discussion@course wark

8/3/2019 DISCUSSION@Course Wark

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DISCUSSION

The Central Processing Unit, often abbreviated as CPU, handles the logical analysis

and computation of data, just as the human brain does. The CPUs used in PCs today are mostly

using the 32-bit x86 architecture. Therefore, the utility software, applications and Windowsoperating systems have been developed based on the x86 command set.

With the characteristics of both high performance and stability, Intel processors

have a high market share in the PC market and thus became the first choice for most users.

With the evolution of manufacturing process and technology, processors have been

developed from Pentium to Pentium 4, and the MMX, SSE, SSE2 and SSE3 command

sets have been incorporated to enhance the multimedia and 3D computing performance.

Computer parts, such as the processor, memory, hard disk drive, optical drive and

expansion card, have to be installed on the motherboard. The motherboard is very important

for the system stability and also affects the specifications of the parts and the system

performance

The motherboard may look complicated, but a preliminary understanding of themotherboards support and compatibility with the parts can be obtained by knowing the

specifications of the chipset.Modern chipsets (including Intels) generally comprise of two

principal chips: the North Bridge and South Bridge. The North Bridge handles the Processors

interaction with the main memory and with the graphics accelerators. It determines the FSB

speed of the processors, the HT technology and the bandwidth of the main memory (including

supporting categories, e.g. DDR and DDR2) and graphics accelerator, in which the larger the

bandwidth, the better the performance will be


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With the PCs multi-functional applications, the memory speed has to increase in

response to the ever-upgrading data processing capability of the processor. Such a

development can be outlined from the past SDRAM, DDR SDRAM to current DDR2

SDRAM. Double Data Rate (DDR) doubles the bandwidth of the memory by transferring

data twice per cycle; the speed is twice as quick as PC-133 SDRAM -DDR400 has a clock

rate of 200MHz. With the higher clock rate and more enhanced architecture, DDR2 is

expected to help boost the development of the clock rate.

The graphics accelerator is of much importance for users who plan to play extreme 3D

games. A graphics accelerator is also called a graphics processing unit (GPU). Due to the

boost by heavy 3D games such as Quake 4, Serious Sam2, F.E.A.R and Heaven 2, current

mainstream graphics accelerators support the DirectX 9.0c technology and have architectures

as complex as the processors.

Among the factors that affect the performance of a hard disk drive, the rotational speed is the

most crucial one. The current rotational speed for both mainstream Serial ATA and IDE 3.5-

inch hard disk drives is 7200RPM; hard disk drives with 5400RPM are very rare now.

Another key factor is the memory buffer. With a higher memory buffer, the speed for theprocessor to access repeated data on the hard disk drive is faster, and the access performance

is also increased. Memory buffer of the hard disk drive is mostly 8MB, and its price

difference from the 2MB type is so little that you are recommended to purchase the 8MB type

as a bargain.


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PCI Slot - This board has 2 PCI slots. These can be used for components such as Ethernet cards,

sound cards, and modems.

ATX 12V 2X and 4 Pin Power Connection Power Connection - This is one of two power

connections that supply power to the motherboard. This connection will come from your Power

Supply

CPU-Fan Connection - This is where your CPU fan will connect. Using this connection over one

from your power supply will allow the motherboard to control the speed of your fan, based on the

CPU temperature.

Socket- This is where your CPU will plug in. The orange bracket that is surrounding it is used for

high end heat sinks. It helps to support the weight of the heat sink.

Memory Slots- These are the slots for yourRAM. Most boards will have 4 slots, but some will

only have 2. The color coding you see on the motherboard diagram is used to match up RAM forDual-Channel. Using them this way will give your memory a speed boost.
http://www.build-your-own-computer.net/best-motherboard.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/best-motherboard.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/motherboard-socket.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/motherboard-socket.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/computer-memory.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/computer-memory.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/computer-memory.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/computer-memory.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/computer-memory.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/computer-memory.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/computer-memory.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/motherboard-socket.htmlhttp://www.build-your-own-computer.net/best-motherboard.html


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Jumpers

You need jumpers for manual hardware configuration on

some hardware devices, (such as hard disk drive, optical

drive). You may purchase additional jumpers for

accidental losses.

Driver CD and Documentation

After installing the hard disk drive, you need to install the

operating system and drivers. Drivers are supplied with the

motherboard and accessories. In addition to hardware

installation, you need to install drivers and utilities for

proper functioning of the system.


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New technologies

Atom

Intel Atom processors are low-power-consumption processors designed for use in

netbooks and other networked-based computing devices where battery life and power

consumption are more important than processing power. There are several types of Atom

processor. Processors without a letter designator before the number are meant for general

low-power devices. Processors with a N designator are designed for netbooks. Atom

processors designed for mobile Internet devices have a Z designator. The numberfollowing the designator indicates the level of processor. Higher numbers indicate more

processor features.

Celeron

Celeron processors are designed for lower-end desktop computers that are

primarily used for web activities and basic computing. Celeron processors have a

numerical indicator. The higher the number, the more features on the processor. There are

different classes of Celeron processors, including lower-power consumption processors

designed for laptop computers.

Pentium

Pentium has been used as a name for a number of different generations of

processors. Current generation Pentium processors are energy-efficient dual core

processors designed for desktop computers. Pentium processors have numeric

designators that, like other Intel processors, indicate higher levels of features with higher-

series numbers.

