Computer Hardware

Second Assignment For Semester 1 Computer Systems and Applications

Ak Abd Harith bin Pg Abdul Rahim

HND in Communications and Computer Systems Engineering CCSE | Intake 29 (2013) |Group 3

Different kinds of motherboards:

XT AT Advanced Technology Baby-AT ATX Mini ATX Micro ATX Flex ATX Mini ITX Nano ITX Pico ITX Mobile ITX BTX Micro BTX

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Fig. 1.1 An example of an ATX motherboard

Fig. 1.2 An example of an AT motherboard

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Difference between AT and ATX motherboard:

AT Older 13.8 12 (Wider in size) Not possible to customize ports in the back with backplates Power switches connected directly to the power supply ATX Newer (More commonly used nowadays) 12" x 9.6" Possible to customize the ports in the back with backplates Power switch connected directly to the board

Number of pins on various connectors:

USB 4 pins IDE 40 & 44 pins SATA 7 pins ATX POWER CABLE 24 pins, 20pins, 4 pins & 8 pins PCI EXPRESS POWER CABLE 6/8 pins PARALLEL PORT 25 pins ETHERNET PORT 8 pins PC MOLEX CONNECTORS 3 & 4 pin fan connector, 4 pins Floppy power (mini-molex), 4 pin disk drive connector (Molex 8981) PS/2 CONNECTOR 6 pins AT KEYBOARD CONNECTOR 5 pins VGA CONNECTOR 15 pins FIREWIRE CONNECTOR (IEEE 1394) 4, 6 & 9 pins

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DC Voltages from the DC power supply:

3.3 volts 5 volts 12 volts

Electrical problems when operating the PC:

Overheating Electrostatic charges Hardware failures

ESD, EMI and RFI:

ESD - Electrostatic discharge is the release of static electricity when two objects come into contact.

EMI ElectroMagnetic Interference, a naturally occurring phenomena when the electromagnetic field of one device disrupts, impedes or degrades the electromagnetic field of another device by coming into proximity with it.

In computer technology, computer devices are susceptible to EMI because electromagnetic fields are a byproduct of passing electricity through a wire. Data lines that have not been properly shielded are susceptible to data corruption by EMI.

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RFI Radio Frequency Interference is when an electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by electrical circuits carrying rapidly changing signals, as a by-product of their normal operation, and which causes unwanted signals (interference or noise) to be induced in other circuits.

The most important means of reducing RFI are: use of bypass or "decoupling" capacitors on each active device (connected across the power supply, as close to the device as possible), risetime control of high speed signals using series resistors and VCC filtering. Shielding is usually a last resort after other techniques have failed because of the added expense of RF gaskets and the like.

PC storages:
Hard disk drive Compact disk Digital Versatile Disk USB drive Blu-ray disk Floppy disk Memory disk

Fig. 2.1 An example of a hard disk drive

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RAM and pin numbers:

RAM DRAM (Dynamic RAM) EDO DRAM (Extended data-out dynamic RAM) RDRAM (Rambus DRAM) SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) DDR (Double data rate) DDR2 Slot SIMM SIMM Pins 72 72

RIMM SODIMM DIMM MicroDIMM SODIMM DIMM MicroDIMM SODIMM DIMM MicroDIMM SODIMM DIMM DIMM SIMM

184 144 168 172 200 184 214 200 240 214 204 240 240 72

DDR3 GDDR3 VRAM (VideoRAM)

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