Understanding Computer Technology: Small Business Systems Nadirah Shakir

MIT 201-04

A computer within a business environment is a necessary tool for each employee to function at their highest capability individually and working within a work team. The best website to give information, with layman’s terms, that I found wasa children’s website, Kids On-line: click and learn website. But, the knowledge within the website served my purposes to complete this paper. The inside of a computer is a world all to its own.

PC Tower

The front panel of the tower case shown above has two external 3.5 inch drive expansion bays, and three 5.25 inch drive expansion bays. Most front panels have an on/off switch, as well as a reset switch, in case the computer needs to be re-booted or locks up. Most front panels also have a power on indicator light and at least one hard drive activity light. Case speakers are often just right behind the front panel. The computer case is a very important part of the computer as it protects all the electronic components inside and must provide adequate ventilation to prevent overheating. The tower is hardware to allow the expansion of your system. The more expansion slots the more options available for future needs. There are even different sizes of cases. The smallest is the Desktop type that lies flat. The next size is the mid-tower, and then there is a full tower. But, the largest is the Server case which is primarily for commercial server computers. The most widely used for personal PCs is the Mid Tower case above, for personal computers.

Synchrotech has introduced a new line for the Universal Serial Bus (USB). The USB offers the advantages of multi-platform standard combined with decreased cost, increased compatibility, and a greater number of available peripherals. The USB supports numerous devices such as printers, digital cameras, game pads, joysticks, keyboards, and mice, and storage devices.

Ethernet Cards and Modems

An Ethernet is a network interface card. The EtherFast shown below is a high performance network adapter for desktop computers with 32-bit PCI expansion slots.

The inside of a Mid-Tower

Case Front of the Tower

Case Rear Panel

From the picture above, you can see that there are many openings on the back of a computer tower. The largest opening, on the left, is where the motherboard’s input and output ports are located when installed. In the top left hand corner you can see the main power supply on/off switch. The slightly larger black opening, below it, is where the power cord plugs in from the wall outlet. Barely visible, between the two, is a small switch that allows you to select different voltage types, for different countries. Many parts of Europe as well as other countries have slightly different electrical voltages than in the United States. The big circular shaped holes beside these three items are where the power supply fan ventilates. All the small holes down the right side help provide increased ventilation. Finally, near the bottom are all the expansion slot covers. The expansion slots provide access to the AGP, PCI, and ISA expansion slots. The expansion slot can be removed to connect an AGP video expansion card, PCI expansion cards, and ISA expansion cards.

What is an AGP slot?

AGP Expansion Slot (with fan): Video Card

The AGP port is where most of the newer video expansion cards go. Video expansion cards are also known as graphic expansion cards. AGP means Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP). AGP cards are capable of a higher and faster data transfer rate than PCI graphic cards. The AGP card and the monitor determine the quality of the screen’s display. The photo below shows what the AFP slot looks like.

The card shown abovesimply plugs into the AGP slot and connects the monitor to the computer. This is an Asus AGP V3800TNT2/TV card and is capable of displaying the computer’s video output on a TV. It can also display the TV’s video output on the computer, through the TV input connection on the expansion card.

The video card controls the video display. The brain of the uncovered, video card shown above is the NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 3D Graphics and Video Accelerator Chip. It is responsible for making decisions for graphical data input and output. It is hid under the fan in the picture above to keep it cool and not overheat.

What is a PCI? This section will teach what is a PCI/AGP Controler (Chipset, Chip 1 of 2)

Why is it called a chipset? This is a photo of a chipset. There two or more of these on a motherboard. Chipsets are the motherboard’s traffic cops. The direct the flow of data from one point to the other. Each chip in the chipset has a specific job. Chip 1 is more important than Chip 2, because it links directly to the Microprocesser (the microprocessor is the brain of the computer). The microprocessor contains the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and it’s cache memory. The CPU contains the Control Unit and the Arithmetic/logic Unit, both working together to process the data inside the computer.

Microprocessor

The Control Unit is the brain of the brain. Below is a microprocessor without the fan or heatsinks. It is being inserted into a slot on the motherboard connection.

