively RISC chips are comparably
slow faster
 Use less instructions Comparatively use more
instructions
Use large and complex Use fewer, simpler and faster
instructions instructions
Comparatively costlier Cheaper
Use many new transistors Use fewer transistors
Versatile processing Less versatile
Low performance due to Faster CPU performance
the use of more number
of transistors
1.3.2 Circuit size and Die size: Circuit size is like scaling the processor model or
drawing the miniature of the processor. In order to make powerful processors more
transistors, which are smaller, are required. Therefore, circuit size is made smaller
with the help of integrated circuit fabrications. The maximum shrinking can be done
up to 1 micron but the recent processors can use even as less as 0.18 micron circuit
size.
The Die size is the physical surface area, which means the area of the chip and
measure in square millimeters (mm2). It is the term used for wafer made out of
silicon. Smaller the size of the wafer the closer the component arranges which
increases performance. Smaller die size will also help in getting more chips on single
wafer and reduce the manufacturing cost and also relatively reduce power
consumption.
1.3.3 Processor Speed:
The processor speed depends upon different factors like, circuit size, die size,
processor type, type of chip used, instructions set, etc. On observation you will find
that all these factors are interlinked to one another.
Essentially the processor design has its effective role in which it has to specify the
internal time requirements that the maximum limit does not exceed the speed,
which the chip can handle.
You will find that the manufacturing factors like circuit size and die size as mentioned
above will have its influence on the speed.
Smaller the chips faster will be the processing speed due to shorter signals flow and
less power consumption.
Heat is also an important factor that affects speed. As the chips get over heated, it
locks itself, thus slowing down the processor.
Due to some manufacturing differences, the quality of the process varies even after
the product is manufactured in the same process.
1.3.4 Processor Cooling:
Each of the millions of transistors liberates small amount of heat every time they are
switched on or off. The heat thus generated will give rise to many serious problems
in the processor like system crash, unexpected rebooting, lockups etc. This
sometimes results in memory errors, application errors, disk errors etc. Although
repeated overheating of processor may rarely result in permanent damage, it is
difficult to identify these kinds of problems. These days processor cooling has
become a major concern for computer hardware manufacturers. Unlike earlier
processors, nowadays processors use more numbers of transistors which liberate
tremendous amount of heat. Therefore to cool the processors special cooling
methods have to be adopted the processors are usually cooled by active heat sinks.
An active heat sink is made up of fans which are mounted on a metal sink with the
help of fins. However, the problem with an active sink is that when the fans stop
working then the heat generated by processor will be very high. Therefore
tachometers are integrated into it to raise an alarm in case of accident due to heat
damage. This warning will help in addressing fan failure issue immediately.
1.3.5 System Clocks:
A system clock is used to drive the circuits in the PC. The smallest unit of time in
which the processing takes place is known as one cycle. The unit to measure it in
terms of frequency is MHz. In older PCs there used to be only one system clock to
drive the processing. However, modern PCs use many such clocks (may be four or
five) for processing; each of them running at different speeds. System clock is
referred to the speed of the memory BUS running on the motherboard.
In order to generate the system clock, a single clock generator circuit is used to create
different clocks and then various clock multiplier or divider circuits will create the
clock signals for these clocks.
Table 1.3 gives you the detailed arrangement in clocks in 266 MHz Pentium II PC and
the relationship that exists between them.
Table 1.3
 Device/BUS Speed Generated as
clock (MHz)
Processor 266 System Clock
*4
Level 2 Cache 133 System Clock
* 2 (or
Processor /
2)
System 66 1 system
(Memory) BUS clock
PCI BUS 33 System Clock
/2
ISA BUS 8.3 PCI BUS / 4
The entire system speed relates to the speed of the clock system. This is why it is very
important to increase the speed of the system clock rather than the speed of the
processor. This is because whatever the speed of the processor it has to sit idle until
the completion of the other slower part of the system.
1.3.6 Architectural Performance Features: Each time you boot the system you
assume that the system performance improves. Hence, research on this feature
continues with the designer trying to find ways to enhance performance. The
different features of performance enhancement are as follows:
Superscalar Architecture: This architecture implements a base for parallel
computing. This is the measure of the number of operations executed in a computer
simultaneously. This is called Instruction level parallelism. The main capability of CPU
is to allow multiple executions. This helps CPU to process many instructions
simultaneously with every clock cycle. This is super scalar architecture. For example,
the Pentium pre-processor uses two execution pipelines at the same time; this is
multiprocessing within the CPU itself.
Pipelining: Pipelining a technique to construct faster CPUs. Using pipelining you can
execute more than one operation at a time. When one instruction is already in
execution state, the pipelining allows another instruction to start execution while the
first instruction is still being executed. This helps in working out many instructions in
the same clock cycle. In this way, CPU uses its resources in a better way rather than
sitting idle. Some instructions may take 2-3 clock cycles to complete the execution
and while some complex instructions may take
6-7 clock cycles to complete its execution. Therefore pipelining helps in using the
resources, though the CPU can only finish one instruction /clock cycle.
Super Pipelining: Super Pipelining is similar to normal pipelining but with series of
operations are unblocked so that as many instructions execute at a single clock time.
This is an enhancement over the earlier simple pipelining. As you are aware a CPU
works on pipelining concepts. If we make the pipelines longer which is nothing but
increasing the number of stages, then each step will perform less work so that the
processor can be scaled to high frequency. This is super pipelining.
Speculative Execution and Branch Prediction: Speculative execution and branch
prediction is used to give the probable prediction on branching the instruction in the
CPU. The basic difficulty in pipelining of CPU lies in branches. For example, when we
use branches in the conditions, the sequence of the program execution also changes
or jumps form one level to another at any given time. This challenges the pipelining
as it is not linear. Though the CPUs have the ability to execute multiple instructions
at a time however, due to this branching it cannot be maintained always. CPU must
be able to jump speculatively to the next instruction when the branches come in the
instruction. This can be achieved by predicting the branches. Examples of branches
may be
“if/then” statements.
Dynamic Execution: Dynamic Execution is a collection of different techniques for
predicting the nested or multiple branches. The performance of the CPU also
depends on the kind of program written for the instructions. Sometimes system
software assembly and the linking process may disturb the best program code.
Therefore, the dynamic execution helps the CPU to order the levels of the instruction
execution according to the branches and helps in improving the performance.
Register Renaming and Write Buffers: When the multiple executions take place there
should not be any kind of confusion in program execution. This is taken care of by
register renaming by differentiating the registers. This helps in avoiding the pipeline
overloading or jam. When the instruction is executed, the result needs to be stored
someplace until they can be stored in the memory locations. Write buffers do this.
Several buffers help in the execution of various instructions and avoid the jam or
stalling of pipeline.
Multiprocessing: This is the technique of running more than one processor in a
system. Increasing the number of processors will double the system performance.
The increasing of system performance is directly proportionate to the increase in the
number of processors. The following are the basic requirements for multiprocessing
:
The host computer must have the motherboard support to Handle the multiple
processors.
The host computer should use the processor that suits the Multiprocessing
The host computer should use the operating system that Suits multiprocessing like
windows, NT/2000 or LINUX.
Multimedia Extensions: The multimedia extension is an add-on to CPU performance.
For technocrats, knowledge alone is not sufficient for success in their work. They also
depend on making effective presentations by taking the help of graphics, animations
etc. It was in late 90s that Intel added 57 new instructions that support graphics with
the MMX extensions using the technique called Single instruction Multiple Data
(SIMD). Later AMD and SSE added a few more instructions to introduce 3DNow. SSE-
II used streaming SIMD extensions, which supported audio and video graphics, and
speech recognition.
1.4 Processors
If you observe the evolution of the CPUs, you will realize that the change from one
generation to the other is not one of just average development but rather a
tremendous change in technology with more emphasis on greater performance,
execution, efficiency, raw speed, and data through input and design enhancements.
This section will help you understand the panorama of the Intel microprocessors’
evolution and also aid you in comparing their current characteristics.
1.4.1 Intel 8088/8086
This was introduced during 1978-1979. The microprocessors 8088 and 8086 are
similar except that 8088 uses 8 bit BUS and 8086 uses 16-bit BUS for data transfers.
Though 8086 was the first processor, it did not become popular because by the time
it was launched, 80286 was introduced.
Table 1.4: Categories of processors Table 1.4 (a) General Information
Manufacturer Intel
Family Name 8086
 Processor Generation First
Motherboard Generation First
Introduced in June 1978
Versions 8086 / 8086-8 / 8086-10
Table 1.4 (b) Speed Specifications
Memory BUS speed (MHz) 4.77 / 8 / 10
Processor clock multiplier 1.0
Processor speed (MHz) Same as memory BUS
speed
Table 1.4 (c) Benchmarks
Norton SI 1? /1? /1?
Table 1.4 (d) Physical Characteristics
Process Technology NMOS, CMOS
Circuit size (microns) 3.0
Die Size (mm^2) 33
Transistors (millions) 0.029
Table 1.4 (e) Voltage Power and Cooling
External or I/O Voltage (V) 5
Internal or Core Voltage 5
(V)
Power Management None
Cooling Requirements None
Table 1.4 (f) Packaging
Packaging style 40-Pin DIP
Motherboard Interface DIP socket.
Table 1.4 (g) External Architecture
 Data BUS width (bits) 16
Maximum Data BUS 9.1/15.3/19.1
Bandwidth
(Mbytes/sec)
Address BUS Width (bits) 20
Maximum Addressable 1 MB
Memory
Level 2 Cache Type None
Multiprocessing No
Table 1.4 (h) Internal Architecture
Instruction set 8088
MMX support No
Processor Modes Real
X86 execution method
Table 1.4 (i) Internal Components
Register size (bits) 16
Pipeline depth(stages) 1
Level 1 cache size None
Integer units 1
Floating point unit/ math Optional 8087 co-
processor processor
Instruction decoders 1
Branch prediction buffer None
size/accuracy
Write buffers None
Performance enhancing None
features
1.4.2 Intel 80386
This chip gives the processor capability of GUI-based operating system such as
Microsoft windows. It used pipelining process and high clock frequencies to increase
performance. The processor used standard x86 instruction set from the time it was
introduced.
The tables below give details of the processor.
Table 1.5
Table 1.5 (a) General Information
Manufacturer Intel/ Intel, AMD, Cyrix/ AMD, Cyrix
Family Name 80386DX
Processor Third
Generation
Motherboard Third
Generation
Versions 80386DX-16/80386DX-20/
80386DX-25/ 80386DX-
33/ 80386DX-40
Introduced in Oct. 1985/Feb. 1987/April
1988/April 1989/1?
Table 1.5 (b) Speed Specifications
Memory BUS speed 16/20/25/33/40
(MHz)
Processor clock 1.0
multiplier
Processor speed Same as memory BUS
(MHz) speed
Table 1.5 (c) Benchmarks
Norton SI ~15/~20/~25/35/~43
Table 1.5 (d) Physical Characteristics
 Process Technology CMOS
Circuit size originally 1.5, now 1.0
(microns)
Die Size (mm^2) 1?
Transistors 0.275
(millions)
Table 1.5 (e) Voltage Power and Cooling
External or I/O 5
Voltage (V)
Internal or Core 5
Voltage (V)
Power None
Management
Cooling None
Requirements
Table 1.5 (f) Packaging
Packaging style 132-Pin PGA
Motherboard 132-Pin Socket
Interface
Table 1.5 (g) External Architecture
Data BUS width (bits) 32
Maximum Data BUS 63.6/76.3/95.4/127.2/152.6
Bandwidth
(Mbytes/sec)
Address BUS Width 32
(bits)
Maximum Addressable 4 GB
Memory
Level 2 Cache Type None
 Multiprocessing No
Table 1.5 (h) Internal Architecture
Instruction set x86
MMX support No
Processor Modes Real, Protected,
virtual real
X86 execution Native
method
Table 1.5 (i) Internal Components
Register size (bits) 32
Pipeline depth(stages) 4
Level 1 cache size None
Integer units 1
Floating point unit/ math Optional 80387 co-
processor processor
Instruction decoders 1
Branch prediction buffer None
size/accuracy
Write buffers None
Performance enhancing None
features
1.4.3 Intel Pentium P5
With the generation of 586 processors, Intel intended to establish its trademark in
the market due to the development of AMD and Cyrix machines. The Pentium is
available in a number of speeds. Pentiums come in two versions such as regular and
overdrive. Pentiums use three different sockets. The original Pentium 60 and 66 use
Socket 4 while Pentiums from 75 to 133 fit in either socket 5 or socket 7. Pentium
150s, 166s and 200s require Socket 7. Intel makes Pentium Overdrives that allow the
use of faster Pentiums in older Pentium sockets (in addition to Overdrives that go in
486 motherboards). Pentium has the following features
It is the first superscalar processor. It uses two parallel execution units and helps in
pairing with 80486 series on the single chip so that it can make the processor more
accurate. This is partial super scalar since the second instruction cannot complete its
execution before the first one. It is sometimes referred as the Pentium optimization.
Most of the Pentiums run on faster memory BUS. This greatly improves performance.
Pentium motherboards also incorporate other performance- enhancing features,
such as pipelined burst cache.
Pentium provides Wider Data BUS by doubling the data BUS to 64 bits and doubling
the bandwidth that manages the to and fro movement of data from the memory.
The Pentium uses a split-level 1 cache, 8KB each for data and instructions. The cache
is split so that the data and instruction caches can be individually tuned for their
specific use.
When branches are encountered the Pentium uses branch prediction to prevent
pipeline stalls.
All Pentiums have built in SMM power management.
The floating-point unit of the Pentium is improved so that it is faster than that of the
80486.
Overdrive processors have settings and features that make it useful in older
machines. They are:
Integrated voltage regulators are added whenever there is need so that they can
work in the voltage of the socket they are intended to work with.
They have the right pin configuration for the socket.
They are hard-wired to a specific clock multiplier; they do not set their multiplier
based on motherboard jumpers as regular Pentiums do. This saves the user from
worrying about what jumpers to change when replacing the processor.
1.4.4 Intel Pentium with MMX Technology
MMX sometimes stands for Multimedia Extensions or Matrix Math Extensions. The
main purpose of this extension is to provide hardware support for the Multimedia
applications. The following are the important features of MMX extensions:
It has got twice the primary cache comparative to earlier processor. It has got 16 KB
each for level 1 data and instruction caches.
Cache mapping is improved here with the 4-way set associative.
The pipeline features increases the executions levels to 6 stages.
It helps in optimal use of pipelines by running the instructions in a two executing
pipes.
Due to the branch prediction device the accuracy is improved. Efficient in the
instruction decoder.
This too has overdrive technology that has the above specified changes.
1.4.5 Intel Pentium Pro (P6 machine)
This is the successor of Pentium processor. The performance achievement is
approximately 50% higher than a Pentium of the same clock speed. The following are
the technical enhancements along with the other features mentioned in the earlier
generation processors:
Super Pipelining: The Pentium Pro dramatically increases the number of execution
steps to 14, from the Pentium's 5.
This introduces Integrated Level 2 Cache compared to all earlier processors; achieves
more performance instead of motherboard based cache.
The Pentium Pro is optimized for running 32-bit code and so gives a greater
performance improvement over the Pentium when using the latest software.
The address BUS on the Pentium Pro is widened to 36 bits, giving it a maximum
addressability of 64 GB of memory.
Quad processor configurations are supported with the Pentium Pro compared to
only dual with the Pentium.
Instructions flowing down the execution pipelines can complete out of order.
Superior Branch Prediction Unit helps in the branch target buffer to double the size
of the Pentium's and its accuracy is increased.
Register Renaming: This feature improves parallel performance of the pipelines.
Speculative Execution: The Pro uses speculative execution to reduce pipeline stall
time in its RISC core.
1.4.6 Intel Pentium II
PC community has confirmed to adopt Pro processors and MMX technology. Later
Intel tried combining both the features and the result is found in 1997 which they
named it Pentium II. Therefore Pentium II consists of 32 bit operating system and
software. It also has new instructions which are necessary to handle media with the
help of MMX technology. Pentium II is capable of performing 2 times better than 200
MHz Pentium processor. This has the evolutionary effect in performance over Pro
with the following features abiding in it.
Doubled Level 1 Cache: level 1 cache is increased in size, from 16 KB to 32 KB total
(16 KB + 16 KB).
Segment Register Caches: These special caches are used to help the Pentium II
process 16-bit code somewhat more efficiently. The Pentium Pro was optimized for
32-bit processing, meaning that it did not deal with 16-bit code quite as well.
Deeper Write Buffers: The write buffers were increased in size, producing a small
performance improvement.
1.4.7 Intel Core 2
This has the ability to handle the 64 bit data transfer in a multicore processor. The
following are the features of Core 2 processors.
The processors speed ranges from 1 GHz to 3 GHz. They have Level 2 cache of 2
MB or 4MB.
Intel Core 2 has three versions of itself. They are Core 2 solo, Core 2 Duo, Core 2
Quad.Core 2 Solo could handle the single core processor. Core 2
Duo can handle dual core processors on a single chip, and Core 2 quad can handle
two chips and each chip consists of 2 Core. Therefore in a package of 4 Core was
arranged in a multi-chip module.
1.4.8 Intel Atom
As we grow in technology the size kept on decreasing with increase in power and
performance. Therefore in order to serve the netbooks purposes Intel created Atom.
Netbook is a smaller than laptop computers and generally used for accessing internet
and outside use. Since they are very small the processors used need to be inevitably
small so that it can fit inside the available place. The following are the features of
Intel Atom. They are:
The speed ranges from 1 GHz to 2GHz.
Level 1 cache is increased in size to 32KB and Level 2 cache is 512KB.
Atom has been classified into two versions as Single core and Dual core.
1.4.9 AMD CPUs
Advanced Micro devices are the non-Intel chips which have become the real
competitors for Intel CPUs. The industry considers them to be compatible and
perfectly designed. There is a strong competition among the processors as each one
is gives a better performance than the other. If AMD is better than Intel CPUs with
their improved processor performance and operating speeds, Intel CPUs are better
in their 3D and network parameters. Therefore, the selection of the processor hugely
depends on the requirement of the application, which is being used. The AMD series
incorporated write-back cache and enhanced power management features including
3-volt operations, system management mode (SMM) and clock control. The higher
versions of AMD are very much compatible with all x86 operating systems and
software. They also have heat sinks and fans, which are securely mounted and help
in reducing the vast amount of heat
1.5 CPU Overclocking
Though the CPU and microprocessor are used synonymously, in reality CPU is a part
of microprocessor. Microprocessor differs from CPU in a few characteristics like
instruction set, bandwidth, and clock speed. Clock speed is the measure of number
of instruction sets that the microprocessor executes in one second. Speed margining
is another name for overclocking. By overclocking you can make the CPU run faster
than the actual speed. This increases the performance of the CPU. Therefore,
overclocking is often a means to maximize the processor performance. The main
reason for overclocking is to sum up the additional performance in less or no cost.
For example, by increasing the BUS speed on the motherboard you can increase the
speed of the computer with an Intel Pentium III processor running at 933MHz to run
at speeds equivalent to a Pentium III 1050MHz processor.
In spite of having the advantage of increasing performance, overclocking, is not
followed regularly.
1.5.1 Overclocking Requirements
The important elements that effect overclocking are: the CPU, the motherboard,
system memory, and CPU cooling. These are some of the issues with respect to
overclocking success/failure.
CPU: Intel CPUs are found to be successful in overclocking. Because AMD and Cyrix
CPUs run at the closer rated limits they are very reachable to compete with Intel
processors. In addition, we must be very careful with remarked and resold CPUs,
which already run at high speed. They are all fake CPUs. In some of the CPUs, there
are locked clock multipliers.
Motherboard: The overclocking may also fail due to the fault in motherboard. Due
to the weak signals and lack of electrical signals with its BUS signals cause the system
crash. The weak signals will not support the overclocked CPUs. Motherboard should
also support a wide range of voltage variations in the CPU. If there is any problem in
finding the voltage jumper CPU will not overclock..
System Memory: RAMs can work well with overclocking systems till the BUS speed
exceeds 66MHz. You may require higher end RAMs like EDO RAM and SD RAM to
handle the BUS speed above 66 MHz as the higher end of the Ram increases the
performance of the overclocking supports faster.
CPU Cooling: Standard heat sinks and fans cannot cool the large amount of heat
released by overclocking. . Extra cooling facility is needed to cool that amount of
heat. While fitting a good sink we must take care that it fits into the CPU tightly so
that there is no air gap and we must also ensure that thermal grease is applied
between the CPU and heat sink.
1.5.2 Potential Pitfalls
The major pitfalls of CPU overclocking are intermittent operations, shortened life
span, and outright failure.
Intermittent Operations: The heat produced by the CPU will cause noise in the signal
errors, which causes system crash. This will force us to shut down the system until
the CPU cools down.
Shortened life span: The excess heat produced by the CPU may sometimes also cause
the shorter life span of the CPU than shutting down suddenly. Due to this, the CPU
which was supposed to work for 10 years will work only for 2-5 years
Outright failure: The CPU which is designed to work from -25 to 80 degrees
centigrade, if it is not cooled properly then the die time of the CPU maximizes its
exceed temperature limit and causes failure. Though there are millions of transistors
working, it only takes two or more failed transistors to destroy the CPU performance.
1.5.3 Overclocking the System:
You can overclock the CPU in three ways. They are overclocking the processor,
overclocking the system BUS and overclocking both.
The three major steps in overclocking are change in BUS speed, change of the
multiplier, and change in the voltage supply.
Change the BUS speed: The BUS speed is the speed in which the CPU communicates
with the other parts of the computer. It is measured in terms of clocks. To change
the BUS speed you need to do the following:
Check in your motherboard manual for term like “clock speed”, “CPU External
Frequency Selection”, or Front Side BUS which are called the jumpers which you may
need to change.
You may have to change many other jumpers so that you can create a new BUS
speed.
You can change the BUS speed if you have “soft menu” technology motherboard.
Change the BUS speed settings in the CMOS setup menu.
Increase the BUS speed step by step. You can increase only onestep at a time.
Now your system is successfully over clocked.
Change the Multiplier: A multiplier is used to measure the ratio of internal clock rate
and external supplied clock.
For example, a computer which has an external clock 156 MHz and clock multiplier
of 10x will have an internal CPU clock rate of 1.56 GHz.
To change the multiplier you need to do the following:
Check a set of jumpers marked with the name “Clock Multiplier” in your
motherboard manual.
There may be many jumpers, which may be needed to change the settings. You can
use CMOS setup menu to change these settings if you have soft menu motherboard.
3. Change the voltage supply: In some situations you may need to increase the
voltage supply to the CPU to increase the CPU performance reliably in high speed. It
is always good to increase the voltage supply when CPU is not able to run reliably in
one clock speed. However, the heat produced should be taken care of by using
cooling agents.
1.5.4 Overclocking the Intel Processors
Intel processors are usually considered as the easiest CPUs to overclock. Processors
are usually boosted to increase the performance of the quality demands. Intel
processors are feasible for increasing the performance of the CPUs. You need to
overclock the Intel Pentium processors by changing BUS speed, or multiplier, or
voltage supply.
Overclocking the Intel Celeron: This is one of the overclocking friendly Intel Pentium
processor. The major features of Intel Celeron are that it is the Pentium Core, the
price is lower and produces high quality which helps in increasing performance
through overclocking. However, it has a limitation in the use of overclocking with
respect to locked multiplier and a locked BUS speed of 66 MHz
Locked Multiplier lessens the processor speed setting capability for the overclocking.
Overclocking depends on the motherboard characteristics in order to achieve more
speed. Motherboard also support by providing additional front side BUS and
capability to set voltage supply. Modern motherboards use software to set the clock
multipliers, BUS speed and voltage supply unlike the older versions of motherboards
which used jumpers. This helps us to change the settings without opening the case
and without disconnecting the settings. The success of overclocking of Celeron also
depends on the availability of voltage supply. With high voltage, it can reach faster
signal speed. The motherboard remains stable at any point of time. Therefore,
additional setting is given to change the Front Side BUS (FSB). FSB MHz speed can
refer to either the CPU, or the memory. They are NOT always the same. A system can
have a CPU FSB speed of 133, and the memory at 100. Therefore FSB needs to be
increased to set the overclocking setting. In case after increasing the FSB if your
system doesn’t boot then you must increase the voltage. In doing this the heat may
tremendously increase which requires cooling.
Pentium: The most common factor while overclocking the Pentium processors is to
increase the clock multipliers. When you try doing this mostly it may not boot or
system may perform in the 1/3rd of the actual speed. Therefore, first it will try to
increase the FSB. This increases the speed of PCI and AGP. These cards are built with
greater tolerances.
To overclock you need to do the following
You need to have rights to adjust the clock multiplier, FSB, and core voltage, which
depend upon the model of the processor.
You need to check the cooling capability of the processor if necessary you need to
improve the cooling feature.
You will notice that Pentium II/III machines are not tolerant for overclocking when
compared to Celeron, though you can carry out experiments by making small
increments. You need to note that in order to increase the FSB speed you require to
reduce the clock multiplier on your systems.
In general overclocking immediately voids any processor warranty. Adequate
preparation and precautions are an absolute requirement before attempting to
overclock any processor. You should have a dependable method of monitoring
processor temperature, along with additional cooling resources installed on the
system.
1.7 Glossary
Term Description
CISC Stands for Complex Instruction Set
Computer. CISC is used to handle many
instructions in the CPU.
RISC Stands for reduced instruction set
computer. Which handle fewer
instructions in the CPU?
Intel It is the world’s largest processor
manufacturing corporation, which has
made trademark in processor market.
MMX Stands for multimedia extension, which is
used to support multimedia application in
the CPU.
Circuit size It is the miniaturization of the processor. In
order to make processor more powerful
large number of transistors are used.
Die size It is the physical surface area size on the
wafer. This is measured in square
millimeters.
Overclocking It is the unusual method of running CPU @
the speed more than the actual rated to
increase the performance.

Unit 2

Memory is used to store and retrieve information and experiences. Major processors
of Memory are:
1) Encoding -> Converts information into usable form
 2) Storage -> Encoded form of data is stored in storage space in the free
space of the memory
3) Retrieval ->Make information stored in storage space available whenever
required
T1: Explain the organization of memory
Memory Organizations:
Memory is organized in for the form of Row and Column in single dimension array
system.
Each row contains the address (0 to 7) of the memory and column contain the data
of single bit.
Columns are represented by D0, D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7.
Memory effectiveness depends on the intersection of individual row and column.

Logical Memory Organizations

It is the management of the modules of the different programs that can be used and
retrieved whenever required Resent chips of capable of 4 GB of system memory.
Intel 8088 processor support only 1GB while microprocessors can support 4 GB which
make it stronger than any other typical software applications.
Whenever there is upgradation in the memory it should be proficiently compatible
with the old memory.
Use of Computer Memory
1) Conventional Memory - Starting 640 KB of memory is called conventional
memory and it is used to run DOS programs. Even there is 1 MB of address
space in the DOS memory which is known as real mode memory or base
memory, only 640 KB is available for the conventional memory and initial 384
KB is reserved for system use which is known as upper memory.
Upper Memory area: It is used to enable free place for conventional memory.
One of the most busy area of the memory and also known as DOS memory
range. DOS command (MEM/C/P) is used to check the memory used in
conventional memory and what is free.
2) Extended Memory : The memory above first 1 MD is called extended
memory and is an add-on to the available 1 MB memory which is not available
in normal DOS programs. It is used in protected Mode in two ways - (i) Full
 protected mode where windows access the full memory (ii) Real Mode - where
PC use some extended memory .
Generally Extended Memory is termed as XMS (Extended memory
specification) and is particular it is a standard which is used for use of extended
memory in DOS Program.
3) Expanded Memory : It is an old style of using memory beyond 1MB i.e.
Conventional Memory. It uses an EMS (Expanded memory Specification) . It
is one of the best and easy way to overcome the limitation of 1 MB of memory
use.
Extended memory and Expanded memory are different and can’t use each
other memory cards.
MEMORY PACKAGE
Memory package consists of two circuit boards, in one board multiple sockets
elements are arranged and in other board controller chips are fixed. This coupled
circuit is placed on single base with two sides. A handle is connected to the base
which as a lever system and latch which slides with lever system. Memory package
is used to easily connect the controller to store the data and readily available for
retrieval. Due to the tray and single base memory package days is safe even when
not in use. Memory is arranged in semiconductor chip and its organization is very
delicate and compact to enable to integrate with the system.

Memory package styles :

1) Dual Inline Package (DIP)
It is packaged into a plastic or ceramic package
Mostly used in older PC and older video boards and still used to hold memory
cache or BIOS chips
This is compatible with sockets and allows the pin to be inserted and removed
as when required. This package required more space in PC

2) Single Inline Package (SIP)

This package does not have more pins even not used they days, sometimes
used when this is a need to expansion of the proprietary memory. It is very
difficult to find its replacement and it is very costly
3) Small-Outline J Head
It is a enhance to DIP and use less space with a bend in the form of J _Shape.
SOJ package can be replaced by BIOS ROM and devices are welded into the
motherboard.
 4) Thin Small-Outline Package
This is similar to SOJ. This is a small, thin body which makes TSOP memory
made of slim spaces. These are used in netbooks or notebooks.
5) Chip Scale package
It does not have any pins and mounted on the surface circuits with the help of
pads fitted to the bottom of the chip.
T2: Describe the different types of memory modules
MODULES
Circuit boards consisting of memory chips are called Modules or memory modules.
It is a Dynamic Random Access memory chip and welded into the motherboard and
give fix amount of RAM to PC which can’t be extend, so to increase the performance
of the memory expansion memory modules are added.
Memory modules are of three type
1) Single Inline Memory Modules (SIMMs)
SIMM is a memory module which supports the proprietary memory
expansions.
These can support 1 MB to 16 MB of RAM According to the module life. At
present it can hold upto 32 MB of Ram and 72 Pins. SIMM is used in bytes.

SIMM once installed can’t be install backwards but, With the help of standard
pin architecture, it can be transported from one PC to another

2) Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMMs)

These are very similar to SIMMs except its larger size and it can accommodate
upto 62 bit data bus width. It works by keeping all the signals separate. DIMM
use circuit board to connect a series of RAM Chips mounted on it. Once
installed it can’t be reinstalled. While installing DIMM three factor are to take
care- voltage, buffering and module technology.

Voltage level tends to decrease the temperature and to improve the

performance.
Buffers stand external to memory module and improve its performance by
reinitiating the signals produced in the memory chip. These are in the form of
Composite and non-composite modules which help in identifying the different
modules of same capacity and number of chips are used.

3) RAMBUS Inline Memory Module (RIMMs)

 These are similar to DIMMs but have bigger pin setting. It is useful to reduce
the high heat generated by RDRAM chips with the help of long heat sink.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN OUTSIDE WOLRD AND MEMORY

Communication between outside world and memory is carried out by signals. There
are three sets of signals - address lines, data lines, control lines.
a) Address Lines
These are used to define the row which needs to be active. It converts binary
numbers into signals.
b) Data Lines
These moved data bits back and forth to the storage cells at the defined
address
c) Control Lines
These are used to operate the memory chips.
e.g. A Read/write (R/-W) singla helps the memory to know whether the data is being
read or to be written on it. A –chipset (-CS) signal will make memory active or
inactive. Row Address-select (RAS) column address-selected(CAS) refreshes the
memory.
T3: What are the different considerations to be kept in mind while upgrading/
installing memory

MEMORY CONSIDERATON.
Importance of memory is growing in rapid speed and it is not a storage space for data
bits. It is very difficult to track the memory options and understand the architecture.
Points to consider before selecting memory are memory speed, its layout etc.
1. Memory Speed
CPU performance depend on the memory speed, and when low cost memory
chips are used CPU has to wait for the memory catch up with the speed.
System can always extend its memory with faster memory to increase the
performance.

Memory speed is defined as the time taken to access one bit of data from the
storage space. It is measured in access time which is in nanoseconds (ns).
 Access time is the time delay that takes place from the beginning of the access
till get the valid data ready for use.

Cycle Time : Cycle time is the minimum amount of time needed between the
accesses. These times are measured in nanosecond, memory with high
performance is rated in terms of megabytes.

