INF 110: Computer Hardware

Lecture 1
An Overview of System
Components
 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this session, student will be able to:

• introduce to the basic components that make up

personal computers.

• identifying the fundamental principles that apply

to personal computers
 Compute
rsword computer comes from the word “compute”,
⚫ The
which means, “to calculate”

⚫ A computer is an electronic device capable of receiving input

(data from user), stores it for a short period of time,
manipulates it according to the set of instructions known as
programme and generates output in a desired format.

⚫ In simple terms, all computers are made up of four basic

functions:
 Data Input
 Data Output
 Data Processing
 Data Storage
 The Four Basic Functions of a
Computer
⚫ INPUT DATA: A computer as an electronic device should receive data
from the users and this can only be made possible by using input devices
such as keyboard, mouse, scanners, etc.

⚫ STORAGE: A computer as an electronic device should store the data

being processed and this can only be done by using storage devices such
as hard disk, pen drives, floppy disk, CD-ROM, etc.

⚫ PROCESSING: Computer as an electronic device should process the data

into information.This can only be made possible by using a central
processing unit (CPU) such as Intel and AMD processors.

⚫ OUTPUT DATA: Computer again as an electronic device should

distribute and communicate (output) the information using monitor,
speakers, printers, etc.
Diagram showing the four major
functions of a computer

Input Processing Storag

Data Intel and e
AMD

Input Devices
Keyboard Output Devices Storage Devices
Monitor RAM
Output

Mouse
Data

Scanner Printer Hard drive

Card Reader Magnetic
Tape
Looking Inside the Box
(System Unit)
⚫Most of the processing and storage devices show
up “inside the box.”

⚫This section gives you a look at the major elements

that you will find inside the system housing, or case:
Inside the chassis
( or case)
 Looking Inside the Box (System
Unit)
Processor/CPU
 The processor (also known as the central processing unit,
or CPU) is the “brain of the computer,” so to speak.

 The processor performs a limited set of calculations based on

requests from the operating system and controls access to
system memory.

 Processor speed is measured in several different ways, including

clock cycles or megahertz (MHz) and gigahertz (GHz),
and millions of instructions per second (MIPS). Any of
these measures give you an estimate of the processor’s
speed/power.
Looking Inside the Box
(Processor)
Storage devices
Storage devices on your computer are responsible for storing
data, such as the operating system, applications, and actual
output of applications or user data.
Depending on the amount and type of data, the seven basic
types of devices to work with are:
• Floppy drives
• Hard drives
• Solid-state drives (SSD)
• Hybrid drives
• Optical drives
• Magnetic tape drives
• Flash drives
Floppy drive and disk Solid state drive
Hard disk

Optical drive
Hybrid drive

Magnetic tape drive

Flash drive
When dealing with storage devices, the four major
technologies used to connect hard drives to motherboards are:

 IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics), ATA (Advanced

Technology Attachment), or PATA (Parallel ATA) after the
arrival of SATA.

 SATA (Serial ATA)

 SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)

 SAS (Serial Attached SCSI)

IDE

SATA

SAS
SATA is usually thought of as an internal
technology, but there is rising in popularity of
eSATA (External SATA), which provides an
external connector to the SATA bus.

Some external USB hard drives also support

eSATA connectors.

The type of drives that you can attach to your

computer depends on the types that are supported
by your motherboard and I/O (input/output)
cards.
 Memory
Memory is a solid-state (that is, no moving parts) storage medium.
It can take many forms, such as:
 RAM (random access memory),
 flash RAM, ROM (read-only memory), or
 EPROM (erasable programmable ROM).

 Access time for RAM is measured in nanoseconds (one-

billionth of a second).

 When memory is discussed, it usually refers to RAM, which is the

computer’s primary working memory.
 Memor
y albeit typically temporary storage.
 RAM is a form of storage

 Many people might not think of RAM as a storage medium

because it is volatile and loses its information when
power is removed, but temporary storage is still storage.

 RAM is always temporary, and requires power to

retain information.

 When you put your computer into a hibernation state, the

contents of RAM are written to a file, and then retrieved when
you power up your computer.
 RAM is where you work with your data and
programs,

 ROM and EPROM memory in your computer

holds the operating code for your computer, which
includes the Power-On Self Test (POST) routine
and motherboard level processes.

 Do not confuse ROM operating code with your

Operating System (OS), which is stored on the hard
drive and runs in RAM.
 Memor
y
⚫ RAM chips usually reside on a memory module and are
inserted into memory slots
 Memor
⚫ They
amount of RAM necessary in a computer often depends on
the types of software you plan to use

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 System
Board
 The term system board describes any number of circuit
boards that make up the internals of your computer, but
it is used most often to describe the motherboard.