The control unit controls the computer by fetching, decoding, executing, and storing the data inside the computer. The arithmetic/logic handles all the math calculations and logical comparisons for the CPU. The microprocessors Level 1 cache memory, is memory that is contained within the CPU, storing the most frequently used instructions and data. The CPU can access the cache memory much faster than having to access the Random Access Memory (RAM). The more memory in a computer the more it can remember.

What is memory(RAM)? A computer’s memory is like a person’s member, the more it has, the more it can remember. Memory modules can be purchased and added to the PC. Memory has progressed from 16MB, 128 Mb, 256 Mb to today’s common memory capacity of megabytes to Pentium processor memory loads (i.e., Pentium III ). DIMM sockets are where the computers RAM (Random Access Memory) is installed. DIMM stands for Dual Inline Memory Module. The reason it is called “dual” is because both sides of the memory card will have completely separate connections to the DIMM socket.

Memory

A picture of what is inside a Pentium processor.

Below is Chip 1, also known as the “Intel 82443BX PCI/AGP Controller”. It is hidden under a heat sink that protects it from overheating. This chip controls the data traffic between the microprocessor and the AGP card. Both chips share the task of controlling the PCI and main memory data flow.

In the diagram below, you can see the data flow paths mapped out for the chipset. The paths managed by Chip 1 are RED.

Notice the Buses and Bridges

The paths between each component are referred to as “buses”. Buses are simply the paths, or wires, that connect one component to the other. The chips in the chipset are referred to as bridges. The chips actually are bridges that bridge the components together and ensure that the data flow is directed to the proper place. The better chipsets are those that can handle data the fastest.

Below is a picture of both chipsets on the motherboard.

What is a motherboard?

The motherboard is similar to the blood vessels inside the human body which connect to all the vital organs. In the computer, instead of blood vessels, the motherboard uses tiny electrical paths to connect each component of the computer. The motherboard ties everything together inside of a computer. As stated previously, each chip of the chipset has a specific purpose. The Chipset (2 chips on the motherboard), manage and direct the flow of data between the components. The BIOS(Basic Input/Output System). The power supplysupplies the fuel (power) for the computer. The power supply powers the motherboard, the drives, and contains a fan that helps assist cooling the computer. Power supplies come a variety of wattages.

BIOS

The BIOS Setup program below, is used to setup a computer’s hardware. BIOS is where the computer’s settings are stored and changed.

Without any disks or a hard drive, the BIOS program is always available, written permanently on the BIOS chip. The BIOS chip contains enough information to operate the computer all by itself. When the computer is turned on (booted), the BIOS program is in control. After performing system checks, the BIOS turns the computer over to our primary operating system, Windows, for example.

In learning about computers, I was shocked to find that the motherboard has a battery. This battery for the motherboard is used to preserve the computer’s clock’s time, and your BIOS settings while the computer is turned off. Some of newer motherboards only need the battery in case of a power outage.

Panel Connector Cables

The panel connector cables connect the front panel to the motherboard. The front panel is where the hard drive activity lights, case speaker (normally), reset button, on/off button, computer power on light, and key lock (if applicable), are located. These items must be connected to the motherboard like everything else in order to function. Above is a view of the panel connector cables inside a computer.

Today’s PCshave drive bays where drives such as CD-R drives (Compact Disk Re-Writeable) which can read, write, erase, and rewrite data including music. Drives provide the computer with the capability of storing, writing, retrieving, and transporting data.

There are zip drives for easily transportable disks for lots of memory, along with other types of drives. And, the technology for TV viewing on a computer has advanced to include DVD viewing.

Drive Bays

And, with music from the PC, there is the need to have the sound card.

SoundCard

When you hear music coming from a PC, there is something inside called the sound card handling the sound data. The sound card is responsible for what you hear coming from the computer’s speakers. The better the sound card, the better the sound. The Sound Blaster Live Value card allows you to connect a microphone, an input device (like a musical keyboard), front speakers, and rear speakers which combined with the front, give the superior stereo sound. The sound card has its own processor, in charge of managing the sound data.