ENGR 120: Engineering Computation: Computer Components
ENGR 120: Engineering Computation: Computer Components
Computer components
Case that contains electronic components of the computer used to process data
Sometimes called the chassis
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processor
memory
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Main circuit board in system unit Contains adapter cards, processor chips, and memory chips Also called system board
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Small piece of semi-conducting material on which integrated circuits are etched Integrated circuits contain many microscopic pathways capable of carrying electrical current Chips are packaged so they can be attached to a circuit board
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Processor
What is the central processing unit (CPU)?
Interprets
Processor
Control Control Unit Unit Arithmetic Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) Logic Unit (ALU) Instructions Data Information
Data
Memory
Instructions Data Information
Information
Output Devices
Also
Storage Devices
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Processor
What is a machine cycle?
Memory
Step 4. Store
Write result to memory
Processor
Step 2. Decode
Translate instruction into commands
ALU
Step 3. Execute
Carry out command
Control Unit
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Processor
What is a register?
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Processor
What is the system clock?
Controls timing of all computer operations Generates regular electronic pulses, or ticks, that set operating pace of components of system unit
Pace of system clock is clock speed Most clock speeds are in the gigahertz (GHz) range (1 GHz = one billion ticks of system clock per second)
Processor speed can also be measured in millions of instructions per second (MIPS)
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Processor
Which processor should you select?
The faster the processor, the more expensive the computer
Intel Processor
Itanium or Xeon
Pentium family
Celeron
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Processor
What are heat sinks, heat pipes, and liquid cooling?
Heat sinkcomponent with fins that cools processor Heat pipe smaller device for notebook computers Liquid coolinguses a continuous flow of fluids to transfer heat away
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Data Representation
How do computers represent data?
Data Representation
What is a byte?
Eight bits grouped together as a unit Provides enough different combinations of 0s and 1s to represent 256 individual characters
Numbers Uppercase and lowercase letters Punctuation marks Other
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Representing Characters
What are three popular coding systems to represent data?
ASCIIAmerican Standard Code for Information Interchange EBCDICExtended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code Unicodecoding scheme capable of representing all worlds languages
ASCII 00110000 00110001 00110010 00110011 Symbol 0 1 2 3 EBCDIC 11110000 11110001 11110010 11110011
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ASCII Codes
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) codes are used to represent characters in a computer system. Each character we wish to use must be assigned a unique binary code or number to distinguish it from all other characters. The characters to be represented include: upper-case (A-Z), lower-case(a-z), numerals(0-9), punctuation(, . ; : etc.) and control characters (nonprinting, e.g. Esc) Since about 100 different characters need to be represented, 7 bits can be used for each character, the left-most bit normally set to zero.
Unicode
In addition to ASCII, there is a 16-bit standard code referred to as Unicode for representing characters. The problem with ASCII codes is that a maximum of 256 characters can be represented. While this is fine for handling text in the English language, it is useless for handling other languages such as Chinese or Japanese where there are literally thousands of individual characters making up the language alphabet. Unicode allows more than 65,000 characters to be represented and so is sufficient for the alphabet of almost any language. The first 128 Unicode codes correspond to the standard ASCII codes.
Data Representation
How is a letter converted to binary form and back?
Step 1.
The user presses the capital letter D (shift+D key) on the keyboard.
Step 2.
An electronic signal for the capital letter D is sent to the system unit.
Step 4.
After processing, the binary code for the capital letter D is converted to an image, and displayed on the output device.
Step 3.
The signal for the capital letter D is converted to its ASCII binary code (01000100) and is stored in memory for processing.
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Memory
What is memory?
Electronic components that store instructions, data, and results Consists of one or Address more chips on motherboard or other circuit board Each byte stored in unique location called an address,
Data in byte
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Memory
How is memory measured?
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Memory
What is random access memory (RAM)?
Memory chips that can be read from and written to by processor
Also called main memory or primary storage Most RAM is volatile, it is lost when computers power is turned off
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Memory
How much RAM does an application require?
Depends on the types of software you plan to use For optimal performance, you need more than minimum specifications
How much RAM do you need? Depends on type of applications you intend to run on your computer
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Memory
What is cache? Helps speed computer processes by storing frequently used instructions and data Also called memory cache What is flash memory? Nonvolatile memory that can be erased electronically and rewritten Used with PDAs, digital cameras, smart phones, music players, digital voice recorders, printers, Internet receivers, and pagers
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Memory
What is read-only memory (ROM)?
Memory chips that store permanent data and instructions Three types:
EEPROM Firmware (electrically Manufactured with erasable programmable permanently written read-only memory) data, instructions, Type of PROM or information PROM containing microcode (programmable programmer read-only can erase memory) Blank ROM chip onto which a programmer can write permanently
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Memory
What is CMOS?
Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor memory Used in some RAM chips, flash memory chips, and other types of memory chips
Uses battery power to retain information when other power is turned off
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Memory
What is access time?
Amount of time it takes processor to read data from memory Measured in nanoseconds (ns), one billionth of a second It takes 1/10 of a second to blink your eye; a computer can perform up to 10 million operations in same amount of time
Term Millisecond Microsecond Nanosecond Picosecond Speed One-thousandth of a second One-millionth of a second One-billionth of a second One-trillionth of a second
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