Laptop -
Elements &
Mechanism
Introduction to Laptops
Brief History
Contents Anatomy of a Laptop
Conclusion
Introduction to
Laptops
A laptop computer is a personal computer that is
portable or easy to carry around, and is similar to a
desktop computer because it incorporates all of the
same elements. Laptops are designed for internet use,
producing documents, graphic design, storing files, and
communicating with others.
The laptop has several main parts, the monitor,
keyboard, mouse, computer memory, hard disk,
motherboard, and the central processing unit.
• Alan Kay, who worked for Xerox PARC, first
created the concept for the laptop computer. He
referred to it as the Dynabook. Xerox PARC did
Brief History
come up with a working model of the Xerox
Note Taker in 1976, but it was not available to
the public.
• The first laptop computer available to the public
was the Osborne 1, released in 1981. It cost
$1795 at the time of release.
• Since the Osborne 1, the laptop has changed
over the years. The first laptop to be
comfortably lap-sized was the Epson HX20,
which became widely available in 1983.
• The current folding clamshell design was first
used in 1982.
Basic Hardware Parts
Laptop Processors
Laptop Memory
Storage Drives
Laptop Screen, Graphics and
Anatomy of Sound
a Laptop Cooling System
Networking
Battery
Bios
Top Panel
The top panel is the part of the laptop in which the display screen of the
laptop is fitted. It is in every type of laptop computer.
Base Panel
All the components of a laptop such as the processor, hard disk, SSD, battery,
drives, keyboard, touchpad, etc. are installed in the base panel.
Keyboard
Keyboard is an input device which helps user input data into the laptop. The
keyboard is located on the base panel of the laptop.
Touchpad
The touchpad or the trackpad is a pointing device and functions
same as the mouse in a computer.
Speaker
The speaker is an output device and is also present in the base
panel of the laptop.
Hinges
Hinges are attached to the base panel and top panel of the laptop. The
laptop screen opens and closes only through hinges.
External Ports
These are the ports in the base panel of the laptop, which are used to
connect types of devices. Examples are USB Port, Ethernet Cable port,
Headphone Jack Port etc.
Palm Rest Assembly
It is the inside of the base panel in which the keyboard and the touchpad is installed. It
also works like a shield to protect the laptop's motherboard from external dust and water.
A brief visual on parts of laptops
Processors The microprocessor, or the CPU, works with the operating
system to control the computer. It essentially acts as the
computer's brain.
Most modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning they are
contained on a single integrated circuit (IC) chip. An IC that
contains a CPU may also contain memory, peripheral interfaces,
and other components of a computer; such integrated devices
are variously called microcontrollers or systems on a chip (SoC).
Some computers employ a multi-core processor, which is a
single chip containing two or more CPUs called "cores"; in that
context, one can speak of such single chips as "sockets".
Also, most laptop CPUs are near the edge of the unit. This allows
the fan to move the heat directly to the outside instead of
across other components.
Since a laptop has far less room for cooling methods as compared to a
Desktop computer, its CPU usually:
• Runs at a lower voltage and clock speed -- This reduces heat output
and power consumption but slows the processor down.
• Has a sleep or slow-down mode -- The computer and the operating
system work together to reduce the CPU speed when the computer is
not in use or when the processor does not need to run as quickly. The
Apple G4 processor also prioritizes data to minimize battery drain.
• Mounts to the motherboard without using pins -- Pins and sockets
take up a lot of room in desktop PCs. Some processors mount directly
to the motherboard. Others use a Micro-FCBGA (Flip Chip Ball Grid
Array), which uses balls instead of pins. These designs save space, but
in some cases mean that the processor cannot be removed from the
motherboard for replacement or upgrading.
A laptop's memory can make up for some of the reduced
Memory
performance that comes from a slower processor. Some
laptops have cache memory on or very near the CPU,
allowing it to access data more quickly. Some also have larger
busses, allowing data to move between the processor,
motherboard and memory more quickly.
Laptops often use smaller memory modules to save space.
Memory types used in laptops include:
• Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module (SODIMM)
• Dual Data Rate Synchronous RAM (DDR SDRAM)
• Single data rate Synchronous RAM (SDRAM)
• Proprietary memory modules
Some laptops have upgradeable memory and feature
removable panels for easy access to the memory modules.
