14-06-2012, 04:14 PM
Seminar on Hardware of Personal Computers
[attachment=24461]
What is a Hardware?
Hardware is the general term that is used to describe physical artifacts of a technology.
What is an Input Device?
A hardware mechanism that transforms information in the external world for consumption by a computer. (Wikipedia 2007b)
How fast is a CPU?
When you choose a CPU, you should consider its speed.
The speed of a CPU is determined by 2 main factors.
Clock frequency
Amount of cache memory
The higher the value, the faster the CPU will be.
TASK 1 (Individual work)
You have learnt some searching skills for search engines, now you need to search the basic configurations and prices of the following CPUs.
Please complete TABLE 1 and post it in the forum.
Motherboard
A personal computer is built with the CPU, main memory, and other essential components on the motherboard.
Other components such as external storage, controllers for video display and sound, and peripheral devices are typically attached to the motherboard via edge connectors and cables.
In modern computers it is increasingly common to integrate these "peripherals" into the motherboard.
A Video Card
If the video card is integrated in the motherboard, it will use the computer RAM memory (lower throughput). If it is not integrated, the video card will have its own video memory which is called Video RAM or VRAM.
The VRAM capacity of most modern video cards range from 128 to 2048 MB (workstation graphics cards).
In 2006, the VRAM was based on DDR technology, standing out DDR2, GDDR3 and GDDR4. The memory clock rate is between 400 MHz and 1.6 GHz.
A very important element of the video memory is the Z-buffer, which manages the depth coordinates in 3D graphics. (Wikipedia, 2007k).
What is a Sound Card?
A sound card is a computer expansion card that can input and output sound under control of computer programs.
Many computers have sound capabilities built in on the motherboard, while others require these expansion cards if audio capability is desired. (Wikipedia, 2007l).
[attachment=24461]
What is a Hardware?
Hardware is the general term that is used to describe physical artifacts of a technology.
What is an Input Device?
A hardware mechanism that transforms information in the external world for consumption by a computer. (Wikipedia 2007b)
How fast is a CPU?
When you choose a CPU, you should consider its speed.
The speed of a CPU is determined by 2 main factors.
Clock frequency
Amount of cache memory
The higher the value, the faster the CPU will be.
TASK 1 (Individual work)
You have learnt some searching skills for search engines, now you need to search the basic configurations and prices of the following CPUs.
Please complete TABLE 1 and post it in the forum.
Motherboard
A personal computer is built with the CPU, main memory, and other essential components on the motherboard.
Other components such as external storage, controllers for video display and sound, and peripheral devices are typically attached to the motherboard via edge connectors and cables.
In modern computers it is increasingly common to integrate these "peripherals" into the motherboard.
A Video Card
If the video card is integrated in the motherboard, it will use the computer RAM memory (lower throughput). If it is not integrated, the video card will have its own video memory which is called Video RAM or VRAM.
The VRAM capacity of most modern video cards range from 128 to 2048 MB (workstation graphics cards).
In 2006, the VRAM was based on DDR technology, standing out DDR2, GDDR3 and GDDR4. The memory clock rate is between 400 MHz and 1.6 GHz.
A very important element of the video memory is the Z-buffer, which manages the depth coordinates in 3D graphics. (Wikipedia, 2007k).
What is a Sound Card?
A sound card is a computer expansion card that can input and output sound under control of computer programs.
Many computers have sound capabilities built in on the motherboard, while others require these expansion cards if audio capability is desired. (Wikipedia, 2007l).