System can always extend its memory with faster memory to increase the
performance. Therefore, some mechanism should be altered between the
memory and its architecture for the particular performance. The cost in
tailoring the architecture and memory is too high when compared to the rate
of performance. Therefore, it is better the system be altered only when the
system is obsolete i.e. working too slow.

2. Wait State
Wait state is defined as the state of a program which is waiting for the
processor so that an event should complete its processing. It is a state when
processor is not available for an operation and it is waiting as the another
operation is to complete its execution. When memory process need to wait
then it needs to insert a new clock cycle, which gives additional time to memory
to operate. Current PC use one wait state while older computers uses two-
three wait states. As the wait-state increase performance of the system
decrease.

There are three ways to select wait state

- No. of wait state may be fixed.
- The wait state may be selected by keeping one or two jumpers in the
motherboard
- Keeping the wait state control in the SMOS setup routines.

MEMORY TYPES
Memory is broadly divided into two Type
ROM (Read only Memory ) and RAM (Read Access Memory )
1) Read Only Memory (ROM)
ROM is an integrated circuit chip in the motherboard that allows only to read
the data and do not permit to edit or modify it. It is also called a fireware. This
is a non-volatile memory i.e. data will be secure on the power cut or any failure
occurs data will not have lost. Only disadvantage of the ROM chip is that once
the data is stored by manufacture it can’t be erased, and while creating the
programs to embed if any mistake occurs then correcting to it will not be
possible.

There are different types of ROM available which allowed to extent to rewrite
the content in the memory or reuse the memory:

a) Programmable Read only Memory (PROM)

In PROM data can be write data once on it. Data can’t be delete or modify
the data once entered in the PROM
b) Erasable Read Only Memory (EPROM) –
IN EPROM data can be deleted or overwritten on it. But can’t keep or delete
the part of old content and add new. Entire data is deleted when new
content is added to it.
c) Electrically Erasable Read Only Memory (EEPROM)
In EEPROM data can be erased / rewritten in full or partial and can use if for
storing the data.
These PROMs are also called as Flash Memory.
2) Random Access Memory (RAM)
In RAM data can be read, written, edited in any order. It is generally used to
store working data and machine codes.
a) Extended Data Out RAM (EDO RAM)
It extends the data validity of the output. Data bus holds the data bit for a
longer period. This needs modification in the output buffer which can create
time for the validity of the data bit. Data will be alive unit it is read by the
recipient.

b) BURST EXTENDED DATA OUTPUT RAM (BEDO RAM)

It is the extended versions of EDO RAM, and is developed to read large block
of data bits. This reads data in one burst i.e. CPU read the BEDO data in five
consecutive memory locations in the five clock cycles ie. 5:1:1:1 patters
which means five cycles for memory address and 1 cycle each for the
addresses. It support motherboards above 66 MHz and is not much used.

c) DYNAMIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (DRAM)

It is used in PC and main memory. It continuously refreshed by using refresh
circuitry and hold the data. It uses single capacitor and transistor to hold the
 data bit and make it cheaper. But capacitor hold the data for a short period
and need to refresh with the help of refresh circuitry before the data fades
away and data lost.

d) Static RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (SRAM)

SRAM is used to hold the data for long period without any refresh circuit. It
is used whenever there is need for fast memory specially in cache memory.
It is very simple and fast but also very expensive and small.

e) SYNCHRONOUS DYNAMIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (SDRAM)

It is very much different from the other types since it is connected to the
system clock and able to read and write burst mode at the rate of 1 clock
cycle per data bit. It use 5:1:1:1 patter same as BEDO RAM i.e. Five cycles
for memory address and 1 cycle each for the addresses and it can support
up to 100 MHz. It offers second burst before the current burst if completes.
This continuous access will speed up the system processor and increate the
performance.

f) Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM)

It is an improvement over SDRAM. It supports more bandwidth by
transferring twice data bit per cycle i.e. transit from 0 to 1 and again back to
0. Data bit read per cycle is twice than SDRAM. There exist two end points
i.e. Rising edge and falling edge. In all other type of memory only one of
these edges are triggered.

g) Enhanced Dynamic RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (EDRAM)

It is a DRAM in which small part of SRAM is embedded inside the large
amount of DRAM to make it faster. This avoids using the external cache
memory. It used as Level 1 and Level 2 cache and also known as cached
DRAM or CDRAM. EDRAM acts like a page mode memory i.e. if the read
requests are available in the cache then the data can be accessed in 15
nanoseconds otherwise if it is not available then the data read by the DRM
portion and make it available in 35-40 nanoseconds.

MEMORY TECHNIQUES
Memory should be selected in a way that its performance does not affected due to
the cost. To use inexpensive and existing memory types in the architectures which
is well defined with the help of memory technologies. Mostly used architectures in
all the system are:
1) Page Memory
In this technique the data is transferred from secondary memory (hard disk) to
the main memory in the form of pages. Pages are the block of same size. Paging
allows the CPU to use free available address space in the RAM memory. The
memory makes partition of the RAM into smaller groups or pages of size of 512
KB or a bit more. If the access takes place in the current page it can accomplish
within zero wait state, if access occur outside the current page one or two wait
state can allowed until that particular page is found.

This type of technique is used on high end i286 model and i386 systems.

2) INTERLEAVED MEMORY
Interleaved Memory is the combination of two banks memory i.e. it required
two memory modules. When the first memory is performing some process
second memory is reading the data of another process. Performance is better
in Interleaved memory due to combination of two memory modules.

3) Memory Cache
To run programs that are used very frequently or repeatedly in software, CPU
required very fact memory which enables the execution of the program in less
time. This is a small memory which is very fast and acts between CPU and RAM.
It operates in 5-15 nanoseconds which is fast enough to process CPU in zero
wait state. Content read on the motherboard is copied to cache and read it
from cache to cache if there if there is any content present on it.

If the content is not present in the cache memory it is called cache miss. Then
it searches for the content in the DRAM for the content in one or more wait
states. Cache memory is classified into two levels - internal cache and external
cache.

4) SHADOW MEMROY

In this technique Data is transferred from ROM to RAM creating copy of the
data. ROM devices are comparatively very slow and its access time takes
several nanoseconds. Therefore, in turn it increase number of wait states used
in access. This automatically decreases the potential performance of the
 system. In show memory the content is loaded from ROM to RAM, so
whenever content in ROM needs to be accessed, it can be accessed from the
faster RAM memory rather than accessing it from ROM.
T4: How do we select a memory.
SELECTION AND INSTALLATION OF MEMORY
1) Getting the Right Amount
It is always considered that what is the amount of memory required to make
CPU perform at best all the time. Getting memory and installing will be ease if
it cost is less, but SDRAMs is considered best but it cost is too high. We must
have enough memory in the System, but it is always difficult to define the
amount of memory which is enough due to the transformation in the PC
industry as memory requirements varied from generation to generation.
System

During current days minimum of 64 MB of memory is required for processing

and it may be varying from 64-128 MB for general purpose home or office PCs.
For industry purpose 1 GB or more memory will be required depending upon
the data to be processed.

2) Filling Banks
The amount of memory that is enough to fit the bit width of the data bus is
called memory bank. The size of memory in MB does not matter until bank is
filed. Its main requirement is depending on three components - Memory
Amount, Memory Matching and Bank Order.

The entire bank should be filled with sufficient amount of memory. It a system
has bank 0 filled with 8 MB then next ban 1 also must store with 8 MB for
smooth processing. The modules must have same size and sped in the bank.
This is called memory matching.

During installation of DIMMs, following points to be considered: -

1) If the system has two identical DIMMs, then can install them in either
bank 0 or 1.
2) If the system has two DIMMs with different sizes – Install the larger in
bank 0 and smaller in Bank 1.
3) If the system has identical size and one single sided and one is double
sided- install single-sided in Bank 0 and double-sided DIMMs in bank 1.
 Bank order - Data bits should be filled from bank staring from 0 onwards, if
bank 0 or 1 is empty and bank 2 is filled, PC will not identify the RAM, which is
additionally installed.
T5: How will you troubleshoot the memory
REPAIRING SIMM / DIMM/ RIMM SOCKETS
It is function of the socket to be fit in tightly in the motherboard. Socket must be
filled properly without damaging socket or motherboard. If any socket is damaged
best option is to remove it and replace with new one instead to repair it. To replace
the socket use these steps :
1) Remove the motherboard
2) Detach the socket which is damaged
3) Fix the new socket
CONTACT CORROSION:
Contact corrosion is defined as area of contact with the similar metals when there is
no protective layer between them and the metals in the liquid created an electrolytic
cell. It may occur when memory modules contacts with metal and socket does not
contact. It creates problem and can be taken care by cleaning the metals with the
cotton swap and good quality cleaner.
Memory and sockets contact must be made to contact at the same time.

Motherboard is considered as heart of the PC. It provides the system resources,

support the core component and handles the system memory. Motherboard
consists of chips which run for various tasks.
COMPONENTS OF MOHTERBOARD
Various components of Motherboard are:
1. SOCKET AND SLOTS
Socket is a place where electric devices are fitted and slots are opening in the
motherboard which enables plugging in the circuit boards, through which
external devices are inserted or connected into the motherboard. On the basis
of sockets and slots motherboard is divided into different types as sockets is
used to refer to that particular CPU as each of them will have specific task of
socket.
 (i) Socket 7
These motherboards serve Pentium MMX CPU, AMD series and Cyrix
Processors. They are available with APG slot which are designated as
Super 7.AGP or Accelerated Graphic Port which is exclusively used for
connecting video card to computer.
(ii) Socket 8
These motherboards serve Pentium Pro CPUs. These are used in older
network servers and workstations.
(iii) Slot 1:
These Motherboard service Pentium II and III CPUS. They are single Edge
Cartridge (SEC) processors
(iv) Slot 2:
Similar to Slot these also use SEC processors, These are used in Advance
Pentium II and III Xeon processors. These motherboards are used in high
end network stations and workstations.
(v) Socket 360
These motherboards serve of Pentium III and above and are Celeron
processors. These motherboards are easier to remove and have fewer
problem in installation.
(vi) Slot A:
These motherboards serve AMD processors. They are mainly used to
serve Athlon-based system
(vii) Socket A:
These motherboards serve later AMD Athlon and Duron Processors
(viii) Socket 432
These motherboards are built to serve Pentium IV processors
Socket 432 is not compatible with other type of sockets and each of them has specific
reason for each type of processors. The same type of processor connector has
different speed for different rage of processor. It is important to be careful selecting
slots for different processors.

EXPANSION SLOTS
Expansion slots are slots which provide external connectivity with motherboard to
other connect other devices such as video controller, SCSI host controller, network
card etc. these allow the system to communicate with the outside world with the
help of additional boards. These are present at the back of the computer and allow
the ports in the card that go inside it to be accessed.
Type of Expansion Slots
a) Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)
ISA is an old type of expansion slot and is used to connect the system with video
cards, sound cards, networking cards etc. These are bigger in size as compare
to other expansion slots and not in much use these days.
b) Peripheral Component Interconnected (PCI)
It is a high speed intelligent bus. It has 64 connections on the motherboard and
each connection is capable to handle data of 1 bit at a time. Expansion slot
changes as the technology changes. The video cards can be inserted along with
older network cards.
c) Accelerated Graphics Port (APG)
It provided high speed data path between video card and the motherboard.
Motherboard has only 1.5 V AGP slot.
d) PCI Express (PCIe)
It is a new technology which is replacing APG. PCIe x16 It can transfer data upto
4 GB on the motherboard which is twice in speed in compare to AGP. It comes
in first different sizes s - PCIe x 1, PCIe x 2, PCIe x 4, PCIe x 8, PCIe x16.

MEMORY SLOTS
Memory slots are small holes or gaps which are used to connect external memory
devices to the motherboards. RAM in today’s motherboard must be added in
motherboards through slots. It is easy to install memory slots in the motherboards,
but during upgradation of the memory it involves more of adding larger modules
than adding slots.

THE POWER OF CHIPSETS

Most of the function of the modern computers are handled by two or three chips on
the motherboard that are integrated as chipset. The chipset connects the memory
and CPU to drive controllers, expansion busses, I/O ports and video and sound
controllers.
FORM FACTOR
Form factor is defined as the physical position of the system components like
motherboard and its holders, the key components such as CPU, Memory Modules,
the Different Slots and ports. There are three different types of form factors - AT
(Advance Technology), ATX (Advance technology Extended), BTX (Balanced
Technology extended). These form factors do not directly contribute to the
performance of the motherboards and all have same characteristics in performance.

MOTHERBOARD UPGRADATION
When a system gets older motherboard has very limited feature for upgradations.
However, a CPU can be upgraded by adding RAM but it has very less impact on the
motherboard’s performance. Even, motherboard rates are decreasing regularly and
it is cheap to buy a new one. Motherboard upgradation is a very easy process but it
is a time consuming and detail-oriented process. Points need to consider before the
upgradation are: -
a) Each motherboard has its unique features, so must be careful in
specifications of I/O ports and its types will determine the feature of
expandability.
b) Consider the size of the motherboard as it has to be placed inside the
system space. It must be tightly fixed in system.
c) Space for new slots and new processors must be available in the
motherboard. If upgradation is to add AMD or dual core have to take care for
heat sink also and it must be fit with expansion slots.
d) While buying a new motherboard make sure that all the components are
working properly or there is any need for further upgradation of the
components. The main component to be taken care of is to see whether the
old hard drive support the new motherboard and it
It’s all functions full potential
e) It is always better to change the motherboard with new one rather than
changing alone the defective parts because a new motherboard gives good
support with respect to cache, space and RAM availability.
f) To overcome the cost effect of time, many organisations have designed a
device that mounts processor, cache and RAM on a readily accessible module
which is called daughter card. It is based on modular mother board. This can
be replaced in few minutes once the upgradation is done. Only disadvantage
of this module is that each daughter card needs to be designed for a particular
motherboard which is specified and sometimes it becomes costlier than the
conventional motherboard.
g) Instead of taking more time to replace the motherboard, Microchannel
system can be installed to any of the expansion slots. This system is called
processor card. It takes whole control over the resident CPU and logout of the
 original processor. Though the cost of the processor card is more than another
CPU. It is more standardized than daughter board.

SETUPS TO TAKE BEFORE UPGRADATION OF THE MOTHERBAORD

1. ELECTROSTATRIC PROTECTION
Motherboards are extremely sensitive and electrostatic discharge, so need to take
some precautionary measures to ensure safe handling of motherboards and other
components during the process of upgradation:
 Place motherboard on antistatic mat and do proper grounding for its
connections.
 Use antistatic strip to prevent the shock due to static motherboard.
 Do not touch the circuit chip or pins and hold from the edges only.
 Put all the components in antistatic bags when removed from
motherboard for upgradation.
 Avoid upgradation during dry weather, as there is possibility of creation
of electrostatic charges in cloths and bodies.

2. CMOS SETTING
CMOS settings must be updated to load in the new motherboard’s CMOS. Current
BIOS versions allow to enter BIOS dafaults in the CMOS Setup, Some COMS have
to do manually.
SETS FOR MOHTERBOARD UPGRADATION
 Handle screw drive very carefully, if anything slip in motherboard it can
damage it.
 Turn off all the system and unplug it from the power socket before
opening the cabinet
 Place all the screws in safe covered place,
 Label the things which are mark in PC, which will help in connecting back
the cable after upgradation.
 Before removing original motherboard, make a safe place to keep
motherboard
 Remove the expansion board and place inside the antistatic bag and keep
bags on antistatic mats. Remove all the screws carefully and do not apply
much force. Do not try to remove motherboard forcefully, make sure all the
screws are removed.
  Remove the cable connected to the motherboard
 Detach the drives - floppy, hard drives etc
 Disconnect the power supply
INSTALLING THE NEW MOTHERBOARD
While installing the new motherboard, effort is required to see that the
motherboard is fitted in the cabinet properly. Steps to be taken are:
1) Make sure all the slots and ports are properly aligned. Holes from the
cased must match with holed of the motherboard. Do not apply much force
to fix anything, it can damage the motherboard.
2) Fix bolts in such a way that motherboard is away from contact with
conductive materials. Use nonconductive washer between the bold and the
motherboard.
3) Read user manual for clarification and check the jumper for each module
or DIP Switch like switch on/off, case indicator lights, reset buttons and
speakers.
4) Reassemble the original system which is disconnected. Make sure all the
memory modules, BIOS, RAM, CMOS are fixed properly.
5) Connect the external devices e.g. keyboard, mouse, monitors, printers
etc.
6) Test the system to ensure all the components and cabling are well jelled
with each other. Switch on the power and POST will start, it performs the
preliminary checking for the availability of various components that are
essential to boot the system and ensure the correctness of the operating
system. Select ok to start the setup. Review the COMS setting, which is
responsible for the boot of the system and help in maintain performance.
7) Set the variables in their default states and reboot the system
8) Finally install the hardware drives for newly installed components, if any.
STEPS TO IDENTIFY WHETHER TO REPAIR OR REPLACE THE MOTHERBOARD
When any component of the motherboard fails or shows problem in it functioning.
In order to make decision to replace it or repair we have to take some steps to
inspect the PC:
1) Make sure all the connections are properly connected. Check power
supply, power cable and other cables are attached tightly and correctly.
2) Check all the CPU Chips, ROM Chips, CMOS, RTC modules are mounted on
the respective socket properly.
3) Ensure that the AC power supply in is proper order.
 4) Take care of electrostatic precautions
5) If motherboard have any port connected, disable by setting jumpers or
switch.
6) Screw drivers connected are properly fitted. There is enough space
between connecting materials and motherboard.

UNIT 4 =- BUSES

BUSes are collection of electrical cables that are used to transferred data,
information or the address of the memory location. These are used to communicate
between two or more components of the computer. BUS consists of three major
part - Address BUS, Data BUS and Control BUS. A bus is also called backbone because
if connects the computer through one cable.
Address BUS - Carried the information of the location of the information.
Data BUS- Carries data between different components for execution.
Control BUS - Allows transferring the control instruction from CPU to memory or I/O
devices
BUSes are measured in terms of Clock Speed and marked by MHz Width specified
the amount of the data transferred in one time. Buses are connected to number of
devices which are working at different speed. When device operate slow then other
device can’t send or receive data, therefore clock speed need to set so that all the
devices interact with each other at same time.
Expansion buses are used to connect the system with the peripheral devices like
printer, monitor, scanner etc.. This makes PC a flexible machine that can be
configured to the requirements of the external devices or add-ons.
 Fast Bus - In order to make the applicable execution faster and transfer of
data bits faster, fast bus is used.
 Local bus- is used to directly connect the data transfer to the CPU
 Serial Bus - which allows the data travel in single bit serial form
 Parallel Bus - Allows data transfer in multiple wires in a parallel form.
  Internal Bus- Used to connect with internal components like sound card,
CPU etc.
 External Bus- Used to connect with external devices like, USB, Printer etc.
Bus can be Unidirectional and bidirectional.
Unidirectional Bus-> Allow data transfer from one computer to other computer in
one direction.
Bidirectional Bus ->Allow data to travel through it from one device to another device
in both directions.
Different architectures are designed to support different kinds of buses, computer
system and its components. Depends on the architecture the bus is divided into
three major types –
1) Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)
2) Peripheral Component Interconnected (PCI)
3) Accelerated Graphic Port (AGP)

INDUSTRY STANDARD ARCHITECTURE (ISA)

Industry Standard Architecture buses are also called as PC buses. These help to
support the operating system and application software. ISA made to path to the
manufacturers to produce faster and supportable PCs and expansion devices.
Depending on the architecture used by the processor ISA has two versions - 8 Bit ISA
16 Bit ISA.
8 Bit ISA

8 Bit ISA is used by PC/XT Bus which is commonly referred as XT is as advancement

in IBM PC. It was designed to serve the enhanced machine for commercial purpose.
8 Bit ISA was initially found on IBM machines which was 8 bits wide i.e. have 8-bit
data of 8088 processors. It is consisting of 62 pin, out of which 20 address and 8
data lines. It run with a speed of 4.77 MHz. 8 Bit ISA bus consists of single card edge
connector with 62 pin contacts. Its 8 data lines and 20 address lines allow the board
to be placed in the conventional memory.

This bus support connection for 6 interrupts (IRQ2-IRQ7) and three DMA channels
(DMA0-DMA3). All the connector on the bus is supposed to work in the similar
fashion. PC is designed with 8 expansion slots requires any card inserted in the eighth
slot to provide a special signal called “card selected” or pin labelled B8. Timing
requirement for the eight slot are also tighter.
Interrupts and DMA (Direct Memory Access) channels are supported by this bus. An
interrupt is an event in hardware that triggers the processor to jump from its current
program counter to a specific point in the code. DMA channels are system pathways
used to many devices to transfer information directly to and from memory.

16 BIT ISA
It is an expansion to 8 Bit ISA with the connection of 36 pin connector added alon
with the 62 Pin connector. 8 Bit bus replaced by 16 Bit bus by doubling the number
of data bits and adding pin connectors. It is used in PC/AT bus. It is used in IMB’s
second generation PC designed 6 Mhz Intel 80286 microprocessor and released in
1984 as machine type 5170.
In addition to 8-bit data, 16-bit bus consists of extra 8 bits, five interrupts and three
DMA channels. One extra bit is used for +5 dc volts which is not included in number
of bits. It is also added with 04 additional address lines. The speed increased from
4.77 MHz to 8.33 MHz.
PERIPHERAL COMPONENT INTERCONNECT (PCI)
32 bit bus fails to process Graphic cards. There are two VL and PCI to overcome with
the issue. VL (vesa Local Buses) – Video Electronics Standards Association local bus
acted as high speed bus path for DMA and memory mapped I/o which is different
from ISA Bus and ISA bus handles interrupts and port mapped I/O. Disadvantage
with the VL was that Bus performances depends on the CPU performance only and
does not have its own standard specifications.

PCI was developed in mid1992 by integration of Intel and group of manufacturers.

PCI Configurations:
PCI is a vast improvement over ISA bus architecture with the increase in its speed
from 8.33 MHz to 33 MHz frequency, which increase the data transfer from 5 MB/sec
to 132 MB/ sec. It give automatic configuration property to the switches and
peripherals. This feature also adjust the interrupts requests, DMA assignments, the
addresses of the requests and data used by the PCI peripheral.
Main Features of the PCI are:
  Linear Bursts
Memory data send to the peripheral devices in linear address order. In this
method of continually filling the data line in the Bus by transferring the data.
Linear address order is the process of increasing the next byte in the order
which read or write the large amount of data into the single address, which
increase the performance rate of PCI.
 Low Access Latency
Access latency is the time taken by the CPU to permit the request access by
the peripheral for its control. Reducing access latency time it increase the
performance and system can easily send data to the CPU.
 BUS mastering
It is a feature of PCI which helps in nay intelligent peripheral to have a control
of the Bus which is used in boosting the throughput of the architecture. This
supports in handling the task according to the priority base. The high priority
task can be handled and throughput can be increased.
 Concurrency
Concurrency is a process when a processor chip work with BUS masters
simultaneously rather than waiting for them to complete. It reduces the
wait state and some time it become zero.
 Dual Voltage Architecture
Dual Voltage features expects two different voltages to be supports. PCI bus
support +5 volts as well as +3.3 volts, which is also called as low voltage
mode.

PCI BUS LAYOUT

PCI architecture layout provide it proper border and boundaries. +5 volts connector
is divided into two segments. A +3.3 volts connector is added with a key at the 12th
Position of the bus just to avoid any insertion of the +5 volts board + 3.3 volt bus.
A +5 volts connector is added with a key at the 50th Position to avoid the wrong
insertion of +3.3 volts board in the +5 volts slot.
PCI buses has its own internal interrupts which handles the request on the bus. To
avoid any confusion PCI buses are named as A1, A2, A3…., B1, B2, B3….., C1, C2, C3…
and D1, D2, D3… PCI uses a technique which hold the signals dynamically and
whenever there is a requirement it can be reassigned. This technique is called
Interrupt ReQue st (IRQ). IRQ can be shared by two or more PCI devices. These IRQ
can be assessed during CMOS setup routine.
PCI Signals
There are various signals which serve different functions in the PCI
Signal Function
Clock Signal Provide Timing for the PCI Bus
Varied from 0Hz to 33 MHz
Reset Signal Reset all the PCI devices
Command/-Byte Enable Signal Define which of the bytes are
transferred
Parity / PAR64 Signal Represent the parity across
address / data and bytes enables
/ lines
-Request Signal(-req) signal/ Line Initiates the BUS mastering
-Grant (-GNT) signal/Line Approves the Bus Mastering
request
-frame Signal Clock Frame is driven true when
valid PCI bus cycle is in progress
Target Ready (-TRDY) signal Target Ready singla is driven
true, if within the give BUS cycle
the device is able to complete the
transaction
Initiator Ready (-IRDY) signal Indicates that the bus is ready to
accept the data or confirms that
the data in the BUS is valid
Stop (-STOP) This indicates that initiator to
terminate or halt the current
data transfer
Initialization Device select The works on chip select during
(IDSEL) signal read and writes transactions of
PCI configuration.
Device Select (DEVSEL) Signal As an input, it has to indicate the
current transfer status to know
whether it has assumed the
control. As an output, it has to
find out itself as the target for
current bus transfer
Lock (-LOCK) Prevents the other initiator to
modify the locked addressed or
selected expansion device
Primary and secondary Error Reports data parity errors and
Reporting (PERR and SERR) address parity errors in the PCI
Bus

ACCELERATED GRAPHIC PORT (AGP)

AGP (accelerated graphic port) is designed to use in 3d Graphics. It help to accelerate
between the text and 3D images and the PC graphic controller will be coordinating
with the system memory to store and transfer the graphic data. AGP is a useful
technology for graphics, its main characteristics are:
- High Speed bus to accelerate graphics performance
- Graphic controller is enabled
- Speed up the data (decoded data of video) flow from CPU to graphics
controllers.
- It provides high bandwidth. AGP’s performance is directly proportional
to bandwidth.
-
STRUCTURE OF AGP
APG’s performance is directly proportional to bandwidth, the device is fixed in such
a way that increase the bandwidth. An architecture is developed which as an
interface between chipset and graphic controller. The AGP set is used to accelerate
the graphic performance and is directly connected to the system memory through a
dedicated High Speed Bus.
- 3D texture data is provided to the AGPset through the system memory
- IT enables the hardware called Graphic accelerated controller to execute
texture maps directly from the system RAM or Local memory.
- AGP interface placed between PC’s Chipset and graphic controllers helps
in increasing the bandwidth.
- The graphic accelerator controller and the AGPset is connected through
AGP bus.
- AGP help to speed the flow of decoded video from AGP set to the graphic
controller and vice-versa.
- Dedicated high speed bus is connected to L2 cache through the core data
controller.
 - Other than conversion of texture mapping, offloading the tremendous
data overhead from the PCI Bus leaves PCI free to handle drive data transfer
and other I/O controllers.
Using APG, 2 bytes of data can be made to pass through AGP clock with a bandwidth
of 532 MB/s.

AGP VS PCI
Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) and Peripheral Component Interconnected (PCI)
both buses used at least one PCI Bus. AGP is not mean to replace PCI but to enhance
PCI in terms of graphic cards functioning. A 32 bit AGP will easily fit into PCI
configuration.
Main difference between the AGP and PCI are:
 Bandwidth capacity of AGT is 4 times greater than PCI due to its pipelining
and super-pipelining features.
 AGP support optimized 3D graphics.
 PCI fixed clock speed is 33 MHz while AGP clock speed is up to 66 MHz
 PCI make only one request at time and take other data transaction one
first is complete, while AGP makes multiple request for transaction at a time.
 AGP does not shave bandwidth with other devices while PCI share it with
other devices also.
PCI AGP
Address / data is multiplexed Address/ Data is de-multiplexed
No pipelined Request is pipelined
Data bytes high speed 133 MB/s Data bytes high speed 533 MB/s
with 32 bits with 32 bits
Multiple target and multiple Single Target and single master
master
Connected to the entire system Connected only to read/write
memory.
High / Low Priority Queues No priority Queues

AGP Layout
AGP used in ATX and NLX machines (New Low Profile Extended) is form factor
proposed for low profile, low cost, mass-marketed retain PC.s NLX specifications
defines the motherboard size, hole mounting, locations, rise card location. It has
three variants 3.3 V, Universal and 1.5V. Though the signal layout is similar the key
locations are different, and cards can’t interchange.

AGP Signals
Signal Functions
PIPE # This request if asserted by the current master. This
indicates that the request has to queue up the full
width request
Read Buffer Indicated whether the pre-requested low priority read
Full signal data can be readily accepted by the master
(RBF#) Once RBF# is asserted, the arbiter can’t initiate the
request of take back the low priority read data to the
master
Write Buffer Indicated whenever there is data keying from the core
Full Signal program to ensure that whether master is ready to
(WBF #) accept the data.
Once WBF# is asserted, the arbiter can’t initiate the
request to provide data
GNT # Indicated that the signals have some meaning to the
master
FRAME # Indicates the output from the core logic
AD Bus 2x data transfer mode on address line is provided
Strobe 0 Data providing agent drives this signal
Signal
(AD_STB0)
Side Band Timing for SBA is provides and driven by AGP master
Strobe
Signal (
SB_STB_
CLOCK (CLK) Provides timing for both AGP signals

FRONT SIDED BUS (FSB)

Front Sided Bus (FSB) also known as processor bus is used to connect CPU to the
computer system and with other various components of the system. It is a two-way
flow of data i.e. various components send and receive data from the processor at the
same time. It acts as a main path for the data flow from processor to other parts of
the motherboard.
Speed of FSB ranges from 66 MHz, 100 MHz, 133 MHz, 266 MHz, 400 MHz and above.
Its main feature is its bit size; a 32 bit FSB performs 100% more than that of 16 bits
FSB. The measure of data transfer in one clock cycle is important consideration of
FSB.
Communication in FSB is done through chipset, which is consists of two processors –
northbridge and southbridge. Both the bridges act as controllers and policemen
between the CPU and various components of the system which is responsible for the
data transfer.
North bridge works continuously and easily gets heated to cool down it has its own
heat sink. North bridge is also known as Memory Controller Hub (MCH) and
Integrated Memory Controller (IMC). North bridge controls the traffic of faster
components of the CPU like video cards, CPU Cache, and Random Access memory.
Southbridge is the chip that control all the controls of all the functions of the
computer peripherals. It is also known and I/O controller Hub (ICH). North bridge is
directly connected to CPU while south bridge is not directly connected to CPU. South
bridge control the slow traffic components like I/O devices, DMA Controller, system
clock etc.
Speed of these northbridge and southbridge buses depend upon the speed of FSB,
When the CPU is faster and it connected with low performance FSB, there is a result
of data bottlenecks, which makes performance of processor faster than FSB for one
activity and waits for the FSB to send the new instruction. This state of CPU is called
Idle State.
DUAL INDEPENDENT BUS (DIB)
Dual independent bus is an architecture to connect the processor, memory and L2
cache. L2 Cache is a set of memory circuits which is designed to speed us access to
frequently used data. One bus connects the processor to L2 cache and a second
connects the processor to the main memory. This to Bus feature of DIB enables the
data flow simultaneously or in one parallel processing method rather than queuing
up in a single sequential method and waiting for a long time to complete one
instruction and CPU going to Idle state. The main use of this connection is that level
2 cache helps in increasing performance of the Bus extremely.
MAIN features of DIB are:
 Increase speed due to double bus
  Scale up of the performance externally independent of the speed of the
bus.
 Allow access to faster cache
 Allow multiple and parallel cache requests through the process or
pipelining cache to the processor.

TROUBLESHOOTING OF BUSES
In general troubleshooting of buses not done as it is a passive connector and can
be easily replaced. But to troubleshoot some of the major signals connected to
motherboard POST board LED lights are used to flash on POST Board to indicate
the status of the power supply, control signals and cock time. When the LED is
missing in the board then it means there is some error in the connection in the
motherboard.
Points to rectify the Bus Errors:
1. Check voltage level in the bus by suing multi-meter. Voltage should be
between -12 volt dc and +5 volt dc. Low voltage bus should have +3.3 Volt dc.
In case of any fault in the Bus, power supply has to replace.
2. Timing signal for external devices are provided by CLOCK signals, and
need to be adjust between 0 Hz to 33 MHz. Expansion device will not work if
the CLOCK signal is 0. In that case check the motherboard circuitry and rectify
that.
3. After correction and rectifying the expansion device, set it to original
setting by reinitializing by using Reset Signal which will active for one or two
time after power supply is switched on.
Important Considerations while connecting Bus to the various components
 Bus slot version should be clear, as PCI slots are compatible with the only
slots to which they are designed for.
 Connectors are mechanical devices and should and fixed at right place in
motherboard. Any wrong connection may result unreliable connection and
can cause failure to any function or cause severe motherboard damages.
 Faulty board should be replaced or removed. Remove and reinsert the
board. Since board is metallic device, it may cause metallic oxides and effect
the function of device. Metallic oxide change be cleaned after removing the
expansion slots and reinsert it after that.
  In cause of faulty board remove it and test in other board before replacing
it to make sure that problem is related to motherboard only. Sometime BUS
may also cause component failure.

