Components of a Computer

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Components of a Computer

• By Alkisti Kyriakopoulos and Maria Kalafatidou

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The CPU

• CPU stands for Central Processing Unit.
• Its job is to carry out all the computer program
  instructions.

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Speed

• Instructions per second (IPS) is a measure of a
  computer's processor speed.
• A typical speed is around 600-700MHz.
• The world record is 8.429GHz by AMD.

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Peripherals

• Theyre computer devices that arent part of the
  essential computer. Peripheral devices can be
  external -- such as a mouse, keyboard, printer,
  monitor, external Zip drive or scanner - or
  internal, such as a CD-ROM drive, CD-R drive or
  internal modem.
• I/O is short for input/output. The term I/O is
  used to describe any program, operation or device
  that transfers data to or from a computer and to
  or from a peripheral device. Every transfer is an
  output from one device and an input into another.
  Devices such as keyboards and mice are input-only
  devices while devices such as printers are
  output-only. A writable CD-ROM is both an input
  and an output device.

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ROM

• ROM stands for Read-Only Memory.
• It is used for storing programs.

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RAM

• RAM is short for Random-Access Memory.
• RAM is used for storing data.
• We measure its size using bytes.

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BIOS

• BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System. The
  primary function of the BIOS is to set up the
  hardware and load and start a boot loader.
• Its the first code run by a PC when powered on.
  When the PC starts up, the first job for the BIOS
  is to initialize and identify system devices such
  as the video display card, keyboard and mouse, har
  d disk drive, optical disc drive and
  other hardware. The BIOS then locates software
  held on a peripheral device (designated as a
  'boot device'), such as a hard disk or a CD/DVD,
  and loads and executes that software, giving it
  control of the PC. This process is known
  as booting, or booting up, which is short
  for bootstrapping.

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CMOS

• Complementary metaloxidesemiconductor (CMOS) is
  a technology for constructing integrated
  circuits. CMOS technology is used in
  microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM,
  and other digital logic circuits. CMOS technology
  is also used for several analog circuits such
  as image sensors (CMOS sensor), data converters,
  and highly integrated transceivers for many types
  of communication.
• Two important characteristics of CMOS devices are
  high noise immunity and low static power
  consumption. 

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Clock

• Clock speed (a.k.a. clock rate) is the speed at
  which a microprocessor executes instructions.
  Every computer contains an internal clock that
  regulates the rate at which instructions are
  executed and synchronizes all the various
  computer components. The CPU requires a fixed
  number of clock ticks to execute each
  instruction. The faster the clock, the more
  instructions the CPU can execute per second.
• Clock speeds are expressed in megahertz (MHz) or
  gigahertz (GHz).

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Secondary storage

• The primary storage device is RAM. First the data
  will enter into this storage device. In this
  storage device the data will be not permanent
  when ever we switch off the computer. The data
  will be erased so it is called primary storage.
  The secondary storage devices are hard disks,
  floppy drives, tape drives, etc. In this the data
  will be stored permanently. The data or
  information will be not lost in this devices.
• Non-volatile means that the computer memory can
  retain the stored information even when its not
  powered.