Core

There are two types of Core processors. The original Core processor is called the

i7. The number following the i7 on the CPU indicates the number of CPU features. A

higher number indicates more features, like cache, clock speed, front side bus or other

technologies. Core 2 Duo processors are multiple-core processors. They have a number

of letter indicators that indicate different processor families: QX indicates a high-

performance quad core CPU, X indicates a high-performance dual-core CPU, Q indicates

a quad-core desktop CPU, E indicates an energy-efficient dual core CPU, T indicates an

energy-efficient mobile CPU, P indicates a low-power mobile CPU with lower-power

consumption than the T, L indicates a very low-power consumption mobile CPU, U

indicates the lowest-power consumption Core 2 processor made by Intel, and S indicates

a small-form factor CPU package. These alphabetic indicators are followed by a number.Higher numbers indicate more CPU features.

Xeon and Itanium

Intel Xeon and Itanium processors are server class CPUs designed and optimized

for various server applications. These processors have three letter indicators: X indicates

a high-performance CPU, E indicates a rack-optimized CPU, and L indicates a power-

optimized CPU. There are three levels of Xeon processors. The 3000 series processors

contain a single core, 5000 series processors contain two cores, and 7000 series

processors contain more than two cores. The 9000 series processors indicate Itanium

class processors, which can have two or more cores. Higher numbers in each seriesindicate more processor features
http://www.ehow.com/internet/http://www.ehow.com/internet/http://www.ehow.com/internet/


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Dual video cards

The process of using a dual video card setup is a widely used method used to increase

performance when dealing with graphically intensive applications (mostly newer computer games).

Using two video cards (or graphics cards) at once can double your computers ability to process

3D graphics and in turn makes newer games easily playable at higher settings.


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Water cooling system


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Multi-core processor

In computing, a processor is the unit that reads and executes program instructions, which are

fixed-length (typically 32 or 64 bit) or variable-length chunks of data. The data in the instruction

tells the processor what to do. The instructions are very basic things like reading data from

memory or sending data to the user display, but they are processed so rapidly that we experience

the results as the smooth operation of a program.

Processors were originally developed with only one core. The core is the part of the processor that

actually performs the reading and executing of instructions. A multi-core processor is a single

component with two or more independent actual processors (called "cores").[1]

Manufacturers

typically integrate the cores onto a single integrated circuit die (known as a chip multiprocessor or

CMP), or onto multiple dies in a single chip package. A many-core processor is one in which the

number of cores is large enough that traditional multi-processor techniques are no longer efficientlargely due to issues with congestion in supplying instructions and data to the many processors.

The many-core threshold is roughly in the range of several tens of cores; above this threshold

network on chip technology is advantageous.

A dual-core processor has two cores (e.g. AMD Phenom II X2, Intel Core Duo), a quad-core

processor contains four cores (e.g. AMD Phenom II X4, the Intel 2010 core line that includes 3

levels of quad core processors), and a hexa-core processor contains six cores (e.g. AMD Phenom

II X6, Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 980X). A multi-core processor implements multiprocessing in

a single physical package. Designers may couple cores in a multi-core device tightly or loosely.

For example, cores may or may not share caches, and they may implement message passing or

shared memory inter-core communication methods. Common network topologies to interconnect

cores include bus, ring, 2-dimensional mesh, and crossbar. Homogeneous multi-core systems

include only identical cores, heterogeneous multi-core systems have cores which are not identical.

Just as with single-processor systems, cores in multi-core systems may implement architectures

such as superscalar, VLIW, vector processing, SIMD, or multithreading.

Multi-core processors are widely used across many application domains including general-purpose,

embedded, network, digital signal processing (DSP), and graphics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instruction_%28computer_science%29http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Jaliya/Desktop/New%20Folder%20(6)/Multi-core_processor.htm%23cite_note-0%23cite_note-0http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Jaliya/Desktop/New%20Folder%20(6)/Multi-core_processor.htm%23cite_note-0%23cite_note-0http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Jaliya/Desktop/New%20Folder%20(6)/Multi-core_processor.htm%23cite_note-0%23cite_note-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_%28integrated_circuit%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_carrierhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_On_Chiphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiprocessinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cachehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_passinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_memoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_topologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_topologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbar_switchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterogeneous_computinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superscalarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLIWhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_processorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIMDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multithreading_%28computer_hardware%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embedded_processorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_processorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_processorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embedded_processorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multithreading_%28computer_hardware%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIMDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_processorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLIWhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superscalarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterogeneous_computinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbar_switchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_topologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_topologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_memoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_passinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cachehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiprocessinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_On_Chiphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_carrierhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_%28integrated_circuit%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuithttp://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/Jaliya/Desktop/New%20Folder%20(6)/Multi-core_processor.htm%23cite_note-0%23cite_note-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instruction_%28computer_science%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing


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The improvement in performance gained by the use of a multi-core processor depends very much

on the software algorithms used and their implementation. In particular, possible gains are limited

by the fraction of the software that can be parallelized to run on multiple cores simultaneously; this

effect is described by Amdahl's law. In the best case, so-called embarrassingly parallel problems

may realize speedup factors near the number of cores, or even more if the problem is split up

enough to fit within each core's cache(s), avoiding use of much slower main system memory. Most

applications, however, are not accelerated so much. The parallelization of software is a significant

ongoing topic of research.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl%27s_lawhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarrassingly_parallelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarrassingly_parallelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl%27s_lawhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_processing


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