Inside the PC

Objectives
In this lesson, you will learn to:
Identify the main functions and features of the components located
inside the system unit
State the functions of the motherboard components, such as,
chipset, microprocessor, clock, memory, bus, ports and expansion
slots
State the function of a display adaptor and compare the various
display adaptors available in the marketEGA, VGA and SVGA
Identify the need and function of an add-on card

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Internal Power Supply
Is an SMPS (Switched Mode Power Supply).
Converts AC input to DC output
The SMPS provides cable connectors to supply the required
voltage to the other internal components like the:
Floppy drives
Hard disk drive
Motherboard and external device such as the keyboard
The ON/OFF switch of the system unit is actually a part of the
SMPS.
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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Internal Power Supply (Cont..)

Fan and
SMPS Hard Disk Drive

Floppy Disk
Controller Drive
Cables

Speaker
Hard Disk and
Floppy Disk
Controller Motherb
oard

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Exhaust Fan
Rotates as long as the computer is switched on.
Its function is to cool the SMPS unit.
Speaker
Is located in the front part of the system unit.
Produces beeps to attract the attention of the user in case of
errors.
Is used by game programs to produce sound effects.

NIIT Know your PC /Lesson 2 /Slide 4 of 30

Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Motherboard
All peripheral devices are connected to the motherboard.
The components of the motherboard are:
Chipset
Microprocessor
Clock chip
MemoryRAM and ROM
Bus
Ports

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Representation of Characters
Machine language of the computer is expressed in binary
codes (1s and 0s)
Compatible with the states ON and OFF of electronic devices
ASCII is the widely used representation scheme
Character ASCII Representation
6 0011 0110
7 0011 0111
A 0100 0001

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Chipset
Is a series of chips attached directly to the motherboard
Controls the system and its capabilities.
Is soldered onto the motherboard and is not upgradeable
without a new motherboard.
Each device attached to the motherboard has different chipset.
Example: Pentium III and Pentium IV

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Microprocessor
Consists of the Arithmetic-logic unit (ALU), the Control
Unit and some special purpose storage that are
called Registers.
Controls the activities of the various components of the computer
and also responds to requests from the peripheral devices.
Can perform mathematical operations like addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division using ALU
Other functions of microprocessor
It can move data from one memory location to another.
It can make decisions and jump to a new set of instructions
NIIT based on those decisions Know your PC /Lesson 2 /Slide 8 of 30
Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Microprocessor (Contd..)
There are many types of microprocessors available in the
market that are manufactured by different companies like Intel,
Advanced Micro Devices, Motorola.
The microprocessors in the family of Intel processors are the
Intel 8004, 8085, 8086, 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486 and the
Pentium.
The Pentium IV is the most powerful microprocessor
from Intel
The capacity of a microprocessor is measured in terms of the
number of bits it can send or receive and the number of bits it
can process internally.
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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Interrupts
Are asynchronous breaks in the program flow that occur as a
result of events outside the running program
Are Generally hardware related.
Make the microprocessor respond to such adhoc requests, even
though it is busy working on something else.
Clock Chip
Provides the timing signal in the form of electronic pulses that
are used by the computer components to set up a working
pace.

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Clock Chip
Ensures that all the devices are synchronized
Speed of a computer system is measured in terms of MHz
Speed of Operation
The speed of a clock is measured in terms of frequency of
pulses generated.
The clock speed is one way of measuring the speed of a
computer.

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Memory
Is the internal storage area of the machine.
Is measured in bytes
The computer uses two types of internal memory:
Random Access Memory (RAM)
This is the memory that the computer uses for storing the
programs and their data while working on them.
RAM has the following characteristics:
Data within the RAM can be read or modified, i.e. you
can either read from the RAM or write onto it. Hence it
is called read/write memory
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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
The contents of the RAM are lost when the computer is
switched off. Hence, the RAM is said to be volatile.
Types of RAM
Double Data Rate
RDRAM
SDRAM
DRAM
512 MB or higher RAM is recommended for all new
computers

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Read Only Memory (ROM)
Contains permanently recorded instructions that are vital
for starting up a computer.
One set of instructions found in ROM is called the ROM-
BIOS, that stands for Read-Only Memory Basic Input-
Output Services.
Any set of programs residing in ROM is called firmware.

