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study guides and tutorials. PC Architecture Basics |
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Computer Basics: The
four basic components of a computer Binary - Byte - 8 bits, one character is one byte. Common PC Architecture Platforms: Intel - "IBM PC's" also referred to as WinTel (Windows - Intel) Macintosh - Apple Computers RISC - (Reduced Instruction Set Computers) SunSparc and DEC Alpha
Motherboards - BUS - common communications channel for hardware devices. If the CPU is the computer's brain, its "buses" are the branches of its nervous system. BUS Types: CPU- Used to communicate with other controller chips. Address - Used to perform memory related operations. Local - Used by the CPU to store and fetch data from memory. I/O - Also know as the expansion bus, sends data to and from peripherals. Power - The power bus provides the electrical power for all the components to use.
Bus Master - cards use their own memory to reduce processing time. Supported by 32 bit and 64 bit. ISA - Designed for use in IBM XT, uses 8 and 16 bit, do not support other card types. MCA - Designed by IBM, self configuring, supports 16 and 32 bit, do not support other card types, abondoned by IBM. EISA - backward compatible with ISA. ISA cards will work in EISA slots. Supports 16 and 32 bit transfer. VLB - operates at same speeds as CPU, supports 16, 32, and 64 bit transfers PCI - supports 32 and 64 bit transfers, busmastering, and "plug and play." PCMCIA - designed for portables, supports "plug and play." I/O ports: Serial Ports: Send data one bit after another in sequence Utilizes DB-9 or DB-25 pin - male connector Sends data asynchronously USB - Universal Serial Bus: Attaches multiple peripherals to a personal computer, self configures Up to 127 peripherals can be connected to a single host computer Supports 12mbps transfer rate
UART - Universal Asynchronus Receiver Transmitter - a computer works with bytes, (8 bits), and a serial port transfers one bit at a time, the UART breaks apart each byte into component bits. Parallel Ports: Transmits multiple bits of data at once Sends and receives 8 bits of data at a time Sends data synchronously Parallel port on the computer DB-25 female connector Keyboard: DIN-5 or PS2 Mouse: 9 Pin serial or PS2 Video: HDA= 15 pin female, 3 rows of pins. (Current VGA and SVGA only) Cables and Connectors Tape, removable, hard, and optical drives along with scanners can all use SCSI connections. Up to eight devices (including the controller) can be chained off of a SCSI port. (SCSI id 0-7) 18 feet is the maximum length that a SCSI cable can support. Most external SCSI devices have Centronics-50 or female DB-25 connectors utilizing a male-to-male SCSI cable (although there are newer 68 pin connectors and other connectors as well). Most SCSI Host Adapters must be set to SCSI ID 7. Null modem cables or serial cables are used to transmit data between 2 DTE devices.. Because of interference, you have to reduce transfer rates the longer a cable is. 50 feet is the maximum length that a serial cable should be. Phone lines (few network) cables use RJ11 or RJ12 connectors. Connector resembles a small phone jack. Twisted pair cables use RJ45 connectors. Connector resembles a fat phone jack. COM Ports COM1 and COM3 use IRQ4. COM2 and COM4 use IRQ3. The majority of PC's have only 2 COM port connectors. |
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Hardware
Topics: Basic PC Overview
Operating
System Topics:
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all your tech book needs: Please Read -DISCLAIMER: Technology changes very rapidly. The information presented here was believed to be accurate at the time it was gathered. No claim is made that this information is up to date, or that it represents the current technology used today. |
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