CIT 358

Primary System Component

Primary System Componet
 Electrostatic Discharge
 Motherboard
 Bus Slots and I/O Cards
 Microprocessor Type and Specifications
 Memory
 Power Supply
Electrostatic Discharge
 Static electricity or Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is a
common threat to computers or other electronic
hardware.

 Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is another name for static

electricity, which can damage chips and destroy
systemboards, even though it may not be felt or seen.
Electrostatic Discharge (Cont.)
 ESD can cause a catastrophic failure, destroy
components, or cause an upset failure that produces
unpredictable malfunctions of components, which are
often difficult to detect or diagnose.
 When working on a computer, one has to be very

careful about ESD.

 The three best protections against ESD are:

1. Ground Strap
2. Ground Mat
3. Static Shielding Bags
1. Ground Strap
 A ground strap, sometimes called a ground bracelet or
a static strap, is worn on your wrist and is grounded to
a ground mat, computer case, or a ground prong of a
wall outlet.
2. Ground Mat
 A ground mat, often comes equipped with a cord to
plug into the ground prong of a wall outlet. There is
also a snap on the mat to which you can snap the end
of your ground strap.
3. Static Shielding Bags
 Static shielding bags are often used to ship new
components. These bags can be saved and used to
store other devices not currently installed on your PC.
Other Protection from ESD
 Don’t touch chips or edge connectors on boards unless
absolutely necessary.
 Don’t stack boards.
 Don’t touch chips with magnetized screwdrivers.
 Don’t put cards on top of or next to the monitor.
 Don’t touch the inside of the computer when the

computer is turned on.

Other Protection from ESD (Cont)
 When laying components down, lay them on a
grounded mat or static shielding bag.
 Always turn off the PC before moving it even a few

inches. This will protect the hard drive.

 Don’t place a PC on the floor where it might get kicked.
 Keep disks away from magnetic fields, heat, and

extreme cold.
 Don’t open a disk’s shuttle window or touch the

surface of a disk.
A. Motherboard
 The systemboard, also called the motherboard, is the
main board in the computer. The CPU, ROM chips,
DIMMs, and interface cards are plugged into the
systemboard.
 A systemboard’s primary purpose is to house the CPU

and allow all devices to communicate with it and each

other.
 The two most popular systemboards are the older AT

and the newer ATX.

A. Motherboard (Cont.)
 The AT systemboard has a power connection for 5 volt
and 12 volt lines coming from the power supply.
 To accommodate the newer CPUs that use less voltage,

the ATX has lines for 5, 12, and 3.3 volts from the
power supply.
 ATX systemboard uses a single P1 power connection,

but the AT board uses two power connections, P8 and

P9.
A. Motherboard (Cont.)
A. Motherboard AT (Cont.)
A. Motherboard ATX (Cont.)
A. Motherboard (Cont.)
 Each board is available in two sizes.
 The ATX boards include more power management

features and support faster systems.

A. Motherboard (Cont.)
 Components on a systemboard:
1. CPU and its accompanying chip set
2. System clock
3. ROM BIOS
4. CMOS configuration chip and its battery
5. RAM
6. System bus with expansion slots
7. Jumpers and DIP switches
8. Ports that come directly off the board
9. Power supply connections
A. Motherboards (Cont.)
 Only five components can be replaced or upgraded:
CPU, ROM BIOS chip, CMOS battery, RAM, and RAM
cache (old computers).
 Because you can exchange these items without

returning the systemboard to the manufacturer, they

are called field replaceable units.
1. CPU and Chipset
 The systemboard holds the most important microchip in
the computer system, the CPU or Microprocessor, which
does most of the “thinking” of the computer.
 Most computers also contain microchips that relieve the