Storage Drives
A permanent storage space which is used to keep all the
data required by a computer like the operating system
files, songs, videos, and third-party software files, etc.
When needed, the data is transferred from the hard drive
to the random access memory for being used by the CPU.
There are mainly four storage types you can find in
modern Windows-based laptops and other portable PCs –
hard disk drives (HDD), solid state drives (SSD), hybrids
(hybrid hard disk drives-HHDD / solid state hybrid drives-
SSHD), and Embedded Multimedia Card or the eMMC
storage.
HDDs are traditional storage devices for personal computers.
They are based on rotating magnetic platters and reading heads.
• HDDs are the slowest kind of storage in modern PCs. In
comparison to SSDs, hybrid drives, and eMMC storage,
they’re characterized by longer system boot-up times, slower
application and file loading, and slower file copy / paste
command execution.
• On the positive, HDD is the cheapest kind of storage.
• Laptop hard drives come in the 2.5-inch form factor and are
connected to the rest of the PC systems via the SATA III
interface.
• The most common hard drive capacity in today’s laptops is 1
TB or 1,000 GB. Many cheap laptops come with a smaller
500 GB hard drive, while 2 TB size is occasionally used in
some more expensive notebooks.
SSD-based storage is newer technology. SSDs have no moving parts since
data is stored on Flash memory-based modules.
• All SSD models are significantly faster than any HDD and ensures
completely silent operation, lower power consumption, and lower
chances of data loss due to accidental drops.
• SSDs in the latest notebooks come in two form factors: 2.5-inch with
traditional SATA interface and smaller M.2 card format with its own
interface (faster than SATA).
• A relatively new technology is NVMe which enables extremely fast
operation of NVMe-compatible M.2 solid state drives in laptops with
NVMe support and shows its potential in storage-intensive scenarios like
copying a large number of files or editing large high-def videos.
• On the negative side, common capacities of SSDs are generally smaller
than capacities of HDDs varying between 128 GB and 1 TB and have a
noticeably higher price per GB than hard drives.
Laptop-use HHDDs, also known as SSHDs, combine eMMC is more affordable and slower Flash-based
hard drive and solid state storage in a single 2.5″ storage than solid state drives. It is usually found in
device. Hybrid drives have all parts found in a classic smartphones and other consumer electronics
HDD and include an SSD module on top of them. devices, but it’s used in personal computers, too.
• Software/files you most frequently use, including • Most of the eMMC-equipped laptops have a
those required for booting up the OS itself, are memory card slot in which you can insert a
stored on the SSD portion for faster loading. memory card (SD or microSD) to expand internal
storage capacity.
• Accessing the rest of the data stored on the HDD
portion isn’t quicker than on comparable pure • In addition, computer makers often bundle
HDDs. eMMC-based computers with free access to
storage on a remote server, popularly known as
Common capacities of laptop-use hybrid storage cloud storage.
devices are 500GB and 1TB on the hard disk platters,
plus either 8GB, 16GB or 32GB of SSD memory. As same as SSDs, eMMCs are power-efficient and
completely quiet.
Screen
A laptop displays its graphics on an output device called the
screen. The screen can be LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) based or
LED (Light Emitting Diode) based.
• Most screens measure between 12 and 17 inches, and the
size of the screen affects the overall size of the laptop.
In addition, laptop screens can be:
• Black-and-white (16 grayscale) or color (65,536 colors)
• Active or passive matrix
• Reflective or backlit
ctive matrix displays have sharper images and are easier to
A
read, and backlit screens are better for low-level lighting
conditions.
A graphics processing unit, GPU is a microprocessor that Graphics
handles the calculations necessary for 3-D graphics rendering.
Like a CPU, a GPU produces a lot of heat.
• Most laptops have graphics capability built into the
motherboard or have smaller graphics cards with a GPU
designed specifically for laptop use.
• GPU manufacturers ATI and nVidia both make GPUs
specifically for laptops. Laptops frequently share memory
between the CPU and the GPU, saving space and reducing
power consumption.