UNIT 5 CMOS
E1: Need of CMOS
CMOS – Metal Oxide Semiconductors
CMOS is a Semiconductor, battery power chip which exists in the motherboard. Its
main features are:
(a) Retain certain system information like date, time and some system setup
programs when the computer system is shut down.
(b) It is a very low-power static RAM and have 128 bytes of memory.
(c) Whenever computer boots us it provides storage facility to the RAM to
store information such as Hard Disc Type, Keyboard Type, Display Type,
Chipset, Data and Time etc.
All the information lost when the power is switched off. Only last saved information
remains, therefore CMOS is used to access hard disk along with needful information

CMOS Optimization Tactics

 CMOS set up data does not automatically get data or configure itself as a
package. Setup routines are done by manufacturer. Disk-based setup utility
was used in earlier PC/AT for setup routines by using floppy disk during
booting of the computer.
 CMOs optimizing tactics is a method of choosing as many number of
suitable set as possible. Due to complexity in the architecture the PC seeks
more and more CMOS setup to be downloaded, which makes difficult to
choose the optimizing method. However, by using for points CMOS setup
as per requirement can be done.
 To initiate CMOS setup, launch the setup utility in the first place and set
manually in the beginning of the configuration. Once setup is completed and
testing is done a message will appear indicating the correct key or key
combination which may be press <f2>, Press <f3> or Del
 Press <F1> to enter setup…
Some Bios versions does not display any message on the monitor but the
setup routine is still accessible.
 Key combination of the BIOS differs from the type of manufactures as
below:-
BIOS Key / Key Manufacturer
manufacturers Combination
DTK BIOS ESC key at the time DTK
of POST
AMI BIOS Del key at the time American Megatrends
of POST Incorporation (AMI)
Award BIOS Cltr+alt+ ESC Award
Gateway 2000 F1 Gateway
PC
ALR PC (PCI F2 ALR
system)
ALR PC (Non- Ctrl+Alt+ ESC ALR
PCI System)
Compaq PC F10 Compaq PC
IBM PS/2 BIOS Ctrl+Alt + INS after IBM
pressing
Ctrl+ALT+Del
Phoenix BIOS Ctrl+Alt+Esc or Phoenix
CLtr+Alt+s
Sony PC F3 during the Sony
starting of PC, and
then F1

In case the key combination is forgotten in any make motherboard, by

pressing any key combination CMOS setup routine will force to start to
configuration changes or will cause error in the CMOS configuration and ask
for the proceed to setup routine.

As PC system continues to progress the number of devices as well as key

combination went on increasing and there are many possible entries which
are more than 100 combinations, which create confusion and it difficult to
select the optimum combination among these. To select the right BIOS
Setting follow these points:-
 1. Basic Check - make sure installed components have standard CMOS
settings. Verify for Data, Time, memory available, hard disk etc.
2. System Cache Must be enabled: Ensure that all the Cache memory
is enabled and internal and external cache (level 1 and level 2) are
available in system.
3. Wait state RSM must be minimized: Wait state of main memory or
RAM is setup at minimum value, but not too low that it can hang the
configuration.
4. ROM shadowing must have enabled: Using shadowing the video and
system ROM, performance of the system will increase.
5. Power Management must be enabled: It saves electricity and
increase the life of many components.
6. Drive Access Must Be Optimized: make sure both the drive and
drive controller support each other. Use fastest data transfer protocol.
7. GO with BIOS defaults: Built in default is always there in CMOS BIOS
setup. It is always available in CMOS main menu. Even default setting
may be not much effective but it can help in situation when settings are
not working and making wrong attempts again and again.
8. Hidden Settings: All the features may not be available in the CMOS
setup. These will be activated through their hidden settings. In case they
are not activated it may cause severe damage in PC performance.
Depending on the BIOS versions, we can use these hidden settings
 AMI (American Megatrends) Machines: AMI setup is a
program is used to access AMI BIOS and change the hidden
settings. This program run in AMIs High Flex BIOS and AMI
WinBIOS.
 Non AMI Machines: Other than AMI machines, in all other
machines to check and access the hidden settings, there is a
utility program CTCHIPZ. This program allows to change chipset
specific registers which is a system configuration setting which is
similar to BIOS setup which effect all kind of configuration form
cache size to PCI settings.

Configuring the standard CMOS setup

Standard CMOS setup requirement of the system to boot system in the first stage
consists of display with basic information with system’s date, time, floppy disk drives,
hard disk drives and other external peripherals. Configuration steps for CMOS are:
 1. Computer Hardware specification gathering: Specifications to set the
system date and time, minimum requirement of Memory to be installed, drives
and its type.
2. Select the second screen to set the parameters for the booting and disk
drives. Set the operating system location and option for second and third
location. Set the characteristics on the how the system should behave from
here onwards.
3. Set the shadow memory and disable the video-on board memory to set
the video characteristics. Label the type of video installed and memory timing.
4. In the PnP Page set legacy products that does not detect PnP details. It
will define the addresses and interrupts for each card.
Once the setting is prepared return to main page using ESC key and use save and exit
option to return to reboot the system. If system does not reboot, re-enter to CMOS
setting program and check for the errors.

Common entries in the CMOS standard setup

Common entries in the CMOS standard setup menu list are:
1. Date & Time
This is used to change /set the date and time of the system clock.
2. Error Halt
In case any error is detected during booting, to ensure that r the PC will stop
this setting is used. There are other entries which help in handling the halt:
(a) No Errors: This is used to ensure that system will not stop if the error is
detected.
(b) All Errors: In case the BIOS detects a nonfatal error, and stop the
system, it will prompt for input.
(c) All, but keyboard: To ensure that booting will not stop in case of missing
keyboard, but look for other devices and stop is any error encounter.
(d) All, But Disk: To ensure that booting will not stop in case of disk
error, but stop of other devices error.
3. Floppy Drive
This is used to know the type of floppy drive is installed in A: i.e. 1.44 MB 3.5
inch or 1.2 MB 5.25 inch floppy drive. It has two drives A & B
4. Halt on
Used to skip the errors during the POST
5. Hard Disk
 Hard disk attributes are auto detected by setting the SCSI drive setting position
as none.
Cly – No. of cylinders available in the hard disk
Heads – No. of heads available in the hard disk
WPre – write pre-compensation begins in the cylinders. In new computers this
entry has not value, set it to negative value or to maximum value.
Sect/Trk- Get the number of sectors per track.
ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑠 𝑥 𝑐𝑦𝑙 𝑥 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑥 512
Drive Size is calculated by using the formula:
1048

Hard disks have two Drives C and D.

6. Daylight Saving
To enable RTC to active the daylight scheme. If not activated automatically,
can activate it manually.
7. HDD Delay
Hard disks require different time to initialize itself in BIOS. If Boot is fast then
hard disk, this setting helps in prompting delay in the boot up and identify the
hard disk drive. Select the lowest time for HDD delay to maintain the boot
speed.
8. Keyboard
This will ensure that keyboard is attached to the system. BIOS perform the
keyboard check during the POST and allows booting of PC without prompting
the keyboard error.
9. Memory
This choose the memory elements to be displayed during start time. Memory
is distinguished by the BIOS POST:
 Base Memory : Find the base memory installed
 Extended memory: Amount of Extended memory installed
 Other Memory: Available memory that can be allot to different
applications like AGP buffer area and RAM area
 Total Memory: Sum of base memory, extended memory and other
memory in the system
10. Primary Display
Identify the type of display used in the system. Old computers uses display like
VGA, PGA, EGA. New generation computer used VGA.
11. Quick Power-On_Self_Test (POST)
Booting time can be reduced by selecting Quick POST. This like skip some of
check such as memory count etc.
Troubleshooting CMOS
CMOS is most important feature for system boot and in rare cases only it fails. Due
to loss of some of CMOS settings or data the system is compromised due to the poor
configuration.
CMOS password Troubleshooting
Password is used to protect system from the malicious and snooping entities. When
the system is transferred to one person/place to another there the chance of missing
the CMOS password. Computer will of not of use without password. It can be
recovered by clearing CMOS RAM and can disable the password security, but it will
be risky as some of the settings are very crucial and difficult to get back them once
lost. There are few steps to recover the password:
a. ASK A FRIEND
Whenever loss the password, firstly tried to ask the friends/ colleagues. If
anybody knows that will be useful and save the time.
b. Check the Jumper by name “Clear Password”.
Conduct which is used to close or bypass of an electrical circuit are called
jumper as used to setup or adjust motherboards. Check for the jumper with
‘password’ tag, and set it and boo the system. Later cut the power supply and
reset the jumper again. Using this way password will be clear and CMOS
settings will not be lost.
c. Prompt of Configuration Change
Disconnect SIMM or DIMM from the system and start the computer. BIOS will
recognize the change in configuration and show error message and prompt to
setup the CMOS. This is help in enter inside the CMOS setting without clearing
other setting and disable the password.
d. Clear the CMOS RAM
This step is crucial as clearing CMOS RAM will clear the password as well as
other settings also which are very difficult to get back. for this search for CMOS
clear Jumper in the motherboard. Set the jumper and start the computer. It
will change the CMOS settings to default setting and clear the CMOS RAM.
After that switch off the computer and reset the jumper again. Now password
is disable and can reset the configuration, password in the CMOS settings from
the beginning.
CMOS battery Maintenance
It is very important to maintain the CMOS chip and CMOS Battery to be maintained
separately. Batteries need to be change frequently. While replacing make sure that
CMOS follow these steps,
 1. Take CMOS backup on external disk
2. Unplug the system
3. Remove the battery, this will lose the CMOS RAM setting
4. Recycle the original battery
5. Install the new battery, keeping in mind the instructions provided by the
manufacturer.
6. Secure the New battery
7. Restart the Computer
8. After booting, goto CMOS setup routine and restore the backup from
external disk
9. Restart the computer and check it should be working normally.

UNIT 6 BIOS
Basic Input and Output System
BIOS is an electronic program that instruct to computer to start the operation. It is
a collection of instruction in ROM Chip which is designed to manage themselves at
all conditions. BIOS occupy 128 KB of upper memory space in the motherboard. BIOS
main functions are:
(a) POST: It verify that all the components required to boot he system are
available and in working conditions.
(b) CMOS Setup routine: To configure the Hardware and RAM
(c) System services routines.: To form a layer between hardware and
operating system.

Power-On-Self-Test
POST is a routine that make ensure that all the components and functions of the
computer are working properly to start the computer. It checks system for
availability of resources and manage the initialization of the computer system
entirely. Main tasks done by POST are:
(a) Initialization of all the activities for the PC
(b) Low-level diagnostic and reliability test of system RAM and ROM
instructions
(c) Checks the CPU, motherboard start up, CMOS for system configuration
data (The Upper Memory area of 128 bytes of CMOS)
 (d) Sets interrupt vectors for the CPU ranging from 0000h to 02FFH i.e. from
0 bytes to 768 bytes. It is on-chip expanded RAM area of total 768 bytes, which
can be accessed by external direct addressing mode with instructions.
(e) It set up a BIOS stack area ranging from 0300h to 03ffh, i.e. 769 bytes to
1023 bytes
(f) It loads the BDA in low memory ranging from 0400h to 04FFh i.e. 1024
bytes to 512 kb
(g) It detects for the optional equipment’s if any.
(h) After performing all the checks and managing, POST proceeds to boot the
operating system in available disk.
Routines
Routines are set of sequences of computer BIOS program which work as an engine,
it is consists of standard unvarying procedure which are classified into two types
(a) CMOS Setup Routines
CMOS setup routines are the set of instruction in BIOS RAM used to alter and
test the CMOS settings. This routine set the parameters for hardware drives
and attributes required by computer to store them. This Routine helps in hard
drive installation. In old computer CMOS setup routine are provided by using
external utility in the form of floppy drives, but in modern computer these
routines are built in the Motherboard BIOS. When POST encounter any
mismatch while comparing hardware setting information with CMOS RAM,
CMOS setup routine halt the boot process and display system setup error.

(b) System Service Routines

System service routines are the functions that separate hardware and
operating system. It allows to system (Chipsets, Motherboards designs, bus
architecture, processors etc) to work in a single operating system. Interrupts
are used to invoke services
Interrupts
Interrupts are the singled that stop the operation of CPU and check for the next
function to execute by sending control to another memory address. Once the
operation is completed, interrupts return its control back to the PC to start from
point of interrupts. Interrupts are produced from three major sources:
a) THE CPU
CPU interrupts are also known as processor interrupts, these are caused
when a program return unusual, unexpected or erroneous result. This may
 happen when a number is divided by zero or when quotient does not fit in
the destination.
b) Hardware Conditions
Hardware interrupts are generated when external device requires attention
from CPU to perform a specific function. IRQs are asserted with logical level
to invoke the interrupts and CPU interrupts its current activity and gets
execute the hardware activity caused by the hardware interrupts. Then this
interrupts executive is done CPU return to its original work. E.g. when we
press a key in keyboard it asserts a logical level corresponding to INT 09h.
This evokes keyboard handling routine. Every time whenever we press and
release key or key is held this Hardware interrupts is generated by INT 09h
logical level corresponding.

c) Software Condition
Software interrupts is generated by a CPU has to check the hardware device.
E.g. whenever we press “PRNTSCN” *(Print screen button) it generate INT
05h, it stores the video or text buffer to the printer port and execute when
shift+printScreen is pressed and when the BOUND instruction detects a
bound failure.

BIOS Features
BIOS supposed to improve its technology get meet with rapid improvement in
motherboard, chipset, video, drives etc. BIOS main features are:
(a) CPU Support -
(b) Chipset Support
(c) Memory Support
(d) Drive Support
(e) Power Management Support
(f) I2 /O support
(g) Plug-And-Play Support
(h) USB Support
(i) Parallel Port Support
(j) PCI and AGP Support
(k) Antivirus Support
BIOS Classification
Bios are classified upon the type of its manufacturer. Some of the BIOS manufactures
are :
(a) AMI BIOS
American Megatrends Incorporation (AMI) is the leader in development of BIOS
and its different versions for PC. Code for BIOS which consists of details of its
age, motherboard manufactures, chip identification etc. appears in the lower
portion of the POST Display.
Older Format for the Code is
AAAA-BBBB-DDMMYY-Kx
AAAA – Chip identification code
BBBB – AMIT customer reference number which is code of the motherboard
manufacturer
DDMMYY - Date of release of BIOS in the Day/Month/year format
Kx - K stand for Keyboard BIOS and x stand for level of revision

Recent AMI BIOS code format is

A#-BBBB-CCCCCC-DDDDDDDD-EEEEEE-FFFFFFFF-G
(A#-B (4 times) – C(6 times) – D(8 Times) – E (6 Times)- F (8 times) – G

A -> CPU vintage - 8086 ->0; 8088 ->1, 80286 ->2, 80386->3,80486-> 4, Pentium
->5 and so on
# is size of BIOS where 0= 64kb and 1= 128 kb
BBBB-> Version number of BIOS
CCCCCC -> AMI Customer reference (motherboard manufacturer)
DDDDDDD -> Key operating attributes of the BIOS with eight logical flags
o Halt or error during POST
o Initialize CMOS RAM at every boot
o Keyboard controller output pin 23, 24 blocked
o Mouse support in BIOS and Keyboard controller
o Wait in case of POST Error
o Display Floppy error during POST
o Display Video error during POST
o Display Keyboard error during POST
EEEEEE -> is the format of Release of BIOS in Day/ Moth/ year
FFFFFFFF -> is BIOS Type which also include chip identification code
G -> G indicated the BIOS code and level of its revision
 (b) Award BIOS
Award BIOS is another manufacturer or BIOS. Its code appear at the lower
portion of POST display.
For AAAAABBCD
AAAAA-> type of chipset used in motherboard
BB -> motherboard manufacturer
C-> Model of the motherboard
D-> Represent constant value and it have no meaning. It remains always 00
(c) Microid Research BIOS (MR BIOS)
The BIOS identification is situated at the top right corner of the summary
screen. It consists of Motherboard model and manufacturer e.g. C&T_300
represents it is designed for Chips and Technologies using CS8230 processor.

BIOS and Boot Sequences

On switching power on, booting of BIOS start with a series of steps to load the
operating system. Step are almost same in all the BIOS, but work slightly different
with new versions.

BIOS perform the following test as its general procedure: -

1. Disable NMI - Disable non-maskable interrupt line to the CPU. Some BIOS
disable Video/ Parity, DMA and NMI. It initializes DMA chips. Initialization of
Chips may fail due to the PIT (Programmable interrupt timer) or DMA chips.
2. PIT Test: It refresh the memory of PIT (Programmable interrupt timer). It
may fail, if there is any problem with PIT chip.
3. Power-on Delay: It reset soft and hard bits in the system. It may fail if
there is any problem in keyboard controller or system clock generator chip.
4. Initialize chipset: BIOS Initialises the motherboard it in the system. Failure
may happen if any problem in Chipset, BIOS or clock generator chip.
5. BIOS ROM Checksum: Checksum the ROM contents and add the factory
default value 00h, which means errors from BIOS ROM. It may fail if the value
is not equal to default value and indicates that BIOS ROM is defective.
6. Keyboard Test: keyboard is deducted by sending set of commands in the
form buffer space to keyboard controller. In come BIOS both keyboard and
keyboard controller are initialized. Failure may happen due to keyboard
connection faults or Keyboard controller chip.
7. CMOS Shutdown Check: CMOS RAM test, CMOS Checksum calculation
and updating to CMOS diagnostic bytes are done by BIOS. Failure may happen
due to error in RTC/ CMOS Chip or CMOS battery.
8. Disable Video: It disable video controller chips. Failure may be due to
video controller board.
9. Memory Test: Check the amount of availability of memory. First 365 kb of
memory is tested with any diagnostic routines in the chipset. This may fail, if
there is any defect in memory chip/ SIMMs or DIMMs.
10. Check Memory Refresh: Refresh memory by PIT (Programmable Interrupt
Timer).
11. Check low address line: System checks first 16 address lines which
controls first 64KB of RAM. Failure may be due fault in address line
12. Check low 64KB RAM: System check fist 64KB of system RAM. Failure may
be due to bad RAM Chip.
13. Initialize Support chips: BIOS initialize the Programmable Interrupts
Timer, Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) and the Direct Memory Access
(DMA). Fault may be due to fault in any of these locations.
14. Load INT vector table: BIOS load the system interrupts vector table into
the first 2KB of system RAM.
15. Check the keyboard controller (KBC): BIOS read the keyboard controller
buffer at I/O port 60th. A failure may be due to fault in keyboard controller chip.
16. Video Test: System check of the type of video adapter in use, test and
initialize the video memory and adapter. Any problem during this test will be
due to fault in video memory or adapter.
17. Load the BDA: This load the BIOS data area (BDA) into conventional
memory
18. Test Memory: BIOS checks all the memory below 1 MB. Error may occur
over here due to fault in RAM modules, the keyboard controller chip, or bad
data lines
19. Check DMA Registers. BIOS will perform a register-level check for the
DMA controllers using binary test pattern. Failure will indicate the problem in
DMA chips
20. Check the keyboard: The system will do the final check for keyboard
interface. Any fault in the keyboard will indicate the fault.
21. Hard Drive Test: Test and initialize the hard disk controller and drive. If
any issue that will be due to improper setup, bad controller or defective drive.
22. Perform high-level tests- Check high level devices like – Floppy, hard
disks, serial adapters, parallel adapters, mouse adapter and so on. Any failure
of any device will display corresponding text message.
 23. Load the OS: It load the operating system by triggering routine INT 19th.
Any failure will display error message “Non-system disk”.
24. Security: the system will after for the password, if configured. If this will
not happen check for CMOS data or the CMOS RAM Chip.
BIOS shortcomings and compatibility issue
Before start troubleshooting for any problem, we must be aware of the kind of
problem and reason for the problem. Weakest areas of BIOS are:
(a) Device Drives
Devices that act as a liaison between computer hardware and operating system
is called device drives. They connect the components with operating system
and make them working efficiently. General components they need drives are
mouse, keyboard, video card, sound card, Ethernet, wireless card, card readers,
card slots. Few of the device drivers are by default in the operating system.
They get downloaded as default derivers automatically whenever related
device is installed it he system

(b) BIOS Shadowing

BIOS chips are extremely slow speed devices. BIOS used ROM so that data must
be maintained by the power is off. Due to proximity of slow access time the
permanent storage chips are not accepted. To accelerate the access time of
BIOS ROM a process in the name of BIOS shadowing is used. BIOS shadowing is
process to the copy the content of ROM into RAM memory which helps in
improving the speed of the system. This setting is generally enabled in ROM.

(c) Direct Control

This give control of the application directly to the hardware which increase the
system performance. BIOS ensure that hardware components are compatible
with the operating system and application software with all versions.

(d) BIOS BUGS

BIOS bugs are the accidental errors or omissions in BIOS codes. When BIOS is
manufactured, it is duplicated into number of copies and mother manufacture
purchase it unknowingly. If there is any bug in the BIOS, it locked the system
or crash the motherboard or certain other operations. It is easy to switch-off
if bug is present in any application, but can’t switch off computer if bug is in the
BIOS. Motherboard need to change in case of the bug.
Error message of POST
When system start it undergoes POST (Power-On-Self-test) which conduct a numbers
of test and check the availability of number of peripherals and ensure they are
working correctly. If any error POST generates error message of two types – Beep
Codes and POST Codes.
(a) Beep Codes
 Beep Coded are generated during the POST process as the first step of
general process of checking which is called initial program loading, booting,
boot strapping.
 Deep Beep in the system after POST process indicated that problem has
been encountered which is not displayed in the monitor. These beep codes
are generated through speakers after execution of video system.
(b) POST Codes
Post code is a single byte hexadecimal character output by the BIOS change
rapidly during a normal start up process after reaching at different milestones
during the process of POST. These codes give vital clues about that was gone
wrong when your system does not boot and did not get any beep code of
onscreen error message. These codes can be monitored by using POST cards
into either ISA or PCI expansions slots.
By comparing beep code or POST code with the corresponding meaning in BIOS,
issue can be determined and rectified.

UNIT 7 - POWER SUPPLY AND POWER MANAGEMENT

Power Wastage
Power wastage in a regulator can be reduced by supplying the enough energy
need to the regulator. This achieves and maintain a stable output which
increase the efficiency of the power supply and excess of input energy
circulated to a feedback loop.

Feedback loop
Feedback loop is a path that leads to the initial generator point of the feedback
signal to the subsequent modification of that event. Feedback signal maintains
a check on the output voltage provided to the load and turn the AC witch on or
off as per requirements and maintain the normal level of the output without
creating much heat which prevent loss of energy in the form of heat.

Duty Cycle
Duty cycle is the amount of time that a signal is “on (active or logic 1)”. Duty
cycle is a fraction of time refers to how long a system can keep operating before
it needs a rest. One switching on power supply, transistor is turned on and off
at high frequency and long duty time.

The adjustment to the duty cycle is done continuously with the help of
switching circuits, which acts as a chopper and breaks the pulsating DC into
chopped DC and forms a signal for a step-down transformer which leads duty
cycle to affect the AC voltage.

Advantage of switching power circuit

 Switching transistor draw current in the primary circuit, chance of power
wastage is very less.
 The secondary circuit provide enough power to keep the load voltage
regulated. This secondary rectifier, filer and switching circuits minimise the
power wastage.
 Get higher efficiency than linear supply.
 Components are small in size and packed tightly.
Disadvantage of Switching power circuit
 It acts a radio transmitters and can cause problem in radio and television
reception.
 The shield on the switching circuit need to be replaced every time when
ever power supply is repaired.
 Strong electromagnetic spectrum can easily disturb the working of the
logic circuit.
 Output voltage will be with high frequency ripple.
 Troubleshooting is very difficult as it has so many components.

Potential Power Problem & Recognize the power supply

Power supply is the lifeblood of the PC so identify the basic power problems
and upgradation of the power supply is very important. There is some general
problem indicator by which problem can be recognized.
(1)The Computer Freezes midway of the system working
 In general computer can become stable with any problem with application
or configuration fault. Power supply can also be suspected if computer
freezes for server times in an hour or in day.
(2)Random Memory Error
Memory errors always does not indicate power supply error. However, if
the see memory error message or face trouble after upgrading the device
driver it can be power problem. It can happen when system is placed in new
place.
(3)Hard Drive Data is lost or corrupted
It can be due to lose data cable, or may be OS error. If have any problem in
drive reading or writing, check power supply before taking disk backup and
do any disk diagnostic.
(4)Trouble in communicating with modems or peripherals
While using mouse or modem the chances of communication error like
modem driver missing, mouse not connected etc. First, check for the
connection and make sure are configured properly. If system is ready and
working problem may have problem midway or difficulty may occur while
working with a printer which may be due to power problems.
(5)Hardware Failure
The Problem of this type of problem is recurrence. Suppose, there was
memory problem and it was rectified by replacing it. After few day same
problem appears again. It may be due to some spikes in the power supply
AC line. Power problem may cause all system o crash even the real problem
might not be apparent. It can damage one or more chips on the
motherboard, expansion boards, drives.
Dealing with Power Problems
Check for AC: Oscilloscopes is a device which is used to measure and view the
voltage, we are very expensive of measure smaller Hz of memory, alternative ways
to check the test the Voltage Supply:
 Use multi-meter to measure the output, check the obstructs in the circuit
in case of low voltage supply
 Devices like air cooler consumes high voltage. Check if any such device is
connected with the same line. Switch off them and start the computer and
make sure computer is turned off, if want to use these devices again.
 If not devices connected, check for line for the outlet and try to get one
direct line with proper grounding for the PC .
  If all the above terms are satisfied and still PC is Power problem still exist,
this will be problem with power supply only.
Suspect the supply: If problem in power supply is suspected, it may be in the
hardware. Check voltage at each supply using multi-meter. Make sure good quality
protector are used, also check on another AC line to avoid spikes.
The correct voltage is between +12 Vdc and +5 Vdc. Low voltage will be indication
of attachment of other devices with the same line and system is overloaded, if any
new device is attached try to remove that it may be due to device upgradation.

Upgradation in Power Supply

A new computer is checked for CPU Speed, Memory Capacity, motherboard
configuration etc. Power supply is not considered much but as power supply is
termed as “blood” of the system, it is important to make sure that power supply
provided to components like hard drive, CD ROM, Internet Modem etc. is in proper
way. There two major point to be considered while selecting power supply:
1) Power capacity of the new supply
Power capacity of supply is the maximum amount of power suppled safely to a
load, which is measured in Watt. Proper power rating for an upgraded supply
is calculated by adding additional 50W to original Power Supply. For example,
upgrading an IBM AT supply the actual power supply would be 192W and next
rating is taken as 242 W.
2) Physical Dimensions:
 The physical dimensions of the power supply should be in such a shape
that it fit into the space available for power supply.
 Mounting hold should be aligned with the original supply and fix properly.
 Power supply must be compatible with motherboard
 Power supply have correct connector for the motherboard
Power management in Windows OS.
Power management is an important component of the system performance which
help directly in power supply efficiently to other parts of the components. It can be
achieved by reducing power demand of idle computer. System can be turned to
sleep mode or power saving mode. Operating system is supposed to support the
controls for selecting the power management schemes.
Power Saving modes in Window OS is of three type:
1) Basic Conversation
In basic conversation mode, the monitor automatically goto the sleep mode, if
system is idle for more than specified time while the rest of the system is
running. This saves energy to be consumed by monitor.
2) Standby
When system in not used for some time but would like to use system after some
fix time, system can be turned to standby mode. It turns off monitor and hard
drives. To start the work again switch on the system and it will resume the
same state quickly from the last point where it was left. It saves battery power,
especially in Laptops.
3) Hibernation
If system is idle for longer period may in for more than one day, it automatically
switches off by turning off hard drive and monitor first and then shutting down
the system.
Switching Power Supply - Troubleshoot
There are numerous problems in power supply and it is very difficult to repair/ rectify
them even there is no technical trouble shoot. Power supply issue may avoid to some
extent by using some useful tips like:
1. Heat is generally released form battery and power supply device, make
sure that are cooled properly. Clean Fan blades regularly and make sure
ventilators are open.
2. AC line voltage switch should be set correctly for the connected region.
3. Power supply of motherboard and hard drive should be in secure manner
4. Do not use Y adapter, it spilt power supply in two devices from one power
cord. Use of Y adapter with hard disk can be dangerous.
5. Output voltage must be under control and does not vary more than 5%.
6. When a new device is added, chance of overloading and possibility of
errors occurring, in that case remove the device and test the power supply. It
power supply is working properly, upgrade the power supply, which is required
to run the new device and after that reinstall the device.
Power Management
Power management components are used to direct the power supply in controller
manner. System use less power in idle state. But due to BIOS incompatibilities buggy
drivers and noncompliant hardware devise created negligible issues that may result
in power management problems. Which can be rectified by checking that part of the
system. A general way to start computer in such case is as follow:
1. Start computer in safe mode
2. Open Control Panel (Start -> setting -> control panel)
3. Double-click the system icon
4. Click the device manger tab
5. Look for resources tab and clear Use Automatic setting check box and click
interrupt Request.
6. In the resource type column, click change setting
7. Give the value in the value box
8. Choose the control panel and reboot the system in normal mode.

UNIT 8: Storage Devices

Hard Drives are the machines that read and writes the data in the respective disks.
Disc drives makes the disk to rotate and had head which reads or writes the data
onto the disk.
The Hard Drive construction
Hard drive is also known as hard disk drive or fixed disk drive. It is the main and
largest storage device in the computer and usually referred as C: drive. This contains
all the important programs and applications of the computers. Hard drive is non-
volatile memory, random access device for electronic data in the computer. In hard
drive data is stored in long, thin tap which is coated with some magnetic material on
its surface.
Data from Hard disk is read/write from the rotating discs with the help of read/write
heads of hard drive. Hard disc is consisting of different parts which do the different
function.
(a) Platter
Platters are of rough and solid substrate made of aluminium. Platters are
circular in shape and coated with magnetic substance from both sides to read/
write data. Plater are attached with two more heads to read/write data into
disc. Platter move in one common axis and heads move on radius of platter
and read data of all parts of the surface.
 The information of each division of platter is formed to represent a specific
location. This forms a design of set of concentric circle which is used to record
the data. These concentric circle on platter is called track which are further
divided into sections. Head of both side surface always remains on the both
side of respective track. All the tracks together called as cylinder and sometime
track and cylinder are used interchangeably.
Platter contains thousands of tracks which further divided into smaller segment
known as sector. Each sector holds a 512 bytes of data which include error checking
and housekeeping data, which is used to identify the sector, track and CRC Result
(Cyclic Redundancy Check). Hard disc is manufactured in high priority due to
extreme smaller versions of the components.

CRC Result (Cyclic Redundancy Check) is a function which is designed to detect the
change in data which occur accidently. It is also known as polynomial code
checksum.

Data Density Characteristics

To get maximum amount of capacity in terms of megabytes per square inch (MBSI)
from areal density of the media, factors that affect the areal density should be taken
care. Some of the factors are:
(a) The size of magnetic particle is a barrier to areal density. If coercivity of
the hard disc is large and tighter magnetization field with smaller read/write
head, area density will be higher.
(b) Read/write head should be closer to the hard drive the areal density will
be more. Density will automatically reduce when read/write head move
away from the media.
(c) Surface should be smooth which can allow read/write head to fly closer
to media.