 The motherboard is the main board in your computer

that contains the BIOS chips, RAM, I/O ports, and
CPU.

 This board maintains the electrical pathways that

enable all other components to communicate with each
other.
 System
Board
A motherboard isalternatively known
as:

 Mainboard
 Main circuit board
 System board
 Baseboard
 Planar board or logic board
 Colloquially,
 A mobo
System
Board
 The System
Unit
⚫ The motherboard is the main circuit board of the system
unit.
⚫ A computer chip contains integrated circuits (ICs).
 Daughter
board

Daughter board is a secondary board that
contains motherboard functions, such as disk or
I/O control.

 A daughter board is a board that contains some of

the chips that could have been put on the
motherboard but were not — perhaps because
of space limitations or for other reasons.

 It is common to see them used in laptops and other

mobile devices.
Daughterboar
d
 Power
Supply
 The power supply does exactly what its name suggests: It
supplies power to the rest of the components in the
computer.

 The power supply takes 120 or 240 volts (depending on the

country you are in) of alternating current (AC) from
your electrical outlet and converts it to 3.3 V, 5 V, and
12 V of direct current (DC).

 It contains a number of leads that supply different voltages

for different types of devices (such as hard drives, PCIe
expansion cards, and floppy drives — which you will not
likely have a need for).
 Power
Supply
The power supply converts the wall outlet AC power into DC power.

Some external peripherals have an AC adapter, which is an

external power supply.
 Adapter
Cards
 Adapter cards allow you to adapt your computer to
another role (such as controlling assembly line robots)
or to add specific functionality to your computer
(such as printing).

 The most common adapters are now integrated into

most motherboards.

 These components include display, network,

keyboard controller, mouse controller, serial
ports, parallel ports, FireWire ports, and USB
ports.
 Adapter
Cards came out on the market,
 When the first computers
most of the elements (if not all of them) were added
to the motherboard by using the adapter slots,
such as :

 ISA

 PCI

 PCI Express

 AGP
Adapter
Cards

ISA

PCI
 Expansion Slots and Adapter
Cards
An expansion slot is a socket on the motherboard that
can hold an adapter card.

An adapter card enhances functions of a component of

the system unit and/or provides connections to
peripherals.
 Expansion Slots and Adapter
Cards
⚫ With Plug and Play, the computer automatically can
configure adapter cards and other peripherals as you install
them.
Expansion Slots and Adapter
Cards
 Cooling System and Fan
 To remove heat from computer systems, there has
been a steady increase in the use of fans, vents, and
other heat-dissipation units.

 Heat sinks with fans are commonly placed

on
processors and critical chipsets.

 Heat sinks are made of heat-conductive metals

(usually aluminum or copper), with a solid side in
contact with the chip that they are protecting and thin
fins on the other side, thus putting greater surface area
with the air, which helps dissipate or transfer heat to
the air.
Cooling System and
Fan
 Cooling System and
 The use of aFan
fan with the heat sink allows more cool
air to flow through the fins.

 Case vents and fans bring cool air into the

computer housing, and also vent and pull out hot
air.

 Faster processors produce more heat.

 As processors have become faster, more methods for

pulling the heat away from the processor have been
developed, such as liquid-cooling systems.
 LIQUID COLLING
SYSTEM
 Liquid cooling is the reduction of heat and
temperature of the inner environment
through exploiting the properties of liquids.

 liquid cooled machines maintain desired operating

temperatures environments better than their air-
cooled ones.
 ADVANTAGES OF LIQUID COLLING
 SYSTEM
Liquid cooling is an efficient system for mitigating heat away
from the processor and outside of the system. Consequently,
this allows for higher speeds in the processor.

 Another advantage of liquid cooling is the reduction of

noise in the computer. Most of the combinations of the heat
sink and fan generate a lot of noise because the fans usually
have to circulate a large volume of air over the processors at a
high speed and through the system.

 Liquid cooling eventually requires much less space and also

gives a good performance as well.
 Firmware and
Chipsets
Firmware fills in a middle ground between software and hardware,
where
the distinct line begins to disappear.

Firmware is programming code (software) that is contained in or

stored on the IC (integrated circuit) chips (hardware) on your
computer.

This combination of hardware and software makes up the BIOS on

several different devices, with settings stored in CMOS or flash
RAM.

The compatibility of these chips and the code that ties them together is
provided by a single supplier, and this group of chips is referred to
as a chipset.
Firmware and
Chipsets
 BIO
S system. The BIOS is actually
⚫ BIOS is short for basic input-output
software that is stored on a ROM chip on the motherboard.

⚫ Most systems today use a flash EPROM to store the BIOS so that the
user can update the programming code in the BIOS.

