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Prepared by Careene McCallum-Rodney Hardware specification of a computer system

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CPU or Processor Processor speed The processor speeds of most of today's PCs are measured in GHz (GigaHertz). 1 GHZ means that it can execute approximately 1 billion instructions per second.

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CPU or Processor Processor Type The CPU type determine the type of application for which a particular type of processor is used. The two most popular companies that currently produce CPUs are Intel and AMD. Intel processors are little more expensive than AMD's due to the small difference in performance.

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Memory (Main) Capacity The capacity of a computer's memory determines the number of programs that it can hold at a time, which affects the performance of a computer system. More memory indicates that it can hold more programs at a time. Modern PCs memory capacity is measured in GB (Gigabytes).

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Memory (Main) Type There are two main types of RAM: SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic RAM) and RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic RAM). RDRAM are faster and more expensive than SDRAM and are used mainly for high performance computers.

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Memory (Main) Word Size Wordsize determines the number of bits that can be stored and processed at a time by the CPU. Most modern PCs have a wordsize of either 32-bit of 64-bit.

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Memory (Main) Speed RAM speed determines how fast the chip updates the data that it contains. In modern PCs it is measured in MHz (MegaHertz) and is usually above 400MHz.

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Hard Drive

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Storage capacity determines how much information can be stored for later use. More hard disk space means you can store more programs and data. In modern PCs it is measured in Gigabytes (GB) but are reaching up to Terabytes (TB).

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Hard Drive Hard disk speed is normally expressed in revolutions per minute (rpm). The rpm is how fast the disk is spinning and varies from 5400 rpm - 15000 rpm.

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Activity 1 Consider the following hardware specification. Can you identify the various components?

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Activity 2 Consider the following hardware specification. Can you identify the various components

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Activity 3 Consider the following hardware specification. Can you identify the various components

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Other Specifications Ports A computer system need to send and receive information from peripheral devices. A port is a piece of technology that is used to connect external devices to a computer. Examples: Parallel Serial Universal Serial Bus (USB) Firewire/IEEE 1394

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Other specification - ports Serial Port Used to connect certain types of mouse, modem and printers. Parallel port used mainly to connect printers but can also be used to connect certain scanners and external hard disks.

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A parallel port is only able to transfer information from the hard drive, while a serial port can transfer information both to and from a hard drive. Other Specifications - ports

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Other specification - ports USB Port Used to connect around 127 devices including printers, scanners, flash drives and digital cameras. There are USB-1 and USB-2 (this one is faster). Firewire/IEEE 139 used to transfer video images from digital devices.

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Other specification - ports

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Other Specifications Expansion slots Expansion slots are sockets found on the motherboard and are used to insert additional circuit boards (cards). They can be used for adding more memory, graphics facilities and other special devices. There are three types of expansion slots: Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) - used to attach sound cards, network cards and video cards. Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) - mainly used for graphics cards Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) - used for attaching modems and not commonly seen on most modern computers

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Other Specifications expansion slots