Latency and Seek

Latency is the time delay that exist between the moment when read/write command
is initiated over the physical interface of the drive and the moment where the desired
information is placed. Time taken to pass the required bytes under a read/ write
head is also referred as latency. If read/write head miss the required location, it need
to wait for the next rotation which will increase the latency time.
Time taken to step the read/write head between another delay added by the track
to the hard drive performance is referred as Seek. These seek time listing is -Track-
to-track seek, full stroke seek and average seek.
 Track-to-Track Seek- It is the time required to step between two adjacent
tracks on the platter.
 Full Stroke Seek – Time required to step from inner most to the outer
most tracks. It will be the longest time required.
 Average Seek - Half time of Full Stroke seek is referred as average seek.
To load and save files seek and latency works together. When a file is loaded a certain
duration of seek time is taken to locate the track which contains starting of the file.
Latency will be there as platter is rotating around the sector.
Major Parts of Hard Disk
Major parts of hard disk are Frame, platters, read/write head, head actuators,
spindle motor and Drive electronic package
(1) Frame
It is the main part of the hard disk and also referred as Chassis. It affects the
structural thermal and electrical integrity of the drive. Frame should be strong
and provide steady platform so that all the components of hard drive can be
mounted. Longer drives chassis is made of aluminium and smaller drive chassis
is made of plastic.
(2) Read/Write Head
Read/write create an interface between the electronic circuitry and magnetic
media of the hard drive. Write head translate electronic signals into magnetic
flux transitions during writing and saturate point on the media when the
transition takes place. The read works almost in reserves direction, where flux
transitions bring electrical signals in the head that are amplified, filters and
translated into respective logic signals.

(3) Head Actuators

Head drive use voice coil motors as referred as rotary cold motors to actuate
head moment. A permanent magnet is enclosed within to opposing coil where
 voice coil motor work using principle of analog meter moments. When current
flow in the coil, it generate magnetic field and oppose the permanent magnet,
to cause a deflection which is directly proportional to the amount of driving
current, a force of opposition is maintained by attaching the head arms to the
rotating magnet. The greater opposition and deflection is obtained by
increasing current signals. Cylinder is used to increment the servo signal and
maintain the signal in the desired level. Voice coil motor is very small in size
and light assemblies that are well suited to fast access time and small hard drive
assemblies. The process of track following is called serving the heads.

(4) Spindle Motor

Drives performance is considered on the basic of the speed at which the media
passes under the read/write head. Media pass under the read/write head by
spinning the platter at a high rate speed. The spindle motor is brushless, low
profile Direct Current Motor which makes platter to spin. Index Censor
provides feedback signal which detects the spindle on its rotation. These index
signal is used by control electronic of the drive to regulate spindle speed as
accurately as possible.

(5) Drive Electronic Package

Circuitry of the hard drive is very sophisticated. Drive has one electronic board
which contains all the necessary circuitry to communicate data and control
signals with the particular physical interface, read/write heads and spinning the
platter.

Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE Drive Standards)

Integrated drive electronic (IDE) is a stand electronic interface used between a
computer bus and the storage device where the controller is intergrade in the disk
or CD-ROM drive. It is also referred as “intelligent Drive Electronics’.
Binary Megabytes Vs Decimal Megabytes
Computer used electronic signals where data is converted in binary digits i.e. in the
form of 0 and 1. Which means all the data, address, programs, calculations will be in
the form of binary numbers. These binary numbers are measured in bits.
1 bytes= 8 bits
1 kilobytes = 210 = 1024 bytes
1 Megabytes = 220 = 1, 04, 8576 bytes
1 Gigabytes = 230 = 1,073, 741, 824 bytes
IDE/ ATA
ATA stand for advance technology attachment. Typically, IDE and ATA are same and
both are designed to interface the controller to the hard drive mechanism which
avoid relaying on standalone computer boards, reduce interface cost and make drive
easier for firmware implementation. IDE/ ATA is used to be same but ATA is defined
the drive and its operation where IDE is the trade mark which refer to the 40-pin
interface and drive controller technology which is designed to implement the ATA
standard
IDE/ATA stand defines the following features and transfer mode
1. The two devices that are configured as master and slave shares a single
channel that call by a specification.
2. It supports PIO (Programmed Input/Out) mode 0,1 and 2 which are used
to transfer data between the CPU and peripheral such as network adapter.
Mode 0 ->Takes longer time in transferring the data, and transfer rate increase
with decrease in time taken by the modes.
3. It includes supports for single word DMA modes 0,1 and 2 and multi word
DMA mode 0. After single word mode PIO mode is not much used.
IDE/ ATA does not support enhancement for non-hard disk IDE/ATA devices, block
mode transfers or any other advance features.
Data transfer mode:
Data transfer mode is measured in two types:
a) The Internal Data Transfer – The rate to take data from platters
b) The External Data Transfer – The rate of transfer of data between the
drive and the controller.
DMA data transfer mode means the data is transferred directly between the drive
and the memory without using CPU as an intermediary whereas while PIO data
transfer used CPU between the drive and the memory.
Drive Caching
Hard disk contains an integrated cache which acts as a buffer between a fast device
and a slow device. It is also termed as buffer. These are used to improve the
performance of hard drive by reducing the number of physical access to the disk.

Troubleshooting in hard disk/ hard drive

Hard drives problems should be resolved on priority basis as loss of hard disk means
loss in program and data. Many drive problems are recoverable without replacing
the drive.
a) Be Careful for power and static discharge.
Make sure PC power is turned off before making any change in any component
of motherboard like changing the jumper, removing the cards, unplug the
cables. Use antistatic wrist strap while working on computer or handing drive.
b) Verify Compatibly
Drive controller and drive should match to each other.
c) Check All Cards
Be careful with placing expansion cards, all cards must be placed in respective
slots in motherboard and mounted with screws tightly.
d) Check all connections and cables
Make sure all the power cables and ribbons are connected securely. Ribbon
cable can get damaged at the connectors and replace them in new cable. Check
connector pins and make sure are not bend or broken. Pin one on the interface
cable is properly aligned with pine one on the drive and controller.
e) Verify driver jumper setting
All the requirements jumpers should be installed and make sure there is no
duplicate or incorrect jumper.
f) Check your power supply capacity
Power supply must be in proper way and sufficient for the system requirement.
If any new device is installed in system, make sure it gets sufficient power
supply.
g) Verify the drive setting in CMOS setup
Drivers setting in the CMOS should be same a limitation set by the operating
system and the BIOS.
 h) Check for virus
Anti-virus should regularly check the system for viruses. All new connected
components should be first checked for virus. Make sure antivirus is getting
updates on regular basis.

CD ROM DRIVE
Basic of CD ROM
Compact Disc, read only Memory, is an adaptation of the CD which is design to store
data inform for text, graphics, sound and video. Due to advance digital approach its
excellent sound quality remains always same even when played again and again. As
name suggest, CD ROM only can only read data. It is popular for its low cost, good
reliability and broad media compatibility.
CD Media
CD’s are made by stamping the pattern of pits and lands onto a molded
polycarbonate dis which is also known as substrate. It is covered with silver coating
to reflect the last light. A touch scratch resistant is coated on disc after silvering.
Finished disc is labelled with silk screen which is a printing technique where artwork
is converted onto films to create a fine mesh screens.
CD Data
CD’s data are recorded as a single continuous spiral track ruing form the spindle area.
The inside dot lines show the relationship between the pits and lands. CD use a high
focused laser beam and laser detector to sense a presence or absence of pits. When
laser lights strike the land it reflects that light towards detector which produces a
very strong output signal. When the laser light strikes a pit the light is slightly out of
focus.
EFM BASICS
EFM stand for Eight to Fourteen Modulations which is a complex decoding process
that convert sequences of the pits and land into meaningful binary information. EFM
is used by CD to obtain the ability of placing a large number of bits into a limited
number of flux transitions, user data, error correcting information, address
information and synchronization patterns are obtained in the form of bit stream
which is represented by pit and land. Flux transition is the bits encoded by magnetic
media and it is not he discreet orientation of any magnetic area. The EFM encoding
technique equates each byte (8 bytes) with a fourteen-bit sequence which is called a
symbol where each binary 1 must be separated by at least two binary 0’s.
Data Storage
A CD-ROM contains twenty-four synchronization bits, fourteen control bits, twenty-
four data symbols and eight complete error correction symbol.
Three merged additional bit separate each symbol by bringing the total number of
bit in the frame to 588.
588 bit on the CD-ROM represent 24 bytes of data which is expressed as number of
pit and land.
Each data block has ninety-eight frames, so each block carries 98 x 24 = 2048 bytes.
The data delivered by the basic CD-ROM to its host computer is equal to 15.6 KB (75
blocks)

The Life of CD ROM is affected by its physical storage and handling. Exclusive dust
and finger print interface with the laser beam can cause disc read error. In case there
is need to clean the surface of disc, clear it with dry soft linen cloth. CD ROM can be
taken care by
(a) Avoid Bending the disc
(b) Never Heat the Disc
(c) Avoid scratching the disc
(d) Key away from the chemicals
(e) Store the disc in a cradle during storage or travel
CD ROM Constructions
All the CD ROM drivers must be able to accept the standard size disc from all varieties
of surfaces. The drive spin the disc at the constant linear velocity, which is a qualifier
for the rates speed of an optical disc drive and the writing speed of recordable disc.
Disc speed varies inversely with the tracking radius. When the tracking comes almost
near the disc edge the disc edge speed slow down and speed increate when it went
away from the disc edge.
CD ROM Working
CD ROM has single structure for mounting the mechanical and electronic
components of the drive. The Frame is attached with the lid, front bezel, eject
button, volume control button, fix slot for CD insertion and removal. The drive
control, interfacing, head phone handled by electronic package of the disc drive
which are further divided into several PC board assemblies. Actual physical
performance of the drive is done by the main CD Sub assembly. Spindle motor
frame is used to spin the disk and read disc data. Sub frame mounted with a spindle
motor and connected to a spindle mother PC board. The drive main PC board
manage the operations to position the sled motor.
CD ROM Electronics
CD ROM electronic package is divided in to two areas: The Controller Section and The
Drive Section.
 The Controller Section
It makes the connection of the peripheral interface to the drive controller
board
 The Drive Section
It manages the physical operations of the CD ROM such load or unload, spin
the disc, move the sled, Data Decoding, Error Correction, drive circuitry
converts analog output form the laser diodes into a EFM signal.
CD ROM Software
A low level device driver allows program to access the CD-ROM at the hardware level.
If device is changed or upgraded the driver should also be changed or upgraded.
TROUBLESHOOING OF CD ROM
CD-ROM installation is very easy but the problem may be with compatibility issue,
poor media quality, outdated drivers, conflicting software applets and operation
system versions.
 Changing the Driver Letter
CD Drive letter is by default assigned by the system operating system during
the start time, which will be default letter for the drive. This default assigned
drive letter can be changed from setting in the control panel using these
steps
1. Click Start -> Setting -> Control Panel
2. System Icon (double click) -> Device Manger -> setting tab
 3. Go to Reserve Drive Letter section -> change the start drive letter
and End drive letter of choice.
4. Click ok button and return to control panel
5. Close all the running programs and restart the system
Check the computer the changes must have done.
 Auto Insert Notification (AIN)
Auto Insert Notification (AIN) feature of the CD ROM start, which
automatically identify the Disc and set ready when the disk in inserted. To
confirm the disk is ready, CD Drive blinks for every few seconds, even this is
no read/write operation. This AIN have not effect in the system, but some
time it can damage some sensitive programs. It can be disable by:
1. Click Start-> setting -> control panel
2. Device Manager (Double Click) -> CD-ROM (Double click) -> Double
click the CD Drive letter
3. Setting Tab -> Look for Auto Insert Notification and clear its check-
box.
4. Click close button and Restart the computer to check the change.

 CD Drive Performance
CD drive some time not respond properly, when can be happen is cache size
is not configured properly. Follow these steps to optimize the CD-Drive
setting
1. Click Start -> Setting -> control panel
2. Double click system ICON
3. On the performance tab, click file system
4. Click CD-ROM Tab
5. Set the supplement cache size slider to right to allocate more system
RAM for caching data from the CD Drive.
6. Click – OK, Close. Restart the computer when prompted.
DVD DRIVE
DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) is a high density storage media which is low widely used
in the computers. It can hold program, data, audio and video. Its storage capacity
is upto 17 GB.
Access Time: Time Required by drive to locate the required information on the disk
is called access time. DVD drives are very slow can take up to hundreds of
milliseconds (mS) to access the information
Data Transfer rate
Time taken to read the data form the disc is called data transfer rate. After data is
accessed from external disk, it transferred to the disk of the system. Data transfer
rate is measured in two ways
1) Speed at which the data is read into the on board buffer of the drive
2) Speed at which the data is transferred across the interface in the drive
controller
DVD Media
Data is recorded in spiral pattern as a series of pits and lands into a plastic substrate.
There are few key different which makes DVD superior to CD
a) Data is very concentrate din the DVD:
DVD tracks are 0.74 um CD tracks are 1.6 um. To locate smaller geometries
DVD sued very short wavelength laser light
b) DVD forms multiple layers of pits and lands to accommodate more data.
c) DVD use only one side data at time which is up to 8.5 GB for one side disk,
so DVD can store 17 GB data in double sided double layer disk.
DVD life can be increased by:
a. Do not bend the disk
b. Do not head the disk, it is made of plastic material
c. Avoid scratch. Circular scratch can entirely wipe the data from the DVD
d. Avoid using chemicals to clean the disc.
e. Wipe disc, if necessary with, soft clothes
DVD Drive and Decoder
DVD drive a motorized disk tray which is used to insert and remove the DVD disc. It
has load/ unload button the drive to open and close the tray. It shows a light blinking
when the data is being read from the disk. This blinking lights is termed as busy
indicator. At front panel it has volume controller to adjust the volume and
headphone jack to listen the music/ sound.
It uses 4 pin power connector. The signal connector may be SCSI which directly
connect to driver adapter. There are two output connectors. One is 4 pin connector
that attach to the sound board and other pin supplies sound to a digital recording
system.
THE MPEG-2 Decoder
MPEG-2 is a hardware based decoder card which is added in the PCI Slot and
connected directly to the monitor. Decoded audio from movie is passed from the
decoder card to the sound card using CD audio connection. Decoding can be done
by using hardware components as well as software applications. Software decoding
is simpler than hardware decoding. There are five major connections on the MPEG-
2 Decoder card:
1. Analog input Jack
Used to Mixing in an auxiliary audio signal to the decoder card
2. Analog Output Jack
Provides the master audio signal that is fed to the line input of existing sound
card
3. Digital Output Jack
Used to drive an external digital device
4. Monitor Connector
Drive the Video Graphic Adapter (VGA) through monitor connector
5. Video input Connector
Video input is put to the decoder card, so that while decoder card is idle the
video signal is passed through the MPEG-2 Card to the monitor.
DVD Troubleshooting
To set DVD configuration to default state during installation or correcting the
problem in DVD-ROM use these points:
a. Video Configuration
Set the display to 640 x 480 using 16-bit colour and monitor to standard VGA
b. DVD Drivers
Update the drivers regularly to provide better hardware compatibility.
c. Video Drivers
Update video drives regularly for better video performance and compatibility.
BLUE RAY DISK DRIVE
Blue Ray disk (BD) is an advance version of DVD, is made of smaller pits and lands. It
used blue-violet laser light to read/write data from the disk. One single layer BD can
store almost 25 billion bytes (more than five time the DVD capacity) and double layer
BD can store almost 50 billion bytes. To achieve higher density 0.1 mm (milli-meter)
cover layer is used in BD to move the data closer to the lens. The technology used in
the BD is HDMV (High Definition Movie) which provide functionality of high definition
graphics planes, animated and popup menu buttons and sound effects for the
selection of menu buttons.
Physical Media:
Pulse compensator convert the analog pulse into multiple pulse or waves. By
adjusting the leading edge of the first pulse and the trailing edge of the cooling pulse
of the multi-pulse signal, can control the accumulation amount in accordance with
the mark length, which enable the Mark edge position exactly. Pulse waveform
modulated is sent to a laser drive circuit which modulates the power of the laser
beam to record Mark/Space data on a Blue-Ray Disc. To play back recorded data,
Equalizer produce singla to the Phase Locked Loop to convert to digital signal and
passed to a PRML channel to correct the initial bit error and output is signal to the
subsequent digital signal processing circuit The output of the write pulse
compensator goes through laser drive and optical pick up.
The standard disk size of DVD is 12 cm in size.

Type of Blu-ray Disc.

Based on disc storage capacity the Blu-Ray disk are divided into different types as:
a. Mini Blu-Ray Disk
This is mini disk with a physical size of 8 cm. Single layer blu-disk has storage
capacity up to 7.8 GB and Dual layer disk have storage capacity of 15.6 GB. This
is designed for compact recording device lice compact camcorders.
b. Blu-ray disk recordable
This is two type of optical disk format used with an optical disk records. Its
comes in two types (1) BD-R - data is written only once
(2) BD –RE - can be re-used by erasing the existing data and record new day for
multiple times
 c. BD9 & BD 5
These are less in price in price in comparison to BD Disks. It uses same code
and instruction patters as Blu-ray-disk. BD 5 have capacity of 4.7 Gb in single
layer.

d. Later Multi-layered Recordable disk in BDAV format

Blu-ray disk audio/video format support audio and video with a speed of 2X (72
Mbps and 4X (144 Mbps) and have storage capacity of up to 100 /128 G. This is
disk use two optical disc formats that can be recorded with an optical disc
records. BD-R disc can be written only once whiles BD-RE can be rewritten.
BD-RE is supposed best option for backup also
Software Standard of Blu Ray Disk
File format used in Blu-ray-disk is UDF (Universal Disk Format) and is compatible with
electronic device like TV, Music Player. Application used for BD is BDAV for recording
the digital broadcasting. Its audio/video application is very much user friendly and
can be easily used in audio/video recording.
Directory and File structure
Its main directory is DBMV which contain all the files including audio, video and other
streaming in DBAV format such as MPEG. Sub folders must present in the directory
are:
(a) Backup
It stores a copies of “index.bdmv” file, movieobject.bdmv”, all the files in
playlists directory and all files in the CLIPINF directory
(b) Index.BDM
Information of contents of BDMV directory is stored in this file. One BDMV
directory has only one index.bdm file.
(c) Movieobj.BDM
The information of all movies object is stored in this file. One BDMV directory
has only one movieobj.bdm file
(d) Playlist
Movie playlist are stored in the database files. All the files are stored with “.
MPLS” extension.
(e) Clipinfo
 Contains the database files of clips. Clip files have extension “.CLIP”. These files
contain the information of audio/video clip steam file.
(f) Stream
Steam files are stored in this directory with an extension “.M2TS” which
support MPEG 2 transport stream. This store BDAV and MPEG 2 files. File name
is name made up of 5 digits number associated with the audio/video stream
files and its CLIP information file.
Troubleshooting Blu ray drives
1. No Power on the Blu-ray-drives
Check for the power supply and check outlet by plugging any other device
like lamp etc.
2. No Picture from the Blu-ray Drives
If power supply is okay and there is no picture check power cable of the
output device and make sure correct output cable are arrange and used.
3. Some disk is not playing on the drive
If disk is not playing on the drive, remove the disk and clean for the dirt and
place back the disk in drive in proper director. Always use original disk and
appropriate disk format which the drive can support.

Flash memory drive

External storage device used to read and write the flash memory is called Flash
Memory Drive. It is also known as USB Flash Drive or Thumb drive or Pen Drive. This
device is less expensive, very reliable and durable source of external storage media.
Essential Components of Flash Drive
Flash Drive consist of four parts
1. Male Type –A USB connector
Male Type – A USB connector provides a physical interface to the host
computer. This connect to the flash drive to any computer available in the
computer world.
2. USB mass storage controller
USB mass storage controller contains a small microcontroller along with a small
amount of on-chip ROM and RAM
3. NAND Flash memory chip
 It is a non-volatile data storage device that required no power to retain the
stored data. These are used in the digital cameras, memory cards, USB Flash
drives etc.
4. Crystal Oscillator
A crystal oscillator is an electric oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical
quality of a vibrating crystal of electric material to create a electrical signal with
a very precise frequency.
5. LEDs
These are small lights that indicate the data transfer. Its components are
jumpers, write protect switches and USB Connector cover or cap.
Troubleshooting
USB flash drives are wonderful tools to store massive data into small portable device
and extremely easy to use and carry. General issued faced with this device are:
1. Make sure flash drives are active as it is plugged in the USB Port. It if is
not turned on as soon as plugged in means either it is not plugged in properly
or the device is damaged.
2. Make sure system have correct and necessary device drivers and installed
properly. Must check with the manufacturer that the correct driver is installed
if require and available download from the manufacturer’s website to make
sure you get original and complete drivers.
3. Make sure the drive, we are selecting in the system is correct.
4. If Flash drive not working in one system try to use in other, it may be issue
with file system or use port of the system is not properly working
5. If it is clear that flash drive is damaged and can’t be repaired. Before
discarding it, try to consult with any professional so that at least data in the
drive can be retrieved.

Unit 9 Parallel Port

Parallel Port
Port is a hardware that support the communication between one computer to other
computer and other peripheral devices.
Parallel Port
Parallel port is a device that is used to connect and communicate between computer
and various peripherals. In parallel port control signals are not used, data send from
the computer is decoded by circuit for collection and transfer entire data directly to
the printer.
Parallel port interface is one of the simplest circuit in the PC, it is consisting of three
registers:
1. The Data Register
Data register of parallel port provides register to read and write data making it
a bidirectional port. It is loaded into the system by passing a value in it to access
the printer.
2. The Control Register
Bidirectional control register is used to set condition for the CPU so that a new
character can be requested and manage the behaviour of the port.
3. The status register
The status register is used to determine the status of the printer

To check the active register address bits are A0 to A9 decoded. –I/OR and -I/OW lines
are used to determine whether the signals on the data bus are being read from or
written to the specific register. Handshaking signals are bidirectional protocols that
are used to acknowledge to sender that data is received. These signal trigger the
interrupt to request a new character. Conventional parallel port is implemented in
a series of three registers. One register is used to buffet the 8 bits’ data; other two
registers handle the handshaking signals of the port by using base address of each
port with an offset value of 01h (Identifier 2) while the control register is accessed
with an offset value of 02 (identifier 3)
Signals and Time Diagram
Signal is any time varying quantity which is generated to produce the interrupt. All
signals in the parallel port is compatible with conventional signal levels. D-Sub
miniature is an electrical connector used commonly in computers. In D-type
connector D is a prefix for the whole series that denotes the shell size as A=15 pin,
B=25 pin, C=37 pin, D=50 pin , E=9 Pin followed by actual number of pins followed by
the gender. In printer device the parallel connection uses 36-pin connector which is
also known as Centronics type connector.
Centronics mode is a conventional method of transferring data to the printer where
handshaking mechanism is not used. The data send by the sub miniature D-type
connector is to responded by Centronics connector at earliest as data can’t reside in
the connector for long time.
Signals are of three type –
(a) Data Signals
Data signals are the signals that carry information from the parallel port to or
from the printer or other devices. There are eight data lines (D0 to D7) These
lines are located from 2 to 9 Pin.
(b) Handshaking signals
Handshaking signals are bidirectional protocols used between sender and
receiver to acknowledge to the sender that the data has been received.
(c) Ground signals
Ground signals are used to reduce the noise effects of the signals. These signals
also provide common electrical reference between the computer and
peripheral.
Initialize signal (-INI) is initialized to ensure that the printer is start, if it is active
low, the computer will apply logic 0 to initiate the start of the printer. The
Select signal (SEL) is used to inform he computer that the component is ready
to receive the data. It is active high, logic 1 indicates that the printer is online
and ready. Pin 1 and 0 is used by Ground signals.

 To check whether printer is ready or not parallel port signal 0 Strobe

Signal (-STR) is used.
 It accepts the data from the peripheral and store it on the printer’s
internal buffer for processing. In order to delay the computer from sending the
data until the printer is ready Busy Signal (BSY) is used.
 When strobe signal is received by the peripheral, it drives the busy signal
to logic 1 and remain same unit the printer is ready for next byte.
 Busy signals indeterminately delay the computer when the peripheral
error occurs like – Paper jam, paper is exhausted or ribbon is jam.
 It remains at logic 1 for a long period. Active low signal, acknowledge
signal are sent to computer from printer when it is ready to receive another
character.
Parallel Port Operation.
To start printing using Parallel port signal status should be as:
Busy Signal – Logic 0
Strobe signal – Logic 1
Acknowledge signal – Logic 1.
Once the printing is initiated, it checks the status of printer setting and LPT port (Line
printer terminal) of CPU parallel port interface. When printer status shows ready, a
byte of data is written to the data register and passed to the peripheral.
Data valid for 0.5 uS(microsecond) before strobe signal is set to logic 0.
Printer responds with busy signal by returning logic 1, and the status of the port.
Strobe pulse lasts for in 1.0 uS. Data held for at least 0.5 uS once the strobe signal is
passed.
After data byte processed by printer busy signal set to logic 0, acknowledge signal
with logic 1 sent to computer indicating that it is ready to receive new data.
In mode of printing, when the printer line receives a character for printing request,
the character bits are put in data line. Busy signal is tested repeatedly until it is found
to be low, then the strobe signal is send. Printer set busy signals high when the
character data have been latched and set it to low again when the character has been
processed. New data request was processed when busy signal is low and the
acknowledge signal is set to high.
When paper struck or papers not detected by printer, error signal indicating the
paper out by selecting the paper out signal high and remain high until the same is
rectified.
Advanced Parallel port
Parallel port has evolved to improved modes which are of different types like
unidirectional port, Type 1 Bidirectional, Type 3 bidirectional port.
(a) Unidirectional Port
This port is used to send data from the PC to the printer device. This port was enough
for general purpose of communication of computer.
 (b) Type 1 Bidirectional Port
This port is used to send data received data from computer to printer and vice-
versa. It is a slow port, but useful as it sends back data to the PC, which make
the se of the parallel port to connect to other peripherals besides printers.
(c) Type 3 bidirectional port
This port increases the throughput of the parallel port by using Direct Memory
Access(DMA) techniques. This approach allowed CPU to define a block of
memory to be send
IEEE 1284 MODES
IEEE 1284 is a standard set by IEEE and NPA for connecting a computer to peripheral
devices over a parallel physical and electrical interface. It allows data flow in one
direction as well as bidirectional. It specifies 5 standard data transfer mode each of
them specifying the data transfer from printer to computer, computer to printer or
bidirectional. These five modes are:
(1) Compatibility Mode
Compatibility mode is the basic protocol used in the computer to transfer data
from computer to printer. It is also known as Centronics mode and designed to
serve the dot matrix and older laser printers. In this mode data is kept in the
data signals and status is checked for errors and busy signals. When the strobe
signal is initiated to send the data to printer.

Data rate speed is:

- upto 150 bytes/second at 6 meter or 20 ft. with an AB cable
- upto 50 kbps at 10 meter or 32.8 ft with a CC Cable.
This mode is not compatible in communicating with LAN adapters, removable
disc drivers and new generation laser printers.
(2) Nibble Mode
In combination with compatibility mode this mode created bidirectional data
transfer line. It can send 2 nibble data (1 nibble =4 bits) from computer to
printer in two transfer cycle. Nibble mode is best suitable for printers and can
operate on all PCs with parallel port. It supports bidirectional data transfer with
printer only and not any other device when used on low bandwidth.
- This mode data transfer rate is 50 kbps at 6 meter or 20 ft with a CC cable
- Data transfer rate upto 500 kbps at 10 meter or 32.8 ft with CC cable.
 (3) Byte Mode
Byte mode disable the drives of the computer which control the data signals so
that data can be sent to printer from computer. Data speed from will be same
as send from the computer to printer. It is capable to send one byte (8bit) od
data transfer. In combination with compatibility mode it can create
bidirectional data transfer line also.

Data rate speed is upto 500 kbps at 10 meter or 32.8ft with CC cables
(4) ECP Mode
Extended Capability Port mode is an advance mode for communication
between printers and scanner which allow data compression for images and
FIFO facility for items in queue. It makes high performance bidirectional path
between computer and the peripheral.

ECP consists of two Features:

a) Run length encoding (RLE) data compression for hosts system’s LPT port.
b) FIFO buffers for both forward and backward channels.
Feature of channel addressing is used for multifunction logical devices within a
single physical device such as printer /fax/ modem devices.
Data rate speed is up to 500 kbps at 1Mbps at 6 meter or 20 ft or 10 meter or
32.8 ft with CC Cables.
(5) EPP Mode
Enhanced Parallel Port was designed to provide a high-performance parallel
interface which can be used with the standard interface. ISA I/O cycle is used
in EPP Mode to transfer data between computer and connected peripheral
devices. It is a bidirectional and suitable for network adapters, data acquisition,
portable hard drives and other devices which require high speed. It uses single
instruction to transfer data from the PC to connected peripheral and vice versa.
EPP protocol provides a high point of link between the peripheral driver and
device.

Data rate speed is in the range of 500 KB to 2MB per on depend on the speed
of the interface.
IEEE Issue
IEEE is supposed to be superb, but there are some points need to consider:
1) Parallel port, cable and peripheral devices like printer, tape drivers, hard
drivers etc. must be IEEE 1284 compatible.
2) Have to use specific printer cable depends upon the printer attached.
Negotiation
Negotiation is a method developed to determine the feature of the peripheral
connected so that computer can choose the mode of standard of connected
peripheral. It is a series of events that exists on the parallel port interface and used
to determine the requirement of type of mode of the device. For older device
compatibility mode is selected for operations as they do not support negotiation
method.

Parallel Port Troubleshooting

It there is any problem in parallel port simplest option is to replace it but before
replacing problem should be detected. South Bridge chip that supports the parallel
port can be replace. Can set the jumpers to disable for faulty parallel port and can
install a multi expansion I/O slot to replace it. Motherboard can be changed, but this
is last option.
Preventing Parallel Port Trouble
There are some common issues that manifest regularly. Following points could be
considered before identifying the problem.
(a) Cable
Cable should be not more than 6ft length. If issue is due to cables only make
sure IEEE 1284 cable are used, try to replace with IEEE 1284 cable, cheap or
damaged cables may create problem.
(b) Port Mode
Make sure port is selected as per the connect peripheral. Parallel ports may not
work properly with ECP or EPP modes. Try to change the mode to compatibility
mode or any standard mode in the CMOS setup. For high end devices setting
should be to ECP or EPP to get full functionality of the port.
(c) Hardware Conflicts
 The LPT (Line print terminal) is designed to operate text printer. If there is more
than one LTP ports in the system, configure the sound boards to use another
IRQ or to remove the sound board entirely. It is a common conflict if the system
uses second LPT port for IRQ5 used for sound boards.
(d) Printer Driver Conflicts
Parallel Port Devices such as lomega Zip Drivers, SyQuest SyJET Driver etc send
special reserved non printable character in the parallel port. These make
signals that the next data is for the drive and not for the printer, this cause
conflicts between drivers and each unit might appear like a defective system.
To overcome from this situation, use one LPT port the parallel printer and
another for parallel port drive.
(e) Printer Monitoring Software
Some printers have status drivers that monitor the printer status. When these
printers are connected to parallel port they disable printer monitoring drive
and also corrupt the data and cause system problem. To overcome this conflict,
disable the status communication which does affect the print.

Configuration of Parallel Port Device under Windows

There are some common issues that arise while configuring the parallel port device
under windows: -
(a) Cabling Problem
Suitable Cables musty be used for parallel port and the device and should be
connected directly to the port. To add any other peripheral other than printer
additional parallel port should be used on computer.
(b) Port Disable
LTP port should be enabled and particular IRQ should be assigned to the port.
If LTP is not enabled change the setting in CMOS setup. IRQ assignment should
be as LPT 1 – IRQ7 and
LTR 2- IRQ 5 which is default IRQ to be used for sound. If sound card is not
used, we can be used for LPT.
(c) Port Configured improperly
Check the parallel port mode to ensure that compatibility mode or standard
mode is set for basic printers and high end printers which may be ECP or EPP
mod to function properly
(d) Disable any status monitor
 Monitoring software on the system status should disable. As it can change the
status of parallel port signals. Windows start up folder needs to be checked
during the boot time. Disable real-mode software.
(e) Wrong Mode set for parallel port device
Make sure printer is plugged in the right parallel port and not to any plug-and-
play mode.
(f) IRQ Conflicts
Check for IRQ conflicts and verify that a particular IRQ allocated to the parallel
port is not used by any other device. IRQ5 is supposed to word with sound
board. If there is no SCSI controller listed then it indicates that a SyQuest
windows driver is prevented from loading, indicating or IRQ conflict.
(g) Similar device drivers
Whenever parallel port driver is upgraded make sure that the older driver is
removed so that there is no interference with the new device drives.

