The Components of the System Unit PDF
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This document outlines the different components of a system unit, from the motherboard and processors, to memory and various ports. It covers the internal details of desktop computers, describing elements like drive bays, power supplies, and types of memory. The document discusses memory types, processors, and access times. Diagrams illustrate these parts.
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**The Components of the System Unit** **Objectives Overview** - Differentiate among various styles of system units on desktop computers, notebook computers, and mobile devices - Identify chips, adapter cards, and other components of a motherboard - Describe the control unit and arithme...
**The Components of the System Unit** **Objectives Overview** - Differentiate among various styles of system units on desktop computers, notebook computers, and mobile devices - Identify chips, adapter cards, and other components of a motherboard - Describe the control unit and arithmetic logic unit components of a processor, and explain the four steps in a machine cycle - Identify characteristics of various personal computer processors on the market today, and describe the ways processors are cooled - Explain how program instructions transfer in and out of memory - Differentiate among the various types of memory - Describe the purpose and types of expansion slots and adapter cards, and differentiate among slots for various removable flash memory devices - Differentiate between a port and a connector, and explain the differences among a USB port, FireWire port, Bluetooth port, SCSI port, eSATA port, IrDA port, serial port, and MIDI port - Describe the types of buses in a computer - Explain the purpose of a power supply and describe how it keeps cool **The System Unit** - The **system unit** is a case that contains electronic components of the computer used to process data - **The inside of the system unit on a desktop personal computer includes:** - Drive bay(s) - Power supply - Sound card - Video card - Processor - Memory - The **motherboard** is the main circuit board of the system unit - A computer **chip** contains integrated circuits ![](media/image2.png) **Processor** - The **processor**, also called the **central processing unit** (**CPU**), interprets and carries out the basic instructions that operate a computer - Contain a control unit and an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) - **Multi-core processor** - **Dual-core processor** - **Quad-core processor** - The **control unit** is the component of the processor that directs and coordinates most of the operations in the computer - The **arithmetic logic unit** (ALU) performs arithmetic, comparison, and other operations - ![](media/image4.png)For every instruction, a processor repeats a set of four basic operations, which comprise a machine cycle - Most current personal computers support pipelining - Processor begins fetching a second instruction before it completes the machine cycle for the first instruction - The processor contains registers, that temporarily hold data and instructions - The **system clock** controls the timing of all computer operations - The pace of the system clock is called the **clock speed**, and is measured in **gigahertz** (**GHz**) - The leading manufacturers of personal computer processor chips are Intel and AMD ![](media/image6.png) - A processor chip generates heat that could cause the chip to burn up - Require additional cooling - Heat sinks - Liquid cooling technology ![](media/image8.png) - Parallel processing uses multiple processors simultaneously to execute a single program or task - Massively parallel processing involves hundreds or thousands of processors - ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) ![](media/image11.png) **Memory** - **Memory** consists of electronic components that store instructions waiting to be executed by the processor, data needed by those instructions, and the results of processing the data - Each location in memory has an address - Memory size is measured in **kilobytes** (**KB** or **K**), **megabytes** (**MB**), **gigabytes** (**GB**), or **terabytes** (**TB**) - The system unit contains two types of memory: - Loses its contents when power is turned off - Example includes **RAM** **Nonvolatile memory** - Does not lose contents when power is removed - Examples include ROM, flash memory - ![](media/image14.png)Three basic types of RAM chips exist: - Dynamic RAM (DRAM) - Static RAM (SRAM) - Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) - RAM chips usually reside on a **memory module** and are inserted into **memory slots** - The amount of RAM necessary in a computer often depends on the types of software you plan to use ![](media/image16.png) - **Memory cache** speeds the processes of the computer because it stores frequently used instructions and data - **Read-only memory** (**ROM**) refers to memory chips storing permanent data and instructions - **Firmware** - A PROM (programmable read-only memory) chip is a blank ROM chip that can be written to permanently - EEPROM can be erased - **Flash memory** can be erased electronically and rewritten - **CMOS** technology provides high speeds and consumes little power ![](media/image18.png) - **Access time** is the amount of time it takes the processor to read from memory - Measured in **nanoseconds** ![](media/image20.png) **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** - **Sound card** and **video card** - ![](media/image22.png)With **Plug and Play**, the computer automatically can configure adapter cards and other peripherals as you install them - Removable flash memory includes: - **Memory cards**, USB flash drives, **Ports and Connectors** - ![](media/image24.png)A **port** is the point at which a peripheral attaches to or communicates with a system unit (sometimes referred to as a **jack**) - A **connector** joins a cable to a port - On a notebook computer, the ports are on the back, front, and/or sides - Other types of ports include: - **Firewire port** - **Bluetooth** **port** - **SCSI port** - **eSATA port** - **IrDA port** - **Serial port** - **MIDI port** ![](media/image28.png) **A Bluetooth wireless port adapter converts** **a USB port into a Bluetooth port** **A smart phone might communicate** **with a notebook computer using an IrDA port** **Buses** - **Expansion slots connect to expansion buses** - **Common types of expansion buses include:** - **PCI bus** - **PCI Express bus** - **Accelerated Graphics Port** - **USB and FireWire bus** - **PC Card bus** - ![](media/image30.png)**A bay is an opening inside the system unit** - **A drive bay typically holds disk drives** - **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** **Putting It All Together** **Home** - **Intel Core 2 Duo or Intel Celeron Dual Core or AMD Sempron** - **Minimum RAM: 2 GB** **Small Office/Home Office** - **Intel Core 2 Quad or Intel Core 2 Extreme or AMD Athlon FX or AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Code** - **Minimum RAM: 4 GB** **Mobile** - **Intel Core 2 Extreme or AMD Turion X2** - **Minimum RAM: 2 GB** **Power** - **Intel Itanium 2 or AMD Quad Core Opteron or Intel Quad Core Xeon or Sun UltraSPARC T2** - **Minimum RAM: 8 GB** **Enterprise** - **Intel Core 2 Quad or Intel Core 2 Extreme or AMD Athlon FX or AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core** - **Minimum RAM: 4 GB**