Hardware Designed to Meet Your Needs

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Hardware Designed to Meet Your Needs
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Objectives

• Identify different types of memory and storage
  media, and understand the unique properties of
  each
• Identify different types of input and output
  devices and how they are used to meet a variety
  of personal and professional needs
• Understand the decision-making process involved
  in purchasing a computer system

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• 201 Jeopardy

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Integrated Circuits

• Transistor
• Composed of semiconducting material that opens or
  closes a circuit
• Capacitor
• Stores energy in the form of an electrostatic
  field
• Integrated circuit (chip)
• Stores and processes bits and bytes

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Integrated Circuits (Continued)

• Central processing unit
• Group of integrated circuits that perform
  processing
• Microprocessor
• CPU circuits packed onto a smaller module
• Motherboard
• Primary circuit board of a computing device

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The Central Processing Unit Three Primary
Elements

• Arithmetic/logic unit (ALU)
• Contains the circuitry to carry out instructions
  
• Control unit
• Sequentially accesses and decodes program
  instructions
• Coordinates flow of data in and out of
  ALUProcessing
• Manipulating data as defined by programmed
  instructions
• Registers
• hold the bytes that are currently being processed

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More on the Central Processing Unit and Random
Access Memory

• Instruction set
• Number of instructions that the processor is
  engineered to carry out
• Random access memory
• Temporary, or volatile, storage
• System bus
• Parallel pathways between the CPU and RAM

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The Machine Cycle

• Execution of an instruction involves two phases
• Instruction phase, execution phase
• Two phases together make up the machine cycle
• Machine cycle time
• Time it takes for a computer to carry out one
  instruction

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CPU Characteristics

• System clock
• Produces a series of electronic pulses at a
  predetermined rate called clock speed
• Clock speed
• Measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz)
• Wordlength
• Number of bits that a CPU can process at once
• Millions of instructions per second (MIPS)
• Amount of time it takes to execute an instruction

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Computer Platforms

• Two most popular platforms
• IBM-compatible, Apple
• Intel processors
• Based on complex instruction set computer (CISC)
  architecture
• Apple computers
• Use newer reduced instruction set computer (RISC)
  architecture

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Computer Benchmarks

• Benchmark
• Side-by-side evaluation of competing products
  performance
• Computer benchmark test sponsors
• Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
• PC Magazine Veritest
• Intel

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Multiprocessing and Parallel Processing

• Multiprocessing
• Uses more than one processing unit
• Parallel processing
• Links several microprocessors to operate in
  parallel

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Physical Characteristics of the CPU

• CPU speed
• Collections of digital circuits imprinted on
  silicon wafers, or chips
• To turn a digital circuit on or off
• Electrical current must flow through a medium
  from Point A to Point B
• Moores Law
• Continued increase in technological innovations
  causes transistor densities in an integrated
  circuit to double every 18 months

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Storage on the Motherboard

• RAM SIMMs
• Set of chips grouped together on a circuit board
• Cache Memory
• Highspeed memory that can be accessed more
  rapidly than RAM
• Three levels of cache L1, L2, and L3
• Video RAM (VRAM)
• Used to store image data for a computer display

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Storage on the Motherboard (Continued)

• Read-only memory (ROM)
• Provides permanent storage for data and
  instructions
• BIOS
• Stores hardware configuration information and
  boot program
• Flash BIOS
• Intended to store data permanently
• Can be updated

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Secondary Storage Technologies

• Storage device
• Drive that reads and writes data
• Storage media
• Objects that hold the data (disks)
• Storage capacity
• Maximum amount of bytes medium can hold
• Access time
• Time it takes for a request for data to be
  fulfilled by the device

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Magnetic Media Disks and Tapes

• Magnetic storage devices
• Store bits and bytes more permanently than RAM
• Floppy disks
• Portable
• Slower access time and lower storage capacity
  (1.44 MB) than fixed hard disk

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Magnetic Media Disks and Tapes (Continued)