UNIT 10 Serial Port

Serial Port
Serial port is a device that is used to connect and communicate between the low-
bandwidth devices like modem or keyboard, mouse etc. Transmit data and receive
data are the two data lines used in serial port which make it bidirectional port and
make it to interact between a computer and other peripheral devices and other
computer except printers. Not more signal lines are used in serial port in compare
to parallel port.
Asynchronous Communication
Asynchronous communication is a communication system between computer and
connected peripheral where a start signal is initiated before a data byte or character
and a signal is send after each code on a single data line in serial port. In this system
receiving the data from the device is a challenge.
Synchronous Communication is a communication system where synchronizing clock
signal are send through the data wire and the clock is used by the receiving device to
detect each data bit. When the steam of data reaches at the receiving end the
original data is retained by eliminating the synchronous bits.
The Data Frame
To communication using asynchronous communication the data bits need to
combine with synchronous bits before transmission. Synchronous bits have three
types of information at the receiving device: (a) Where the data Start (b) Where the
data ends (c) Whether the data is correct.
Combination of synchronous bits with data bytes is called data frame. Framing is
represented as data/parity/stop.
Serial port is a bipolar port and have 2 voltages positive and negative. Positive
voltage represents logic 0 which indicates space. Negative voltage represents logic 1
which means mark. Start bit is logic 1 i.e. mark, when the receiver identifies the logic
1, data frame start. 2nd -8th bit are data bits which can be altered or by the
communication software, parity bit which is an error checking bit is included after 8th
bit. It is calculated by both the sending and receiving device. When both parity
match that is considered correct otherwise an error is flagged. Five type of serial
communication are: -
1) None – None indicates that no word is added with parity bits
2) Even- if the data bits contain odd number of 1’s, then the parity is set to
1 to make the number of 1s even
3) Odd – if the data bits contain even number of 1’s, the parity is set to q to
make the number of 1s odd
4) Mark- parity is always set to 1
5) Space- parity is always set to 0
There is one stop bit which is always logic 0. It indicates that the receiving device
has to remain idle until it receives the next subsequent start bit.
BAUD vs BPS
Baud is defined as the number of signal events in the transmitted signal. Bits are
transferred to modem through serial port and Modem modulate data through
different series of phase, frequency and amplitude transitions.
 Transition is referred to Baud, and the total number of frequency or voltage
signals per second existing on a communication line is called Baud Rate or
switching rate.
BPS (bytes per second) is the number of data bits that can pass through a specific
point in one second.
Serial Port Functioning
Serial port performs many important functions:
 Parallel data needs to be converted into a series of serial bits, appropriate
framing bits needs to be added and the data line is to be provided with those
bits at the proper rate.
 It must also be work in reverse process i.e. the serial data must be
accepted as a known rate; framing but must be removed and the serial data
converted to bus form.
 The key component part of serial port is a single chip which is known as
universal asynchronous receiver/ transmitter (UART). It is the controller that
takes bytes of data and transmits each data bit in a sequential fashion. At the
receiver end there is another UART controller which reassembles the individual
bits into complete byte. UART is used in modems as well as for non-networked
communication between computers, terminals and other devices.
DTE vs DCE
(Data Terminal Equipment) vs (Data Carrier Communication)
DTE DCE
Data Terminal Equipment Data Carrier Communication
Equipement
Considered as a Dumb terminal It is modem or any type of data
or a serial port of a computer communication equipment
It is a device that either work as a It is a device used to transmit
source or a receiver digital data. Handshaking signals
are swapped at DCE end
This device connect through the This equipment acts as
DCE network intermediary between two
networks DTE devices
Its device produce the data and Its devices convert the signals to
transfer to DCE the transmission medium and
 introduce it on to the
telecommunication or network
line
Example: Computers, printers, Example: Modems, satellite and
fax, routers etc. ISDN adapters etc.

Serial Port Signals

Serial port signals are very helpful in easily turning off and on by switch. Serial port
signal can be sued to monitor external device without exchanging data. Signals
provide messages like loss of power, battery low alarm, status information with the
help of power supply model.
Ports used in serial port
 25-pin connector
 9 pin sub miniature D type connector

Serial cables are identical at both the ends and have three type of signals
(a) Data Lines
Data lines are the conductors that carry to and fro information from the serial
port, modem, Connected peripherals.
(b) Control Lines
It is the bidirectional protocol used between sender and receiver to
acknowledge the sender that the data is received.
(c) Ground lines
These are used to reduce noise effects in the signals
Data signals and control signals are bipolar in nature are also known as bipolar
transmission, which is a method of sending binary data through cable or wire. These
signals have two logical states- high logic 1 and low logic 0.
Tx and Rx are the kind of data lines which are responsible for sending and receiving
the data in serial port.
Tx Rx
Tx stands for Transmit Line Rx stands for receive line
 Sends the serial data from the Accept serial data form the serial
computer port device
When the computer is connected Other device receives the same
to the peripheral, device sends data using Rx data line
the data to the other using Tx
lines
Only one device can have control over the data lines at a time. If more than one
device tries to send data, it gives error message stating “Bus contention”
Bus contention:
Bus contention is an error message send by data lines in serial port when more than
one device tried to take control over the data line at a time.
RTS and CTS
TRS and CTS signals are responsible for control data flow through the system
hardware.
RTS CTS
Request to send Clear to Send
A signal that is generated by DTE Once the DCE receive the RTS
(Data terminal equipment) and signal from DTE it sends back CTS
inform the DCE that it will receive signal to DTE, which means it is
data. ready to receive the data.

After that DTE send the Data to

DCE

DTR and DSR

DTR (Data terminal Ready) DSR (Data Set ready)
Data Terminal Ready (DTR) is a DTE informs the DCE that
signal that tells the DCE that the
connection is ready to establish.
DTE is ready to establish a DCE will initialize itself when is it
connection. ready and sends Data Set Ready
(DSR) Signal back to DTE.
This signal asserted when the Which inform to DTE that DCE
DTE is initialized and ready to also has established the
start the serial operation
 connection and DTE can send the
data.
DTR and DSR signals are established when the DCE are initialized and are active
through the connection. If there is any error in signal or signal fail, connection will
disconnect and RTS and CTS signals will be ended.
RTS/CTS signals inform the DTE/DCE that the data is being sent or receive by them,
while DTR/DSR establish the connection between DTE and DCE.

DCD
(Data carrier Detect)
DCD stand for Data carrier detect and is particularly used with modem. It generates
the signal when a carrier is detected from a remote device and when it is ready to
establish the communication pathway. DCD signal is send back to the DTE so that
DTE remains active as long as the connection is established.
RI (Ring Indicator)
Ring indicator is a signal asserted by DCE and particularly used in modem. This signal
is generated when it detects a telephone ring, when a remote user calls in to seek
permission to access another computer from a remote machine. Ring indicator is
also give a “wake up ring” in power management configuration.
Modems
A combination of modulator and demodulator is termed as modem. It is a device
which is used to modulate analog signals to digital signal and demodulate the digital
signals in to analog signals. Modems are used to communicate the data from one
computer to another computer through a telephone line.
Constructions and operations of modem
Modems are combination of specialized chips and discrete parts. Operations of
modem is as follows:
 Parallel form data is translated to serial form and vice versa. Serial data
converted to audio signal to enable it to pass through a telephone line.
Transmitted signals contained by audio signals are called data compression
which transmit the data from computer to modem. Modem collects all the data
 bits together and convert to send the data over the telephone line and audio
signals are separated from transmitted signals and reconverted to serial data.
 When data is converted from one form to another form the chance of
errors may be with loss of data or adding some unwanted data. Error checking
technique in modem verifies that the data receives has no damage in its data.
 In case the receiving network is slow than sending network, control flow
sends the message to sending end to pause the data till initialized data is
transferred. Flor control is done by both hardware and software. Software
controller generates a character that sounds pause and data sending remain
pause till next proper character for resume the data transmission. Hardware
controller use wires in the modem cable.
 Finally, modem uses non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) to store the list of set up
parameters.

10.4 Modems
A combination of modulator and Demodulator, is shortly known as Modem. Modem is a device that is used to modulate
analog signals to digital signal and demodulate the digital information to corresponding analog signal. It is also used to
communicate the data from one computer to another computer through a telephone line.

10.4.1 Constructing and Operating a Modem

Modems are fabricated with specialized chips and discrete parts. Working of a modem can be summarized as follows:
• First parallel form data must be translated to serial form and vice-versa. That means the serial data must be converted
to an audio signal so that it can pass through a telephone line. This audio signal contains the transmitted signals. this is
called as data compression. It is easy to transmit the data from computer to modem than the modem transmitting to
computer. Modem collects all the bits of information together and converts to send the data over the telephone line.
Audio signals received from the telephone line must be separated from transmitted signals, and reconverted to serial
data.
• Whenever the data is converted from one form to another they are prone to cause errors may be with loss of data or
adding some unwanted data. Error checking technique in modem verifies that the data receives has no damage in its
data.
• It is common that the speed rate of the network is not the same. Suppose the dial up network at the sending end is
faster than the other end which receives it, then the control flow tells the sending end to pause the data till the receiving
end receives the already sent data. The flow control is done either by using software or hardware. Software controller
has specific noise which generates a character that sounds pause. The sending data is paused until it gets next proper
character for sending the data. Hardware controller use wires in the modem cable.
• Finally, the modem uses non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) to store the list of set up parameters.
Construction of Modem: The construction of the modem is explained by differentiating the types of modems. There
are two types of modems: internal modem and external modem.
Internal modem: the internal modem is a stand-alone board that plugs in with ISA or PCI Buses. The design of the
internal modem is as shown in the figure 10.5
The internal modem consists of one UART (universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter) device that is responsible for
converting data from parallel form to serial form and vice-versa. UART forms the basics of serial port and it is very
important to set the UART in the computer properly. The serial data is converted into audio signals before sending
through the telephone lines. The audio signal is made to pass through the telephone interface through RJ11 (registered
Jack) connector which is a telephone jack that allows you to check the line and make calls when modem is idle. The signal
is sent to the demodulator by the telephone interface and is freed from transmitted line by it. The demodulated data is
sent to UART which again converts the serial data into parallel words which are placed on the system bus.

In the initial stages of modem operation, the speaker is used to check the dial tone for connectivity. Overall operation of
the modem is managed by the controller which accepts the command from the modulator and some parameters which
are to be changed. NVRAM is the non-volatile random access memory which stores the default loaded parameters.
During a power cut you can load the default parameter from the NVRAM. The internal modem gets power supply directly
from the expansion bus.
External modem: external modems are the devices that are used to connect computers with public network. The
external modem is not present as built in device inside the serial port but is connected from outside the computer. The
block diagram of the external modem is as shown in the Figure 10.6.

The working of the external modem is similar to the internal modem except that the device is connected to the serial port
of the system rather than being connected directly to the expansion bus. An external modem is connected to computer
through the already configured serial port in the computer. 9-pin or 25-pin serial cable is used to connect modem to the
computer externally which makes the set up easier and faster because you need not bother about the interrupt lines and
I/O address settings. In external modems hardware conflicts are rare.
The external devices are powered using a small AC adapter. External modem provides LEDs which states the series of
signal status which allows you to check the communication status.

10.4.2 Signal Modulation

Modulation is the method of conveying a message signal inside another signal that can be physically transmitted.
Modulation is the addition of information (or the signal) to an electronic or optical signal carrier. Modulation can be
applied to direct current to alternating current, and to optical signals.
Once the bipolar signal is accepted by the modem from a serial port, the carrier signal being generated on the telephone
must be modulated so that it reflects the logical levels of the transmission. Therefore, the two ends of the modem must
be capable of executing the same modulation scheme (about which you will be studying later in this section).
Modulation schemes: modulation is a process of changing the properties of high frequency wave form with respect to the
modulating signal. Wave form is also called as carrier signal which is the property of the signal such as shape and form.
Example: wave moving in a solid, liquid or gaseous medium. There are three physical characteristics of a wave form
namely, amplitude, frequency and phase which are adjusted to represent a bit.
Amplitude is the magnitude of the wave which is measured in volts peak-topeak or volts RMS (Root Mean Square). It
represents the distance travelled by the wave form above and below the zero axis.
Frequency is the number of times that a single wave will repeat in any given time. It is measured as cycles-per-second or
hertz. 1800 Hz signal repeats 1800bps. Phase is the time reference of the signal which is measured in degrees. For
example: 90 degrees is the time taken to travel 25 percent of a wave, 180 degrees is the time taken to travel 50 percent
of the wave, 270 degrees is the time taken to travel 75 percent of the wave, etc.
Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) is the method of transmitting digital signals. It is similar to frequency modulation where only
the carrier frequency is changed. This is one of the oldest modulation schemes. FSK has two binary states logic zero and
logic one. Logic 1 represents the wave at different frequency and logic 0 represents the wave at a particular frequency. In
this technique baud is equal to bps. For example: if frequencies are sent at 300 baud and each baud can carry one bit so
FSK can send 300 bps.
Phase shift keying (PSK) is digital modulations signal that changes or modulates the phase of a reference signal. This is
similar to FSK but only the phase timing of a carrier wave is changed. Logic o or logic 1 is represented by a carrier change.
PSK can encode 1, 2, 3 or more bits per baud because phase can be shifted in several specific increments. For example,
1400 baud modem can transmit 2800bps over 1800 Hz carrier using PSK.
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technique is a combination of amplitude modulation and phase shift keying. It
uses the amplitude modulation and phase shift keying to encode 6 bits data onto the baud in which 4 bits are reserved for
data. In this method QAM represents 2 bits by four phase states and another 2 bits by four levels of amplitude. For
example, if the base rate of carrier signal is 2400 baud, it carries 9600 bps.
10.4.3 Installing a modem
The modem is a PnP device. The motherboard is designed such that the system automatically detects the device and
resource assignments. You must be very careful while installing because problem may arise due to incorrect installation of
the hardware or software of the device.
When you are replacing the modem, you should ensure that the device is initialized and check for the correct operating
strings which usually depend on the modem manufacturers. The applications software must be installed properly and
care should be taken to ensure that the new modem software too is installed correctly and the old modem if present is
removed.
Hardware installation:
You need to be concerned about installing internal modem rather than external modem since external modem is directly
connected to serial port from outside. While installing internal modem you should be very careful as you have to open the
case and fit the device inside. The following are the general steps to be taken to install the internal modem:

1. First you have to shut down the windows and unplug the computer.
2. Remove the bolts of the case and keep it in a safe place.
3. If you are replacing the modem then carefully separate old modem by removing the bolt and detach the modem from
the chassis and place it in an antistatic place.
4. Identify the availability of expansion slot for the new modem card.
5. Insert the modem card by pushing it firmly and evenly inside the slot. Ensure that the card is seated properly in the slot
and replace the screws to secure the bracket of the modem card to the computer chassis.
6. Reconnect the modem with the telephone jack.
7. If you want to use the phone on the same line then you should plug the phone to the phone jack. You must also have a
microphone to avail simultaneous voice and data feature.
Software installation
Once the hardware is installed it needs the support of device drivers and application software. The following are the
steps to be taken to install the software:

1. The modem must be automatically detected when the Windows restarts. If the device is PnP complaint then you need
to use the Add New Hardware wizard to execute the installation process.
2. Select the “Driver from disk provided by hardware manufacturer” and then click OK.
3. Insert the CD to install the device drivers, and the select the drive letter.
4. After you Click OK modem’s drivers will be loaded by the Windows.
5. Verify the modem installation for success once it is loaded. When your desktop returns, then click start, select settings
and then click control panel.
6. Double click the modem icon.
7. The suitable description of the modem is obtained in the modems properties dialog box as shown in Figure 10.7. This
means your modem installation is done properly.

8. To test the modem click the diagnostics tab. Select the modem and click for more info button.
9. After a few minutes, you should see the more info dialog box as shown in the Figure 10.8 which lists the modem’s port
information as well as series of standard modem commands.

Figure 10.8: More Info Dialog box of the Modem

10.Once the modem is working you can install any other applications that accompany the modem.

10.4.4 Modem troubleshooting

Although the failure rate of modem installation is very small, it is time consuming and difficult. Therefore, it is very
necessary to install the modem from the beginning. When a modem fails there are number of factors which should be
checked as described below:
• Incorrect hardware resources: unique IRQ line and I/O port is to be set up by an internal modem. If another serial
device uses the assigned resources, the modem or the device will result in conflicts and will not function properly. In
that case you will have to remove the modem and check for available resources. External modems make use of the
existing COM ports. You must reconfigure the internal modem to clear the conflict so that the modem can use its
resources.
• Defective telecommunication resources: telephone lines are used by the modems to establish connections among
the computers. If the modem is not correctly hooked up or if there is a defect in the telephone jack then even though
the modem may work well there will not be a connection. In that case separate the telephone line cord from the modem
and try the line on an ordinary telephone device. You should hear a dial tone when you lift the receiver. Try to call a
local number. If the line rings then telephone line is working properly. Check the RJ11 jack on the modem.
• Improper cabling: the external modem is connected to the serial port of the computer through a cable. You must
ensure that there is a “straightthrough” type cable and it is connected between PC and modem. You must also check
that the two ends of the cable are installed evenly and there is no bend pins otherwise use a new cable.
• Improper power: The external modems receive the power supply from the small ac adapter. Therefore, ensure that
the ac adapter is connected to the modem properly. If batteries are used they must be fresh and completely installed.
• Incorrect software settings: Before the connection is established both internal and external modems must be
initialized. If these settings are absent or incorrect then it is expected that the modem will not respond to the computer.
Check the communication software and ensure that the comment strings are appropriate for the modem and ready to
be used.
• Suspect the modem itself: you need to check for modem settings so that the jumpers or DIP switches are placed
correctly with each setting. The most susceptible point is the telephone interface which is very sensitive to high voltage
spikes that might enter the telephone line.
• Command processor: You must check for the command processor which is the controller that manages the operation
of the modem in the command mode and interrupts command strings. When a new model installation fails to behave
as intended you must check the working of command processor of the modem.

Table 10.1: list of serial port parameters and its description

Parameter Description
BAUD Sets the data transmission rate in bits per second
PARITY Sets how the system checks for transmission errors using the
parity bit. The value can be one of the following: N(none),
E(even), O(odd), M(mark), or S(space)

DATA Sets the number of data bits in a frame

 STOP Sets the number of stop bits that define the end of a frame

TO=ON/OFF Turns the infinite timeout processing option on or off

X=ON/OFF Turns the XON/XOFF protocol on or off
DTR=ON/OFF Turns the DTR circuit on or off
ODSR=ON/OFF Turns the output handshaking using DSR circuit on or off
OCTS=ON/OFF Turns the output handshaking using CTS circuit on or off
RTS=ON/OFF|HS|TG Specifies the settings for the RTS circuit to on, off, handshake
or toggle
IDSR=ON/OFF Turns the DSR circuit sensitivity of or off
For example, MODE COM1: BAUD=2400, PARITY=N DATA=5 STOP=1

TO=OFF XON=ON ODSR=OFF OCTS=ON DTR=OFF IDSR=OFF

10.5.2 Serial Port Conflicts

Hardware and software conflicts are the most common in serial port and it is a frequent problem in troubleshooting.
Though there are four communication ports in today’s PC and BIOS, there are only 2 IRQ available for serial port. When
external modems need to be connected, they are connected through serial ports which are also known as COM ports.
COM stands for communication ports used for serial port that is responsible for communication between the computers.
There are four types of COM. The different COM port and its respective IRQ availability is shown in Table 10.2
Table 10.2: the COM and its IRQ Occupancy
COM port I/O addresses IRQ
COM1 0x3F8 IRQ4
COM2 0x2F8 IRQ3
COM3 0x3E8 IRQ4
COM4 0x2E8 IRQ3
Therefore, it means only two IRQ; IRQ3 and IRQ4 are available for the COM port.
0x3F8: This address number (1111111000) is used to refer whether the COM port will be even or odd. In this case, the
number after 0 is 3 which refer to an odd number. So the COM port will be odd. For example COM1 or

COM3. The letter “F” stands for first i.e. the first of the even communication port. That means COM1.
0x2F8: this address number is represented by binary number 1011111000. Here, the first number after 0 is 2, refers to
an even number. So, the COM port will be even. For example COM2 or COM4. The letter “F” stands for first i.e. the first of
the even communication port. That means COM2.
0x3E8: the address number is represented by binary number 11111101000. Here it refers to odd number indicating odd
COM port. And the letter E indicates the next eliminating the first. Therefore in this case it is COM3. 0x2E8: the address
number is denoted by binary number 10111101000. Here it refers to odd number indicating even COM port. And the
letter E indicates the next eliminating the first. Therefore in this case it is COM4 This can be used to memorize the
allotment of COM port.
When you try to upgrade the PC by adding I/O adapters you may normally encounter problems. If the computer has two
COM ports from the motherboard manufacturers, adding a third port will result in hardware conflict. This can be rectified
by disabling the new COM port or one of the existing among the two ports or by setting the jumper of the new COM port.
Sometimes device drivers may also be a cause for the problem. If a new COM port is installed and problem arises, disable
the driver reference in the CONFIG.SYS and try to install a new protected

10.7 Glossary
Term Description
 COM Communication port is a serial port which is serial port that is
responsible for communication between the computers.
IRQ IRQ stands for Interrupt ReQuest, and refers to special numbered
channels that are used by devices to get the processors attention.

25-pin D type D-sub contains two or more parallel rows of pins or sockets usually
connector surrounded by a D-shaped metal shield that provides mechanical
support, some screening against electromagnetic interference, and
ensures correct orientation. It consists of 25 pinouts.

9-pin connector. Similar to 25-pin connector but it consists of 9 pinouts

GND Grounding is a direct connection to the earth to prevent contact
with a dangerous voltage if electrical insulation fails.
VCC Common collector voltage is a power supply connected to a
transistor.

Unit 11 Input – Output Devices

11.2 Mice
Modern PCs come with a pointing device called Mouse which is used to point at a particular option on the screen and
then select that option by clicking it. Although there are varieties of mouse manufactured by various companies, their
basic function remains the same. Microsoft and Logitech are the top manufacturers of Mice.

11.2.1 The Mouse

The standard mouse consists of several components: a housing to hold roller ball to move the cursor on the monitor by
moving the device on the flat surface, two Buttons for selection, a cable to connect the mouse, an interface connector.
The outermost housing, made of plastic, generally has two buttons on the top; some mice may have three buttons
requiring special software to operate. Modern mice come with a scroll wheel in between two buttons, which will be very
much useful to scroll through the pages. The bottom of the housing contains a small roller ball that rotates as the mouse
moves across the tabletop. The movements of this roller ball are translated into electrical signals transmitted to the
computer across the cable. The connector used with the mouse depends on the type of interface used. Once the mouse is
connected to the computer, a device driver, which can be separately loaded or built into the system software, helps it to
communicate with the system.

The mechanism of the mouse internally is very simple. The rubber ball in it rests against two rollers, one for translating
the X-axis movement and the other for the Y-axis movement. These rollers are usually connected to small disks with
shutters that alternately block and allow the passage of light.

There are small optical sensors which detect movement of the wheels by noting an internal infrared light blink on and off
as the shutter wheel rotates and "chops" the light. The infrared light blinks are then translated into movement along the
axes. This type of setup is called an opto-mechanical mechanism and is popularly used nowadays.
Microsoft IntelliMouse
A new variation of the popular mouse called IntelliMouse was introduced by Microsoft in late 1996 looking exactly like
the standard Microsoft mouse except for a miniature gray wheel rising up between the left and right buttons. The only
change in mouse are the wheel has two main functions: the primary function to act as a scrolling device, allowing one to
scroll through documents or Web pages by merely pulling down or pushing it up with the index finger and the secondary
function to act as a third mouse button when pressed. This is very useful while browsing Web pages or working with
word processing documents or spreadsheets. The major advantage of IntelliMouse is that, unlike other three-button mice
by other vendors, it does not get in the way while working and there is less likelihood of it being clicked by mistake. Its
only drawback is that the new wheel will work only if the software is rewritten to support it.
11.2.2 The Trackball
If you were to turn over a traditional mouse you will observe a stationary device called a track ball or roller ball. If you
move or rotate this roller ball, the cursor also will move in turn.
In the case of traditional mouse, the user needs to perform three tasks simultaneously viz. grasping the mouse, moving it
and clicking the button. However, the newer version allows the user to perform these tasks independently of each other.
The trackball comes in various sizes. If the ball is small, it requires less effort for its movement or rotation. As regards
buttons on the trackball, they can be single click, right click, double click, or drag-lock. While some trackballs are of the
plug and play type requiring no installation other than connecting of a cable to the computer's port others have
supporting software to be installed in the computer. This software enables you to customize the acceleration of the
mouse and assign different functions to the buttons of the trackball. Below figure 11.2 shows a sample trackball.

The largest trackball available is the 3 inch trackball found in BIGtrack (a trackball model from Info grip, an hardware
company) which requires less fine motor control than a standard trackball. The left and right mouse click buttons located
behind the trackball prevent unwanted mouse clicks.
1. The trackball allows for the user to perform each of these tasksseparately of one another.
2. The size of ball of trackball will vary from as large as a cue ball, to as small as a marble. The smaller the ball, the less
amount of effort or rotation of the ball.
Sent at 4:11 PM on Tuesday
3. Buttons on the trackball can be a single click, right click, double click, or drag-lock which helps in selecting various
features of computer such as selecting an icon on desktop, refreshing the PC, choosing word file on the desktop, etc.

11.2.3 Cleaning the Pointing Device

Cleaning Mouse: Whenever you notice the mouse pointer moving across the screen in a jerky fashion, it is advisable to
clean it. This jerkiness is a result of dirt and dust getting trapped around the mouse's ball and roller assembly, thereby
restricting its free movement. When you turn over the mouse housing you will notice the mouse ball surrounding which is
an access panel that can be opened. Remove the panel and observe the roller ball and the socket in which it rests. Turning
the mouse back over will make the roller ball fall into your hand. You should ensure that there is no visible dirt or any
other contamination or you need to wash it with soapy water or a mild solvent such as contact cleaner solution or alcohol
and dry it off. Next take a look at the socket in which the roller ball normally rests. You will see two or three small wheels
or bars against which the ball normally rolls. If you see dust or dirt on or around these wheels or bars, then clean them. It
is important to ensure that there is no dirt or dust remaining because if it is present the movement of the roller ball is
hindered and the mouse will not work properly. After thorough cleaning, insert the roller ball into the socket and securely
attach the cover panel thus making the mouse function again.
11.2.4 Troubleshooting
If you encounter problems with the mouse, it is advisable to look in only two general places-hardware or software.

Hardware Problems: The hardware problem generally relates to interrupt conflicts and is more difficult to solve.
• Interrupt Conflicts: A computer uses internal signals called Interrupts to indicate when something needs to be done.
A mouse uses an interrupt whenever it has information to be sent to the mouse driver. The mouse might not work
properly or even might not work at all if a conflict occurs and a different device uses the same interrupt used by it. If
your system uses a mouse port then interrupt conflicts do not normally occur but they can occur with the other types
of mouse interfaces. Mouse ports built into modern mother-boards are almost always set to IRQ 12. On machines that
 use a PS/2 mouse (a type of mouse that plugs into a PS/2 mouse port), this is the IRQ reserved for its use. Using a PS/2
mouse frees up the COM1 serial port and the interrupt it uses for other devices. If your system has a motherboard
mouse port, you should take care that you don't set any other adapter cards to IRQ 12, otherwise a conflict occur.
Whenever you use a serial mouse (a mouse that connects to a computer via a serial port) there is every likelihood of
interrupt conflicts occurring if you add a third or fourth serial port. The reason behind this is that in ISA bus systems,
odd-numbered serial ports (1 and 3) are often improperly configured to use the same interrupts as the even-numbered
ports (2 and 4). Therefore, if your mouse is connected to COM2: and an internal modem uses COM4: both might use
the same interrupt, resulting in a conflict. But if you move either the mouse or the modem to a different serial port
you can use both of them at the same time. For example, if your mouse uses COM1: and the modem still uses COM4:,
you can use them both at the same time because odd and even ports use different interrupts. The best way to prevent
these interrupt conflicts is to make sure that no two devices use the same interrupt.
• In case the driver declines to acknowledge the mouse irrespective of its type, then try using a different mouse which
works. If you find that the problem is caused by a defective mouse, then the best option would be to replace it with a
good mouse.
Software Problems: Software problems, which are trickier than hardware problems generally, manifest themselves as
the mouse "just not working." In such instances, you would do well to check the driver and the software applications
before assuming that the mouse itself is faulty.

• Driver Software: The mouse requires the installation of a device driver to function properly. It is recommended that
you use default drivers built into the Windows or OS/2 operating environments. In case you want the mouse to work
with DOS applications then you should load an extra driver (via CONFIG.SYS).
• Application Software: It is necessary to check the setup information or configuration section of the program if your
mouse does not work with a specific piece of application software, Even after indicating to the program that you are
using a mouse, and it does not work, then it is recommended that you contact the technical support department of the
application software

11.3 Keyboards
The keyboard, a primary input device is one of the basic system components. Used for entering commands and data into
the system the keyboard is the friendliest input peripheral. You can not only key in program and data through it, but also
give commands to the software from the keyboard. It is almost impossible to use a computer without a keyboard.
11.3.1 Basics of Keyboard
Keyboard generally consists of 105 keys. The keyswitch (a type of small switch placed under the keys) is activated when a
key is pressed. An electronic circuit in the keyboard determines as to which key has been pressed. Then a standard 8-bit
code is generated and sent to the computer. Detecting which key is pressed and generating the corresponding code is
known as encoding. There are two types of keyboards. One is the serial keyboard which sends data, bit by bit, in a serial
fashion and the computer converts the data into parallel byte. The other is the parallel keyboard which sends the data as
a byte in a parallel form; all the bits are sent simultaneously on the different lines (wires). It is essential that the cable
between the keyboard and the computer has more wires in a parallel keyboard.

Keyboard Functions
A matrix of rows and columns connect the keyswitches; each keyswitch having a fixed set of coordinates, namely, row
number and column number.

The keyboard electronics performs the following functions:

• Sensing a key depression

• Encoding
• Sending code to computer
The keyboard electronics follows a standard technique known as scanning. The keyboard electronics sends inputs, signals
to the matrix through the rows while the outputs are sent through the columns. The electronic circuit senses the column
lines. There are different types of keyswitches. Some of the common types are:

• Mechanical keyswitch – These switches will have metal contacts in a momentary contact arrangement.
• Membrane keyswitch – These switches are formed together on a sheet that is fixed on a rubber dome sheet.
• Capacitive keyswitch - Capacitive switches are non-mechanical type of switches currently used.
Key Switch Design
Keyboards nowadays come with several types of switches; most keyboards use one of several variations on a mechanical
key switch. A mechanical key switch relies on a mechanical momentary contact type switch to make electrical contact in a
circuit while some high-end keyboard designs use a totally different non-mechanical design that relies on capacitive
switches.

The following are the variations of mechanical type switches:

• Pure mechanical
• Foam element
• Rubber dome Membrane
Pure Mechanical: Generally it has a tactile feedback mechanism with a clip and spring arrangement to give a "clicky"
feel to the keyboard and a built-in feature offers some resistance while pressing the key. Mechanical switches, whose life
time is 20 million keystrokes, are very durable and usually have self-cleaning contacts.
Foam element: Older keyboards used this technology in which switches are characterized by a foam element with an
electrical contact on the bottom that is mounted on the bottom of a plunger attached to the key itself. When the switch is
pressed, a foil conductor on the bottom of the foam element closes a circuit on the printed circuit board below and a
return spring pushes the key back up when the pressure is released. The advantage of using foam is that it reduces the
contact, thereby preventing bounce. The disadvantage of using this type of switch is that it is prone to corrosion on the
foil conductor and the circuit board traces below.