⚫ The first program or set of instructions that run when the computer is
switched on is called BIOS

⚫ The BIOS is responsible for controlling or managing low-level but

extremely important processes like the POST (Power-on Self-Test),
the boot process, and the interaction of components on the
motherboard.
BIO
S
 UE
FI Firmware Interface and
⚫ UEFI stands for Unified Extensible
represents the next generation of the low level ROM-based code
that controls motherboard processes, but with a great deal of
enhancements.

⚫ UEFI is capable of supporting advanced diagnostic tools,

even without having an OS installed on the computer.

⚫ UEFI supports network booting, secure boot, and even has

a limited shell for running commands.
BIOS (OLD) VRS
UEFI(NEW)

BIOS UEFI
 BIOS VRS
UEFI
BIOS UEFI
Blue screen that User friendly
resembles graphical user
BSOD interface
Cannot recognize Recognizes larger
larger storage device storage device

Only able to Able to use mouse

use keyboard in the interface
 CMO
S
⚫ CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) is
often confused with BIOS/UEFI.

⚫ BIOS/UEFI is programing code that is stored on a ROM and

EPROM chip and controls the loading of the operating system as
well as low-level functions.

⚫ BIOS/UEFI often has settings that the user may control, and these
settings are stored in CMOS memory,

⚫ where CMOS refers to the type of manufacturing process that

creates this integrated circuit and most other integrated circuits.
 CMO
S
⚫ Most RAM chips rely on CMOS technology to store
information, but when discussing CMOS, you will be referring
to the hardware configuration settings that are saved between
reboots of your computer.

⚫ Remember that BIOS/UEFI stores programming code, and

CMOS stores settings for the BIOS/UEFI options.

Other Important data kept in CMOS memory is the time

and date, which is updated by a Real-Time Clock (RTC).
CMO
S
 Checking Outside the Box (System
Unit)
Now that you have looked at what is inside the box, you will
want to see what gets added to the system - outside the box.
Cases and form factors
⚫ There are many different form factors for the box, some of
which dictate the form factor of the motherboard going into
the case.

⚫ Computer cases are most often tower or desktop form

factors, but are also found in sizes and shapes that make
them attractive for entertainment units and in extremely
small forms for specific uses.
⚫ The term form factor refers to the size of the object (be it
hard drive, motherboard, or case), and many objects have
industry specifications that define acceptable or allowed sizes.

⚫ Motherboards and hard drives have industry-wide specifications,

yet computer cases do not have specifications on their size or
shape.

⚫ Computer cases do need to adhere to the specifications of the

internal components (such as hard drives and motherboards) to
allow for these devices to be properly mounted inside of the
case.
 Input and Output
Devices
Computers use many different kinds of input and output devices
(also called I/O devices), which connect to the computer via one
of the
computer’s ports.
Monitor
The different types of buses that can provide video services
include:

⚫ PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), which runs at 33

MHz and 66 MHz and carries 32 bits of data (approximately 132
MBps or 264 MBps).

⚫ PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), or

PCI Express, is a high-speed serial bus, so its speed is measured
differently than the others, which are parallel buses.
⚫ PCI-X (Peripheral Component Interconnect
Extended), which runs at 133 MHz and carries 32 to 64
bits of information. This provides a maximum throughput of
approximately 532 MBps per direction.

⚫ AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port), which runs at 66

MHz (but can be increased to 8x the base speed, or 528
MHz) and carries 64 bits of data (approximately 2 GBps).
 Mode
m
⚫ Modem is short for modulator/demodulator.

⚫ Modulation refers to the conversion of a digital

signal to an analog signal, and demodulation
reverses this process.

⚫ Your computer is digital, and phone lines that you want

to communicate over are analog.

⚫ In order to allow the digital signal to be passed over the

analog lines, you must use a modem.
 Mode
⚫ Standard modems connectmto your computer through the
serial port and can be either:

Synchronous (kept in synchronization by an external clock)

Asynchronous (kept in synchronizationby control signals

in transmission)

Most modems that are purchased for a computer

are
asynchronous.
 Port
s
⚫On your computer, ports act as connection points
for cables, which allow for the transfer of data
between your computer and another device.

⚫Several different types of connectors and cables

are used to join devices.

⚫Although the list of devices that communicate

through the different types of ports is limitless, some
of the basic types of ports and their uses are listed
below:
 Port
s
Serial Port: Connects serial devices, such as modems,
to your computer.

Parallel Port: Connects parallel devices, such as

printers, to your computer.

Video Port: Connects a monitor to your computer.

Port
s
 Port
s types of devices to your
USB Port: Connects various
computer. Devices that used other ports in the past are
increasingly being converted to use USB ports. Devices
that use this port include printers, modems, mice,
keyboards, and scanners.

Keyboard Port: Connects a keyboard to your

computer.

Mouse Port: Connects a mouse to your computer.

Ports and
Connectors

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Ports and
Connectors

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