• High capacity diskettes
• Stores 69 to 83 times more data
• Removable disk cartridge
• Combines hard disk storage capacity and floppy
  disk portability

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Optical Storage

• Uses optical laser to burn pits into the surface
  of a highly reflective disk surface
• Compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM)
• First optical media to be mass-marketed to the
  general public
• Digital video disk (DVD)
• Backward-compatible with CD-ROMs
• CD-RW
• Most popular format for writable CDs

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Other Storage Options

• Flash memory card
• A chip that is nonvolatile
• Small and can be easily modified and reprogrammed
• Sometimes referred to as media cards
• USB storage devices
• Small, flash memory modules

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Input and Output Concepts

• Input device
• Assists in capturing and entering raw data
• Output device
• Used to observe results of computer processing
• Source Data Automation
• Automating data entry where the data is created

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Input Devices

• Ergonomic keyboard
• Designed to reduce stress on the wrist
• Trackball
• Allows you to control the mouse pointer by
  rolling a mounted ball
• Mobile Input Devices
• Notebook computers integrate the mouse either as
  a touch pad or a TrackPoint

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Output Devices

• Display resolution
• Measure of the amount of pixels on the screen
• Liquid crystal display (LCD), or flat panel
  display
• Quickly displacing CRT (cathode-ray tube)
  displays
• LCD projectors
• Used for projecting presentations from your
  computer onto a larger screen

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Special-Purpose I/O Devices

• Many designed to support scientific and medical
  research
• Computer scientists and musicians at the MIT
  Media Lab
• Experimenting with special input devices
• Virtual reality headset
• Can project output in the form of
  three-dimensional color images

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Expansion

• Desktop Computer Expansion
• Universal Serial Bus
• Relatively new standard
• Designed to accommodate a wide array of devices
• Firewire
• Popular expansion card

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• So you need to buy a computer!
• Where do you begin?

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Researching a Computer Purchase

• To learn about computer type and platform
• www.cnet.com
• www.zdnet.com
• To learn about manufacturers
• Computer shopper magazine
• MacWorld magazine
• www.gateway.com
• www.dell.com
• www.apple.com

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Portability versus Power

• When planning the purchase of a computer system
• Consider portability
• Analyze your own computer style and needs
• Balance portability with power and capacity
• Interoperability
• Consider how your device will interact with other
  computer systems
• Will you be connecting to a corporate network

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Choosing a Manufacturer and Model

• Apple computer users have it easy
• Only decision is model
• IBM-compatible users
• Need to compare specifications and prices from
  different manufacturers
• Need to choose a processor, and the amount of
  memory and storage
• Very important
• Warranty

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Choosing Peripherals

• What types best suit your needs?
• If preference is keyboard for text input
• Consider an ergonomic design
• What type of printing will you be doing?
• Do you need professional quality output?
• Will you be printing digital photos?

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Making the Purchase

• Computer systems
• Can be purchased online, over the phone, or in a
  local computer store
• Purchasing online from the manufacturer
• Provides custom configuration options
• Computer store shoppers
• Can take the unit home

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Whats New in Hardware?

• Prices and performance have changed to benefit
  the consumer
• Apples iMac G5 resembles an oversized version of
  the iPod and starts at 1,299.

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Whats New in Hardware?

• Portable power
• Fuel cells
• Solar power
• Nanotechnology

Toshibas fuel cell is the smallest fuel cell in
the world and is designed for use in portable
electronic devices
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Whats New in Hardware?

• New USB devices
• USBs can be used in radios, reading lights, and
  desktop novelties
• Optical Storage
• Blu-ray technology

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Summary

• CPUs primary components
• Control unit, arithmetic logic unit, and
  registers
• RAM
• Volatile, and temporarily stores data
• Cache
• Highspeed memory that can be accessed more
  rapidly than RAM
• ROM
• More permanent storage
• Stores the boot process

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Summary

• When selecting a computer system
• Analyze your specific computing needs
• Select a computer type and platform that will
  support those needs