CS 107 Fall Semester 2004 Section 51 Lecture Week 2 Inside the Box - The Brain

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Basic parts of the computer

Covers: Computer Confluence - Chapter 2

• What can a computer do?
  • Receive Input
  • Process Data
  • Produce Output
  • Store Data
    • Primary Storage - RAM, Random Access Memory
    • Secondary Storage - Hard Drive, Floppy Disk, CD, DVD, Flash Drive
• How does a computer store information
  • Humans - Analog
  • Bit - Binary Digit
  • Byte - 8 Bits
  • Bits can represent 3 types of data
    • Numbers
    • Characters - ASCII, ANSI, Unicode
    • Instructions
  • Bits represented in different ways
    • Ram - electronic circuits
    • Hard Drive/Magnetic Disks - magnetic coating
    • CD/DVD - pits
    • Fiber Optic Cable - pulses of light
• Quantifying bits
  • KB - Kilobyte, Thousand
  • MB - Megabyte, Million
  • GB - Gigabyte, Billion
  • TB - Terabyte, Trillion
  • PB - Petabyte, Quadrillion
• The CPU - Central Processing Unit
  • What is the CPU
    • Collection of circuits on a chip
    • Converts Input to Output - gives data a meaning
    • Add, compare, and move
    • Communicates through memory
    • Housed on the motherboard
  • Parts of the CPU
    • Prefetch Unit
    • Decode Unit
    • Control Unit
    • ALU - Arithmetic Logic Unit
    • Registers
    • Cache Memory
  • Compatibility
    • CISC - Complex Instruction Set Computer
    • RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computer
    • Backward compatibility
  • Performance
    • Clock Speed
    • Architecture
    • Word Size
    • Multiprocessors
• Computer Memory
  • RAM - Random Access Memory
  • ROM - Read Only Memory
  • CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
  • Flash Memory
  • Volatile vs. Nonvolatile
  • Access Speed
• The other stuff
  • Busses
  • Expansion Slots - Expansion Cards - PC Cards
  • Ports

Links for Further Study

Computer Processor Information and History - http://www.computerhope.com/help/cpu.htm

Basics of the Computer - http://www.OSdata.com/system/physical/basics.htm

Basics of Computer Hardware - The Processor - http://www.osdata.com/system/physical/processr.htm

Basics of Computer Hardware - The Bus - http://www.OSdata.com/system/physical/bus.htm

PC-Hardware Overview - http://www.build-your-own-computers.com/pc-hardware-overview.html

Guide to CPUs = http://www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module3a1.htm

Clock Speed - Clock Doubling - http://www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module3b1.htm

How Memory Works - http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-memory.htm

Information about the computer bus - http://www.computerhope.com/help/bus.htm

The computer bus - http://www.fact-index.com/c/co/computer_bus_1.html

Last Updated: 9/14/04