macquarie fields college of tafe version 2 – 13 march 2000 2 - hardware 2

Macquarie Fields College of TAFE

Version 2 – 13 March 20002 - HARDWARE

2

System Unit Box

• Expansion slots• Expansion Cards • Ports• Serial & Parallel Ports• Video Port• Keyboard Socket

• Circuit Boards• Power Supply• Motherboard• Disk Drives• Firmware• Transformer• Ribbon Cables


Connectors

The part of a cable that plugs into a port or interface to

connect one device to another. Most connectors are either male (containing one or more exposed pins) or female (containing holes in which the

male connector can be inserted).


Connectors

• Can be male (pins) or female (socket)

• Monitors (D9p or s)

• Printers (D25s)

• Mouse (D5s or D9s)

• Keyboards

• 9 – 15 – 25 pins


Keyboard

Network

Monitor

Printed Circuit Boards


• Sometimes abbreviated PCB, a thin plate on which chips and other electronic components are placed. Computers consist of one or more boards, often called cards or adapters. Circuit boards fall into the following categories:



• Motherboard: The principal board that has connectors for attaching devices to the bus. Typically, the mother board contains the CPU, memory, and basic controllers for the system.

• Expansion board: Any board that plugs into one of the computer's expansion slots. Expansion boards include controller boards, LAN cards, and video adapters.



• Daughtercard : Any board that attaches directly to another board.

• Controller board: A special type of expansion board that contains a controller for a peripheral device.

• Network Interface Card (NIC) : An expansion board that enables a PC to be connected to a local-area network (LAN).

• Video adapter: An expansion board that contains a controller for a graphics monitor.

Power Supply

When you hit the On switch, one little burst of

electricity – only about five volts – starts a string of

events that magically brings to life your

computer


Motherboard

Motherboard, main circuit board containing the primary

components of a computer system. This board contains the

processor, main memory, support circuitry, and bus controller and

connector.


Motherboard

On most PCs, it is possible to add memory chips directly to

the motherboard. You may also be able to upgrade to a faster CP by replacing the CPU chip.

To add additional core features, you may need to replace the

motherboard entirely.


Disk Drives

• A systems unit can contain a variety of disk drives such as:

• Floppy drive

• Hard drive

• Zip drive

• CD-ROM drive

• DVD-ROM drive


Firmware (ROM)

Software (programs or data) that has been written onto read-only memory (ROM). Firmware is a combination of software and hardware. ROMs, and PROMs that have data or programs

recorded on them are firmware.


Firmware (ROM)

• ROM is an acronym for read-only memory, computer memory on which data has been prerecorded.

• Unlike main memory (RAM), ROM retains its contents even when the computer is turned off.

• Most personal computers contain a small amount of ROM that stores critical programs such as the program that boots the computer.


Firmware (BIOS)

• Pronounced "bye-ose," an acronym for basic input/output system.

• The BIOS is built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk.

• The BIOS is typically placed in a ROM chip that comes with the computer.


Firmware (BIOS)

• The BIOS makes it possible for a computer to boot itself.

• Many modern PCs have a flash BIOS.

• The PC BIOS is fairly standardised, so all PCs are similar at this level (although there are different BIOS versions).


Firmware (BIOS)

• PC BIOSes that can handle Plug-and-Play (PnP) devices are known as PnP BIOSes, or PnP-aware BIOSes. These BIOSes are always implemented with flash memory rather than ROM.


Transformer


Ribbon CablesA flat, thin cable containing many parallel

wires. Because of their shape, ribbon cables are ideal for situations where space

needs to be conserved.


Keyboard Socket


Female Keyboard, Audio, MIDI Connector

9 Pin PS/2 Female Keyboard/Mouse

Expansion SlotsA socket inside a computer,

designed to hold expansion boards and

connect them to the bus. Most personal computers have from three to eight

expansion slots.


Bus

Expansion Cards

A printed circuit board that you can insert into a computer to give it added capabilities. For example, all of the following are expansion boards:

• video adapters • graphics accelerators • sound cards • accelerator boards • internal modems


Expansion Cards


Expansion Cards – Video AdapterA board that plugs into a personal

computer to give it display capabilities. The display capabilities of a computer,

however, depend on both the logical circuitry (provided in the video adapter) and the display monitor. A monochrome

monitor, for example, cannot display colours no matter how powerful the video

adapter.


Ports

An interface on a computer to which you can connect a device. Personal

computers have various types of ports. Internally, there are several ports for

connecting disk drives, display screens, and keyboards.


PS/2 Port andPort Cable

Serial Ports

Serial Ports are like a single-lane tunnel. Information fed to it has to squeeze through the port a single bit at a time. Here, the ASCII code for the letter A is sent 1 bit at a time through the port.


Parallel Ports

Parallel ports are like tunnels with almost the same number of lanes as the highway that feeds them. Information flows through faster since there is little or no constriction.


Video Port

This picture shows a video card with port containing

connections to a camcorder,

antenna, stereo, TV, VCR, and PC

Monitor.


macquarie fields college of tafe version 2 – 13 march 2000 2 - hardware 2

Documents

main circuit board

principal board

mother board

expansion boards

computer memory

controller boards

memory chips

main memory ram