Rubber dome: Rubber dome switches are mechanical switches which are the improved versions of the foam element-
type switches. These switches which use a rubber dome instead of a spring that has a carbon button contact on the
underside, are very simple in design, use fewer parts, are highly reliable and very popular in modern computers. When
the key is pressed, the key plunger presses on the rubber dome, causing it to resist and then collapse all at once,. As the
rubber dome collapses, the user feels the tactile feedback, and the carbon button makes contact between the circuit
board traces below. When the key is released, the rubber dome reforms and pushes the key back up.
Membrane keyboard: Membrane keyboards are very suitable for extremely harsh environments. When no other type
of keyboard can work in certain situations, these sheets can be bonded together and sealed and protect from the
elements.. Many industrial applications use membrane keyboards especially for terminals that do not require extensive
data entry but are used to operate equipment such as cash registers.
Capacitive switches: Although they are expensive, these switches have the advantage of being resistant to dirt and
corrosion and also offering the highest-quality tactile feedback of any type of switch. A capacitive switch does not work by
making contact between conductors but instead, two plates usually made of plastic are connected in a switch matrix
designed to detect changes in the capacitance of the circuit. When the key is pressed, the plunger moves the top plate
relative to the fixed bottom plate. These switches have a lifetime of up to 25 million or more keystrokes.
11.3.2 Maintenance and Troubleshooting
Although difficult intermittent problems might give rise to keyboard errors, generally two simple problems are usually
faced by users:

• Defective cables
• Stuck keys
Defective cables are easy to spot if the failure is not intermittent. If the keyboard stops working altogether or every
keystroke results in an error or incorrect character, then the problem lies with the cable. Troubleshooting such a fault is
simple, especially if you have a spare cable on hand. To do this simply replace the suspected cable with one from a known
working keyboard, and ensure that the problem is set right. However, if the problem still exists then you should try to
look elsewhere for its source. By using a DMM (Digital Multi-Meter). you can test the cable for continuity by removing it
from the keyboard.
Keyboard stuck key failure
When you press a key on the keyboard, the processor built into the keyboard (8048- or 6805-type) reads the keyswitch
location in the keyboard matrix. The processor then sends to the motherboard a serial packet of data containing the scan
code for the key that was pressed. This is called the Make code. When the key is released, a corresponding Break code is
sent, indicating to the motherboard that the key has been released. The Break code is equivalent to the Make scan code
plus 80h (‘h’ stands for hexadecimal). For example, if the Make scan code for the "A" key is 1Eh, the Break code would be
9Eh. By using both Make and Break scan codes, the system can determine whether a particular key has been held down
and determine whether multiple keys are being pressed. If you get the message

“keyboard struck, key failure”, you can look up the scan code to determine which keyswitch is causing the problem. You
can solve the problem removing the keycap of the offending key and cleaning the switch.
Many newer systems have a electrical fuse that can be replaced. This protects the motherboard keyboard and mouse
connectors. Locate any type of fuse on the motherboard in the vicinity of the keyboard or mouse connectors. Some other
systems may have a socketed keyboard controller chip (8042-type), in which case, it may be possible to repair the
motherboard keyboard circuit by replacing this chip. As these chips have ROM code in them, it is advisable to get the
replacement from the motherboard or BIOS manufacturer.
Cleaning a Keyboard
Periodical cleaning is a part of maintenance, which is essential to maintain a keyboard in good condition. Preventive
maintenance requires that you vacuum clean the keyboard weekly or at least monthly. You could also use canned
compressed air (available at electronics supply stores) to blow the dust and dirt out instead of using a vacuum cleaner.
Before you dust a keyboard with the compressed air, turn the keyboard upside down so that the particles of dirt and dust
collected inside can fall out. You should avoid pressing the keys hardly. You should also avoid playing games for a long
time to increase the durability of key switches.
11.4 Basics of Sound Boards
A sound card is also known as an audio card. It is a computer expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio
signals to and from a computer under control of computer programs. Sound cards are very much useful in providing the
audio component for multimedia applications such as music composition, editing video or audio, presentation, education,
and entertainment (games). Many computers have sound capabilities built in, while others require additional expansion
cards to provide for audio capability.
When the PC standard was first created, it did not have audio capabilities than basic beeping or tone generation. The
reason for this was that the PC standard created in 1981, and other computers of that time had similar rudimentary
capabilities. However, systems that were designed later, such as the Macintosh, which was introduced in 1984, did
include high-quality audio capabilities as an integral part of the system hardware and software. Although there still is no
universal audio hardware and software standard for PC compatible systems, the inherent expandability of the PC
platform allows audio capability to be easily added, and at least one genuine standard has emerged.
Sound Card Devices
Joysticks: A number of sound cards may have a joystick, or game port. A joystick is ideally meant for game playing and
is best chosen through handson experience like speakers.
MIDI Connector: In order to use MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) to create synthesized music, you have to
connect musical keyboard or other MIDI device to the sound card. The joystick port on sound cards has unused pins that
can be used to send and receive MIDI data. If you connect a MIDI cable to the joystick port, you can connect PC to a MIDI
device.
Synthesizer: If you are considering MIDI and you intend to compose or play music, then you will need sequencer
software, which is a musical application designed to play back musical notation to record, edit, and play back MIDI files.
11.4.1 The Recording
You need to connect a microphone to the sound card to record sound in the computer. Some of the sound cards may not
have options to connect a microphone. While purchasing a sound card, you should check whether it is having an ‘Audio
In’ jack to plug the microphone.
11.4.2 The Playback
Speakers are used to playback the recorded sound. Successful multimedia presentations, business applications, and MIDI
work require external highfidelity stereo speakers. Sound cards offer little or no power to drive external speakers.
Although some sound cards have small 4-watt amplifiers, they are not powerful enough to drive quality speakers which
are essential for quality sound. A 16-bit sound card may provide better sound to computer speakers. However if you have
good speakers then 8-bit sound card can also provide better sound. Speakers are measured by the following three
criteria:
• Frequency response: This is a measurement of the range of high and low sounds that a speaker can reproduce. The
ideal range is from 20 Hz to 20 KHz.
• Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). This is an expression of the amount of distortion or noise created by amplifying
the signal. The amount of distortion is measured in percentages. An acceptable level of distortion is below .1 percent
(one-tenth of 1 percent). For some CD-quality recording equipment, a common standard is .05 percent. Some speakers
have a distortion of 10 percent or more. Headphones often have a distortion of about 2 percent or less.
• Watts. This is the amount of amplification available to drive the speakers. Many sound cards have built in amplifiers,
providing up to 8 watts per channel. (Most provide 4 watts.)
Headphones are an option when you can't afford a premium set of speakers. Headphones also provide privacy and allow
playing sound card as loud as you like.
11.4.3 Sampling Concept
A technique called digital sampling helps in recording and playback of sounds. In order to record your voice, you first
speak into a microphone. The Analog-to-Digital Convertor (ADC) translates the analog waves of your voice into digital
data that the computer can understand. To do this, it samples, or digitizes, the sound by taking precise measurements of
the wave at frequent intervals.

The number of measurements per second, called the sampling rate, is measured in kHz. The faster a card's sampling rate,
the more accurate its reconstructed wave is.
In case you want to play back your recording through the speakers, the Digital-to-Analog Convertor (DAC) will perform the
same basic steps in reverse. With accurate measurements and a fast sampling rate, the restored analog signal can be
nearly identical to the original sound wave.
Some reduction in sound quality can be caused even with high sampling rates. Distortion may also occur due to the
physical process of moving sound through wires. Two measurements are used by manufacturers to describe this
reduction in sound quality:

• Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), expressed as a percentage

• Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), measured in decibels (dB), a unit of sound.
For both THD and SNR, smaller values indicate better quality. Some cards also support digital input, allowing people to
store digital recordings without converting them to an analog format.
11.4.4 The role of MIDI
1980’s saw the development of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) to communicate between synthesizers.
Although it was earlier just a specification, now it has become a standard, which allows programs to play music through
the PC sound card.
MIDI, a computer standard music format is used to write compositions and musical events. Actually the sounds are found
in your sound card not in the MIDI files. These files only give a description of how the music is to be played. For example a
MIDI sequence can describe the hit on a piano key.
The MIDI sequence describes:
• The instrument
• The note
• The strength of the key hit
• How long to maintain the note

11.4.5 An Inside Look of a Sound Board

Figure 11.4 shows an inside look of a PCI (Peripheral Computer Interface) sound card. The sound card may contain a lot of
jumpers, which you have to set/reset before connecting other devices.

Locate any jumpers on the sound card if used by it and identify what they control. There may be jumpers that set the
MIDI port to use with a joystick, or jumpers that set the IRQ (Interrupt Request) for the controller for CDROM. Locate the
jumpers for the IRQ setting. When a bridge is made with a jumper between two adjacent posts, the jumper is said to be
ON. When the jumper is removed, it is OFF.
11.5 Troubleshooting a Sound Board
In order to install a sound card, you will have to select IRQ numbers, a base I/O address, or DMA channels that don't
conflict with other devices. Although most cards are already configured to be used on an otherwise idle set of ports,
sometimes problems do occur. Therefore troubleshooting may be required which may mean changing board jumpers or
switches, or even reconfiguring other cards.
11.5.1 Hardware (Resource) Conflicts
A device or hardware conflict occurs when sound card simply doesn't work (no sound effects or music). Sometimes it
may repeat the same sounds over and over and causes PC to freeze. Sound cards usually clash with other devices
installed in the PC. There are generally three sources of conflict in sound card installation:

o Interrupt ReQuests (IRQs). IRQs are used to "interrupt" PC and get its attention.
o Direct Memory Access (DMA) channels. DMA channels are the way to move information directly to PC's
memory, bypassing PC's processor. DMA channels allow sound to play while PC is doing other work.
o Input / Output (I/O) Port addresses. An I/O Port address in PC is used to channel information between the
hardware devices on sound card and PC. The addresses usually mentioned in a sound card manual are the starting
or base addresses. A sound card has several devices on it, and each one will use a range of addresses starting with
a particular base. Most sound cards include installation software that analyzes PC and attempts to notify any of the
standard settings in use by other devices.

It is advisable to install a sound card using the default settings where possible because poorly written software cannot
work properly with alternate settings, even if they do not cause conflicts.
Solving Hardware Conflicts
The best way to find a hardware conflict is to locate all of the documentation for the PC and its various devices, such as a
tape backup interface card, CD-ROM drive, and so on. The most common causes of system resource conflicts are the
following:

• SCSI host adapters

• Network interface cards
• Bus Mouse adapter cards
• Serial Port adapter cards for COM3: or COM4:
• Parallel Port adapter cards for LPT2:
• Internal modems
• Tape drive interface cards
• Scanner
interface cards.
You could find out as to which device is conflicting with the sound card by temporarily removing all of the expansion cards
except the sound card and other essential cards like the video card. Then add each of the cards removed, one at a time,
till you find that sound card does not work. When you come to the last card, it is most likely the troublemaker, the card
causing the conflict. Now, either switch the settings for the device that is conflicting with sound card or change the
settings of the sound card. To do this, set jumpers or DIP (Dual In-line Package) switches, or use sound card's setup
software to change its settings.

11.5.2 Other Sound Card Problems No Sound

You could consider the following solutions if you don't hear anything from the sound card,:

• Ensure that the sound card is set in such a way that it uses all default resources, and that other devices using these
resources are either changed or removed.
• Are the speakers connected? Check that the speakers are plugged into the sound card's Stereo Line Out or speaker jack.
• Find out whether they are amplified speakers and are powered on. Check the strength of the batteries or the adapter's
connection to the electrical outlet.
• If the speakers are stereo check that the plug inserted into the jack is a stereo plug, not mono (short form of Monaural
or Monophonic sound reproduction, which is a single-channel).
• Make sure that the mixer settings are high enough. Many sound cards include a mixer control for DOS and/or Microsoft
Windows. The mixer controls the settings for various sound devices, such as a microphone or CD player. There may be
controls for both recording and playback. Increase the master volume or speaker volume when in the play mode.
• Use sound card's setup or diagnostic software to test and adjust the volume of the sound card. Such software usually
includes sample sounds that play.
• Switch off computer for a minute and then switch it back on. Such a hard reset (as opposed to pressing the Reset button
or pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete) may clear the problem.
• If computer game lacks sound, check that it works with sound card. For example, some games may require the exact
settings of IRQ 7, DMA 1, and address 220 to be Sound Blaster-compatible.

Scratchy Sound
If there is a scratchy sound then the solution is quite simple. You could solve the problem in the following ways:

• If the sound card is near other expansion cards could be picking up electrical interference from other expansion cards
inside the PC. Therefore, move the sound card to an expansion slot as far away as possible from other cards.
• If you find that the speakers are too close to the monitor move them farther as the speakers may be picking up electrical
noise from monitor.
• Ensure that you are not using a cheap FM (Frequency Modulation) synthesis sound card because most of the cards that
use FM synthesis instead of wave table sound generation have very poor quality output. It is recommended that you
upgrade to a card that has wave table synthesis so you can get the full benefit of high quality sound.
11.5.3 Other Problems
Sometimes sound problems can be difficult to solve. Due to quirks and problems with the way DMA is implemented in
some motherboard chipsets, there can be problems interacting with certain cards or drivers. Sometimes altering the
Chipset Setup options in CMOS settings can resolve problems. These kinds of problems can take a lot of trial and error to
solve.
11.5.4 Full-Duplex Drivers
If you can play a wave sound and record it at the same time (e.g., using Windows Sound Recorder), then your sound card
is full-duplex. However, if the program you are trying to use needs DirectSound. You need full-duplex compatible
DirectSound drivers. You might find some information on this at your card's manufacturer website.
Sometimes sound card drivers become corrupt or have conflicts after an operating system update, or if additional
hardware is installed. To solve this problem, if you have a new sound card, reinstall the driver that came with the device.
If audio support is built into your motherboard, or the sound card is not a newer model, download and install the latest
drivers from the manufacturer's website.
If system conflicts occur after installing additional hardware, try uninstalling the sound card drivers, reboot the computer
a few times, and then install the drivers again. If your operating system has a system restore feature, try restoring the
computer to one of the restore points when the sound card worked.
11.5.5 Soundboard Accelerations
It is found that soundcards, especially onboard, can cause a number of problems. More often than not you might find that
the card is not the real cause of the problem, as you may hear the sound properly but the game might be running slower
than usual or even might crash. A number of problems could be caused like: distorted/weird sound slowdown, especially
on top of the line PC's. This is especially true if the game is reporting 30 or higher FPS (frames per second). This may lead
to random crashes of the desktop or hanging.
Blue screen crashes (especially protection faults and similar) are often due to this. You could prevent this from occurring
by: ensuring you have the most up-to-date driver for your sound hardware; disabling Direct X's (Microsoft’s gaming
technology) sound optimization.
Follow the below steps to do this:
1. Go to start. Select run. Type in "dxdiag" (an executable file to diagnose direct X) and hit enter.
2. The Direct X Diagnostic tool will launch. Wait a couple of seconds while itdetects hardware information.
3. Click on the sound tab.
4. Move the hardware acceleration slider all the way to the left (off or none will be displayed).
5. Ok and exit.

The actual performance hit on your system is variable. Many manufacturers bypass Direct X's software acceleration in
favor of their own hardware or driver based routines. In majority of the cases, you won't notice any difference with how
the game plays (except less crashes and more stability). If you do see decreased performance, try moving the slider up a
notch and retest the game. Often you can get basic acceleration or better before the initial problem reappears.
11.5.3 Multiple Codecs
If you find there are several codecs on the same card, you need to call snd_ac97_mixer () (a procedure to run codecs)
multiple times with ac97.num=1 (setting the value of the variable num) or greater. The num field specifies the codec
number. If you set up multiple codecs, you either need to write different callbacks for each codec or check ac97->num in
the callback routines.
11.5.4 WAV Playback Problems
When you try to play wave sound (.wav) files in Windows you might encounter the following problems prompting you to
troubleshoot them: Program-specific problems such as improper configured Playback device, incorrect Mixer settings,
incorrect Hardware configuration, Damaged wave sound files, Compression-related problems
Program-Specific Problems
In case you are not able to play .wav files with a specific program that you use in Windows, then you should check if the
same problem occurs when you play the file with another program. For example, if you are attempting to play the file
from a third-party program that is not included with Windows, try to play the file from Media Player or Sound Recorder.
To start Media Player or Sound Recorder, click Start →Programs→ Accessories→ Multimedia and Multimedia → click
Media Player
In case the problem occurs only when you try to play the .wav file with one program, the files that are associated with
that program may be damaged, or the program may not be configured correctly then it is advisable to contact the
software manufacturer to solve it. However if the problem occurs with multiple programs, then it could be that the
problem may be caused by any of the reasons discussed in this unit.
Playback Device Not Configured Properly
If you find that you are unable to play .wav files in Windows, or if .wav files are not played at the proper volume, then the
reason could be that you have not selected a playback device, or the playback device that you have selected may not
have been configured properly. Therefore, in order to select and configure a playback device you should:
1. Click Start → Settings → Control Panel.
2. Double-click Multimedia or Sounds and Multimedia.
3. In the Playback box, click the playback device that you want to use in the Preferred Device list, and then move the
Volume slider to the value you want.
4. In the Recording box, click the playback device that you want to use in the Preferred Device list, and then move the
Volume slider to the value you want.
5. Verify that your speakers are properly connected to the sound card, and that the speakers are turned on.
Mixer Settings Not Configured Properly
If the mixer control settings are not configured properly then you will not be able to play .wav files in Windows, or .at files
(audio file created with Sony's Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) compression algorithm; designed for storage
and playback on portable media devices) in their proper volume. You could use the mixer control program that is included
with Windows to adjust the volume for playback, recording, and voice commands. If you are using Windows 3.1 drivers
with your sound card, you must use the mixer control program that is included with the sound card to adjust the volume
for playback, recording, and voice commands. It is sensible to contact the sound card manufacturer if your sound card
does not include a mixer control program, or if you need information about how to use the mixer control program that is
included with your sound card,. In order to configure mixer control settings with the mixer control program that is
included with Windows:

1. Click Start → Programs → Accessories → Multimedia or Entertainment → click Volume Control

2. Verify that the Mute All check box below the Volume Control slider is not selected.
3. Verify that the Mute check box below the Wave slider is not selected.
4. Verify that the Balance sliders for Volume Control and Wave are in the center of the scale.
5. Move the Volume Control and Wave sliders at least halfway to the top of the scale.

You may need to adjust the current Volume Control or Wave slider settings to play .wav files at the volume level that you
want.
Damaged Wave Sound Files
If you cannot play .wav files in Windows, or if .wav files are not played properly, the .wav files that you are attempting to
play may be damaged. To determine if a .wav file is damaged,

1. right-click the .wav file

2. click Properties → click the Details tab. The Audio Format box should contain information about the type of compression
that was used to compress the file, the sound quality of the file, and whether or not the file is in stereo. If this
information is missing, the .wav file may be damaged.
In case the information in the Audio Format box is not missing, try to play other wav files that are compressed by using
the same type of compression as the wav file that you are attempting to play. If you are successful then it is possible that
the first .wav file that you tried to play may be damaged.

Term Description

Mouse Mouse is a pointing device which is used to point a particular option

on the screen and then select that option by clicking.
Different manufacturers produce different varieties of mouse.

Trackball Trackballs are also called as "rollerballs". They are best described if
you turned the traditional mouse over exposing the ball. Trackballs are
a stationary device. Movement or rotation of the ball moves the
cursor.
 Keyboard The keyboard is the primary input device. It is used for entering
commands and data into the system. The keyboard is the friendliest
input peripheral. Both program and data can be keyed in through it.

Analog-to- The Analog-to-Digital Convertor (ADC) translates the analog waves of

Digital your voice into digital data that the computer can understand. ADC
Convertor will be used while recording the sound in a PC.
(ADC)

Digital-to- Digital-to-Analog Convertor translates the digital signals in the

Analog computer to analog waves. Using DAC you can playback the recorded
Convertor sound.
(DAC)

Direct DMA channels are the way to move information directly to PC's
Memory memory, bypassing PC's processor. DMA channels allow sound to play
Access while PC is doing other work.
(DMA)

Unit 12 Video Adapters and Accelerators

12.2 Conventional Video Adapters
A conventional video card gets the processed output from the processor and converts into a form that the monitor can
display. Thus it acts in between the processor and the monitor. These cards just accept the data from the processor and
send it to the monitor. They did not have any processing power.
IBM (International Business Machines) introduced the first PC configured with a video card called Monochrome Display
Adapter (MDA) in 1981 followed by the first commercial 2D/3D Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) in 1995. These cards
usedthe SVGA (Super Video Graphics Array) standards which incorporated 3D functions. Several advanced features and
capabilities such as anti-aliasing, MIP mapping, and z-buffering are included in modern graphics cards. The Accelerated
Graphics Port or AGP has been introduced by Intel.
Usually a video adapter is a printed circuit board that plugs into a personal computer to give it display capabilities but
these capabilities, depend on both the logical circuitry (provided in the video adapter) and the display monitor. For
instance, even if the video adapter is very powerful, a monochrome monitor cannot display color.

Components of Graphics/Video Cards

You will find that a standard video or graphics card is composed of several components mounted on a printed circuit
board (abbreviated as PCB, which is a thin plate on which chips and other electronic components are placed) which
include the following devices:
• Graphics Processing Units (GPU) – A Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), also called (Visual Processing Unit (VPU) is
a special type of microprocessor that takes up the job of graphics rendering from system CPU. GPUs are used in
embedded systems, mobile phones, personal computers, workstations, and game consoles. Modern GPUs are very
efficient at manipulating computer graphics, and their highly parallel structure makes them more effective than
general-purpose CPUs for a range of complex algorithms. In a personal computer, a GPU can be present on a video
card, or it can be on the motherboard. More than 90% of new desktop and notebook computers have integrated GPUs,
which are usually far less powerful than those on a dedicated video card Like CPU (Central Processing Unit), GPU is a
dedicated processor designed for accelerating video and 3D graphics rendering.
• Video BIOS – Like system BIOS, Video BIOS is the firmware that contains the basic program that controls the basic
operations of the video card. This includes the interaction with the computer and the software applications.
• Video memory – Video memory provides the memory needs of the GPU and the display unit.Generally video memory
ranges from 128MB to 4GB. However new and emerging graphics cards contain more memory.
• RAMDAC – Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter converts digital signals to analog signals. These
analog signals were used in old cathode ray tube (abbreviated as CRT, which is a specialized vacuum tube in which
images are produced when an electron beam strikes a phosphorescent surface) displays. However new LCD displays do
not require the RAMDAC.
• Outputs – Modern video cards include the standard outputs such as VGA (Video Graphics Array) connector; DVI (Digital
Visual Interface);
9-pin VIVO (Video In Video Out) for S-Video, composite and component video; HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia
Interface); and the advanced DisplayPort that is intended to replace VGA and DVI connectors.
12.2.1 Text& Graphics
Text and graphics are the two basic modes offered by video adapters. In text mode, a monitor can display only ASCII
(American Standard Code for Information Interchange) characters. The term graphics represents almost everything on
computers that is not text or sound.The representation and manipulation of image data by a computer is also termed as
computer graphics. In graphics mode, a monitor can display any bit-mapped image. Within the text and graphics modes,
some monitors also offer a choice of resolutions. If the resolution is low, then more colors can be displayed by the
monitor. As advanced video adapters contain their own memory, computer memory is not used for storing displays.
Additionally, most adapters have their own graphics coprocessor for performing graphics calculations. Suchadapters are
referred to as graphics accelerators.
12.2.2 Video BIOS
You are aware that the system BIOS (Basic Input Output System) provides a set of functions that are used by software
programs to access the system hardware. Likewise, the video BIOS provides a set of video-related functions that are used
by programs to access the video hardware. The video BIOS interfaces software to the video chipset in the same way that
the system BIOS does for the system chipset.
It should be kept in mind that the BIOS code and the software drivers in the Video BIOS can differ for different cards that
use the same video chipset. As there is an increase in the variety of cards available in the market and you need different
code to support the BIOSes of different cards, software programming has become difficult. VESA (Video Electronics
Standards Association, an international standards body for computer graphics founded in 1989 by NEC Home Electronics
and eight other video display adapter manufacturers) has introduced a standard for high-resolution BIOS code called the
VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE). You can apply these by means of hardware code or software drivers so as to have more
standardized control over the video.

12.2.3 DirectX
DirectX is a technology from Microsoft, which is a collection of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for handling
tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of
these APIs all began with the word Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectSound, and so
forth. But later on the name DirectX was coined to refer to all of these APIs (the X standing in for the particular API
names) and this continued to be the name of the collection. When Microsoft developed a gaming console called ‘Xbox’, to
indicate that the console was based on DirectX technology. The initial X has been used in the naming of APIs designed for
the Xbox such as XInput and the Cross-platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT), while the DirectX pattern has been continued
for Windows APIs such as Direct2D and DirectWrite.
For the development of video games for Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Xbox, and Microsoft Xbox 360, 3D graphics API
within DirectX (Direct3D) is being widely used. Other software applications for visualization and graphics tasks such as
Computer Aided Design / Computer Aided Manufacturing engineering use Direct 3D You would have observed that the
terms ‘Direct3D’ and ‘DirectX’ have been used interchangeably.
The DirectX Software Development Kit (SDK) consists of runtime libraries in redistributable binary form, along with
accompanying documentation and headers for use in coding. Originally, the runtimes were only installed by games or
explicitly by the user. Windows 95 was not launched with DirectX but it was included with Windows 95 OEM (Original
Equipment Manufacturer) Service Release 2 Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 both contained DirectX which SDK can be
downloaded for free.
The new versions of DirectX such as Direct3D 9Ex, Direct3D 10 and Direct3D 11, available only for Windows Vista and
Windows 7 were built to depend upon the new Windows Display Driver Model.
Direct3D 9Ex: this allows full access to the new capabilities of drivers while maintaining compatibility for existing
Direct3D applications. The new Vista/Windows Display Driver Modelgraphics architecture includes a new video memory
manager that supports virtualizing graphics hardware to multiple applications and services such as the Desktop Window
Manager.

Direct3D 10: It is designed around the new driver model in Windows Vista and featuring a number of improvements to
rendering capabilities and flexibility.
Direct3D 11: It has the major features of multithreading support to assist video game developers in developing games
that better utilize multi-core processors.
12.2.4 Replacing / Updating an Adapter
It is important to know which type of video adapter can be used in your system as there are three main types of video
adapter upgrades available.
Add-on Video Card
Add-on video card can be physically inserted into and taken out of the computer as an individual hardware component. It
can be plugged in PCI or AGP slots. In order to upgrade an add-on video card, you haveto remove the old card and drivers
and install the new video card and drivers.
Motherboard Video-only Chipset
This type has an integrated video along with an open AGP expansion slot. Either you can use the motherboard’s
integrated video or plug-in your own video card in the AGP slot. Modern PCs are equipped with this setup. You should
disable the on-board video and add an AGP video card and install drivers for the new card to upgrade to this type.
Motherboard with Integrated Video
There is only on-board video in this type.You will not find an extra AGP slot that you can use to install a new video card.
You may be able to install a slower PCI video card or if you really want an AGP video card you can opt for a motherboard
upgrade (to one that offers an AGP slot).

12.3 Classification of Video Display Hardware

A video display adapter is also referred to as graphics accelerator card which is an expansion card whose function is to
generate output images to a display. These cards offer added functions, such as rendering of accelerated 2D and 3D
images, video capture, TV-tuner adapter, MPEG2decoding, light pen, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple
monitors. High performance video cards also support PC games.
Video display adapter hardware is integrated on the motherboard chip in earlier machines. It was also called as video
controller or graphics controller. Recent computers use a graphics chipset which is developed along with Northbridge on
the motherboard. This chip has embedded memory and some amount of system RAM. This reduces the total RAM
available. This is called integrated graphics or on-board graphics and it is used by those who runs 3D applications. A
dedicated Graphics Card on the other hand has its own RAM and Processor specifically for processing video images.
Almost all of these motherboards allow the disabling of the integrated graphics chip in BIOS, and uses buses like AGP, PCI,
or PCI Express slot for adding a higher-performance graphics card in place of the integrated graphics.
There are two broad categories of video display hardware: non-accelerated and accelerated cards. In the non-
accelerated graphics adapters, as the early graphics adapters were, the system CPU did all the work related to processing
and calculating. The adapters just received data from the processorand forwarded the signals to the monitor. The
computer needed to change each pixel individually to change the image on the screen when using the non-accelerated
(un-accelerated) graphics adapters. However, the introduction of Graphical User Interface operating systems such as
Windows created some problems. It was then found that systems began to slow down as the CPU was left trying to move
large amounts of data from the system RAM to the video card.
Video cards in recent age are accelerated and connected to the system's CPU through high-speed buses such as PCI
(Peripheral Computer Interface) or AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port). A graphics accelerator, for example, is a type of
video adapter that contains its own processor to boost performance levels. These processors are specialized for
computing graphical transformations, so that they can achieve better results than the general-purpose CPU used by the
computer. Additionally, they free up the computer's CPU to execute other commands while the graphics accelerator is
handling graphics computations. The popularity of graphical applications, and especially multimedia applications and
computer games, has made graphics accelerators not only a common enhancement, but a necessity. Nowadays most
computer manufacturers include a graphics accelerator with their mid-range and high-end systems.
Apart from the graphics processor used, other characteristics that differentiate graphics accelerators are:

• Memory: Graphics accelerators have their own memory, which is reserved for storing graphical representations.
Because of the demands of video systems, video memory needs to be faster than main memory. The amount of memory
determines how much resolution and how many colors can be displayed. Some accelerators use conventional DRAM
(Dynamic RAM), but others use a special type of Video RAM (VRAM), which enables both the video circuitry and the
processor to simultaneously access the memory.
• Bus: Each graphics accelerator is designed for a particular type of video bus (AGP or PCI).

12.4 Graphics Accelerators

Graphics accelerators are coprocessors that reside in your computer that assist in drawing graphics. If your system is
equipped with a graphics accelerator then it does have to transfer raw pixel data over a slow general bus and chipset.
Instead of it will use graphics accelerator for transferring the pixel data over the bus and chipset and draw image. Thus a
graphics accelerator works concurrently with a general CPU to improve graphics performance of the system. They are also
called as Graphics Processing Units (GPU).
GPU is a single-chip processor with integrated transform, lighting, triangle setup/clipping, and rendering engines. It is
capable of processing a minimum of 10 million polygons per second. It was first, defined and popularized by NVIDIA in
1999, who marketed the GeForce 256 (name of the GPU model) as the world's first GPU. The release of the Radeon 9700
saw the introduction of the Visual Processing Unit (VPU) by ATI Technologies in 2002.
Custom microchips found in graphics accelerators contain special mathematical operations commonly used in graphics
rendering. The efficiency of the microchips determines the effectiveness of the graphics accelerator. They are mainly used
for playing 3D games or high-end 3D rendering. A GPU implements a number of graphics primitive operations in a way
that makes running them much faster than drawing directly to the screen with the host CPU. Modern GPUs also have
support for 3D computer graphics, and typically include digital video–related functions. Figure 12.1 shows a modern
graphics card. Intel, NVIDIA, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), S3 Graphics VIA Technologies and Matrox are some of the
popular companies manufacturing GPUs.

Computational functions of GPUs

Modern GPUs use most of their integrated circuits to perform calculations related to 3D computer graphics. They were
initially used to accelerate the memory-intensive work of texture mapping and rendering polygons, later adding units to
accelerate geometric calculations such as the rotation and translation of vertices into different coordinate systems.
Recent developments in GPUs include support for programmable Shaders (A Pixel Shader is a graphics function that
calculates effects on a pixel level) which can manipulate vertices and textures with many of the same operations
supported by CPUs, oversampling and interpolation techniques to reduce aliasing, and very high-precision color spaces.
Because most of these computations involve matrix and vector operations, engineers and scientists have increasingly
studied the use of GPUs for non-graphical calculations.In addition to the 3D hardware, today's GPUs include basic 2D
acceleration and frame buffer capabilities (usually with a VGA compatibility mode).
12.4.1 Issues in Video Performance
The following are some of the common hurdles faced regarding video speed performance,

• Graphics memory bandwidth

• Communication between host and graphics accelerator
• Features and host feature emulation Monitor refresh
Graphics Memory Bandwidth
The speed at which the accelerator can output its results to memory is one of the biggest challenges in graphics
performance. The various techniques used to improve the performance are:

• Using VRAM, a kind of RAM technology that could allow multiple accesses per cycle (one for video refresh, and one for
accelerator output)
• Using RAMBUS, wherein the RAM is partitioned over multiple buses
• Slicing the memory in large sequential banks
• Embedding an eDRAM (embedded Dynamic RAM) and splining the onchip
• Increase the efficiency of memory accesses via tiled addressing
Host, Accelerator Communication
A command queue (or FIFO-First In First Out strategy) helps in communicating operations from the host to the
accelerator. The host graphics API (Application Programming Interface) are decomposed to these accelerator specific
commands which are then executed by the graphics accelerator and then de-queued by the graphics accelerator in oldest
first order. Writing to and arbitration of the graphics queue usually involves writes and reads to memory mapped graphics
register locations, or I/O ports. However, writes to ordinary system memory and graphics based DMA strategies are also
possible.