• Laptops have plenty of processing power for Web surfing
and productivity applications. However, they may struggle
with the latest 3-D games. A few specialty laptops,
designed for gaming enthusiasts, include more powerful
GPUs and additional video memory.
Sound
• Most laptops also have sound cards or
integrated sound processing on the
motherboard as well as small, built-in speakers.
• However, there is generally not enough space
inside a laptop for a top-of-the-line sound card
or a high-quality speaker.
• Gaming enthusiasts and audiophiles can
supplement their laptops' sound capabilities
with external sound controllers, which use USB
or FireWire ports to connect to the laptop.
• Laptops rely on heat pipes to rapidly move waste heat
towards the edges of the device, to allow for a much Cooling System
smaller and compact fan and heat sink cooling system.
Waste heat is usually exhausted away from the device
operator towards the rear or sides of the device.
• It is believed that some designs with metal cases, like
Apple's aluminum MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, also
employ the case of the machine as a heat sink, allowing
it to supplement cooling by dissipating heat out of the
device core.
• Secondary device temperature monitoring may reduce
performance or trigger an emergency shutdown if it is
unable to dissipate heat, such as if the laptop were to
be left running and placed inside a carrying case.
Aftermarket cooling pads with external fans can be
used with laptops to reduce operating temperatures.
Networking
• A wireless adapter is a device that adds wireless
connectivity to a laptop or desktop computer.
• All of the adapters below are available as external
USB modules as well as PCI or PCI Express (PCIe)
cards that plug into an empty slot on the
motherboard.
• Wi-Fi adapters provide connectivity to the local
area network (LAN) in the home or office.
• Cellular (3G, 4G) Cellular wireless adapters, also
called "cellular modems," "air cards," "broadband
adapters" or "broadband cards," deliver the same
3G and 4G wireless service that smartphones use.
Battery
• A laptop's battery is charged using power supply
which is usually external, and connected to the
laptop through a DC connector cable.
• In most cases, it can charge the battery and
power the laptop simultaneously. The power
supply outputs a DC voltage typically in the range
of 7.2—24 volts.
• When the battery is fully charged, the laptop
continues to run on power supplied by the
external power supply, avoiding battery use.
• Most 2016-era laptops use a smart battery, a
rechargeable battery pack with a built-in battery
management system (BMS).
• N
ickel-Cadmium (NiCad) batteries were the first type
of battery commonly used in laptop computers, and
older laptops sometimes still use them. Their life
decreases with each charge based on the memory
effect. The other drawback of NiCad is that if the
battery charges too long, it can explode. NiCad Battery
• Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries are the bridge
between NiCad and the newer Lithium-Ion (LiIon)
batteries. They last longer between charges than
NiCad but overall have a shorter total lifespan. They
suffer from the memory effect, but to a lesser extent
than NiCad batteries.
NiMH Battery
• Li-ion batteries are the current standard for laptop
computers. They are light and have long life spans.
They do not suffer from the memory effect, can be
charged randomly, and won't overheat if overcharged.
They are also thinner than any other battery available
for laptops, making them ideal for the new ultra-thin
notebooks. Li-ion Battery
Bios • (Basic Input Output System) - A set of routines
residing in firmware that boots the operating
system and sets up the hardware in an x86-
based PC.
• Prior to loading the operating system, the BIOS
provides software drivers for the basic
peripheral support that is part of the
motherboard.
• The drivers enable the user to edit configuration
settings and allow the hardware to boot from
the hard disk or other storage device.
• After the OS is loaded, more elaborate drivers
are typically loaded, which replace the BIOS
routines.
• The BIOS also supports internal services such as
the real-time clock (time and date).
Conclusion
In conclusion, laptops have been evolving rapidly and constantly. As a
result of changing lifestyle, we needed devices to suit our fast-paced and
mobile lives. Laptops have never been more attractive to consumers as
they now offer great processors that are comparable with desktops’,
which also offer portability at the same time.
Laptops’ features, functions, and designs are changing to suit the modern
lifestyles. Laptops can not only substitute desktops, but tablets’ job too. If
you need powerful processing or multitasking on the go, or need
compatibility with a specific accessory or storage device, there’s no good
alternative to the laptop. As the technology advances, we can expect
more possibilities of innovated laptops that may unveil in the future.
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