CPU of many tasks to increase the overall speed of the

computer.
 CPUs are manufactured out of semiconductor material,

which allows varying voltages to be carried along the

same pathways, allowing this material to transmit
streams of bits and bytes that are the heart of basic
computer processing.
2. System Clock
 The systemboard contains a system clock that keeps
the beat for many systemboard activities.
 We use units called megahertz (MHz) to measure clock

frequency. One Megahertz (MHz) is equal to 1,000,000

beats, or cycles, of the clock per second.
 A single clock beat or cycle was once the smallest unit

of processing the CPU or another device could execute,

meaning that it could only do one thing for each beat
of the clock.
2. System Clock (Cont.)
 Some CPUs today can perform two activities per clock
cycle. Even though how fast a CPU can operate is often
referred to as the CPU speed, it is more accurate but
less common to speak of the CPU frequency. For
example, you might say that a CPU can operate at a
frequency of 550 MHz
3. ROM BIOS
 There is one ROM chip on the systemboard that
contains BIOS, which manages the startup process
(startup BIOS) and many basic I/O functions of the
system (system BIOS).
 This one ROM BIOS chip on the systemboard contains

only a portion of the total BIOS code needed to

interface with all the hardware components in the
system.
 Understanding that BIOS programs can come from

several sources helps in solving memory problems and

other problems that arise from resource conflicts (NIC
with BIOS chip)
4. CMOS
 Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) is
a type of semi-conductor chip that holds data without
requiring an external power source.
 System-board manuals should contain a list of all

CMOS settings, an explanation of their meanings, and

their recommended values. When you purchase a
systemboard or a computer, be sure the manual is
included for this purpose.
CMOS (Cont.)
5. RAM
 A Personal Computer main memory is fast storage that is
directly accessible by the CPU, and is used to store the currently
executing program and immediately needed data.
 Personal Computer use semiconductor Random Access Memory
(RAM) of various kinds such as DRAM or SRAM as their primary
storage which exact kind depends on cost/performance issues
at any particular time.
 Main memory is much faster than mass storage devices like
hard disks or optical discs, but is usually volatile, meaning it
does not retain its contents (instructions or data) in the absence
of power, and is much more expensive for a given capacity than
is most mass storage. Main memory is generally not suitable for
long-term or archival data storage.
5. RAM (Cont.)
 There are two types of RAM: dynamic RAM (DRAM)
and static RAM (SRAM). Dynamic RAM chips hold data
for a very short time; static RAM chips hold data until
the power is turned off.
6. System Bus
 Buses are strips of parallel wires or printed circuits
used to transmit electronic signals on the systemboard
to other devices. Most Pentium systems use a 32-bit or
64-bit bus.
7. Power Supply
 The systemboard contains connections to receive
power.
 Two connections are found on the edge of the

systemboard for the power supply. Voltages are

sometimes written on the systemboard for each pin.
 Voltages for most systemboards are +5v, –5v, +12v, and

–12v
Acquiring a Motherboard
 Types and speeds of the CPU you can use
 Chip set on the board (already installed)
 Memory cache type and size
 Types and number of expansion slots: EISA, PCI, and

AGP
 Type of memory: SDRAM, SIMMs, or DIMMs
 Maximum amount of memory you can install on the

board and the incremental amounts by which you can

upgrade memory
 Type of case you can use
Acquiring a Motherboard (Cont.)
 ROM BIOS (already installed)
 Type of keyboard connector
 Presence or absence of different types of

proprietary video and/or proprietary local bus

slots
 Presence or absence of IDE adapters and SCSI

controller
 Presence or absence of COM ports, LPT ports,

and mouse port

Acquiring a Motherboard (Cont.)
 Sometimes a systemboard contains a
component that is more commonly offered as
a separate device. A component on the board
is called an embedded component. One
example is support for video. The video port
might be on the systemboard or might
require a video card. The cost of a
systemboard with an embedded component
is usually less than the combined cost of a
systemboard with an expansion card but no
component.
Acquiring a Motherboard (Cont.)
 If you plan to expand, be cautious about
choosing a proprietary board that has many
embedded components. A proprietary design
using many embedded devices often does not
easily accept add-on devices from other
manufacturers. For example, if you plan to
add a more powerful video card, you might
not want to choose a systemboard that
contains an embedded video controller.
To be continued…