Earlier graphics accelerators faced the hurdle of the queue being too small (typically 16 entries) to give the host and the
graphics accelerator sufficient opportunity for parallelism. So, the host driver would commonly be stalled waiting for the
queue to free up enough space for the next operation. But in modern graphics accelerators, you will not face this problem
as the queue has been significantly expanded usually to sizes usually above 512 entries. While a register window retained
a small queue, a portion of the graphics memory would be used as an extension queue to the register window queue.
Some accelerators, in order to improve queue access performance use the ploy of memory mapping the queue to
contiguous sequential addresses, to use the PCI bursting capabilities of the host chipset.
Features and Host Feature Emulation
There are various factors which influence the marketability of graphics like: price, how well they support games, and how
well they conform to standards. Earlier, starting in 1989, PC based graphics acceleration was limited to 2D but with the
advent of DirectDraw and Direct3D and availability of 3D accelerated games, 3D is being preferred. 3D is not as simple as
2D for graphic companies to deal with.
Monitor Refresh
Monitor refresh is the last factor in determining the video speed which takes a certain amount of memory bandwidth
away just to update the monitor. But 3D applications perform double buffering in order to prevent tearing or flickering.
By double buffering we mean that the trace is sent back and forth between two frame buffers and the monitor is
alternately refreshed by the buffer. In order to repoint the monitor to refresh from a different section of graphics RAM to
avoid tearing, you have to wait until the current refresh (if one is pending) is complete. Typically this is done by "waiting
for vertical retrace". This "wait period", however is dictated by the specifications of your monitor, not by the performance
of your CPU or graphics accelerator.
12.5 3D Graphics Accelerator Issues
3D computer graphics requires a lot of computer processing power and a large amount of memory. Until late 1995, 3D
acceleration was only found on a small number of high-end products its target applications being high-end rendering
packages and supporting engines. However, with the introduction of powerful Pentium chips, the demand for 3D
accelerators has increased manifold with all modern PCs incorporating them.
It was found that the initial 3D accelerators were slower than conventional GUI accelerators under Windows, and poor in
DOS at a time when most PC games ran on that platform, the main problem lying with software support. Moreover, with
32-bit Super Games Consoles on the increase, the quantity and quality of titles available for the 3D cards was poor.
With Microsoft supporting DirectX and enhancing Windows 95 as a multimedia platformand with the sales of 3D graphics
chips exceeding 42 million, in 1997, attitudes changed. There was a phenomenal increase in the demand for 3D graphics
chips with sales going up to 140 million by the year 2000.
12.5.1 The 3D Process
The main purpose of a dedicated 3D graphics chip or a dual-purpose 2D/3D graphics chip is to take away load from
system CPU and perform the rendering by itself. This rendering, or drawing, is accomplished through the graphics
pipeline in two major stages: geometry and rendering. The geometry stage is performed by the CPU. In this the CPU
handles all polygon activity and converts the 3D spatial data into pixels. The rendering stage is handled by the 3D
hardware accelerator. It manages all the memory and pixel activity and prepares it for painting to the monitor.
Earlier, although for a brief period, the only way a PC user could have access to 3D acceleration was throughan add-on
card that worked along with a conventional 2D card. The latter was used for day-to-day Windows computing, and the 3D
card gained popularity only when a 3D game was launched. As 3D capability rapidly became the standard, these 3D-only
cards were replaced by cards with dual 2D/3D capability. These 2D/3D combo cards combine standard 2D functions plus
3D acceleration capabilities on one card and represent the most cost-effective solution for most gamers. Almost all
modern-day graphics cards have some kind of dedicated 3D acceleration, but their performance varies a lot. If you want
to upgrade to 3D, you could go in for a dedicated 3D add-on card.
12.5.2 Issues in 3D Speed
A CPU's capabilities are stretched while handling the various 3D rendering techniques involving complex calculations.
Even if you have dedicated 3D accelerators to perform many of the functions identified abovethe CPU still handles most
of the geometry calculations – such as, the positioning of every filtered pixel that appears on-screen. With current 3D
accelerators sending out over a 100 million pixels per second, this is beyond the capacityof even the fastest CPU. The 3D
accelerator literally has to wait for the CPU to finish its calculations.
12.5.3 Improving 3D Performance
Two very different ways of improving 3D performance have been found. One is the use of dedicated geometry processor
which takes over the geometry calculations from the main CPU. Another means is offered by processor manufactures
who have tried to boost the 3D performance of their CPUs because they feared that once geometry processors became
standard on graphics boards, it would only take a mediocre processor to perform other functions such as running the
operating system and monitoring devices. Hence they provided specialized instruction sets Katmai New Instructions (KNI -
The code name for the new multimedia instructions that were built into the Pentium III (Katmai) chipin the case of Intel
and 3D Now! (an extension to the 8086 instruction set,)in the case of AMD for improving 3D performance. But, in the long
run, the increase in performance provided by these new MMX-style (Multi Media extension) instructions will appear
insufficient to cope with the brute power of the new generation of 3D accelerator. Moreover, most users including
gamers do not upgrade their systems regularly and have CPUs which are relatively slow. Therefore, dedicated geometry
processors are the most preferred.

12.6 Troubleshooting
Some typical problems encountered with video cards are discussed in this section. Most of the problems addressed are
related to specific setup issues with the video subsystem. You should always make sure that you are using the correct
drivers for your video card. If you have any problems related to the video subsystem, or even general instability with the
system that shows up when you are running Windows, thenbe sure that it is caused due to the use of faulty or incorrect
drivers. The video cards are generally shipped with their drivers in a floppy-disk or CD-ROM from their manufacturers.
However the up-to-date drives can be found in their company’s website. These will often fix many of the strange
problems sometimes seen when installing a new video card.
12.6.1 Avoiding the Basic Problem Problems Associated with Graphics/Video Cards and Devices
Video cards, graphics cards, and other 2D/3D graphic accelerator cards are bunched with the corresponding device
drivers that are essential for the proper function and performance of the graphics device. Sometimes these old device
drivers may not work properly if you upgrade your motherboard, processor or operating system. Under these
circumstances you need to uninstall the old drivers, download the latest drivers suitable for the upgraded motherboard,
processor or operating system and then reinstall it.
Resolving Installation Problems with Driver Detective
The device driver update tool called Driver Detective can be used to update Graphics and video device drivers quickly and
accurately. The Driver Detective tool can identify individual graphics and video cards with driver problems. They can also
automatically download the most up-to-date drivers suitable for a particular motherboard, processor and/or operating
system.
If you encounter difficulties like crashing, hanging, freezing, etc. Then it means that the display adapter has some
problem. In case your video card displays some things incorrectly then you may be able to identify the problem by
comparing your screen errors with examples screenshots. This section contains some screenshots of video cards which
show different kinds of visual problems. But if your video card crashes or hangsthen it isoften difficult to find the cause
because there could be various other reasons displaying the same signs. You could carry out some standard procedures to
set right the problem. As a last resort you could seek the help of support forumsBut before trying these proceduresit is
advisable to create a system restore point as described below. A restore point allows you to undo software changes you
make while trying to solve your video card problem.

1. Install the latest motherboard chipset drivers

2. Uninstall your old display drivers and then install the latest display drivers
3. Disable your sound system
4. Disable your AGP port
5. Do physical checks
6. Test your CPU and RAM
7. Check your power supply

12.6.2 Missing Display Options

Missing display is a common problem in which the operating system, such as Windows XP, does notappear on the screen.
In other words, the computer starts up but nothing appears on the monitor. Assuming that your monitor is in good
condition, your next step should be to take a look at the video card.
This particular problem can be caused from several different things such as a video card that is not properly seated or a
loose connection from the video card to the monitor. Troubleshooting this problem will require you to locate the video
card inside your computer and verify the following:

• Assuming that the video card adapter is separate from the motherboard, you should check that the card is properly
seated. Sometimes one end of the card may creep out of the slot when it is initially screwed in resulting in no display
appearing on the monitor.
• Verify the correct jumper settings for video cards that are mounted to the motherboard by checking the documentation
that camewith the hardware.
• The cable running from the monitor to the video port may also be broken or there may be a loose contact. Examine the
monitor cable to ensure that there are no broken or bent pins. A bent pin can usually be straightened using a pair of
sharp-nosed pliers. Also check that the cable running from the monitor to the VGA port is secure.
12.6.3 Basic Troubleshooting in Windows OS Operating System does not appear
Suppose if the initial screen of the startup process appears on the monitor and then if the display goes blank, then there
is a possibility of wrong video driver installation. When an incompatible video driver with the operating system is installed
these kinds of problems will surface. If your operating system is Windows XP, you can follow procedures given below to
resolve the problem.

• In Windows XP, start the computer in Safe Mode by pressing [F8] when the Starting Windows message appears.
• From the boot menu select the Safe Mode option. This will force Windows XP to start using the standard VGA driver,
instead of the video driver that is used when the operating system is started normally.
• Once the computer is started in Safe Mode, you can install the correct video driver using Device Manager.
You can get a detailed description of these steps under the section "Updating Video Drivers".
Another cause for the video problem discussed above could be due to overclocking. Although this is a popular method
used to get more performance out of a hardware component such as a video card adapter, it could result in display
problems. The problem can once again be resolved by starting Windows XP in Safe Mode and configuring the video card
to operate at its default speed.
Poor Display
Poor display can cause, besides fuzzy appearance, distorted text, monitor flickering etc. Due to poor display there may be
chances of causing headaches and sore eyes after working for long time on the computer. Therefore this problem has to
be resolved.
There are a number of causes which lead to poor display. You should first verify that the latest driver for the video
adapter has been installed. You can determine which driver version is currently installed in Windows XP by completing
the steps outlined below:

1. Right click the Windows desktop and click Properties.

2. From the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab.
3. Click the Advanced button.
4. Click the Adapters tab.
5. Click the Properties button under Adapter Type as shown in Figure
12.2.

6. Click the Driver tab.

Select the Properties button under Adapter Type to locate specific driver information including the driver version. You can
find the version information beside the Driver Version field. Compare this version with the latest version on the
manufacturer's Web site. If the driver needs to be updated complete steps four through seven listed under the section
entitled “Updating Video Drivers”. If the latest driver is installed, you may need to adjust the resolution and refresh rate
(this is the rate at which the video card redraws the screen) for the video adapter card. Incorrect display settings can
cause problems with your display.
Screen Resolution
In order to configure display settings, right click the Windows XP desktop and click Properties to open the Display
Properties dialog box. Then select the Settings tab as shown in Figure 12.3 to change the resolution settings. Use the
slider under Screen resolution to adjust the settings. Normally, a 17 inch monitor will have a default resolution of
800x600.

Figure 12.3: Changing the screen resolution

Use the Settings tab from the Display Properties dialog box to change the resolution. If you are unable to select the
desired resolution that should be supported by the video card, you will need to again check that the operating system has
correctly identified the card. In Windows, you can use Device Manager to make sure the card has been properly detected.
If the card has not been properly identified, you will once again need to check the driver. It is usually recommended that
you use the drivers supplied by the manufacturer instead of the drivers included with Windows.
The screen resolution may also be limited if the wrong monitor is selected. To check the monitor selection, once again
open the Display Properties dialog box and select the Settings tab. Click the Advanced button and select the Monitor tab.
If the monitor listed is not correct, you will need to update the driver for the monitor.
Refresh Rate
If the problem still persists after adjusting the resolution, your next step should be to adjust the refresh rate. Lower
refresh rates tend to cause flickering so it is important to verify this setting. You can adjust the refresh rate using the
Settings tab from the Display Properties dialog box.

Once again, select the Settings tab and click the Advanced button. Select the Monitor tab as shown in Figure 12.4. Use the
drop down arrow to adjust the refresh rate to about 70 MHZ. Remember that a higher refresh rate will reduce the
amount of flickering. As with the screen resolution, if you are unable to select the desired refresh rate, go back to the
video driver to make sure the latest one is installed. Use the Monitor tab to adjust the refresh rate.
It is important to verify that the monitor supports the screen resolution and refresh rate configured in the Display
Properties dialog box. You should refer to the documentation or manual that came with your monitor in order to identify
the values that are supported.
Problems Displaying Videos or Animations
You will encounter problems with videos and animations, if the display adapter driver does not support DirectDraw. If
videos and animations are not correctly displayed on the monitor, you should first determine if the video card adapter
driver supports DirectDraw which can be accomplished using the DirectX Diagnostic Tool. Then from the Run command
type DxDiag.exe and click OK. From the Display tab, click the Test DirectDraw button. Windows XP will perform a series
of tests. If your display does not pass each of the tests, you will need to update the video adapter.
If updating the video adapter driver does not solve the problem, verify that your video card is indeed supported by the
operating system installed on your computer. If you are running Windows, you can check the Hardware Compatibility List
(HCL) to determine if the video card adapter is supported.
Updating Video Drivers
Faulty or incorrect video drivers can result in such things as operating system instability, video subsystem problems, and
so on.Most video cards come with drivers on a floppy disk or a CD-ROM. You can use the drivers that came with the
hardware or visit the manufacturer's Web site to obtain a more recent one. The drivers should come with a text file
outlining the installation process.
The first step in updating the driver is to identify the make and model of your video card. In Windows XP, you can see a
list of all the hardware components within Device Manager. The video card should be listed under Display Adapters as
shown in Figure 12.5. However, if it is has not been recognized by Windows XP, it may be listed under Unknown Devices.
Double click on the video adapter listed to identify the make and model. This information can be used to retrieve the
latest driver from the manufacturer's Web site. Device Manager will list the Display Adapter installed in the computer.

Figure 12.5: Device manager screen

If you are running Windows XP, you can update a device driver using the steps listed below:

1. Right click My Computer and click Properties.

2. From the Hardware tab, click Device Manager.
3. Within Device Manager, double-click the video adapter listed under Display Adapters.
4. Click Update Driver as shown in Figure 12.6 to open the Hardware Update Wizard.
5. Accept the default option, Install the Software Automatically. Choose the Install from a List or Specific Location
option if you have the updated driver so you can indicate the file location. Click Next.
6. Windows searches for an updated driver and instructs you if an updated driver has been found.
7. Click Finish once the updated driver has been installed.

A majority of video adapter card problems can be solved by ensuring that the correct driver is installed and that the
display settings are properly configured based on the capabilities of your hardware. However, if you are unable to resolve
the problem using the steps discussed in the previous sections then, it might be

Unit 13 SCSI and USB Systems

13.2 SCSI Systems
SCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface. It was designed to allow the peripheral devices to operate on single
adapter rather than using separate adapters for each device. This increases throughput and performance of the system.
13.2.1 SCSI concepts
SCSI uses single adapter to operate number of devices simultaneously. This concept is based on device-level interfaces
like Parallel and serial port. We have studied this in unit 9 and unit 10 respectively.
The PC does not bother about the name of the device attached to it. It sends the command and data to the device and
waits for the device to respond. For example, the printer that was there working fine 10 years ago will work properly with
the recent processor of the computer when connected because it only works with the command and data. This means the
computer peripherals and hardware components are completely free from compatibility issues because it is taken care by
SCSI devices.
• Device independence: In order to maintain the device independence feature of the device, SCSI is both a BUS and
a command set. SCSI is a bus which is a collection of cables and switches where each cable has its name and specific
purpose. A command set is a limited set of instructions that is used to allow the computer and peripheral device to
transmit data over the bus. For example, The SCSI Test Unit Ready command is used to determine if a device is ready
to transfer data (read/write), i.e. if a disk spins up or the disk is ready or loaded. The example for SCSI are hard drives,
optical devices, printers etc. The appearance of these devices is one and same because any old device can be easily
replaced by a new device without modifications. Since the method to connect to the device is done by the peripherals
device and not by microprocessor, the computer can employ some small set of instructions that flow to and fro between
the peripheral and computer.
• Bus length: SCSI devices are connected with a 50 pin or 68-pin cable whose total length will measure the overall bus
length. There are two types of SCSI devices based on the length of the buses. They are internal SCSI devices and external
SCSI devices. Some of the system may have either internal or external or both.
Internal SCSI device are those that are connected to the computer through passive terminators installed in the drive.
These devices are connected to a SCSI controller ribbon cable.
External SCSI devices are Inline terminators connected in series.
These devices have closed ended terminators plugged into a bus connector. When the system has only internal SCSI
devices, the bus length is measured from the SCSI host adapter to the last internal SCSI device on the terminated device.
When there are only external SCSI devices, the bus length is measured from the SCSI host adapter to the last external SCSI
device on the terminated device. If there are both internal and external SCSI devices, then the bus length is measured
from the last external device to the last internal device. With the use of short bus length the implementations of SCSI
have become faster.

• Initiators and targets: Based on the type of SCSI bus, the devices can be initiators and targets. An initiator is a device
that starts communication when something has to be done. A target is a device that responds to the initiator’s
commands. The organisation for initiator and target is a two way process and interactive. An initiator may become
target in the course of data transfer cycle and vice-versa. There must be at least one initiator and one target in the
system. Usually the SCSI adapter card will be the initiator and all the other devices like hard drives or CD-ROMs are
usually the targets.
• Synchronous and asynchronous: SCSI needs a handshaking protocol to organise data transfer from sending end
to receiving end.

There are three types of handshaking protocols. They are asynchronous, synchronous and fast synchronous.
Asynchronous protocol works like a parallel port in which whenever each byte is received it must be acknowledge and
request is sent before the next byte can be sent. This type of operation leads to reliable but slow performance.
Synchronous and fast synchronous operations do not bother about request and acknowledge handshake only for data
transfer. Therefore the operations will be slightly faster with a fixed amount of delay time called as offset.
The fast synchronous protocol uses shorter signals, which gives faster speed. The protocol to be used is chosen by the
initiator and the target through their communications.
• Disconnect and Reconnect: SCSI gives features of disconnect and then reconnecting the devices again later. This
feature is the main reason of SCSI desirability in the multitasking environment and allows different operations to
operate simultaneously. The initiator can decide whether it can give the feature authority of disconnecting the device
to the target.
• Terminators: It is a small resistor array which is used to enhance with SCSI signal integrity.
The SCSI cable must be terminated with a location of terminating resistor depending upon the devices that are added to
the Bus. Since there is a particular limit to the number of devices that can be added to the cable, the termination have
become a big deal. They just have to add the resistor. Termination has become a very important element of SCSI setup
and troubleshooting. The incorrect termination can cause lot of signal problem. There are two types of terminators, active
terminator and passive terminator. Active terminator provides its own regulated power sources. This feature will
influence the longer cable. Passive terminator has resistor pack that can be plugged into SCSI device.
Passive terminator is suited for short distances usually work for cable length inside the PC.

• SCSI IDs and LUNs: SCSI bus is designed to support eight devices at a time (hard drive, DVD drive, host adapter,
Scanner, Printer, etc.) called as logical unit. A logical unit number must have its own unique ID number ranging from 0
to 7. The SCSI IDs are the set for SCSI adapter. Each SCSI device uses jumpers or DIP switches (A series of tiny switches
built into circuit boards which helps us to configure a circuit board for the specific types of the computer or the
applications.). Generally the SCSI adapter is set for ID7 (SCSI ID 7 is the preset SCSI ID for the SCSI host bus adapter
giving it the highest priority on the SCSI bus), the primary SCSI hard drive is set to ID0 (it is the standard ID used for an
internal drive) and the secondary SCSI hard drive is set to ID1 (low priority comparatively). From ID2 to ID6 are the
unique ID numbers in which the other devices can be placed.
A logical unit number or LUN is a number used to identify a logical unit, which is a device addressed by the SCSI protocol
or similar protocols. Logic unique numbers (LUNs) are similar to SCSI ID that is used to identify a logical unit. LUNs indicate
devices within devices. Every SCSI ID from 0 to 7 can have up to eight LUNs that mean there can be eight sub devices for
every given device ID. You can also make your device ID consisting of more than eight sub devices. For example, suppose
you have three hard drives E:, F: and G:, ID2 can be used by all three drives but E: can be assigned to LUN0, F: to LUN1, G:
to LUN2. Unfortunately, an SCSI user cannot decide randomly to use LUNs assignment because there must be a hardware
designed for that purpose. If you have a device that uses LUNs like CD juke box, you may need to enable LUNs support in
the host adapter’s bios or device drivers.

• Bus Configuration: As we know, SCSI uses single ended cabling that support an eight bit data bus also known as A-
cable. This eight bit data Bus is a 50-pin assembly. SCSI cable with 50-pin single ended system consists of 3 major
sections. They are ground wire, data signal and control signal. The brown line is carried by at least half of the single
ended interface. There are eight data lines from D0 to D7 and one data parity bit (DPAR). The parity bit is always an odd
number in SCSI. There are four terminator power lines (TERM PWR) and nine control signal wire.
The following will explain each of the signals:
• C/D - Control/Data: This signal is target driven that allows the target device to select whether it will be returning a
command or data to the initiator.
• I/O: This signal is target driven that allows the target device to determine whether it will be receiving the data or sending
the information along the data Bus.
• MSG - Message: This signal is target driven that allows the target device to send coded status or error messages back
to the initiator during the message portion of SCSI Bus cycle.
• REQ - Request: This signal is data strobe signal that is also target driven which allows a potential target device to obtain
data on the Bus.
• ACK - Acknowledge: This signal is initiated driven which is also called as data strobe signal that is sent in response to
target! REQ signals that inform the target device that it has gained the use of the Bus.
• BSY - Busy: This signal is either target driven or initiated driven. This signal allows the device to inform the Bus that the
target device is busy
• SEL - Select: This signal is neither target driven or initiated driven that is used by an initiator to select a target device.
• ATN - Attention: This signal is initiator driven that is produced by the initiator which informs the target device that
initiator has message ready. The target should switch to the message phase.
• RST - Reset: This signal is target driven or initiator driven and is strobe signal that triggers a Bus-wide Reset off all
devices. Usually only one device produces a reset signal.
13.2.2 Installing a SCSI system
Ideally SCSI host adapters are PnP devices that can automatically detect the resource connected to the PCI slot. Problems
occur because of |incorrect hardware or software installations. In this section, you will understand the overview of SCSI
adapter installation process and SCSI BIOS setup.

• Internal Hardware installation: you need to install the SCSI host adapter and connected to at least one SCSI device.

You must follow the steps below to perform installation of a typical SCSI host adapter:

1. Switch off the computer and unplug it.

2. Unbolt the case and detach the screws and keep it in a safe place.
3. While replacing the SCSI host adapter with new one, remove the older device carefully and keep it on a antistatic
surface or antistatic bag.
4. Identify the new SCSI host adapter which is usually connected to PCI slot or ISA slot. Remove the cover of the new
slot and keep the screw in a safe place.
5. Insert the SCSI host adapter card slowly and firmly inside the slot. Fix the screw to tighten the bracket.
6. Connect the computer’s drive activity LED cable to the suitable connector of the SCSI card.
7. You should ensure that all the other bus connections are proper if needed.
You should have proper terminator for SCSI bus and no SCSI IDs. The SCSI IDs of each SCSI device must be verified and the
termination end point must be properly checked.

• Software Installation: Any hardware requires the appropriate software available for proper execution of the device.
You must install the necessary device drivers for the SCSI device you have installed.

You need to follow the instructions below to properly install the software to the windows.

1. It should automatically detect the SCSI device when windows start up.
2. Click on Driver which is provided by the device manufacturer in the Disk. Then click OK.
3. Driver CD should be inserted into CD ROM, then select CD-ROM drive. Then click OK. This will load the SCSI drivers
into the windows
4. Once loading is finished verify for installation success. When your desktop returns then Click start → highlight
settings → click control panel.
5. Next double click on the system icon → click the Device Manager Lab.
6. Double click on the SCSI Controllers branch to expand it.
7. Now it is possible to see that your new SCSI host adapter is listed in the system properties. If you can see the name
of the device drivers then it means that your new device is installed properly. If not, then you need to check the
installation.
8. Once you get to see the device in the system properties you can now exit the Device Manager and start the use of
your SCSI adapter.
13.2.3 SCSI considerations
While adding or upgrading the SCSI support on your computer you must consider the four important elements. They are
the SCSI peripheral, the SCSI host adapter, the SCSI cable assembly, and the SCSI software driver. If any of these elements
is missing, then the installation will suffer from problems.
• The SCSI peripherals: you need to find out the compatible devices with the architecture of the SCSI controller such
as SCSI hard drive or CDROM. You must know about the wide range of SCSI ID settings of each of the SCSI device. The
peripheral device must be flexible to run on any of the eight SCSI IDs (0-7). SCSI peripheral should support SCSI parity.
 We must be sure about the type of SCSI devices as the SCSI devices are of two types such as internal and external. If
you use internal SCSI device then there must be enough space inside the PC to fit the device inside. If you are using
external device then there should be two SCSI connectors on the adapter to allow the chain connectivity for adding
devices later. Device drivers must be compatible with the same standard protocol used by adapters. Compatibility is
an issue because if the device drivers are not compatible then it will not work properly. The peripheral you are using
must offer built-in cable termination.

• SCSI host adapter: SCSI host adapter is an important device. The adapter chosen should be compatible with the
existing PC bus. It should support the standards. The adapters must be flexible enough to work with all SCSI IDs from 0
to 7. The host adapter also requires device driver to run properly. Therefore, the same standard device driver must be
used that is compatible with the host adapter.
• SCSI cables: Though the recent cabling is highly standardised, check for proper cabling. While choosing the
peripherals, be aware of the cable requirement. Don’t use specialized cables because all devices may not support them.
Keep the cable length short and use the good quality cabling. You must also take care of termination and end point of
cabling. The termination and ending of the cables must be thoroughly checked and verified.
• SCSI drivers: Device driver provides instructions that allow the SCSI host adapter to communicate with the PC as
well as with the peripherals. The peripheral as well as host adapter requires device drivers to operate. Therefore you
must use the same standard device drivers that are compatible to the devices.
13.2.4 Troubleshooting
In many cases, the troubles are caused during installation, setup, and operation of the devices that is on the bus. When
you are installing a device, install one by one then you will have less problems. You must first check the host adapter SCSI
BIOS initialization message. If you don’t find the initialization message when you switch on the computer then it is sure
that there is some problem with system SCSI host adapter. This means that either the adapter is installed properly or
device itself is defective. If this test is passed in the SCSI checking them probably the problem is in the driver installation.
You must ensure that any old CMOS settings are mapped wrongly to the new device. Then you need to unselect the
settings. Below are the general tips or checklist for troubleshooting the SCSI device in the following.

• You must ensure the power supply of the computer is sufficient enough to handle all the SCSI devices in the computer.
• The quality of the cable must be good and securely attached to each device.
• The orientation of each connector on the SCSI cable must be verified properly.
• SCSI ID of the device must be properly selected. You must make sure that duplicate IDs are not allowed unless LUNs
designations are used.
• You must ensure that the two ends of the cable must have proper terminations and should have active terminators.
• You must verify for the proper configuration of SCSI controller. There must be no conflicts in the SCSI controller in case
of IRQs, BIOS addresses, or I/O. you must check the SCSI host adapter BIOS. The SCSI BIOS can be disabled if you are
not using SCSI hard drives in booting. This decreases the problem related to performance or compatibility issues can be
solved.
• You must check for CMOS setup for drive configuration. If the SCSI drives are in the system and IDE drives are not in
the system then make the drive entries under CMOS as “none”.
• You need to check for the PCI slot containing the SCSI host adapter is active or not and ensure that it is using the unique
IRQ.
• You need to check the DOS drivers for host adapter and non HDD devices are installed properly in CONFIG.SYS and
AUTOEXEC.BAT. CONFIG.SYS is the primary configuration file for the DOS and OS/2 operating systems. It is a special file
that contains setup or configuration instructions for the computer system. AUTOEXEC.BAT is a root directory batch file
that is responsible for executing commands at system start up.
• You need to check for the protected mode drivers if you are working under windows. You must see that any necessary
protected drivers for the host adapter and SCSI devices are installed properly.
13.3 USB systems
Universal serial Bus (USB) is a serial Bus standard for connecting the device to the computer without installing the driver
when the computer is shut down and restarted. It is termed as intelligent serial interface and a technology for high speed
data transfer over cable. USB is often used for connecting keyboard, mouse and portable data storage devices to the
computer. It is very user friendly when compared to alternative port such as parallel and serial port.
In this section you will study the general concept of USB and get to know the troubleshooting procedures to solve the
problems with implementation and performance on windows platform. You will also study the architecture of USB.
13.3.1 USB Concept
The USB interface simplifies the problem faced by external peripheral devices such as printer, scanner, drive, etc due to
integration. Using USB interface you can directly pin the devices to the computer. The USB is a hardwired connection
linking two or more hardware components within a computer system and is designed to provide a fast and functional
means for adding external components to a PC. With the help of USB there is no need to install and reconfigure the
system of a dedicated computer. Computer peripherals automatically configure as soon as they get attached to the
computer without rebooting a system or executing the CMOS setup routine.
USB allows up to 127 USB devices to run simultaneously on computer.
USB devices: Each USB device has the same potential as every bit, as diverse as the personnel computer itself. Some of
the devices that is designed for USB in the computer are telephones, modems, keyboards, mouse, CD-ROM drives,
joystick, scanners, digital cameras and printers.

Additional to these devices USB’s 12Mbits/s data rate supports other peripherals such as MPEG-2 video (MPEG-2 is a
standard for the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information. It describes a combination of lossy
video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using
currently available storage media and transmission bandwidth.) Based product, data gloves (device which is in a form of
gloves with concept of virtual reality measure the movements of the fingers who wear the gloves and transmits them to
computer) and digitizer(it is device for converting analog signals into digital signals which combines two operations of
sampling the input data and quantizing samples). USB also acts as DSL interface (Digital Subscriber Line) and
accommodate cable modem. DSL is a technology that provides data transmission over the telephone network without
interfering with the voice service.
• Implementing USB: It is simply a matter of attaching a USB hub such as USB keyboard and then attaching USB device
to the hub. If there is no USB available in the system. You will need to upgrade the motherboard to a chipset that
contains USB-complaint. Once the new motherboard is placed USB device can be attached.

• Enabling USB: BIOS control the USB port on the motherboard that enables through the system CMOS setup utility.
you can locate the USB configuration setting section once you enter the CMOS setup. You can find these settings under
input output port configuration menu or peripheral setup menu. Enable the USB ports, before using the USB

• Types of USB host controller: There are two types of USB host controller. They are UHCI (Universal Host Controller
Interface) and OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface). These types are responsible for having an impact on USB device
compatibility. UHCI is a register level interface that enables a host controller for USB or fireware hardware to
communicate with a host controller driver in the software. OHCI is a register level interface to assure software works
properly with any hardware. OHCI does not support all the USB devices USB devices often work fine with UHCI. For
example, sometimes you find that a USB peripheral may not function properly in any USB port that is when you attempt
to use it Compaq USB camera with an OHCI, the camera may not get detected or may not work properly. This probably
means that your camera is designed to work on the UHCI host controller and not supported on OHCI controller. OHCI
host controller has optimization feature that allow multiple transaction submitted in a single frame whereas UHCI host
controller send only a single transaction per frame. This means your camera cannot respond to a second transaction
within a second frame.

In order to find the type of the USB host controller in your computer you must use the following steps,
1. You need to click start → settings →control panel
2. Double click on the system icon and select the Device Manager tab
3. Expand the universal serial Bus entry by clicking the plus sign (+) in front of it. This is to be done to see controller
information dialogue.
4. Locate UHCI or OHCI on the dialogue box.