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Bus
Is a set of wires inside the motherboard
Connects the microprocessor to other devices
Comprising a set of 8 wires for carrying data is called
the data bus.
Different types of buses are:
Industry Standard Architecture Bus
Extended ISA Bus
Video Electronics Standards Association Local Bus
Peripheral Component Interconnect Bus
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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Ports
Are inlets and outlets of the PC
Serial Port Standard
The industry acknowledged serial port standard is the RS-
232C port.
RS-232 defines the following serial port characteristics:
The maximum bit transfer rate and cable length
The names, electrical characteristics, and functions of
signals
The mechanical connections and pin assignments
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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Parallel Port Standard
An industry acknowledged parallel port standard is the
Centronics printer interface developed by the makers of
the Centronics printers.
Four types of parallel port are available:
Standard parallel port (Standart Parallel Port SPP
Parallel port PS / 2 (bidirectional)
Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP)
Extend Capability Port (ECP)

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
USB Port
Is a relatively new type of high speed parallel port, which
is used to connect almost any device.
Audio Port
Are used for microphone and speaker connections.
Infrared Port
Are used to connect infrared devices to the system, such as
PDAs.

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Expansion Slots
The motherboard has a set of sockets called expansion slots,
that help you attach extra input and output devices, in case you
run out of ports.
They are of three kinds:
Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Storage System
Inside a PC, be it a diskette, a tape storage or a hard disk,
consists of three logical parts.
These are some storage system:
Floppy Disk System
Hard Disk System
CD ROM System
Magneto-Optical Disk System

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Floppy Disk
Comes in two sizes: 5 and 3
Is divided into tracks and sectors
Data is recorded on both the sides
5 diskettes are divided into :
Double-density (360 KB)
Quad-density (720 KB)
High-density (1.2 MB)
3 diskettes are divided into:
Double-density (720 KB)
NIIT High-density (1.44 MB) Know your PC /Lesson 2 /Slide 21 of 30
Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Hard Disk
Is made up of a collection of disks known as platters
Tracks on different platters
Having the same track number form a cylinder

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Magneto-optical Disk
Is a magnetic disk with capacities of 640 MB
or more
Allows data to be read as well as written
Operates at very high write speeds
Requires an M-O drive to read and write data
Can store 2.3 GB data

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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Display Adaptors
Images are formed on the monitors screen by a card called the
display adapter card.
Some of the parameters that are used to distinguish between
the various display adaptors are:
Display in text mode
Resolution in graphics mode
They are some popular display adaptors supported by the PC:
Enhanced Graphics Adaptor (EGA)
Is an effort to unify features of a variety of display
adaptors.

NIIT
It supports upto 16 colors at a time. Know your PC /Lesson 2 /Slide 24 of 30
Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Video Graphics Adapter (VGA)
systems provide a resolution of 720 by 400 pixels in text
mode.
The total palette of colors supported by VGA card is
262,144.
Standard graphics modes are:
640x480 in 16 colors
640x400 in 16 colors
320x200 in 16 colors
320x200 in 256 colors
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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA)
Is an improvement on the VGA .
There are many combinations of resolution and color that
a SVGA provides:
640 x 480 pixels with 256 colors to 65536 colors
1024 x 768 pixels with 256 colors
800 x 600 pixels with 256 to 65536 colors
1280 x 1024 pixels with 16 colors

NIIT Know your PC /Lesson 2 /Slide 26 of 30

Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Add-on Card
Is a special piece of hardware with the required software to
make use of it
Is added onto the motherboard through the expansion slots.
Is used to handle special functions like:
Producing music
Reproducing video clippings
Transmitting pictures over long distances
Communicating between your PC and other electronic
devices like TVs, VCRs, audio-systems.
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Inside the PC
The Components of the System Unit
Types of Add-on Cards
Audio card
Allows audio speakers connected to the PC to reproduce
sound/music based on instructions from the motherboard
Examples: Sound Blaster, COVOX
Video card
Does a 2-way transfer of images from/to the CPU to/from a
TV/VCR for recording or playback
Examples: TARGA, Computer Eyes

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Inside the PC
Summary
In this lesson, you learned:
Characters are represented in the computer using the ASCII
representation scheme.
Components of the system unit are the power supply with exhaust
fan, the speaker, the motherboard, the disk drives and the adaptor
cards.
The motherboard contains various components like:
Chipset
Microprocessor. Popular microprocessors are Intel 8088,
80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium.

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Inside the PC
Summary
In this lesson, you learned:
Microprocessor. Popular microprocessors are Intel 8088,
80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium.
Memory unit
Bus
Ports
The display adaptor controls what appears on the VDU.
Commonly-used display adaptors are EGA, VGA and SVGA
An expansion slot allows attaching of additional devices to the
computer. Add-on cards are plugged into the expansion slots.
They increase the capabilities of your computer
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