USB Features You can list few of the features of USB as follows,
1. When USB device connects to a computer, the computer acts as the host device.
2. You can connect up to 127 devices to the host using USB.
3. The USB 2 has the maximum data rate of 480 megabits per second. USB 2.0 is an external serial interface used on
computers and other digital devices to transfer data using a USB cable. The designation 2 refers to the standard
or version of the USB interface.
4. You can connect two wires of the USB cable to power supply. One wire for voltage supply and other wire for grounding.
5. For low power devices like keyboard, mouse they can be directly connected to the computer and draw their power
supply from the BUS. High power devices such as printer, scanners have their own power supplies and draw minimum
power from the BUS.
6. You can plug the USB devices into the BUS and unplug them at any time.
7. When the computer goes to power saving mode the USB devices can automatically put to sleep mode by the host
computer.

13.3.2 USB Architecture

USB is a connection with two points in which one point is a master on host and another point works as slave. Host is
usually a computer that may have 127 slaves connected at a time. Computer has 2 to 4 USB connectors but hub number
may increase up to 127.
The USB system architecture consists of three main components they are Host computer, USB device and USB cable.
HOST computer: It controls the communication between the computer and USB devices. There are two layers in the
host computers. They are USB host controller hardware layer and a software layer. The software layer includes USB
device drivers for a wide range of USB peripherals such as keyboards, mice, digital still cameras, scanners, mass
storage devices etc.
USB hardware layer is responsible for the following
 To Detect the attachment and remove the USB devices
 Monitor device status and collect activity statistics
 Provide power to attached USB devices
 Manages control and data flow between the USB host and USB devices.
 Checks the basic validity of bus transactions

USB software layer is responsible for the following

 Handles USB devices and their connectivity USB devices enumeration and configuration Appropriate device
drives will be loaded.
 Power management on the bus and bus bandwidth
 Manages the data transfer between the software and hardware

USB Devices: These devices are the peripherals of the computers that communicate with the host computer using USB
protocol. Some of the devices are flash Drive, MP3 player, image still camera, video camera, etc. Additional to this, there
is special type of USB device called as USB hub that gives the additional attachment points to connect more peripherals.
USB Hub is a device that has multiple USB ports which is used to plug the various USB devices and other hubs.
USB Cable: cable is a wire that is used to connect host computer and USB device.
The maximum length of standard USB cable limits to 5 meters for high speed devices and 3 meters for low speed devices.
The reason behind using short cable length is the maximum allowed delay of the signal is limited to shorter time above
which the connection will be lost. Practically, some USB devices may work with longer than specified cable. When longer
cable is used it may decrease the signal quality provided by the USB bus. This avoids the USB device to work properly or
may not work at all.
13.3.3 Troubleshooting
Usually USB problems are not severe. But still there are few steps which can control these small problems such as
hardware failure, device driver’s configuration problems, cabling problems, firmware/BIOS problems, Root hub
configuration problems, etc.
The steps are as follows:
 Hardware failures or Configuration problems: There may be some hardware problems such as high or low
power, limited bandwidth, malfunctioning, etc. In this case, make sure that the root is working properly through the
Device Manager. If you find an exclamation mark in a yellow circle or triangle along with root hub then it means there
is some error. USB Root Hubs are both physical and virtual installation ports that can be found on your computer that
are used for implementing and installing additional hardware files and components to your computer's hard drive. You
need to verify that the BIOS assign the Interrupt request line (IRQ) to the root USB controller. This is very important as
it loads the device drivers. If the devices are not working when you plug the device to a root hub then check the power
requirement of the bus. If the device tries to draw more power than the capacity of the bus then the device don’t work.
Otherwise if the port gets less power, then port is not at all active. Then also it will not work.

 Device driver configurations problems: when the device is connected to the root hub, it should automatically
load and configure the device without even asking a device driver. If the computer prompts you for device driver then
you need to enquire with the manufacturer of the device that the windows you are using support the specific device.

 Cabling problems: USB has two types of cables. They are high speed and low speed cables. If you plug high speed
cable in to a low speed cable, then it can cause signal distortion over a long distance. The major difference between
the two types of cabling is their shielding.
 Firmware/BIOS problems: Firmware is software that is stored permanently inside the ROM. It is the key to all USB
devices. All the information about the device is present in the device’s firmware. Port reset itself once the descriptors
in the firmware are loaded into the system. Verify the root hub and you must have up-to-date firmware for both BIOS
and USB device. Malfunctioning of firmware results in loading the second copy of the device in the Device Manager.
When you remove and insert the device, the device becomes available again and appears as the second instance of the
same device. When you find this you must verify that you have the most up-to-date firmware for that device.
 Root Hub Configurations Problems: This problem is related to computer set up. IRQ line need to be assigned
by an USB controller in the computer BIOS.

13.5 Glossary
Term Description

Firmware Is a software that are stored permanently inside the ROM.

Root hub Are both physical and virtual installation ports that can be found on your
computer that are used for implementing and installing additional
hardware files and components to your computer's hard drive.

USB hub Is a device that has multiple USB ports which is used to plug the various
USB devices and other hubs.

DSL Is a technology that provides data transmission over the telephone

network without interfering with the voice service.
 MPEG-2 Is a standard for the generic coding of moving pictures and associated
audio information. MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group – 2) is a
compression standard for digital television. It enables digital television
broadcasters to transmit video streams with higher resolution and audio
streams with higher quality sound while using as little bandwidth as
possible.

Unit 14 PC Assembly
14.2 Plug and Play Devices
Plug and Play (PnP) is a combination of hardware and software support that enables a computer system to recognize and
adapt to hardware configuration changes with little or no involvement by a user. This feature enables you to add devices
to a computer or even remove devices from, it even without any understanding about the hardware or even performing
any manual configuration. For example, you can add and remove plug and play devices such as keyboard, mouse,
monitor, pen drive, external hard disk etc.
PnP is supported by the device hardware, device drivers and system software. The hardware industry standards, PnP ISA
definition and the PC Card standard are provided for easy identification of add-in boards and basic system components.
The system software support for PnP, together with PnP drivers provides the following:

• Automatic and dynamic recognition of installed hardware

In this, the system software recognizes hardware during initial system installation. It also recognizes PnP hardware
changes that occur between system boots, and responds to run-time hardware events such as docking or undocking
and device insertion or removal.
• Hardware resource allocation and reallocation
The PnP Manager determines the request made by .devices hardware resources such as input/output ports, for
interrupt request, direct memory access channels, memory locations etc., when a new device is added to the system
that requires resources already in use; the PnP Manager reconfigures resource assignments. PnP device drivers do
not assign resources directly but only identify the requested source. The PnP Manager retrieves the requirements for
each device during resource allocation.
• Loading of appropriate drivers
The PnP Manager determines which drivers are required to support each device and loads those drivers accordingly.
As a PnP driver is an important part of PnP support it is important for it fulfill certain criteria to qualify as PnP, namely, it
shouldprovide the required PnP entry points, handle the required PnP IRPs, and follow PnP guidelines.
14.2.1 PnP under Windows OS
Since the time the first Plug and Play (PnP) support was provided in the Windows 95 operating system, the technology has
evolved dramatically due to OnNow design initiative. OnNow outlines a comprehensive, system-wide approach to
controlling system and device configuration and power management with the help of Advanced Configuration and Power
Interface Specification (ACPI) which provides these services for all versions of Windows later than Windows 95. The main
purpose of the Plug and Play design creation is to simplify PCs for end users.
The Windows 2000 Plug and Play implementation does not rely on an APM BIOS or a Plug and Play BIOS. It is actually
designed to extend the existing Windows NT I/O infrastructure to support Plug and Play and Power Management. In
Windows 2000, Plug and Play support is optimized for laptop, workstation, and server computers that include ACPI
system boards.

Moreover, the Plug and Play device driver support for many device classes is provided by the Microsoft Windows Driver
Model (WDM), which also supports power management and other new capabilities that can be configured and controlled
by the operating system.
Plug and Play Architecture in Windows 2000
Figure 14.1 shows the architecture of Plug and Play in Windows 2000.It contains two modes of functionalities: user-mode
functionality and kernelmode functionality. The user-mode functionality cooperates with kernelmode components to
provide dynamic configuration and interfaces with other components that need to participate in Plug and Play, such as
Setup and Control Panel. Boot-time Plug and Play activity and interfaces with the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer),
Executive, and device drivers are supported by the kernel-mode functionality. Let’s see the functions of various
components in this architecture.

Plug and Play Manager in Kernel-mode

There are a number of activities performed by the kernel-mode Plug and Play Manager in Windows 2000 like maintaining
central control, directingbus drivers to perform enumeration and configuration, directing the device drivers to add a
device, start a device, and so on. Apart from these the Plug and Play Manager can send requests to determine whether a
device can be safely kept in pause mode or removed; give the device driver an opportunity to synchronize outstanding I/O
requests to the incoming request; coordinate with the user mode Plug and Play counterpart to pause or remove devices
that are available for such actions.
Power Manager and Policy Manager in the Kernel-mode
All power management APIs are handled by the Power Manager component in the kernel-mode in combination with the
Policy Manager. It also coordinates matching power events, and generates power management IRPs. It is the Power
Manager which gathers the requests made by several devices to be turned off, When several devices request to be turned
off, the Power Manager collects those requests, decideswhich requests must be serialized, and then generates
appropriate power management IRPs. The Policy Manager component in the kernel-mode monitors activity in the system
and integrates user status, application status, and device driver status into power policy. It is only under specified
circumstances or upon request that the Policy Manager generates IRPs to change device power states.
I/O Manager in the Kernel-mode
There are a number of services provided by the I/O Manager in the kernelmode for device drivers like translating user-
mode read and write commands into read or write IRPs, andmanaging all the other main operating system IRPs. As the
functions of these interfaces are same as in Windows NT 4.0 and both Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 include the I/O
Manager, a Windows 2000 Plug and Play driver can be manually installed on Windows NT 4.0 to serve as a Windows NT
4.0 driver, but it will not support Plug and Play or other features specific only to Windows 2000.

WDM (Windows Device Manager) Interface for Plug and Play The I/O system provides a layered architecture
for drivers. The following sections discusstypes of WDM drivers, driver layers, and device objects:

WDM Driver Types

The WDM Bus drivers are the standard WDM drivers that describe bus capabilities and control the bus power
management and Plug and Play. The bus is referred by any drive from which other devices are listed. A bus driver not only
responds to new Plug and Play and power management IRPs but can also be extended using filter drivers. Moreover, it
enumerates the device on its bus, reports dynamic events on its bus to the operating system, responds to Plug and Play
and Power Management IRPs, provides several accesses to the bus, and generally administers the devices on its bus.
There are three kinds of drivers in the context of Plug and Play. They are bus drivers, function drivers and filter drivers.
Bus Driver: It services a bus controller, adapter, bridge, or any device that has child devices. A Bus driveris an essential
driver and is generally provided by Microsoft.Every type of bus on a system has a bus driver each.
Function Driver: This is a main device driver toprovide the operational interface for its deviceFunction driver is needed
unless the device is used raw in which case the I/O is done by the bus drivers and filter drivers. The function driver for a
device is typically implemented as a pair of class driver/mini-driver. In such driver pairs, a class driver (usually written by
Microsoft) provides the functionality required by all devices of that type, and a mini-driver (usually written by the device
vendor) provides device-specific functionality. The Plug and Play Manager loads one function driver for each device.
Filter Driver: A filter driver which sorts I/O requests for a bus, a device, or a class of devices is optional and can be
present in any number, placed above or below a function driver and above a bus driver. Usually, a filter driver is supplied
by system’s original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or independent hardware vendor (IHV). In most cases, lower-level
filter drivers modify the behavior of device hardware. For example, a lower-level class filter driver for mouse devices
could provide acceleration, performing a nonlinear conversion of mouse movement data while Upper-level filter drivers
usually provide added-value features for a device. For example, an upperlevel device filter driver for a keyboard could
enforce additional security checks.
 Driver Layers
Every device will have two (one each for bus driver and function driver) or three (including the optional filter driver) driver
layers.

Device Objects
The device objects which are the device to the driver created by the corresponding driver are generally of three kinds:
physical device objects (PDOs), functional device objects (FDOs), and filter device objects. Physical Device Objects
(PDOs) represent a device on a bus. Every Plug and Play API that refers to a device refers to the PDO. The Functional
Device Objects (FDOs) represent the functionality of a device to a function driver. The filter device objects represent a
filter driver as a hook to add value. These three kinds of device objects are all of the type DEVICE_OBJECT, but are used
differently and can have different device extensions.

Additional Windows NT (New Technology) Interfaces

The Plug and Play drivers in Windows 2000 are not limited to using the WDM (Windows Device Manager) interfaces.
These drivers can call other interfaces to support legacy Windows NT drivers, detection, or other Windows 2000-specific
capabilities that are not provided under WDM. You should keep in mind that a driver that supports features specific to
Windows 2000 is no longer compatible with Windows 98. However if you want to use the same drivers in Windows 2000
and Windows 98, then you should opt for WDM drivers only.

User-Mode Plug and Play Components

The User-Mode APIs in Windows 2000 are 32-bit extended versions of Windows 95 based Configuration Manager APIs
and expose functionality from the user-mode Plug and Play. The Windows 2000 Setup program installs the drivers and so
forth. The 32-bit device installer installation APIs that Setup uses to install drivers are functionally a superset of the
Windows 95 SetupxDi (Windows 95 setup files) routines. Windows 2000 provides APIs that applications can use for
customized hardware event management and to create new hardware events.
Plug and Play Device Tree
The Plug and Play Manager maintains a device tree for the devices which can be viewed through the Device Manager,
which keeps track of the active devices in the system and information about those devices. The Plug and Play Manager
updates the device tree as devices are added and removed or as resources are reallocated. Depicted like a family tree, the
device tree is hierarchical in nature with devices on a bus represented as children of the bus adapter or controller. The
registry is the central storehouse for static hardware information. Plug and Play system components and drivers build,
maintain, and access new and existing sub-trees in the registry.
14.2.2 Enabling PnP under Linux
It is from mid-2004 that serious problems of Plug and Play technology in Linux have been resolved. Although initially Linux
did not support PnP devices nowhowever if you require it to support PnP devices then all you need to do is select certain
options while compiling the kernel. The BIOS may assign IRQs but Linux may also assign some of them or even reassign
what the BIOS did. The configuration part of ACPI (Advance Configuration and Power Interface) is designed to make it
easy for operating systems to do their own configuring. Linux can use ACPI if it's selected when the kernel is compiled.
In Linux, each device driver does its own low level configuration which function was difficult to perform until Linux
supplied software in the kernel that the drivers could use to make it easier forthem. Today, in Linux, driver simply calls the
kernel function: pci_enable_device () and the device gets configured by being enabled and having both an IRQ and
addresses assigned to the device. This assignment could be what was previously assigned by the BIOS or what the kernel
had previously reserved for it when the PCI or isa PnP device was detected by the kernel. There is even an ACPI option for
Linux to assign all devices IRQs at boot-time.This is done through a program called ‘setserial’ which allows you to tell the
device driver software the I/O address of the serial port, which IRQ is set in the port's hardware, etc. Although the drivers
are still doing the configuring they just have to request Linux to do it. In effect it is the non-device-driver part of the Linux
kernel that does most of the configuring. Linux then could be considered a PnP operating system, at least for common
computer architectures.
In Linux, when a device driver finds its device, it sees the addresses and IRQs assigned by BIOS and/or Linux and normally
accepts them. However the driver is at liberty to change the addresses using the functions supplied by the kernel. But the
kernel will not accept addresses that conflict with other devices or ones that the hardware can't support. When the PC
starts up, you may see messages on the screen mentioningthat some Linux device drivers have found their hardware
devices and what the IRQ and address ranges are. Thus, the kernel provides the drivers with functions (program code)
that the drivers may use to find out if their device exists, how it's been configured, and functions to modify the
configuration if needed. You can refer to the word document “kernel-doc” in the directory

/usr/src/linux/Documentation. In this directory, you can also see pci.txt

(“How to Write Linux PCI Drivers”). Also you can refer to the file ‘pci.h’ in the location: /usr/include/linux/pci.h for more
information about PCI drivers.
14.2.3 Troubleshooting
This section discusses troubleshooting techniques for some common PnP devicesunder Windows OS.
Plug and Play USB Not Working
In spite of Windows OS being loaded with a lot of drivers to support Plug and Play devices these devices may not function
for various reasons. The most common reason may be that Windows OS may not have the device driver for that
particular USB. An example of such a device would be your USB wireless broadband stick or a locally manufactured cell
phone. Such devices need related drivers to be installed prior to their functioning on any computer.
The other common reasons as to why sometimes Windows OS plug and play devices do not work may include faulty
devices, incorrectly configured hardware, mismatched USB cables, outdated firmware and problems with USB root hubs.
If you find a plug and play device that should be detected automatically but is not being recognized by Windows OS, you
can troubleshoot Windows OS, keeping in mind the above possibilities.
Sometimes the USB device may work in another computer having Windows OS but not in your computer. If this is the
case first download the latest updates of Windows OS, including latest Service Pack. Use the Windows Update option
under Tools Menu of the Internet Explorer to get the latest updates. If you are using another browser, you can use the
Automatic Updates icon in the Control Panel to get the Windows OS Updates.
Before you download and install any updates you may be missing, or before installing the latest Service Pack, which is not
on your computer, create a system restore point. You can do this by using the System Restore option.

Click on Start  All Programs  Accessories  System Tools  System Restore. Once you get the System Restore
Window, select “Create a Restore Point” and click on Next. The next page will ask you for a name to identify the system
restore point. Once you enter a unique name that you can remember, click on “Create” button and finally on “Close”. All
the current settings of your computer will be saved so that if anything goes wrong, you can use the system restore to
undo the changes done to your computer.
Using System Restore to Fix the USB Plug and Play Issue
Sometimes a USB device which may have been working well previously suddenly stops working. This may due to some
fault in the settings of the USB hub or with any system file associated with your device. You can resolve this issue by
resorting to system restore. Open the System Restore Dialog Box and select “Restore my computer to an earlier time”.
This will present you with a list of restore points in a calendar format. You need to recall the restore point prior to which
the USB plug and play device was working. Once you find it, click the restore point and then again click on the “Next”
button. This will restore the previous settings so that you can use the USB plug and play device again. There is a possibility
of losing any custom settings software installed after the creation of the restore point you selected to restore your
computer.
Troubleshooting using Power Cycle and Cables Power Reset
In order to do this first, detach the USB device from the computer and turn off the computer. Then unplug the power
supply, wait for a minute and plug the power cord back and turn on the computer. When Windows OS is loaded fully
insert the plug and play into the USB port. The power cycle will make the data bus to reset which might help Windows OS
to identify the plug and play device. Generally, the problem is fixed at this stage however, if Windows is still unable to
detect the USB plug and play, go to the next Windows OS troubleshooting steps.
Problems with Malfunctioning Cables
As some extension cables that come along with USB devices may have a problem, it is advisable to connect the USB
directly into the computer without using cables and see whether the USB is working. You should keep in mind that
sometimes the problem may arise due to the use of incompatible cables. Not every cable will work with all USB plug and
play devices as the USB cables are categorized based on the data transfer speeds, which vary from cable to cable. You
should checkif the cable is compatible with your plug and play USB device. If you find that the cables are ok and the
problem persists then you should go in for advanced Windows OS troubleshooting method for USB plug and play devices.
Advanced Windows Troubleshooting for Plug and Play Devices
As Windows OS has a certain power limit for each of its ports if any of the ports attempts or starts consuming more power
than the specified limit, the operating system suspends the port temporarily. If this happens to the USB ports, then the
Windows OS plug and play device may not be recognized.
Updating the BIOS and USB Firmware to Restore the Settings of Windows Ports:
Though the power settings are restored when you give a power cycle as explained above, sometimes the problem lies
with the firmware, meaning the hardware itself. There could be several reasons why a port would draw more power than
allocated. If you found that the power cycle did not fix the USB port, then now you may need to update the firmware.
Moreover, you can also update the system BIOS so that you can start afresh.For this you could search the website of the
manufacturer of your computer for the latest version of USB firmware and any BIOS update for downloading them.
Reinstallation of USB Controllers:
Even after undertaking all checks for troubleshooting, your Windows OS plug and play device does not work, and then
you have to consider two possibilities for this: either the USB controllers are corrupt or the USB ports are bad. In the
latter case, you will have to replace the USB ports. But before that, check if the reinstallation of the USB controllers can
solve your problem with the Windows OS plug and play device not working.
To reinstall the USB controllers, you need to uninstall them first. To uninstall the controllers, open the Device Manager by
holding down the Windows key and hitting the Break key. In the System Properties Dialog box that appears, select the
Hardware tab. Then click on the Device Manager Button (first one from the top). In the dialog box, expand the Universal
Serial Bus Controllers.
You will find it at the bottom of the window.

Once expanded, right click on each of the USB Controller and select uninstall from the context menu. You may be
presented with a message saying something about system instability. Ignore the message and uninstall all of them.
Self Assessment Questions
1. In Linux, the ‘pci.h’ header file is available in __________ directory.
2. ACPI stands for __________.
3. Every USB cable will work with all kinds USB plug and play devices. (True / False)

14.3 Identification of Cables in Computers

Before you start assembling a PC, you should first know and identify various cables that came packaged with your
computer. This section provides a visual guide for identifying various cables, starting with USB cables and connectors.
USB Cables and Connectors
USB cables are not only used to connect most new devices to your computer including flash memory sticks, portable
media players, internet modems and digital cameras but also computer accessories like mice, keyboards, webcams,
portable hard-drives, microphones, printers, scanners and speakers through USB ports. USB cables can alsobe used for
charging a variety of gadgets including mobile phones or for transferring data from one computer to another. Figure 14.2
shows a model of USB connector.
Although there are different types of USB cables a standard USB connector, USB-A, is a rectangular connector. The USB-A
end is present on every USB cable as it is the end that connects to your computer. The other end of the USB cable may
have different connectors including USB-B (a square connector commonly used with printers, external hard drives, and
larger devices) or smaller connectors such as the Mini-USB and Micro-USB that are commonly used with portable devices
such as media players and phones. Figure 14.3 shows different types of USB cables.

There are also connectors that have USB-A connectors at the end that connect to the computer, and a device-specific
connector at the other end (e.g. the iPod). USB Male to Female connectors is also available for extending the length of a
USB cable. Many other non-USB cables can also connect to your computer via a USB converter; these cables have the
standard USB-A connector on one end while the other end could have connections for other ports such as Ethernet or
audio.
Audio Cables and Connectors
The most common audio cable is the standard headphone jack which is also referred to as TRS connector.Such connectors
are available in several sizes, but the most common ones used with computers are the 3.5 mm or 1/8" mini audio jack.
Figure 14.4 shows the standard audio jack.

This standard audio jack can be used to connect most speakers and microphones to the computer. The microphone port
on your computer is usually pink in color. The speaker port will be usually green. Some computers have additional TSR
audio ports colored black, grey, and gold; these are for rear, front, and center/subwoofer output, respectively.
There is a bigger variety of the TSR connector which is called 1/4″ TRS. This is commonly used in professional audio
recording equipment and it can be connected to a computer using a 1/4" to 1/8" converter as shown in Figure 14.5.

Video Cables
The VGA (Video Graphics Array) cable is one of the most common video connectors for computer monitors and high-
definition TVs. A standard VGA connector has 15-pins. This is used to connect a monitor to a computer, laptop to a TV
screen or a projector. Figure 14.6 shows different types of VGA cables and connectors.

DVI (Digital Visual Interface) Monitor Port

While modern computers have DVI instead of VGA the new class of ‘slim’ laptops uses smaller variants of DVI like the
Mini-DVI and Micro-DVI. A DVI cable has 29 pins, though some connectors may have fewer pins depending on their
configuration. DVI’s video signal is compatible with HDMI (HighDefinition Multimedia Interface), so a simple converter can
allow a DVI monitor to receive input from an HDMI cable. Additionally, DVI to VGA converters is also available for
connecting your new graphics card to the old monitor that supports only VGA mode. Figure 14.7 shows the DVI cable.

S-Video
S-Video cables are also known as Separate Video or Super Video cables carry analog video signals. They are commonly
used for connecting DVD players, camcorders, and older video consoles to the television. Standard S-Video connectors are
round in shape and usually have 4 to 9 pins. Figure 14.8 shows the S-Video cable.

Data Cables
A data cable is any media that allows baseband transmissions (binary 1s, 0s) from a transmitter to a receiver. Some of the
examples include: Ethernet cables, token ring cables, USB cables etc. Firewire is a faster alternate to USB. They are used
for connecting digital camcorders and external hard drives to a computer. Firewire typically has 6 pins in its connector,
though a 4 pin variety is common as well. Figure 14.9 shows the Firewire.

eSATA(External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) Cables eSATA cable is used internally for
connecting the hard drive to the computer’s motherboard. The eSATA cable is designed to connect portable hard drives
to the computerand can transfer data faster than USB or FireWire. However, the eSATA cable cannot transmit power, so
unlike USB, you cannot power an external hard drive with eSATA. The eSATA cable has more shielding, and contains a
larger connector.

Networking Related Cables Phone RJ11 Cable

The telephone cable is also known as RJ11. It is used to connect the Internet through DSL/ADSL modems. A standard
phone cable has 4 wires and the connector has four pins.The connector has a clip at the top to help maintain a tight
connection. Figure 14.10 shows the standard RJ11 cable.
 Figure 14.10: The standard RJ11 cable

Ethernet Cable
The Ethernet cable, also known as RJ45 is based on Cat5 (Category 5) twisted pair cable and is made from 8 individual
wires.The Ethernet connector, has 8 pins and looks similar to a phone plug, but is actually thicker and wider. It too has a
clip to help maintain a tight connection like a phone connector. Figure 14.11 shows the Ethernet cable.

14.4 Fitting of Cabinet

This section discuss how to fit various components such as switch mode power supply (SMPS), floppy disk drive, hard disk
drive, CD-ROM drive etc. in the cabinet. The popular ATX cabinet is considered here as the model.
Attaching the Power Supply
Generally the computer cabinets come with SMPS (switch mode power supply) but if your case does not have it you may
have to buy one taking care to see that you get a 250W power supply to support your monitor and other devices. Mount
the power supply into the cabinet with the help of screws that come along with it. The power supply contains the power
supply connectors for other components such as floppy disk drive, hard disk drive, CD-ROM drive, mother board etc.
Installing the Hard Disk
First you have to set the jumper on the drive (next to the connector at the rear end) to select “Master”. If you use only
one hard disk, it should be set to Master. In future if you want to add one more hard disk, its jumper should be set for
Slave. Place the hard disk in the case and fasten with 4 screws.Connect one of the power supply cables to the hard drive.
Installing the CD-ROM Drive
First you need to set the jumper on the CD-ROM drive. You can configure CD-ROM as either ‘Slave’ or ‘Master’. Here are
the options:

• Attach the CD-ROM to IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) connector 1 and make the CD-ROM a slave. In this case, you
will set the jumper on the CD-ROM to "Slave" then attach the CD-ROM drive to the same IDE cable as the hard drive.
Or,
• Attach the CD-ROM to IDE connector (Integrated Drive Electronics) 2 and make the CD-ROM a master. In this case you
will set the jumper on the CD-ROM to "Master" and attach the CD-ROM drive with a separate IDE cable. In order to use
this method, you will need a second IDE cable.

Connect one of the power supply cables to the CD-ROM drive.

Once you have mounted the above devices in the cabinet, your next step is to fix the motherboard in the cabinet and
connecting the above devices to the motherboard.

14.5 Mounting Motherboard in Cabinet

The following are the guideline for installing memory before mounting the motherboard in the cabinet:
Installing the Memory
There is a designated slot for inserting the memory in the motherboard.Before inserting the memory, which can be done
inonly one way, make sure that the two latches are apart. As the memory is very static sensitive, the usual precautions of
earthing etc. should be taken. Start with the lowest numbered slot on the motherboard (usually slot 0),as you push the
memory into the slot. While inserting the memory, the levers should start to close. If the levers haven't fully closed then
squeeze them both together and they should latch the memory into place. To remove the memory, just pull the levers
apart and they will automatically eject the memory. Figure 14.12 shows the sockets for inserting the memory and figure
14.13 shows the memory.
Once you install the memory, the next step is to mount the motherboard in the case.
Installing the motherboard
It is essential to ensure that the motherboard you have purchased matches your cabinet. Spacers, which come with the
case, help you to mount the motherboard on one side of the casewhere there is a metal plate that is slightly bigger than
the motherboard. You will find a number of plated screw holes that you can match the spacers to and there should be at
least a couple of mounts on the case that you can fixa screw into. When you plug cards into the PCI slots, they will point
out through the slots at the back of the PC cabinet. Also the ports (LAN, USB, PS/2, parallel etc.) will all have to fit through
the slot for the back-panel. It is recommended that you go through the instruction manual that comes along with the
case. It is important to ensure that the motherboard does not touch the case at any point otherwise it will result in short
circuiting something making the motherboard useless. Another vital point to consider is that no screws are dropped or
placed at the back of the motherboard as it might mean the same thing as the motherboard touching the case directly
which is to be avoided at any cost. Next connect the 20 pin standard ATX power cable in the SMPS to the motherboard as
shown in figure 14.14.

Next you have to connect various data cables from the devices such as floppy drive, hard disk drive, CD-ROM drive into
the motherboard. Figure 14.15 shows a schematic diagram of a motherboard. The diagram clearly shows the respective
slots to insert power cable, IDE cables, FDD (Floppy Disk Drive) cable etc.

Figure 14.15: The schematic diagram of a motherboard

The modern motherboard / processor combinations, unlike the older ones, require anauxiliary power connection in
addition to the standard ATX power supply. In the above figure you will observe that there is an ATX power connector and
a 12V ATX (Advanced Technology eXtended) connector. Both should be plugged in using the corresponding leads from the
power supply.
After connecting all the cables, your next task is to insert various cards such as AGP card, sound card, network card etc.

Fitting Cards
Fitting the sound and video cards is very easyas the PCI and AGP slots like the memory slots are keyed meaning that the
cards can only be inserted one way. As usual you should take all the antistatic precautions. Next take the graphics card
from the antistatic bag and push it down into the AGP slot. Look along the length of the slot to ensure that the card is not
sitting up at either end. Your motherboard may have a lot of PCI slots so try to place the cards in those slots, such that
enough space is available between them. Sometimes your AGP card may develop heat; in that case try to avoid the PCI
slot next to it, just to ensurea cooling airflow around your case. Modern AGP cards have cooling fans fitted in them.
Once you complete the above tasks, you can close the cabinet and then connect the monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers
and microphone to the computer. Now your computer is ready for installing the operating system. You can configure CD-
ROM as either a Master or Slave depending upon the IDE connectors and jumper settings.

• You need to plug sound and video cards into their respective PCI or AGP slots.

14.7 Glossary
Term Description
PnP Plug and Play (PnP) is a combination of hardware and software
support that enables a computer system to recognize and adapt to
hardware configuration changes with little or no intervention by a
user.
ACPI Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Specification (ACPI)
defines a comprehensive, system-wide approach to controlling
system and device configuration and power management. ACPI
provides these services for all versions of Windows later than
Windows 95.
Device object The device object represents the device to the driver which will be
created by the corresponding driver. Generally there will be three
kinds of device objects.
USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) cables are used to connect most new
devices to your computer including flash memory sticks, portable
media players, internet modems and digital cameras.

RJ11 RJ11 is the standard telephone cable. It is used to connect the

Internet through DSL/ADSL modems.
RJ45 RJ45 is the standard Ethernet cable. It is based on Cat5 twisted
pair cable and is made from 8 individual wires.
APM APM stands for Advanced Power Management, which is an
Application Programming Interface developed by Intel and
Microsoft and released in 1992 which enables an operating
system running an IBM-compatible personal computer to work
with the BIOS (part of the computer's firmware) to achieve power
management.
TRS Connector A TRS connector (Tip-Ring-Sleeve) also called an audio jack, phone
jack, phone plug, jack plug, stereo plug, minijack, mini-stereo, or
headphone jack, is a common analog audio connector. It is
cylindrical in shape, typically with three contacts, although
sometimes with two (a TS connector) or four (a TRRS connector).